The detective is dead, I did it.

Chapter 49 You Don't Deserve to Be a Mother

"It's none of your business."

Charlotte clearly had no intention of explaining, and Li Ang didn't press her further, only guessing what was going on.

Perhaps it's to maintain the other party's reputation as a famous detective?

After a while, it was completely bright.

Sunlight streamed through the treetops on the east side of the garden, over the wall, and into the mansion through the windows, as if to dispel all the darkness here.

The detectives arrived quickly; the first group to arrive was a team of investigators in dark trench coats.

They are the association's personnel specifically assigned to handle on-site matters. They usually appear after the case is closed and the real culprit is caught, to take over the scene and conduct sampling investigations.

Because Charlotte had informed them in advance, they didn't exchange many pleasantries after getting off the carriage and immediately split into three groups.

One group took over the scene and sealed it off, another went into the basement to examine the remnants of the magic circle, and the last group went up to the second floor to find Charlotte.

The leader was a woman in her forties with short silver-gray hair and a stern face.

"Holmes, sir." She handed me a folder. "Headquarters has assigned me to handle the situation on-site. Your initial report has been received; we will follow up on the rest."

Charlotte took the folder, glanced at it, and after confirming there were no problems, closed it and handed it back to her.

"The residual traces of the magic circle in the basement need to be removed as soon as possible; the longer it's delayed, the greater the impact on ordinary people. Also, be sure to wear protective gear when handling it to avoid any residual magical effects causing harm."

"There are at least a dozen skeletons buried under the rose bushes in the southeast corner of the garden. I have marked them. When digging, be careful to separate them into layers and not mix the skeletons from different periods together."

The woman with short, silver-gray hair noted everything down without asking any further questions, then turned and led her people downstairs.

Li Ang stood by the window in the corridor, watching the investigators move back and forth in the garden.

They first marked out the area around the bushes with white string, then squatted down and used small shovels to dig away the soil bit by bit.

He looked very professional, even resembling someone from a later crime drama. If it weren't for the surrounding environment, Li Ang wouldn't have believed he was in Victorian Britain.

As the limestone layer was removed, sunlight shone on the incomplete skeletons exposed from the soil.

"Why sprinkle lime?"

Li Ang estimated that the lime layer under the soil was almost a centimeter thick. If the soil layer above it wasn't thick enough, these roses would probably have been burned to death long ago.

But that's precisely why he was so curious: what was the purpose of sprinkling lime?

"It was the old butler who made it. These are the markings he made so that anyone could immediately tell something was wrong here," Charlotte replied.

"Really? By the way, does this viscount have any descendants?"

Li Ang suddenly thought of the properties in the Viscount's collection room. If the Viscount had no descendants, would these properties become ownerless?

If I go inside and take two items now, no one should notice, right?

Thinking about this, Li Ang was somewhat tempted.

"Yes. He has a son who's fighting in Ireland," Charlotte said casually.

Before she arrived, she had investigated this Viscount Cavendish and knew that he only had one son who was serving in the army and was currently fighting in Ireland. Whether he would survive was another matter.

"Ireland?" Leon asked, puzzled. "What's wrong with that place?"

"It's just a rebellion by some troublemakers. But because it involves cultists, it's proving a bit difficult to suppress. I heard that the royal family wanted to entrust the Detective Association with the task, but they refused. After all, this kind of thing has nothing to do with the association."

"Could it be because of the famine?"

Li Ang recalled that around this time in history, Ireland experienced a severe famine that killed many people.

Moreover, this matter is also somewhat related to Britain.

Although the real reason was a virus that caused Ireland's main crops to fail, the root cause was the British colonial plunder of the Irish, which left them in extreme poverty and constantly at risk of being killed.

This incident also led to the Irish and English becoming enemies in later generations.

"Yes. I didn't expect you to know so much about things abroad, including that Ming Dynasty." Charlotte couldn't help but look at Li Ang with newfound respect.

To be honest, very few people in all of Britain knew about this.

Most people only know that amidst the Queen's supreme glory, the Irish rebels defied her, completely unaware that the real reason was their desperate act of not surviving.

