The next day, at one o'clock at noon, Sleepy Town Commercial Street, Myers Cafeteria.

Rorschach parked the Mustang sedan on the side of the road across from the restaurant, and from the mirror, he saw a young white man in a neat suit standing in front of the restaurant.

Rorschach picked up his phone and looked at the message from The Macallan, the young white man was supposed to be the new mayor.

It is not uncommon for young (elected) magistrates to be such as Sam Country, and even in some sparsely populated towns, an animal is elected as the mayor of the town.

Rorschach looked in the rearview mirror and practiced his greeting again to make sure he didn't pay attention to the wrong name, and when everything was ready, he took a deep breath, pushed the door open and stepped out of the car.

At this time, the young mayor McCarron was looking around as he greeted the townsfolk who walked into the restaurant, and it seemed that he was a little eager to meet the new sheriff.

Rorschach walked straight up to The Macallan and said:

"Hello, Mayor McCarran."

The young mayor Macallan looked at him and asked uncertainly:

"Sheriff?"

"Yes."

Rorschach nodded.

The young mayor McCarran hurriedly stretched out his hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you." ”

"Me too."

Rorschach shook his hand.

McCarron looked at him, a little surprised, "I didn't expect the sheriff to look so young." ”

"I just look a little younger."

Rorschach shrugged, "Actually, I don't want to do that either. ”

McCarron smiled, "Let's go inside." ”

Rorschach followed Macallan into the Miles Cafeteria, where the guests and waiters greeted him when they saw him, and he responded cordially, and it seemed that his reputation among the local residents seemed to be good.

The two came to the corner of the restaurant and sat down, chatted a few words, and then got to the point.

The young mayor Macallan looked left and right, and said in a deep voice:

"I offended some people when I hired you, you must know that in Sleepy Town, successive sheriffs including Will have accepted bribes from Pradino, so I need an outsider, someone who has nothing to do with them."

"You hired me to bring that guy down......"

Rorschach narrowed his eyes, "That guy called Pradino?" ”

"That Pradino isn't a "guy" ......"

McCarron put his hands on the dining table and said with a solemn expression, "All the criminal gangs here are under his control. ”

Rorschach nodded.

The Macallan continued:

"I know you only took office on Monday, but I wanted to take you to see Trder Joes first. ”

"Uncle Lack of Virtue?"

In Rorschach's mind, this seems to be the name of a supermarket chain in Sam's Country.

"Police station."

McCarron smiled, "The old police station was burned down three years ago, and the town government was strapped for money, so we converted it into a police station because Uncle Lack decided to withdraw from Sleepy Town. ”

……

Rorschach and McCarron drove to the police station, the supermarket sign had not been removed, it was still hanging at the door of the police station, and when they walked into the police station, they were greeted by a front desk, a black policewoman was answering the phone, and a huge hexagonal police badge was pasted on the wall behind her, reminding people that this was not a supermarket.

"Lupita."

The young mayor McCarron said hello to the black policewoman.

Lupita hurriedly hung up the phone at the front desk, stood up, and said:

"Hello, Mayor McCarran."

McCarron patted Rorschach on the shoulder, "This is the new sheriff. ”

Lupita hurriedly stretched out his hand.

Rorschach shook her hand and took the lead, "Nice to meet you, Lupita. ”

"Sheriff, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Lupita at the front desk showed her white teeth and said with a smile, "I didn't expect you to be so young, I thought the new sheriff would be an old man." ”

Rorschach spread out his hand, revealing a helpless look, "No way, God gave me a young face." ”

The Macallan asked:

"How's the town today?"

Lupita hurriedly replied:

"I didn't receive a call from the police today, everything is normal."

"That's good."

McCarron nodded, "I'll take Sheriff Willis on a tour of the police station. ”

"Okay, if there's anything, you can call me at any time."

McCarron led Rorschach through the front desk and into a large hall where the office and guard areas were all in the hall, separated by metal railings, and there were only two male police officers in the office area.

"Good afternoon, Mayor Mare."

A middle-aged white male policeman greeted him.

"This is your new head."

