Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 92 Clues in the Details
The atmosphere in the tomb was somber and heavy.

Olivia stood there, her pretty face icy cold, the air pressure so low it could almost suffocate someone.

The servants who were responsible for helping didn't dare to breathe loudly and worked quietly.

Li Wei, however, didn't seem to care at all. He simply wore gloves and quietly played a game of piecing together bones on the side.

After piecing together the last bone, Li Wei looked at the pit in front of him and nodded.

"Okay, that's all."

"You guys go out first."

Upon hearing Levi's words, Olivia also gave an order. Hearing her command, the two servants and the old tomb keeper hurriedly tried to leave as if they had been granted a pardon. However, at that moment, Olivia's voice rang out again.

"Remember, you know what the consequences will be if this gets out."

"Yes, yes..."

Olivia's fearsome reputation was well-known, so the three of them didn't dare to say a word and hurriedly turned to leave, then closed the tomb door again.

"Mr. Li Wei, please give me an explanation."

Olivia looked at Levi again, her expression serious. It wasn't surprising that Olivia was so blunt. After her father disappeared, the police had searched the entire manor, but found nothing. And Levi had only been there for less than a day… what had he found?
"These are just some inferences and guesses; we haven't drawn enough conclusions yet."

Li Wei looked at the two skeletons on the ground and spoke.

"Guessing is fine too, please tell me."

"Hmm... okay."

After a moment's thought, Li Wei felt there was really nothing to hide. In detective novels, detectives often discover something and then stubbornly refuse to reveal it, insisting on waiting until the whole truth is revealed before releasing their deductions. Li Wei didn't intend to pursue that kind of drama, and besides, Olivia was the current head of the family; perhaps he could get some clues from her.

So Li Wei told Olivia his conjecture, and after listening to Li Wei's explanation, Olivia frowned even more.

"So, you came here to find remains?"

"it a accident."

Li Wei shrugged.

"I just wanted to see if I could find out why the Baskerville ancestors chose a woman as their patriarch. But I didn't expect... well, thinking about it, it doesn't seem so strange after all."

"So, who are these two people...?"

"Yes, judging from the time the bones were buried, it strongly supports my guess."

Li Wei pointed again to the two skeletons.

"If I'm not mistaken, then this should be your grandfather's sister, and the one next to her is your father's sister."

There was no DNA testing in this era, so Li Wei could only guess. However, the burial time, gender, and age all matched his guess, so Li Wei decided to be bold and guess... Anyway, guessing wrong wouldn't break the law.

"…………………"

Looking at the two small skeletons, Olivia's expression was very complicated. Although she didn't understand the human body, she knew that these were not the skeletons of ordinary children.

After a long while, she finally let out a long sigh.

"So, everything that happened to the Baskerville family was just retribution for my great-grandfather's actions?"

"Who knows? I'm just guessing, and I don't have enough evidence to prove it. Anyway, so many years have passed, and even if we wanted to investigate, we wouldn't know where to start. But to say that there's absolutely no connection is also incorrect."

Olivia didn't know, but Levi did know about werewolves, and considering that this family had buried the body under the wolf statue... could that be the reason they turned into werewolves?

After all, such things do happen in myths and legends.

So you see, there's a certain etiquette to burying a body. If it were buried under a leopard or eagle statue, it probably wouldn't look like this.

"I will take responsibility for their burial, so that the deceased may rest in peace."

Olivia was silent for a moment before speaking.

Will this end everything?

"I do not know."

Li Wei shook his head again. In *The Ring*, they said that if you put Sadako's body in a temple for worship, everything would be fine, but she still crawled out of the TV screen without a second thought. Basically, this idea that "everything will be fine after burying the body" in a horror movie is like a "I'm going home to get married after this war" flag – setting it up won't guarantee death, but it will certainly bring bad luck.

"Is there any other help you need?"

Olivia was now extremely respectful to Levi, after all, Levi had only been at her house for half a day and had already uncovered things that Olivia had never even considered in the past eighteen years. She also wanted to know what the Baskerville family's troubles stemmed from and when they would end.

