"Who?"
Klein was thinking about the mysterious suicide incident of the original owner and the unknown dangers that might be encountered when he suddenly heard the loud knock on the door. Instinctively, he pulled open the drawer and took out the revolver, asking with caution as he spoke.
There was a silence of two seconds outside, and a slightly shrill voice in the Ahoava language shouted:
"I, Montgomery, Bich Montgomery."
The voice paused for a moment and added:
"Policemen."
Bich Montgomery... As the name entered his ears, Klein immediately thought of the corresponding owner.
He was one of the police responsible for the neighborhood where the apartment was located. A rough and wild man who loved to use his fists, but perhaps only such a person could intimidate those drunkards, thieves, part-time thieves, villains, and hooligans.
And the unique voice was one of his labels.
"OK, I'll be there right away!" Klein shouted in response.
He had intended to put the revolver back in the drawer, but thinking that the police outside didn't know why they had come, and might do something like a search, he carefully walked over to the stove where the embers had already gone out, placed the revolver inside.
Immediately after that, he picked up the small basket for coal and shook a few pieces into the stove, placed the gun on top, and finally placed the water jug on the top to cover everything.
After doing all this, he tidied his clothes and quickly approached the door, opening it and mumbled:
"Sorry, I was just taking a nap."
Four policemen in black uniforms with white stripes and wearing soft badges on their hats stood outside. Bich Montgomery, with a brownish beard, coughed and said to Klein:
"These three officers have something to ask you."
Officer? Klein reflexively looked at the shoulder badges of the other three and realized that two had three silver hexagonal stars, one had two, and seemed to be more senior than Bich Montgomery, who had only three V-shaped labels.
As a history student, Klein knew nothing about the ranking of police shoulder badges, except that Bich Montgomery often boasted that he was a senior police chief.
So, were these three inspectors? Influenced by the conversations of his classmates like Brother Benson and Welch, Klein still had a little common sense. He stepped aside and pointed at the room, saying:
"Please come in. I don't know what it is?"
The leading officer among the three was a sharp-eyed man who seemed to be able to see through the soul, making people involuntarily afraid. His wrinkles on the corners of his eyes were obvious, and the edges of his hat revealed a hint of brown hair. He began to look around the room by himself while speaking in a deep and solemn voice:
"Do you know Welch McGowan?"
What happened to him? Klein's heart skipped a beat and he asked in response.
"I'm asking you." The stern middle-aged officer's eyes were stern.
The police officer with the same three-star shoulder badge beside him looked at Klein and smiled gently:
"Don't be nervous. We're just following the routine."
This officer was in his thirties, with a straight nose bridge, and his gray eyes gave off an indescribable depth, like an unvisited lake in an ancient forest.
Klein took a deep breath in his mind and organized his words:
"If you mean the graduates of Hoy University from Conston, Welch McGowan, then I'm sure I know him. We are classmates, following the same professor, Quentin Cohen, senior associate professor."
In the Kingdom of Ruan, "professor" is not only a title but also a position, just like on Earth where professors and department heads are combined. That is to say, a university and a department can only have one professor, and an associate professor can only become a "senior" by waiting for their superior to retire or by demonstrating their own strength to push the other out.
Given the need to retain talents, after years of exploration, the Kingdom's Higher Education Committee added senior associate professors to the three-level system of lecturers, associate professors, and professors, giving academic-level high or sufficiently experienced men and women.
At this point, Klein looked into the eyes of the middle-aged officer and considered for a second:
"To be honest, our relationship is quite good. During this period, I, him, and Naya have met frequently and discussed the 'Quaternary' documents he obtained, a notebook, a police officer.
Did something happen to him?"
The middle-aged police officer didn't answer. Instead, he turned his head to look at the gray-eyed colleague.
The ordinary gray-eyed police officer with the badge cap replied politely:
"Sorry, Mr. Welch passed away."
"How could that be?" Although there was a premonition, Klein couldn't help but exclaim in astonishment.
Did Welch die like the owner of his body?
This is a bit terrifying!
"Then what about Naya?" Klein hurriedly asked.
"Naya also passed away," the gray-eyed police officer said calmly. "The two of them died in Welch's residence."
"Killed?" Klein vaguely had a guess.
Perhaps it was suicide...
The gray-eyed police officer shook his head:
"No, from the scene evidence, they committed suicide. Welch hit the wall with his head, many times, leaving blood all over the wall. Naya drowned herself in a basin, um, the kind used for washing faces."
"This is impossible..." Klein's hair stood on end as he listened, seemingly able to imagine the eerie scene.
