Most passengers followed the instructions and returned to their rooms. Apart from detectives and other key individuals who might aid in the investigation, only the victim couple’s sister accompanied them. At this moment, the sister stood outside the door, and upon seeing the horrific state of her brother and sister-in-law once more, she immediately crouched down, vomiting and crying in fear.
Seeing this, Lu Chu realized she wouldn’t be of much help at the scene. He instructed a nearby crew member to escort the victim’s sister away until her emotions stabilized. Once more concrete information was obtained from the investigation, they would question her further.
After settling the victim’s sister, Lu Chu and his team entered the room to start examining the scene.
The victim couple had been killed, their joints broken and arranged in a bizarre position. From the outside, it was impossible to discern what shape they were contorted into. However, upon entering the room and viewing from above, it became clear that the two bodies were arranged to form the character “death” (死). One of their arms had even been gruesomely severed and used to form the top stroke of the character.
Due to their bodies being doused in oil, they were so decomposed that identifying them was nearly impossible.
Lu Chu took the gloves handed to him by Seven and squatted down to inspect the bodies.
Up close, the stench of the two corpses was overpowering, hitting straight to the core.
Lu Chu, with a keener sense of smell than most, felt it even more intensely.
Despite the overpowering smell, Lu Chu couldn’t wear a mask as he needed his sense of smell to detect any other scents on the victims’ bodies.
In such a confined setting on a ship, with stringent checks preventing unauthorized individuals from boarding, the killer had to be among the crew or passengers.
Remembering the distinct scents from the victims and the room, Lu Chu mentally compared them to those he noted the previous day, narrowing down the suspects to five individuals.
The doctors, detectives, and policemen also examined the scene, with doctors focusing on the cause of death and condition of the bodies, while detectives and policemen scrutinized the layout and objects more meticulously.
Lu Chu shared his findings on the scents with the others, who responded with skepticism and doubt, questioning the plausibility of identifying a killer by smell.
Lu Chu calmly demonstrated his abilities by accurately recounting personal details about the others based on their scents, such as one officer’s intimate encounter the previous night and another’s unique breakfast habit, convincing them of his capabilities.
A doctor asked Lu Chu when he memorized everyone’s scents on the ship. Lu Chu explained that every person’s scent is unique, akin to fingerprints or irises. His heightened sense of smell allowed him to remember these scents, and he had memorized everyone’s unique scent during a check with Captain Shen the previous night.
Having convinced the others, the detective asked Lu Chu to identify the scents he found on the victims.
Lu Chu named the individuals associated with the strongest fresh scents on the bodies, surprising everyone when one turned out to be the victim’s sister.
The detective speculated that frequent contact could explain her scent, but Lu Chu clarified that the sister’s scent was the most recent, indicating it was left in the past few hours.
The doctor suggested the scent could have been left that morning when she discovered the bodies, but Lu Chu dismissed this, instructing a crew member to bring the person who helped the sister break into the room and to secure the sister under watch.
Just then, a doctor found a blood-stained cloth strip in the male victim’s neck wound, with a message written in black ink: “Guess how many ghost slaves I have?” Another similar cloth was found in the female victim’s throat, reading: “They are among you.”
These eerie messages perplexed everyone. The detective explained the concept of ghost slaves, hinting that someone might be acting as an accomplice.
Lu Chu clarified he wasn’t accusing the sister of being the killer but suggested she might be a ghost slave, aiding the true perpetrator, akin to a folklore where victims of a tiger either die or become its loyal ghost slaves, luring others to be killed.
With a new direction, they exited the room to interrogate the sister.
At that moment, a soft voice called out to Lu Chu. Turning, he saw Ellie, elegantly dressed, running towards him and hugging him. Flustered, Lu Chu awkwardly allowed her to embrace him, explaining he had been helping the captain with the murder investigation.
Ellie, accompanied by Bield, teased his concern about Lu Chu. Bield’s broken Chinese brought some levity, though Seven’s displeasure was evident. Seven protectively pulled Lu Chu close, signaling Ellie that despite their current alliance, they were not to be taken lightly.
