Sarah's eyebrows furrowed, and Arthur nodded at her observation.
On the board, he drew a circle around the sticky note with Brenda's name.
"During our first meeting, when we asked, Mrs. Brenda didn't mention Scott's name, which shows that in her subconscious, the conflict between Scott and the priest held almost no weight as a possible cause for the murder. And that makes sense. It was just a small dispute, and the last time it happened was a month ago. In a life with many things to worry about, almost no one would pay attention that far back, because the two sides were not originally connected."
He then pointed to the circle.
"Imagine this is Brenda's circle of relationships, where she can receive information from other people."
"Within this circle, we can temporarily exclude relationships from outside the neighborhood, because they are not related to or aware of the case. There's only a very small chance that Brenda would have received a hint about Scott from these relationships, and we don't need to consider it here."
"Next, we are only left with relationships within the community. We had previously gone around and asked everyone, and their reactions were all identical. The conflict between Scott and the priest basically held no weight in their minds. So, when Mrs. Brenda socialized with these people, she also wouldn't have received a hint about Scott. And even if she did, the probability is quite low."
"Wait a minute, so does that mean Mrs. Brenda didn't talk to anyone?"
Sarah challenged, and Arthur sighed. This time, his voice seemed to have become heavier.
"Sarah, you've forgotten one person."
"Someone who is almost always by Mrs. Brenda's side, someone who happens to fit the profile of the killer that I have hypothesized."
"That's her son."
When Arthur uttered this sentence, the entire investigation room was enveloped in a profound silence.
"Unbelievable! Are you crazy, Arthur?"
Sarah's voice directly tore through the heavy silence.
When talking to her colleagues, Sarah always used her clear, steady voice, with a bit of wit when needed, befitting a young person. But this was the first time she had shown such a "fracture."
Her voice was filled with doubt towards Arthur's assumptions that challenged moral boundaries.
Her voice was filled with shock at the person he was pinning the crime on.
Finally, there was a sense of "shattering," her tone faltered, a kind of mental self-defense against the truth.
However, Sarah wasn't the type of person who would just accept it. That moment of shattering didn't make her show weakness; it made her show a kind of strength to fight back against Arthur's layers of ironclad deductions.
Others would often be overwhelmed by Arthur's way of thinking. She was no exception, but as mentioned, she was like a blender. Whatever was thrown into her mind, Sarah would grind and digest it.
"I don't deny that your deduction about the syringe—the murder weapon in this case—is extremely tight. And I can believe that we have locked onto this group of suspects."
"I also don't object to the possibility that Scott was framed, based on your deductions, which have convinced me, that's for sure."
"But when it comes to Mrs. Brenda, you've gone too fast, too far, to the point where your feet don't touch the ground. She just provided the clue a little late, right? The reasons for that could be many. Arthur, you should understand better than anyone that people are a much more complex whole than what they show to just one person, right? You told me that yourself."
"And even if Brenda providing the clue about Scott was set up by the killer... it doesn't have to be her son who did it, does it? The killer could have passed the information anonymously by arranging a letter or something. You yourself left open the possibility that the killer could have followed Scott's movements and then broken in. So why couldn't the killer have done the same with Mrs. Brenda? It doesn't necessarily have to be someone close to her who gave her the information."
"Arthur, I admire you, I have to say that. But I cannot accept you putting a child… into the circle of suspects just based on unfounded speculation. Our system was created to protect people from crime, not to find a target to aim at. Even when we have a perfect suspect like Scott, we won't immediately close the case and go home. That's how we do our job."
After her long speech, Sarah let out a sigh.
The investigation room once again fell silent.
Holand, their boss, didn't say anything or stop them. He just sat there quietly, witnessing the clash between two schools of thought, two types of ideologies.
Arthur, who was often misunderstood by his appearance and behavior.
Sarah, who was also often misunderstood by her appearance and behavior.
They were similar to some extent, which was why Holand paired them up as partners. A rational and unyielding person who was also abstract, neutralized by an upright and gentle person who was also resilient.
Holand looked at Arthur, while he was looking at Sarah.
Arthur's eyes showed no arrogance that his field was being questioned, nor did they show any avoidance when the holes in his argument were pointed out.
Arrogant people would get angry and avoid, and those who were utterly arrogant would ignore and keep moving forward. But Arthur knew and always clearly recognized that he wasn't like that.
Sarah was slightly overcome by emotion because of the teenage suspect he had brought up, but she didn't make an unreasonable argument. She still proceeded with a systematic analysis. In Arthur's eyes, this was no different from their usual conversations. He made a hypothesis, and Sarah pointed out the flaws to refute it. That's all.