LVPD monitoring room.
Dean replayed the surveillance video of Abby at the Black Jack Bar and the IKEA Hotel on September 20th.
"Abby deliberately let the police see her face through the video and arrest her."
Dean looked at Holden,
"Based on your experience, why do you think she did this."
Holden put his hands on the table and stared at the screen for a while.
"Deliberately leaving video evidence, and then refusing to plead guilty after being caught. There is only one explanation for this situation - Abby is provoking the LVPD, betting that we can't punish her."
"The premise of active provocation is that the criminal is confident that he will not be convicted." Dean interjected, "But the current situation is exactly the opposite. Abby is at an extreme disadvantage and almost walks into prison with half a foot."
"Don't be pretentious, just say what you have to say."
"I thought of another reasonable explanation." Dean said with a strange light on his face - word by word——
"There is another murderer! He deliberately exposed Abby's face to the cameras and witnesses, so that we can treat Abby as a criminal and close the case quickly, and then he can get away with it!"
As soon as Dean's words fell to the ground, the air in the monitoring room froze, and for a moment the only sound that could be heard was the beating of the heart.
Holden's smile broke the silence.
"So the person in the videotape is not Abby, but a twin sister who looks exactly like Abby? Or a person wearing a simulated mask, with the same figure and fingerprints as Abby?"
Dean nodded calmly, then shook his head.
He also considered that if it was another person or some kind of being disguising or transforming into Abby, then that thing was not Abby after all, and logically the DNA test results should be different.
Holden squeezed his knees with both hands,
"Then what do you mean? I warned you not to be overly obsessed with supernatural theories, but you are obsessed with it. Your appearance can be faked, but the DNA and tooth marks left on the victim all match Abby. This evidence is not If you can lie, the murderer can only be Abby.”
"No, the evidence didn't lie, but Abby didn't lie either." Dean's mind flashed through the various clues he had investigated over the past few days, especially the strange state Abby was in on the day of the crime. After comprehensive consideration, he made a decision Made an unprecedented bold hypothesis——
"Abby is under hypnotic control."
Possibly possession, but that doesn't convince Holden.
"That scar on your hand is the medium of hypnosis."
Dean said word by word,
"The real murderer manipulated Abby to kill Bucky Fran, and deliberately left biological samples at the scene. He also left video evidence on surveillance videos on multiple occasions, allowing the police to wrongly arrest Abby and convict her. .”
"Afterwards, Abby woke up from the hypnotic state and knew nothing about the crimes she had committed before, so she insisted that she was innocent."
Dean's voice became louder and louder, echoing in the control room like an unstoppable wave.
"The real culprit is hiding in the shadows unharmed and watching our jokes!"
…
"I'm done, what do you think?"
Dean took a deep breath, looked at the system, and frowned.
After this inference, the investigation progress jumped from 40% to 42%, which was much less than he expected.
Isn't it hypnosis, but another being transforming into Abby?
Is some kind of being possessing Abby and taking control of her?
Supernatural creatures create clones of Abby?
But no matter how many guesses Dean made, the progress did not change at all.
Dean suddenly understood the gameplay of this progress bar. Except that at the beginning of the case, it would give some hints based on the important things Dean came into contact with.
For heavyweight inferences, if there is not enough heavyweight evidence to support it, the progress bar will not be recognized at all and will not change.
Random guesses are useless.
…
Holden hesitated for half a minute like he was petrified, and his eyes became complicated.
Hypnosis?
"I admit, I underestimated you before. Dean, not only do you have good skills, but you also have the talent of a screenwriter. The story just now is very exciting. Being a policeman or detective is really a bit unqualified. I suggest you go to Hollywood in the future. Film company development.”
"I was serious."
"I also sincerely suggest you change your career. Your imagination has no boundaries, hypnosis..." Holden seemed to have heard a big joke, "Hypnotize Abby to avoid her parents' eyes, secretly leave home, ride a bicycle He ran several miles away, brutally killed a child, then went to a bar and asked for whiskey, then ran to the hotel and hung out in front of the cameras."
"This is not hypnosis, this is demonic possession, right?" Holden concluded, "This is more like nonsense than the theory of a psychic."
"I'm just providing an idea." Dean looked directly into Holden's eyes. "Although it sounds incredible, it is the answer that best explains all the contradictions at present."
"Even if you guessed it right." Holden glanced at him and asked lazily, "Go on, how do you plan to follow this line of thinking to find the real murderer, the master of hypnosis?"
