"No survivors?"
A standalone apartment was surrounded by police cars parked one after another.
Under the illumination of red and blue lights, the area was cordoned off.
It was already nine in the evening.
Residents gathered outside the cordon, pointing and discussing the apartment.
"Yes, sir," a police officer said, handing over a detailed clipboard to his superior.
Jeffrey, observing the apartment in front of him, took the clipboard and signaled to Baker with a glance.
Baker understood immediately and naturally led the team inside.
Seeing this, Jeffrey began to review the clipboard.
The case was extremely strange, unsettling him the more he looked.
Finally, Jeffrey scanned the surroundings, glanced at the gathered residents, and entered the apartment.
At the entrance, he encountered the first victim.
Covered in blood, the floor was splattered with fresh red stains.
Next to the body was a blood-stained fruit knife.
After glancing at the technicians taking photos, Jeffrey picked up the clipboard for confirmation.
The victim at the door was identified as Joe Brulo.
The head of the Brulo family.
The cause of death was the final stab wound to the heart among several on his body.
Jeffrey put away the clipboard, gave one last look at the blood hole in the victim's heart, signaled to the nearby officer and technicians, and continued forward, stepping over the body and following the trail of blood.
It seemed Joe Brulo struggled before his death.
Jeffrey eventually stopped in front of a body at the bottom of the stairs, an elderly woman.
Joe Brulo's wife, also killed by stab wounds.
The scattered blood around suggested a struggle had occurred.
Putting away the clipboard, Jeffrey followed the bloodstains upstairs, stepping over the elderly woman's body and climbing the steps.
The end of the trail led to a middle-aged man lying on the stairs, with a bullet hole in his forehead.
Jeffrey flipped to the next page of the clipboard for comparison.
Joe Brulo's son, killed by a bullet to the forehead from a Mossberg MC2c...
Jeffrey, expressionless, located the Mossberg compact pistol in the hallway according to the tag.
Crucially, ballistic evidence suggested the middle-aged man committed suicide.
After examining the bloodstains and bullet holes on the door behind the body, Jeffrey continued towards the next tag, troubled by the eerie nature of this family annihilation case.
According to technicians, it was easy to conclude Joe Brulo had struggled with his wife, the elderly woman downstairs.
Logically, this suggested a conflict between the couple.
But the real puzzle was why their son would commit suicide, given the family was described by neighbors as very close, unlikely to engage in a deadly conflict.
Baffled, Jeffrey stopped in front of the last body.
The room was splattered with blood, as if plasma was sprayed everywhere without cost.
Jeffrey looked at the body lying on the bed, the middle-aged man's wife, killed by a cut to the throat, with the weapon in her hand...
Putting away the clipboard, Jeffrey's gaze shifted around the room, searching for any other clues but found nothing.
Finally, his eyes rested on the body by the door. Jeffrey frowned, glanced back at the middle-aged man on the stairs, then down at the blood trail.
An idea formed in his mind. Just then, a shout came from downstairs.
"Hey, you need to come down and see this new development!"
Hearing Baker's call, Jeffrey took one last look around and headed downstairs.
The new development was in the basement.
Stepping into the basement, Jeffrey was hit by a cold draft.
The basement was naturally colder due to its contact with the ground and being sealed, but not this cold...
Observing the surroundings, Jeffrey noted the basement was similar to the upper floors, with walls and floors covered in blood, even more so than above.
"Jeffrey, over here."
Hearing Baker again, Jeffrey stopped his survey and looked towards the voice.
Baker and other officers, along with technicians, were peering into a pit.
Approaching, Jeffrey saw a naked female corpse buried in the pit, bizarrely pristine and pale, as if alive, without any dirt or stains on her exposed upper body.
Moreover, the blood-filled basement had no foul odor, instead carrying a strange fragrance.
Jeffrey instinctively crouched next to Baker, focusing on the buried female corpse. "Do we know her identity?"
Baker shook his head. "Unknown. She has no familial relation to the Brulos upstairs, making her an unidentified body."
Jeffrey took a flashlight from an officer, examining the corpse without discerning anything significant.
Then, an officer approached, offering a clipboard. "Sir, these are the preliminary findings."
Nodding, Jeffrey's gaze remained on the corpse as he took the clipboard.
Frowning at the information, Baker noticed. "Any findings from upstairs?"
Jeffrey returned the clipboard, stood up, and spoke. "Nothing stolen, no signs of forced entry, ruling out a break-in."
Baker grimaced, pondering, then stood up. "So, another unresolved case? Why would a seemingly happy family engage in a deadly struggle?"
"I don't know," Jeffrey said, his thoughts on the trail of blood leading to the door and the positions and directions of the bodies, from the room to the stairwell, and finally to the front door.
"It seems Joe Brulo was trying to escape the apartment, their home."
Baker's expression changed upon hearing this.
Jeffrey, focusing on the female corpse in the pit, concluded, "This case has too many mysteries, perhaps the only clue lies with this corpse."
With that, Jeffrey handed back the flashlight and walked back. "Send her to the autopsy department for examination, determine the cause of death, and identify her..."
"Yes, sir," the officers responded.
As Jeffrey left, Baker quickly followed.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
"…"
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