Cassian, Detective Cassandra, and Sergeant Dallas visited all three murder scenes but found nothing new that the previous investigators had missed. They confirmed that the families were deeply religious, each worshipping a different deity.
Yet, a curious detail caught their attention: while the gods in the paintings varied in appearance—different genders, facial features, and small divergences like hair styles, beards, or accessories—the overall artistic style was strikingly similar. All the paintings had muted, earthy tones, with light, muddy colors dominating the palette.
Rays of light radiated from behind the deity's head, and each one bore the same warm smile. The facial structures were almost identical, as if the same artist had subtly adjusted the features to represent different figures.
"Let's ask the other team about these paintings," Cassandra suggested, then turned to Cassian. "Cassian, grab one painting from each of the other murder scenes we visited and bring them back to the office. Sergeant Dallas and I will catch up with the other team."
Dallas nodded, adding, "They should be at their last scene by now. Let's meet them there."
Taking the painting of this family's deity with them, Cassandra and Dallas headed out while Cassian set off to collect the others. It would have been more efficient to gather the paintings earlier, but it wasn't a major setback—just a bit of extra time and a few more of the department's resources.
Cassian puffed out his cheeks—a habit he had when trying to shake off fatigue—before starting his work. He entered the second house, which was less chaotic than the first; only two people had been killed here, a husband and wife, while their child was missing.
The painting of the deity in this home depicted a younger-looking man, with a hint of playfulness in his expression, unlike the older, more somber figure from the first house. The vibe of the painting felt odd to Cassian, but he took one of the smaller ones that he could carry comfortably. As he lifted it, a distinct smell of oil wafted up to his nose.
He wasn't an expert on painting materials, but he knew enough to recognize the scent of oil paints.
"Shouldn't the smell have faded by now?" he muttered in confusion. Typically, the odor from oil paints would diminish after a few weeks, certainly no longer than a month. This suggested that the painting was fairly recent. He double-checked the date of the murders in this house—it had occurred just six days ago. That meant the painting was put around the same time the murders happened.
As the thought crossed his mind, Cassian began to inspect all the paintings of the deity. There were at least eight in this house, with even more scattered throughout the rooms that he didn't bother to check. Each of the paintings he examined carried that distinct scent of fresh oil, indicating they had all been recently made.
"Did they buy all of these just a week before?" he muttered to himself, then questioned, "But why?"
There could be many reasons, but he figured he could narrow them down by comparing the other paintings. After collecting this one, he retrieved a painting from the first murder scene, where the incident had occurred two months prior. That painting didn't carry any hint of the oil smell, though it still left him feeling suspicious—there was something off about it that he couldn't quite place yet.
Hoping to find answers by examining all of them together, he made his way back to the office.
All the detectives were gathered in the office, except for Robert. Cassian walked in and placed his painting alongside the other two already present. The missing paintings made sense—Robert was likely sent to retrieve them, just as Sergeant Dallas and Cassandra had sent Cassian.
As he neared the collection, the familiar scent of fresh oil reached his nose, causing a slight smile to spread across his face.
"Why did you bring so many?" Sergeant Dallas asked with a puzzled expression, noticing that he had brought four paintings, three of which depicted the same deity. With an amused smirk, she added, "Thinking of becoming a follower of that faith?"
"Sargent Dallas, I think I've found something," Cassian replied, handing her one of the three similar paintings and giving the other two to Alix and Cassandra. "Smell them," he instructed, watching their reactions closely.
With puzzled expressions, they each sniffed the paintings as Cassian prompted, "Notice anything?"
Alix frowned and said, "They smell like oil... these were painted recently," handing the painting to Julius, who nodded in agreement. "But what does that have to do with anything?" he asked.
Cassian then handed them the painting he had taken from the house where the murder occurred two months ago. "Now, smell this one," he instructed. The four detectives sniffed the painting, but this time, there was no scent of oil.
"Didn't smell anything, right?... Now, let's try this one from the scene of the murder that happened eight days ago," Cassian said, picking up a painting of a woman with a mature face, long black hair, and dark eyes. Ignoring the image itself, he brought the painting closer and took a sniff, his smile widening as he handed it to the others to smell.
All four detectives looked puzzled as they noted the faint scent of oil. "See? This one is also freshly painted. The smell is weaker, so it's a bit older than the painting from the most recent scene."
Cassian observed their still-confused expressions and continued, "The smell of oil only lingers when a painting is newly made—it usually fades after a week or two, maybe up to a month. Which means these paintings are new, placed in those homes around the time of the murders. I don't know why, but it's too much of a coincidence, especially after checking the one from the second most recent murder..."
'Sometimes my genius... it's almost frightening.' Cassian thought, watching as the detectives' faces shifted to surprise at the implications of his theory.