Melanie was utterly perplexed.
She asked in puzzlement: "Why would anyone want to kill me?"
Jian Jing asked: "Do you have any enemies? Or rather, who would benefit from your death?"
Melanie shook her head: "I don't know Carl, August is my friend, you all...I don't know any of you. Mary..." She hesitated for a moment, but still shook her head, "Although she doesn't approve of our marriage, I only met her after coming to Barna. As for George, it's the same."
Jian Jing was also puzzled.
This case was truly bizarre, with almost no discernible motive. In general, murder boiled down to benefits, revenge, or passion.
According to the law, after Melanie's death, her estate would be inherited by Lei Ao. But Lei Ao was already incredibly wealthy, so why would he kill his wife, unless he was actually on the verge of bankruptcy and had taken out a massive insurance policy on her.
Other than that, there was the rumored curse of killing one's wife—but you couldn't put stock in that, right?
Holen was more complicated. He may have had some issues with Melanie, or harbored a secret hatred for Lei Ao.
"Have you known Mr. Holen for a long time?" She methodically investigated each guess.
Melanie smiled slightly, still possessing an enchanting beauty even in such a moment: "Yes, August and I are good friends. It was he who introduced me to Lei Ao."
Jian Jing carefully asked: "What was your relationship like?"
"August is a good friend, but..." Melanie said delicately, "he's not suited to be a husband. Lei Ao is the opposite. Although he's not very good with sweet words, he is exactly what I wanted—a responsible, loving, gentle husband."
Jian Jing scrutinized her expression, not missing the slightest tell. But Melanie's gaze was frank, her tone lighthearted, with no sign of lying.
"What about Mr. Holen and Lei Ao?"
Melanie thought for a moment before saying: "August is a proud man. He has major conflicts with his family. Sometimes it's hard for others to understand him, but Lei Ao can. They are extremely loyal friends."
"What about Carl?"
"I don't know him well," Melanie said apologetically. "Actually, I haven't seen Kimberley for years. About a year ago, she emailed me that she got married, but they were doing a traveling wedding ceremony without a real wedding. I just sent her my congratulations. This was my first time meeting Carl too."
Jian Jing asked: "Did Kimberley ever talk to you about him?"
Melanie recalled: "She said Carl was great, very caring, an attentive husband. The only unsatisfactory thing was his work and tight finances."
Saying this, she inevitably fell silent. After all, if not for poverty, Kimberley would not have had to borrow the necklace from her. Without borrowing the necklace, Kimberley would not have died.
Jian Jing understood the look in her eyes. After considering for a moment, she asked: "So from when Lei Ao and the others left the dressing room until the blackout, no one else knew that Kimberley was wearing the necklace?"
Melanie hesitated before saying: "I think there shouldn't have been anyone. It was just a spur of the moment idea—maybe Carl could have guessed?"
Jian Jing nodded slightly.
Although the current clues all pointed to a mistaken killing, it couldn't be 100% certain that Melanie was the target.
If someone had witnessed or guessed that Kimberley would borrow the necklace, they may have taken advantage of the earlier poisoning incident, causing people to wrongly assume it was a second attempt on Melanie's life to misdirect the investigation.
Then the biggest suspect would be Carl.
The husband was always the first to be suspected.
However, just looking at the facts, poisoning was not a sensible way for Carl to kill Kimberley. As Melanie said, the biggest problem in their marriage was tight finances, meaning Kimberley didn't have much money either.
The motive of inheriting her estate didn't stand.
Also, murdering her was equivalent to stamping the words "premeditated murder" on his forehead, making it very difficult to collect insurance payouts.
There must still be undiscovered facets to this case.
Like the singing.
"Can you describe what you and Kimberley did after the blackout?" Jian Jing asked.
"After the blackout? We, we stayed in the room for a bit." Melanie tried hard to recall. "It was pitch black in the room, and there was singing—I mean, wind that sounded like singing, you heard it too right? Kimberley was very angry, insisting it must be Mary making trouble again—she always felt it was Mary messing around—so we went out.
"Someone walked towards us. I heard Kang's voice...then everyone else came over. Kimberley suddenly cried out. I felt her fall towards me. I thought she had tripped... "
She recounted in a jumbled way, not much different from what others had said.
Jian Jing asked: "Could you tell how many people were there at the scene?"
"Kang, Si, and August were there. I heard their voices."
"You couldn't see how many people there were clearly?"
"Of course not, it was pitch black." Melanie said. "I didn't notice anything."
Jian Jing wanted to ask more about the singing, but just then there was a "knock knock" at the door. She turned to see Lei Ao standing in the doorway. He apologetically interrupted their conversation: "Jian, it's already 11 o'clock. Melanie needs to rest. Can we continue this tomorrow?"
Melanie quickly said: "I'm fine, it's no problem. Jian is doing this for Kimberley."
"Please don't say that. I'm the one intruding." Jian Jing tactfully got up. "You really should rest. Get some good sleep."
But Melanie suddenly sat up and grabbed her hand, asking full of hope: "You'll find the person who hurt Kimberley, right?"
"I'll do my best." Jian Jing squeezed her hand.
Finally, Melanie revealed a relieved smile and relaxed back onto the soft cushion. In moments, she fell into light sleep.
Lei Ao carefully tucked in her blankets and dimmed the lights. He quietly shut the door behind him.
Jian Jing still hadn't gone far. She stood in the dim hallway, as if waiting for him.
"Jian, did you need something?" Lei Ao maintained a gentlemanly demeanor and politely asked.
But his body language betrayed his strong reluctance—don't ask me anymore, don't get to the bottom of this. Kimberley is dead, it's unfortunate, but I only care about Melanie.
