Shadow's Hand-Chapter 11: Link

After Damien emphasized that he did not wish to be disturbed, the crowd at the crime scene nearly went completely silent.

The situation was no different than a library where everyone must remain quiet or have their tone lowered.

Although Damien did permit them to discuss the case. Not to mention the fellow detectives, even Jasmine was afraid of accidentally disturbing him in the process.

Burke was already the greatest example of what would happen if you disturbed Damien's investigation.

With that knowledge integrated into their mindset, Eugene glanced at Jasmine with an awkward expression.

He resorted to using a notepad to write down what he wanted to convey. Similarly Jasmine used her tablet to reply and converse. As their behavior and action was extremely ridiculous, Damien paid no heed to them.

They all looked like some hilarious people in a comedy sketch, but deep down, Damien knew they could turn into cold and ruthless people in the blink of an eye.

The moment he slipped up—was the day he would meet his demise like Burke.

As Damien approached the wall and inspected the paintings, or more specifically, the painting that the Diamond 3 was constantly illuminating.

'Seems like it's intangible.' Damien attempted to extend his hand to reach out to the Diamond 3 card.

But as if it was a ghost-like object, his hand simply passed through the card, causing it to fluctuate a little bit. It appeared glitch and deformed, so he had no choice but to retract his hand.

With his hand retracted, the Diamond 3 card regained its form and attached itself to the painting.

The painting depicted a man with a foot stepped on top of a monster corpse. It was a common style of art, but the most notable thing that took his attention was the face of the man. The face was blurred out and dyed in black and red.

'Aside from a bit of creepiness, what else is special about it?' He tilted his head, his brows furrowing. He was not an artistic person, to begin with. Therefore, he couldn't make heads or tails with just a painting alone.

He spent the next few minutes trying to identify what was wrong or suspicious about the painting.

However, he didn't receive any sort of enlightenment whatsoever. He had thought the flashing Diamond 3 card would somehow react after scrutinizing the painting, but nothing happened. In the end, without any clues, Damien decided to do the unthinkable.

"Jasmine, bring me a pair of gloves." Damien raised his voice and demanded.

As much as he wished to extend his hand to touch the frame of the paintings. He wasn't ignorant enough to leave behind fingerprints, and possibly contamination to the crime scene itself.

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Meanwhile, Jasmine, who had been busy communicating through the use of her tablet, became stunned.

"A pair of gloves?" Startled, Jasmine quickly darted her eyes at Eugene. She didn't have an extra pair, much less one suitable for Damien's size.

Thankfully, Eugene had an extra pair in his pocket. He retrieved them and handed them over to Jasmine.

Sometime later, Jasmine brought the gloves over to Damien.

"Here's the gloves you requested, Investigator Damien." She said.

Despite being a request of his, she was still somewhat nervous of disturbing him. After all, she had noted in mind that the painting seemed to be a clue or contained something that attracted his attention.

'Investigator spent more than 5 minutes on this painting already. What could I have missed?' She wondered, unable to figure out the suspicious link between it and the crime scene. Till now, they had yet to physically check on the corpses—much less the room of the murder.

While she was confused by the situation—or the typical conduct of his, Damien continued to be in his own world. He grabbed the gloves and put them on. The smooth fabric of the gloves made it seem like he wasn't wearing anything.

"The quality isn't bad." He commented in an attempt to distract her from comprehending his action.

With the gloves on, Damien now extended his hand to touch the framework of the painting. When there was no reaction on one side, he proceeded to touch another.

Finally, without any progress, Damien decided to risk it. He retrieved the painting from the wall and was about to open the protective case.

"Um, Investigator Damien. Pardon my interruption, but the painting is worth at least 500 gold coins. If you open the protective case, then the value might lower." Jasmine suddenly warned.

She was unsure of why Damien was so concentrated on the painting. Therefore, she done some researches through her tablet and was astonished to learn of the pricing.

She had thought it was just some simple painting, but it was actually a famous painting by a famed deceased painter. Its value was 500 gold coins, but if placed in an auction, the value could easily doubled or tripled.

Although TIs were technically immune to the common laws, ruining a supposed sacred painting or any type of artistic value would bring criticism.

Meanwhile, Jasmine's interruption brought light to Damien's plight.

"Jasmine, how much did you say this painting is worth?" He remained in position, but his gaze was turned to him.

His gaze was piercingly sharp, almost as if it was capable of injuring her in the process.

Nevertheless, Jasmine managed to compose herself after having interacted with him for a while already.

She took a deep breath and explained the situation. "The painting is worth 500 gold coins after the painter died five years ago. With the painter's death, their paintings' value had soared unexpectedly and the one we're seeing right now is called The Conquered Beast."

"The Conquered Beast huh." He murmured, his gaze darting back to the painting. As soon as he did, the Diamond 3 card became more visible and clear to him.

Alarmed, Damien wondered what was the meaning behind it. 'Could it be that this painting is a fake?'

With that thought, the next second, the Diamond 3 card turned even clearer.

'The mansion owner bought a fake?' When he came to this next thought, the Diamond 3 card seemed to fade slightly.

Realization quickly dawned upon Damien when this scenario happened.

"I see... so this is the Link." He muttered with a brief smile.