From the Ship of Fools to Earl of Wugang

Chapter 92 [The Four Signs] Deductive Reasoning

After the inspector gave the order, the mansion was quickly sealed off. He brushed the dust off his gloves and greeted all his teammates.

"From now on, every grain of dust here is considered evidence. Whoever messes up the footprints will be responsible for putting them back one by one."

""

The attic was originally used to store old furniture and laboratory equipment. The group checked along the wall and soon found a square wooden lid behind a set of cloth-covered cabinets.

The wooden cover was edged with iron bars, and an old-fashioned winch was suspended above it. Two thick ropes passed through the crossbeams and connected to the unseen hanging board below.

Jiliu recognized it from the character's memory: "This is a cargo hatch left over from the construction of the mansion. Bartholomew used it when he transported large instruments into the laboratory."

Edmund lifted the outer wooden cover, revealing an inner door embedded in the ceiling, with the horizontal bolt on one side of the laboratory still firmly fastened.

He thought for a moment and came up with a solution. He then placed his palm on the iron frame and focused his mind on finding the boundary between the bolt and the frame.

A faint metallic scraping sound came from beneath the wooden board. Edmund felt a slight throbbing pain in his temple. He located the spot and used [Opening Spell].

A tap was made, and a crisp sound rang out from below.

The inner door swung downwards, and a putrid smell mixed with the odor of chemicals rushed into the attic.

Conrad immediately covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, while Inspector Douglas squatted down next to the winch, signaling everyone to hold their positions for the time being.

There was a ring of fresh abrasion marks where the rope met the wooden shaft, with a few strands of hemp fibers that had not yet turned black scattered nearby.

Large patches of dust were wiped away from the edges of the hanging board, leaving several straight marks on the wooden surface from the heavy corners of the box.

"I used it recently," the inspector said.

"And it transported something quite heavy." Edmund glanced at the empty safe in the lab. "The time must have been around the time of Bartholomew's death."

They descended to the laboratory via a suspended platform. After landing, the inspector first checked the doors and windows, then unlatched the main door from inside.

The moment the door opened, the gaslights in the corridor flickered.

The wallpaper pattern, which had seemed endless, slid forward half a foot, and the stairwell appeared in its normal position. The slight dizziness that had made it difficult to discern distance also quickly subsided.

Edmund examined the door frame and found three thin, shiny copper sheets inside the lintel and the two side pillars.

Following the clues, he found himself behind the door and pulled a small copper tube from a coat hook.

Upon opening it, one sees a small piece of worn-out leather with a faded red thread tied into three interlocking knots, and a short, black needle piercing through the center.

[Witch's Bottle]

[A protective object for the home, made from the leather of a king's boot, three knots of red thread, and an iron needle. The leather preserves the traces left by the king's footsteps, the red thread binds the path into a closed loop, and the iron needle solidifies the starting point marked by the ritual.]

The three bronze talismans on the lintel and the two pillars together define the effective path. Once activated, people approaching along this path will gradually misjudge the distance, turn around, and their own position, returning to the entrance without realizing it.

The copper talisman is connected to an intricate device that releases poison gas when destroyed.

"The enchantment ritual was probably set up by the homeowner himself," Edmund said, pointing to the unusually clean carpet in the hallway.

"The murderer never even stepped into the corridor. The security measures Bartholomew had set up blocked his servants and bought him two days."

Edmund was about to put the Witch's Bottle and the copper tube into his pocket when a gloved hand reached out to him first.

The inspector took the copper pipe from his hand and put it into an evidence bag: "Items found at the crime scene are to be kept by the police department."

Edmund's attempt to embezzle the goods was thwarted, and the inspector sealed the bag. He instructed the servants to calm the raging torrent and forbade anyone from moving the items without permission, before beginning the search of the laboratory.

The treasure chest was nowhere to be found, and the safe inside the wall contained only some miscellaneous items and a lead plate slightly smaller than the palm of a hand.

The inspector placed the lead plate under the lamp and saw four lines of names pressed onto the rough-edged plate:

Jonathan Garn; Mahomet Singh; Abdullah Khan: Dost Akbar.

Meanwhile, Conrad had completed the preliminary autopsy. He parted the hair behind Bartholomew's ear, revealing a pinhole that was almost completely hidden by the hair roots.

"The wound was small, with very little bruising around it. The deceased was in full-body spasms, and his jaw and neck muscles were pulled into a smile before he died."

Conrad removed a glove: "The cause of death should be poison, which takes effect very quickly."

Edmund traced the wound formed by the needle prick, then looked at the open safe and the deceased's chair. The chair was sideways to the safe, and there were still semi-circular scratches left from its rotation under the legs.

"He was sitting here, turned to look at the safe, with his back to the fireplace. The stinger entered behind his ear from above and behind; the attacker was positioned above his head."

Before the inspector could speak, Edmund had already dragged over a ladder and placed it on the bookshelf next to the fireplace.

The inspector's shoulders were too broad, making it difficult for him to squeeze into the narrow space above the chimney.

Edmund climbed to the top of the ladder and raised the lantern toward the beam. Old ash had accumulated along the edge of the flue, with several thin handprints smudged into it.

The same marks were also left on the beams and the top of the bookshelf. The palm was only half the width of a normal person's, but the fingers were unusually long, with shallow scratch marks at the ends.

There were no signs of footsteps in the dusty areas that could support the weight of an adult.

After Edmund came down, he said, "What entered the laboratory was a very light, non-human creature. It was able to climb the walls, ascend the chimney to the beams, and then approach the dead along the bookshelves."

"Are you talking about monkeys or something?" the inspector asked.

Although Dionysus has most likely altered the script, Edmund can still be certain that it was definitely not some monkey.

He turned around and beckoned everyone back to the attic. After illuminating the dust with a lantern, they saw a string of left boot prints on the outside of the cargo opening, while circular indentations appeared alternately on the right side.

Each circular mark landed precisely where the right foot should have touched the ground, with spacing matching the stride of the left foot. Even as it reached the winch, the round head still traced an arc outwards through the dust.

"The cane's landing point changes with the arm and it doesn't always replace the same leg." Edmund squatted beside the imprint. "This is the metal dome at the bottom of the wooden prosthesis. The user lost their right leg and needs to swing the prosthesis outwards when turning around."

He guided the light along the trail. The left footprint led from the skylight to the winch, lingered for a while, and then returned the same way. The man never went down into the laboratory.

Edmund stood up and pieced together the whole story.

"The wooden-legged man descended from the roof to the attic, where he remained to operate the winch. The small creatures accompanying him entered the laboratory through the chimney, launching stingers from above as Bartholomew examined the safe."

"After Bartholomew died, it opened the safe, dragged the treasure chest under the hoisting platform, and the man in the attic used a winch to move the chest away. The two then left along the roof, completely bypassing the maze ritual that only affected the corridor."

The attic quieted down, and the inspector took out the lead plate again, casting faint shadows of the four names under the lantern.

Edmund looked at it: "Hmm, this thing should contain the possible perpetrators. We need to find a wooden-legged man, a non-human creature that can climb walls, and three people closely associated with the wooden-legged man."

The inspector closed the evidence bag: "Then starting tomorrow morning, find them one by one."

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