Chapter 290

Moon-viewing terrace, library, small rooftop garden...

The investigation team searched door by door, room by room. Aside from some traces left by the Su Nake team when they moved furniture and books to collect evidence, they found nothing. The three people seemed to have vanished into thin air; no matter how they looked, they couldn't be found.

During the search, Suxi and Sheriff Ebnick also tried calling the three officers, including Su Nake, via phone and radio, but there was no response.

"Could they have already gone downstairs?" Sheriff Ebnick speculated. "Besides the main corridor we came up from, is there any other way down from here?"

The man in the leather jacket lowered his head and repeated the question into his microphone, receiving an answer from Housekeeper Mei Lin: "Other than the normal route you just took, the only way to leave the third floor is the secret escape passage in the Lord's bedroom."

They had already searched the library, and the secret door leading to the Lord's bedroom showed no signs of having been opened.

"We didn't find anyone on the main path, and the secret passage has been locked and never opened. Where on earth did the three of them go? Could they have really vanished into thin air?" The man in the leather jacket frowned and looked at a hidden iron door in the corner.

All the doors on the third floor were wooden, except for this one, which was iron and hidden under a curtain in the corner. If Housekeeper Mei Lin hadn't specifically reminded them, they never would have found it.

"That is the interrogation room used by successive Grand Dukes of Vanessa," Housekeeper Mei Lin's voice came through the earpiece. She said, "The early style of the Flimmis-Ret family was quite radical. Certain individuals who threatened the family's major interests would occasionally disappear mysteriously and appear in the Vanessa Castle interrogation room, to be interrogated personally by the head of the family."

—The heads of the early Flimmis-Ret family generally also served as the Grand Duke of Vanessa.

"The interrogation room is the only place left we haven't searched." Having not found her younger brother for so long, the policewoman Suxi looked anxious and said, "Let's go in quickly. Maybe they are right inside?"

The group exchanged glances, having no objections.

"Let's check the interrogation room first; if we still can't find them, we'll have to go upstairs." As the man in the leather jacket said this, he walked to the iron door. A team member followed immediately, and the two worked together to pry open the interrogation room door with a short crowbar.

As soon as the door opened, an indescribable smell wafted out, causing everyone to wrinkle their noses.

"What is this smell? It's like expired cheese rotting in a refrigerator..." Suxi covered her nose in disgust, but in order to find her brother, she was still the first to walk in with a frown.

"We are going in now," the man in the leather jacket said, lowering his head, and he walked in as well.

The remaining few said nothing more and filed in with their guns. Soon, there was no one left in the third-floor corridor.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, who had been hiding on top of the cabinet in the form of a long-tailed tit, watched the last team member walk into the interrogation room. He waited a while longer before carefully flying down from the cabinet and landing on the curtain at the entrance of the interrogation room.

Just as Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe was hesitating whether to follow them in, his body suddenly began to move on its own, out of his control.

The two bird claws left the curtain, and Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's wings began to flap in reverse in a bizarre fashion, like a film reel being played backward, following his original flight path back to the top of the cabinet where he had been hiding.

The investigation team members who had just walked into the interrogation room returned to the entrance one by one, walking backward. The man in the leather jacket had just watched the policewoman Suxi enter the door and was lowering his head to say into the microphone, "We are going in now."

"Do not go in," Mei Lin's voice came through the earpiece. "Do not approach the interrogation room."

The man in the leather jacket was slightly stunned, then immediately reacted: "Did the Princess tell you? Is there danger in the interrogation room? But Suxi has already gone in..." "Did she go in first?" On the open ground downstairs, Mei Lin listened to the voice coming from the earpiece and turned to the young girl in front of the chessboard: "Suxi has already gone in. Would you like to..."

Would you like to take back a move and save Suxi as well?

"No need," Pulu Meiliya said indifferently. "That policewoman is likely a ghost. Dejin Hansa and the others must have died due to the deception of this ghost."

Dejin Hansa was the name of the man in the leather jacket, and he was also the squad leader of the four male members of the investigation team.

"Is Suxi a ghost? But..." Mei Lin was somewhat puzzled. "But we have already checked Suxi's fingers. Her right hand is complete; not one of the five fingers is missing."

For anyone enslaved by a necromancer, men would be missing their left pinky finger, and women would be missing their right pinky finger. This was information they had been clear about from the beginning.

"I indeed have no evidence, but I must tell you: Suxi is a ghost."

Pulu Meiliya did not waver in the slightest and continued: "Tell Dejin Hansa, absolutely do not approach the interrogation room. From now on, no matter what you see or hear, do not believe it, and absolutely, absolutely do not approach the interrogation room."

Mei Lin did not continue to ask questions and relayed the Princess's exact words to the man in the leather jacket, Dejin Hansa.

"Suxi is actually a ghost..." Dejin Hansa frowned deeply. He stared fixedly at the door Suxi had just entered, recalling Suxi's actions on the way here, and said, "Everyone, check each other's fingers immediately."

No errors in the content, read it at a glance!

The four members of the investigation team and Sheriff Ebnick immediately checked each other, confirming that no one was missing any fingers.

A team member then asked, "What's wrong? Did the Princess say something?"

"Suxi is a ghost," Dejin Hansa said with a cold expression.

"Ah?" Sheriff Ebnick was stunned, his face full of confusion: "But, but haven't you already checked Suxi's fingers? Her right hand is not missing anything. According to your theory, how could she be a ghost?"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, hiding on the cabinet, watched this scene silently, feeling somewhat puzzled as well.

He had also seen Suxi's right hand, and it was indeed complete. Why did Pulu Meiliya insist on identifying her as a ghost?

But if Suxi was not a ghost, why would Pulu Meiliya "take back the move" of Vanessa Castle to before Dejin Hansa and the others entered the interrogation room?

Squad leader Dejin Hansa and Housekeeper Mei Lin kept in real-time contact via wireless earpieces. If anything happened to the investigation team, she would know in real-time. In other words, something did indeed happen after they entered the interrogation room.

They, who followed Suxi into the interrogation room, had very likely already lost their lives. The reason Pulu Meiliya took back the move just now was to save the team members killed by the ghost.

"What on earth is going on?"

Realizing this, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe felt even more puzzled: "What exactly happened after the investigation team members entered the interrogation room? Why did Pulu Meiliya insist on identifying Suxi, whose fingers were complete, as a ghost?"

(End of chapter)