The girl knelt on the chair, burying her face in the basin filled with water, her brown hair flowing smoothly and swaying with the wind, but the entire person remained motionless; Welch fell to the ground, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, his forehead completely shattered, covered in bloodstains, while the impact marks on the wall were one after another, dripping with blood...
The gray-eyed police officer's mouth moved slightly and said:
"We also think so, but the autopsy results and the scene conditions have ruled out factors such as drugs and external force. They, that is, Welch and Naya, had no traces of resistance."
Before Klein could speak again, he entered the room and casually asked:
"When was the last time you saw Mr. Welch or Ms. Naya?"
He said this while gesturing with his eyes to his companion with two silver stars.
That was a young police officer, looking about the same age as Klein, with black hair and green eyes, good-looking, with a romantic poet's temperament.
When he heard the question, Klein's thoughts raced, thinking about how to answer:
"It should have been June 26th. We jointly interpreted the content of a new notebook, and then I returned home to prepare for the interview on the 30th, um, the interview at the History Department of Tingen University."
Tingen City is known as the city of universities, with Tingen and Hoy universities, technical schools, barristers' colleges, business schools, and is second only to the capital Beckland.
He finished speaking, and his peripheral vision caught the young police officer walking to the desk and picking up what seemed more like a diary-like "notebook".
Awful! I forgot to hide it! Klein shouted briefly: "You!"
The young police officer smiled at him but didn't stop looking through the notebook, while the gray-eyed police officer explained:
"This is a necessary procedure."
At this moment, Bic Montbenton and the stern middle-aged police officer were just watching from the side, not interrupting or assisting in the search.
Where is your search warrant? Klein had intended to ask this, but after thinking carefully, it seemed that the judicial system of the Kingdom of Ruan didn't seem to have evolved such a thing as a search warrant, at least he didn't know if he had or not. After all, the police force was only established for a few years.
When the original owner was young, it was still called the治安官.
Klein couldn't stop it, watching the young police officer quickly flipping through "his own notebook", while the gray-eyed police officer didn't ask any more questions.
"What strange thing?" The young police officer turned to the end and suddenly spoke, "Also, what does this mean? 'Everyone will die, including me'..."
Isn't it common sense that everyone will die except for the gods? Klein had originally intended to make a clever defense, but suddenly he thought of the fact that he had planned to "connect with the police" in advance to guard against possible dangers. However, he was frustrated because he had no reason or excuse.
In less than a second, he made a decision and covered his forehead with his hand, answering with a painful tone:
"I don't know. I really don't know... After waking up this morning, I felt something was wrong with me. It seemed that I had forgotten some things, especially some parts that happened in the recent days. I even wasn't sure why I wrote this sentence."
Sometimes, being honest is the best way to solve problems. Of course, being honest requires certain skills. What can be said and what cannot be said is one aspect, while deciding which to say first, which to say later, and how to say it are another aspect.
As a "keyboard" expert, Klein had also studied some speech techniques.
"Absurd! Do you think we are fools?" Bich Monbatton angrily interrupted, unable to contain his anger.
This lie was so poor that it was actually insulting the intelligence of himself and others!
You might as well pretend to be mentally ill rather than pretend to be forgetful!
"Really." Klein responded calmly to the gazes of Monbatton and the middle-aged police officer.
This really can't be any more true.
"Perhaps it's possible." At this point, the gray-eyed police officer spoke slowly. What? So, is that true? Klein himself was astonished.
The gray-eyed officer smiled and looked at him:
"Tomorrow a specialist will come. Believe me, she should be able to help you recall the lost memories."
Specialist? Help recall? In the field of psychology? Klein frowned.
Sigh, what if this messes up my Earth memories? Suddenly, he felt a toothache.
The young officer put down his notes, searched the desk and the room, fortunately, he focused on the books and didn't mention the water jug to take a look.
"Alright, Mr. Klein, thank you for your cooperation. In the next few days, you'd better not leave Tinggen. If you must, please notify Monbatton Officer. Otherwise, you'll become a fugitive," the gray-eyed officer finally instructed.
This is it? This is the end of today? No more questions, no more investigation? Or to bring me back to the police station and torture me? Klein was in a state of confusion.
However, he also wanted to solve the strange incident brought by Welch, so he nodded:
"No problem."
The officers one by one left the room, and the young man at the end suddenly patted Klein's shoulder:
"That's great, very lucky."
"What?" Klein looked confused.
This officer with the poetical temperament smiled slightly:
"Generally speaking, when such an event occurs, the person involved usually dies. "
"We are very happy and very lucky to see you still alive."
After saying that, he left the room, politely closing the door.
All dead is the norm? We are very happy that you're still alive? We are very lucky that you're still alive?
On this June afternoon, Klein felt cold all over.