The Mystical and Science Come Together in Criminal Investigation

Forensic testing was undeveloped in this era, so the old detective's most direct method of testing something was to taste it. You had to admit, he was dedicated to his work...

Li Mo looked away and said, "Sheriff, I'd like to take a look at the scene."

That was exactly what Sheriff Sanders had been waiting to hear. He put on his coat and said, "Go, go, go! Let's head out!"

Li Mo almost followed up in his head: How rich does black coffee taste...

The four left the police station, boarded a carriage, and headed straight for the west district.

The crime scene was a low-rent employee dwelling behind the spinning mill.

The room was small, stank, and got no light.

The bloodstains on the floor had dried and turned black, and belongings were scattered everywhere.

Sheriff Sanders said from the doorway, "Li, you know the rules. Try not to disturb the scene, except for Mystical Rituals."

It sounded like he was addressing Li Mo, but he was really talking to Anna and Wayne.

"Got it."

After speaking, Li Mo gave Anna a look.

Anna nodded and stepped forward.

She took out a piece of charcoal she had prepared beforehand and rubbed some powder off it.

Then she took a deep breath and began adjusting the rhythm of her breathing.

Two long breaths and one short, repeated over and over.

As soon as she sensed spirituality, she scattered the black charcoal powder into the air.

Her fingertips traced a series of paths through the air.

The powder seemed to be drawn by some force, coming to a halt in midair!

"Goddess, go back, go back to the day of the crime..."

Anna murmured the words silently, and the powder suspended in the air began to tremble slightly.

She closed her eyes and put the lingering images she perceived into words.

"I see..."

"Thomas is panicking... He runs into the room..."

"He's clutching something in his hand, staggering as he runs."

"He rushes to the wardrobe, pulls the door open, and tries to hide what he's holding inside."

"The door opens."

"Someone follows him in."

"Thomas hears the sound and turns around."

"He sees the person's face clearly, and his expression turns fearful."

"He gives up on hiding the object, grabs the books and water cup on the table, and hurls them at the person."

"But the person easily knocks the objects aside, strides forward, and grabs Thomas by the neck with one hand."

"Thomas is pinned against the wall, his feet dangling in the air."

"The person draws a knife and severs his carotid artery with one slash."

Anna's eyes snapped open, and she stopped the breathing technique. The powder fell to the floor.

She stumbled, but Li Mo had been ready beside her and caught her.

Sheriff Sanders immediately pressed her. "What did the person look like?"

Anna shook her head weakly. "I couldn't see clearly... The images were blurry... But judging by the figure, the person was very tall and big, and wore a dark trench coat."

Sheriff Sanders inwardly lamented the missed opportunity.

But he soon smacked his lips and said, "That's incredible... Li Mo used this ritual often before, but unfortunately, as time passes, the images at the crime scene grow blurrier. If we'd called Miss Anna over immediately when the crime happened, we might have solved this case long ago!"

Wayne stood in the doorway, leaning on his cane and thinking quietly.

A moment later, he said, "Thomas might have known the killer."

Sheriff Sanders turned to him. "What makes you say that?"

"If a stranger broke in to rob you, a normal person's first reaction would be to demand to know who they were or shout for help. But after Thomas turned around and saw the person's face, he immediately started throwing things and fighting for his life. There's only one explanation for that reaction: Thomas already knew this person was coming to kill him."

Following Wayne's line of thought, the sheriff said, "But why would Thomas have known someone was coming to kill him?"

Wayne said, "Perhaps Thomas took something that would get him killed. He ran back in a panic, wanting to hide it in the wardrobe. He thought he'd gotten away, but the other person followed him all the way to the low-rent dwelling."

Sheriff Sanders thought Wayne was pretty good too.

He nodded, murmuring agreement. "That's right! If it were an ordinary theft dispute, the other person could simply have reported it to the police. For the killer to go straight to murder, the most likely explanation is that Thomas knew a secret that absolutely couldn't be revealed to outsiders, so the person killed him to silence him."

"That's right," Wayne said with a nod.

Li Mo, who had been silent all this time, quietly closed his eyes.

Enter the Focus state...

When Li Mo opened his eyes, he seemed like a different person.

Just as he had when tackling countless difficult problems in his previous life, he became intensely focused and calm.

"Anna, after the killer killed Thomas, where did the thing Thomas had wanted to hide go?" Li Mo asked.

Anna shook her head. "I didn't see."

Li Mo walked silently to the wardrobe and crouched down. He spotted a faint scratch on the edge of the door and said, "After the murder, the killer must have searched the room and rummaged through the wardrobe."

He got up and continued.

Thanks to the sheriff's awareness of the need to preserve the original crime scene, the muddy footprints on the floor had been preserved.

Li Mo said, "The killer is around six feet two inches tall and may weigh over two hundred pounds."

The sheriff asked in confusion, "How can you tell?"

Li Mo answered simply, "The footprints and their depth. It isn't entirely accurate, but it can serve as a reference."

With that, he walked over to the wall. There were bloodstains on it, and he said softly, "The killer was probably left-handed."

The sheriff: "??"

He asked, "How can you tell that?"

Li Mo said, "Judging by the direction the blood spattered on the wall, the blade probably slashed from right to left and from bottom to top. The killer most likely held the dagger in the left hand when inflicting the wound."

Sheriff Sanders was baffled.

Li Mo's current demeanor was just like that of the old sheriff who had once trained him: he could always use details to deduce things Sanders couldn't.

Is this some new Mystical Ritual? Or... was it never the Mystical Ritual that was powerful? Was Li Mo himself the one who was powerful all along?

Li Mo kept at it.

He walked over to a dried water stain and picked up a small clump of gritty soil.