Even the Ming Dynasty was like that.

People only knew that the other's silk and porcelain were beautiful; there was very little communication, and even Charlotte only occasionally learned of the existence of this country.

"Actually, I don't know much about the Ming Dynasty you mentioned."

Li Ang was telling the truth.

Heaven knows how the Ming Dynasty survived the Little Ice Age and made it to this day. It couldn't have been because some superhuman warriors appeared out of nowhere, like in the Han Dynasty, could it?

"Actually, I only know about the first half of that country's history... By the way, what happened to the viscount's property?" Li Ang abruptly changed the subject.

"The association has already sent someone to notify them, but even if they want to come back, it will be several years later, and it's uncertain whether they will even be alive by then."

"Therefore, the assets here have been temporarily sealed by the association and will be handed over after the investigation is completed. However, he probably won't want the house and the things in the basement back."

Just then, a low gasp came from the garden outside the window.

Li Ang looked out and saw that a large patch of soil had been turned over, revealing the overlapping bones underneath.

In the morning light, they gleamed with a grayish-white hue, as if eroded by lime, piled together like a bundle of old firewood carelessly discarded.

"These are just the parts that could be dug out." Charlotte walked to his side and looked out the window as well. "Some of the pieces were too broken to be distinguished from the soil."

As expected, that viscount died far too easily.

Li Ang silently clenched his fist.

"What about the Public Security Bureau?"

"The association has already sent people over there; none of them will escape."

Charlotte turned around, leaned against the windowsill, and crossed her arms. "Over the years, the Viscount has bribed many people in the Ministry of Public Security, from district police chiefs to clerks at headquarters. The old butler wrote down the names and amounts clearly in his letters."

"I imagine the sheriff's face will turn green when the association comes with the list demanding the people back."

The main problem is that this matter is too shameful. If it gets to the attention of the royal family, their security department will likely face a major purge.

"What will their verdict be?"

"The trial is none of our business. But those who took the money probably wish they had never been born more than the Viscount."

Charlotte's tone contained neither schadenfreude nor sympathy; she was simply stating what she believed to be a predetermined outcome.

"What should we do with these servants?"

Li Ang looked at the pale-faced servants who had been brought out by the investigators and were standing in twos and threes on the lawn in the garden and asked.

"Handle them separately. Most of them are in cahoots with the Viscount, and some are even responsible for finding young girls for him, so none of them will escape."

"But the Public Security Bureau might not necessarily take action," Li Ang said.

Helena's case is special, so it will be handled by the Detective Association, while the ordinary servants in the mansion will be handled by the Public Security Department.

But based on Li Ang's current impression of these people, he really doesn't think they can be handled well.

"The Public Security Bureau won't take it, but the association will."

Charlotte leaned against the windowsill, arms crossed. "Detectives don't just solve cases; we have our own system. Those the Sheriff's Department can handle, we handle. Those the Sheriff's Department can't handle, we handle."

As the two were talking, the servants were led out one by one through the side door.

There were about fifty people standing on the lawn, forming a loose semicircle. Their expressions varied, but the old butler at the head of the group remained calm.

A middle-aged woman wearing a dark apron suddenly rushed out from the crowd.

She collapsed at the investigator's feet, clutching his trouser leg tightly with both hands, her face a mixture of tears and snot.

"My lord, my lord, I'm innocent! I know nothing! I'm just a fire starter! How would I know what the Viscount has done!"

Her voice was sharp and shrill, so loud it hurt people's ears.

The expressions of the other servants began to relax.

Some people's eyes turned disdainful, some lowered their heads, and some moved their lips as if hesitating whether to shout along.

Finally, after a few seconds, a second person rushed out, knelt on the ground, and banged his forehead against the gravel with a dull thud.

"Sir, I don't know anything about it! I just wash dishes in the kitchen every day, I've never even been to the upstairs hallway, what could I possibly know!"

More people stepped forward, kneeling down one after another like dominoes.

The investigators stopped what they were doing, looked at each other, but no one moved.

They'd seen this scene far too many times. Every time, the case was solved, the people were arrested, and there were far more people crying foul than innocent ones.

