Pokémon Detective: Cynthia Forces Me to Adopt a Pokémon

Chapter 330 The Poison Chamber – Bloodstains

When Hugo received the urgent message from the champion's agent, it was already the afternoon after his meeting with Karuni.

The Carlos champion's schedule remained as busy as ever. After attending a charity gala in Flying Cloud City, she immediately boarded a train to Raven City to attend the opening ceremony of an international fashion week.

That morning, Hugo and Azure had just brought Mia, who was troubled by dreams, to Dr. Makomo's Dream Research Institute. That reliable assistant was still there, helping with dream testing. The two Dream Egrets in the institute were very close to her, probably because Azure had previously accepted a pet-finding commission and brought them back to the institute from the vast city.

Incidentally, Miss Mia dreamt of the agaric mushroom she had released back into the wild again last night, though the details and scenes were all blurry. Hopefully, Dr. Makomo's dream connection device will work smoothly this time, helping her recover more memories.

To be honest, Hugo actually preferred to believe the psychoanalytic view of dreams, believing that dreams are merely a projection of a being's own desires, like a disordered mirror. Although they may seem bizarre at first glance, after sorting and analyzing them, people cannot see more information in them than they already know...

However, this world is full of strange and supernatural phenomena. Among the Ghost, Psychic, and Dark-type moves, there are skills capable of interfering with dreams. And it's not just Pokémon; even Gadlia, with a little effort, can use her psychic powers to create a dream-like effect in someone else's mind—this suggests that Mia's dreams were very likely interfered with by some supernatural factor, which explains the abnormality that led her to her death.

As for Hugo when he received the call, he was in the rented house where the "Plague Scholar" Servić had been murdered.

For this detective, the greatest advantage of becoming the league champion was that he could freely enter and exit various crime scenes without police escort, simply by using the league's high-level privileges.

While this access comes with various limitations, such as prohibiting unauthorized entry into the scene before a formal police investigation and ensuring each access is recorded in the alliance's database, the alliance, even formally, must prevent high-level access holders from becoming the perpetrator or their accomplice…

Even after all these restrictions, being able to walk alone to the crime scene where a murder had recently occurred, like taking a stroll, being seen off by unfamiliar police officers as if he were a leader on an inspection tour, and tearing off the yellow seal on the door of the crime scene without any psychological burden and striding into the room, was truly a rare and exhilarating moment for Hugo since he started working as a detective.

Perhaps infected by this good mood, the detective seemed to grasp a spark of inspiration as he observed the thoroughly searched house and the crime scene markers that the police had marked on the ground with white lines, showing the shape of the body lying on the ground.

"Speaking of which, when Officer Jenny and the others found the body, the deceased was lying face up, right? Miss Joy, because of the blood coming from the mouth and nose, as well as the unusual pupils and complexion, immediately determined that the deceased had died from some kind of poison, and further deduced that the scattered furniture around was due to the deceased's muscle spasms before death..."

Hugo looked around at his surroundings once more—

The furniture in this one-bedroom apartment was actually not much. In the living room where the body was found, apart from the desk in front of the deceased, the only items that could be considered furniture were a few low cabinets in the corner of the room, a table and chairs used as a dining table, a sofa, and two wooden decorations that looked like standing hat racks.

However, at this moment, all the cabinets were overturned, and the dining table, chairs, and sofa were all displaced from their original positions, with the latter also being overturned.

Keep in mind that the cabinet by the door was more than ten steps away from the desk, and the sofa and dining table were not objects that could be easily moved with a touch. If all of these were knocked over by Servić's uncoordinated limb twitching before his death, wouldn't such a large movement and relocation be too heavy and cumbersome for a poisoned person on the verge of death?

The most puzzling thing is the two standing hat racks that are still standing tall in the living room.

These two wooden shelves were clearly located on either side of the overturned sofa, along the route from the cabinet to the body. However, until the police arrived at the crime scene, these two wooden shelves, which should have collapsed at the slightest touch, remained firmly and upright in their original positions, completely unaffected by Servić's convulsive movements before his death.

