Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 552 - The Heinous Criminal

Chapter 552: Chapter 552: The Heinous Criminal Chapter 552: Chapter 552: The Heinous Criminal “So, what do you think of those tomb raiders?”

Shard asked curiously.

“What else can I think? They steal from under my watch, I’d strangle them if I could! Besides, disturbing the deceased is a great sin, even if it’s just to eat, such deeds should not be done. If you dare to deal with the dead, be prepared to be strangled by them.”

After finishing, the old man spat on the ground in dissatisfaction, his demeanor with the large scissors for trimming tree branches suggested he was ready to snip any tomb raider he encountered.

The three interconnected robbed graves were located in the southeast corner of Section Three at the Tobesk Public Cemetery. The cemetery was gradually expanding towards the mountainous forests to the east, so this corner enjoyed a rather nice natural view.

They could see mounds of earth from afar and discovered upon approaching that these were left by the tomb raiders during the excavation.

The police from Riddlevitch Field had placed three no-entry signs here, linked by warning tape. Iluna stepped right over, her black leather shoes leaving barely noticeable footprints on the grass.

Shard looked down at the ground, the weeds were messy, but the original crime scene was largely preserved.

He approached the dug-up graves:

“The coffins are still here. The tomb guardian said there were no tire tracks, so did the criminals carry the bodies away in bags, or just on their backs?”

“It’s hard to say, I’ve read church records and some grave robbers even take the bodies away in pieces… What’s that awful smell?”

Iluna complained, scrunching up her nose, and then squatted down to inspect three tombstones embedded in the ground.

“This one belongs to Mrs. Fennel.”

Iluna pointed to the one on the edge, Shard leaned over to take a look, but the tombstone didn’t list anything important:

“Are the death dates of the other two bodies also recent?”

“Yes, both about half a month ago, and both are female corpses,”

Iluna said confidently.

“I remember the case files stated their ages at death were 34 and 25. What about the causes of death? Were they also sick?”

Shard asked, blinking his eyes, trying to find any bloodstains or lingering spirits nearby.

“It’s not written in the dossier, but it’s written here on the tombstone, let’s see…”

“Let me look, don’t get your hands dirty.”

The other two tombstones on the ground were almost buried in mud, Shard patted Iluna’s shoulder to make her move aside a bit. Then he put on his gloves, squatted down, and started to scrape away the earth:

“One hanged herself due to being abandoned, and the other… choked to death on beans? Oh, that’s really unlucky.”

Shard shook his head:

“Aside from the time and gender, the three bodies have no common characteristics. However, we can’t rule out that the perpetrator wasn’t just stealing the bodies but had a grudge against one of the women, desecrated the bodies, and then stole all three to divert attention.”

“Detective, it’s good you’re not a criminal.”

Iluna joked, but her face was serious as she surveyed the surroundings:

“How about it, any bloodstains around?”

“Yes, but they are all from animals or insects. Hold on, let me look around.”

Iluna continued to examine the grave sites. She also possessed an arcane technique for finding objects; last time at the Lucky Southern Cross Club, she easily located the bloodstains. Meanwhile, Shard circled the nearby bushes, hoping to find traces left by cuts on the tomb raider. But the perpetrator was lucky, not injured during the entire crime process.

“Found it.”

When Shard returned, Iluna pointed to the central grave pit:

“There seems to be something under the coffin that doesn’t belong to Earth.”

“The police didn’t even check it?”

“They probably didn’t expect to find a clue in such a spot.”

As Shard was about to jump into the grave pit to lift the coffin, Iluna immediately stopped him:

“No need to go through all that trouble.”

She looked around and then slightly lifted her hand toward the grave pit, and the solid wood coffin immediately rose. It was the sorcery “Move Object,” but Shard couldn’t achieve such an effect. Even though he was of the Three Rings, in extreme situations, he could barely lift Mia.

Shard bent down to look beneath the levitated coffin, and what he saw was a rotten human head, with maggots crawling in the eye sockets:

“Oh!”

Because he was totally unprepared, he was indeed frightened.

Iluna thought there was some danger below and raised her hand to throw the coffin to the side into the bushes. After the heavy sound of it landing, she was about to drop the golden thunder in her hand, but what she saw was a rotting corpse shallowly buried in the grave pit.

To prevent anyone from noticing traces of digging the grave, the body had been dismembered before being buried. Due to the hurried digging, the body was not buried deep, which caused Shard to see the rotting head immediately:

“Oh, this is truly…”

Shard jumped out of the grave pit, not knowing what to say.