The silver-gray-haired woman leading the group frowned, about to speak, when she saw Charlotte and Leon approaching.

Charlotte walked up to the middle-aged woman, squatted down, and looked her in the eye.

"Your name is Martha, and you have worked at the Viscount's mansion for twenty-two years."

Her voice wasn't loud, but the surrounding crowd quieted down, everyone wanting to hear what she was saying.

"Your husband is the Viscount's groom. Your eldest daughter works at a textile factory in the next town, and your second daughter..." Her face instantly turned icy cold, "...was personally given to the Viscount five years ago."

The woman's crying stopped abruptly, her pupils contracted sharply, her body began to tremble violently, and her eyes were filled with disbelief.

"She was only fourteen years old that year, and she died three months after she came in."

"The Viscount said she died of a sudden illness and gave you some money, telling you not to make a fuss. You took the money, and the next day you bought a necklace and continued working in this house while wearing it."

"No...this..."

The woman opened her mouth, wanting to say something in her defense, but under Charlotte's oppressive gaze, she couldn't utter a single word.

"Do you know how your daughter died?" Charlotte stood up and looked down at her.

"It wasn't a sudden illness. He was dragged into the basement by the Viscount, and when he came out the next day, he was already a corpse. Didn't you hear anything when you passed through that corridor every morning?"

"What was that sound?" the middle-aged woman asked instinctively.

"The voice of your daughter demanding your life! The voice of your own mother who sold her daughter to a pervert for money, now coming to claim your life."

Charlotte's beautiful blue eyes stared straight at her, filled with a cold, judgmental gaze.

"I...I don't know...I didn't know it would be like this...The Viscount said...he said it was just to serve him...it wouldn't...it wouldn't..."

"Won't what?" Charlotte didn't give her a chance to finish. "Won't die? Won't be dragged into the basement? You've lived in this mansion for twenty-two years, and you don't know who the Viscount is?"

The woman's mouth opened and closed again.

She had nothing left to say in her defense.

Under Charlotte's gaze, those words were peeled away one by one, like large pieces of rotten wood peeling off to reveal the decaying, insect-infested entrails underneath.

"Her body was taken away by the police and hastily buried, and you, as her biological mother, don't even know where she's buried!"

The middle-aged woman's body shifted from a slumped position to a prone one, her forehead pressed against the gravel ground, her shoulders heaving violently as she desperately tried to put up a final act of resistance.

"Even if I hadn't given her to the Viscount, her fate would have been to work in the textile factory until she died! I did nothing wrong! Those who work in textile factories, who didn't die from overwork, from illness, or from being strangled by the machines? I just... I just helped her get out of this predicament."

Upon hearing the middle-aged woman utter the words "textile factory," Li Ang instinctively clenched his fist.

Ketura used to work in a textile factory. His fingers were often blistered and bleeding, and every night when he came home, his eyes were full of exhaustion.

Especially when fatigue and hunger strike, a small mistake can result in the foreman deducting a whole day's wages.

None of the female workers here live long, especially the younger ones, who can't even last a few months.

However, no one cared about their deaths.

Li Ang stepped forward and squatted down in front of the woman.

"Do you know what a textile factory is like? It's hell. You go in before dawn and don't come out until it's completely dark. You stand in front of the machines for fourteen hours a day, you can't sit, you can't stop, you can't lose focus."

"Her fingers were blistered and bleeding, her eyesight deteriorated from staring at the yarn, her lungs were filled with cotton fibers, and she coughed until she vomited blood. Have you ever seen those girls who came out of the textile factory?"

"But they just wanted to survive!"

He paused, looking into the woman's eyes.

"Even so, before you hand your daughter over to the Viscount, she still has a chance to live, instead of being tortured to death by a psychopath!"

"What right do you have to use the textile factory as an excuse?"

"The female workers in the textile factory are pitiful people; they are driven to a dead end by the world."

"You are not."

"You know perfectly well who the Viscount is, you know what has happened in this house, and when you sent your daughter here, you knew in your heart what she would go through."

"But you chose money, you chose to continue living in this house, and now you're telling me it's just giving her an early release?"

"Are you kidding me?!"