Hitzfeld had looked at both sides of the envelope when it was taken out. There were no marks left on it. It was just an ordinary dark yellow color... the most common kraft paper envelope.
There was no sender or recipient listed, no stamp, and no seal.
Is it too late?
The seal has been sealed, which shows that the contents of the letter have been prepared in advance. This letter may solve the mystery of the cause of death. Everyone can't help but focus their eyes on the sheriff and the letter in his hand.
The content of the letter should not be long. They saw the sheriff glance at it and frowned, then handed it to Hitzfeld.
"Look at this," he said.
Li Ang had long arms, so he took the letter before the girl did. After reading it, he smiled and handed the letter to the girl.
Hitzfeld took a look:
[If I die on this bus, it will be Papaconi-Larson who killed me.]
There is only this sentence above.
"The case seems to be clear now," said Sheriff Rand. "It was the entomologist who lured him onto the train!"
Hitzfeld frowned slightly, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
The sheriff wanted to continue to exploit the victory, so he ordered his men: "Apply the ointment to him!"
The police officers were reluctant to apply ointment to a male corpse. After all, they were not coroners and had no experience.
But with the previous exciting foreshadowing and the hope of solving the case at hand, they could not care less.
Some of the ointment was taken, divided into several portions, and vigorously smeared on the surface of the corpse by several pairs of hands.
They didn't know what it was for, but they heard that the undertaker's ointment not only beautified the corpse, but also could heal some of the hidden injuries the corpse suffered during its lifetime.
After the smearing was completed, they stared at the corpse closely, and gradually, they saw dense red spots beginning to spread on its pale skin surface.
"This is--"
There was a cry of surprise, and many heads turned to Sheriff Rand.
Sheriff Rand had never seen such a scene before, so he went to see Hitzfeld again, hoping that the young female detective could see something.
However, it was Li Ang who spoke first.
"Firebee!" He almost squeezed out the word from between his teeth.
"Only the most poisonous Fire Queen Bee in the North and South Jungles can have such a strong toxin!"
"What is a firebee?"
Everyone looked confused.
Although Hitzfeld looked calm, it was the first time she had heard of this kind of insect.
She doesn't know everything either; the lady's notes are not an encyclopedia.
"A rather special poisonous insect." Li Ang began to explain science to everyone.
"They are very, very small... about the size of an ant, but they are very poisonous and have a bad temper. If a child is stung by a fire bee, they will die within three hours. Adults with weak bodies will not be able to survive. They will be tortured to death by an extremely strong neurotoxin..."
"Is this neurotoxin special?" Hitzfeld asked as he looked at the corpse.
The red spots on it are so densely packed with layers upon layers that it gives people goose bumps.
And they stay for a very short time. In just a short while, they have already hidden under the skin again and disappeared at a terrifying speed.
"People who have been stung by fire bees will have these spots on their bodies when they struggle." Leon nodded, "I've seen it with my own eyes... It was in the northern forest. These spots will disappear after the victim dies, and then you can't see them anymore."
"But you just said that this kind of bug also exists in the south?"
“Both north and south.”
"That's weird."
"It's nothing strange... Fire bees have a special structure. The frequency of their wings flapping can make their bodies heat up, so they are not afraid of the cold and have extremely strong adaptability to the environment."
Li Ang nodded and added.
"By the way, he said before that red-legged ants are not suitable for survival here, and one of the reasons is fire bees. These poisonous bees in the wild are usually not interested in humans, but they love to prey on ants."
"Are there any fire bees around Blackwood City?"
"I am not sure……"
Leon hesitated.
"That's strange... I didn't see any bite marks on him..."
It certainly looked like the fire bee's toxin, but the wound from where the stinger had pierced was not invisible.
The other police officers began to talk in amazement, while Hitzfeld fell into deep thought.
After a few seconds, she put down her hand that was supporting her chin and asked them, "Where's your hair?"
"What?" they were puzzled.
"Have you ever examined your hair--your scalp carefully?"
The person examining the head shook his head slightly.
He did feel around, but it was in the hair after all - he didn't look that closely.
"Then go check it out now."
The man looked at Sheriff Rand, lowered his head and did as he was told.
Then quickly, his whole face turned red.
“You guys should come see this.”
He lifted Yankee Temple's head and parted a tuft of hair.
Others looked closely and vaguely saw a tiny red dot on the pale scalp.
Didn't get up... Four more chapters tomorrow!
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Chapter 12 Dispute
The hair around the red spot was quickly shaved off so that people could see the tiny wound more clearly.
Even if it is done to this extent and you look closely, the wound is not very noticeable and can easily be mistaken for naturally occurring acne on the human body.
Only by observing carefully with assumptions could they vaguely confirm that something had pierced the scalp from the outside and left marks there.
"Is this the trace of the fire bee?" Hitzfell asked Leon.
"I'm not sure." Li Ang frowned.
"You said you had seen it."
"When I arrived, the man's body was already covered with spots, and the wound was mixed in with the red spots and could not be seen at all."
"Didn't you think of examining the body afterwards?" Hitzfeld was very dissatisfied with his laziness. "It's not a case, so it's not worth examining - don't tell me you think so."
"If the detectives have to do even this, then the coroners and funeral directors will all be out of work!" Leon argued confidently. In this respect, it has to be said that he and Darent are quite similar. Both are good at turning unfavorable accusations into favorable ones.
It seems that his failure to bring his talents to these two industries was a great loss to them, and the relevant practitioners have to thank him for their continued unemployment.
"It's winter now, and the puncture wound will shrink further if it's not too exaggerated." Sheriff Rand said softly, "But even so, it's still very clear... The wound must have been quite large when it was first made."
