A Deadly Sympathy

When Jorgen saw Dores's corpse hanging from the beam in his own home, he immediately recalled Dores's pleading eyes two days ago when he asked for "one day." A person seeking death would not have such eyes. But now, his thin body hung down from the center of the room, his neck tightened by a noose. This scene made Jorgen feel that what he asked for at that time was not just "one day," but "one more day of life."

As soon as he walked into the room, he felt that familiar atmosphere. On the one hand was the stiff corpse, on the other hand were the busy investigators searching around; the strange balance between life and death.

Now Jorgen was holding a letter found on the deceased's desk, less than five steps away from the corpse. It read:

"Fifteen years ago I did a terrible thing: I led the one who loved me into hell. Cowardice and hypocrisy allowed me to live fifteen more years, old sins are accumulating, and I continue to commit new sins. Gamero Ironhammer discovered my identity as a traitor to the Twilight Cult, so I killed him. I'm sorry. It's time to atone for everything."

When the letter was found, the upper left corner was pressed by an ink bottle. The ink bottle seemed to have been overturned, as ink dripped from the mouth of the bottle, soaking a large area of the letter.

"What do you think?" Elin asked.

"The handwriting looks no different from Dores himself. But the wording is too deliberate."

"A forged will?"

"Maybe. Let's talk about it later, this will is troublesome... Let's look at something else first."

"Do you need to take it down?" An assistant asked Jorgen.

"No, not yet." Jorgen continued to look up at the corpse, then turned to Elin and said, "Before I came, were there any other findings?"

"Oh, although not much, even an idiot like Cannon would understand that this was not suicide after seeing these suspicious points. First, here - on the floor here, we found some sea sand. The location of this sea sand was behind the desk, opposite the corpse."

"There was also some sea sand on the soles of the deceased's shoes. Maybe he went to the beach that night."

"That's not the key," Elin pointed to the surface of the corpse's left waist clothes, "Look, there's some sea sand on this too."

"He fell to the ground in front of the desk before being hanged."

"Right. He was likely knocked down, as the corpse has no other external injuries. The murderer may have directly strangled him to cause fainting before hanging him. As for the sea sand itself, it may indicate that he himself went to the beach, or the murderer went to the beach, or both of them went - we're not clear on this yet."

"This evidence is not strong enough."

"If we are to rely on this to prove that he killed, then it is indeed not strong enough. But we are discussing this on the basis that this is a homicide, right? There's no need for us to say those clichés. That so-called will almost allows us to draw a conclusion. Not to mention, there's another finding."

Elin took a small piece of fabric from an assistant and showed it to Jorgen.

"We both know what this color and pattern are, Jorgen."

The deep purple fabric was trimmed with gold and black threads.

"Part of the Twilight Cultist's robe. It should be the sleeve portion."

"Some threads have come off, and the edges are damaged. Guess what? The Twilight Cultist robe that Dores always wore to gather intelligence for us is gone. That thing had been under the couch cushion, at least until the day before yesterday - but now it's gone. Let's talk about that letter again. If that was forged by the murderer, then he was clearly very familiar with Dores's personal affairs, or it could be deliberate mystification. But why did the murderer implicate Gamero's case?"

"We never stopped suspecting that Dores was Gamero's murderer."

"But we didn't do anything." Elin waved his hand to return to the current topic. "Alright, do you now know what kind of situation we are facing?"

"A leaky fishing net."

"That's right."

"Leaky fishing net" was the code word developed by Stormwind investigators. If the truth of a case was likened to a fish in the sea, then clues and evidence were the ropes that made up the fishing net. The more clues, the easier it was to catch this fish. However, the so-called "leaky fishing net" meant that although there were many clues, they all pointed in inexplicable directions, as if the fishing net was born with holes and could never catch that fish.

Whenever he encountered such a situation, Jorgen believed: the clues were not wrong. He just lacked the most critical part to unite them into a whole.

"Elin," Jorgen said, "did you notice the deceased's hands?"

"What?"

"The right hand is flat and vertical. But the left hand fingers are curled."

