236 A Dilemmatic Process

The four university students were chatting about the incident when Milan and Valentine approached them. The only male in the group was even the one most enthusiastic about the whole thing as he came up with various theories of what might be happening on the train while the other three women chimed in occasionally with excitement.

"Ahem!"

Milan cleared his throat to interrupt the group of youngsters, who quickly turned their attention to the figure of authority standing in front of them.

"Yes, officer? Are you going to ask us questions now?" asked the male student with a confident tone. He seemed to have been expecting it, and Valentine could see a tinge of arrogance on the young man's gaze.

"That is correct, so please cooperate," Milan replied. His tone was friendly but there was a hint of authoritativeness in it, the kind that warned people not to mess around.

The four people nodded. There was no sign of fear or worry on their faces, although that didn't cross them off the suspect list for Milan.

"First of all, can you tell us who you guys are?"

The first one to speak was the male student whose hair was brown and wavy, hanging as low as his ears. His green eyes were brimming with confidence and his smile didn't waver. The bright yellow sweater he was wearing contrasted nicely with his eye color.

"My name is Levi Jansen," he said without breaking eye contact with Milan.

The second to reply was the woman who was wearing a pink sweater sitting next to Levi on the window seat. Her voice was soft but there was no sign of timidity in it.

"I'm Annie Baas."

The third to respond was the one sitting on the right row on the aisle seat. She was a woman with long straight hair, jet black in color, and a cold, pretty face that resembled the first winter morning. However, her smile broke the ice of her face as it was radiating warmth and confidence.

"My name is Norah Durand."

Finally, the woman sitting on the far right replied when it was her turn. She was wearing a bright red sweater and a lot of accessories on her body that jingled when she moved.

"I'm Sandra Monet."

Valentine was writing all their names and characteristics on his notebook, including the subtle hints that normal people might not catch. The four of them, although tried their best to hide it, had a kind of mischievous look on their faces. Even though it was very subtle, Valentine could see that they were challenging Milan, almost as if saying 'try to suspect us we dare you'. Judging from how they behaved around a figure of authority and the fact that they seemed to know a lot about the whole procedure suggested that they might be law students.

"May I know where the four of you are going and for what reason?" asked Milan without sounding judging.

The male student looked at his companions and Valentine could see a split-second proud smile on his face that he quickly hid.

"We're just going on a vacation, as you can see from our luggage. We heard Rijssen is a great city to have a vacation in, that's why we're going there," replied Levi confidently. His voice was as friendly and cooperative as he could be.

Secretly, Valentine had been using Reveal to see the secrets of the four students in front of him to find any discrepancy between what they were saying and the truth. Since they turned out to be normal humans, Valentine could gather a lot using his ability.

Milan looked up to the colorful suitcases stuffed on the train luggage compartment and nodded. They seemed to be telling the truth. However, Valentine's cold voice from behind him disagreed.

"He was lying," the detective said shortly and coldly, looking straight at the male student with his sharp gaze. His Denuder's lie detection had been triggered by Levi's words.

Feeling surprised, Levi wore an offended expression.

"What do you mean I was lying? Officer, who is that? He hasn't shown us his badge yet!" he said, the friendliness from before was all gone.

"He is my partner, a private detective. Now, if you were not lying, why are you offended by his words? Surely you are not hiding anything, are you?" Milan replied in Valentine's defense.

Flustered, Levi quickly controlled himself and returned to his friendly self.

"We're sorry, we all here just hate liars, so it offended him to be called lying," Sandra came to her friend's defense.

Again, Valentine's lie detection was triggered.

"She was also lying," said Valentine coldly, looking straight at the female university student.

There was a surprise on Sandra's expression, but unlike Levi, she could quickly control herself. She didn't say anything else and just smiled.

"Mr. Detective, what is your base for accusing us of lying? If you keep calling us liars without any ground, we will sue you for slander," said Norah sternly. There was an expression of satisfaction on her face.

Valentine just let out a mocking smile.

"Never did I say any of what you said I did. You just called yourself that," he replied nonchalantly.

Milan was just shaking his head and smiled bitterly. He didn't know that the detective he just met would be so cold and brazen despite only facing four younger students. Although he himself would not go easy on them just because they were young, at least he would still try to be a little bit warmer.

Although it was clear that they were not the suspect because the four students were normal people, Valentine was still interested in what they were hiding. However, depending on the scale of their secret, it might not be worth wasting his time on them.

Looking straight at Annie, who was sitting on the far left, Valentine cast his Interrogation quietly. After that, her eyes suddenly became blank, her face expressionless.

"I'll just ask that woman over there. She seems to be the only honest one around here," said Valentine jeeringly, "Now tell me, why are the four of you going to Rijssen?"

The other three looked at her and felt weirded out by how blank her face was, but they didn't know what was happening. There was a worried look on their faces, replacing all the confidence and arrogance that they had just a moment ago.

"What did you do to her?!" Norah blurted out. Her tone was full of accusation.

Milan also looked at Valentine; his face showed confusion.

"Nothing. Did you see me even get anywhere close to her?" he replied.

Valentine had been standing behind Milan all the time, leaning close to the front wall of the car. It was too far for even his arms to reach the woman.

