Chapter 458

Chapter 458

"The smell of alcohol is too strong, and it evaporates quickly. Forget about whether using a large amount of alcohol would attract other visitors' attention—just think about the alcohol sold in stores. To wipe away fingerprints over such a large area..."

Sienna looked up with a half-smile, "How much would the killer have had to bring?"

At this point, everyone except Kelvin showed looks of sudden understanding.

It was a paradox—removing a large number of fingerprints would require a large amount of alcohol. But if too much alcohol was used in a sealed environment like the museum, someone would definitely notice the smell.

"It was hand sanitizer."

Before Sienna could continue her analysis, Kelvin suddenly spoke up from the side.

He got straight to the point with his summary.

"There are alcohol hand sanitizer dispensers set up throughout the exhibition halls, and there's even a large bottle of medical alcohol at the security checkpoint. In this kind of environment, people pay less attention to alcohol."

"There's another thing."

Kelvin looked at Sienna, "If the alcohol on site was used in large quantities, someone should have noticed. So the killer most likely took unopened medical alcohol directly from your storage warehouse."

After saying this, Kelvin coldly ordered, "Who knows where your museum's warehouse is?"

His icy gaze fell on the museum staff nearby, full of pressure.

The staff member shuddered and spoke somewhat timidly, "Quite a few people."

Kelvin's expression stiffened, and the staff member quickly added, "It's because everyone goes to get alcohol, so all the employees know about it."

After all that analysis, the range of suspects hadn't narrowed at all.

Sienna crossed her arms, raised her eyebrows at Kelvin, and smiled helplessly, "Let's go. We can't figure out anything more from this scene anyway."

"We need to go back and do a more thorough autopsy."

Kelvin said, "Okay."

As soon as Sienna left, Kelvin immediately threw his energy back into examining the scene. Since the deceased was an honest, clean-living security guard, the investigation into his social connections also went very smoothly.

Kelvin had just finished examining the scene when Arnold had already brought information about the deceased's social connections to the exhibition hall.

"The deceased, Marlon, fifty-five years old, used to work in a factory in a special occupation and went through early retirement procedures. After retirement, he came to work as a security guard at the museum."

Arnold's tone was somewhat puzzled, "It's pretty strange—this guy had no enemies, no debts, not much in savings, always been honest and law-abiding. We can basically rule out any revenge killing, crime of passion, or murder for money."

Put that way, the case was indeed very strange.

Seeing Kelvin deep in thought, Arnold quickly sent an electronic copy of the materials to Sienna as well.

Kelvin frowned, "There's something wrong with his social connections. Go check his previous registered residence, including his former addresses—pull everything up."

In the forensic lab.

"This is so weird." Sienna frowned slightly.

Sterling was organizing autopsy files nearby and looked puzzled when he heard this, "What's weird?"

Sienna laughed, "I'm telling you, there's a big problem with Marlon's personal relationships."

She pointed at the materials in her hand, "This guy has no enemies and no savings, so money or revenge killing doesn't work, but the perpetrator was someone he knew."

"For someone to decide to kill, there has to be some motive, right?"

Sienna pursed her lips, "If it was for that mummy, couldn't they just put something inside it? Moving that whole display case—it's already really heavy by itself. Who could clearly tell that the weight inside was wrong?"

"Yeah!" The assistant also caught on, "And the killer's method was brutal—clearly done with hatred!"

Sienna nodded, her expression serious, "Right, that's where the problem is. Whether it's the killing method, or if it was for the mummy, the killing itself seems excessive and deliberate. The personal relationships didn't turn up anything, so we won't get results from that angle."

After saying this, Sienna spoke decisively, "The deceased's cause of death matches what we expected, but we just discovered something—the deceased's head shows signs of being struck hard."

The assistant quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, and from the marks, it shouldn't have been a heavy object."

"Of course not a heavy object."

Sienna carefully washed her hands, her tone flat, "You can't bring heavy objects into the museum. If we search carefully, we might be able to find the murder weapon nearby."

The assistant quickly nodded, and Sienna dried the water droplets from her hands, pausing slightly.

"Contact an expert from the museum."

As she spoke, Sienna seemed to think of something, "Something this valuable and conspicuous—after stealing it, the killer definitely wouldn't dare keep it long. They'd try to get rid of it as soon as possible."

Sienna walked quickly, rapidly grabbing her phone and calling a museum expert.

The expert's information coincided with Sienna's thinking.

"To sell a mummy, you'd only go to the antique street on the east side."

The expert's voice was weathered, "It's a mixed bag there, trading these old items of questionable origin. No one asks where you got the stuff—as long as the price is right, they'll take it on the spot."

Sienna hung up the phone and suddenly turned to look at her assistant, "You organize the materials, I'm going back to the scene."

"There's still one crucial point at the scene that hasn't been resolved."

After saying this, Sienna turned and left, but she felt that Kelvin had probably discovered it too.

And at the scene, Kelvin was indeed thinking about the same question as Sienna.

He had sent officers to Marlon's hometown, and stood alone in the center of the exhibition hall, his cold gaze constantly scanning around.

"Are you thinking about where the killer left from?"

Sienna returned to the scene and saw this, "They had to take away a mummy basically as tall as a person—they couldn't have left through the normal exits. If I were the killer, I'd choose the emergency exit, or the ventilation ducts above."

Kelvin looked at her, and heard her continue, "They had to avoid people's sight to safely sell the mummy."

Kelvin was puzzled, "Emergency exit?"

He shook his head and said, "Sienna, if you just check the museum's past surveillance records, you'll easily find that the museum's emergency exits have three outlets, each located in very visible positions in the exhibition halls."

"What kind of person could this killer be, to carry a mummy through an emergency exit without anyone knowing and get away clean?"

She hadn't thought of that, and just said, "I was just suggesting possibilities. Since the emergency exits won't work, what about the ventilation ducts?"