"I'm going to ask you for advice. Use your rich experience to help me think about how to catch the murderer?" Dean paused and said with a hint of pleading, "If you really can't accept it, just play with me. A detective game, let go of all restrictions and liberate your imagination.”
Holden was silent for a long time, a trace of struggle flashed across his face, and finally he sighed dejectedly,
"I'm really crazy to make up stories with you, but I'm a little thirsty." Holden patted the desk.
Dean immediately made a cup of coffee diligently. As long as he could catch the murderer, what's the point of being thick-skinned?
"Then let's figure it out together." Holden took a sip of coffee and tapped the table rhythmically with his right middle finger, "The hypnotist you imagined is currently hiding in the dark."
Holden throws a test,
"What was his motive for killing Bucky Fran?"
A flash of thought flashed in Dean's eyes, and he turned around the device a few times.
"To brutally kill a child, there must be a big problem in one's mind, and you said that psychopathy has to go through a process from scratch."
"He may have been subjected to some kind of special physical or psychological persecution as a child. This negative influence gradually distorted his mind as he grew older. By chance, he began to draw happiness from these tortures!"
"Special psychological needs are a strong motive for committing crimes, just like an addiction that cannot be cured." Holden nodded and added, "Of course there is a second motive. Bucky Fran had some of his organs removed and disemboweled. There were bite marks on the belly, and there were bite marks on the torn edges of the tissue. This kind of death is much more serious than an ordinary molestation case. It is not only terrifying, but also exudes extremely expanded desire and mystery."
"It's like using death to complete some kind of ritual and fill yourself up." Holden said casually, "I have seen similar dead people, naked and covered with special symbols, with antlers on their heads, with their hands tied and kneeling in front of In the branches.”
"But whether it is to satisfy perverted psychological needs, to complete some mysterious ritual, or for other murderous motives - based on my experience, the murderer cannot stop here!"
Dean's head moved.
"You mean he's going to continue committing crimes and he's a serial killer?"
"Serial killer." Holden suddenly curved his mouth slightly, with a look of nostalgia in his eyes, "I originally proposed this professional term together with several colleagues. Yes, I think there will be a next time for this master of hypnosis."
"Then we just have to wait for him to show off?" Dean asked,
"This is the stupidest way." Holden hesitated, "The time and place of the next crime are unknown."
Dean sighed. The system only gave him half a month. Abby couldn't wait any longer. She would go to court in a few days. Judging from the current trend, she would probably lose the case.
But he remembered that the bar owner Jack also had a scar mark similar to Abby's.
"I think we can send someone to keep an eye on Jack, the bar owner. He has scars on his wrists like Abby. He may be the next murderer!"
"What reason? Just because of a scar, you want the LVPD guys to stare at an old friend. This is impossible. You need stronger evidence." Holden shook his head, rubbed his bald chin, and changed angle,
"The real murderer used hypnosis to frame the innocent Abby, and hid himself perfectly. Such superb criminal skills must have gone through many experiments, and he is probably a habitual criminal. So I think that as time moves forward, before he kills Bucky... Fran has committed similar crimes before."
"It's just that in the past, scapegoats like Abby helped him block the crime. After the case was closed, all the information was buried in the archives and no one knew about it."
Dean's whole body trembled when he heard this, as if a bucket of cold water had been poured down on him in the middle of summer. He couldn't help but ask excitedly,
"So when we find the files of its previous crimes, we can use them as important evidence to dig out more clues and flaws, arrest it, and exonerate Abby!"
Holden nodded, "That's the truth."
Dean paused and asked,
"Has there been a similar case in Las Vegas before?"
"I have read the child death case files here several times in the past three years." Holden shook his head, "There is no case similar to Bucky Fran, not even one."
Dean calmed down.
This is reasonable. If the real culprit is not a fool and does not want to attract special attention from the police, he will definitely not commit crimes consecutively in the same place.
So where is it most likely to have committed a crime?
Where was his last hunting ground?
Dean lowered his head, frowning, and fell into deep thought.
In the dim light of the equipment room and the hot mist of rising coffee, Holden stared at the face that was thinking hard across the way, a glimmer of recognition flashing in his eyes.
"Last crime scene."
"Last crime scene."
Dean muttered to himself in a daze. At a certain moment, the light on the computer screen was too dazzling, so he turned around and took a look.
He saw Abby wearing that Adidas three-stripe tracksuit.
Suddenly, as if the sun had cleared through the clouds, his brows relaxed, his heart suddenly became enlightened, and he grinned, revealing his white teeth.
