Then what about the evidence?
Luke thought for a moment, before he led Elizabeth into the house.
On his way, he asked, “Elizabeth, how’s the other case coming along?”
Walking behind him, Elizabeth said in a low voice, “It’s really weird. That body… really is the mother.”
Luke hadn’t expected that answer, and paused for a moment. “Let’s not be hasty. We’ll finish this case first before we think about that body that’s still fresh even after being dead for a
year.”
Elizabeth nodded, and had absolutely no doubt that Luke would be able to solve this case today.
As they walked, Luke asked, “What would you do to find evidence that it was Thomson who did it?”
Elizabeth knew that Luke was using this case to teach her. She immediately frowned and mulled it over.
She had just read Thomson’s file. The man was quite suspicious, but there was no evidence to link him to the assault on Millis.
No fingerprints, no bloodstains, no eyewitnesses, no surveillance footage – nothing at all.
Even though he was lying, that wasn’t proof that he had committed the crime.
Thinking for a moment, Elizabeth suggested, “The crime scene – Millis was found in the living room, but from what I saw in the report, the living room was too clean and tidy to be the crime scene.”
Luke nodded. “Go on.”
Elizabeth said, “Could she have been attacked in her room?”
Luke nodded, but then shook his head. “We checked her room, but we didn’t find anything.”
Elizabeth frowned. “Is it possible that we missed something?”
Luke said, “It’s possible. Do you have any other thoughts?”
By then, they had reached the hallway which separated the maids’ rooms.
Looking to the left and right, Elizabeth was suddenly struck by an idea. “Could it have happened in Manny’s room?”
Luke smiled. “Yes, that’s a possibility. Let’s go in and take a look.”
They pushed open the door and entered, and looked around Manny’s room.
After her conversation with Luke, Elizabeth immediately found it odd. “Wait, why do I feel that…”
Luke finished the thought: “This place has been reorganized.”
This room wasn’t exactly tidy, but the items in the room were all in place, as if they had just been put back.
Luke and Elizabeth observed the room.
Manny was a woman, and didn’t have OCD. There were a lot of things in her room.
The room wasn’t exactly dirty or messy, but there was perfume, makeup, and accessories everywhere in the room.
Elizabeth was amazed. “Do maids really make so much money? She can afford Dior perfume? Let me see. This one is from last year, designed for youthful women. Well, these two are from this year, one for mature women, and the other for… girls?”
Slowly surveying the room, Luke asked, “She’s only twenty-four. She’s still a girl, isn’t she?”
Elizabeth was silent for a moment, before she said, “But this perfume is only designed for those around twenty. Judging from her other bottles of perfume, she doesn’t look like someone who would choose the wrong perfume.”
Luke said, “What if she suddenly wanted to feel young instead of mature?”
Elizabeth said, “…Well, that’s indeed a possibility.”
Luke asked, “Find anything else?” He thought that Manny might’ve indeed felt threatened by Millis.
Millis was only twenty. She was much younger than Manny
The perfume for girls was clearly more suitable for Millis, but Manny had still bought it; it was obvious what she had been thinking.
Wait! Something wasn’t right!
Sensing something, Luke went over to the perfume and sniffed it.
With his Sharp Nose, Luke sensed Thomson’s and Millis’s scents on the perfume bottle, but not Manny’s.
That was interesting. To put it simply, Manny had never touched the perfume that was on her dresser, but Millis and Thomson had.
Also, the perfume smelled familiar. Luke remembered it from Jennifer’s room, but mixed as it was with the other perfumes, he hadn’t paid much attention to it.
Now that an entire bottle was in front of him, Luke immediately sensed that something was wrong with this perfume.
Carefully smelling the perfume for a while, he said, “Elizabeth, take another look around the room. Are there any other items here that don’t match Manny’s style?”
Elizabeth looked around and saw something. “I don’t think Manny would like this art piece, would she? Also, it doesn’t fit here, right?”
She was referring to an elegant, abstract statue on the top of a black, square pedestal. It sat on a box to one side of the mirror.
Luke looked at it and then remembered that there was a similar statue in Jennifer’s bedroom.
He didn’t touch it, and merely activated his Sharp Nose.
Same as the perfume bottle, it only had Millis’s and Thomson’s scents on it, though the latter’s scent was faint, which clearly indicated that he had only touched it briefly. In the meantime, Luke smelled something else inside the statue that was out of place.
Luke put on a pair of gloves and observed it for a moment. Then, he pressed a particular area, and part of the pedestal fell open. Elizabeth exclaimed, “Wow! A hidden camera?” She was taken aback.
The pedestal turned out to be hollow, and a tiny camera had been installed inside.
Luke took out the camera, only to find that its battery had run out.
“Elizabeth, see if you can find the charger for this camera in Millis’s room,” said Luke.
Elizabeth immediately went to Millis’s room, and soon returned with a charger.
Luke plugged in the charger and pressed the playback function on the camera.
Then, they heard Millis’s voice. “Haha. Manny, you’re screwed! Haha, with these videotapes, Jennifer will do anything I tell her. All her money will be mine! Haha!”
Elizabeth was dumbfounded. Two maids were fighting over Jennifer’s money?
Several seconds later, however, Millis disappeared off camera after a dull thump.