Forensic Imperial Concubine by Erika Black

After the assistant left, Hollis carefully initiated small talk with Pearce. Hollis tried to ask him indirectly about what happened.
However, Pearce did not answer his inquisitions. He merely drank his tea in silence. Hollis felt quite embarrassed with how
Pearce was treating him. However, he finally figured out that Pierce did not want to talk about it at that time. At last, he chose to
stop asking Pierce and silently wait with him.
In any case, they had been waiting for more than an hour and still, the coroner was nowhere in sight. With a cold sweat on his
forehead, Hollis strode to the door and asked the guard outside, "Where is my assistant?"
"He went out to look for the coroner in person," replied the guard.
"Didn't the coroner come to the government office today?" Hollis then asked.
"He's on leave today so he didn't come to work. The assistant went to his home to fetch him there. I think it wouldn't be long now.
My Lord, may I ask what happened? Why did Marquis Pearce bring so many people here? It seems like..."
But he immediately stopped when he remembered that people could insult the mayor of River City or disrespect the assistant,
but the only thing they couldn't do was say anything that was remotely unpleasant about Pearce and his family. Otherwise, any
person who would dare do so would certainly encounter some unexpected troubles.
"Stop talking and go after the assistant! Marquis Pearce has been waiting for a long time," Hollis exclaimed in a stern tone. Then
he turned around and set foot in the hall again. He then explained to Pearce why the coroner had not come yet after such a long
time.
Upon hearing his explanation, Pearce did not become upset. He merely said, "It doesn't matter. I can just wait."

panic like this!" Hollis rigidly scolded. Then he suddenly felt that he had inappropriately behaved in front of Pearce. He glanced at the latter in secret. When he saw that Pearce didn't show any response, he let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Where is the

him in his house. But when we got there, no one answered even after we had knocked and called to him repeatedly. According to the neighbors, he had not left his house for a long time. So I thought maybe the weather was just cold so he was still sleeping. We knocked on his door harder, but still, no one answered. At that point, I had no other choice. I turned to the window on the left side and tried to stab it so that we could break into his house. But when I was finally inside, I found his body hanging from the ceiling. A rope was tightly wrapped around his neck. I tried to save him but he

him a mark on the dead body's neck. "My Lord, this man didn't commit suicide. As you can see, there are two types of marks on his neck, one stretching up until his left ear and the other around his neck. The killer strangled him first and then hung him on the ceiling to make it look like he committed suicide." "What? Are you saying that he was murdered?" Hollis asked in surprise. He and the assistant exchanged looks with great shock on both of their faces. Who would kill a coroner and what would have been their reason? The coroner was only earning a few taels of silver a month. He was also of low status so he didn't have a lot