"I have proof! The white tracksuit and the crescent scar on Abby's hand are all from Santa Monica!"
"If there was a last crime, it was most likely in Santa Monica!"
The progress jumped to fifty percent.
…
Dean took the pen and paper from the desk, waved his hand, and wrote two names on both ends of the white paper.
"The Real One," Abby Clark.
He teased out several timelines between the two:
On July 22, the real murderer injured Abby's left wrist on the Santa Monica beach, leaving a crescent-shaped scar as a hypnotic mark and medium.
In mid-September, the real killer got a white tracksuit in Santa Monica and came to Las Vegas.
On September 20th, at Booker Park in Las Vegas, Abby was controlled by the real murderer, wearing a white sportswear, and killed Bucky Fran.
…
"Do you understand, Holden." Dean showed him the timeline excitedly, "The murderer stayed in Santa Monica for a while, and the last crime was probably there!"
Holden grabbed the timetable and took a look at it, his expression became very exciting,
"How on earth did you put these unrelated things and places together mechanically?"
"Why bother with scars and tracksuits?"
"Let me ask you casually, Scar, you made up a reason for hypnosis, but what about the sports coat? Why did the murderer go all the way from Santa Monica to Las Vegas and let Abby wear it to commit the crime?"
"I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe this dress, like the scar, is also some kind of medium or mark? Or is it a prop for a special ritual?" Dean said uncertainly and looked at the system, but there was no change.
"Holden, take me to the Santa Monica Police Station and help find out if there have been any child death cases similar to Bucky Fran's in recent years. If we can find them, it will prove that our inference is correct. No, the murderer is a deeply hidden serial killer! Abby was wrongly accused!"
"Have you really thought it through?" Holden folded his hands, supported his chin with the back of his hand, and looked at him sharply, "The hypothesis that the murderer was a master hypnotist you proposed at the beginning was very far-fetched, and then you asked me to accompany you. You play detective, do a lot of reasoning based on this unreliable hypothesis, and then come to the conclusion that the murderer committed the crime in Santa Monica."
"This conclusion is untenable, and I will not go out of my way to prove it."
"This conclusion is well-founded and...intuitive." Dean paused as he looked at the system. Santa Monica's conclusion can affect the progress, and the system has not made any major errors so far, which is worthy of investigation.
But this evidence of occultism cannot be explained to outsiders.
Holden shook his head empirically,
"Didn't you learn during volunteer training? Don't make assumptions when observing and collecting evidence, otherwise you will subconsciously distort the facts to support the assumption, and you will lose objectivity."
"But you insist on doing this. You are building a house on a castle in the air with an unstable foundation."
"The more luxurious you build in front of you, the worse the final collapse will be."
"All your self-righteous inferences and conclusions will collapse into ruins, and only ruin and disillusionment await you in the end."
Holden showed a trace of reluctance on his face, but then he struck mercilessly.
"All your efforts will eventually turn into a joke!"
Dean's face stiffened, his lips moved, and his eyes struggled to look into the air.
All my inferences are ridiculous imaginations and assumptions, doomed to failure?
No.
Why should we follow the rules when we are already in the supernatural world?
The system is inherently an abnormal thing. Investigation based on its prompts and reflection on the actual process will inevitably be jumpy, even absurd, and incomprehensible, just like looking for possibility among the impossible.
But Dean's twinkling eyes became firm again. He had no better choice. Turning around now meant giving up on this incident and giving up on Abby.
…
Dean's expression became more serious and sincere than ever before, and he solemnly made a promise to Holden,
"Man, from Alexander Raphael's case to Bud Burton's last case to my usual volunteer tasks, have I ever let you down? Help me this time. I owe you a favor. !”
Holden grinned silently.
But looking at the tense face in front of me, the determination burning in the eyes, the persistence for the truth, and the stubbornness not to look back.
He thought that when he was young, he had such passionate and unrestrained fantasies, stubborn and unreasonable.
If you fail, just fail.
Holden lowered his head and looked at the table and shook his head, showing a helpless smile.
"If you insist on hitting the wall once, then I will help you and accompany you to the Santa Monica Police Station to look for it."
"But I have to make a few phone calls and convince that tinderbox Carl to let us go at this critical moment."
Dean held out his hand,
"Wise decision, trust me, you won't regret it."
Holden shook his hand gently,
"Let's set off tomorrow morning and drive your Bronco. By the way, the gas expenses will not be reimbursed."
(End of chapter)
