New Gods of North America

The first to arrive,

This is the place where today's fourth murder took place - a "villages" in a manor.

Generally speaking, the villas in a manor are usually provided for guests to stay in for a short or semi-long term. They are usually not too large in size, and their decoration is the same or slightly less luxurious than that of the main house. They are also often located at a slight distance from the main house.

For family members, living alone in a villa can be both "freedom" and "alienation".

It was already late at night in the usual sense.

Wayne and his friends did not see the owner of the manor. It was the butler who brought them to the crime scene.

Compared to Bill Tench's status as the local sheriff,

David Mills' identity as captain of the state special forces seemed to be more useful - the owner and steward of the manor seemed to regard David Mills' arrival as the "state level"'s attention to the case, and therefore gave him corresponding courtesy.

The group first went to check on the body that was kept in the "casket" next to the crime scene.

At this moment, the victim's body was still stiff, maintaining the posture when it was found. If we describe it in a popular and appropriate way, it can probably be translated as "like the mating posture of cows and sheep", except that his "target" at that time was a hunting trap.

The rigor mortis has not yet subsided, so the crime should have occurred within 24 hours, which matches the estimated time of the crime "this afternoon."

Although it is foreseeable that ketchup will be splattered everywhere,

However, the victim should have died of suffocation, with obvious conjunctival punctate hemorrhages and rose teeth, but because his hands had been tied, there were no signs of struggle on his neck.

I went to see the scene again.

The victim was probably in a kneeling position with his upper body stretched forward, half lying in the middle of the carpet, his mouth stuffed with a cloth, his hands tied to a chair, "kissing" the deer head specimen on the chair, his lower body facing another overturned chair, the trap fixed on the chair surface, and the two chairs pressing against each other.

I tried to recreate the scene at that time.

The victim should have been conscious at first, and after being fixed, he was threatened or forced to touch the trap with his engorged body parts, and there were several bruises on his buttocks. Then the trap was triggered, and the murderer seemed to tighten the rope tied around the victim's neck at the same time.

The murderer then took the victim's severed body parts, dipped them in blood and wrote the word "lust" next to them.

It must have taken quite a while to do all this, plus the process of "humiliation" or "trial".

The murderer had stayed here for at least some time.

There was usually only one male servant in the annex, and he had been told "don't approach unless the bell is rung" and "don't pay any attention to any strange noises." Therefore, he claimed that he was not aware of the case and did not notice it at the time.

A little more searching,

On the first floor of the annex, there were traces of mud on an open window, and except for the ropes and traps, everything else was already there.

Bill Tench explained his understanding of the scene:

"This scene, like the previous ones, reflects the murderer's strong personal emotions and shows his 'hostility' or 'hatred' towards the victim. From the known signs, there should be no third person present at the scene, and the murderer did not steal any property from the scene. Even the gold pocket watch that fell from the victim - although the watch chain had been replaced by a gold-plated one by the victim - was not taken away."

David Mills then asked, "The murderer obviously hates the victim very much. Have you investigated those people who have had major conflicts with him recently? Choosing to start with such a person, it seems that the murderer is not targeting their "family". If it is an internal cleanup, it should not make things so ugly."

"We are investigating, but I'm afraid it will be difficult to get the results within a few days."

Bill Tench paused for a moment. "Although the victim had a bad reputation in some aspects, he never targeted ladies from good families. As for other ladies who might have conflicts with him... the victim's reputation was indeed very bad, but we have never officially received any prosecution or report against him. It is not easy to investigate."

Wayne listened behind the crowd, nodded silently, then walked to the first floor and secretly told Inissa and Lina his guess:

"I feel like this is more like a common 'burglary'? From what we can see so far, the murderer's physical strength doesn't seem to be very strong. Although it is a little difficult to sneak into the manor, it is not impossible for ordinary people. Even if it is a Beyonder who committed the crime, it doesn't seem to be very strong?"

Inesa jumped out of the window at this time, holding a kerosene lamp, observing whether the mud on the ground matched the mud on the windowsill.

After hearing this, she thought about it:

"At the moment, it does not look like a case committed by a Beyonder. But if it is a Beyonder, I guess the Beyonder ability he may have used may be of the type of 'confuse' or 'control' to a certain extent.

"But I agree that the murderer himself might not be the physical combat type. Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to prepare ropes in advance, and it wouldn't have been so difficult to chop things with an axe in the first case. Unless he deliberately 'vented his anger' and deliberately didn't use his extraordinary ability."

Lina obviously has more say in the "burglary":

"As for the 'invasion' part, the murderer is obviously a rookie. Just now, I was able to find this window all the way from the crime scene by feeling. If it were daylight, I would probably be able to at least find where the murderer invaded the manor from.

"But I think Bill Tench is quite professional. He should have traced this route. Maybe the murderer finally walked to the main road, or got on a carriage."

I went back to check with Bill Tench and it was true.

Then everyone continued to rush to another crime scene with their own observations and ideas.

"If the previous victims can be considered 'the same kind of people', then today's victim's social status and family are obviously different. What kind of intersection could they have with each other to have offended the murderer together?"

In the carriage, Wayne was thinking about it himself and throwing out questions for everyone to think about together.

Lina must have read a lot of messy novels:

"Could it be that there is a young man who worked in a small factory, was bullied by the landlord, and was blackmailed by street thugs, and then his lover was bullied by the young master of a rich family... and there is still 'greed', 'jealousy' and 'arrogance', so there is also an annoying boss, a potential rival in love, and a staff member who did not handle the case?"

What kind of tragedy is this?!

No, once I accept this setting, it actually sounds somewhat reasonable. I'll have to ask Bill Tench about it later.

After Lina finished her imagination, she continued to think:

"But even if that's the case, judging from the records of the first case, there should have been a lot of blood splattered at the scene. The murderer must have at least a place to clean up the blood or bloody clothes. Could it be that he has a temporary separate residence now?"

Inissa is driving.

At this time, he turned his head slightly and said, "If you are talking about 'blood-stained clothes', I just saw in the investigation records that blood-stained clothes were found in the home of the victim of the third murder case we are about to visit."

ah?!

That guy is actually "fighting to support fighting"? !