She smiled, pretending to know nothing, and gently said: "I just wanted to say goodnight to you."
In a flash, the tension left Lei Ao's muscles. His tone was much more genuine and soft: "Goodnight. Rest early."
Jian Jing waved and turned to go downstairs.
Rest? No no no, she felt like she just drank a shot of espresso and was raring to go.
The questioning was done. Naturally, inspecting the scene would be the next item on her to-do list.
She wanted to test how long it took to walk from the dressing room to the stairs.
With the lights on, it took 50 seconds.
Turning off the hallway lights on the second floor would slow her down a bit. Feeling her way in the dark, it took about 3 minutes.
From the smoking room to the stairs was around 3 minutes.
From Carl's room on the third floor down to the second floor stairs took a reasonable 5-6 minutes. From Jian Jing's room downstairs plus listening to the music in her room, it was about 7 minutes.
From Mary's room on the first floor to the kitchen and up to the second floor, under normal circumstances it was 7-8 minutes. Although she had candlelight later, adding the time to find the candle, 10 minutes was necessary.
In short, Lei Ao's behavior was suspicious, Carl and Mary's timelines were questionable, George was invisible the whole time, and Holen's account was most reasonable, though no one could corroborate it.
Conclusion: endless threads and leads.
She returned to her room, ran a hot bath, and picked up the notebook by her bedside. While soaking in aromatic bath oils, she pondered.
First of all, it could be definitively established that three separate incidents occurred in the castle:
1. The strychnine poisoning at dinner
2. The corpse scare
3. The cyanide poisoning murder
Currently, she felt the first and third incidents were quite similar, both using poisoning. The second used a corpse to terrify, achieving the best frightening effect without actual harm.
But looking at it another way, the corpse's appearance and the cyanide poisoning both happened in darkness, accompanied by singing. That was not the case for the first dinner poisoning.
Were they done by different people, or was one a smoke bomb?
The pen tip lingered over the three lines for a while before drawing two horizontal lines under the last one.
Murder—no matter what, the cyanide poisoning was the most serious crime. To find the killer, she had to start from this case.
Jian Jing decided to temporarily set aside the previous incidents and focus her thinking on the full picture of Kimberley's murder.
Several people had issues—they couldn't all be the killer.
With no discernible motive, the only option was to use the dumbest method—eliminate them one by one.
Jian Jing bit down on her pen and leapt up abruptly, sending a spray of water droplets that had been dyed red by the bath bomb flying in all directions. They slid down the ancient tiles, tracing a series of winding, bizarre streaks.
A flash of inspiration struck her, and something stirred within her heart, but just as she tried to grasp it, it dissipated in an instant without leaving the slightest trace behind.
Strange. What had she just thought of?
Jian Jing was puzzled for a moment but to no avail. She had no choice but to dry off the droplets, put on her house clothes, and knock on the door that connected to the next room.
This room was the same as the one Kimberley and Carl had previously occupied. Aside from the main door leading to the hallway, there was still a side door connecting the two rooms. Both had door bolts that allowed them to be locked.
It took over half a minute before the other side opened. Kang Mu Cheng looked surprised and concerned. "What's wrong?"
"I still have some questions," Jian Jing said, twirling her pen incessantly as her eyes darted around. "Were you sleeping?"
"No, come on in."
Jian Jing sat down in the armchair by the window and adjusted herself into a comfortable sitting position. "There are many things I'm confused about."
"Like what?" Kang Mu Cheng had already assumed a listening posture.
Jian Jing considered for a moment. "Did Lei Ao have a motive to kill Melanie?"
"No," Kang Mu Cheng answered without hesitation. "You don't understand Lei Ao. He is a very serious person. If he considers someone a friend, he would give his complete loyalty. It would be no different with love. Besides, why would he kill Melanie? They were about to get married."
"Love can also lead to murder," she reasoned objectively. "Possessiveness in men?"
Kang Mu Cheng paused. This did not seem like an appropriate topic for them to discuss. But he tried his best to dispel distracting thoughts and asked, "You mean jealousy or betrayal?"
"Could be either," Jian Jing said.
He still shook his head. "Lei Ao is a good man."
"Alright then." Jian Jing did not harp on it and changed the subject. "Could you recall again all the details after the power went out?"
Kang Mu Cheng tried his best to cooperate. "Lei Ao went out first..."
Before he could finish speaking, she interrupted him. "Mr. Kang, slowly. After he went out, do you remember which direction his footsteps went?"
Kang Mu Cheng was taken aback and contemplated. "Direction? It should have been towards the library, right?"
"No, no. From where you were, it would take about 2 minutes to get to the stairs. In the dark, the library and lounge were directly across from each other, separated by a hallway. From the lounge to the stairs would take no more than half a minute," Jian Jing described.
She continued, "If Lei Ao had really gone towards the library, there would have been a 90 percent chance that he would have run into Melanie. Even if he didn't, shouldn't his first reaction have been to call out to her? Think carefully. Which direction did the footsteps go?"
Kang Mu Cheng remained silent.
Jian Jing had planted the seed of doubt. With this analysis, he could no longer be certain.
After Lei Ao had rushed out the door at that time, which direction did the footsteps go...which direction?
"The library and lounge were to the right of the changing room, and the smoking room was to the left. Was it left or right?"
Kang Mu Cheng furrowed his brows and shook his head. "I don't remember anymore. The singing was very loud at the time. I was listening to the song the whole time and didn't pay attention to where he went."
But Jian Jing suddenly straightened her posture and sought confirmation. "The singing was very loud? Are you sure?"
"I'm certain of this. What's wrong?" he asked.
Jian Jing propped up her head and mumbled, "Strange, really strange."