McCarron gestured to Rorschach beside him, and then introduced to Rorschach, "This is Deputy Sergeant Emmett Rownes, the most senior police officer in the Sleepy Town Police Department. ”

Rorschach stretched out his hand and said:

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Hello, Sheriff."

Deputy Sheriff Emmett shook his hand, his face calm, and he didn't seem to be in a high mood.

Then McCarron pointed to another black policeman who walked by, "This is Brian Young, a former football player." ”

Officer Brian said with a smile:

"Sheriff, welcome to the Sleepy Town Police Station."

Macallan patted Rorschach on the shoulder and said:

"The others are not here for the time being, there are a total of 6 officers in the Sleepy Town Police Station, and when you officially join on Monday, it will be 7 people here."

Rorschach nodded.

At this time, Lupita at the front desk suddenly trotted in with a panicked expression, "Oh no! A body was found in the forest outside the town. ”

Rorschach turned his head to look at Lupita and sighed in his heart, it couldn't be that the body buried last night was discovered, right?

The Macallan asked:

"What's going on?"

"Sonny, ranger, found a body while patrolling the mountains."

Hearing Lupita's answer, McCarran frowned.

Rorschach looked at him and said:

"I'll take a look."

McCarron thought for a moment, "Okay, let Emmett and Brian go with you." ”

Rorschach nodded, and left the police station with Deputy Sheriff Emmett and Officer Brian, and drove the Mustang sedan behind the police car to the place where the crime was reported.

Two or three miles from Sleepy Town, the Rorschach team found Ranger Sonny, an old white man in his sixties, at the entrance to the park.

Ranger Sonny led the three into the forest park and came to the foot of a hill, pointing to it and saying:

"The corpse is not far from above......"

Deputy Sheriff Emmett left behind to take notes, and Rorschach and Brian made their way up the hill.

The trail was steep, and Rorschach and Brian climbed for a long time, until they finally found the body of a man lying headfirst on the ground with a shotgun clutched in his hand behind a bush on the mountainside.

"Oh! I'll go. ”

Officer Brian looked at the corpse on the ground and let out an exclamation.

Rorschach calmly stepped forward, glanced at the shotgun in the corpse's hand, which he had seen in weapons magazines, and said:

"It's a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun."

Officer Brian asked:

"Sheriff, did this guy misfire because of a hunting accident?"

"No, look at his clothes."

Rorschach crouched down and put on gloves to pull the shotgun out of the corpse's hand.

Brian looked at the sportswear worn on the corpse, which really didn't look like a hunter.

Rorschach put the shotgun aside and said to Brian:

"We turned his body over."

Brian hurriedly took hands and turned the body over with him.

The body was a middle-aged white man in his 40s, with a dark red pool of blood on his chest.

Brian crouched down and stared at the corpse's chest, thought for a moment and said:

"The bullet wound is here, that is, he was shot from behind, so it seems that the murderer is possible in any position, high, low, behind the tree......"

Rorschach nodded, picked up the shotgun, dug into the muzzle with his little thumb, then put it under his nose and sniffed it, and said:

"The victim did not fight back."

"Sheriff, how do you know?"

Brian looked up and looked at him quizzically.

Rorschach said lightly:

"If it smells of oil, then the gun has been cleaned, and if it smells of gunpowder, it means that the gun has been fired, and what I smell is oil."

"I see......"

Brian looked like he had learned knowledge, and as a policeman who was a halfway monk, he had not systematically learned this knowledge at all.

Rorschach asked:

"Do you know this person?"

Brian looked at the middle-aged white man's black and purple face, and shook his head, "I don't know, I've been working here for 3 years, and I don't dare to say that everyone in the town knows each other, but everyone has an impression, this person is the first time I've seen it." ”

Rorschach narrowed his eyes, not a local? Then it's hard to find clues.

……

After surveying the scene, Rorschach decided to return to Sleepy Town first, and when he drove past Quatman's tavern, he saw a Mercedes-Benz S-Class parked in front of the tavern, and next to the sedan stood two tall and powerful black bodyguards in dark suits.