“And then?” Zuo Yan asked, following up.

“The results showed…” Vidocq replied, “that there were two very significant points of doubt as to the authenticity of that will.

“First, the paper used for the will was made with a papermaking technique that was quite advanced for the time. That type of paper had only been on the market for less than a year by the time old Herbert died; but… the date on the will was six years earlier.

“Second, that signature… although it does look very similar, if you magnify the handwriting to a certain extent, you can find some differences that are indistinguishable to the naked eye by analyzing the fracture surface of the ink…”

“Can you even do that?” Zuo Yan questioned.

“Of course.” Vidocq replied, “Modern forensic investigation techniques have advanced to the point of being almost omnipotent, it’s just that not every case can be handled with the most cutting-edge technology; after all… ‘resources’ are limited.

“For example, suppose you get your wallet stolen by a pickpocket on the street, and there's two hundred yuan in cash inside. Then you go to the police station to report it. In this situation, the police will at most take a statement from you, then check the surveillance footage of the location where the theft occurred, and jointly record and file the case; when the pickpocket who stole your wallet is caught red-handed for some other case one day, maybe he'll confess to stealing your wallet in the past while confessing to his crimes, and that's when your record will be used, and you'll have a ‘chance’ of recovering your stolen goods.”

“So you're saying there's no chance…” Zuo Yan curled his lip and griped.

“Well, you can understand it that way.” Vidocq continued, not taking it to heart, “But… think about it, if the police really wanted to arrest that pickpocket, is there really no way to do it?” He paused for a moment. “Obviously, there are ways… They could find a team of people to thoroughly investigate all the surveillance footage near the scene of the crime, figure out the pickpocket's movements before he met you and after he succeeded, then follow the clues to find the general area where he lives, and then send people to that area with his image to conduct interviews until they find the person's residence. And if that's not enough… they can use the legendary ‘facial recognition technology’ to match faces similar to the suspect in your case from the footage taken by all the cameras across the country, and investigate and identify them one by one…”

“Uh…” Zuo Yan already understood the main point of the other party's words, and he interrupted, “Going to such lengths for something worth a few hundred yuan… that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?”

“Exactly, that's the point.” Vidocq said, “In a country of more than nine million square kilometers, thousands upon thousands of such small cases occur every day; setting aside those that aren't reported, if every case were investigated using the method I just described… how much manpower and material resources would it take? Therefore, forensic resources are usually used in major cases with greater social harm or involving larger sums of money, such as… the Herbert family's inheritance dispute.”

“So…” Zuo Yan saw that Vidocq had brought the topic back again, so he followed up, “After it was confirmed that the will was forged, Sam had nothing to say, right?”

“No, Sam was very shocked and angry at this result, and he immediately demanded that the court re-examine the will, and claimed that the result of the first appraisal was ‘wrong and absurd’.” Vidocq said.

“So… he was just flying into a rage out of humiliation and stubbornly holding on to the end?” Zuo Yan said.

“It seems so.” Vidocq said.

“Hmm?” Zuo Yan heard something in the other party's tone and repeated, “’It seems’?”

“Yes, it only ‘seems that way’.” Vidocq continued in a mysterious tone, “I'll explain that later, let's talk about the next development…” He paused for another two seconds, and then continued, “For most people, including you, the jury, and the judge, the results of the appraisal were enough to determine the direction of the case. Sam's reaction did seem like he was ‘stubbornly holding on to the end’. Even Sam's lawyer advised him to settle, but Sam firmly denied that he had forged the will and decided to fight to the end.

“So, he lost the case, appealed, and lost again; in the end, Sam Herbert not only didn't inherit a penny of the family property, but was also forced to move out of old Herbert's mansion, becoming a homeless man.

“Fortunately, his brother John said that he would not further pursue Sam's responsibility for ‘forging the will’, and was willing to give Sam a hundred thousand pounds of property out of brotherly affection, as a way for him to settle down and make a living.

“Unexpectedly, Sam refused John's ‘kindness’ and claimed that the inheritance was rightfully his, and he refused to let others use his own money to give him charity.

“After that, the two brothers broke off contact. John inherited all of the family property, including most of the shares of the Herbert Corporation, while Sam disappeared from public view… For a playboy like him, once he loses his money, he quickly becomes like an invisible man, and such a development can be regarded as expected.”

“Then in your opinion…” Zuo Yan knew Vidocq very well, and he knew that the latter still had something to say, “Is there… anything else going on here?”

“This is the part I want to ‘explain’…” Vidocq lazily rolled over in bed, “Oh… wait…” He seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and changed the subject, “Hehe… Erliu (Vidocq liked to call Zuo Yan Erliu, because the former defined the latter as a ‘second-rate detective’ shortly after the two met), how about I test you…”

“Here we go again?” This wasn't the first time Zuo Yan had been “tested” by Vidocq. Although he could keep up with Vidocq's train of thought in most cases, the gap between him and Vidocq seemed to have not narrowed at all… it was still the gap between a “second-rate detective” and the “King of Detectives”.

“This time I'll tell you the answer directly, and you tell me the reason behind it.” Vidocq didn't care whether Zuo Yan was willing or not, and after saying this, he immediately revealed the truth, “The person who forged the will… was actually John.”

“Huh?” After hearing this, Zuo Yan was stunned for a full twenty seconds, then his brows gradually relaxed and he suddenly understood, “Oh… so there was such a trick…”

“Heh…” Vidocq collapsed on the bed and laughed, “Not bad, you understood in less than half a minute.”

“After hearing the answer and then looking back on it… Sam's reaction seems very reasonable.” Zuo Yan said, “Because he had a clear conscience about the will, he agreed to the appraisal; and after the appraisal results came out, Sam would naturally be very surprised and think that the people at the court had made a mistake; but others don't see it that way, they think that Sam was flying into a rage out of humiliation after being exposed and was preparing to hold on to the end.

“However… all of this, from the very beginning, was within John's calculations.”