For decades, whenever Jorgen had any unique and valuable insights, he would immediately share them with Elin. Now, he forgot Elin's advice to give up investigating the serial murder case. He rushed excitedly to Elin's cheese shop, only to find the door closed.
After shouting several times without getting any response, one of Elin's neighbors cautiously appeared in front of Jorgen and told him, "Elin was attacked by someone outside his shop last night. He's in the hospital now."
Outside Elin's hospital room, the first person Jorgen encountered was his old friend's daughter's cold eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Elaine Thias crossed her arms in front of her chest and rudely blocked the entrance.
"Is your father inside? I want to see him, Ilene."
"What did you say to my father when you came to get cheese from our house the other day?"
"Just some casual chatting."
"You'd better tell me."
Elaine seemed aggressive. Jorgen had long been used to this, but he still couldn't be firm with his friend's daughter.
"Elaine, what are you doing? Let Jorgen in!" Elin's roar came from inside, followed by two coughs. Elaine reluctantly moved from the doorway into the room.
Jorgen entered the single ward and saw Elin lying on the hospital bed with bloody bandages wrapped around his head and chest. Although he didn't look very well, he seemed much more spirited than an average patient.
"Sit here, Jorgen." Elin patted the edge of his hospital bed.
"What happened?" Jorgen sat down at the bedside and asked. In his memory, this was far from the most serious injury Elin had suffered, and he had no time to express redundant concern.
"Jorgen, this..." Elin suddenly remembered something, then turned his head to his daughter, "Elaine, go out. Don't listen to us talking."
"Dad..."
"Listen, my good daughter."
"Don't overexert yourself. You still need rest." Elaine reluctantly left the ward.
"Alright, Jorgen, now there are only the two of us left. You don't seem to have come here specifically to visit me. Apart from my injury, there is probably something else that interests you more, right?"
"Maybe so," Jorgen said. "But I need to know what happened to you now."
Elin sat up slightly. "I don't know why I was attacked. The man was always hiding in the shadows and wearing a black cloak, seemingly planning not to let me see his face. The only thing I saw was the knife he stabbed into me—that thing was also shining in the dark."
"Where were you stabbed?"
"In the chest, luckily I stopped it in time. These injuries on my head were from when I hit the corner of the wall later. At that time, I just happened to have a knife for cutting cheese on me, although not very sharp, but fortunately knocked his knife off into a lit place. At that moment, I clearly saw that the letter J was engraved on the blade of the knife. I wanted to get his knife but failed. That guy was fast and enormously strong. Fortunately, when he bent down to pick up the knife, I stabbed him once, and then he fled. If it was ten years ago, that guy couldn't have escaped so easily—"
"J?"
"Yes, J. But I don't think this has any special meaning. Judging from your expression—you wouldn't connect this incident with that series of murders, would you?"
"In fact," Jorgen said, "that's exactly what I thought."
After revealing the results of his investigation, Jorgen faced Elin's incredulous expression.
"Jorgen, I understand everything you said before, such as the relationship between the three victims and the Defias Brotherhood—but that 'inverted EV' sounds too unreasonable."
"It is indeed unreasonable in itself, but it does not exist independently. Elin, your thinking ability has not deteriorated, has it?"
"Are you saying that someone is avenging VanCleef and left the initials of Edwin VanCleef as a hint, and for some strange reason, insisted on inverting 'EV' into 'V3' to confuse others? Don't you think this is contradictory?"
"There must be a reason for this, and I want to find out this reason. Also, to be honest, I think you are the fourth target of the killer. If you didn't die, he will come again."
"If I'm the fourth one, you might be the fifth one. There are at least one or two hundred people related to VanCleef's execution. Don't you think the killer's approach so far has been too arbitrary?"
Elin, who claimed not to interfere in this matter, couldn't help but analyze with Jorgen at this time.
"You're right. So for the time being, without mentioning you, there must be other connections between those three people at least."
"In that case, I don't intend to stop you," Elin said. "Go ahead. Be careful."
After leaving the hospital, Jorgen found a few juniors who had worked under him and were very loyal, and asked them to arrange for someone to guard Elin's ward day and night. In fact, Elin's injury made him more eager to catch the killer.
He returned home and reviewed all the information he had so far in detail. Then he wrote a summary on a piece of paper. Because it was not a report to be submitted to the authorities, he used the sentence "Such an incident seems to suggest that an evil villain has become a ghost and launched a vicious revenge" with strong personal color as the conclusion. He put this piece of paper in his pocket like a certificate, and then went to the Boar and Whistle tavern.
Shelley didn't seem to welcome him. Very rarely, Jorgen got drunk and was dead drunk. When he woke up vaguely, he found that he had already been moved to a corner that would not disturb other guests. He left the tavern again with shame and loss, reached into his pocket at home, but found nothing.
The paper was lost.
Three days later, a rumor about "VanCleef's ghost revenge" spread from the beggar community throughout Stormwind City. On the one hand, the civilians and some nobles were panicked. On the other hand, some of VanCleef's secret supporters were itching to act. They naturally believed that "someone capable of inheriting the leader's glory has appeared." Even the Defias remnants around Stormwind City began new activities. Soon, Stormwind City issued a curfew order for the whole city.
Jorgen simply couldn't believe he had made such a foolish mistake.