The paper bag the maid brought was not big and looked very clean on the outside. There were no marks or logos. Only a thin rope made of ponytail hair was wrapped around the opening and then sealed with red wax. At first glance, the paper bag looks similar to the paper bag used to buy groceries in the manor kitchen, except for the color.
The old housekeeper was in charge of the daily shopping at home and had received many paper bag packages, but now he could only stand at the stairs, not daring to step forward or pick them up, and he didn't know what to do.
The whole place was silent until he finally couldn't help but ask: "Inside, what's inside?"
"I, I don't know either..."
"Open it and take a look."
"This... this isn't appropriate." The maid felt very uneasy. She held the paper bag and trembled slightly. She took two more steps down and said, "Mr. Butler, you'd better do it."
"Me? I'll come..."
The housekeeper stared at the approaching paper bag, not knowing whether to catch it or not. At this time, Werther, who was in the crowd, stood up, strode forward and asked, "Where is the postman who is delivering the goods?"
"Still at the door, we didn't let him leave."
Werther glanced at his two colleagues, squeezed past the butler, and took the bag. After untying the string and opening it, a cold hand was lying quietly inside. Because the weather has warmed up at the end of April, in order to prevent moisture from ruining the paper bag, the other party also put some grease on the bottom.
"TMD! Take me to see him!"
Werther threw the bag to the housekeeper and ran out of the basement with his colleagues and the maid.
The old housekeeper didn't dare to take a closer look. He screamed twice in fright as soon as he took over the bag. He quickly returned to the crowd and handed the bag to the forensic doctors and surgeons. Musil successfully took the paper bag and slowly took out his cold right hand: "Everyone, come and take a look."
"This incision seems to have been made with an ordinary scalpel."
"But the flesh color is a little rosy, not as white as before."
"The color does make a big difference."
Musil was one of the few professional forensic doctors present, and he had a more discerning eye when looking at the corpse: "The knife edge was very flat, and the entire cut surface looked very smooth, with no trace of dragging back and forth. There were slight wear and tear on the edges of the bones. The sign would be a cheap bone saw."
"Is that all you can see?"
"Wait a minute." Musil frowned and suddenly asked behind him, "Mr. Butler, how tall is Mr. Albert?"
"..."
"Mr. Butler???"
"Where are the people?"
...
At this time, in the study on the third floor of the manor, Marshal Ludwig was sitting alone at the table in a daze.
He was originally the commander-in-chief of Venetia, the last territory occupied by Austria in Italy. He was over sixty years old and had several old wounds on his body. I wanted to enjoy a peaceful time in Venice and retire in a few years to enjoy my old age.
Who knew that a promotion and transfer order would bring him back to Vienna.
It was already hard to be separated from his wife, and now his son is missing. Ludwig's mood has hit rock bottom: "Your Majesty, I feel that I am not suitable to be a field marshal now."
Franz did not expect such a change, so he could only explain: "Albert must have gone somewhere else to play. It's okay."
"It's been five whole days."
Ludwig knew his son very well. Although he was a bit playful, he was also an officer. He was much more excited about the war than the old man himself: "Let me tell you straight, he told me this time I came here just to go to the front line and earn military merit. It is impossible not to go home for five days in a row, even when I am at home."
Franz also knew that things were getting worse and worse, and his son, who was nearly 40 years old, would most likely die.
As for who is causing trouble, he can only leave it to the police and intelligence organizations to investigate. All he has to do now is to stabilize the old marshal: "Your Excellency, marshal, you have fought all the way and have extremely abundant combat experience. Now the empire and Prussia are at odds with each other. , I can’t live without you.”
Ludwig had an outstanding reputation and was deeply loved by his subordinates. The younger ones do not have his prestige, and the older ones may not be able to withstand frontline combat. It is only normal that he is appointed as the commander-in-chief of the army at this moment.
The old marshal knew that there was no one more reliable than himself in the army: "My only hope now is to find my son, but no matter how you look at it, I'm afraid things have already..."
"Your Majesty Marshal, if something really happened to Albert, it was most likely caused by the Prussians."