“Could this be the stolen body?”

Iluna said, covering her nose, the smell wasn’t significant at first, but after moving the coffin, the rotten smell of the body immediately rushed up.

“Not sure, let’s see if the other two bodies are still there.”

Thus, Iluna covered her nose with her left hand and with her right hand directed the remaining two empty coffins to fly out of the grave, lying on the increasingly messy lawn.

Shard bent over to look next to the grave. They were looking for Mrs. Fennel’s grave, which indeed also contained a body that was severely decayed and had been segmented for easy burial, but the grave of the 29-year-old lady who had hanged herself was empty.

“It seems it really might be a diversion, the real target is actually only the body of Mrs. Julian who hanged herself.”

Iluna looked at the scene in front of her with an unpleasant expression.

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“Perhaps the grave robber switched the positions of the three bodies to confuse people.”

Shard proposed another possibility, glancing at the buried bodies, he really didn’t want to dig them up himself:

“Notify the gravedigger, I’ll see if there are any clean clothes left on these bodies that can help us identify them.”

“What if the grave robber also switched their clothes?”

The seventeen-year-old girl had learned to think like Shard.

“Impossible, the clothes and the bodies are nearly merged into one. If I were the grave robber, I would dismember the bodies and bury them mixed up, to create confusion. That’s much easier than painstakingly removing each article of clothing. Moreover, it could prevent an experienced coroner from easily identifying the bodies by their skeletons, buying myself some time,” Shard said, furrowing his brow, also struggling with the stench.

They quickly called the old gravedigger, who was shocked to see the bodies buried at the bottom of the grave pit and didn’t bother with how Shard and Iluna had removed the coffins.

He dashed to the church to summon people, and then together they dug up the body pieces and tried to reconstruct them on the lawn.

Criminals obviously didn’t think as much as Shard, and judging by the clothes and the skeletons, the body at the bottom of the coffins was indeed the one that was supposed to be inside them.

This means that Mrs. Fennel, who Iluna was looking for, and the unfortunate woman who choked on beans and died, had actually been here all along, while the truly missing body was that of Ms. Annie Julian, who had hanged herself due to relationship issues.

Taking out two shillings for carriage fare, they sent someone to fetch the police detective from Riddlevitch Field. The detective in charge, although he had not discovered what was buried beneath the coffins, at least arrived on the scene very quickly.

The big-bearded detective Mario, wearing a brown leather jacket and accompanied by his assistant, was initially puzzled about who had interfered with his case. However, upon hastily arriving and seeing the credentials presented by Iluna, he refrained from discussing the identities of Iluna and Shard, clearly very aware of the relationship between the church and the police station.

“It looks like the next direction for the investigation should involve looking into Ms. Julian’s social relations. That damned guy, once I find him, I am definitely going to punch him!”

Officer Mario was very indignant upon hearing Shard explain their investigation process and after seeing the two reconstructed bodies. In this Steam Age, it was understandable for police to cause harm to suspects during arrests. As for such a vile grave robber, even if a policeman killed him on the spot, Officer Mario probably would not be penalized.

Compared to the somewhat agitated detective, the seventeen-year-old girl appeared very steady during her mission, and hesitated for a moment:

“Does Ms. Julian still have any relatives?”

“We looked into that when we notified the victim’s family.”

The detective passed a different notebook to his assistant, a young man with red freckles looked sneakily at Iluna, but upon seeing Shard next to her, his face fell.

“Ms. Julian’s parents died early. She grew up with her brother. Although she was already 25 years old before she died, she was still unmarried.”

In this era, it is quite rare for a 25-year-old civilian girl to still be unmarried. Aside from her own pressures, neighbors and relatives would also gossip.

“Her brother, Toby Julian, also lives in Tobesk. Although they did not live together, they had a good relationship. All the arrangements after Ms. Julian’s suicide were made by Mr. Toby Julian. Here is his address.”

The detective Mario, speaking in a Tobesk accent, tore the page from the notebook and handed it to Shard, clearly considering Shard to be Iluna’s assistant.

Shard glanced at it, an address in the Lower District of the north end of the town, but not in the slums.

“Then, about the man who abandoned Ms. Julian, leading her to commit suicide out of heartbreak, who is he, and where does he live?”

Iluna asked, causing Detective Mario to shake his head with some embarrassment:

“I know the man’s name, but not his address. When I took over this case, I thought it was just a simple grave robbing case, so I didn’t do a more detailed investigation into the social relations of the bodies prior to their interment. But I think Ms. Julian’s brother, Mr. Toby Julian, should know these things.”