Legendary FBI Detective

Wednesday, 12:30 PM, New York Long Island, a temporarily borrowed office.

Hearing Luo An's inquiry, Chenier searched her desk for a folder and explained:

"Long Island police were investigating a woman named Laura, who was involved in sex work before her death. They learned from her aunt that someone had used Laura's phone to call the aunt about four days after Laura's death.

The caller had disguised his voice, and the aunt didn't recognize him, only being able to tell that it was a male.

The content of the call was a man claiming he had forcefully killed Laura, and found her struggle before death very interesting."

"So brazen?"

Reesi furrowed her eyebrows:

"Didn't Long Island police investigate this man behind the call?"

"Unfortunately, no."

Chenier closed the folder, spreading her hands:

"Long Island police merely recorded the incident and moved on to other cases.

Laura, the victim, was a sex worker and her parents had already died. Her only relative was this aunt.

But the aunt's standard of living was also quite low, even poor, and she virtually had no emotional connection to Laura, so the aunt did not ask for further investigation by the Long Island police either..."

After Chenier finished explaining, the faces of those present didn't look very good.

However, such situations are quite common in federal cases too. After pondering for a while, Luo An said:

"Everyone, based on the content introduced by Forensic Doctor Kovard earlier, we will temporarily divide these 22 victims into three cases.

They are the first case [Series of Murders of Sex Workers], the second case [Series of Murders by Shot to the Back of the Head], and the third case [Series of Murders by Blunt Instrument to the Back of the Head]"

Luo An wrote the names of the three cases on the whiteboard in the conference room, and then said:

"Chenier, Mona, Winslow, Reesi, you all together with the Trace Examination division, bring back and briefly organize all 22 victims' information.

Michelle, go to the Behavioral Analysis Unit - BAU, and call two experts here to help, and have them create a profile sketch and psychological analysis for the killers behind the two series of murders."

"OK!"

"No problem!"

All the agents responded in unison, filing out of the conference room, while Luo An looked at the information on the whiteboard, chin resting on his hand, lost in thought.

Before long, Chenier, Mona, Winslow, and Reesi brought back information on a few new victims.

"Ili, female, 20 years old, was a sex worker before death.

Cleo, female, 19 years old, same as above.

Laura, female, 25 years old, same as above.

Charles, male, 21 years old, profession unknown.

Selena, female, 20 years old, same as above.

Kate, female, 22 years old, same as above…"

Luo An arranged the photos of the 22 victims in three groups on different whiteboards, according to the different modes of death introduced by the forensic doctor.

The first group, with 12 victims who suffered damage to the hyoid bone and died from asphyxiation, apart from that guy named Charles who was male, the other 11 victims' features were very noticeable—they were all young, beautiful girls who were sex workers.

"So, the killer of the first series of murders specifically targets sex workers."

After reviewing the photos and information of the victims, the agents quickly came to this conclusion.

But Winslow had one question he didn't quite understand:

"What's with this male named Charles…?"

Reesi proposed her guess:

"Is the killer a homosexual male?"

"No, I feel the killer probably just made a mistake."

Luo An shook his head and pulled out a photo of Charles' body when it was first discovered:

"Charles was wearing women's clothing and had makeup on his face when he died.

Plus, Charles' appearance is somewhat androgynous. If the killer committed the murder at night under dim lighting, it's very likely he made a mistake."

After taking a look at Charles' photo, Reesi twitched her lips slightly, nodding in acceptance of Luo An's speculation.

Beside them, Mona turned her gaze to the second whiteboard, frowning deeply, she asked:

"Then these victims, they don't seem to have any commonalities, do they?"

On the second whiteboard, all 8 victims died from shots to the back of the head.

Among them, the earliest to die was named James, male, 30 years old, with no job available.

Next up was Mandy, female, 26 years old, no job found.

Jerome, male, 18 years old, no job found.

Hazel, female, 40 years old, works at a laundry.

Hayes, male, 31 years old, no job found.

Pedro, male, 24 years old, works at a supermarket.

Emily, female, 22 years old, works at a restaurant.

Evren, male, 37 years old, no job found.

"Mona was right."

Glancing at the information of the eight victims, Winslow also furrowed his brow:

"These people have different genders, different jobs, and even their skin, hair, and eye colors are different.

Except for the cause of death being the same, there really seems to be no other similarities."

Luo An, with his hands crossed in front of his chest, stared at the photos on the white board, pondering for a while before saying:

"The possibility of the serial killer killing randomly without any purpose is very low. These 8 victims must have something in common; we just haven't found it yet."

Mona asked:

"So, what do we do next?"

Investigating a case is like extracting threads from a complicated weaving.

"The second series of serial killings, we still don't have enough information, the first thing to do is still to investigate and accumulate information about the lives of the 8 victims."

Luo An tossed the whiteboard marker aside, then turned his gaze towards the third whiteboard, saying:

"However, we can set aside these two previous series of serial killings for now.

Next, we will investigate the latest one, the [murder case where the victim was hit in the back of the head with a rod-like object]."

Luo An chose to investigate this latest case first for two main reasons.

First, the death of the two victims was 4 months ago, much shorter in time compared to the previous cases spanning over a decade.

Second, serial murder cases are difficult to deal with, and the investigation will definitely take a long time; by handling the [murder case where the victim was hit in the back of the head with a rod-like object] first, it can prevent some clues and information from disappearing or being erased during this period.

"Understood!"

Everyone understood Luo An's reasoning, nodding in unison and agreeing. Luo An didn't waste words and directly asked:

"How is the information on these last two victims?"

"It's much simpler than those previous victims; I've already found out."

Mona tapped the keyboard a few times, and introduced:

"The two victims killed by a rod-like object to the back of the head are a male and a female.

The female, named Hannah, was 20 years old and a student at a university in New York.

According to the FBI internal database, not long after Hannah disappeared, her mother filed a police report, but there were no leads until we discovered her body.

The male, named Bloom, was 43 years old and a convicted felon."

"A convicted felon?!"

Hearing this term, everyone present was somewhat surprised, and Reesi asked:

"How could a female college student and a convicted felon end up dead together?"

"That's exactly the truth we need to investigate."

Luo An patted Reesi on the shoulder and then looked at Mona, saying:

"Give a brief introduction of this Bloom."

"Bloom, 43 years old, was previously accused multiple times of committing violent crimes."

Mona brought up the man's information for everyone to see, continuing:

"But due to a rookie cop acting prematurely and conducting an illegal search, evidence was suppressed by the defense lawyer, along with multiple female victims unwilling to testify in court, he nearly ended up in prison several times."

"Fuck!"

Looking at the case record and the photo of Bloom with a proud look in his eyes, Reesi cursed quietly under her breath. Luo An pondered for a moment and ordered:

"Chenier, Mona, you guys go investigate the first series of serial killings where the killer made phone calls, see if any of the other 11 victims' relatives or friends received similar calls.

Winslow, when Michelle returns, you and her go investigate the second series of serial killings, mainly focusing on gathering and organizing the identity information of the 8 victims."

All four nodded in unison, and Reesi asked:

"What about me?"

"You're with me, we need to deliver the news about Hannah to her mother who has been waiting for four months."