Bloody Seven of Spades 1: Life and Death

Early this morning, the small conference room was very lively: the sound of flipping through documents, the sound of metal chairs scratching across the plastic floor, and the undisguised yawning and murmurs of some people after they sat down.Levi took his old seat in the front row and handed Martin a cup of coffee.The other party took it and sighed gratefully.

"Okay, everyone, sit down." Sergeant Wen stood at the podium in front of him and motioned to everyone.He is a Chinese in his early fifties, with short black hair, gray temples, and a few deep wrinkles around his eyes.The experience of being a police officer made him maintain a straight posture even in the early morning on Monday, with a clean shaven beard and impeccable suits.

There were police detectives, patrolmen, and administrative personnel present at the meeting. After hearing the sergeant's greeting, they all quieted down and looked at him in unison.Levi rubbed his half-opened eyes while drinking coffee; he didn't sleep well last night, and had another nightmare in the middle of the night, which made him wake up in a cold sweat.

"Our top priority is the series of murders that have occurred since last week. Officers Valku and Abrams are currently investigating." Sergeant Wen opened a large folder on the desk. "As of now, it is reasonable to infer that these cases were all committed by a serial killer due to the number and apparent similarities at the crime scenes."

"Yes, 'Seven of Spades,'" called Jonah Gibbs from the back seat.The panda eye on his left is still black and shiny, thanks to the precise punch of Anna Granovski three days ago.

"What did you say?" Levi sat in the chair and turned around and asked.

"Isn't that the playing cards he left at the crime scene?" Gibbs shrugged. "He's the 'Seven of Spades.'"

"First," Levy said, "we don't yet know if the killer was a male 'he,' and the use of masculine pronouns would be preconceived and misleading for the investigation. Second..." He turned back and said directly to Sheriff Wen, " We can't give this man a catchy nickname. The killer wants attention - that's why he posed for the body and left his own death card. That's why the man went to great lengths to make sure that Goodwin's identity was discovered. Corpses. Once you give something a name, you give it power. We contribute to the killer's ego."

"I have your offer, Officer Abrams," said Sergeant Wing, "but you and I both know it's human nature to name things. I'll make sure the nickname doesn't appear in any official documents, But when everyone usually talks, it must be unavoidable."

Levi took a deep breath and wanted to continue the fight, when Martin put his hand on his thigh and squeezed hard.He wrinkled his face in pain and closed his mouth reluctantly.

Martin's rescue action didn't seem to have caught Sergeant Wen's attention, but the corners of his mouth twitched. "According to the coroner's report, the throats of the three victims were all cut from left to right, indicating that the murderer was right-handed. It is difficult to judge the style of the weapon from the cuts, but since the murder weapon has not been found, plus The wounds of the above three victims are very similar, we believe that the murder weapon in the three murders is likely to be the same one. It can be basically inferred that the murder weapon is still with the murderer."

"I heard that the victim was fascinated by the drug first." Kelly Malin sat in the first row, taking notes seriously. "Is this confirmed?"

Seeing Sergeant Wen nodded to himself, Levi said: "Yes, the toxicology report confirmed that each victim had a large amount of ketamine in their body when they died, enough to cause loss of consciousness and limb paralysis. Three cases The cases in which the deceased had taken ketamine by mouth - Dreyer's in whiskey, Goodwin and Campbell's in the bottled beer they were drinking."

At this time, Martin continued his words: "The murderer may have drugged the drinks of the victims without their knowledge. That is to say, the victim did not feel a sense of crisis when facing the murderer. Either the murderer forced The victim drank the drugged drink, which could have been threatened by pointing a gun at the victim. None of the three corpses showed signs of defensive wounds or signs of fighting, so the murderer did not have any sexual encounters with the other party before he was drugged. Voluntary physical contact."

"This brings us to our next point of concern," Police Chief Wen said while flipping through a page of documents, "The scenes of these three murders are the cleanest I have ever seen in my life. So far we have not even been able to rule out a reasonable No fingerprints or fibers of the source were found, not even a trace of DNA. The murderer entered and exited the scene of three crimes, but was not recorded on any electronic recording equipment. Not even the one that used Goodwin's credit card The surveillance video at the gas station was also erased before we got the search warrant. Our opponent is a person with an extremely high IQ, calm thinking, organized work, and knows what he is doing."

"That's assuming the killer is a vigilante?" asked another detective, Troy Burton.

Sergeant Wen nodded. "The most striking commonality among the victims is that they all allegedly committed serious crimes, but it appears from the files that none of the three have been formally convicted."

"That in itself may have been the motive of the killer," Levy pointed out. "Billy Campbell was charged with domestic violence and battery on multiple occasions, but was exonerated. The investigation into Philip Dreyer continued for a long time." More than a year and a half, and no formal charges were filed against him. Matthew Goodwin fled the city on the eve of his trial. None of these men were convicted—in a way, they all got away with it.”

There was a murmur of whispering in the room.Police Chief Wen waited for the discussion to subside before saying: "The investigation of this type of homicide cannot use the method of treating ordinary homicide cases. Unlike most homicide cases, the possibility of these victims being related to the murderer is very slim .Instead of investigating the lives of the deceased and looking for personal motives against them, we need to analyze all aspects of each case itself, so as to conclude the identity of the murderer."

"I have an ugly thing to say," Martin said. "Murderers like this kind of vigilante who specialize in attacking criminals can clean up the crime scene and catch even the local bounty hunters." Hidden criminal who can't be found... I think this guy has a lot of law enforcement background."

"Agreed," Sergeant Wen said haggardly, "similar possibilities include military or legal background. Let's not forget that Dreyer's investigation is not public. Keep an eye on it, the murderer is probably either in the Las Vegas Police Department, or in the District Attorney's Office. Or both."

