The Sheriff Who Took Advice

Mondel Town had two police stations.

One was local, and the other belonged to the royal military.

The local police station handled all the work, while the royal military was mainly responsible for overseeing it.

Li Mo and his companions arrived at the local police station.

Mondel Town had been far from peaceful lately. Between the murder in the west district and the lockdown at the docks, the police station was visibly busy.

Speaking of which, the footman Li Mo had sent out to look for his father the night before had brought back news.

His father, Li En, had been found, but he had returned very late.

He was also in poor spirits. He hadn't managed to get up for breakfast that morning and was still resting in bed...

"Young Master Li Mo?"

At the entrance to the police station, an officer stopped and recognized Li Mo.

Li Mo replied politely, "I'm looking for Sheriff Sanders."

The officer nodded. "Please follow me."

Xien Sanders was a veteran sheriff at the Mondel Town police station and a local legend.

When he was young, he had resolved not to be a nobody, but to make a name for himself.

Unfortunately, his abilities were limited. He had consistently ranked at the bottom during police training, and his performance after joining the force had been ordinary too.

But he had one great strength: he knew himself well.

He was fully aware of his limited abilities and never tried to handle difficult cases on his own! He would try everything he could to find outside help!

His specialty was taking advice.

He listened to whoever could solve the case...

That was how Li Mo had met him.

Back then, Li Mo's talent for mysticism had been frighteningly strong. Despite his young age, he had mastered several advanced Mystical Rituals, including one that was extremely useful for investigations: Spiritual Tracking.

With Li Mo's outside assistance, Sheriff Sanders had solved several cold cases and secured his position as sheriff.

It was a bit like Kogoro Mouri...

The officer led the three of them to the sheriff's office.

They pushed open the door to find the room filled with smoke.

Sheriff Sanders had a deep frown on his face, and the cigarette in his hand was only half-smoked.

When he saw Li Mo, he forced a smile. "Long time no see, Li."

"Long time no see, Sheriff," Li Mo said. "How have you been lately?"

Sheriff Sanders gave a bitter smile and stubbed out his cigarette. "Too much to do, difficult cases, and plenty to worry about... Li, I miss the days when we worked together so much. None of the mysticism consultants I've hired lately can help me solve problems the way you did back then."

Li Mo got straight to the point. "Sheriff, to be honest, we're here today to follow up on a case."

Sheriff Sanders narrowed his eyes and waited for him to continue.

Li Mo explained, "Helen is missing. She's a very good friend of ours, and we suspect this may have something to do with Matthew. So we'd like to start by investigating the murder at the Matthew family's spinning mill."

Sheriff Sanders might not have been very capable, but he wasn't stupid.

His instincts as a veteran policeman made him equally suspicious of everyone.

The moment he heard "the spinning mill murder," a flicker of suspicion toward Li Mo crossed his mind.

Li Mo's family runs a spinning mill too. Could they have hired a killer because of business competition?

Keeping his expression neutral, he interlaced his fingers and said, "Li, regulations don't allow me to show you internal information. That would be a violation."

Li Mo scratched his head. "Uh, so that was a violation?"

Seeing the confusion on Li Mo's face, Sheriff Sanders clicked his tongue softly and asked, "These two... are they both people we can trust?"

"Yep," Li Mo said. "Anna is like a good older sister to me, and Wayne is my best friend. Don't worry."

Sheriff Sanders said, "In that case, I'll be frank. We did break the rules quite a few times before... but that was entirely because I believed you could help me solve cases. Now that you've lost your Mysticism Perception, even if I showed you the files and took the risk of bringing you to the scene, you wouldn't be able to help me, would you?"

Li Mo remained calm.

He had anticipated this.

Late last night, his father still hadn't returned.

Li Mo had a feeling he would soon have dealings with the police station.

Unable to sleep that night, he had simply woken Anna up by kneading her and taught her a brand-new Mystical Ritual-

[Ember Rewind].

As expected, the speed at which Anna mastered the ritual was terrifying.

After he demonstrated it once and taught it once, she mastered it perfectly on the spot.

However, with no other mystics around her to compare herself to, Anna still believed that her little bit of talent was nothing compared to Li Mo's back then.

Li Mo made no attempt to correct that belief...

It was quite nice to let Sister Anna keep admiring him like that.

Yesterday, he had even shamelessly said, "If you let me knead you, your Mysticism Perception can improve even more."

Unfortunately, under Anna's exceedingly serious gaze, Li Mo had finally said helplessly, "Anna, don't look at me so sincerely. It'll make my conscience bother me. All right, I was joking..."

Back to the present.

Li Mo said, "Sheriff, my Mysticism Perception really is gone, but, ta-da-allow me to formally introduce Miss Anna here."

Sheriff Sanders looked at Anna.

Li Mo said, "Anna is actually very talented in mysticism. She just wasn't willing to learn before."

Anna shook her head slightly. "My Mysticism Perception can't compare to Li Mo's back then at all. It's barely enough to get by."

Li Mo smiled faintly and said nothing, putting on an expert's air.

But Sheriff Sanders's eyes lit up at once. "Li, you mean Anna can use those amazing rituals too?"

Li Mo nodded. "That's right."

Sheriff Sanders's dejected manner vanished, his whole demeanor changing dramatically, as if to say, Brother, I was merely joking just now!

He sprang to his feet enthusiastically, dug out a manila envelope, and eagerly handed it to Li Mo. "You should have said so sooner! Here, these are all the on-site investigation reports for the murder at the textile mill in the west district. Special detectives, ladies and gentlemen, once you've read them, I'll take you to the scene~"

It was Wayne's first time witnessing something like this.

He felt he had learned something new again.

That change of face was so fast. As expected of a sheriff!

Li Mo took the documents out of the manila envelope.

The first page of the report recorded the victim's basic information.

The victim's name was Thomas. He was forty-two years old and worked the night shift as a machinery maintenance worker at the Matthew family's spinning mill.

His body had been found in the low-rent employee housing on the factory grounds.

The cause of death was a major artery in his neck being severed by a sharp weapon. He had been killed with a single strike, the cut was clean, and there were clear signs of a struggle at the scene...

Wayne analyzed, "Thomas was a machinery maintenance worker, so he was quite strong. The signs of a struggle show the killer didn't attack him by surprise, but still managed to kill him with one strike. That proves the killer must have had relevant training. He was a professional."

The sheriff glanced at Wayne in surprise. He had assumed the young man was just a mascot, but it turned out he knew a thing or two about analysis.

This was indeed Wayne's strength. He was especially good at telling stories and analyzing human nature. Just earlier, he had also been the first to suggest that Matthew was a suspect in Helen's kidnapping.

A hand-drawn sketch of the scene was attached to the documents.

The artist had marked the position of the body and the surrounding area...

After looking at it for a moment, Li Mo asked, "Sheriff, were these water marks around the body deliberately recorded as a detail of the scene?"

Sheriff Sanders nodded. "There were indeed a lot of water stains left on the floor at the scene. I tasted it, and it was salty. I reckon it was seawater."