The old man stood in the office with his arms crossed, with a two-meter-long whiteboard standing in front of him.

The whiteboard is densely nailed with various photographs, and the chaotic lines and arrows radiate from those photographs, and point to different photographs, as if dense spider silk forms a large web, and the whole whiteboard is chaotic like a mess of hemp, just like Maxwell Hugh Sean's thoughts at this moment.

The colonel rubbed his chin, and a deep Sichuan character pattern was squeezed out of the center of his eyebrows.

"You've been standing there for half an hour, have you found anything?"

The middle-aged man sat on the couch behind him, his gaze falling over the old man's shoulder and on the whiteboard. The photos on the whiteboard were all too familiar to him, the two in the center were a man and a woman, both of whom were typical Asian faces, the young man was a half-length photo with a blue background, meticulously like a passport photo, and the girl was much more lively, although it was a yellowed and faded black and white photo, but the smile was still as bright as the sun.

One photo has "Zhao Gao" written on the bottom with a black oil-based pen, and the other has "Zhao Mu" written on the bottom, and they are connected by arrows, which are marked "brother and sister, close relationship".

Photographs of Belle, Anna, and the rest of the hummingbird hunting team are pinned to the edges of the board, lines and arrows outlining their relationships, and the Colonel's gaze follows these lines, and the picture of the deceased Albert is pinned to the bottom of the board, with John Jones of the Executive Department next to Albert.

The arrow between Albert and John Jones is marked with "Patient Relationship", and John Jones and Zhao Gao are "former superiors", as for Albert and Zhao Gao...... There was a blank space between the two.

There is no evidence of any relationship between the two men.

"What can you see?" The colonel turned his head.

"Your picture is too complicated." The middle-aged man pointed to the whiteboard, "You have listed all the people and things on it, then these irrelevant clues will block your vision and prevent you from finding the truth, you should remove all irrelevant things, and the thread buried in this big net will surface." ”

The middle-aged man got up and took Belle's picture off, then erased all the lines related to Belle.

"It is clear that the heavy artillery has nothing to do with this."

He tore out the picture of Ariana again.

"The doctor has also been on the fringe, even though she's a smart person."

Next, the photos of Phoebe, Luo Cheng, Lehe, Storm and others were removed, and the middle-aged man tore up the photos while chattering, "Although the chef of this restaurant once had a little conflict with Albert, it was the past of Chen Sesame Rotten Grain more than ten years ago, he couldn't kill the other party for this little thing, and he didn't have the ability to evade all surveillance and falsify evidence...... As for the old professor's neighbors, I heard that they had been neighbors for several years, and the day before the old professor was killed, he had given the potted plants he had raised to the other party to take care of, and if he wanted to kill Albert, he would definitely not do that......"

The middle-aged man peeled off the photos one by one, then erased the lines and arrows, and the whiteboard gradually became clean.

The colonel stood on the sidelines, his arms crossed and he said nothing.

As unrelated personnel went out, the blank space on the board gradually expanded, and the situation slowly became clearer, and finally only Zhao Gao, Zhao Mu, Albert and John Jones were left on the whiteboard.

"I went to the hospital to find John Jones' treatment records and found nothing, which means that someone stole the record the night Albert was killed, and it disappeared with John Jones."

The middle-aged man drew an arrow from John Jones' photo and pointed to the four words on the whiteboard, "Treatment Record."

"But why did the killer steal that record? Extrapolating as usual...... There must be some key clues in the record, and that clue is related to the murder case, which is likely to reveal the true identity of the murderer and the motive for the crime, so he doesn't want us to find out. The middle-aged man stretched out an arrow from the "treatment record", pointing to an "important clue".

"You just mentioned the true identity of the murderer...... the old man raised his eyebrows, "Don't you still think Zhao Gao is a suspect?" ”

The middle-aged man paused and was silent for a moment, "I'm just making logical inferences, don't let preconceived ideas mislead your inferences." ”

"Go on." The Colonel nodded.

"But here's the problem......," the middle-aged man continued, gesturing to the picture on the whiteboard with the tip of his pen, "John Jones was just a mentally ill man with a split personality who disappeared on the night of the crime, and the murder had not yet occurred while he was undergoing psychotherapy, so how could a mentally ill person have a clue?" ”

The middle-aged man pointed the arrow back to John Jones' photo and put a question mark.

The old man was stunned, "What do you mean...... John Jones has a problem? ”

"We did find Zhao Gao's fingerprints at the scene of the crime, although the princess thinks that the probability of Zhao Gao being the murderer is as high as more than 90 percent......," the middle-aged man whispered, "but old man, the answer to a question should not be so reckless until all the necessary conditions are clear." ”

"We may never get all the necessary conditions."

"You're a decisive person, but you're not reckless." The middle-aged man put the oily pen on the coffee table, "Your intuition has always been more accurate than mine, I don't believe that your old hound doesn't smell anything unusual." ”

Sean sat down on the couch and was silent.

"Whether it's Zhao Gao or John Jones, as long as you can find one of the two of them, this puzzle can be solved." The middle-aged man patted the old man on the shoulder, "Of course, if you can find one of the corpses, then this puzzle can be half solved...... It's time for me to go, the doctor recently advised me to do some medication, which should be a little longer, but I'm not going to do chemotherapy, baldness is too ugly. ”

The middle-aged man opened the door and took off the hat from the coat rack.

"Old friend." The colonel suddenly turned his head and stopped him.

The middle-aged man stopped.

"Don't you really think that Zhao Gao's kid is the murderer?"

The middle-aged man looked up at the roof, "No...... I think Zhao Gao has this motivation. ”

The old man was stunned.

"Have you ever looked at that kid? The kid looked heartless, but his eyes were full of words, 'You all owe that dead girl something.'" "He wandered around the academy like a debt collector, as if he was going to get it back at any moment." ”

"What's that?"

"One life." The middle-aged man sighed, stepped out of the office, and closed the door with his backhand.

Maxwell Sean didn't say a word, his hands crossed, the middle-aged man was right, he was an old hound with a keen sense of smell, and the old man had noticed something unusual early on, and it smelled dark, damp, bloody, like a beast that devoured people on a rainy night.

Sean's eyes fell on the whiteboard, the investigation of the case was at an impasse, two full days had passed since the murder, John Jones was still unknown, and this key person was the center of the case, and the colonel had a hunch...... If John Jones can be found, they will solve the mystery.

The old man straightened up and turned his head to look at the wall clock on the wall, which was seven twenty in the evening.

He was a little tired and didn't want to think about these messy cases anymore, so the old man bent down to open the tea cabinet, ready to make some tea and drink to rest.

Suddenly there was a soft "thump" outside the window.

The colonel was stunned.

A few seconds later, there was another "thump", a small but crisp, very clear sound, as if someone outside was tapping the window pane with his knuckles.

But this is impossible...... The colonel's office was on the top floor of the main building, almost twenty meters above the ground, and there was no balcony outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, and there was a vertical wall underneath, and there was not even a place to borrow strength, so no one could climb up.

A few seconds later, there was another "thump".

The old man frowned slowly, at first he thought it was the rubble of the wall or something falling and smashing on the window, but now it seems that the sound is obviously regular. He didn't know what it was, he couldn't see out the window, the curtains cut off the view.

Maxwell Sean stepped forward and slowly pulled back the curtains.

The teacup in his hand slipped unconsciously, smashing to pieces on the floor.

A man stood straight out of the window, his face contorted, a strange smile on his lips, and staring at the old man with white eyes.