Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 619: Chapter 619: The Receiver

Chapter 619: Chapter 619: The Receiver

The sheriff and Shard met on the temporarily deserted staircase, making sure nobody saw Shard. The tall, shrewd-looking middle-aged man took Shard’s ID, checked it, and immediately stood at attention:

“What can I do for you, sir? Is there anything I can help you with?”

MI6 is part of the Royal Army, not the police system. However, when MI6 agents are in action, low-ranking policemen must cooperate. Although the sheriff is higher than a regular policeman, he still ranks as a low-ranking officer.

“This murder case is related to an investigation I am conducting. I need to understand some details about this case and identify the murderer as soon as possible to proceed with the next steps.”

Shard said, which somewhat troubled the sheriff:

“The case is not complicated. We initially suspected it was part of a recent spree of organ theft murders, which is why we brought so many people. However, the body is intact, with only a gunshot wound and a knife injury, so it shouldn’t be part of that recent case.”

The security situation at Midshire Fort is indeed worrying.

“However, there are too many tenants on the fourth floor, and we have only done a preliminary screening of possible suspects, identifying 21 potential murderers. If you want to speed things up…”

“Where is the crime scene?”

Shard asked directly, his resolute approach further solidifying the sheriff’s trust in him:

“It’s in the deceased’s room.”

“Take me there, and also, clear everyone else out temporarily, I don’t want too many people seeing me.”

“Understood.”

The sheriff had the police take the 21 suspicious tenants to another room temporarily. He then led Shard to a room marked with a “11” metal plate.

The rooms on the third floor of the Sicarl Inn were large rooms divided into smaller ones with poor privacy, whereas the fourth floor had real single rooms, just as cramped as those at the Three Cats Inn. A desk, bedside table, wardrobe, and bed almost filled the entire room. The room was tidy, with no odd smells, and the windows and curtains were tightly closed. At that time, a gas lamp shaped like a flower on the wall was lit.

“Why pull the curtains during the day? There are no taller buildings nearby.”

Shard thought to himself.

The deceased still lay on the floor, covered by a white cloth. Shard lifted the cloth for a glance—the bullet had entered directly into the heart, which was the fatal cause. There was also a knife wound on the shoulder, suggesting a struggle had occurred before the shooting.

“Look, this is a typical Carsonrickian appearance,”

the shrewd-looking middle-aged sheriff commented.

“What was his identity?”

“We just did a rough check of his luggage and found his ID. Mr. Tels, the innkeeper, also attested that the man had been staying here since the beginning of the Month of Harvest, claiming to be a businessman from the south, waiting for a shipment at Midshire Fort.”

Shard nodded, then pretended to search the room. With the blood-soaked knife wound, he could have directly used “Echo of Blood” to find the real murderer, but he had to maintain appearances.

He was merely going through the motions of searching, but the sheriff behind him introduced tirelessly, so Shard also had to act a bit more sincere.

The luggage of this Carsonrickian businessman was simple, containing only personal clothes, a few novels, and a set of Roder cards. Additionally noteworthy were a local “Star Three Rodd Club” entry ticket and a train ticket tucked in a book, from Midshire Fort back to Carsonrick. Surprisingly, he had already purchased a ticket for next Tuesday, which was the first of the next month, indicating he knew the timing to receive the goods.

“Does the innkeeper know what times this man usually left and returned?”

Shard asked again, while the sheriff flipped through his notebook:

“He usually goes downstairs for breakfast at eight o’clock, then leaves. He returns at eleven o’clock for lunch, then takes a short nap. In the afternoon, he usually stays in, either in his room or playing cards downstairs. After dinner, he sometimes goes out and does not return overnight.”

“His life seems quite simple.”

Shard said, then pulled out a wallet from the overcoat hanging on the chair. It was black leather, very unremarkable. The police hadn’t checked it yet, so Shard opened it in front of the sheriff.

Inside was about 3 pounds in notes and coins, several Carsonrickian-language business cards of the deceased, a law firm, and a warehouse. Besides that, there was also a train ticket for his arrival at Midshire Fort and several casino chips. The train ticket was punched, indicating it had been used, and the chips all came from a casino close by.

“He goes out every evening, maybe to the casino?”

Shard muttered, reaching into another pocket of the overcoat and pulling out a pair of grey gloves. Checking the chest pocket, he then took out a fountain pen that looked quite new, along with a few coins, a handwritten receipt for the watch, and a fountain pen.

Upon opening the watch cover, there was a photo of a woman embedded inside, presumably his wife.

“It looks quite normal.”

He then casually picked up the fountain pen, brass-colored and about as long as Shard’s middle finger but only a third as thick. He glanced at it, noticing nothing amiss, but suddenly froze:

“Why does this fountain pen look so familiar?”

[Of course it’s familiar; you have used the Arcane Technique on it and can recognize the marks.]

This was the fountain pen Shard received from Vigil Cameron on the night of the Big City Player finals. Later, Shard passed it to the Grey Gloves intelligence system in exchange for 2000 pounds. And now, almost half a month later, he encountered it here again.

Pretending to examine the fountain pen, he confirmed that the thin threads and paper inside the pen cap were gone. Had Shard not personally touched it and even used “Breath of Ages” on it, he would never believe such a coincidence could occur, even if the appearance of the pen was exactly the same.

“Has Detective Sparrow cast some kind of curse on me? Why do I always run into people from Grey Gloves?”

