Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 319 Toxicology – A Cold and Insidious Death Trick

Chapter 321 Toxicology – A Cold and Insidious Death Trick

"Before I begin the investigation, I first need to know, what exactly is the connection you mentioned between Hugo and this case?"

Inside the spacious living room of Yuqi Residence, Bilan stood in front of a huge map of Feiyun City and asked the policewoman a question.

"As my deputy told you before, it wasn't a very reliable connection; it was just some far-fetched connection. We were just using that name to act freely. Having this relationship makes the reports easier to write later."

Entering the office alone, Officer Jenny acted as if she were at home. She casually placed her white gloves on the sofa armrest, picked up a cup of hot tea from her own kettle and teapot, and leaned back wearily against the cushions, saying—

"As for the so-called connection, it is actually related to the source of the poison. The police tested the remaining liquid in the poison, and after several comparisons, they have now been able to determine the approximate composition of the poison."

"Oh? That's quite capable. Can you investigate the source of the poison?" Azure asked.

"Yes, but also no."

Officer Jenny took a sip of tea, sat up straight, and her attitude became serious.

"The poison in the medicine wasn't the venom secreted by a Poison-type Pokémon, nor was it the kind of controlled compound that's deadly in murder dramas, where just a tiny amount is enough to kill. On the contrary, the toxicity of these pollutants was actually quite low; it was only because they were directly applied to the wound of the injured Pokémon that they caused a serious infection."

"Yes, that's true. The fact that none of the poisoned elves died immediately is probably because of that."

The acting director thought it over carefully and nodded in approval.

Officer Jenny put down her teacup and said seriously, "The so-called poison put into those wound medicines actually all came from a common item that everyone can obtain daily—insect repellent spray. Isn't there an old saying, 'Dosage determines toxicity'? The murderer refined and concentrated the liquid originally used to repel spirits and mixed it into the leftover liquid of discarded wound medicines, thus creating a malicious and highly toxic substance."

"Insecticide spray?"

Azure raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Was that stuff originally poisonous? I remember Hugo saying that insect repellent sprays only mimicked the scents of powerful Pokémon."

The purpose was to drive away wild Pokémon, but could that concentrated medicine really be lethal? And if the medicine used was mixed with a spray, shouldn't the Pokémon have shown extremely strong resistance immediately after application? How could they allow the treatment to complete, resulting in an irreversible and severe infection?

"The principle you heard is correct. But it is precisely in order to retain the scents that mimic powerful Pokémon in the liquid that factories that manufacture insect repellent sprays add a certain inhibitor that reduces the activity of substances to the spray."

Officer Jenny replied, "Once this inhibitor reaches a certain dosage, it will produce toxicity, causing the Pokémon that ingests the inhibitor to fall into a coma, hindering wound healing, and reducing the activity of its elemental energy. However, since this toxicity does not pose a life-threatening threat to Pokémon under normal circumstances, before this case, no one would have considered insect repellent spray as a potential poison."

"So, does that mean the perpetrator likely possessed some level of biochemistry knowledge?"

"Indeed." The policewoman nodded crisply.

"Whether it's discovering the hidden toxicity from the ingredient list of insect repellent spray or refining large quantities of the liquid while retaining the inhibitory components, it requires a very high level of medical expertise. As for the odor of the insect repellent spray, that was actually eliminated by the inmates during the process of refining the toxic substances."

"So, the place where the criminals refined the insecticide would be emitting huge amounts of fumes that Pokémon hate, wouldn't it? The police could easily start their investigation from that angle. Not only that, we could also investigate the source of the insecticide spray, examining the sales records of various channels over the past few years to see if anyone has purchased insecticide spray in large quantities... Have the police investigated all of this?"

"These directions of investigation have naturally been mentioned in the police station before, and we are currently conducting investigations through multiple channels. However, insect repellent spray is, after all, an ordinary commodity that is sold openly. If someone wanted to secretly hoard a large quantity of it, it wouldn't be difficult."

As for what you said about the sales records of insecticide spray…

Officer Jenny suddenly smiled knowingly. "Did you know that last year someone bought ten cases of Golden Insect Repellent Spray at the Pokémon Center in Flying Cloud City?"

Azure shook her head, puzzled. "Never heard of him. That person is probably a prime suspect right now, isn't he?"

"Yes, this person is naturally one of our key targets of investigation. It is precisely for this reason that, although Sera and I both have Hugo's phone number, we did not contact you beforehand and went to the trouble of coming to this Feather Residence in person."

"Wait, the person you're talking about...could it be..."

An image of a detective in a white coat wielding a metal baton in one hand and spraying insecticide with the other, while a wolf and fox chased away wild spirits, flashed before the detective's eyes like a revolving lantern.

Now that she finally understood the whole story, she couldn't help but feel ashamed.

"Could it be Victor Hugo?"

'

"That's right, it's the director of your Hugo Detective Agency, Mr. Detective Hugo."

