“By the way, this person should be about the same height as Mr. Haytham, both are around 175cm, and have similar body shapes. Shouldn’t he be easy to find?”

“Ms. Hitzfeld.”

Not only was Joe Cole puzzled, but Pondich also came closer and asked, “Can I know why? How did you make such a judgment?”

Others, including Carl, either looked curious or frowned.

This is really ridiculous… She only stayed in that room for less than 2 hours, right?

The body had been taken away for testing. How could she come to such a conclusion based on the useless interrogation information at the end?

“Cooperate.”

But Hitzfeld didn’t explain much, “This is just my request now, can you do it?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Joe Cole’s face. The pressure on the short sheriff suddenly increased, and he finally nodded slowly.

“Can you tell me now?”

Ten minutes later, in the car driven by Karl, the poor knight finally couldn’t help but ask her again.

“What makes you think it was daytime… and that someone else must have done it?”

It’s not like he hasn’t helped deal with evil spirit cases before. Based on his experience, this case was clearly a suicide.

Haytham must have been controlled by something. He left a last word while fighting with the other party, and then shot himself… This may have angered the thing that controlled him, so his body was sucked into a mummy.

All of this was done under the cover of gray fog and should have nothing to do with reality.

“Because of the gunshots.”

Before Hitzfeld could speak, Xia Yibing answered for her.

“Mrs. Feredo is not deaf. She must have heard the gunshots.”

“But she didn’t hear any noise from 3pm until the evening. Either she remembered it wrongly, or the murderer used some means to cover up the noise.”

“… smashing things?”

Carl reacted quickly.

“Yes.” Hitzfeld nodded. “We checked the marks on the floor. It should be the hanger… Xia found a greasy handprint on the hanger and calculated the other party’s height based on the grip position.”

“The same goes for the footprints. There were no other footprints in the house. It’s likely that the murderer changed into Haytham’s shoes at the door. This shows that they are of similar size and height. It’s no wonder that Mrs. Fredo mistook the wrong person.”

“You said you were wrong—”

Carl’s brows twitched violently.

“Wait, she said she saw Haytham brushing his teeth when she delivered lunch at noon. Could it be that—”

“It’s highly likely that what she saw wasn’t Haytham.”

Hitzfeld shook his head slightly.

“She didn’t see his face, she just saw him moving. And a normal person wouldn’t brush his teeth at that time… The noise of brushing teeth can indeed cover up his voice to a certain extent, so Mrs. Feredo couldn’t hear the difference.”

“Hailsham should not have been dead at that time… He stayed there for a long time, and did not create any noise until 2 or 3 p.m. – that is, to pretend that Haytham was smashing things again, and took the opportunity to shoot him again.”

“He also forged Haytham’s handwriting to leave a suicide note in the notebook. All of this was done to create the illusion that ‘Haytham was trapped in the evil contamination and couldn’t bear the pressure and shot himself.'”

“He thought he could get away with it, but it was all just a crude trick.”

“…”

Karl slowed down the car and turned back to look at her solemnly.

Just… just this little bit of information, yet she came up with so many things?

Facing his somewhat horrified gaze, Hitzfeld remained very calm.

“I won’t let the parish spend money in vain, Master Carl.”

“Please, trust the professionals.”

——–

Writing with gratitude: Ai Li staying in the princess’ body, Little Finger Curling, Four Winds Bai An, Salted Fish Bald Thorn, Klovno, 972648, Gatito, Xiaozou World No. , Mu Tianliao… the above readers’ blades and rewards~!

Special thanks: Destroy it, Ai Li is tired…more blade rewards~!

Thanks for your support~!

Chapter 16 Awkward

Carl walked them back to the Wicker Bar.

He had made it clear on the way – the bar was opened by the parish, so Hitzfeld had no doubts as to why the bar had not closed down despite having so few customers.

After all, Nanqiao Square is considered a small part of the city center of Nanxinze. If you open a store facing the main street here, the rent and tax will not be low.

Before they parted, Hitzfeld gave Karl some suggestions, saying that she wanted to get detailed information about all the “problematic novelists” in South Sinze through Joe Cole, and hoped that he could put pressure on her to meet with the editors of those newspapers.

Karl didn’t agree to her outright, but just said that he would try his best.

As Hitzfeld watched him drive away, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was what the knight meant.

Xia Yibing saw that she was thoughtful, but she misunderstood her meaning.

“Let’s go.” She patted the girl on the shoulder. “The car is not his. I recognize the license plate. He just borrowed it.”

After returning to Room 2 on the second floor, Xia Yibing prepared to rest.

She was not like Hitzfeld, who could recover to full health as long as she calmed down and rested for a while no matter how she reveled. Don’t forget that they had just arrived in Nanxinze today, and after the tiring journey, they hadn’t rested and stayed up most of the night. Even if Xia Yibing had an iron body, she would not be able to hold on any longer.

