69novels Chapter 309 Toxicology – A Cold and Insidious Death Trick
Chapter 309 Toxicology – A Cold and Insidious Death Trick
"Before I begin the investigation, I first need to know what you mean by saying that Hugo has some connection to this case?"
Inside the spacious living room of Yuqi Residence, Bilan stood in front of a huge map of Feiyun City and asked the policewoman a question.
"As my deputy told you before, it wasn't a very reliable connection; it was just some far-fetched connection. We were just using this as a pretext to act freely. With this relationship, the reports afterward will probably be easier to write."
Entering the office alone, Officer Jenny acted as if she were at home. She casually placed her white gloves on the sofa armrest, picked up the hot tea she had brewed herself, and leaned back wearily against the cushions, saying—
"As for the so-called connection, it is actually related to the source of the poison. The police tested the remaining liquid in the poisonous wound medicine, and after several comparisons, they have now been able to determine the approximate composition of the poison."
"Oh? That's quite capable. Can you investigate the source of the poison?" Azure asked.
"Yes, but also no."
Officer Jenny took a sip of tea, sat up straight, and her attitude became serious.
"The poison the murderer added to the wound medicine was neither the venom secreted by Poison-type Pokémon, nor the kind of controlled compounds that are enough to kill someone in just a little bit, as seen in murder dramas. On the contrary, the toxicity of these pollutants was actually not that great; it was only because they were directly applied to the wound of the injured Pokémon that they caused a serious infection."
"Yes, indeed. The fact that none of the elves who were poisoned died immediately is probably because of this."
The acting director pondered carefully and nodded in approval.
Officer Jenny put down her teacup and said seriously, "The so-called poison that was put into the wound medicine actually all came from a common item that everyone can obtain daily—insect repellent spray. Isn't there an old saying? 'Dosage determines toxicity.' The murderer refined and concentrated the liquid that was originally used to repel elves and mixed it into the leftover liquid of discarded wound medicine, thus creating a malicious and harmful poison."
"Insect repellent spray?"
Azure raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Was that stuff actually poisonous? I remember Hugo saying that insect repellent sprays only repel wild Pokémon by mimicking their scents. Could that concentrated liquid actually be lethal? And if the wound medicine used contained the spray, shouldn't those Pokémon have shown extremely strong resistance immediately after use? How could they allow the treatment to complete, leading to an irreversible and severe infection?"
"The principle you heard is not wrong. But it is precisely in order to retain the scents that mimic powerful Pokémon in the liquid that factories that make insect repellent sprays add a certain inhibitor that reduces the activity of substances into the spray."
Officer Jenny answered—
"Once this inhibitor reaches a certain dosage, it will produce toxicity, causing the Pokémon that ingests it to fall into a coma, hindering wound healing, and reducing the activity of its elemental energy. However, since this toxicity does not pose a life-threatening threat to Pokémon under normal circumstances, before this case, no one would have considered insect repellent spray as a potential poison."
"So, does that mean the perpetrator likely possessed some level of biochemistry knowledge?"
“Indeed.” The policewoman nodded crisply.
"Whether it's discovering the hidden toxicity from the ingredient list of insect repellent spray or refining large quantities of the liquid while retaining the inhibitory components, it requires a very high level of medical expertise. As for the odor of the insect repellent spray, that was actually eliminated by the inmates during the process of refining the toxic substances."
"So... wouldn't the place where the criminals refined the insecticide emit huge amounts of gas that Pokémon hate? The police could totally start their investigation from that angle. Not only that, we could also start by investigating the source of the insecticide spray, checking the sales records of various sales channels over the past few years to see if anyone has purchased insecticide spray in large quantities... Have the police investigated all of this?"
"These directions of investigation have naturally been mentioned in the police station before, and we are currently conducting investigations through multiple channels. However, insect spray is, after all, a common commodity sold openly. If someone wanted to hoard a large quantity of it without anyone knowing, it wouldn't be difficult. As for what you said about the sales records of insect spray..."
Miss Officer Jenny suddenly smiled knowingly—
"Did you know that someone bought ten cases of Golden Insect Repellent Spray at the Pokémon Center in Flying Cloud City last year?"
Azure shook her head, puzzled. "Never heard of him. Isn't that person a prime suspect right now?"
“Yes, this person is now one of our key targets of investigation. It is precisely for this reason that, although Sera and I both have Hugo’s phone number, we did not contact you beforehand and went to the trouble of coming to this Feather Residence in person.”
"Wait, the person you're talking about wouldn't be..."
An image of a detective in a white coat wielding a metal baton in one hand and spraying insecticide with the other, desperately trying to scare away wild elves, flashed before the detective's eyes like a revolving lantern.
Now that she finally understood what had happened, she couldn't help but feel ashamed.
"Could it be Victor Hugo?"
"That's right, it is indeed the director of your Hugo Detective Agency, Mr. Detective Hugo."
