"We found a new clue," Caspian said while showing Abby the zip-lock bag. This time, he could take a good look at what was inside.
As he opened it, he saw that they were photos once again. Caspian's eyes furrowed as the first victim also had photos. "The first victim had photos in her mouth…. This one also had photos. It can't be a coincidence. I think the killer is leaving photos deliberately… but why?"
Caspian further observed the image. Although it was quite low-quality, he saw that the photos taken, contained parts of an abandoned factory. After further inspection, he managed to discern the exact location, and he just grimaced as he looked at Abby.
Abby also couldn't help but wear a solemn expression. "It's possible that he's trying to confuse the police by leading them to nothing."
"That could be true. That time I investigated the abandoned hospital, I also found nothing," Caspian replied as he leaned his back against the seat.
"*Sigh* I mean, it's the only lead that we have, so we might as well investigate it, right?" Abby said while crossing her arms.
Caspian nodded his head while saying, "Let's not waste any more time. Let's go."
Abby agreed as they immediately headed toward the abandoned factory. It was actually quite near the apartment complex, and they arrived after five minutes. As they parked the car, they felt a hint of nervousness as they grabbed ahold of their guns.
They cautiously entered the factory and scouted the area. They shined their flashlights all around the area, trying to find any clue as to why the murderer had taken photos of this place. But alas, the ground floor was clear of anything.
"Let's go up?" Abby asked quietly. Caspian simply nodded as they slowly headed to the second floor.
There was some graffitis on the stairway walls, some of which were signs of anarchists. Caspian couldn't help but think of the possibility that anarchists were the ones causing this mess.
'I can't just jump to conclusions,' Caspian thought as they arrived at the second floor. There were a lot of machines here, so there were a lot of places to check.
After checking every nook and cranny of the second floor, they didn't find anything besides signs of vandalism. Caspian and Abby looked at each other as they headed toward the staircase to reach the third floor.
Just as they expected, there was nothing of value to the investigation, and Caspian was a bit dismayed, causing him to sigh as he said, "I guess they're just trying to mislead the authorities by sending random pictures. I'm so stupid to hope that we could actually find something here."
Seeing Caspian belittling himself, Abby made a worried expression as she said, "Hey! It's not your fault. Don't down yourself. Just because there's nothing here doesn't mean you're not trying your best."
"Yeah, that's the problem. I'm trying my best, yet I can't find anything of significance," Caspian said in a low tone as he started going down to the ground floor.
Abby just followed closely behind as she said, "It's not just you, Caspian. Your mother and her team are also investigating where the culprit is, but they still haven't found him and more murders happened."
"You think I should've given the evidence to my mother's team instead of keeping it, weighing down their investigation?" Caspian smiled wryly after seeing Abby try her best to comfort him.
Abby was quiet, so Caspian just smiled at her while patting her shoulder, "I guess I should start giving up on these cases and just leave it to mom's team. Thank you, Abby, for always trying to comfort me. I feel incompetent right now, and I seem to just sour the mood every time with my work depression."
As Caspian tried to lighten things up with a chuckle, Abby had a somewhat guilty face for all the times she made fun of him. A small tear formed in her eyes, but she took a deep breath and wiped it while they continued to move downward.
"Now, I'm starting to get work depression, too," Abby said as she giggled lightly.
As the mood lightened, they finally arrived at the ground floor. Just as they were about to leave, something caught Abby's eye. "Hey, Caspian. Doesn't that door look awfully clean despite being in an abandoned factory?"
Caspian then turned his head to look at where Abby was pointing. It was really hard to see as it was hidden by the sea of heavy machinery.
Caspian even wondered how Abby managed to notice, but he remembered that Abby had the best aim in their training, and she noticed things a lot quicker than most veterans. This was Abby's specialty, her perception.
"We might as well check it out rather than leave it be," Caspian said.
They then walked toward the door and saw that it was the entrance to the underground area of the factory.
While walking down the path, they noticed how awfully clean this place looked, as if someone was staying there.
As they arrived at the end of the path, contrary to what people would think when they entered an abandoned factory which would be an old-looking dump of factory machines, the place was kept and clean.
There was almost no dust around, causing Caspian and Abby's brows to furrow. They knew that this meant someone was living here.
It also looked like something you'd see in a corporate building. Caspian then whispered in a quiet voice, "It seems someone is living here and somehow managed to renovate the place."
"Yeah," Abby also whispered as they started investigating.
The place was large. After all, it was inside a factory. They just couldn't think of how the people who were staying at this place managed to renovate it without alerting the authorities.
There were a lot of doors, so Caspian and Abby agreed to split up and communicate with each other through their radio transmitter. "Always check for cameras."
Caspian started to investigate all the rooms that were his split. He wanted to see if there were any information about the people living here, as it is illegal to live in an abandoned building. And the fact that it was renovated without the authorities getting alerted meant that they had some people of power helping them live there.
As Capsian entered the first room on his side, he saw that it was a medium-sized training facility that had all modern-day exercise equipment, including weights, treadmills, and many others. He quickly took a quick peek at any possible place you could put a camera in and confirmed there was none before he entered.
The fact that it was not small and all the equipment had signs of recent usage meant that multiple people were staying there. Caspian couldn't help but whisper, "Is there some kind of group staying here?"
Caspian left the training facility as he headed to other rooms, some of which consisted of something similar to a hotel lobby and a large-scale bathroom, and as he entered the last room on his side, he saw something that shook him.
As he opened the door, he saw multiple firearms, including 9mm pistols, rifles such as the Galil and M4A1s, and shotguns. He then turned on his radio transmitter and contacted Abby, "*Static* Abby… there are a lot of firearms here. The people staying here are probably a large-scale criminal group. We need to call for backup ASAP. *Static*"
"*Static* Roger, I'll request for backup immediately *Static*," Abby replied as she investigated the rooms on her side and saw that those were living quarters for multiple people.
Not only that but there was also a room that looked like an interrogation room. But because of the amount of blood scattered across the entire room, it looked more like a torture room. Abby's eyes furrowed while requesting backup.
After venturing into all the other rooms, Caspian then started walking up to the room at the furthermost part of the path. The door looked like something from a movie that greatly signified 'I'm the boss' energy.
Caspian then opened the door to a room that looked like an office. He then quickly scouted the entire room to confirm there were no cameras and quickly entered. As he approached the desk, he saw that there were a lot of documents just lying there, so he quickly scoured over everything.
After scanning the documents, he saw that they were evidence of money laundering of some big business groups in the city, so he couldn't help but furrow his brows while seeing that there were also some contracts with said groups.
As Caspian skimmed through them, he read, "50% of the business's profits and said groups money-laundering schemes would not be exposed to the public…."
He then read through the others and saw that not only were there contracts that extorted business, but there were even a couple hit contracts. "It seems that these people are not that simple, huh."
After reading through them, he quickly arranged them back to their original positions.
"Although I found nothing about the murderer, I can still manage to stop a criminal group from running rampant," Caspian was about to leave, but he realized he had one more place in this room he hadn't inspected.
He quickly opened the drawers and saw that there were a bit more documents, and with that, he saw a huge 'ELIMINATED' stamp on the folder containing said documents. Caspian opened it solemnly.
Just as he opened it and read through the documents, he couldn't help but voice out his shock, "This…! This is information about the victims that were killed!"