In the aisle of the first-class carriage, Edrick was confronting Kim. Under the witness of the train attendants and the train Captain, Edrick began to state his crimes while pointing a gun at Kim.
"You are a greedy thief. Seeing Mr. Sodod sleeping in his compartment with the door unlocked, you harbored malicious intent and went in to steal. But who would have thought that during this process, Mr. Sodod woke up and got into a struggle with you in the compartment. In the process, you brutally murdered him. Isn't that right?"
"...You're right. If that guy had just slept quietly, he wouldn't have died. He brought it upon himself!" Kim, sitting on the aisle floor, responded. As he spoke, a hint of ruthlessness was revealed in his expression. His words made everyone else present confirm that Kim was the murderer and a vicious bandit!
"Surrender now. You cannot escape. You need to pay the price for your wicked deeds, Mr. Kim."
"Pay the price? Hmph! Now is not the time!"
With a cold snort, Kim looked at the train attendants and the Captain with ruthless eyes, then drew a small knife from his person, stood up, and charged towards them. From his appearance, it seemed he wanted to take hostages or drag a few down with him.
Kim, with a ferocious expression, charged at the train attendants and Captains with a knife. Seeing this, the train attendants looked flustered, but the Captain was quite composed. Facing the attack, he pulled out a pistol from his waist and pointed it at Kim. Just as he was about to shoot, another gunshot rang out from behind Kim.
"Bang!"
Edrick shot and hit Kim. Kim's attack was interrupted, and he fell to the ground motionless, having lost his life. The train attendants and Captains also looked at Edrick.
"It is regrettable, it seems the law cannot judge him. Compared to the judgment of the law, I believe the safety of you gentlemen's lives is most important. Regarding the cause of death of Mr. Kim, please explain it to the police later."
"Of course, your justice and marksmanship are both admirable, Detective."
Putting away his pistol, the Captain said to Edrick.
...
Afterwards, the train attendants calmed the passengers who were startled by the gunshots and then cleaned up Kim's body. During this time, the curious Captain found Edrick, who was smoking by the carriage window.
"Respected Detective, thank you very much for helping us find this heinous criminal. However, I am also very curious how you found him through a pile of train tickets. Could you tell me your deduction process?"
The Captain asked Edrick curiously, and Edrick smiled, flicked the ash out the window, and replied.
"Of course, Captain, please come with me to take another look at the crime scene."
Saying this, Edrick walked towards the 'crime scene', the carriage where Sodod was. At this time, Sodod's body had already been moved, leaving only bloodstains all over the floor.
Inside the compartment where the incident occurred, Edrick squatted down and then pointed his finger towards a corner by the wall.
"Captain, please look at this bloodstain here. Isn't it a bit strange?"
Following Edrick's guidance, the Captain also looked over and then noticed that the bloodstain by the wall was indeed a bit peculiar.
Most of this small patch of bloodstain was in the shape of normal liquid splatters, but one corner was square-shaped, and within the square corner, there was a small red dot, which looked very unnatural.
"This is..."
"The reason this bloodstain appears this way is because when the blood dripped down, it happened to land on something. A part dripped onto the floor, and a part dripped onto that thing. After the thing was taken away, what remained on the floor formed this appearance.
"From the marks on the floor, this thing was a small piece of paper with square corners and a small hole in the middle. What does this remind you of, Captain?"
Edrick said to the Captain with a smile, and the Captain suddenly realized.
"A small piece of paper with a hole... This is a train ticket! The hole is the mark left by the ticket puncher after checking the ticket! When the murderer was struggling with the deceased, the ticket fell out, the deceased's blood splattered onto it, and afterwards the murderer took the ticket, which is why this bloodstain formed here.
"That's why you wanted to collect those train tickets. You wanted to verify the bloodstains."
The Captain said with understanding, and Edrick also nodded with a smile.
"Yes, because a ticket is needed to exit the station, he had to retrieve the ticket. He was confident that after wiping off the bloodstains on the ticket, he could deceive everyone, but he didn't know that blood is something that cannot be wiped completely clean. As a Detective, I carry a chemical solution that can detect whether an object has been stained with blood."
Edrick finished explaining, and the Captain continued to nod and say with admiration.
"Oh... I see. To be able to observe such minute details at the scene, make associations, and finally restore the truth, Mr. Ed, you truly live up to the name of Detective."
'Nonsense, I personally arranged the entire crime scene, and I made those bloodstains myself. How could I not observe them carefully and spot them at a glance?'
In her own compartment, Dorothy, controlling the puppet, thought this. This so-called 'murder scene' was arranged by her, and she created these marks specifically to deal with the Captain's questions later.
"Hearing you say that... After examining the bloodstains on the tickets, you should have already known the culprit's location. So why didn't you notify us to directly apprehend the culprit, but instead summon the other passengers one by one, and only summon the culprit last?" The Captain then asked, and Dorothy had already thought of a reason to deal with it. She controlled Mr. Edrick to answer.
"This is because that culprit is extremely vicious and was in the second-class carriage where there are many people. I was afraid that if we went directly to apprehend him, he might harm other passengers if cornered. To avoid unnecessary casualties, I chose this method to call him over. Summoning the other passengers was to lower his guard."
Edrick finished answering. After hearing Edrick's words, a flicker of light shone in the Captain's expression, and a hint of admiration appeared in his eyes as he looked at Ed.
"Oh... So that's how it is. You even considered the safety of other innocent passengers? That's truly amazing!"
"Mr. Ed, your keen observation skills, brilliant wisdom, and righteous and benevolent heart have truly opened my eyes today. You are truly an excellent and outstanding Detective. I believe a Detective like you will one day become famous! When we arrive at Tivian, the reporters will definitely be interested in the story that happened on this train tonight."
The Captain praised Edrick without reservation, and Edrick replied with a smile and a graceful demeanor.
"I do not seek fame; I only need to be able to constantly pursue the truth and practice justice."
When controlling up to this point, Dorothy wanted to make Edrick take out a small pipe and take a couple of puffs, but after feeling around and finding no pipe on herself, she gave up.
...
After explaining the mundane version of the case to the Captain, Edrick said he wanted to go back and rest. He made the excuse that the table in his original compartment was not good, so he suggested to the Captain that he rest in the compartment where the interrogation had taken place. The Captain naturally agreed readily, even skipping the ticket checking process to agree to change carriages.
Just like that, Edrick, the undocumented person without a ticket, officially succeeded in fare evasion.
Next, Dorothy first threw Edrick into the compartment and closed the door, planning to retrieve him after a while. Meanwhile, she herself sat at the table in her own carriage and began to sort out the spoils harvested from this round of the 'Detective game'.