The old man tried to stop him many times but he failed. Not his words or his actions could stop the boy from juggling dangerous weapons about where they could hurt others.
Eventually the heroes were done with their investigations. This relived both the old man and the boy, who was bored out of his mind. They were happy to finally have something productive that they could focus on.
They listened to the investigation report attentively.
"The murderer is male, at least 400 kg in weight, and 1.64 meters tall. We got his sex from the percentage of testosterone in his body odor. We got his weight from the indentations in the ground that he made with his foot steps. We got his height from the length of his stride."
The boy interrupted, "So he a short, fat bastard. Get to the good bits."
He was practically bouncing on his feet in anticipation. He wanted more concrete information and a target to hunt immediately. But they were delaying him with boring stuff.
He would like them to speed things along, but the old man wouldn't have it. He said to the helpless lady, "Don't mind him. Continue your report."
The boy rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything.
The lady continued. But this time she skipped how they came about their results. "He is using too much hair gel. He is very fast and very strong, as he was able to snap Black Widow's next without her being able to resist and in one smooth motion."
"There were no signs of a break-in. The door was opened for him, and the two ladies didn't call anyone for help, so he should be someone they knew. He should be someone they didn't think was dangerous."
"He also didn't steal anything, so the motive doesn't appear to be robbery. The killer killed them but only tried to destroy the body of one of them. It indicates that he is trying to hide something about Stella, or he hated her so much that he defaced her corpse even after killing her."
There was more she wanted to say, but she saw the boy's frowning face, so she decided to wrap things up.
She said, "In summary, either this is murder caused by an acquaintance or someone pretending to be an acquaintance. We can't tell at this moment. But we..."
The boy interrupted her. He asked with unconcealed anger, "So was all of this a waste of our time?"
The old man growled at him. "Let her finish, or so help me, god, I will bring you a world of hurt."
The boy was sullen, but he kept quiet. So the lady completed what she wanted to say. But her hands were shaking as she spoke.
"We can't tell at this moment. But we have a way to track the killer."
The boy relaxed and sighed in relief. "Finally, something useful."
The lady nodded. "We can use the blood tracking technique. As long as the killer had physical contact with them before killing or after killing them, their blood or flesh can be used to track the killer."
She continued, "We have other options. But the blood tracking technique is easy and quick to set up."
The boy said, "I hope you have already put this tracker into action."
She shook her head. "We need permission from our superior, authorities, or a family member to use the corpse of the deceased for something like that."
The boy's face fell. But before he said anything, the older man interjected. "That's just protocol. I am the leader of this investigation, so it is up to me to decide how best to carry out the investigation. It will also be up to me to bear responsibility for anything that goes wrong."
The boy threw his hands up in resignation. "Whatever. Give the permission already. Who knows how far the killer has gone by now?"
The old man ignored him and said to the lady, "Use the blood tracking technique. You should also prepare the spirit scrying technique if it is available. We need at least two matches for confirmation."
She nodded and got to work. They called over someone who needed to use their ability to create the blood tracking technique.
It involved taking out a blood vessel from the corpse and applying an ability to it that makes the blood vessel gravitate towards the last person to touch them. The skin cells, gems, sebum, sweat, odor, and many other things the killer left on them during contact will be used to track the killer.
It is not a completely reliable technique, as the person who touched them last might not be the killer. The killer will need bare-skin contact with them for it to work. If they used something like gloves, then the person that would be found will not be the killer.
Other abilities also interfere with the tracking. For example, null abilities interfere with it. The ability of the corpse might also interfere. An ability such as diamond skin, which forms an insulation from the body from touch, might prevent the blood tracker from working.
There is also the problem of time. If there has been a long time between the murder and investigation, then the blood tracking technique won't work.
There are a lot of problems with the technique, which is why the old man asked the technicians to prepare the spirit scrying technique to confirm.
His caution turned out to be warranted, as they encountered a problem immediately after they used the technique. The blood vessels formed from each corpse gravitated towards each other's corpse. It proved that they were the last ones to touch each other before they died.
The boy asked in shock, "Does that mean they killed each other?"
The old man sighed and slapped the back of the boy's head. The boy was caught off guard and couldn't activate his ability to dodge. He didn't even expect the attack, so the hand smacked his head.