The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters
Chapter 166
Chapter 166 - Suspect Isaac (10) - Dense Fog
There is something called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
It's the phenomenon where elements that were previously unseen or thought to be nonexistent suddenly start appearing frequently to the eye from the moment one learns information about those elements.
This isn't because things that weren't there before suddenly appeared, but because the brain, excited by learning something new, tries to find things similar to the information it has learned.
Isaac's condition was the same.
Augustin Darnoua. After learning information about him, related traces suddenly began catching his eye.
Posters with his face drawn on them are pasted on the streets, his name is written in newspapers, and his businesses are keeping their places throughout the city.
To Isaac himself, it felt like 'I can find it because I'm looking for it,' but journalist Eduard, who was being threatened as the person involved, must have felt blood-drying fear and burden.
Especially if he had even involved his wife.
That's why Eduard knelt to the culprit, and the culprit, not satisfied with that, killed him to silence him.
Truly stubbornly and persistently.
Keeping that fact fresh in mind, Isaac headed to the detective office.
A door with a bell attached according to Isaac's own suggestion.
When he opened that door and went up to the second-floor office, an intensely strong chemical fragrance tickled his nose.
What he saw upon opening and entering the second door was a hazy scene, as if fog had formed only in this place.
Within it, a woman was sprawled limply on the sofa.
Short in height and slender in build.
White skin with little color.
Lying silently on the sofa without even stirring, she looked like a corpse at first glance.
"Detective. I've finished the investigation and returned."
There was no response.
"Detective. Are you sleeping?"
There was still no response...Like a corpse.
Isaac's mouth closed.
He headed straight to the kitchen with a very serious and grave expression.
Another type of smoke mixed into the smoke-filled office, and a foreign fragrance penetrated the chemical scent.
Thus, when Isaac returned to where Isadora was, he held steaming hot special coffee in his hands.
He waved the coffee cup around near Isadora's face, then immediately tilted the coffee cup toward Isadora's face.
Splash!
Isadora, who had rolled off the sofa onto the floor in a desperate evasive maneuver, hastily got up and shouted.
"Are you in your right mind right now!?"
"Oh, you're awake."
"Awake or not, what on earth were you thinking trying to pour hot coffee on someone's face..."
Isadora's words trailed off abruptly.
Her gaze fixed on the coffee cups in Isaac's hands.
Specifically, she stared at 'two' coffee cups.
One of them had freshly brewed coffee steaming hot, while the other was completely empty of contents, only emitting its characteristic heat as if warmed with hot water.
Her lips trembling, Isadora asked.
"...I demand an explanation, assistant."
Isaac answered immediately.
"Yes, detective. You fell for it. Are you annoyed?"
"Hey!!"
Whether she shouted or not, Isaac nonchalantly held out the cup containing coffee to Isadora.
Isadora gritted her teeth, but eventually picked up the cup with a displeased expression.
"A new employee who's barely started working playing tricks on his boss and company president. The world has really gone to hell."
"Isn't this exactly the appropriate response to a boss who assigns work to subordinates while taking drugs at work and even pretending to sleep?"
"Tsk. If you had just quietly pulled some silly trick, I would have teased you about it forever. Are you listening?"
"I'm sorry, but right now I'm busy normalizing the air condition that you ruined, detective. What is this, a raccoon den?"
After Isaac opened every door and even fanned with a board that was nearby, the office finally returned to a normal state.
Clicking her tongue with a "tsk," Isadora arrogantly crossed her legs and said.
"So, the results must be as excellent as the nagging you poured out, right?"
"Hmm. Well, it's an achievement of sorts, but it seems like quite a tricky opponent."
"Who is it that you're being so hesitant about?"
Isaac answered.
"Augustin Darnoua. It appears he used tavern employee Cloe to murder journalist Eduard."
For a very brief moment, silence flowed.
"...Hmm, the evidence?"
Isadora's reaction was calm.
Without any particular sign of surprise or confusion, she boldly demanded evidence from Isaac.
Isaac answered.
"There were materials in Eduard's workshop tracking Augustin's activities, and notes indicating he had been threatened in the process."
"Did you bring the actual materials?"
"The originals were fragmented in various places, so I organized them into one and made copies."
Isadora carefully read through the materials Isaac handed her.
And she said.
"It's suspicious, but this alone isn't enough to confirm him as the culprit. It's all just the victim's one-sided speculation."
"Yes, so I plan to conduct additional investigation. I need to examine the victim's workplace and continue investigating the victim's house as there might be additional information in places other than the study."
"......"
Frowning, Isadora put her pipe in her mouth.
Mixing murky smoke back into the office air that had been carefully ventilated, she said.
"Augustin isn't someone you can mess with lightly. He's not just an influential figure in one city, but a big shot with influence throughout the south."
"Does that have anything to do with investigating the case?"
"Sigh, really. You don't understand. I'm saying he's one of the top ten most powerful people in this entire country. What, are you backed by the Premier or something?"
At Isadora's irritated question, Isaac tilted his head.
"So, I asked whether that has anything to do with investigating the case."
"Whether it's related or not—"
"Who my backing is, what the opponent's position is—none of that has any connection to the case. If there's guilt, they must pay the price. That's all there is to it. If this country claims to be a republic."
Isadora's mouth closed.
She tried to say various things but couldn't, only moving her lips, then finally muttered as if squeezing out the words.
"...It's late today, so let's rest and continue talking tomorrow."
Thud.
Isadora leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes.
It was a clear rejection indicating she didn't want to continue the conversation any further.
"Understood. Thank you for your hard work, detective."
Despite the conversation being unilaterally cut off, Isaac calmly offered his farewell without showing any sign of displeasure and left.
She watched the door he left through with only one eye open, silently puffing smoke for a long while before irritably turning her pipe upside down and dumping its contents into the ashtray.
The streets that had been showing off the red glow of sunset were dyed black, and the light that had been coming through the window Isaac had left open disappeared.
Isadora got up and disappeared into the darkness of night.
***
The next morning.
Isaac, who had gone up to the office as usual to prepare coffee and wait, soon looked at the clock.
Even though work hours had long passed, Isadora showed no sign of appearing.
'Strange.'
It's true that Isadora is weak in the mornings, but apart from that, she's almost never late for work hours.
She crawls out every day despite looking like death.
Well, as long as she's human, being late occasionally wouldn't be that strange, but...
Just when Isaac was pondering whether to ignore the warning and go up to the third floor or wait as he was, the bell announcing a visitor's arrival rang out.
When Isaac turned his gaze toward the entrance, someone opened the office door with a bang without even knocking.
It wasn't Isadora.
But it wasn't a face Isaac was completely unfamiliar with either.
Jean-Pierre Moreau.
The veteran detective who frequently clashed with Isadora was there, accompanied by two other detectives behind him.
"Welcome, Inspector Pierre. The detective hasn't come to work yet, would you like to wait?" (E/N: Random, but I'm a bit disturbed that everyone calls the person called "Jean-Pierre" as "Inspector Pierre". I think the author kinda missed the point of that name)
At Isaac's greeting, Inspector Pierre's eyebrows twitched.
For a moment he showed complex emotions, then equipped himself with a businesslike face and tone as he spoke.
"No, my business is with you."
"With me?"
"Last night, there was a fire at the home of Eduard Morel, who was murdered recently. The house was completely destroyed, and a charred body was found inside. And according to our investigation, you were the last person to visit that house."
Inspector Pierre declared.
"Isaac. I'm taking you in as a key suspect in this case."