"Arthur, it's your turn."
Sarah called to him from a short distance away.
Arthur quickly reacted, putting out his cigarette and getting up from his chair. As he walked past Sarah, he said quietly in her ear.
"I want to talk to you about something later."
"Okay, I'll be waiting."
Sarah was even more curious about what Arthur was going to do, but she still showed great patience.
He entered the interrogation room.
The place was, of course, very sparse, with only gray walls, a high-powered light bulb hanging from the ceiling, a one-way mirror on the right side for others to observe, a surveillance camera in the corner, and in the middle, a large table with two chairs facing each other.
Scott sat in the chair, his hands cuffed. His eyes were unfocused, and his whole body slumped as if he had no energy left.
As soon as Arthur walked in, Scott's body immediately tensed up. Arthur saw his shoulders rise and his arms pull close to his body. He knew that Scott was subconsciously protecting himself.
It seemed the interrogation team had tormented Scott quite a bit.
"Hello, Scott. I'm Arthur. I'm sure you've met me before."
To calm Scott down, Arthur tried to make his expression and tone casual, not as oppressive and tense as someone who was about to interrogate him.
As expected, Scott's body relaxed a little, but he was still on high alert and did not respond to him.
Seeing this, Arthur wasn't angry. He even smiled a little in a friendly way and continued.
"I'm not from the interrogation department. If someone wanted to interrogate you, someone else would be walking in here. I'm sure you don't want that to happen, do you, Scott?"
Hearing this, Scott remained silent.
Arthur was forcing Scott to choose between the two: him, someone easy to talk to, or someone from the interrogation department.
"I… didn't kill anyone."
Scott said with a tremble, completely dropping his guard against Arthur. Seeing this, Arthur smiled and said.
"Don't worry, Scott. Like I said, I'm not here to interrogate you. I just want to ask you a few things."
Scott hesitated for a moment, then he nodded slightly.
"Do you have any windows or back doors that are easy to break into?"
Hearing this question, Scott seemed a little startled, but seeing Arthur's serious face, he still answered truthfully.
"No… not really. All the windows are always locked from the inside and can't be opened, and the back door is the same. I mainly just eat and sleep at home."
"What about the front door? Do you lock the door when you leave the house?"
"Of course, who doesn't?"
Arthur rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, then he asked another question.
"So is there any way to get into your house when you're out and all the doors are locked?"
"This…"
Scott hesitated for a moment but then said it anyway.
"I have a key hidden in the hanging plant pot in front of the house. It's my spare key in case I lose my main key."
"Do you use that key often?"
"Uh… I don't think so? Maybe. I almost never forget or lose my key."
"Alright, thank you for your answer."
With that, Arthur immediately left the room and closed the door, so fast that Scott hadn't even had time to react.
Outside the interrogation room, the familiar somber atmosphere once again enveloped Arthur, so different from what he had shown inside the room that it seemed like two different personalities. Still, Arthur didn't pay any attention to this. He was thinking about something else.
It was how the killer framed Scott.
"The killer knew that Scott was the only person in the community who had a conflict with the priest, and a recent one at that, so the killer intentionally framed him."
"Scott's schedule wasn't too difficult to grasp. Just by looking at the pickup truck parked next to the house, you could tell when he had left."
"The location of Scott's spare key wasn't too difficult to figure out if the killer had already planned to break in. A normal person would usually hide a spare key right on the front porch for convenience, maybe under a doormat or in a plant pot… in short, even if the killer didn't know exactly where Scott hid the key, all they had to do was look a little."
"Another reason: Scott's house is in a rather secluded location compared to other households. So whether someone was stalking or breaking in, it would be much harder for anyone to see them. Plus, Scott is a new member who moved here to live alone, so almost no one was keeping an eye on his house."
"He's a black sheep in the community. Is that why the killer chose him?"
"No, that's not right. Living isolated from the community has its own characteristics, one of which is not socializing much with others, so the risk of conflicts arising is also very small."
"Did the killer just get lucky and find a perfect target to frame? No, that's not right either. The rock-throwing incident that broke the window…"
"That rock-throwing incident is suspicious! It's quite deserted near Scott's house, so of course, there aren't many people passing by. But just when someone was walking by, a rock was thrown. That's why Scott accused the neighbor who was passing by, but after the trial, the priest ruled that Scott's accusation was inaccurate, and their conflict arose from that."
"Did the killer throw the rock, thereby causing the conflict between Scott and the priest?"