It was very small, but it was already equipped with a needle. It occasionally reflected the cold moonlight, stirring up a mist in his heart.
This thing was probably the "weapon" that Luke was holding just now and wanted to use to hurt himself.
But why a syringe?
Not a gun, not a dagger, not a dagger, but a syringe? A needle?
Is there poison in it?
Luke wanted to poison himself this way?
Then why didn't he just stab him with his dagger, or shoot him when he wasn't paying attention?
"The truth is complicated and cruel." Hitzfeld sighed.
"Are you sure you want to know?"
"What else?" Old Barr suppressed his inner anger. "This is a matter of basic courtesy, detective!"
He thought the way Hitzfeld looked at him was disgusting.
It was a feeling he had never experienced before - as if he had become a weakling, a wild beast, and the girl was the one standing outside the cage, looking at him with pity.
"Come with me."
"We're going to meet someone."
"Who are you meeting?" Old Barr was still very alert. "Who is that Lukes?"
"No." Hitzfeld shook his head.
“You’ll understand when you get there.”
A group of people came out of the woods and returned to the town which was almost shrouded in darkness.
"We caught him!" As soon as he saw them, Liszt ran over happily to take credit, "Donmon Lux! He is indeed in the woods... following Luke! We did catch him!"
Under the escort of another team of gray-clad policemen and some militiamen, Tang Meng, who was tied up, was pushed to the front.
At this moment, his face was pale, his lips were tightly pursed, and his eyes stared at Hitzfeld fiercely. He obviously realized who had tricked him.
"You lied to me on purpose..."
He hissed in an extremely cold voice, like the tongue of a venomous snake.
"You're not even sure what information they're going to destroy...you damn bitch!"
"Keep your mouth clean."
Ethan stood in front of him, preventing him from continuing to stare at the girl.
"If you dare to do it, you should be prepared to be caught."
"Just kill me." Tang Meng sneered.
"They will avenge me... If I die here, it means there is a problem here, and the church will send more forces... You can't defend it!"
"Are you from the Eclipse Church?" Ethan frowned.
Things suddenly became much more complicated.
"It doesn't matter." Hitzfeld interrupted, "What he said... means that there is no other force behind him for the time being. We have enough time to deal with it, and we can even consider transferring him to another place."
"No!" Tang Meng's eyes suddenly turned red.
"You can't do this!"
"He's mine...mine!!"
"Don't even think about taking him away!!"
"He doesn't belong to anyone." Hitzfeld walked up to him, half-closed his one eye.
"Don't worry, we will definitely transfer him to a place you would never expect. Even if you have a chance to find him, you will have to wait another half a century."
Tang Meng cursed Hitzfeld madly and tried to spit at her, but was stopped by the police and dragged away with Luke.
They will be locked up in a temporarily requisitioned house. After the interrogation results come out and the evidence is matched, they will be personally escorted to the city by Lister to be punished.
The group returned to the shore of Tonks Lake.
Such a big commotion naturally alarmed the residents of the town. Many people, whether locals or tourists staying in various hotels and B&Bs, stared with their eyes wide open, turned on the lights, and poked their heads out of the windows to watch the police and knights gathering downstairs on the street.
Hitzfeld ran into Duke Gran downstairs.
His face was gloomy.
Very white too.
Even his body was still shaking slightly.
Chikalia stood beside him and nodded gently to Hitzfeld: "It has been confirmed that she is fine."
Old Bal, who was following behind, became more and more dissatisfied when he saw this scene.
He felt betrayed.
Even though he knew that these people might be doing this for his own good, what could he say?
When a lord's orders are questioned, resisted, disobeyed, or even plotted against by his servants, the meaning of his being a lord no longer exists.
"Go upstairs."
Hitzfeld's words were horrifying.
While speaking, she kept staring at a lonely figure who was quietly cleaning in the corner of the hall with his back to the crowd.
"Some things are not suitable to be discussed here."
"It's really not suitable."
Duke Gran forced a hollow smile and said nothing more.
Finally, Duke Gran, Chikalia Noan, Old Barr, and Sheriff Lister followed Hitzfeld and the other two to the fourth floor and entered the room at Ethan's signal.
Hitzfeld was the last to come in. When she opened the door, she pulled out a slender arm. The next moment, Jerry Nome, with a confused look on her face, appeared in front of everyone and was also seated by Hitzfeld at the round table.
"Is she the person you want me to meet?"
Old Barr felt like he could hardly hold it back any longer.
"If you can't give me a satisfactory explanation of what happened and why those people targeted me, then, Detective—"
"Calm down, Mr. Mayor." Lister coughed and began to smooth over the atmosphere. "Although... well, I am also very curious about how Miss Hitzfeld deduced all this, but... well, since she summoned us here, she must be ready to explain everything..."
"There's nothing to explain." Hitzfeld interrupted him directly.
"The body found by the shed was not Luke but the real Donmon Lukes."
"Someone killed him and hid in the car using his identity."
"It was this man who paid Luke to set fire to the monastery."
"His goal is to awaken the magic hidden in the blood of Gralant and allow the fire dragon that was sealed many years ago to reappear."
silence.
At this moment, the breathing in the room almost stopped.
"This... Miss Hitzfeld, what are you talking about?"
The first to collapse was Jie Li. She stood up in disbelief and shook her head as she spoke: "Tang Meng... Old Tang? He's dead? This... He's the murderer? Wait, Miss Hitzfeld... I don't quite understand what you mean..."
This fact had such a huge impact on her that she couldn't believe that the elder who always cared for her and loved her actually hid such a side?
