Chapter 59: CASE 4. Upside Down, Inside Out (3)

I grinned as I waved the envelope.

“How about it? Shall we share our information?”

Walter hesitated for a moment, but soon nodded.

“…Very well. Let us move to another spot.”

Thus, we moved to a small room on the second floor. I candidly shared the story about the request I received from the man at the post office and the suspicious letter.

“I see. A letter consisting only of numbers, with no clear recipient…”

Walter nodded.

“Thank you for telling me, Mr. Hayes. This definitely seems like something related to the case.”

“I have told you everything we know. Now, I would like to hear your story, Mr. Walter.”

“Oh, I have a question!”

Lure asked Walter as if he had been waiting for the chance.

“Why do you think Mr. Utu was murdered, Mr. Walter? Didn’t you say it looked like he fell down the stairs? If so, wouldn’t it be an accidental death?”

It was a reasonable question for a detective’s assistant.

Before starting any deduction, it was necessary to be certain whether this incident was a simple accident or a murder.

‘Of course, as long as I can see the culprit, there is no chance it was an accident.’

Still, there must have been some evidence at the scene for a detective like Walter to conclude it was murder.

‘What kind of evidence could there be in a fall? Did the culprit leave a handprint on the victim’s back?’

I looked forward to some new clues from Walter’s mouth.

“……”

Unexpectedly, he only wore a troubled expression.

“What is it? You don’t mean to say you have no evidence, do you?”

“No. That’s not it. I have a basis. However… I’m hesitant about whether it’s right to speak of this so hastily.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Didn’t we just agree to exchange information fairly?”

Lure asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s not very gentlemanly, Mr. Walter,” I added. “You’ve heard all the information you needed, and now you’re saying you can’t share yours?”

“I’m not saying I won’t tell you. But, before I do, I’d like to make one thing clear.”

“Make what clear?”

“Mr. Hayes, are you really a detective?”

“Pardon?”

Walter said with a drooping brow.

“I’m sorry for continuing to doubt you. But no matter how I look at it, my intuition tells me that the person in front of me is a soldier, not a detective. I cannot recklessly share information with a suspicious person who is hiding their identity.”

“What are you… Where do I look like a soldier?”

“That’s right! That’s nonsense!”

Lure shouted boldly, placing his hands on his hips.

“The master has been discharged! He’s a detective now!”

“A veteran? Then that’s even more suspicious.”

Walter spoke in a cold voice.

“Most veterans are social misfits, aren’t they?”

“What? That’s just a prejudice!”

“It’s a statistic. Veterans are people who are definitely broken in at least one place, whether it is their head or their body. It’s hard for them to get a job, and they struggle to get along with others, so they wander the bottom of society. It’s not even that rare for such people to get involved in these kinds of crimes.”

These were cynical words, hard to believe they came from someone who had insisted on such a soft tone until now.

I could even feel a sort of loathing.

I felt a bit offended. Even though he thought I was a veteran, he spoke such harsh words without hesitation?

‘If I were really a veteran from this area, I don’t think I would want to let him live.’

“Until a moment ago, I thought Mr. Walter was a very talented detective, but I guess I was mistaken. To think you would ignore your own deductions because of prejudice.”

“I’m ignoring my own deductions?”

“Didn’t you say on the first floor that Lure and I couldn’t be the culprits due to the timing? The fact that I’m a veteran wouldn’t change that alibi, would it?”

“That doesn’t matter. Even if you aren’t the culprit, you could be an accomplice. Veterans are all insane people, and it always shows.”

“Then my master must not be a veteran! I guess I was wrong!”

Lure shouted in a voice as angry as mine.

“Where does the master look like a crazy person?”

Unexpectedly, Walter stopped right there.

He stared intently at my face, and then the space between his eyebrows narrowed as he became flustered.

“…Now that I think about it, that’s strange. There are almost no traces of a veteran in you. It’s not that you don’t have soldier-like qualities, but rather than a veteran who has experienced war, you seem more like a recruit who wandered around a training center for a few months and got lucky with a discharge.”

Walter examined me so blatantly it was rude, then spoke again.

“If I were to deduce logically, you look more like a former cricket player? Why did I see you as a soldier? I don’t understand.”

‘Like I would know.’

I thought he was a madman.

One moment he was cornering me, saying I looked like a soldier rather than a detective, and now he was saying he didn’t know why he did that.

‘What is he even doing?’

“Mr. Walter. You’ve been saying you ‘see’ things since earlier…”

Unlike me, who was just bewildered, Lure seemed to have guessed something.

Lure asked as his anger subsided significantly.

