Could it be that there are really ghosts at work?
Ed hesitated for a moment and gently opened the door.
The lighting in the room was turned off, and in the dark dim light, Lady Mary's body was sitting on a wooden chair. The tip of the knife passed through the throat, and the front end was nailed to the back of the chair. Blood drops slowly flowed along the blade.
Directly opposite to where her eyes were staring, the curtain covering the canvas was soaked in blood.
"Oh...my Mary..."
Tasved was the first to struggle into the room. Seeing the tragic situation in front of him, he trembled all over and fell against the door, slamming the table with the phonograph on it.
"I can understand your mood, but please stay calm. There may be danger here." Ed helped him up, "Buck, why did you come to this room?"
"I just wanted to get a closer look at the painting." Buck replied with a sneer. "I wanted to steal it, but I couldn't do it alone, and you didn't want to help."
"I didn't ask you this -" Ed was so angry that he knocked the floor with his cane, "Now I solemnly ask you, does Mrs. Mary's death have anything to do with you?"
"Oh, I didn't do anything, she would have died there a long time ago."
"What nonsense are you talking about?!" Mr. Taswide grabbed Buck's collar, roaring and almost lifting him up.
"Please calm down, Mr. Taswide." Ed pressed his arm, "...I believe it was not him."
Tasvid twisted a few times and found that he couldn't move away, so he had to give up: "Why do you say that..."
Before he could finish speaking, Ed rolled up the cuffs of Buck's broad jacket, revealing his hands, which were as dry and thin as dead branches.
Mr. Taswide was immediately speechless - with Buck's hands that could hardly hold a paintbrush, it was impossible to hold a dagger, let alone kill Lady Mary.
Perhaps in some extreme cases, a trained master could kill someone by holding a dagger in his mouth or holding it between his feet.
The dagger was inserted straight into the corpse's throat. This action probably required a perfect straight forward kick to achieve, and it could not knock the whole person over.
Ed doesn't think he has such exquisite and accurate skills yet. If she tied a dagger to Quinn's leather boots, she might be able to complete this action...
As for Buck, he obviously didn't seem like someone with such skills.
What's more, judging from Ed's understanding of Buck, if it was really the person he killed, then this guy would definitely admit it openly.
"Have any of you turned off the lights?" he whispered.
Both Buck and the young man who caught Buck denied it.
strangeness……
Since he could not confirm the intensity of the crisis, it was difficult for Ed to call for support rashly. The Bureau of Investigation has been facing a long-term shortage of manpower. If they had to call for support whenever anything happened, they would have died suddenly from overwork.
What's more, the incident happened in the Central District - ever since Miss Olivia was punished, the relationship between the East District team and the Central District team has become increasingly tense. Asking for support and nothing happens can easily be seen as an act of aggression.
After thinking about it, it was best for him and Charlotte to try to solve the problem first and confirm that the crisis was real before calling for help.
Ed knocked on the light switch with his cane, and asked the onlookers to help him get four floor-length mirrors as high as one person from the mirror room, and placed them in the four corners of the room himself:
"Charlotte, I leave it to you."
Charlotte nodded slightly, bowed her head and prayed silently. The light from the incandescent lamp dimmed, and tiny strands of spider silk slowly fluttered from the ten-finger ring in her hand, adhering to the mirror surface, reflecting and crossing along the mirror surface, and finally formed a regular line, like butterfly wings. Three-dimensional pattern.
It wasn't until the spiritual trap woven by the "Spider Web" secret script was completely completed that Ed dared to get close to the legacy of Victor Quintu, and switched the character card to Catalina, ready to use the "Lake" secret script to save his life at any time.
When the blood-stained curtain outside is removed, the curtain in the painting has not changed. The curtain is fluttering and seems to be there.
The canvas felt cold and rough, like the skin of a deceased person, which made the hairs on the back of Ed's hands stand up. But other than that, nothing unusual happened.
Could it be that some kind of behavior on the part of Lady Mary triggered this strange oil painting?
Ed turned to look at Lady Mary's body. The corpse's eyes were staring in the direction of him and the painting, almost bulging. But the more he looked at it, the stranger he got:
The expression on the corpse was one of surprise rather than horror.
"Did you hear any screams when Mr. Taswide and I went out?" He asked again, and everyone denied it.
Until Tasved came out, Lady Mary was still scolding him in the house, so Lady Mary's death should have been when they went out to buy tea.
If the ghost in the painting really crawled out and killed Lady Mary, her screams would have been heard by others in the lounge.
Which part is the problem?
When was the last time you saw Lady Mary in person...?
Ed closed his eyes and let his thoughts slowly rewind——
Visiting paintings, leaving here to the rest area, exploring cookies, thirst, white wine, two people arguing, going out to buy black tea...
Adventure Cookies…
Adventure Cookies.
For a moment, he seemed to return to that panicky afternoon, the cookies in the police station, the red-haired young man named "Arthur" - and then, the trajectory of his life was completely changed, and new friends ,new life……
What triggered all these changes was Mary Boone's maintenance work order.
What a complete circle... He couldn't help but laugh to himself.
"Sir? Are you okay?" Mr. Tasved was startled by his unusual reaction.
"It's okay, I just suddenly thought of some old things." Ed tapped the palm of his right hand with his cane and walked down from the booth.
"...By the way, what was the background music you played during the exhibition?"
"This...why do you suddenly ask this?"
"Is it called "White Rose and Black Devil"? I remember it seemed to be a piece of music based on the story of the Battle of the Solitary Channel. It is very famous. What you are using should be a soothing adaptation of this music."
"Yes, that's right..." Tasvid opened his eyes wide and nodded.
"Do you have the cassette in your hand? I see it's not on the ground." Ed pointed with his stick at the cassette phonograph that fell to the ground. The card slot was empty.
"Yes, I put it away when Mary and I were cleaning up the exhibition hall." Tasvid took two steps back.
"Can you please play it? I want to hear that melody again. Maybe it has something to do with your wife's death."
"It's okay...but you see, this machine is broken——"
"It seems that you have forgotten what I did before. I will repair it for you right now." Ed sat down on the ground, held the broken gramophone in his arms, and reassembled it part by part. .
Tasvid finally couldn't hold it any longer, pushed away the crowded crowd outside, smashed the glass and jumped out of the window...
Suddenly, the sky in front of him darkened, and a broad, ribbon-like light flowed brilliantly from the broken glass, and the falling body gradually came to a standstill.
Finally, he hung upside down in the air like a bug, screaming and fainting amid the exclamations of passers-by on the street.
…
