Criminal X : Epitome Of Evil

The first Marshal called forward the person who murdered his three soldiers.

As if anyone would come forward on their own.

All the soldiers didn't even move a muscle and Fozier shouted again.

"If the killer comes forward on their own I promise I will give them an easy death."

Still, no one came forward.

Fozier gritted his teeth.

"So be it. Now if I find the killer myself, I will make sure they receive a thousand deaths."

The soldiers said nothing and Harlia had something to say as well.

"No one coming forward could also mean that no one among you has committed the murders. Because someone who has the guts to kill Fozier's soldiers won't be afraid of something like coming forward. So that leaves only the Marshals standing behind us."

She turned around.

Her eyes took in all the nine Marshals standing.

Fozier also turned around and his eyes went straight to Pablo.

"You should say that you didn't kill the soldiers. You were with Fozier for all day. You have an alibi." Cupid spoke.

'You are a hundred years too early to advise me. I won't speak until I am spoken to. If I gave my alibi now it would only make them suspicious.'

Pablo disregarded Cupid's suggestion and waited for things to play out.

Harlia stepped towards the Marshals and she stopped in front of the second Marshal.

Then she moved towards the third Marshal, then the forth, then fifth. She did that with each Marshal, finally stopping in front of Pablo.

Pablo showed nothing on his face. He had faced such situations many times before.

"I will ask all of you some questions and I want you all to answer in unison the first thing that comes to your mind. And make sure to tell the truth. Because I will get to know if you are lying or not. Understood?" The admiral said.

"Yes!" All the Nine Marshals replied.

Fozier stood behind Harlia and Harlia asked the first question.

"What was the name of the first soldier of Fozier who was murdered?"

"I don't know."

"No idea."

"No clue."

"I don't know."

"Don't know."

"I don't know."

"Don't know."

"I don't know."

"Dilinger."

All the nine Marshals gave their answers and only one Marshal answered the name of the first dead soldier.

"How do you know the name of that soldier, Pablo? When no one else does? When no one even shared the name of the dead soldier?" Harlia asked, giving a menacing stare.

It was Pablo who shared the name and all the eyes present on ground 0 were fixated on him now.

"I knew it from the start. This man can't be trusted." Luther took the chance to berate Pablo.

Pablo sighed. "First Marshal, please clear the misunderstanding."

"Yes. Yes." Fozier cleared his throat and announced. "I myself had told Pablo about the death of my first soldier. I wanted him to investigate the matter. But due to the burning of the clues, Pablo couldn't solve the case. That's all. There is no reason to suspect him. For Dilinger's murder at least."

The soldiers understood and the second Marshal could only click his tongue.

But Harlia surely did something else.

"You fucking idiot. When were you going to tell me that? I almost gave Pablo a death sentence."

Fozier bowed his head. "My fault, admiral."

Harlia came beside Fozier's ear and whispered under her breath. "If you were alone right now, I would have kicked the hell out of you."

"Then shall I send everyone away?" Fozier suggested. He was down bad.

Harlia smacked the first Marshal's head.

"Focus here first." She said and stopped talking with the masochist.

Pablo had vampire senses so he heard all that.

'Lust is the most powerful emotion.' He could only say that.

Anyway, after scolding Fozier, Harlia again focused on the nine Marshals.

"So none of you knew the first dead soldier of Fozier. And Pablo only knew it because of Fozier himself. And you all are not lying as well.

Therefore, it's safe to say that Dilinger and that General Lombard really killed each other. But then who burned the mansion? If there was really no killer then why burn the evidence we could have found inside the mansion?"

Harlia wondered a logical question and Pablo decided to use the moment.

So he raised his hand.

"What?" Harlia asked.

"I have a theory." Pablo said.

"Speak." Harlia permitted Pablo to express his thoughts and Pablo did the same as well.

"I am sure the General and Dilinger didn't kill each other. Someone else must have killed them both. I don't know if the killer is a soldier from the military or someone else altogether. But I do know that the killer wants the death of some Abyssal Butchers."

"Explain." Harlia wanted to hear more.

Pablo nodded.

"The killer must have wanted to kill Dilinger so he chose the place where Dilinger often goes—The General's mansion.

When Dilinger visited the mansion, the killer entered after him and must have attacked him from behind. Then Dilinger must have lost consciousness and the killer proceeded to kill the only eye witness present there—General Lombard.

After killing the general, the killer must have prepared boiling oil and put Dilinger inside him to give him pain and slow death.

After making sure that Dilinger was dead, the killer must have left the mansion and the next day after the first Marshal went away, the killer wasted no time and burned the mansion so that no investigation could take place."

"Hmm. Then who do you think could be the killer? Can you give us a profile?" Harlia asked.

"If I had to say," Pablo pretended to think for a while.

"The killer wanted Dilinger to die slowly and painfully. And now the first Marshal is saying two more of his soldiers are missing, it must mean the killer is taking his revenge for something on some particular soldiers.

And since he didn't come forward today when the first Marshal called, it means his revenge is still left. More soldiers will die. And only after finishing that, will he stop murdering and probably surrender or go away."

"I see. Well, is there any way to catch him?" Harlia asked for the solution.

And Pablo would certainly give her that.

"There is only one way to catch the killer."