Li Wei glanced at the stone coffin. He was quite inclined to have Olivia open it, but… when visiting someone's home, one should maintain proper etiquette. Besides, as things stood, this stone coffin wasn't exactly what Li Wei had anticipated. He could set it aside for now.

"I'd like to see some things, including the accounts and such, is that alright?"

"No problem, I'll take you there."

This time, Olivia didn't ask for help. Levi was simply too amazing; he could find something just by wandering around. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice, and for Olivia, the most important thing right now was investigating her own family's situation.

If it weren't for Levi's explanation, Olivia wouldn't have known that the Baskerville family had so many secrets she didn't know.

"I never expected... I never thought that my family would have such a secret."

"A few decades is neither a long nor a short time."

Levi glanced at the remains again and sighed. Starting with Sir Baskerville, it was clear that the family had consciously concealed parts of the Baskerville family's history. He then passed this knowledge on to his son, who in turn passed it on to his grandson. After three generations, by the time it reached Olivia, the original history of the Baskerville family had been distorted and warped. If Levi hadn't searched carefully, he might not have found anything at all.

Now, Levi has set his sights on Sir Baskerville.

Although he still didn't know exactly what had happened or why things had turned out this way, isn't that how many cases are? The rest is uncovered gradually through investigation based on clues.

Li Wei's request was, of course, a decision made after careful consideration.

He put himself in the shoes of Sir Baskerville and thought, assuming that, according to his reasoning, he did indeed kill his sister in order to inherit the position of patriarch, what would he want to do?
Previously, the Baskerville family had always been headed by women, and as a large family, as mentioned before, when women were the heads of the household, the men would marry into the family.

The men, on the other hand, were generally left to their own devices, free to do whatever they wanted. This means that the Baskerville family line must have had many branches, and among them, there must have been some who had daughters.

According to the Baskerville family's "ancestral precepts," if a woman must be the head of the household, then strictly speaking, it is acceptable to choose a woman from a branch family rather than the main family.

Therefore, Sir Baskerville Sr.'s situation at the time must not have been very good.

He must have done a lot to ensure he stayed in this position.

Of course, time is cruel. So many years have passed, even the servants who were responsible for serving old Baskerville are probably already buried. Finding someone to ask about the situation is practically impossible; Levi doesn't know psychic arts and can't possibly summon the dead to answer. But that doesn't mean he has no way.

Indeed, Sir Baskerville the Elder may have many things he could hide or even delete, but there was one thing he couldn't touch.

That is... the ledger.

The Baskerville family is a large family that rules the entire Delict area. Their accounts are countless; tampering with them is possible, but deleting them entirely is absolutely impossible. Anyone who keeps accounts knows that even a single mismatch is catastrophic. If thousands upon thousands of dollars are out of balance, that's like the end of the world in 2012.

In the era of the elder Baskerville, he would never have dared to make such a large move; it would have been blatantly handing a target to the other branches of the family. Therefore, he would certainly have taken some measures to conceal certain expenditures. And the parts that needed to be concealed were obviously the problematic ones.

That's physically demanding work.

Yes, it's physical labor.

The Baskerville family's accounting records were kept in the archives room, which was even larger than the library, roughly the size of an indoor gymnasium, and filled with an endless number of notebooks.

Fortunately, the accounting records Li Wei was looking for didn't span a long period of time, otherwise he might have had to dig them out of the basement... But even so, digging out the accounting records from that time left several servants drenched in sweat.

"In Chongqing, it's now common to use difference engines to store records."

Looking at the dusty account records in front of her, Olivia's expression was clearly one of disgust.

“The Delict area should also adopt a difference engine. In the past, everyone thought it was too expensive, but in my opinion, this expenditure is necessary.”

"indeed."

Li Wei nodded. He also missed the days when he could just type a few words on a computer keyboard and retrieve the data. Flipping through ledgers like this was practically torture.

Lady Olivia was clearly quite dissatisfied with the current state of affairs in Delicat. Previously, as the head of the family, her word didn't carry weight. Now, it seemed this young lady was making a strong impression as a new leader, intending to put things to a good start.