"This seems a bit contradictory, right?" Lister said cautiously, "As far as I know, Donmon Lux has worked on that car for a long time, and he and Miss Norm have a close relationship. He was suddenly replaced by another person. Even if his disguise skills are excellent, how could Miss Norm not notice it?"
Yes.
Although he completed a series of operations according to Hitzfeld's instructions and did catch the suspect - after all, if he was not the suspect, it would be impossible to explain why "Don Meng" and Luke attempted to ambush old Bal together - but he still didn't know "why it was them", and he didn't understand the reason behind it.
"It's very simple." Hitzfeld kept his eyes on Jerry. "As long as he can ensure that he has been pretending from the moment Jerry saw him, then he will naturally be impossible for Jerry to expose."
"Oh!" Jelly covered her mouth and her eyes almost popped out.
"I have read the interrogation records of the train staff. They mentioned that before he was promoted to chief purser, Tang Meng was just an ordinary, unknown employee. Maps asked them what impression they had of him at that time - he asked them separately - and the result was that 34 people gave almost 34 different answers. This is enough to prove that Tang Meng at that time did not have any personal characteristics. He was difficult to be remembered and noticed. He was exactly the kind of role that was most suitable for replacement."
"Of course." She added, "This alone is not enough to deceive the employees who work with him day and night. I guess he looks very similar to Tang Meng."
"So he is..." Jie Li stammered, "only after I was successfully hired..."
"He should be a passenger." Hitzfeld nodded. "He took the Reising Line 3 to Green Town for investigation many times. He watched his prey from afar and planned how to achieve his goal... But no matter what, it is too suspicious for a person who has no job and whose background is difficult to find out to take the same bus repeatedly. In order to avoid the investigation that may come at any moment, he decided to change his identity, an identity that would not be suspected no matter how many times he came to Green Town."
"At this time, Tang Meng, who knew him and had a good personal relationship with him, told him your information. He thought of Tang Meng's lost daughter. Dinah Lux was exactly the same age as you. In addition, they were similar in body shape and appearance. He decided to kill him and become the new chief purser of the Rexin Line 3."
"This - but... why?" Jie Li still couldn't accept it, her mind was in a mess.
"Because he wasn't sure he could keep his secret, he was considering staying undercover for a long time. But he is not Tang Meng after all. He has too many habits that are different from Tang Meng's, so he needs a reason, a reason that no one would doubt."
"The reason is you, Jerry." Hitzfeld said word by word, "He uses his deceased daughter as an excuse to express his excessive concern for you. It may seem strange, but people will understand him after knowing the reason. They attribute all his subsequent changes and abnormalities to this."
"The transcript is the proof." Darren nodded.
"I later asked other people what their impression of Tang Meng was now. This time, all 34 people gave completely consistent answers."
"Aren't you wondering why Copperfield disguised himself to deliver the last letter?" Ethan also helped to add, "He must be a very observant and sharp person. He may have discovered that there was something wrong with Tang Meng's attitude towards you, and even found the body of the real Tang Meng hidden in the boiler room. He immediately realized that Green Town might be targeted by a group of evil people, so he didn't dare to go back, and only dared to hire people in the town to deliver the letter to you."
"Send a letter..." Jerry repeated the word blankly.
"Yes, delivering the letter."
Hitzfeld took the four letters out of the drawer.
"In fact, you didn't realize that there were codes hidden in his first three letters, but he obviously overestimated your understanding. Even though he tried to make the code as simple as possible, you still couldn't understand that he wanted you to leave town and seek external help."
"Then, he might have discovered Luke's problem in some way. He realized that from the moment he boarded the train, the special surname 'Copperfield' had been discovered by the evildoers, and Luke was the spy they had hired to operate in the town for a long time."
"After all, people are different." When he said this, Hitzfeld felt a little emotional.
"Not everyone is satisfied with such a poor life. From the moment Luke chose to work as a postman - or a private porter, it would be more appropriate - instead of joining the transport team, where it is easier to directly contact wealthy tourists, his attitude was obvious."
He wants to go out.
He wants a better life.
Such people are always easy to bribe.
And because they have very little knowledge and experience, they can easily be led into an abyss.
"Through this discovery, our Mr. Copperfield further realized that the evil followers knew a lot about the hidden history of the Gralant family. He was particularly worried that the reasons and purposes of his return had been guessed by the evil followers, so he became even more afraid to show up."
"Then, he didn't dare to waste any more time. On the third day, before you left, he disguised himself as Luke to deliver the last letter to you. The content of this letter was much more straightforward. It directly asked you to go to Blackwood City to find me."
"Ms. Hitzfeld."
Still Liszt.
"I don't understand here... Are you trying to say that the reason why Copperfield didn't show up is because he was afraid that the evildoers would attack him... or the Gralant Manor?"
"Yes, he might also be worried that someone in the manor has been bribed."
At this point, Hitzfeld glanced at Duke Gran, whose face suddenly turned pale.
"So what happened after you came here?" Lister was even more confused. "Since Mr. Doyle is the 'Man in Black' - he made it public - we all know what abilities the 'Man in Black' has, shouldn't he jump out and explain everything immediately?"
"Oh, that's a question." Hitzfeld still stared at Jerry.
"Jerry."
"what?"
"Do you remember the argument you had with him in the car?"
"This is... too much... which time did you say?"
"I saw him that time."
"Oh! I remember now!"
"After that argument with you, he almost commanded me not to let you get involved in the case."
"Is this related to why Copperfield didn't show up?"
"Yes." Hitzfeld pursed his lips. "After we arrived in the town, Jerry was locked in the room almost all the time. Only a few of her closest people were allowed to visit her."
"And among these people is Tang Meng himself. As far as I know, he comes back to visit Jie Li almost every day."
"You mean...he took this opportunity to use Miss Norm as a hostage?"