“Would you like to take a shower?”

After taking out some clothes from the box and about to enter the bathroom, the woman turned around and saw Hitzfeld sitting on the bed, studying the huge notebook.

Oh, and she brought this back too.

“You wash first.” Hitzfeld didn’t even look up. “Let me take a look at this thing… maybe there will be some unexpected gains.”

Xia Yibing responded and closed the door. Soon, the sound of dripping water was heard from inside.

The corner of Hitzfeld’s mouth twitched.

She lied.

What a crap book! How can I even read this?

In fact, she did intend to study this thing carefully at the beginning. The front of it was full of Haytham’s manuscripts, with traces of scratches and alterations everywhere, which was indeed worth investigating.

But just now she looked up inadvertently and happened to see Xia Yibing raising her head and hands to remove the last restraint from her body.

At that moment, she felt like she saw the holy light.

You can’t tell that Xia Yibing also has a big mole on her chest!

Now her mind is full of that little black dot… She is flipping through the pages of her notebook randomly, unable to concentrate at all.

Be calm.

Hitzfeld kept telling himself.

But when obsessive-compulsive disorder strikes, it usually isn’t controlled by human will.

Hitzfeld couldn’t stand it any longer. She got up and reached for her box, pulled out several full sketchbooks, opened them, and added a little to each of the carcass sketches.

Feeling comfortable now.

Flipping through these masterpieces, Hitzfeld breathed a sigh of relief with contentment.

Carefully putting the notebook back, she stretched and looked at the big book.

My mind has almost calmed down, and it’s time to get down to work.

Sit back and continue studying.

She had told Carl in the car before that she believed that the “last words” were not written by Haytham, but were left by the murderer imitating his handwriting.

This suspicion was not groundless. One of the most powerful evidences was that she found some small pieces of paper in the gap between the “last words” and the previous page.

The front page was torn off.

It is most likely done by the murderer.

Although there are many traces of torn pages when turning the pages further, most of them are just casual – the torn pages are not clean and you can see obvious residual serrations when you turn to that page.

But the paper torn off before the “last words” had been carefully handled. If you don’t pull hard to widen the gap, you won’t notice any traces.

So could the words that were torn off be the real last words?

The murderer was able to imitate Haytham’s handwriting.

In addition, Mrs. Fredo said she saw Haytham when she delivered lunch at noon.

Although Hitzfeld speculated that the Haytham she saw was disguised as the murderer, Haytham was probably not dead at that time.

Otherwise, why would the murderer wait until after 2 o’clock to smash the floor to cover up the shooting?

There were at least two hours in between – he probably communicated with Haytham during this time.

Maybe he wanted to force Haytham to agree to some conditions, and was forced to kill him to silence him after being rejected.

Assuming these conditions, the murderer must have known Haytham for a long time.

Otherwise why didn’t he call for help when Mrs. Feredo went there at noon?

Oh, of course, it is also possible that he was knocked unconscious and unable to make a sound…

Hitzfeld frowned, calmed down and read the “last words” again.

[To my past self:]

[I don’t know what the point of all this is. But, Haytham, I have fulfilled my dream.]

[Maybe I paid a price that is unacceptable to ordinary people. But I know exactly what I want.]

[All the pain, ridicule, and oppression turned to ashes during these days. I turned myself into a flame and I could feel my soul burning there.]

[Yes, this is a contract. I must abide by it. I have always believed that I am a person of my word.]

[But now I know what they want to do. I feel that I must do something now. I can’t just betray them like this, otherwise I won’t be able to forgive myself.]

[This is no longer a story about dreams, Haytham. It’s about redemption – we must abandon the selfishness in our bones. I want to do it – yes, I want to do it.]

[I know this will keep me from being the person I once dreamed of being. The dream I worked so hard for… the dream I gave up everything for.]

[I am a selfish person, Haytham. I have enjoyed everything in the future, the vanity, applause, praise… and swallowed up the dream we shared. But I have to destroy it now.]

[If my future self could communicate with my past self, I would definitely apologize to you.]

[Sorry, Haytham.]

[I couldn’t do it.]

Very special.

There are many factors.

Let’s not worry about whether this is a will or who wrote it.

First of all, he emphasized that “he realized his dream.”

This can easily remind people of Bella Haytham’s tragic past and his obsession with success through writing, and further connect “dream fulfillment” with his current success.

But what does “contract” mean?

[Now I know what they want to do…]

Who is “they” here?

What is the term for “betrayal”…?

If Hitzfeld were asked to make a judgment now, she would doubt it… The “they” here refers to the mysterious, hidden power that allows all mediocre people to gain wisdom.

These novelists did not have any writing ability before, and their sudden rise to fame can indeed be described as such.

So is this an organization?

The Church of the Eclipse, or something like that.

But how did they do it?

Can wisdom be given out of thin air?