"Sea mud... There's a small amount of black powder mixed into it. The particles are coarser than ordinary coal ash, and the combustion residue is more heavily carbonized. This kind of coal slag only accumulates in large quantities near the boiler rooms of large steam freighters. The killer's work environment must be connected to large freighters at the docks."

Li Mo turned to the sheriff. "Sheriff, have someone buy a few things."

Sheriff Sanders came to his senses as if waking from a dream and hurriedly straightened up. "Yes! What should we buy? Just say the word!"

"Charcoal powder, ground as fine as possible. If there's no charcoal powder, graphite powder will do. Also buy a soft brush, and finally, get some gelatin paper."

The sheriff immediately turned and said, "You heard him! Hurry and get it!"

A patrol officer acknowledged the order and raced downstairs.

While they waited, the sheriff rubbed his hands and tentatively asked, "Li, what do you need these art supplies for? Are you going to draw a sketch of the killer?"

Li Mo said, "No, I'm going to lift fingerprints."

"Finger... what?"

The sheriff looked utterly bewildered.

It wasn't just the sheriff; Wayne and Anna were equally puzzled.

In this era, fingerprint lifting was unheard-of black technology.

Since they had time, Li Mo explained:

"The skin on the surface of a person's fingers has uneven ridges, and everyone's fingerprints are unique. When a person touches an object, oils and moisture secreted by the sweat glands remain on its surface, leaving an impression..."

Li Mo's little class was in session.

Sheriff Sanders keenly realized that this was rather powerful.

So he asked many questions and carefully recorded the answers in his little notebook.

About twenty minutes later, the patrol officer ran back, drenched in sweat.

Li Mo took the supplies and checked how fine the charcoal powder was.

No problem.

"Anna said just now that Thomas wanted to hide something in the wardrobe, and the killer searched it after the murder..."

Li Mo gently dipped the brush into the black charcoal powder.

Then he brushed the powder around the wooden handle and doorframe.

He blew gently, dispersing the excess powder.

Several black thumbprints became visible.

These should include prints from both the killer and Thomas.

Wayne leaned closer for a look and expressed his amazement.

Sheriff Sanders was even more transfixed. He murmured, "They're really there... They really were left behind..."

Anna asked, "But there are so many fingerprints here. How do we know which one belongs to the killer?"

Li Mo said, "Lift both of them and compare them with the deceased's. We can use the process of elimination."

With that, he picked up the gelatin paper and carefully laid it flat over the prints. After pressing it down firmly, he peeled it off.

The two fingerprints were preserved just like that.

Li Mo handed them to the sheriff.

"Sheriff, using the fingerprint as a reference, investigate the men in town who are six feet two inches or taller, left-handed, strongly built, and have recently been at the docks or aboard a large steam freighter. Have them press their fingerprints onto paper for comparison. If the ridges match exactly, then he's most likely the killer."

Sheriff Sanders took the gelatin paper and said with some excitement, "Brilliant!"

When investigating a case, the worst thing was having no direction and searching for a needle in a haystack.

Now that they had such a specific direction, the next part was right in the sheriff's comfort zone!

With a major breakthrough in the case, the patrol officers immediately got busy, preparing to cast a town-wide net according to the criteria Li Mo had provided.

Before they were ready to leave the scene, Li Mo stopped the sheriff.

"Sheriff, there's one more thing."

"Go ahead! Li, from now on, your business is my business!"

"How far have you gotten with the disappearance of Helen, the Green family's daughter? Where was the last place she was seen?"

"We searched the whole town and questioned every carriage driver and night watchman. A family in the west district gave us a lead. Yesterday evening, they saw Miss Helen through their window, running past in tears."

"Which direction did she run?"

"Toward the docks, but that area has been sealed off by the military, and outsiders can't get in. We questioned the soldiers stationed around the perimeter, and they all said they hadn't seen a girl approach. After that, no one saw her again."

The docks... The docks again...

What's so special about the damn docks?

Li Mo frowned.

Whether it was this throat-slitting murder, the direction Helen had run before she disappeared, or the bad feeling he had gotten when he previously wanted to go to the docks to investigate the light spot.

All the clues pointed to that place.

There was definitely something going on at the docks.

And it was something big.

Although Li Mo was very worried about Helen.

He knew it would be pointless to rush straight to the docks now.

Leaving aside whether it was dangerous, the place was sealed off by the military. With his current status, there was no way he could get in.

He had to find a way in.

He had to find out exactly what was happening at the docks.

Suddenly-

Li Mo thought of something.

Lately, at school, Matthew could be said to have been very eager to become Professor Bryce's assistant.

Before, Li Mo hadn't thought much of it. He had simply figured that Professor Bryce was an academic giant, so who at Puxiu Academy wouldn't want to become his assistant?

But now, Li Mo couldn't help thinking more deeply.

The information he knew was as follows:

1. Professor Bryce had recently been studying the tides in Mondel Town on the autumn equinox.

2. Matthew was very eager to become Professor Bryce's assistant.

3. Thomas, the murder victim, was an employee at the Matthew family's spinning mill.

4. Thomas had been killed by someone who worked at the docks.

So, could Matthew's approach to Professor Bryce have something to do with the tidal data?

Tides...

Docks...

Military...

Large steam freighters...

Ocean shipping routes...

Li Mo felt that all these seemingly unrelated events were gradually becoming connected.

If he speculated along those lines.

Matthew's family, or rather, the people behind Matthew, needed to know the exact tidal conditions on the autumn equinox.

They were going to carry out some kind of operation at the docks.

And this operation was connected to the water depth, the draft of large freighters, and the sealed-off docks!

"Let's go," Li Mo suddenly said.

Anna asked, "Where to?"

Li Mo said, "Back to the academy, quickly. We need to find Professor Bryce."