The female detective pointed her finger at the acting chief's nose and said aggressively—
"Although I know that the detective couldn't possibly be involved in such heinous crimes, a formal investigation is still essential at the police station. At the very least, we need to find out how much insect repellent the Yuxi Mansion still has in stock, and whether it's enough for an average person to use for a year."
"Oh, I see." The acting director looked enlightened.
"In that case, I have no reason to stop your routine. Let me think... Hugo's travel gear seems to be all collected at..."
"Sir, the police department has made initial progress in its investigation in the suburbs of the city."
While the Azure Detective was ransacking the place, Sera, who had been liaising with the police outside the living room, came running in to report the results.
"Is progress over there so rapid? Are there any useful clues?"
Officer Jenny, who was comparing the data on her phone with the map of Feiyun City, turned around and asked her deputy.
"The police department brought in Ms. Joey, a specialist in toxicology, to assist with the search. Her poison scabbard frog, with its 'danger prediction' ability, volunteered to help test for poisons, greatly improving the police's efficiency in testing toxic substances."
Sera explained earnestly—
"The following are the preliminary results of the police's operation to recover wound medicine in the vicinity of Feiyun City - they found new toxic wound medicine near Route 4 in northern Feiyun City, and there was more than one vial."
Officer Jenny nodded: "As expected. Where exactly is it located?"
"The southern end of Highway 4 where it connects to the city. The location is closer to the city center than where the previous victims picked up the wound medicine. The police found five vials containing poison among the 121 wound medicines recovered."
"Hiss, a probability of less than five percent, that's a really subtle number... But if we only consider the poisoning area, we found five places where poison was placed just in the initial search area. It seems that the poisoner used at least double digits of poison."
"After further testing of the toxic wound medicines, the inspectors determined that the toxins in those medicines were indeed the same as the contaminants in the medicines used by the victims, all derived from insecticide sprays. In addition, the five newly discovered toxic wound medicines had the same toxin dosage, and it seems that the murderer would not have changed the dosage based on the amount of liquid remaining in the medicines."
Serra continued her report—
"The on-site investigators also checked the sealing of the wound medicine packaging and found no traces of needle holes. It should be the same as before, that the wound medicine was injected directly from the regular opening."
"That's natural. All the discarded medicines have already been opened, so there's no need for the prisoner to go through the trouble."
Officer Jenny scratched her head anxiously and asked again—
"Did the investigators examine the fingerprints on the medicine bottles? Were there any signs of wiping?"
The assistant shook her head: "There are no signs of wiping. The remaining fingerprints are still being compared, and nothing unusual has been found so far."
"It seems the criminal was most likely wearing gloves when poisoning the poison; they were quite cautious."
The Azure Detective's voice reached the ears of the two officers; she was holding a can of the newly found golden insect repellent spray.
"Here, all of Hugo's remaining insecticide spray is. Half of the ten boxes are still left. Although he did use a bit too much, you can understand his situation. Insecticide spray is essential for any long trip. With only five boxes left, it probably won't be enough to make enough for large-scale poisoning—are you satisfied now?"
Officer Jenny waved her hand dismissively: "Just take a picture as evidence. The most important thing now is to find the trail of that despicable poisoner. Azure, since you're now calling yourself a detective, do you have any clues to find the criminal's trail?"
"Well, I need more information."
Azure twirled the insecticide spray in her hand as she spoke—
"When were those poisonous wound medicines produced? How have they degraded? How long have they been abandoned in the wild? Based on this, can we pinpoint a general timeframe for the poisoner's actions?"
"Yes, that's fine."
Officer Jenny immediately copied down the data using sticky notes from the office. She wrote down not only the production date of the wound medicine, but also the remaining volume of the medicine, the concentration of the venom, and the specific type of wound medicine. This wasn't a secret in the police's shared information.
As she copied, she questioned—
"But the perpetrator randomly selected discarded medicines in the wild to poison the victims. Even if we figure out the range, we can only get a vague range spanning many years, right? Moreover, the poisoning incidents only broke out in recent days. Based on this, we should be able to roughly deduce that the poisoning occurred about a month ago, right?"
"These boundaries, which are purely deduced from intuition, are often the source of failed reasoning," Azure shook her head, refuting Officer Jenny's statement.
"Furthermore, given the excessively large daily population flow in and out of Feiyun City, even if the timeframe is limited to within a month, the police would not have enough manpower to conduct identity investigations on everyone in the area where the crime occurred, right?"
Sera nodded silently, clearly agreeing with Azure's statement.
"So, you can pinpoint the exact time the perpetrator poisoned the food just by using these production dates?"
Officer Jenny finished writing the data on the last sticky note, fixed it to the corresponding position on the Feiyun City map on the wall with a thumbtack, and raised her hand to ask Azure.
"I'm not sure, but it's a direction worth trying... Huh?"
Azure stared at the map on the wall and suddenly fell silent.
"What's wrong? Did you find something?"
Seeing the detective's stunned expression, Officer Jenny became curious.
"Why is this happening? It's so strange." Azure repeatedly examined the contents and locations of the nine sticky notes, including those of the four victims, muttering to herself.