“Does ‘seeing’ something mean something slightly different from your deductions, Mr. Walter?”

“Ah, that’s right. My intuition is always faster than my deduction. I instinctively learn something first, and then I use deduction to catch up with my intuition later.”

‘What is that? Is he a detective who relies on gut feelings?’

No, since his deductions support it, it would be better to say he utilizes his intuition well rather than relying on it exclusively.

“So far, there has almost never been a time when I couldn’t catch up to my intuition through deduction. If I thought about it logically, I could quickly understand why such a conclusion was reached. Those rare cases where I couldn’t catch up with my intuition were mostly…”

Walter stopped for a moment, then struck his palm with his fist as if he realized something.

“Mr. Hayes. Haven’t we met somewhere before?”

“Pardon? No way.”

“Don’t be like that; think about it one more time.”

“I am certain we haven’t.”

But Walter was quite persistent.

“I don’t mean recently. Maybe about three years ago… or even seven years ago. Try to remember well. Haven’t you seen me before? I think I might have seen you. You, in the form of a soldier. It seems that memory is stuck in my subconscious.”

“I told you, there’s no such thing.”

Lure whispered to me, looking puzzled.

“Why are you so sure? It’s true you were a soldier before, Master. Is it not possible you might have passed by Mr. Walter during that time?”

No. That was impossible.

It was physically impossible.

‘I was in the Republic of Korea back then.’

Therefore, Walter and I couldn’t be related.

Since I didn’t even exist in this body back then — .

‘No, wait!’

I paused at a sudden thought.

‘Even if I didn’t exist in this body, someone else might have.’

What if what Walter saw was me, but not me?

Could Walter have met the original owner of this body before I possessed it?

‘…That sounds plausible.’

I only possessed this body around last year.

It was at the moment I was being stabbed by some criminal.

It wouldn’t be so strange if the original owner of this body had met this detective named Walter a few years before that.

‘So, the owner of this body was a soldier?’

It was a clue about my past that even I didn’t know.

I hadn’t been able to find any traces until now!

At the clue I encountered in an unexpected place, I forgot I had been raising my voice until moments ago and hurriedly asked questions.

“Mr. Walter. Do you remember anything else about me? Any other information besides being a soldier?”

“What? Um, well. I feel like something might come to mind, but I think I’ll have to think about it a bit more.”

Walter was flustered and lost in thought.

I wanted to urge him to give me the information right away, but unfortunately, the story of my past ended there.

“Um, but now that I think about it, as long as we can prove the master is currently a detective, doesn’t the past not matter anyway?”

“Yes. That’s true, but is there a way?”

“Actually, I took good care of the telegrams the master received at the post office earlier.”

Lure fumbled and took a letter out from his shirt.

It was a long telegram sent by Mr. Peterson.

“To Detective Hayes…”

Walter looked at the letter carefully, front and back, with a serious face, and then his expression softened.

“It’s an authentic telegram delivered to the post office. The content doesn’t seem to be fabricated, either.”

“Then?”

“A detective who receives the gratitude of the Chairman of the Peterherring Company wouldn’t be involved in this case. My goodness, I have been rude. Mr. Hayes, you really are a detective.”

“It’s fine as long as you recognize it now.”

“…Regardless of what your past was like.”

‘Did you really have to add that last part?’

I wondered if he had a grudge against soldiers, but it wasn’t a good time to clear up all my personal feelings.

“Now, are we good? Then can you tell us about the case? What kind of information was it that you kept your mouth so tightly shut?”

“Now that your identity has been proven, there’s no reason to keep it a secret anymore. Yes, I’ll tell you everything.”

Walter’s story began.

***

How was I sure that Mr. Utu was murdered?

To tell you that, first, I’ll have to explain how I ended up here.

For the past few years, I’ve been chasing a dangerous organization.

The name of that organization is the Herbert Clan.

It’s a dangerous organization that uses socially marginalized people as its main members to distribute drugs and carry out acts of terror.

Did you notice?

Mr. Utu was originally from this organization.

Moreover, he was a close confidant among confidants, one who handled the most dangerous secrets right by the boss’s side.

But Mr. Utu suddenly declared his retirement and disappeared, saying he would return to his hometown in the Northern Region.

I found Mr. Utu’s retirement suspicious and tracked him down. Until then, I thought Mr. Utu’s retirement was a scheme by the Herbert Clan.

I thought they were plotting something suspicious in the Northern Region.

I never imagined that at the end of my pursuit, I would face Mr. Utu’s corpse.

Yes. When I arrived at this house early this morning, Mr. Utu was already dead.

I used my status as a detective to prevent a report to the police.

