10.The truth has come out

"What?" Arthur was still struggling with the issue of time.

"Matt," Lynn called Matt, who was guarding the stairway, and whispered a few words to him. Then Matt left the second floor with a slightly reluctant look.

"What do you know?" Arthur asked eagerly.

Lynn, on the contrary, was no longer in a hurry. He calmly gazed at Calvin Dean and said, "You'll find out soon. We just need one last step of verification."

A moment later, Matt returned and handed "Matt went to check on something for me," Lynn explained. "There were no clocks in the private rooms on the third floor, but there was one hanging on the wall in the hallway."

"And what about the two ladies who were playing cards with the Bazel brothers earlier? Were they wearing watches?" Lynn continued to observe Dean's reaction, and as he had expected, the usually composed Dean showed a slight flicker of emotion when the ladies were mentioned.

"No," Matt shook his head.

"Arthur, you were in one of the private rooms for three or four minutes. Did you notice anyone wearing a watch?" Lynn had been focused on observing the environment and people when he was in the private room, and he had inadvertently overlooked the watches. Although Matt had reported that there were no clocks in the private rooms,"Well... I didn't notice either." Arthur grasped Lynn's line of thought. "You suspect that those two women colluded with Dean to deliberately let the Bazel brothers go downstairs at that specific time? That would explain how Dean managed to control the timing so perfectly?"

Lynn nodded slightly. "Yes. The task didn't specify that there was only one murderer, and we might have been misled earlier."

"But your brother said they didn't have watches, and we were all watching from outside. None of them opened the private room door to hide anything either," Dean countered."They can't have been relying solely on mental calculations, can they?" Arthur felt that Lynn's newly discovered lead had hit a dead end.

The lack of any trace of watches caused Lynn to have a slight doubt in his conclusion.

However, recalling Dean's uneasy expression when the two women were mentioned, he remained determined to pursue this line of investigation. "Matt, go check if the Bazel brothers were wearing watches."

"I..." Matt was a bit reluctant to approach the two murdered bodies, but he ultimately didn't reject Lynn's request. "Got it."

After a dozen seconds, Matt hurried back with exciting news: "Bazel Burton was wearing a watch."

Success!

Dean could have used the clock in the second-floor dining room to confirm the time!

The ladies accompanying the Bazel brothers during their card game could also have confirmed the time from Burton's watch!

The reasoning holds!

"Arthur, you can let everyone else leave, just keep Dean here," Lynn said.

Arthur, too, saw hope upon hearing that Bazel Burton was wearing a watch, but he was still a bit hesitant about Lynn's bold move."Are you sure?"

Lynn pondered briefly before responding, "Have them all go to the third floor and wait there. Then bring those two ladies over here."

"I hope you're right," Arthur said, choosing to follow her instructions.

A few minutes later, everyone on the second floor had been ushered to the third floor, and the two ladies who had been watching from the stairwell on the third floor were brought over.

For a moment, the second floor was left with only Lynn, Arthur, Dean, and the two ladies, with Matt still guarding the stairs.

The two ladies looked visibly shaken, staying far from Lynn, Arthur,and Dean, who deliberately avoided eye contact with the ladies, staring intently at Lynn as if he were about to charge at her any second.

Arthur, sensing the tension in the air, subtly positioned himself in front of Lynn, one hand gripping a gun and the other a knife.

"Arthur, let me borrow your gun," Lynn said from behind him.

This time, Arthur handed it over without hesitation, not even asking what Lynn needed it for.

Lynn took the pistol from Arthur and examined it while looking at the two well-featured ladies. "What are your names?" she asked.

"Bev."

"Dana."

Both spoke timidly.

"Do you know this gentleman named Calvin Dean? I suggest you answer this question carefully," Lynn asked, enunciating each word clearly.

"No, I've never seen him before," Bev answered promptly and decisively.

"I don't know him either..." Dana lowered her head halfway.

Seeing no one admitting to knowing him, Lynn deliberately raised her gun and aimed it at Dean, pretending to shoot him immediately. "Since no one knows him, then goodbye, Dean."

"No!!" As soon as Lynn finished speaking, Dana, without hesitation, stepped in front of Dean, tears streaming down her face as she pleaded in a trembling voice, "Please don't hurt him. Everything is—"

"Dana!" Dean interrupted Dana, preventing her from finishing the sentence.

"Ms. Bev, you can go upstairs to the third floor now," Lynn gestured to the other bewildered lady.

"Yes! I didn't see anything!" Bev quickly grabbed her skirt and left the dining room, fleeing back to the third floor as if for her life.

"No longer needed." With the murderer revealed, Lynn handed the gun back to Arthur.Arthur took the gun and looked at Dean and Dana. "I really didn't expect this..."

"At this point, there's no need to hide it anymore, right? What's your relationship?" Lynn had basically grasped the crime process, but she was still curious about the reason behind their actions.

"He's... He's my brother," Dana choked out.

"What do you want?" Dean pulled Dana behind him, shedding his disguise and revealing a fierce gaze.

"Don't worry, I only want to know who the murderer is. Whether to bring them to justice or not has nothing to do with me," Lynn remembered the requirements of her task and didn't intend to make any unnecessary complications.Moreover, considering his physical condition, it would be nothing short of a dream for him to capture Dean, who easily defeated the Basil brothers.

"If you admit it, I can turn a blind eye too," Arthur chimed in.

Dean, being cautious, didn't easily believe them. "So what if she's my sister? What does that prove? Do you have any evidence that I killed the Basil brothers?"

Lynn pushed her wheelchair forward on her own. "Since you won't say anything, I'll boldly speak out my conjectured sequence of events."

"Huh." Dean sneered at this."The Basil brothers harmed your sister, and you nursed a grudge against them, so you decided to join forces with your sister to retaliate," said Lynn slowly. "But killing the Basil brothers wouldn't be easy. Firstly, almost everyone in this building is working for them. Secondly, even if you succeed, you'll either be arrested or become a wanted criminal. Therefore, to successfully complete your revenge while ensuring your own safety and that of your sister, you devised a relatively meticulous plan."

Dean subconsciously swallowed.

"Firstly, you chose to strike on Christmas Eve. Because there would be a lot of guests that day, and most of the Basil brothers' associates would be overwhelmed with work, unable to stay by their sides, which would make it easier for you "After committing the murder, you could blend into the crowd and even if you couldn't leave with the chaos, you could use the mix of people gathered in the tavern as your cover."

"That makes sense," Arthur agreed, listening intently.

"Afterwards, you and your sister agreed on the specific time for the attack, with one of you accompanying the Basil brothers on the third floor and the other waiting for the right moment on the second floor," Lynn continued. "As the time approached, you deliberately ordered a meal. The purpose of ordering the meal was not only to prove that you didn't have the time to commit the crime but also to steal the murder weapon from the kitchen. Then, you quickly ate half of the meal, took the knife, and timed your ambush at the corner of the stairs on the second floor. Your sister sister also began urging the Basil brothers to come downstairs from the third floor. Very soon, barely a minute had passed, and you saw the Basil brothers appear at the staircase. They didn't notice you at all, and you took advantage of their lack of vigilance, using the fruit knife you stole from the kitchen to kill them with extreme ease. Immediately afterwards, you returned to the dining room at the fastest speed, threw the fruit knife back into the kitchen, framed the drunken chef for everything, and sat back down at your table to continue eating."

Dean's forehead broke out in cold sweat.

Lynn observed this keenly and asked, "Am I right?"