Franz knew that there was no point in persisting, so he simply changed his strategy, turned hope into despair, and ignited the old man's fire of revenge: "The numbers of the Prussian-Austrian armies are not equal, and the training quality is also one level lower. They can only rely on this A dirty trick to interfere with the coming war."
"I'm already a useless old man. Just come after me, why bother with my son?"
"You are the spiritual pillar of the entire army."
"That's not what my waist says." After saying that, he moved his body slightly and changed himself into a more comfortable sitting position. "My current body has long lost the energy it once had."
"In exchange for calmer judgment and wiser frontline deployment." Franz quickly flattered, "Modern war no longer requires generals to rush to the front line to fight, but to stay at the headquarters to dispatch troops. .”
Seeing that the king did not give him a chance to resign, Ludwig could only continue to focus on his son: "Your Majesty the King, you must find my son."
"Definitely!" Franz sat on the sofa and took a sip of tea. "I have handed this matter over to the Vienna Police Station for investigation, and the Intelligence Bureau will also help. Relying on these professionals, I think it will be done soon." There will be news about Albert."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a knock on the door: "Master, it's me."
"Enter."
The butler's face turned pale. He suppressed his slightly trembling hands and opened the door: "Master...oh, His Majesty the King is here too..."
"Have the doctors come to a conclusion?"
"They said it was indeed human flesh."
"It's really human flesh..."
Ludwig had already had a bad premonition, but after hearing the conclusion, he still couldn't help but feel confused. He pressed his forehead with his fingers, forcing himself to stay awake: "Then from their perspective, will it be Albert's?"
"The First Clan"
The housekeeper shook his head: "This, it seems that I didn't say it."
"I didn't say why you came up here?" Ludwig was a little anxious, "You have to figure out the situation. 'Is it Albert's' is the key now!"
"..."
"Hurry up and ask!!!"
"But..." the housekeeper licked his dry lips and said, "But just now a postman sent another package. It was still the same bag and string, and there was... ....”
"What's there?"
"Yes, it's a hand."
Ludwig collapsed a little. He couldn't believe that there could be such a crazy guy in this world: "Do you want to cut him into pieces and send him home?"
At this moment, the old marshal's heart hurt more than the pain in his lower back that he had endured for many years. There were tears in his eyes and there was obvious choking in his words.
"Chiefs Delrio and Witte have already gone to question the postman. They should be able to find some clues."
Ludwig wiped his face with his hands to wipe away the tears that fell, and stood up despite the pain in his back: "Take me to have a look."
Just when the two were about to walk out of the study, they bumped into Musil and Kavi who had just gone upstairs: "Your Excellency Marshal, His Majesty the King, I am the forensic scientist of the Vienna Police Department, responsible for the investigation of the remains of this bizarre disappearance. He is Kawi, he is..."
"Dr. Carvey, we meet again."
Franz finally felt better after seeing him, and wanted to help introduce him to Ludwig. Unexpectedly, the old marshal seemed to have heard of his name a long time ago: "The youngest surgeon among the military doctors, he was in the Military Affairs Office last time." I’ve seen it, so tell me your conclusions quickly.”
Ludwig was very nervous, and Musil did not dare to neglect, and said directly: "The piece of meat three days ago was human flesh, but we really can't make a conclusion whether it is Mr. Albert. Now we can only judge it from the skin and hair. It seems that he must be a male. The skin on the inner thigh is damaged and the muscles are strong. He often rode horses during his lifetime."
"Albert did enjoy riding horses."
Franz argued: "No, there are many people who like to ride horses. This alone cannot be proved."
"How many men in Austria can ride horses and are related to me? Who else is there except Albert?"
"What about the hand? I heard from the housekeeper that someone sent another hand." Franz asked.
The purpose of Musil's coming here is just for this hand: "Before explaining this hand, I still want to ask about Mr. Albert's height."
"1.8 meters."
"Does he usually practice ordnance operations?"
"He is a soldier and these drills are necessary."
"In this case, the hand is definitely not his." Musil said, "From the appearance, this right hand is smaller than that of ordinary men, with fair skin and no calluses on the fingertips and palms. Our preliminary judgment is that the right hand should be Belongs to a woman.”