In this region, where they fought a life-and-death war with foreign tribes in the not-so-distant past, sentiments toward foreign tribes are quite poor.

When I warned them that if the local police got involved, they wouldn’t be able to find the real culprit who killed Mr. Utu, the witnesses readily agreed to leave the case to me.

After hearing their stories, I realized.

My assumption regarding Mr. Utu’s retirement was completely wrong, and Mr. Utu really had intended to retire.

However, the clan was unhappy with this decision.

That’s because Mr. Utu knew too much information to just leave the organization like this.

Mr. Utu seemed to have foreseen an attack from the Herbert Clan and lived while maintaining a strict watch on his surroundings, but…

Yes. In the end, it turned out like this.

Someone managed to break through Mr. Utu’s steadfast guard and pushed him when he let his guard down.

That someone must have been a person by Mr. Utu’s side.

That’s right. One of the three people downstairs is an assassin from the Herbert Clan.

***

“The Herbert Clan…”

I felt like I had heard of them somewhere.

“Do you know them? They are an organization that mainly operates in the Imperial Capital. In Mr. Utu’s case, he was a member of a foreign tribe from the Northern Region, but the main members of the Herbert Clan are…”

“Probably veterans,” I said.

I could deduce that much from our conversation so far.

“That’s why you were wary of me. Is that right?”

“Mr. Hayes is correct,” Walter explained.

“As I said before, veterans are the outcasts of society. They have no money, and no opportunities for re-employment. The most familiar and easiest way for them to earn money is through violence, and many have turned into criminals.”

Walter’s hatred for veterans still felt excessive, but in a way, it was understandable.

‘If a significant number of the criminals he had faced were veterans, it would be natural for a prejudice to form.’

It was a prejudice proven by statistics.

Furthermore, if I had really been a member of the Herbert Clan, Walter, who confessed he was chasing them, might have been in mortal danger.

In a life-threatening situation, it was by no means easy to have the courage to set aside prejudice.

“…Now! The background explanation is over, so shall we take a look at the information on the suspects?”

Walter said, drawing my attention.

“By suspects, you mean those three people gathered in the living room earlier, right?”

“Yes. That’s right. I’ll tell you their basic details and suspicious points.”

He took a notebook from his shirt and wrote down the names.

I was sorry to say this, but his handwriting was quite poor.

Mrs. Portia

“First, Mrs. Portia. She recently married Mr. Utu.”

“She was very beautiful. She seemed to be out of her mind with grief over her husband’s death.”

“Or perhaps she’s faking it. Mrs. Portia is an outsider, and her identity is not clear. Besides, and I’m sorry to say this to Mr. Utu, but isn’t she a beauty who doesn’t suit him at all? Perhaps she chose marriage not out of love, but for some other purpose.”

“Well. That’s not a very rare occurrence.”

Indeed. I knew of at least three cases.

Next. Mrs. Nelissa

“Mrs. Nelissa took on all sorts of miscellaneous household chores like cleaning, laundry, and cooking on behalf of Mrs. Portia, who doesn’t know how to do housework at all.”

“She’s the lady who was comforting Mrs. Portia just now, right? She looked very cozy and warm.”

“But you can’t judge a person by their appearance. She moved to this village about six months ago. That’s shortly after Mr. Utu declared his retirement. Originally, Mr. Utu didn’t want to hire anyone who wasn’t a local, but Mrs. Nelissa made a tearful plea to Mrs. Portia, and they conspired to deceive Mr. Utu so she could get the job.”

That was certainly suspicious.

Lastly. Mr. Renner

“Mr. Renner is the owner of the grocery store in the village below. I heard that the deceased, Mr. Utu, recently asked to supply mushrooms to Mr. Renner’s store, and he was on his way to see the samples.”

“Ugh, you mean that rude man who pushed me earlier? I think he’s the culprit.”

“Perhaps. Mr. Renner is a local whose family has been in business in this village for generations, but it seems he’s accumulated a lot of debt while running the grocery store recently. People with money problems are easy for criminals to recruit.”

Mrs. Portia, Mrs. Nelissa, and Mr. Renner.

These three were the suspects in this case.

Of course, I already knew which one of them was the culprit.

‘Lure’s hunch was useful this time.’

The shop owner, Renner.

That man was the culprit of this incident.

The problem was how to naturally derive this conclusion…

‘There’s only one thing I can use, isn’t there?’

The suspicious letter with the erased sender’s name that had been sent to the victim on the morning of the murder.

This letter, with the code written on it, was the only clue.

Did he have the same thought as me?

“This letter…”

Lure said, pointing at the numerical letter.

“Could this letter have been the assassination order?”