"My God, Wales, is that really you? My baby, get out of my way!" Perseus's voice boomed from the crowd, and then he pushed through everyone, arriving beside us. If Gao Mingqiang hadn't held him back, the guy would have probably lunged at the corpse.
"Mr. Perseus, please calm down. We need to conduct an autopsy now. Doing this will damage the body! If your fingerprints or hair are left on him, it will affect our work!" Gao Mingqiang tried to placate him.
Perseus ignored him completely, still trying to get closer to the corpse. Fortunately, Xiahou and the others arrived to block him. With their combined efforts, even though Perseus was a burly man, he was successfully kept outside.
I turned back and said, "Mr. Perseus, now is really not the time to claim the body, unless you don't want to find the killer!"
"What do you mean, Officer He? I want to find the killer as much as anyone here!"
"In that case, don't disturb us!"
I said politely, and it was clear that Perseus's grief was not faked.
Moreover, I saw the people around him, his wife, daughter, and several maids, all looked very sad.
Only now did I shift my attention back to the corpse. A large hole was torn in the victim's waist. Due to the waterfall's wash, the blood and fingerprints on the deceased had been diluted. The killer was indeed clever to have murdered him in this spot, thus minimizing the traces we could find on the victim.
I shone the Shadowless Reflector Tube back and forth. Thanks to it, some details were restored. However, I found no fingerprints on the deceased. The killer had not moved the body at all; Wales had come to the stone statue himself. I observed on the ground, similar to the previous altar, there was also a circular stone. This was strange because, according to the stone's size, it could perfectly accommodate a person!
Suddenly, I lay down on the stone. Everyone thought I was doing something strange. A'Long Ye, who was present, immediately walked over and pulled me up, saying, "Officer He, what are you doing? Get up immediately! This is a sacrificial stone only for offerings!"
"Oh? So that's how it is, A'Long Ye. Are there many such sacrificial stones in your village?"
Mentioning this, A'Long Ye's expression turned a bit gloomy, as if lost in thought. But he quickly recovered and said, "Actually, there are five altars in the village, facing east, south, west, and north, and the grand altar in the center, which is where the first victim was located!"
"I understand, A'Long Ye. Thank you for telling me this!"
"No need, I was just casually mentioning it!"
I ignored A'Long Ye. At this moment, the villagers were being interviewed one by one by our people, but no one knew Wales's whereabouts. It seemed he had not contacted anyone before the incident.
The autopsy of the body yielded little information, at most allowing us to estimate the time and cause of death, but not with absolute certainty. After all, I didn't have many forensic tools with me. The Shadowless Reflector Tube was small and portable. It would be better if we could return to the forensic science department.
I approached Perseus and asked, "Wales is your son. Did you see him before his accident?"
"I saw him every day, but last night, for some reason, he went out alone. At first, I didn't know, but Mercia told me!"
"Around what time did he leave?" I asked, looking at the maid, Mercia. The maid quickly recalled, "It was around 9 PM."
Earlier, I had examined the body and found that he was killed about 9 hours ago. If he indeed left home at 9 PM, then he was murdered around 10 PM.
There were no surveillance cameras here, and I don't know if there were any witnesses. The victim's body did not bear any traces of the killer...
I scanned everyone present with a scrutinizing gaze and then said, "Are all the villagers here?"
I was actually asking Perseus and A'Long Ye. They both checked around, and Perseus said, "No, it seems a few families are still missing."
"Summon them as well!" I ordered.
Perseus did not hesitate and sent a few maids to notify them. Then I asked Perseus, "How is your relationship with Wales?"
"This son of mine has little interest in the God of Night. He's only here to keep me company. However, he is quite filial."
"Oh? What about your daughter?" At this moment, I deliberately looked at the girl beside him.
Perseus told me his daughter's name was Vaya. After talking to the girl for a while, I learned that she was not very friendly with her elder brother, but their relationship wasn't bad; they just rarely spoke to each other.
After some conversation, I suddenly changed the subject: "So, Vaya, what do you think of your brother?"
"Him? He seems a bit arrogant, but that's typical of rich kids. I don't interact with him much. I just enjoy discussing dark legends with my father."
"So, you have a better relationship with your father than your brother does?"
"You could say that."
I nodded and looked at Vaya's mother, a woman named Bantu.
I could tell this woman was of mixed race, but she spoke Chinese quite well.
Bantu tearfully told me that because Wales was not her biological son, the child often insulted her in front of her, but she could only endure it.
Bantu did not conceal anything. I thought if she were the killer, she would try to hide such details.
Next, Perseus's relationship with Wales seemed not to be very good. After excluding the people above, only Perseus remained as a suspect. But Wales was his son, and without any conflict of interest, he shouldn't have a motive to kill.
Unless they had some shared interests that they couldn't compromise on. There was also A'Long Ye. When Gao Mingqiang questioned him, although he was not very cooperative, he did not appear flustered.
This was just because A'Long Ye was garrulous and didn't seem to believe in scientific things. I didn't think he was a suspect.
Looking at the other villagers, when those few people were called out, I knew it wasn't them at a glance because their mental state was very good. If they had gone out to commit murder yesterday, they wouldn't have had enough sleep.
We stored the body in a house near the base camp. There were now two corpses here, but we still couldn't find a breakthrough.
The only suspect left was Perseus. I instructed the surveillance personnel to ignore everyone else and monitor the entire Perseus family. This way, everyone else could have more time to rest.