The hands have more details than the thighs, and the gender can be basically determined just by the size of the nails, skin and bones.
"female?"
"right."
"Why send another woman's hand?"
"That's not clear."
Ludwig looked at the king beside him with some surprise: "Your Majesty, I really can't imagine the reason why the Prussians did this. Because every step of the army is to gain profits. It is understandable to kill my son, but why did they Want to kill a woman? And you specially sent her hand to my house? "
Franz also had a headache. The war was about to break out. It was time to gather strength and mobilize in front of the station.
It would be okay if Prussia was really causing trouble. He could also improve the morale of the troops in the name of revenge. But now it seems that we are getting further and further away from the Prussians: "Are you sure?"
"That's all that can be seen for now," Musil said, "but some details still need to be explained by Dr. Kawei, and I can't explain it clearly."
"detail?"
Kawei has learned some forensic medicine knowledge, but not much. He mainly uses it to examine the injuries of patients. I originally thought that I wouldn't need it in this era, but I didn't expect to encounter such a thing.
"Actually, it's not a detail. The main thing is to look for similarities and differences from the respective cutting surfaces. The thigh meat is very clean. No blood can be seen in the flesh, bones or blood vessels. It's like someone has drained it clean. But the hand that was just delivered was stained with a lot of blood, and you could even see blood stains and slight soft tissue swelling..."
Ludwig didn't understand these professional terms and just asked: "Just tell me the results."
"The owner of the right hand should still be alive, or still alive when the hand was cut off, because the skin and muscles still show signs of curling up. This is why I think the murderer is not a surgeon."
Kawei explained: "Unfortunately, the owner of the leg meat must be dead. If you want to do this, you can only drain the blood first and then cut it."
died......
The owner of the leg meat is dead...
Ludwig didn't care about the life or death of women at all, he only had his own son in his ears. When he heard these words, his mind went blank, his cane fell to the ground, and he fell limply into the arms of the old housekeeper: "Master! Master, what's wrong with you!!!"
...
In fact, when there is no way to confirm that the deceased is Albert, it is not advisable to draw conclusions without authorization. But Albert has indeed been missing for nearly a week, and the piece of meat has been delivered to the manor. Everyone can't help but think about it.
Unfortunately, neither last time nor this time, the postman could describe the client's appearance in detail.
Three days ago, he was a strong man, but today he has become an old farm woman with a stone figure. However, at least the two postmen had no motive for committing the crime, and they had no interaction with Albert or Ludwig.
The two police chiefs, Witte and Del Rio, directly reported the investigation results to Franz: "There are not many clues now. We will take the paper bag back and check the source again. The rest can only be obtained from Mr. Albert and the man." The connection between ladies begins.”
The old housekeeper shook his head: "Master Albert has been married a long time ago. I have never heard of him having any other women outside."
"We will investigate this matter."
Franz was still very confident in the abilities of the two men, and just asked: "Can you be sure that the murderer used the same type of tool?"
"Now it seems that they are the same knife and saw, but the legs and hands have been cryogenically preserved. It is difficult to judge by eyes alone, so our conclusion is not absolute."
"If they were cut off by the same method and sent to the same manor, it is impossible to say that the two of them have no contact. You have to find out the truth of the whole matter as soon as possible." Franz sat by the bed and looked at the man who had not yet woken up. Ludwig arrived and asked Xiang Kawei, "By the way, how is the old marshal doing now?"
"I just fainted. My heart rate and breathing are stable now. It should be fine."
"He was not in good health to begin with. It's really hurtful to hear this news now." Franz sighed and asked, "Have you discovered anything else?"
The two police chiefs really tried their best. They just came to the manor today and saw the postman. They didn't even have time to ask the servants in the manor. These were the only clues they could get. What Musil said was the judgment of the doctors. After all, there was only a piece of flesh and a hand, and the information available was very limited.
However, Kawei has been worried since just now. He was still hesitating before and had no chance to speak. Now that the king asked, he said: "If I guessed correctly, the murderer should have been to my pharmaceutical factory."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
The case is just a transition, related to the main plot but not the focus. Forensic medicine in the mid-19th century was very backward, and its views must be very backward. Just take a look.