He thought astonishedly, but outwardly he calmly snapped the pen cap back on and replaced the fountain pen.

[You don’t have any such curse.]

So this so-called “businessman” was the recipient briefed by the intelligence of the Duchy of Seth, coming to Punjab Avenue to receive the goods. And the collection date, Shard remembered clearly, was the last day of this month, which is next Monday. So, the deceased had purchased a train ticket for the first day of the next month, which was next Tuesday; thus he had time to mingle at the casino, unlike a normal businessman.

“But what does this have to do with me?”

Shard thought to himself, stuffed all the items back inside his clothes, and then said to the sheriff:

“Let’s look in the hallway.”

He blinked, trying to forget that he had recognized the fountain pen, and followed the faint bloodstains left by a knife wound, watching the trail fly out the door and then turn into the room on the left-hand side next door.

“The murderer is his neighbor.”

Shard said calmly. Although the sheriff was surprised by how Shard came to his conclusion, he didn’t ask further, seeing his composed demeanor.

As long as the murderer is found, there are ways to make him divulge all the details.

“Who lives opposite him, and who lives on his left and right?”

Shard asked while standing in the hallway.

“Opposite, there lives a linguistics professor from the south, Professor Ruhr Higgins. He just moved in last week for an exchange visit to Midshire Fort. The professor is also a suspect, but he doesn’t seem like a murderer.”

Not being a folklorist made Shard somewhat disappointed, but if it were indeed folklore, he would have to worry if there was any connection to the Circle Sorcerer.

“However, it’s another Carsonrickian?”

Now to Shard, all Carsonrickians looked like agents with grey gloves.

“The room on the right is occupied by two people, Armand Bernhardt and his nephew Lester Bernhardt. They are also from Carsonrick, here in Midshire Fort to stay with local relatives. That was easy to find out. Moreover, neither of them were on this floor this morning; they had gone out, so we can rule them out as suspects.”

“Bernhardt?”

These two names, he met vampire kinds in the Interstice of Life and Death, so they definitely weren’t agents with grey gloves.

“Good thing they went out, so we don’t have to face them.”

Shard felt slightly relieved inside and then asked:

“What about on the left?”

“On the left is Mr. Ben Bennett, also a businessman from Carsonrick, who has been staying in the inn for half a year.”

Another Carsonrickian, and coincidentally also a murderer, so he could possibly be…

“It’s none of my business.”

Shard suppressed his mixed feelings, emphasizing again in his mind, and then said to the sheriff:

“There’s a high probability that he’s the killer.”

Currently, Mr. Bennett and other suspects were held in another room, protesting loudly because they didn’t want their freedoms restricted, but the sheriff acted as if he hadn’t heard. Besides Professor Higgins, there was nobody else of note among them.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freewebnσvel.cøm.

“Are there so many foreigners here?”

He posed the question casually.

“During winter, the train services through Sicarl Mountain are affected and reduce their schedules, so people who need to travel between the countries this year try to complete it all in the autumn,” the sheriff explained as they opened the room of the foreign businessman. There, Shard pretended to inspect again and easily found a bloodstained dagger and two handguns of different models under the floor that was loose beneath the bed.

“Someone actually took two guns out with them? I see… the receiver didn’t carry weapons to avoid exposure, protected by others who arrived here half a year earlier with guns,” he noted, so the murderer was also… “But why a shooting… was it internal conflict…”

Detective Sparrow knew six months prior that there was an important task in the Month of Harvest, indicating prior communication between the Duchy of Seth and the grey gloves, so the grey gloves might have known the receiving location in Midshire Fort in advance. However, the specific location was only disclosed to the grey eagles going out during the Month of Harvest once the commodity was secured by the Duchy of Seth. Thus, the presence of grey gloves personnel living here half a year in advance wasn’t a slip-up.

“All this trouble, what exactly is the shipped commodity?”

Though this was a question, it was none of Shard’s concern. He didn’t delve deeper as he couldn’t get entangled with spies anymore.

Thus, instead of showing up himself, the sheriff announced to everyone that the murderer had been found. Mr. Ben Bennett, still wanting to argue, admitted dejectedly after seeing the evidence that he was indeed the one who acted:

“I was playing Roder Card with him, and this guy owed me three pounds over a week. He said he’d pay today, but when I went to ask him, he denied it all, and in a moment of anger…”

To Shard, who almost grasped the truth, this was definitely a lie, but he didn’t expose it.

So, Mr. Bennett was taken away by the police, and his belongings, which could serve as evidence, as well as those of the deceased, were also taken. Since neither he nor the deceased had acquaintances locally, the remaining belongings were temporarily entrusted to Professor Higgins from Carsonrick across the hall until police find a contact to claim them.

The deceased, the murderer, and Professor Higgins were all from Carsonrick, and since all three were closely associated, Shard realized there were many stories among them, but he still chose not to get involved.

Regardless of what the intended cargo was, whether others knew the information within the fountain pen after the owner’s death, or whether they could receive the cargo, it was of no consequence to Shard. His primary occupations were already plentiful—detective, Circle Sorcerer, Roder Card Player. He couldn’t afford to add identities like a double agent and make his life even busier.

“You thought the same before you passed on that information.”

“She” whispered softly, her voice pleasing.

“This time it’s definitely true.”

“Is it?”

Then there was only her laughter.