Levi's auditing wasn't simply a matter of looking at the ledgers. Every head of the Baskerville family had a biography, and Sir Sir Baskerville was no exception. So, Levi was currently keeping both the ledgers and the biography on one side, verifying them against each other. While small sums weren't recorded, large-scale projects and other expenditures needed to be documented and clearly explained.

If Olivia had bought a difference engine now, it would naturally have been mentioned in her biography.

Li Wei continued flipping through the pages, while Olivia simply sat beside him, watching him. She didn't do anything else; she just waited. Although waiting is generally a tedious and boring thing, watching Li Wei sitting at his desk, his face serious and focused, made it anything but boring.

Li Wei flipped through the pages, occasionally jotting down notes in his notebook, while Olivia rested her chin on her hands, staring blankly at his profile. She thought of nothing, needed no thought, as if she were witnessing the most beautiful scenery in the world; her mind was completely empty, simply enjoying the moment…

"Well, that's it."

It wasn't until Levi's voice rang out again that Olivia snapped out of her daze, turned her head, and was surprised to find that it was already afternoon. The twilight sunlight outside the window was soft yet striking, and Olivia remembered that when they arrived here before, it wasn't even lunchtime yet.

What did you discover?

"Yes, may I borrow your walkie-talkie?"

"of course."

As a noble family, the Baskervilles naturally had a walkie-talkie. Levi went to the walkie-talkie, opened the address book, found the local police station's number, and dialed it. After identifying himself, Chief McMillan's voice quickly came through the receiver.

“Mr. Levi? I was just about to tell you. I’ve found the police officer who investigated Mr. Baskerville Jr. When do you plan to meet him?”

"The sooner the better... Perfect timing, Chief McMillan, I also have something I'd like you to investigate."

As Li Wei spoke, he picked up his notebook.

"It's about Sir Baskerville. I've investigated and found that when he was sixteen, he was detained by the police for a criminal case and paid a large sum of money in compensation."

"Is that so? Wait, Sir Baskerville? He was sixteen years old, that was many years ago!"

"I think the police should have kept the records from that time, and hopefully you can find them."

"Well... okay, I'll look for it, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to find it."

Chief McMillan's answer was reluctant, but it made sense; the police department handled countless cases every day, and who knew if they could find the answer?

“You must find Chief McMillan.”

However, Olivia couldn't help but walk over and snatch the microphone away.

"This is an order!"

"Dame Baskerville? Well... alright, I'll begin the search immediately."

If it were Levi's request, McMillan might have been more lenient, but since Olivia had spoken, he couldn't delay. After all, if Olivia was unhappy, she could easily remove McMillan from his position. To protect his own job, he couldn't afford to be perfunctory.

Besides, even if he were to look for them, it wouldn't be him personally. He has so many police officers under his command, aren't they just there for this kind of situation?
Li Wei picked up the microphone again, said a few more words, and then hung up. He then looked at his laptop and looked up again.

"What are we going to do next?"

"Next... let's go for a walk outside."

"???"

For Olivia, everything Levi did baffled her. Whether it was investigating her great-grandfather's criminal record from when he was sixteen or now circling around her house, it all seemed unrelated to her family's current affairs. But if Levi wanted to go around, she would follow him.

Moreover, in Olivia's view, this was not a difficult task. Walking beside Levi, looking at his tall figure, handsome face, and deep eyes, Olivia felt her blood rushing to her head, as if she were about to float away. She felt much lighter when walking.

Just then, Li Wei suddenly spoke.

"During my investigation, I discovered that Sir Baskerville had carried out a major renovation on the house after he ascended to the throne."

"Isn't this normal?"

Olivia blinked. The Baskerville estate was a stone and wood structure, and after a long time, it would definitely need renovation and maintenance.

"Renovation itself is indeed a normal process."

Li Wei looked around the houses again, then stretched out his hand and pointed to one of them.

"What is that place?"

"Over there? Let me think... I think it's a warehouse, mainly for storing unused furniture and such."

Olivia stared in the direction Levi was pointing, thought for a moment, and then gave her answer.

"Let's go over and take a look."

As Li Wei spoke, he walked over.

(End of this chapter)