The female detective pointed her finger at the acting chief's nose and said aggressively—

"Although I know that the detective couldn't possibly be involved in such heinous crimes, a formal investigation is still essential at the police station. At the very least, we need to find out how much insecticide spray the Yuxi Mansion currently has in stock, and whether it's enough for an average person to use for a year."

"Oh, I see." The acting director looked enlightened.

"In that case, I have no reason to stop your routine. Let me think... Hugo's travel gear seems to be all collected in..." "Sir, the police station's investigation in the suburbs has yielded initial results."

While the Azure Detective was ransacking the place, Sera, who had been liaising with the police outside the living room, came running in to report the results.

"Is progress over there so rapid? Are there any useful clues?"

Officer Jenny, who was comparing the data on her phone with the map of Feiyun City, turned around and asked her deputy.

"The police department brought in Ms. Joey, a specialist in toxicology, to assist with the search. Her poison scabbard frog, with its 'danger prediction' ability, volunteered to help test for poisons, greatly improving the police's efficiency in testing toxic substances."

Sera explained earnestly, "Here are the preliminary results of the police's operation to recover wound medicine in the vicinity of Flying Cloud City—they found new toxic wound medicine near Route 4 in northern Flying Cloud City, and there was more than one vial."

Officer Jenny nodded: "As expected. Where exactly is it located?"

"The southern end of Highway 4 where it connects to the city. This location is closer to the city center than where the previous victims found the wound medicine. Police found five vials containing poison among the 121 wound medicines recovered."

"Hiss, a probability of less than five percent? That's a really subtle number. But if we only consider the poisoning area, we found five poisoned spots in the initial search area alone. It seems that the poisoner used at least a double-digit number of poisons."

"After further testing of the toxic wound medicines, the inspectors determined that the toxins in those medicines were indeed the same contaminants as those in the medicines used by the victims, all derived from insecticide sprays. In addition, the five newly discovered toxic wound medicines contained the same dose of toxin, suggesting that the perpetrator did not adjust the dosage based on the amount of liquid remaining in the medicines."

Sierra continued reporting—

"The on-site investigators also checked the sealing of the wound medicine packaging and found no needle marks, which should be the same as before."

It is injected directly through the usual incision site for wound medicine.

"That's natural. All the discarded medicines have already been opened, so there's no need for the prisoner to go through the trouble."

Officer Jenny scratched her head anxiously and asked again, "Did the investigators check the fingerprints on the medicine bottles? Were there any signs of wiping?"

The assistant shook her head: "There are no signs of wiping. The remaining fingerprints are still being compared, and nothing unusual has been found so far."

"It seems the perpetrator most likely wore gloves when poisoning the poison; they were very cautious."

The Azure Detective's voice reached the ears of the two officers; she was holding a can of the newly found golden insect repellent spray.

"Here, all of Hugo's remaining insecticide spray is. Half of the ten boxes are still left. While it was indeed a bit excessive, you can understand his situation. Insecticide spray is essential for any long trip. With only five boxes left, it probably won't be enough to make enough for large-scale poisoning—are you satisfied now?"

Officer Jenny waved her hand dismissively: "Just take a picture as evidence. The most important thing now is to find the whereabouts of that despicable poisoner."

Azure, now that you consider yourself a detective, do you have any clues to find the criminal's trail?

"Well, I need more information."

Azure twirled the insecticide spray in her hand as she spoke—

"What were the production dates of those poisonous wound agents? How well have they degraded? How long have they been abandoned in the wild? Based on this information, can we pinpoint a general timeframe for the poisoner's actions?"

"Yes, that's possible."

Officer Jenny immediately copied down the data using the sticky notes in the office. Not just the production date of the wound medicine, but also the remaining volume of the liquid...

The concentration of the venom and the specific type of wound medicine were also listed on it. This was not a secret in the information shared by the police.

As she copied, she questioned, "But the culprit randomly selected discarded medicine in the wild to poison the wounds. Even if we summarize the scope, it would only be a vague range spanning many years, right? Moreover, the poisoning incidents only broke out in recent days. From this, we should be able to roughly deduce that the poisoning occurred about a month ago, right?"

"These boundaries, which are purely deduced from intuition, are often the source of failed reasoning," Azure shook her head, denying Officer Jenny's statement.

"Furthermore, given the excessively large daily population flow in and out of Feiyun City, even if the timeframe is limited to within a month, the police wouldn't have enough manpower to conduct identity checks on everyone in the area where the crime occurred, would they?"

Sera nodded silently, clearly agreeing with Azure's statement.

"So, you're saying that by using these production dates, you can pinpoint the exact time the perpetrator poisoned the food?"

Officer Jenny finished writing the data on the last sticky note, fixed it to the corresponding position on the Feiyun City map on the wall with a thumbtack, and raised her hand to ask Azure.

"I'm not sure, but it's a direction worth trying—?"

Azure stared at the map on the wall, then suddenly fell silent. "What's wrong? Did you discover something?"

Seeing the detective's stunned expression, Officer Jenny became curious.

"Why is this happening? It's so strange." Azure repeatedly examined the contents and locations of the nine sticky notes, including those of the four victims, muttering to herself.