"Hey, buddy, are you saying the corpse's hand spasmed after death? This kind of detail would scare the girls, even though there are only men present."

Jorgen drew out his dagger and slightly moved the fingers of the corpse's left hand with the blunt side. He then grasped the middle finger and lifted it up, making tiny movements with the dagger at the tip of the middle finger as if carving. After a while, he withdrew the dagger from the corpse's palm and carefully placed it on his own palm.

"Found something? I can't see anything..." Elin said.

"Come closer. These were found under the fingernails of the middle finger."

Elin put his face close to Jorgen's palm, squinting.

"I see gold and black threads. Could it be..."

Jorgen also placed the fragment of the Twilight Cultist's robe on his palm. The broken threads on the fragment were exactly the same length as the small section just discovered.

"Elin, where did you first find this fabric?"

"Under the corpse's left heel. Do you mean..."

"This fragment was originally clutched in Dores's left hand, then fell to the ground."

"So what? This clue is more fragmented. It's still a leaky fishing net."

"No," Jorgen said, "think about it again. Since this fragment was in Dores's hand, don't ask how it got there - the key question now is when did it fall off? As you just saw, that finger was stiff enough that nothing would have fallen from it. Not to mention we found the fabric fragment under the corpse's left leg."

"Are you saying it was when the corpse was hanged -"

"Yes. No matter the sea sand or the will before, it could not directly prove the murder process. But this fragment can. The murderer knocked Dores down, wrote the will, and then hanged him. This sounds cruel, but the murderer was very impatient. He left sea sand, overturned the ink bottle, and when he hanged Dores, he did not notice the fragment in his hand - don't ask how it got there - it fell to the ground at the moment the corpse was hanged, when the fingers were not completely stiff yet. In short, this was a very hasty and accidental murder. Although there may have been premeditation, the premeditation and the actual result were far apart."

"We still need to pay more attention to the missing Twilight robe. Whether this fragment came from that robe would lead to different conclusions. Of course, that thing is not easy to find..."

After the corpse was taken down, Elin said: "Do you really think Dores killed Gamero? As written in the will, because his spy identity was discovered?"

"I don't know if Dores killed him. But even if he did, this reason obviously doesn't make sense. Dwarves are not so unreasonable, and a dwarf like Gamero who only knows how to dig all day is even less likely to get entangled in the muddy waters of the Twilight Cult. Even if he really discovered something, Dores could have told us and we would have talked to Gamero."

"That's true. Still...if Dores really did kill Gamero, can you think of any reason?"

"No...we obviously need more investigation."

"Perhaps Gamero really discovered something else. Something that Dores kept from us - we don't know enough about Dores. This is your fault, Jorgen. You are too kind to him. Do you think he will appreciate you in hell?"

Jorgen did not speak. Dores now lay on the ground, his eye sockets sunken in, his lips without a trace of color. Jorgen really wanted to shake him awake and ask him what he had done in his last "day" that led to his death.

I should not have agreed to his request. Jorgen thought. If he had been forcibly sent away before the Fire Festival, would he not have died?

Elin was not the first time to accuse Jorgen of being too lenient with Dores. Such accusations seemed more forceful now that Dores was dead. But Jorgen himself had reasons for such an attitude.

Every time he accepted a task, Dores looked very painful and under great pressure, but he kept doing these things without half a complaint - like a long self-punishment. And his eyes were always so honest. It was like carrying fragile beliefs to do things that had to be done.

Jorgen felt very sorry for Dores. Out of this pity came a strange admiration and identification.

"I have too much sympathy for him," Jorgen said to himself.

"Are you finally willing to admit it?"

"Yes, and now I'm going to do something that seems even more sympathetic to him. Contain the news."

"Contain the news? You mean..."

"Report it as a normal suicide first. Especially the will, it must not be disclosed."

"What do you mean?"

"Sandis Windweaver is now our superior. But he can't know about this."

"I don't know what you're thinking."

"Trust me, he can't know. Otherwise there will be chaos. Do you also want to retain the right to investigate this murder, Elin? The problem is, once Sandis finds out, we are likely to lose the right to investigate. I can't let this happen, because we have to catch the one who killed him."