Legendary FBI Detective-Chapter 372: Reflection, Judgment, New Victim, Problem

Wednesday, 11:15 AM, Special Investigation Team, Office Area.

Mona was sitting at her workstation, typing seriously on the keyboard.

With the pitter-patter of keyboard clicks, Luo An held a teacup and intently studied the photos and information of the four victims on the whiteboard.

Generally, the act of cutting out tongues is a punishment for informants, signifying that they spoke of things they shouldn't have.

The identities of the four victims are currently a Speaker, a Priest, a Navy Officer, and a Tannery Worker.

The first three victims hold higher status and could possibly be related, but the Tannery Worker is simply not from the same world as the other three.

Given the rigidly stratified federal social structure of the country, it's unlikely that the Tannery Worker would ever be connected to the others unless unexpectedly.

Next is the manner of death for each of the four victims.

The Speaker was bisected at the waist, the Officer was beheaded, the Priest was beaten to death with blunt instruments, and the Tannery Worker was skinned. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Only the Tannery Worker's identity and the method of his death are related; he was often in contact with animal hides in life, and his skinning could be seen as the killer's "punishment" for him.

But if you think this way, apart from the military identity of the Navy Officer, which can barely be linked to decapitation, there is no clear connection between the remaining two victims' identities and the methods of their deaths.

"This is a dead end."

Setting down the teacup, Luo An shook his head; this path was unfruitful, and he couldn't afford to waste more time on it.

Turning around, Luo An looked at Mona and casually asked:

"How's the search going?"

An hour had passed since the other agents had left the Special Investigation Team, and Luo An planned to give Mona a break before she helped him out with Winslow's activity records. Luo An was now quite interested in his "intuition" about Winslow.

"Los Angeles has too many missing persons every day, and the LAPD receives reports of missing cases every day, not to mention even more alerts for those who are out of contact."

Hearing Luo An's words, Mona spread her hands, leaned back into her chair with a look of helplessness, closed her eyes, and rested, saying:

"From 19 days to 7 days ago, the LAPD received more than fifty missing person reports.

I've found three who were out of contact before disappearing, and also those guys who kept other residences without their family and friends' knowledge.

I've already called the LAPD to help check out those residences."

"Hard work…"

Luo An handed Mona a cup of coffee and moved behind her to massage her shoulders, smiling:

"I'll treat you well tonight."

"Hmph!"

Remembering a previous half-day off where her legs had been sore, Mona quickly leaned forward to escape Luo An's hands, then snorted coldly, giving Luo An a hard glare.

Luo An, who had intended to ask Mona whether she wanted steak or lamb for dinner, was slightly startled by her actions. Seeing Mona's expression, he realized she had misunderstood his intention.

Luo An rolled his eyes in speechless reaction, blaming Reesi for always saying nonsense, which had led Mona astray!

Far away, Reesi sneezed hard...

Ding-ling-ling—

Just as Luo An was about to explain his true intention, Mona's desk phone suddenly rang. She pressed the answer button, and the voice of an LAPD patrol officer on the other end trembled:

"Is this the Special Investigation Team? We've found a body in the house you mentioned."

Hearing this, both Luo An's and Mona's expressions instantly turned grave.

————

Half an hour later, in a community in the southeast of Los Angeles.

This community in Los Angeles mainly houses the middle class, with nice houses, mostly two units per floor.

Luo An drove a brand-new SUV with Mona to the community entrance, parked the car, glanced at the SUV, and chuckled.

The Special Investigation Team originally had two SUVs, and including the three "borrowed" from Wan De, they now had a total of five.

The five new agents on their first investigation were driving old-model SUVs; only Reesi's team had one of the three new SUVs.

Luo An was very satisfied with the new agents.

Walking into the community, Luo An and Mona took the elevator to the sixth floor crime scene, showed their gold badges to identify themselves, and slowly entered the room.

The room was large, and upon entering the front door they saw a spacious and bright living room, with things somewhat in disarray and dust on the assorted items on the floor, Luo An and Mona could tell at a glance that a struggle had taken place here.

Entering the living room and turning right, a few steps away was the bedroom. Before reaching the bedroom, a pungent smell of blood wafted into Luo An's nostrils.

Standing at the bedroom door with Mona, a red world suddenly appeared before them.

The overall decoration style of the bedroom was Los Angeles' most common white, but now the walls around were splattered with blood.

In the center of the bedroom was a large bed, unoccupied, but the originally brown sheets had been stained black with blood.

Underneath the bed lay a battered corpse, curled up with bone-deep knife wounds all over the body and congealed blood on the floor.

Seeing the scene in the bedroom, Mona's complexion immediately darkened, Luo An frowned, his experience telling him instantly that the victim had been hacked to death with a knife by the assailant.

Pulling Mona aside, he gestured for the forensics agent to enter the bedroom for inspection. Luo An took Mona back to the living room to scrutinize the items there while asking:

"Mona, what do we know about the victim?"

"Matthew Modlin, 43 years old, worked at the Los Angeles Revenue Service."

Mona opened her laptop, looked at the information, and explained:

"He was noticed as missing by colleagues 14 days ago and reported absent. The guy liked to gamble and was a regular in Las Vegas.

Because of gambling, Matthew's wife and daughter have left him, and his colleagues knew about his habits, so the LAPD just did a simple check and assumed Matthew ran off due to debts."

Luo An wasn't interested in the character or life of a gambler, but he wondered why Matthew, such a compulsive gambler, would have this house unknown to others.

"Officially, this house was kept as Matthew's trust for his daughter."

Mona spread her hands, indicating that Matthew had bought this house before his gambling problem, but he never told his wife about it.

Matthew's years of gambling had turned this house into his last resort and trump card; over the years the house changed hands multiple times, but always ended up back with Matthew.

"And then he died here."

Luo An shook his head; getting caught up in gambling had always been a one-way street, and if it weren't for the fact that the tongue in Matthew's mouth in the bedroom was also missing, he would have likely concluded this to be revenge by Matthew's enemies given what he knew about Matthew's life.

Continuing the room inspection, as expected, Luo An found no useful items. At this point, the forensics agent walked out. Mona hurriedly asked:

"Did you find anything?"

The forensics agent shook their head:

"Not at the moment, detailed investigation of the scene will take some time."

"OK, thank you for your efforts."

Feeling somewhat helpless, Mona turned around and saw Luo An standing quietly in front of the living room's floor-to-ceiling window looking into the distance. She walked up beside him and followed his gaze to see a cross—it was a church. Mona looked confused:

"Luo An, what have you found?"

After pondering for a moment with a smirk on his face, Luo An asked:

"Mona, apart from the Priest, did any other victims have a faith?"