But you forgot that you left a whole row of fingerprints somewhere no one else would ever touch, or rather... palm prints."

Samuel Grant was startled: "Oh no!"

Ethan said, "When you were so frightened by a cold corpse that you fell back onto the floor, you left quite a few palm prints on the ground. In a place where everyone walks with their feet, you left such a strange and neat row of palm prints. Are you planning to explain it as 'I entered the office doing a handstand during the day'? If you really did that, someone would definitely notice."

Samuel Grant was in no mood to joke with the other party and replied, "But... in a normal suicide case—no, even in a murder! Would anyone go so far as to collect fingerprints from the floor outside the door?!"

Ethan slapped the table: "Well said! Good insight! Your guess is absolutely correct.

Take Sakura Mansion as an example: in any homicide, the first officer to arrive at the scene is responsible for securing the area and conducting a preliminary investigation. After that, a group of techies carrying expensive equipment will arrive late to collect evidence—that's the forensics team. At this point, the first officer on the scene will use their initial judgment to determine the nature of the case and the direction of the investigation.

If it's treated as a regular suicide, there's no need for meticulous evidence collection. They just take a few symbolic fingerprints from the object that caused the death, snap some photos of the scene, the evidence, and the deceased, then transport the body and wrap up. If things go quickly, the whole process can be done in two or three hours.

Questioning relevant personnel can be handled during evidence collection, and the subsequent autopsy is just to determine the cause of death—no extensive testing will be done. Once the evidence, testimonies, and autopsy report are all ready, the officer in charge of paperwork writes a brief report, files the necessary information into the computer for backup, and tosses all the miscellaneous physical evidence into an archive bag—case closed.

Sakura Mansion has always had an extremely high suicide rate. The police handle these cases with such ease that, if not second nature, they're at least highly skilled.

There are plenty of people who, after graduating high school, become full-time NEETs, sit in sunless rooms, fall in love with 2D characters for years, even register marriages, and eventually die from excessive masturbation.

In cases like these, there's absolutely no way they'd go so far as to collect fingerprints from every inch of the scene."

He rattled all this off in one breath, then dropped two fatal words: "But!"

Ethan picked up Walter Reed's Book of the Heart, flipped to a page, pointed to a line, and placed it in front of Samuel Grant: "Read."

The moment Samuel Grant's eyes met the words in the book, his whole body trembled: "That idiot Wet Mosquito Coil, wouldn't it have been enough to just wipe away his own footprints? But wiping all the fingerprints off the window frame is way too suspicious, isn't it?"

Ethan immediately closed the book and put it back in his desk drawer: "Even Walter Reed's thinking is clearer than yours. He had just killed someone with his own hands, after all, which is very different from someone like you who falls apart after just seeing a corpse." He continued to sneer, "Use your brain for once. If Henry Clark was someone planning to commit suicide, would he deliberately wipe away his own fingerprints? And then, would someone who cleaned up all their fingerprints still leave footprints behind?

A security guard as a witness, a big lock as physical evidence—with these two pieces of evidence, any normal person could deduce that Henry Clark snuck into the school building after 8 p.m. through somewhere other than the main entrance. Even the most negligent police would at least check how Henry Clark entered the crime scene. You anticipated all of this, but still made such a rookie mistake. Sigh, how foolish... You might as well have wiped away Henry Clark's footprints too, and then it would have made sense."

"What did you just say..." Samuel Grant didn't even hear the second half of Ethan's words; his mind was still stuck on "He had just killed someone with his own hands."

Ethan slapped the table and laughed loudly: "Hahaha... This is your other foolish mistake. If you had insisted on making the first deal, when you saw Walter Reed's book, you would have known who the real culprit was."

Samuel Grant gritted his teeth in hatred, but the other party had indeed given him a choice, so he had nothing to say.

Ethan said, "Alright, I've said all I needed to say. The deal is over. If there's nothing else, please get lost."

Samuel Grant was unwilling to leave just like that: "You can testify! You know Walter Reed killed someone! As long as you point him out..."

Ethan waved his finger, cutting off Samuel Grant: "I have no time, mood, interest, or obligation to do that."

"Then... then... why did Walter Reed kill Henry Clark? And why would Henry Clark go to the school by himself in the middle of the night?" Samuel Grant pressed on.

Ethan spread his hands: "Walter Reed's method, motive, Henry Clark's actions, and how to avoid being tracked by the Whale Bird. If you want to know all that, we can make another deal." He took a sip of coffee and continued, "Of course, you can also get out of here now, wash your neck, and wait for the Whale Bird to arrest you based on the limited clues and his limited intelligence."

"But it was Walter Reed who killed him! You know that too!" Samuel Grant replied.