Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 161 Clues
"It's time to hand in your weapons and go home again, huh?"

Old Theon and Milo sat on the steps at the entrance to Nanwei Academy.

It was already night, and many lights were on in the college buildings behind them, making the street in front of them appear somewhat dark.

In terms of time, Milo has been working for more than 30 consecutive hours.

“Perhaps we should take your VIP card to the pleasure house for dinner.” Old Theon stretched.

“I’ve never heard of having dinner at a pleasure house before.” Milo looked at his boss with a strange expression.

“It’s delicious and visually appealing, so why not?” Old Theon didn’t think there was anything wrong with his suggestion.

"Forget it." Milo shook his head.

He looked at the list he had made in his hand.

Joey's whereabouts were quite regular. He basically went back and forth between the dormitory, the teaching building, the canteen, and the library every day, which was a typical student's schedule.

"dormitory?"

"The teaching building?"

"canteen?"

Milo read each location on the list aloud one by one.

Old Theon, looking completely bewildered, watched Milo finish reciting all the locations before finally asking, "Did I make a typo?"

"Not really."

Milo shook his head.

From his perspective, a dark shadow was crouching at the bottom of the steps directly in front of him.

Each time he pronounced a place name, he would wait quietly for the shadow to respond.

But even after the last place name was read out, the shadow didn't react at all; it just squatted in the corner with its hands wrapped around its knees.

In other words, these are not the places Milo is looking for.

……

“Joey appears in these places almost every day, so there’s nothing unusual about it,” Old Theon commented casually. “Perhaps your thinking has been off track from the very beginning.”

"But it's not like this every day."

Milo shook his head:

“He would disappear for half a day every weekend, and no one around him knew where he went. This habit was different from other students. As far as I know, the college holds small sports activities on weekend afternoons, and these activities are credit-bearing.”

“According to the other students in the same dormitory, Joey has been disappearing on weekends for the past year and a half.” Old Theon rubbed his forehead and recalled, “This timing is very sensitive, it just happens to be from the time of the Great Library incident.”

“Then it must be the time for the Gus Society’s secret meeting,” Milo said without hesitation.

“No, no, no~” Old Theon pulled out a cigarette and a match from his pocket, lit the cigarette, took a deep breath of fresh air, and then continued, “The meeting place of the Gus Association is in their academy’s library. This is a clue we obtained after the disappearance incident, and they did not hide it.”

"So, this half-day off on Sunday afternoon..."

Milo rubbed his head.

He kept his eyes fixed on the shadow below the steps the whole time.

But Maggie didn't seem to want to pay him any attention.

“Joey’s roommate said that he prepares a bouquet of flowers every Sunday morning, which might be a key piece of information,” Old Theon reminded him.

"Flowers?" Milo's brow furrowed. "What kind of flowers?"

"Hmm...it's not fixed. White lilies, roses, tulips, things like that, we had them all," old Theon recalled.

“Then I should know where he went,” Milo said, suddenly realizing.

"Right? They seem to come in all sorts of varieties, but they all have one thing in common: they can all be used to send people to their deaths." Old Theon exhaled a puff of smoke and asked lazily, "So, diligent Valrokan enforcer, are we going to have to make a trip to the cemetery in the middle of the night?"

"No, I won't go to the cemetery."

Milo shook his head.

It's normal for Joey to visit Maggie at the cemetery every weekend.

Going to the cemetery now will not yield any results.

Moreover, he noticed that Maggie's shadow still did not respond when he mentioned the cemetery.

"Maybe he really liked that girl, so he goes to remember her every weekend." Old Theon breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Milo wasn't planning to go to the cemetery in the middle of the night.

But Milo already had another answer in his heart.

He turned to old Theon and asked, "What do you think is the probability that someone who misses a deceased person too much would dig up her grave?"

"How about we go back and ask the professors at the college who specialize in abnormal psychology? Before it's bedtime yet." Old Theon was already used to Milo's strange questions.

“That’s not necessary,” Milo shook his head.

Joey dug up that grave; he admitted it himself.

Although this was just a piece of information that Milo casually gleaned during yesterday's conversation, it has now become a crucial clue.

“First of all, this thing is from the same set as the bronze artifacts you collected from the crime scene, right?” Milo took out the bronze ring that belonged to Joey and said, “How did Joey get this thing when he wasn’t even at the crime scene? Don’t you find that strange?”

"Is this related to his physical ailment?" Old Theon shrugged.

"Let's set aside the question of whether there's a definite connection for now." Milo couldn't explain the so-called clairvoyance and its aftereffects, so he could only temporarily set that aside and continued, "At least the time periods match, that should be right, right?"

"So, according to you, he dug the ring out of Maggie Green's grave?" Old Theon asked, squinting.

At that moment, Milo noticed that after old Theon said those words, Maggie's shadow below the steps suddenly raised its head.

“I think so,” Milo nodded firmly.

“But Maggie Green isn’t in that grave, you know that. It’s an empty grave, its purpose is just to give the public an explanation. How could he possibly dig up a ring from it?” Old Theon said, puzzled.

"You said that the living are under the jurisdiction of the law enforcement agencies, and the dead are under the jurisdiction of the church, right?" Milo asked, enunciating each word clearly.

When he mentioned the word "church," the dark figure below the steps instantly stood up straight and nodded frantically at Milo.

Maggie looked very excited.

I was extremely excited.

"The burial process is indeed entirely handled by the church. After the law enforcement system declares someone dead, the procedure is transferred, and the church has dedicated clerks to handle the funeral rites..." Old Theon said, his eyes gradually brightening, and he stubbed out his cigarette.
"So the key issue isn't the empty grave, but the church?"

"That's the only explanation."

Milo nodded.

……

The two... no, the three people in front of the academy gate finally reached a consensus.

(End of this chapter)