Barring coincidence, it would have been impossible for the deceased to deliberately avoid the hat rack while struggling, and it would have been impossible for the intruder who later broke into the room and stole the documents to deliberately lift them from the ground...

Does this mean that the deceased's convulsions before death did not actually travel that far?

Ultimately, the claim that Servić, who died of poisoning, struggled in excruciating pain was merely a preliminary assessment made by toxicologist Joey upon seeing the crime scene.

Indeed, the deceased's facial expression was ferocious and distorted at the moment of death, and the furniture around the room was unusually scattered. A considerable number of people who died from poisoning would indeed convulse and roll around in a frenzied manner before death. However, Joey, who was responsible for examining the deceased's body, was after all just a doctor with relevant knowledge. Even though she was proficient in poisons and medicine and had rich experience in autopsies, she could not simply connect this information with the crime scene search.

Moreover, Miss Joey had just participated in the investigation of the Selvić poisoning incident and had been completely deceived by the despicable method of poisoning. Furthermore, due to her past experience as a doctor, she was aware of the "plague scholar's" past misdeeds. Upon seeing the victim's body, she probably felt a sense of satisfaction or gratification. Therefore, it was understandable that her judgment was influenced by her emotions, and she subconsciously believed that this abhorrent criminal had died in agony.

However, reality has its own logic that must be followed; people do not die for no reason due to cause and effect.

In this room, there is even more direct evidence to support Hugo's suspicions—the blood that has been flowing from the deceased's mouth and nose.

According to photos of the victim taken by the police before the autopsy, most of the blood from the victim's nose was on the lapel of the clothes he was wearing at the time.

After examining the entire scene, Hugo discovered a small bloodstain on the desk that Servilic had used as a drug mixing table. Judging from its location near the center of the desk, it was undoubtedly blood from his nose that had slid down his clothes.

And so, the contradiction arose—

If the deceased had struggled painfully in the room when the poison took effect, the blood flowing from his mouth and nose must have been everywhere with his violent breathing.

However, the detective also checked the other floors in the living room, but there were no traces of blood like those on the table.

Did the deceased really convulse and writhe in the room due to the excruciating pain of poisoning?

Hugo's doubts are not a novel conclusion.

It's easy to imagine that the police officers had also found similar clues during the investigation, but because the chain of evidence was incomplete, it would be meaningless to overturn Joey's previous diagnosis before further identifying the type of toxin... For all the reasons mentioned above, this matter was not written into the initial case record.

The unusual condition of the furniture was also interpreted by the police as evidence of a later intruder's search—a reasonable guess, but it overlooked a crucial issue.

What was Servić's condition like before his death?

Since the intruder who ransacked the crime scene before the police arrived, and turned Servić's residence upside down so thoroughly, how could they not have searched the victim's personal clothing?

In other words, the fact that the victim was found lying face up suggests that the intruders who arrived later had tampered with the body.

As for its initial posture at the time of death, judging from the bloodstains on the table and the direction of the bloodstains on its clothes, it was very likely a relatively upright sitting posture.

The deceased died while sitting in the chair in front of the workbench, maintaining a seated posture.

Perhaps Servić did experience some degree of pain before his death, which caused him to display a ferocious expression before dying, but he seemed to still possess enough rationality to prevent himself from falling into meaningless madness.

When did this "plague scholar," who made a living by selling drugs, first realize that he was poisoned?

Was it before or after he carried out the large-scale poisoning?

Did he attempt to save himself? Or, like the police now, was he unable to identify the specific type of toxin?

Hugo reopened his phone, found the victim's photo he'd received from Officer Jenny, and stared at the pitiful figure with its distorted face. He shook his head.

"Perhaps this guy left a suicide note before he died of poisoning."

However, whatever information Servić left behind before his death, it was all swept away by the uninvited guest who found the deceased before the police.

What reason did the other party have for visiting this hidden poisoning suspect?

Before Hugo could even lament the newly discovered facts, the smartphone he was holding vibrated, requesting a communication.