The body was retrieved from a river.
The story was simple.
There was a large river by the town. Many people in town made a living by fishing in this river.
They usually cast a net in the morning and then pulled it up at dusk.
But today, something held the fishers up, so they retrieved the net a bit later than usual.
Because of this, the fish had the time to escape after they ate the bait. Thus, they all thought they wouldn't gain much today.
But to their surprise, they found the net rather heavy when they tried to pull it up.
Everybody radiated with joy, thinking that the haul would be big.
However, they soon found something weird.
When the net was retrieved, they saw no fish but a human's arm floating on the surface of the water.
They were all horror-stricken at this. A moment later, someone called the police. At the same time, the group worked together and hoisted the net to the shore.
The police soon arrived.
After the investigation, they declared that the dead person was a girl about 18. She was drowned to death. Nobody in town knew her, so she probably was not a local.
Just as the police prepared to take the body back and do further research, Queeny caught sight of the body.
She shuddered fiercely.
The next moment, her face turned chalk-white.
Perhaps because the police noticed her unusually pale face, one of them came over and asked, "Miss, do you know this girl?"
Queeny just sat in her chair, not responding to the question.
Her stupefied appearance confirmed their doubt that she might have something to do with this.
More policemen closed in on her, staring warily at her.
"Are you okay?"
It was not until this moment that Queeny came out of her trance.
She numbly raised her head and looked at these policemen. Next, she opened her mouth and said, "Yes, I know her."
The police were shocked.
...
Of course, Queeny knew the dead girl.
She was the maid who was driven out of the castle a couple of days ago because everyone thought she had stolen the meat, while she claimed that she just picked it up from the floor in the garden.
Queeny never thought that she would become a dead body when she met her only three days later.
What on earth happened?
Now Queeny had admitted she knew her, she certainly needed to go with the police for further investigation.
She reckoned the story of the maid was no secret, so she told the police everything she knew.
After that, she still couldn't recover from the shock.
She couldn't believe that the lovely girl who was walking around in the castle days ago was dead now.
According to the autopsy report, she had been dead for two days.
However, judging by her body, she stayed in the river for no more than an hour.
In other words, someone drowned her and waited for two days before throwing her into the river.
Somehow, a chill spiraled up Queeny's spine.
She suddenly thought of the boxes of chicken meat.
The maid said she merely saw them lying in the garden and picked them up. However, after some investigation, all the evidence said that she lied.
Therefore, the others all believed she was the thief, and she only denied it for fear of being punished.
Queeny found it a bit odd at that time, but she didn't come forward to defend the maid.
"Could there be something we overlooked?"
At this thought, Queeny frowned in concentration.
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