"I can only say that if it was a fire bee, it must be a relatively large one." Li Ang said quickly, "An ant-sized fire bee can't penetrate this kind of wound."
"How big is not small?" Hitzfeld ignored him and focused on talking to the sheriff. "One millimeter?"
"About the same... maybe even bigger." Sheriff Rand hesitated. "Now we know the cause of death. We'll measure how deep it is and roughly estimate the size of the poisonous insect."
"One-third of the size of the little knuckle!" Leon shouted, "It can't be bigger! Even the Fire Queen Bee is not this big! This is the size of the largest ant!"
They were arguing about how big a fire bee or queen fire bee could grow, what it looked like, and the various terrible legends involved, while Hitzfeld was wondering why this thing would come to bite the dead.
"There's nothing to worry about." Sheriff Rand waved his hand. "We should be able to find out the truth after we arrest the entomologist and interrogate him. This bastard... is really good at acting!"
In his opinion, the situation was obvious: the body of the deceased had not been moved after it was discovered, and the accusatory letter was sealed in the lining of his coat. If he was to assume that another murderer had put the letter there, then he would not have had the time to do so.
So it could only be Papaconi. He must have found a way to contact Tompley and asked him to meet on this bus. Then their talks may have fallen through, which led Papaconi to decide to silence him.
His horrific death was explained at this moment - the neurotoxin did cause limb spasms and twitching, and the red spots were irrefutable evidence - what was there to worry about?
But Hitzfeld still frowned, as if there was something he didn't understand.
"Leon." She looked up suddenly.
"You said that Firebee is not afraid of the cold."
"I did say that." Li Ang nodded.
"Is this kind of insect active in winter?"
"From what I understand—the hunters have told me—not very often."
"Why did the fire bee run there and sting him?" Hitzfeld asked. "Let's assume that Mr. Larson has the ability to control this poisonous insect, but at that time... the train should have been moving, right? How could he accurately control a bug to maintain its position?"
Li Ang frowned immediately, and Sheriff Rand took a long time to react.
Hitzfeld's meaning was clear: releasing such a flying insect into the outer corridor to kill people, not to mention whether the insect would obey, if its flight trajectory deviated slightly, it would be blown away by the oncoming winter wind, or even be caught in the airflow attached to the car and shattered.
If the murderer was really Papaconi-Larson, then the method he chose to kill was too much of a gamble, and his luck was too good.
"This... maybe he just made a single attempt?" Mike guessed, "If it succeeds, that would be the best. If it fails, he will have other opportunities to try again..."
The police officers also stopped what they were doing and tried to express their opinions.
They felt that this case was developing into a somewhat mysterious trend, using poisonous insects to kill people... this was something they had never heard of before.
"Anyway, it shouldn't be wrong to control the person first." Sheriff Rand confirmed again, pointed out several people including Mike, and asked them to take the letter of accusation to confront Papaconi Larson.
"Shall we go too?" He then asked the girl for her opinion, "There shouldn't be anything to see here."
No matter how much Hitzfeld felt something was wrong, he couldn't afford to lose face for the sheriff at this time.
But before leaving, she couldn't help herself and went over to check the entire body herself.
There's really nothing to see.
The dense red spots had disappeared, and the dead blood had settled down. The body was no different except that its skin color and texture were better than before and it looked more alive. There were still no other visible scars.
She glanced outside and saw Sheriff Rand had already jumped off the car and was giving instructions to several police officers. He looked very high-spirited.
He was in a good mood and didn't care about Hitzfeld's actions.
The girl took the opportunity to squat down, slightly turned the corpse's wrist open, and carefully examined the palm and the inside of the knuckles.
"You're wasting your energy," Li Ang said. "He was wearing gloves. You've seen the photos."
Yanke Temple was now naturally stripped naked and without any dignity, but before that he was almost fully armed, not only wearing a felt coat but also gloves on his hands.
"But there is no hat..." Hitzfeld was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized what was wrong.
Yes - the hat! Since the deceased was a strict and purposeful person, he did not forget to wear gloves when he ran to the corridor to get some fresh air in the middle of the night, so why did he forget his hat?
It's winter! It even snowed a while ago! This corridor is facing the wind. If a person is not afraid of the cold and does not wear a hat, why should he go to the trouble of wearing gloves?
Especially since the only wound they found was right on the scalp!
If the murderer hid the fire bee in the deceased's hat and asked him to wear it, would the fire bee's attack range be locked?
Suppose that... Mr. Temple's first action after being stung was to take off his hat and take a closer look...
But he didn't expect the toxin to be so severe. His hands and feet were shaking from the stimulation, and he couldn't hold the hat at all, so he was forced to let it fall...
"Well done!" Li Ang quickly understood what she meant and said with a happy expression, "You have filled in the last piece of logic!"
It seems so, but I always feel that it won’t be that simple…
Hitzfeld smiled stiffly, then asked tentatively, "Do you think there is a possibility that the murderer used some method to make Mr. Tompley mistakenly believe that the person who asked him to get in the car was Mr. Larson..."
"And then tricked him into writing that letter?" Leon interrupted her, "Maybe - but Hitzfeld, I'm going to teach you a little trick here: don't overthink the case, especially this kind of 'ordinary case' that doesn't involve the extraordinary."
"……I did not understand."
"Then I'll be frank." Li Ang raised his eyebrows. "The cases you handled in the past were all too bizarre, which caused you to think too deeply every time you encountered troubles... Of course, I didn't say that this is bad, but what if you really think too much?"
"You think this is normal...but who hinted to me before that Yanke Tompley might be Goli's emissary?" Hitzfeld was not convinced.
"That's the problem!" Li Ang clapped his hands. "You think he has a special identity, and the one who attacked him must be a transcendent, and must be involved with some evil things."