"Miss Officer Jenny, could you also post the data for the discovered non-toxic wound medicines on the map?"

"There are 121 cans of healing potions left? That's a huge undertaking."

"I'll help too. No need to record detailed data yet, just mark the location. It might hold some extremely important clues."

Seeing Azure's resolute attitude, Officer Jenny and Sera didn't dare to delay. The three of them worked together, and after another ten minutes, all 121 yellow sticky notes, a different color from the previous ones, were pasted on the map.

Since the police search has only progressed to the southern end of Route 4, only a small section at the northern end of Feiyun City, where the road meets the city, is densely marked on the vast map. The five cans of poison recently discovered are mixed in with this area, though marked with red sticky notes, they are barely noticeable.

The locations where the four victims originally found the wound medicine are now scattered far away in the suburbs. It seems that the police search still has a long way to go.

"Hmm, the medicines are mostly discarded near the roadside bushes, which is consistent with how trainers normally discard medicines, and they don't look like they've been moved. The types of medicines are also varied, and there's absolutely no pattern to it—"

Officer Jenny looked away from the wall of sticky notes and turned to the acting director of the detective agency—

"So, can you discern any pattern in the criminal's choice of poison targets? Even just the general route taken during the poisoning would be helpful. In my opinion, the killer's choice of poison targets should be completely random, right?"

"No, in my opinion, the poisoner didn't choose his target at all."

Taking a step back, Azure Blue, observing the entire map from a vantage point, met the policewoman's gaze head-on and said with absolute certainty.

"What do you mean by that?"

"The perpetrator didn't 'choose' to add poison to any particular type of wound medicine. His actions were actually far more heinous; he poisoned every single discarded wound medicine item around Feiyun City."

The detective pointed to the map, her tone exceptionally firm, "However, those 'poisons' won't kill the elves. Just as Officer Jenny said before, 'dosage determines toxicity.'"

The extract in the insect repellent spray, when used in insufficient doses, does not cause a typical poisoning reaction in Pokémon. This is precisely why that portion of the medicine escaped the detection of the poison frog, a renowned poison testing expert.

"The so-called 'poisonous wound medicine' that the police are currently looking for is not actually a dangerous trap deliberately set by the murderer, but an unavoidable error in the process of large-scale poisoning."

"Look, all these red sticky notes on Route 4 are located at the forks or intersections of forest paths, right? But in the middle of the road, there isn't a single poison. This clearly shows that the killer repeatedly passed through the same locations, forgot they had already placed poison, and therefore added another dose. This time, the dosage and concentration of the poison have doubled, becoming truly lethal, which triggered the Poison Skull Frog's 'Danger Premonition' alarm."

"But isn't your argument a bit far-fetched?"

Azure's analysis seemed like a fantasy, and Officer Jenny instinctively offered a rebuttal—

"There are many forks in the roads in the countryside, and if it's just five isolated cases, it's not impossible that they're coincidental. Besides, why would the killer have to poison such a large area collectively? The police already have to expend so much manpower just to retrieve the wound medicine; if the killer were to commit the poisoning alone, wouldn't it be a hundred times more difficult?"

Lost in their conversation, the detective suddenly slammed on the brakes, slapping his forehead as if in a daze. "No, instead of arguing with you here, it'll be much faster to get a couple of test kits for injuries from the police station. Sera!"

"I've already notified the police station, sir."

The deputy adjusted her glasses, showed her superior the screen of her phone after the call had just ended, and calmly said, "They said they'd let us know the result within thirty minutes."

It was as if an invisible countdown clock had suddenly appeared before their eyes. The atmosphere in the office was instantly enveloped in a silent tension.

"If my deduction is true," Detective Azure broke the silence, pointing again to the map on the wall.

"At that time, the area around Route 4 will turn completely red, and the remaining yellow areas will be the discarded medicines left there by other trainers after the culprit poisoned the area. By comparing the two and asking trainers who have been training their Pokémon in the vicinity of Castelia City recently, we should be able to compress the timeline to an extremely precise range."

"The premise is that your theory must be correct." Officer Jenny stared sternly at the detective. "And I have serious doubts about that."

"I'm actually fairly confident."

The acting director leaned back on the sofa armrest and patiently explained to Officer Jenny, "Trains collect and store discarded healing items after finding them. I believe the murderer targeted this, handing over the final step of making the poison to the trainers who picked up the items, allowing them to increase the dosage to a lethal level, thereby disguising the entire poisoning plot as a random injury incident with unclear motives. In this way, their true purpose could be concealed."

"So, you've already seen through the criminal's ultimate goal?"

Officer Jenny crossed her arms and asked in a tone that clearly did not believe her.

"No, I've left the part about the motive to the Grass Turtle and the others. I wonder how they're doing—"

Before the acting director could finish speaking, footsteps echoed down the stairs leading to the second floor of the Feathered Residence, and reporter Mary's voice rang out from afar—

"Azure Detective, it seems that Mr. Turtwig has found something."