"No, it's not that we arrived a step too late, it's that we arrived much too late."
Curling his nose, Luo An sensed a faint odor in the room and walked to the kitchen with a dark expression. After circling the kitchen twice, he turned to Reesi, who looked perplexed, and said:
"Call the evidence inspection team, this place needs a thorough check."
"Why?"
Reesi obediently took out her phone and, even after dialing, couldn't help asking:
"What did you find?"
Luo An looked very grim. Upon hearing Reesi's question, he grabbed the refrigerator door and yanked it open fiercely:
Blocks of frozen meat were neatly arranged inside the refrigerator, and on the top shelf, a woman's head with eyes wide open was quietly staring at Reesi across the fridge.
"Holy shit!"
Reesi was so scared she almost threw her phone away.
"What did you say?"
The person on the other end of the line was quite annoyed. What did it mean to start a conversation with a swear word?
...
Half an hour later.
"That Joseph can be temporarily ruled out as a suspect."
On the other end was Mona's crisp voice, who calmly said amidst the clatter of keyboard keys:
"According to the data, Mr. Joseph is a freelance journalist who's been present at every car accident in New York City over the past few months. In the two hours before and after Sabina's abduction, he's been arguing with NBC TV producers, with no time to commit the crime."
"OK."
Luo An nodded and continued to ask:
"What does the owner of the newspaper where Seren worked say? They announced that Seren was fired for disappearing without explanation for a week. Didn't they send anyone to look for her during that time?"
Hearing Luo An's question, Mona, who had just learned of Seren's death, spoke angrily:
"The newspaper's owner said they had been calling Seren for a week with no answer, so they fired her. As for going to Seren's house to look for her... The newspaper's owner said they were short-staffed and too busy to send someone to her house.
Moreover, it's not uncommon for freelance journalists like Seren to suddenly quit; many of them simply vanish without a trace, and their newsroom is well accustomed to that."
"Alright."
Luo An nodded: "Thanks for the hard work, Mona."
After hanging up, Luo An noticed that while he was on the phone, Reesi had the patrol officers take note of Joseph's contact information and home address and then sent him away.
Looking at the refrigerator nearby, Luo An walked over to Reesi and whispered:
"Sorry, Reesi. I didn't mean to scare you."
Luo An was shocked as well. He only smelled a strong scent of blood in the fridge, which led him to deduce that the killer had stuffed the slain journalist inside.
After all, Reesi is a professionally trained FBI agent; seeing a dead body was not a big deal to her.
But he never imagined the killer had dismembered the victim and arranged the body parts meticulously inside.
And placed the head right at the top.
"It's not your fault."
Hearing Luo An's apology, Reesi shook her head and said:
"I was just thinking that from the condition of the body, the killer doesn't seem to be a first-timer. I wonder how many other women have fallen victim to this killer before this."
"..."
Luo An fell silent; he couldn't answer that question.
America has its national conditions, rampant with serial killers, most of them targeting women—no one knows how many women die at the hands of these psychopaths each year.
As Luo An was contemplating what to say to comfort Reesi, Investigator Nell from the evidence inspection department came over, handing Luo An a small evidence bag with a serious tone:
"We found fingerprints in the bathroom that do not belong to Seren, they have been sent to the forensic department for comparison, and we should hear back soon.
Also, these are two credit cards we found in the bathroom. After comparing them, we deduce they are very likely not the victim's, and we haven't found the victim's credit cards."
"Okay, thank you."
Taking the evidence bag, Investigator Nell turned and left.
Luo An looked at the two credit cards inside with a very ugly expression on his face. Reesi, standing beside him, seemed to understand something as well and hesitated:
"They..."
"If nothing unexpected happened, it's likely that the owners of these credit cards have met with some misfortune."
Luo An took out his Nokia again and called Mona:
"Mona, check the credit cards with the numbers ending in **3 and **8, find out who owns these two cards."
"OK."
Keyboard clacking resonated from the other end of the line while Luo An and Reesi exchanged silent glances.
"Found them."
Three minutes later, Mona's voice came through the phone:
"The owners of the two credit cards are named..."
Without waiting for Mona to finish, Reesi interrupted her, asking directly:
"The names aren't important. They are two women, right?"
"...Yes."
Mona felt her throat dry and her heart beating faster, her mind increasingly filled with anger.
Why does the assassin always target women? By what right?
As a man, Luo An glanced at the information Mona sent about the owners of the two credit cards and saw that one of them lived in Brooklyn. After pondering for two seconds, he called Reid.
"What's up, Luo An?"
Reid, who was looking into the Lake Female Corpses Serial Murder Case, was somewhat puzzled by Luo An's call.
"Did you find a clue to the serial murder case?"
"I've found a clue, but not for the serial murder case you're working on."
Reid was somewhat confused by Luo An's words, but he still understood Luo An's instructions.
"Go to the apartment in Lower Brooklyn, right?"
Reid nodded and repeated the arrangement made by Luo An:
"If there's a body, call you immediately, and also contact the forensic science unit, right?"
"That's right."
Hearing Luo An's confirmation on the phone, Reid indicated it was a trivial task and then hung up.
After hanging up, Luo An stopped Reesi, who was searching the room with Investigator Nell from the forensic science unit, saying:
"Let's head back to headquarters, Reesi. We need to report this to the team leader, Augustus."
"OK."
...
Team 5, 8 PM.
Mr. Darren was still sitting in the meeting room, waiting for news from his wife, Sabina.
It had been 14 hours since Sabina went missing.
Inside the team leader's office, Augustus sat in his chair, his right hand pressed against his forehead, looking at Luo An and Reesi with a very complex gaze:
"So, you mean to say that the case of the 'missing wealthy woman abduction' has escalated into a new serial murder case?"
"We're not sure yet."
Luo An shook his head: "We don't know whether the owners of those two credit cards are alive or dead. Reid has gone to investigate the apartment in Brooklyn District..."
Ding-a-ling—
Mid-sentence, the Nokia's ringtone sounded. As soon as Luo An pressed the answer button, Reid's booming voice came through from the other end:
"FUCK! Luo An! You'll never guess what happened here! There are tons of chunks of meat in the fridge! And..."
"OK, contact the forensic science unit."
Before Reid could finish, Luo An calmly cut him off and then hung up the phone, looking up at Augustus and said:
"Now it's a serial murder case."
Augustus: "..."