"We are going to Rijssen because we are running away from punishment from the university," finally, Annie replied. Her tone was as flat as her expression, almost robotic, in fact.

"And why have you been punished?" asked Valentine.

Levi was about to place his hand over Annie's mouth when Milan grabbed the young man's hand to stop him. His grip was gentle as not to hurt the student but firm enough to prevent him from doing rash things.

"Because we have been proven guilty of bullying someone to the point of suicide," she replied honestly.

Valentine suddenly felt disgusted. Before this, there was no trace of guilt at all on the four people's faces, and even now, they were only wearing a worried look because of the fear of consequences.

Milan gave each of them a stern glance.

"And what is your punishment?" asked Valentine again, his disgust was apparent in his tone.

"We have to do community service around the campus, and we have to privately apologize to the victim's family."

The more the truth about them came out, the more sickened Valentine became. It seemed that the university wanted to solve the problem inwardly and wrap things under the table without involving the Police, despite someone's death being involved. Even Milan looked repulsed by the four university students in front of him.

Calling the conductor, who was still guarding the platform door, to come, Milan said, "Please drop them off at the next station and tell your men to call the Police to escort them back to Sloten. We will make sure to investigate this case thoroughly."

The conductor nodded.

"But it's not our fault! We didn't do anything!!" Levi was enraged by the decision that he thought was unfair. His face was red from rage.

"Shut up!" Milan roared.

Hearing the officer angry like that scared the three students, especially Levi who was directly in front of the man, feeling the full force of his voice. Even the other passengers in the car found themselves looking at the man.

"If they try anything funny, just call me, but I believe you and your men would be enough to handle them," Milan instructed the conductor.

After that, Valentine ended the Interrogation on Annie, who quickly returned to her normal self, looking confusedly at the others.

Following the Police officer's order, the four university students were escorted out of the car by the conductor, walking with rage on their faces. Even until the end, they still didn't feel that they deserved a harsher, or even any, punishment at all.

"Don't worry, they are not the killer, so we don't have to bother interrogating them again," Valentine told Milan.

After the detective's performance, Milan's trust in him had risen a lot. The Police officer nodded and then moved along to the next people they needed to ask.

"Can you ask my wife while I interview the old couple? Conflict of interest, you know?" Milan said.

With a nod, Valentine turned to the right side of the car while the officer looked to the left. They could still practically hear whatever the others were saying since they were all sitting on the same row.

"Ma'am, did you see what happened back there?" asked Valentine after using Reveal on her.

Milan's wife was a beautiful woman with blonde wavy hair falling to her shoulder. Her face was still radiating her youthfulness and her big brown eyes were staring at Valentine kindly. Her son was sleeping in her warm embrace as she gently tapped his back with her soft hand.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Detective, but my son and I were sleeping. We were woken up when someone screamed, so I didn't see anything," she said apologetically.

There was no lie in her words, so Valentine nodded.

"Do you by any chance know the man who died?" asked Valentine, although it was unlikely that she did.

"I don't know him. My husband can confirm it," she said again with her soft voice. There was yet again a hint of regret in her tone.

"It's alright, Ma'am. I know you are not lying. Thank you for your cooperation," Valentine smiled.

There was nothing useful that could be gained from asking her, so he turned his attention to the old couple. He had also heard Milan's questions and their answers, so he knew where they were at.

Apparently, the old couple was going to Rijssen to visit their grandchildren, which Valentine detected no lies from. They also didn't see anything suspicious except for the fact that the uniformed woman went all the way to the front toilet, which was in line with Graham's divination earlier.

The old couple was also crossed out of Valentine's list of suspects because they were just normal humans.

Since the suspect was a Demise, Valentine could easily identify them using his Reveal. However, he had to make it look normal so that Milan could detain the suspect naturally. He was still wary of the two uniformed women sitting at the back.

Drag...

The front car door was opened and Luuk returned from the platform. He walked as if nothing had happened, going straight to his seat after whispering to Valentine that he had found nothing inside the toilet.

The fact that his neighbor didn't find anything didn't surprise him, but he was disappointed nonetheless. He couldn't get any clue regarding the women and his only chance was to use Reveal on them-- if there was even the opportunity.

After Milan finished interviewing the old couple, he had a few words with his wife and then continued with his job. The next person on the list was the rich-looking woman who was sitting alone a couple of rows behind.

The woman was wearing a pair of sunglasses and her medium-length black hair looked rather unnatural, like it was a wig. Her lips were rose red and her thick turtleneck maroon sweater covered the expensive-looking black dress that she was wearing. The expensive-looking suitcase was still sitting neatly next to her, on the window seat without any sign of having been moved.

She was looking out the window without paying attention to the two men approaching her. Her hands were resting gracefully on her laps and her legs were crossed elegantly. Although covered by her big round sunglasses, it could be seen that her face had a certain mature beauty about it.

Looking closely at her, Valentine felt that he had seen the person somewhere before, but he couldn't really pinpoint where. Her whole slender figure, however, looked very familiar.

Using Reveal on her, Valentine was then shocked.

The woman in front of him was not a woman at all!