Chapter 515: Catching The Xiao Brothers (2/2)

Placing my index finger on my lip, I reminded, ”Don't say anything for the time being. We’ll give them a blow.”

Xiaotao, Song Xingchen and I headed to the scene of the second murder: a small motel. There was still a seal on the door which we bypassed. There were almost no clues left on the scene. The bloody bed had been removed and the footprints on the ground extracted.

I sniffed the air, ”The room was air-conditioned, and the temperature was quite low. Look at the water droplets in the corner.”

Xiaotao smiled, ”Using air conditioning to manipulate the time of death isn’t anything new.”

”The question is, how did they do it? They were with us at the time.” I voiced my doubts.

Song Xingchen interjected, ”The Blade Master assisted them!”

I nodded thoughtfully for a moment. ”The two sides are mutually beneficial. They placed the bug while the Blade Master killed the victim. This makes sense, but the logic isn’t perfect.”

”You’re such a perfectionist!” cried Xiaotao.

”No, the Blade Master is the perfectionist. Killing in such a clumsy way, and an innocent person at that. Is that something he would do? I don't think so.”

When we left the room, I found no surveillance cameras in the motel. We spoke to the manager, showed him photos of the two suspects and asked if he had seen them.

Unfortunately, the manager couldn’t recall. Then, I asked if anything out of the ordinary happened last night.

”Out of the ordinary?” Upon further reflection, the manager said, ”Oh, yes, the electricity stopped for a while last night. The fuse burned out. It was fine after we changed the fuse. I mentioned this to the police in the morning.”

”Are you still using those old-fashioned fuses? Did the police check the circuit box?”

”They looked at it but found nothing,” replied the manager.

”Could you please show it to us?”

We opened the circuit box to have a look. There were no signs of tampering, though I couldn't see clearly so I asked the manager to turn off his flashlight. He looked at us as if we were weirdos.

Song Xingchen and I began observing the circuit box with Cave Vision. I found a scorch mark under the fuse and some sort of reflecting substance around it, as if it were coated with something.

Reaching out to pull the switch, I leaned in for a whiff. It smelled like chemicals, some sort of cosmetics. I asked Xiaotao for her opinion. Upon sniffing, she looked incredulous. ”That’s impossible!”

”What is it?” I asked.

”Why does it smell like nail polish to me? It's impossible!” exclaimed Xiaotao.

I turned to the manager, ”How did the fuse blow? Was the voltage too high or had the fuse aged?”

”It probably blew because of how old it is,” the manager seemed unclear.

I smiled, knowing exactly how the suspects did it. It was a very clever technique indeed.