Chapter 527 Mysterious Disappearance

Professor Capek died, but... things didn't end there.

Strictly speaking, Professor Capek is only the initiator. There is still no trace of the Silver Dusk Cabin behind him, and there are still other participants alive.

The Capek Research Society originally had seven people. Later, one of them, Maria Bell, died, and the Society was temporarily disbanded. But after Xia Li joined, there were still four people in the entire seminar. Now that Professor Capek is dead and Charlie is in a coma, it means that at least two people are still in the school.

After that, Duanmuhuai packaged Professor Capek's information and handed it to Sheriff Lestrade along with the clues and information, which temporarily ended this series of serial killings. Chief Lestrade was somewhat relieved about this. Although he did not see the body, since Duanmu Huai said this, it means that there should be no similar serial killings on the streets of Fog City in the future... …The police can also breathe a sigh of relief.

Regarding the investigation of Silver Dusk Lodge, Sheriff Lestrade has also made a commitment, but he also hinted to Duanmuhuai that the investigation of this organization is very difficult, and the reason is very simple. Silver Dusk Lodge is ostensibly an upper-class place. For an organization like a private club, these are fine separately, but together they are terrible. Not to mention that there is currently insufficient evidence to prove that this series of murders was planned by Silver Dusk Cabin. Even if it can be proven, it may be difficult to arrest him...

Duanmu Huai doesn't care or care about this. Just kidding, the Tribunal wants to kill people, so why don't you care about this. No matter how high-class or aristocrat you are, if you are a heretic who has anything to do with the evil god, you are the queen and I will pout you. Just like Innsmouth, as long as you can't find evidence that I did it, then I can do whatever I want?

So he only nodded superficially to Chief Lestrade's advice, but of course he didn't take it seriously at all...

Of course, Lestrade is also curious...

"How did you steal Professor Capek's safe?"

The theft case in Capek's office was a great source of fun for the police department. After all, such a thief had never been seen before. When Duanmuhuai submitted the information report, of course he had to make clear the source of his information report. This is also a tacit understanding between investigators and officials. You help me solve the case, and I will help you exonerate. Now that there is conclusive evidence that Professor Capek was responsible for these serial murders, the mere crime of "theft" can naturally be offset.

But Lestrade was also very curious. After all, the on-site identification results basically gave no clues. How did Duanmu Huai do it?

"Oh, that thing isn't heavy either. As you can see, I am too clumsy to slide the door open and pick the lock, so I just went back and smashed it."

"……………………"

If it were anyone else, Chief Lestrade would have thought he was lying, but looking at Duanmu Huai in front of him, he suddenly felt that the credibility of his words was so high.

"Okay, if you don't want to say it, then don't say it."

Lestrade shook his head and threw the matter behind him. He was not going to consider whether what Duanmu Huai said was true now. If it's true, then his three views will be completely shattered. If it's false, isn't it just a bluff? It has nothing to do with him anyway, right?

For now, the case is closed for the time being, and we will see the follow-up. If nothing similar happens again in the next few months, it means that the serial murder case is over. Although there are still some conspiracies planned by Silver Dusk Cabin, as far as the police are concerned, as long as the situation like before does not happen again, then it will be fine.

Logically speaking, Duanmu Huai could leave Fog City and return to Arkham now, but he thought about it and decided to stay. After all, there seemed to be more things going on in Fog City than Arkham, and he had a bunch of secrets there. A college student teacher is competing with me for business. There is no Sherlock Holmes here, so there must be no others competing with me for business.

In the next half month, Duanmuhuai was leisurely. As for Mary, she gradually adapted to this rhythm of life. She would exercise with Lorena every morning and evening, visit Charlie after school, and occasionally come to Duanmuhuai's. The residence asked about the progress of the investigation... Of course, there wasn't much progress in the investigation.

But soon, Mary brought a message to Duanmuhuai.

"You mean, something happened in Shuo Academy?"

"Yes."

Mary's expression was a little uneasy, but she quickly told Duan Muhuai what happened.

But to put it simply, Mary did not experience this incident, but she heard about it from her good friend Ashelika.

According to Ashelika, just a few days ago, such a notice suddenly appeared on the bulletin board near the Mathematics Department building, with letters cut out from newspapers posted on it, and then formed into a sentence.

"Arrogant knight, you will be killed tonight - and the dead will be left."

At that time, everyone just thought it was someone's prank and didn't take it to heart. But the next day, a boy from the mathematics department really disappeared...

Because there are mostly boys in the mathematics department, no one pays attention to this kind of thing. They just think that the boy has gone home because of something - after all, the children who go to school here are the children of the upper class, aristocrats and the middle class. If it is because of It's not weird to be away for a while because of something at home.

Not to mention that the weird notice letter didn't include any names at all, so many people didn't even think of it at first.

However, a week later, another notice appeared on the bulletin board, and the next day, another student did not come to school.

Now everyone realized that something was wrong. For a while, some people in the mathematics department were panicked. In fact, now in the Royal Master College, there are students privately discussing such a story—a dead person disguised as a living person sneaked into their school, issued a notice and killed people.

Since Mary is a student of the History Department, and now she is either exercising with Lorena or busy with classes and visiting Xia Li every day, she doesn’t pay much attention to these rumors. So until last week when she and Ashelika were drinking tea, she noticed that the other party looked sad, and then she asked Ashelika about the reason.

At that time, Mary just thought it was just a joke, and comforted Ashelika not to take it to heart.

As a result… Just this morning, the same notice appeared on the bulletin board of the History Department.

So Mary couldn’t sit still anymore, so she came to find Duanmu Huai.

"Why does this sound like a campus ghost story? Didn't you find anything unusual?"

