As expected, the person knocking on the door was Chief Constable Doust. He just tapped the door a few times and let himself in.
"Oh? You're really drinking." As soon as he entered the room, the chief's eyes fell on the bottle of wine in front of Feng Bujue, and he couldn't help but complain.
At this time, the expression on the chief constable's face had become very relaxed, and behind this "relaxation" was an undisguised "dead pig not afraid of boiling water" attitude.
No matter how many benefits Doust usually received from John, and no matter how afraid he was of the Herbert family's power on the island... after the call from the Minister of Internal Affairs, these factors had ceased to exist.
Zuo Yan used his actions to convey a message to the chief constable—John Herbert's power might be king-level on this island; but in front of truly powerful people, he was just a cannery owner with a little money at home.
"Chief Constable, your timing is perfect." Feng Bujue also had a smile on his face when he saw Doust, and said enthusiastically, "Why don't you try this bottle of 'Flower Bud' worth hundreds of thousands of pounds?"
"Ha!" Doust laughed dryly when he heard this. Obviously, he took Jue Ge's words as a joke. "Okay, after drinking this kind of wine whose value exceeds my total retirement pension, I'll be able to see God."
As he spoke, the chief constable had turned to the wine cabinet, casually took out a glass, and then walked towards the sofa next to Jue Ge.
It seemed... he really intended to drink.
On the other hand, Zuo Yan and Sam also followed the chief constable into this room. They walked in one after the other, not too fast and not too slow. Judging from their expressions, they both had their own thoughts...
When they entered the room, John had regained his usual composure, so these people didn't know about the red wine incident just now.
"So... what's the progress so far?" After the three of them were seated, Feng Bujue raised his eyes to look at Zuo Yan and asked this question.
Logically speaking, he should have asked Doust about this matter, after all, he was the person in charge of the scene.
But Feng Bujue directly asked Zuo Yan... or rather, Vidocq.
Because Jue Ge was very clear that, apart from himself, the person (cat) closest to the "truth" was only Vidocq; even John and Sam, who were the parties involved, might not know as much about the whole incident as Jue Ge and Vidocq, the two observers.
"Hmm..." Zuo Yan pondered for two seconds, and then replied, "Without a doubt, this is a simple little case."
Just this opening remark had already made Feng Bujue certain of one thing—at this moment, the person (cat) talking to him was not Zuo Yan, but Vidocq.
Zuo Yan is a person with a calm personality. Only in some sudden and critical situations will he become decisive and even aggressive; but usually... he is often as mild as lukewarm water, and he is very modest in dealing with people and things. According to Feng Bujue's understanding of Zuo Yan, the latter would never say such an arrogant line as "a simple little case."
But Vidocq was different. This cat was extremely conceited. His catchphrase was "I am Vidocq." He often used these five words to answer some questions raised by Zuo Yan.
Why are you here? How did you do it? How did you know he was the murderer? How did you deduce this motive?
Zuo Yan often asked Vidocq such questions. Although not every time, there were still many times... Vidocq answered with "I am Vidocq."
This is like you asking Batman—"How did you catch the criminal?"
At this time, Batman doesn't need to talk to you about the process of reasoning and action at all, he just needs to reply: "Because_i'm_batman!"
Vidocq's situation... is also the same; for a detective like him, conceit and ability are proportional, and he does have the capital to be arrogant.
Right now, he was using telepathy, speaking what he wanted to say through Zuo Yan's mouth.
Naturally, others couldn't have imagined that... Zuo Yan was actually repeating the words of a cat hidden somewhere, but Jue Ge, as the creator of these two characters, was well aware of this.
"Ha!" As soon as Zuo Yan finished speaking, Doust, who had already drunk half a glass of red wine, let out his signature dry laugh again and interjected, "It seems our famous detective is about to start his reasoning show. I've only seen this kind of scene in movies. I didn't expect to experience it myself today."
"Yes... I'm also looking forward to it." The next second, Sam followed up, using a tone that was three parts playful and seven parts expectant.
In fact, at this point, there was no need for him to speak, but... Sam was not a clever or skilled criminal, and he couldn't avoid feeling guilty; so, he used this deliberately relaxed tone to say this sentence to cover up his tension and unease.
In this regard, Feng Bujue really couldn't do anything better than to worry about him. This was really a rhythm that a pig teammate couldn't carry...
The meaning behind Sam's actions, let alone detectives of the level of Jue Ge and Vidocq, even Zuo Yan and Chief Constable Doust could see a thing or two; as for John... he had determined from the beginning that this matter today was related to Sam, and he could attribute everything Sam did to it.
In short, Sam's statement, apart from making himself more suspicious in front of everyone, had no other meaning...
"Then..." After a brief but awkward silence, Zuo Yan spoke again, relaying for Vidocq, "In order to better allow everyone present to understand the course of this case, I will tell the whole story in chronological order... I'll tell the whole story from beginning to end."
Speaking of this, he paused and adjusted his breathing.
Feng Bujue knew that this was actually Zuo Yan waiting for Vidocq to finish his next sentence; since mental communication also takes time, listening to the voice in his mind while relaying it was also a rather difficult skill; even though Zuo Yan was very skilled now, it was still difficult to avoid the interference caused by the overlapping of his own voice and the voice in his mind.
"To explain today's case, first of all, we have to mention the Herbert family's inheritance dispute case many years ago." Two seconds later, Zuo Yan continued.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened his mouth, John interrupted him: "Mr. Zuo... isn't this matter going a bit too far?"
Before Zuo Yan could reply, Sam sneered and retorted, "Hmph... what? Are you afraid that some unspeakable things will be revealed?"
"Gentlemen!" Feng Bujue interrupted them decisively, "Mind your manners, you are gentlemen, not shrew..." As he said this, he looked at John, "Mr. Herbert, if you can't come up with a more appropriate and sufficient reason other than 'going too far', then please let classmate Zuo Yan finish his words..." After saying this, he paused for half a second and added, "Otherwise I'll feed you shit."