The fairy maid cheers for her deceased master today.

"How could Caroline have bought it herself? That doesn't make sense."

James clearly doesn't accept this speculation.

If this is true, then it means that all assumptions need to be viewed from a different perspective.

After a moment's thought, the officer excitedly waved his arms, exclaiming, "Lucy must have forced Caroline to buy it! Or Lucy stole Caroline's detector!"

But this is clearly a dying argument.

Irene calmly shook her head, her long emerald hair swaying gently in the breeze.

"If Lucy forced her, why didn't Caroline report it to the police? If it was stolen, what evidence do you have? You're just making things up."

"Well, well..." James stammered, unable to give a coherent answer.

Angel tilted her head, her blue eyes filled with confusion: "Master, if Caroline bought the detector herself, what was she researching it for? And why did she place the magical detector in that location?"

AX looked thoughtfully at the detector in his hand: "Perhaps this detector was used by Caroline herself when researching barriers. In other words, the double-layered barrier at the scene was actually Caroline's own doing."

"Impossible!" James immediately retorted. "Caroline is the victim! How could it be a trap she set?"

That sounds incredible.

Did he kill himself by his own trap?

Ex sighed softly: "Proving who created the barrier is quite simple. Since that hotel isn't Caroline's usual residence, let's go check out her real place."

■

Yes, Caroline certainly also has her own apartment building.

An apartment building that matches her income level.

Caroline's apartment was located in a relatively upscale red-brick building in East London, with a narrow and steep staircase. James had informed the landlord in advance, so the three of them were able to enter Caroline's room without any problems.

The room was small but clean and tidy, with several truly high-quality landscape paintings hanging on the walls and bookshelves filled with books.

Axe noticed a cup of cold tea on the desk, with several sheets of draft paper covered in formulas scattered around it. The stylish furniture revealed the owner's refined taste, and the lace curtains swayed gently in the breeze.

Once inside, the police and the fairy began their search. Their target was—anything suspicious.

Irene soon made a discovery.

"Look here," Elena pointed to a corner of the desk, "these are notes on barrier research."

Although he couldn't understand it, X still leaned closer and found that there were indeed complex barrier patterns drawn on the draft paper, with detailed annotations next to them.

Most notably, a drawing clearly displays the words "Double-layer barrier experiment".

James was somewhat incredulous. He immediately searched through Caroline's other notebooks and compared the handwriting.

The result still did not meet his expectations.

"This..." James's face turned pale. "This does indeed look like Caroline's handwriting."

Caroline's notes are elegant and stylish.

Angel curiously flipped through the books on the table: "Master, these are all professional books about barrier magic."

X nodded, already having made up his mind:

"It's obvious. The double-layered trap was something Caroline had been researching and setting up for a long time. But something unexpected happened, and she ended up being killed by the trap she herself set. Sure enough, even the best swimmers can drown."

James stopped objecting. He seemed to have finally come to terms with reality.

Ex walked to the window and looked out at the busy street: "In any case, the evidence now points to Caroline. She bought a magic detector, studied the double barrier, and then set a trap at the inn."

"But why?" James had calmed down by now. "What's the motive?"

"Hmm? You've finally calmed down?"

"Ah, I..."

"In any case, presuming a killer is a bad habit; it will only lead you astray. I'm glad you can calm down now. You're a police officer now, so you still need to be careful."

"Ex smiled and said."

"As for the motive, that's what we need to find out. Perhaps the answer can be found in Caroline's other items."

The three continued their thorough search of every corner of the room. Angel checked under the bed and in the wardrobe, Elena perused the books and documents, and Ax inspected the desk and drawers.

However, they still came up empty-handed.

But when X looked at the notebook spread out on the table, with a page torn out, countless episodes of the Conan anime immediately flashed through his mind.

In that case... there might actually be a clue.

That's right, it's the kind of embossed text that's most commonly used in detective novels.

When writing on paper with a hard object, such as a pencil or pen nib, the pressure from the nib creates an indentation on the paper surface or the next page. Even if the writing on the surface is erased, altered, or torn off, the deformed marks on the paper fibers remain.

When you gently rub the paper surface at an angle with a pencil or graphite stick, the pencil powder will fill the recessed area of ​​the indentation, creating a contrast between light and dark with the flat paper surface, thus making the originally invisible indented text visible.

We did it right away.

Ax quickly found a pencil and began scribbling on the paper. Soon he could see the writing on the torn-out page.

The text was very simple, like a letter.

The content is as follows:

SH:

I believe Lucy can provide clues. I will use my methods to make her tell the truth. —Caroline

……

SH is probably someone's code name. This is a letter sent to SH.

"I see..." Elena said softly, a hint of understanding flashing in her eyes. "Caroline discovered some of Lucy's secrets, so she planned to... use a trap to coerce out the answers."

Unfortunately, Caroline was too cautious; even in her letters, she didn't specify what she cared about.

But this has proven that Caroline planned to set a trap at the hotel to capture and threaten Lucy in order to force her to say what she wanted.

"Very good," Ex said slowly. "Caroline originally intended to use this barrier trap to deal with Lucy. But for some reason, the plan went wrong and ended up killing herself."

"This...this is unbelievable." Officer James scratched his head. "Where is Lucy now? If she was framed and isn't the murderer, why doesn't she come forward to clarify?"

This is indeed very suspicious.

Irene instinctively walked to the window and gently pulled back a corner of the curtain. Outside, carriages came and went on the street, and pedestrians hurried by.

She turned and said, "Perhaps Lucy has her own reasons. Or perhaps she simply doesn't know what happened. And she might not even have been in London these past few days."

"But one thing is certain," Axe said, "if we can find Lucy, it will definitely help the investigation."

"Ah, yes, we need to find Lucy!" Officer James immediately perked up again.

Angel asked curiously, "So how do we find it now?"

Everyone fell silent immediately.

Elena then continued to look at the documents left behind by Caroline, examining them very carefully.

"What's wrong?" Ex asked.

"To create this trap, we first need to find a swamp monster and then trap it with a barrier. However, the information here doesn't explain how Caroline lured the swamp monster there."

"you mean……?"

"No, no, this shouldn't be Caroline's original plan. Caroline's plan didn't include any real mutants!"