Chapter 457: Overlooked Details

"Right, have them write it with both the left and right hands, and we watch them write," Han Fei nodded.

Xu Mo was right; they should have people write it with both hands, after all it's possible the killer deliberately hides themselves by not using their dominant hand.

Have everyone in the entire hospital write a passage on paper in front of the police officers; the person whose handwriting matches exactly the note left by the killer is the killer.

"Alright," the Director said, then immediately ordered, "Lao Qi, follow the police officer's instructions, gather everyone, prepare paper and pens."

After a pause, the Director turned his head and looked at Han Fei and Xu Mo.

He had already seen that these two police officers were clearly the leaders of the other officers.

"By the way, Police Officer, some of our patients are completely illiterate—what do we do with them?"

"Even if they can't write, they must write; even if they have to copy a drawing, they must draw it," Xu Mo said.

"Understood!"

Soon, all the patients and medical staff in the hospital were present.

The Director fetched a table; on it lay a notebook and a pen, and directly in front of the notebook was a tablet displaying the sentence: "If you have the skill, come catch me."

That sentence was the content written on the slip the killer left beside the black plastic bag, and it is the sentence the police need everyone in the hospital to write on paper.

The police stood directly in front of the table, while all the patients and medical staff lined up on the other side of the table.

"Now I need each person to write a passage in the notebook, once with the left hand and once with the right; the text to write is on the tablet in front of the notebook. If they can't write, they must draw it according to the tablet's content. Please cooperate…" the Director said from the side.

First were the medical staff.

They stepped forward one by one and wrote the passage "If you have the skill, come catch me" in the notebook, each writing it with both hands.

After each person finished, the police would ask them to write their name on the corresponding page for later comparison.

While the medical staff were writing, the police watched them the whole time with a scrutinizing gaze.

If the killer were one of these medical staff, under the police's stare the killer would inevitably act very unnaturally, perhaps even trying to deliberately alter their handwriting to evade capture.

Such small details naturally cannot escape the police's keen eyes.

After all the medical staff had written a passage in the notebook, Han Fei and Xu Mo exchanged a glance.

Their performances were all very natural, so the killer is not among the medical staff.

So the killer must be among the patients? Not quite; there are still a few people who haven't written in the notebook... Xu Mo looked at the Director, the management staff standing behind him, and the guard Lao Ding: "Director, could you all write as well?"

"Huh? I have to write too?" the Director was slightly startled: "Police Officer, I wasn't in the hospital last night; I..."

However, seeing the police watching him, the Director said no more, went straight to the table and sat down, turned the notebook back a page, picked up the pen, wrote a passage and his name on it, then switched to his left hand and wrote the passage again.

After the Director finished, he passed the pen to the next person.

In no time, the Director and several other members of the hospital's management also wrote that passage in the notebook.

After those few finished writing, they finally handed the pen to guard Lao Ding.

Lao Ding cannot write; at most he can draw his own name.

He clumsily "sketched" a passage with his right hand in the notebook, then switched to his left hand and "sketched" it again.

Their performances were also very natural, so the killer is not among them either.

Next came the patients.

Getting them to write a passage in the notebook required assistance and guidance from the medical staff, and even with that it still wasted a lot of time.

After all the patients had also written a passage in the notebook, three hours had already passed.

Yet it was still fruitless.

The police also did not find anyone acting abnormally among them.

This result left the police momentarily unable to accept it.

After more than three hours of hopeful searching, they didn't uncover a single clue, not even a suspect; it was a total failure.

Neither the hospital's management, the medical staff, the guard, nor the patients are suspects; their handwriting all differs from the killer's note.

Moreover, while being watched by the police with a scrutinizing gaze as they wrote, none of them behaved unusually; each one was very natural.

After everyone in the hospital had written in the notebook, the police let them leave to go about their business; the deduction process must be kept as confidential as possible and not conducted in front of everyone.

Only after everyone left did the police voice their doubts.

"Han Team, Team Leader Xu, the killer can't be outside the Mental Hospital, can he? I don't see any of them looking suspicious."

"At first glance, indeed no one seems suspicious," Xu Mo said, "but I'm certain the killer is definitely inside the Mental Hospital."

Hearing this, the police all showed puzzled expressions.

Without waiting for their questions, Xu Mo explained.

"This place is remote—no village in front, no shop behind, not even a single residence nearby. Who would come here in the dead of night? Running to a desolate mental hospital at midnight to kill a patient makes no sense."

"Moreover, I've looked at the victim's records; he was sent here when he was very young and never left after that. He couldn't have any enemies outside, so no one would go out of their way to this place to take his life."

"That's true..." the police murmured.

"But if the killer is someone inside the hospital, who could it be?"

This question, Xu Mo still cannot answer; if he knew who the killer was, he wouldn't be worrying about the case.

What Xu Mo is now more curious about is how the killer could evade his eyes.

He knew that the passage they had just had everyone in the hospital write was the same one the killer left beside the corpse; when the murderer sees that sentence again in front of the police, he must show some hint of abnormality, no matter how well he hides it, the police will certainly detect it—there is no situation where it goes unnoticed.

Additionally, everyone's handwriting in the hospital completely mismatched the handwriting on the killer's note, which also puzzled Xu Mo.

While pondering, Xu Mo's gaze fell on the slip the killer had left beside the corpse.

Staring at the slip for a while, Xu Mo suddenly noticed a detail he had previously overlooked...