"Sorry, I've always been worried about Xia Li and didn't pay much attention to it. Besides, I didn't encounter any particularly strange people or things in the dormitory."

This is why Mary didn't notice anything wrong. In addition, the History Department and the Mathematics Department are in different buildings. Everyone who goes to school knows that students rarely wander around other classes and departments except for the places they are familiar with and used to. It's like an animal's territory. Everyone hangs around in their familiar territory and rarely goes to other places.

Some people have been in high school for three years and don't even know what's outside their classroom!

So Mary really didn't know what happened in the Mathematics Department. If Ashelika hadn't been in the Mathematics Department, she might have known nothing about it.

"………………Hmm………"

After listening to Mary's story, Duanmu Huai frowned, and then he looked at Mary.

"Do you think this is related to the previous case?"

"I... think so..."

"Hmm……………"

Duanmu Huai nodded and thought about it.

At present, this is not impossible. After all, it is not particularly strange to find a person alive and dead without seeing a corpse. But... If you want to kill someone, just kill him. Why do you have to issue a warning letter?

Is it because Fog City is the hometown of Sherlock Holmes, and criminals here have to have a sense of ritual or something?

Is your brain sick.

"I will go back and investigate and see the situation."

After all, there are still two people who have not been caught. According to the rules of the Capek Research Society, the first one dies and the next one makes up for it. Now that Capek is dead, it means that the next person should start to make trouble.

But this person is really unconventional.

If you kill a few people without anyone noticing, Duanmu Huai might have fooled you if he didn't find out.

You are sending a warning letter and telling a ghost story... Are you afraid that we don't know what will happen?

Now Duanmu Huai understood why the police in Conan hated Kaito Kid so much. If it were him, he would not only shoot all the bullets out of the blaster, but also cut him into pieces with the chainsaw sword without any fat!

After sending Mary away, Duanmu Huai called Sheriff Lestrade to ask about the situation.

"About the disappearance of the Royal Master Academy?"

Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, Sheriff Lestrade was a little surprised.

"Is this also related to the U-level case?"

"Do you think it has nothing to do with it?"

Duanmu Huai was also surprised by Sheriff Lestrade's reaction.

"This... To be honest, we think it's just a simple runaway."

"???"

After Sheriff Lestrade explained it to Duanmu Huai, Duanmu Huai finally understood what was going on. According to Sheriff Lestrade, they received a report from the missing parents and went to the Royal Master Academy to investigate, but there was nothing to gain.

The surveillance investigation showed that the missing students did enter the Royal Master College, but they did not leave. At least the surveillance at the school gate only captured the scene of them entering, not leaving.

Of course, considering the nature of the Royal Master College, the police also dispatched a large number of police forces and sent police dogs to search, but nothing was found. Later, the police investigation tended to believe that... they might have run away from home.

This kind of thing is very common, and young people of this age are full of blood and energy. It is not unreasonable to run away from home because of some trivial matters.

"Then what about the notice?"

"Notice? Ah, that, we think it was their own trick, but we didn't find any useful clues and marks on those weird notice letters."

"So that means, you think the two missing students ran away from home, and those notice letters are just a cover?"

"That's about it."

After all, these notice letters are also written vaguely, such as the arrogant knight... God knows who it is, so in the eyes of the police, this is a bit like a middle school boy who is bored and crazy.

But there is no way, missing cases are like this, no one is found alive and no body is found dead. In this case, there is no clue and the police can do nothing. It is not like the previous serial murder case. No matter what, the bodies are there. The general media will not report the disappearance of one or two people.

So the police can only temporarily determine the disappearance, and they don’t pay much attention to it. If Duanmu Huai hadn’t called to ask, Lestrade would not have taken such a thing to heart.

If ordinary people see someone missing, they will definitely subconsciously think that this must be a big case and the police will definitely pursue it. But in fact, there are 140,000 children missing in this country every year, an average of nearly 400 children missing every day, and this is just children. It is unknown how many adults are missing. In a big city with a population of one million, the actual number of missing cases is actually too many to count. Some of them have temporarily lost contact for some reason, and some have never appeared again.

So in this state, if you want to solve every missing case, you can’t do it even if you increase the police force of the entire foggy city by a hundred times.

Even homicide cases that follow the rule of "murder cases must be solved" may not be solved every time, let alone missing cases where no one is alive or dead.

Therefore, the Fog City Police Department only collected, filed, and recorded them, and then there was no more.

Because there were really no clues.

In fact, this is also the case.

Just like the case file that Duanmu Huai got from Chief Lestrade, it was very simple.

First of all, the two missing students were students in the mathematics department. The first victim was relatively famous and was considered a department grass. He was a great guy who was good at socializing, singing, dancing, picking up girls, and writing papers casually. The second victim was just the opposite. According to the police investigation records, he was a loner and hardly interacted with other people. He disappeared for several days. When his family came to the school to look for him, the school found out that he was missing... Because he basically didn't come to class and didn't have many good friends.

In short, apart from this, the only thing in common is that both of them are top students in the Department of Mathematics and members of the Research Society. As mentioned before, only those students who are recognized as masters and bachelors by professors are eligible to join the Research Society and become one of the great and glorious scientific research dogs.

These two are no exception. After class, they will go to the Research Society to do their work, and then they will leave the school to go home almost at eleven or twelve o'clock.

Then the problem is here.

All surveillance cameras captured the two people entering the Master's College, but did not capture the scene of leaving. According to police records, on the night of the disappearance, other students and teachers of the Research Society also stated that they did participate in the Research Society, completed their tasks, and then left to go home.

In other words, if the testimony of the Research Society is correct, then the two people disappeared between leaving the Research Society and leaving the school.

So………………

After flipping through the case files, Duanmu Huai thought about it and then made a decision.

Wait until the evening to go to the Royal Master's College to take a look.