立夏 [4] / [7]
"Did the caller tell you to dig the ground under the statue of this clown?"
Cynthia asked to him while she cast light on the fallen clown still lying on the ground from Alexander's kicking it.
"He did. And I dug here a little by that stone, pretty deep, isn't it?"
Cynthia giggled. It reminded her of a little hole on the playground dug by a bored kid.
"Let's see what's supposedly there, if what the caller meant wasn't just the key and the address you already have,"
she activated the metal detector.
"It can find metal under the ground, and provide a clear picture of what exactly lies beneath. It's quite accurate."
She explained,
"My father told me that he actually used this to search for mines a long time ago. But I don't know when and where. He passed away before I got to the age where I could understand what that even meant."
Alexander just listened. He felt an odd chill. It felt strange listening to her talk about de-mining in this darkness, at this late hour. On the other hand, he was also worried about other things. What if they find another body? The metal detector made sounds which indicated that there was something.
But thankfully there was no body, as Alexander feared, beneath the clown. After a few minutes of labor behinds their shovels, they found a knife. It looked just like a normal, albeit rather large, kitchen knife. The handle was made of wood, and was worn with age, and the blade, despite having a light coat of rust on it, still gleamed in the light cast by their flashlights. Alexander looked a little closer.
"Is that rust,"
he asked, as if to nobody, "Or―"
"Blood,"
Cynthia finished his sentence, as she looked down at the knife.
Cynthia opened the pack she had brought with her, containing gloves and a few evidence bags, in case they found anything worthwhile. She donned the gloves, picked up the knife, and examined it up close.
"It's been cleansed in ammonia," she said,
"it still has that faint smell, and the discoloration, if that's even blood."
"This was a totem,"
said Alexander thoughtfully.
"Something to wet our beaks, indeed. He'd never give us anything we could actually use. Of course not. Then why would we bother driving several hours for trifles when we have a potential murder weapon right here. No, he wants us to go."
Alexander trailed off, but Cynthia understood what he was trying to express. Whoever the informant was, this showed that, not only was he the real deal, but that he held all the cards. If they wanted to solve this case, they didn't have a choice but to comply. They were locked in.