This made many people restless, and Levi was no exception. "We have compiled a preliminary list of criminal recorders in the region. The cases involving these people are similar to those of the three homicides - we hope that the murderer did not resort to murder in the first place. We Special attention has been paid to those perpetrators who have a sense of justice or injustice in their motives. People with law enforcement or military experience will be ranked first.”

"Very well," Sergeant Wen said. "The narcotics team will work with us to investigate the ketamine line; they should be able to file a report before the end of the day. Officers Valcu and Abrams will be in charge of this." case investigation, please ask them questions directly and follow their instructions." He flipped through a few more pages of documents, cleared his throat and said, "Next, let's talk about the unnatural death at the Bellagio Hotel on Saturday... "

Although the serial murder case is the top priority case of this group, it is not the only case they have at hand.The meeting lasted another hour before it was dissolved.Levi and Martin returned to their workstations in the big office, quickly entered the investigation mode, and continued to do the boring and tedious work of listing the list of suspects.

After a while, the landline on Levi's desk rang.He picked up the receiver and kept his eyes on the computer. "I'm Detective Abrams."

"Hello, officer," said a scary electronic voice, "I heard you were looking for me."

Levi froze. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am. You've been studying my work."

He stood up abruptly, snapped his fingers at the people around him to get their attention, and then pressed the hands-free button. "Are you the man who killed Philip Dreyer?" he asked, and everyone in the office fell silent.Martin stood up too, his eyes wide open.

The person on the other end of the phone paused for a moment. "You want me to claim my gender. You're smart, officer. But I'm smarter than you. Yes, I killed Philip Dreyer. Matthew Goodwin. Billy Campbell."

Depend on!Levi took a slow breath. "Can you prove it?"

"I kept my cards. That one was not as easy to handle as I thought it would be. It got stuck between Goodwin's hand and the bottle."

Levi wiped his face, trying to keep calm.Martin left the station in a hurry and whispered quickly to the nearby police officer.All the staff in the office were either whispering on the phone or typing on the keyboard quickly-notifying their superiors and tracing the source of the call, they behaved well-trained.

"Why did you call me?"

"I want to make a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"I want the story of my execution to be published," said the voice, "without all the details if you want to hold back. But I want the whole of Las Vegas to know about me."

Levi stared at the phone in disbelief.Across the room, Martin waved him down, then held up a large pad, on which was scrawled in bold capital letters: ONE TIME.While expected, it's also pretty frustrating — meaning that the names and billing addresses associated with the calls are fake, if any.

"I know you must have a certain understanding of the police's case-handling procedures," he said, "so you must also know that we don't negotiate conditions with criminals."

The murderer chuckled. The person used an unknown voice changer, which distorted the voice into some kind of weird and piercing noise. "Of course you can. You do this every day to reduce the guilt and punishment of child abusers and drug dealers."

"It's a necessary part of the justice system. You haven't told me what you're going to trade for your terms."

Martin waved him again, showing him another handwritten message: On Long Street.Levi resisted the urge to sigh.By tracking cell phone signals, they can lock the target within a three hundred-foot square, but there are thousands of people coming and going on the long street, whether walking or driving.Without knowing the identity of the target, it is useless to lock this location.There's no way they're going to stop every cell phone caller on the Strip.

"If you will give the details to the newspaper," said the voice, "I will assure you that I will not kill a single person within the next five days."

Silent.

Levi's mouth opened and closed several times, and finally organized his words to ask: "Why did you promise this?"

"I told you. I want people to know my mission." The electronic voice has no emotion, making this bold statement all the more strange. "I want the people in this city to know that I am on their side, and let the beasts know that they cannot escape my grasp."

Levi pondered the wording of the murderer's statement. "You call your killing a 'sentence', do you think those people deserved it?"

"Don't you think so?"

"No. You have no right to decide whether people live or die, good or bad."

"I disagree. Humans have a responsibility to clean up the diseased population itself. It's like cutting off moldy parts of bread to keep the whole bread from spoiling."

Levi felt a bone-chilling chill; he looked around the office and knew that the disgust on his face was no different from that of his colleagues.He couldn't even think of an answer.

"I would never hurt a good person," the killer continued, "I, like you, have the sole purpose of making this city a safer place."

"You thought the public would understand you, didn't you?" Levy said. "You don't just want attention, you want support."

This time, the opponent's pause was longer than before.The murderer is obviously not very worried about revealing his location, even though the patrolmen and police cars have come to the long street to search.

"I knew you'd say that, Officer Abrams."

"How did you come up with such an idea?"

"Because you know what it's like. You killed the man who threatened the child's life."

Out of the corner of his eye, Levi saw Martin take three quick steps towards him, then stop suddenly, his face full of sorrow.He squeezed the edge of the desk for balance, acutely aware that everyone in the room was looking at him. "I don't want to do that. I don't have a choice."

"I do not have either."

"That's not at all the same—"

"Did you enjoy the process?"

Levi felt the blood rushing in his ears.He slumped against the edge of the table, his throat so dry that he couldn't speak a word.

"I think you're enjoying it, Officer Abrams," the killer said, a little softer than before. "I think you're just content when you shoot that man."

Levi still couldn't speak, he could barely breathe.

"Give you 24 hours to contact the newspaper. I have already selected my next target, who will die tomorrow night, or, this person will still have a few days to spend with the person he loves. It is up to you to decide."

The click of a phone hanging up was no less than a gunshot as the office fell into an eerie silence.

***

"There's nothing I can do about it," Carmen Rivera said as she fiddled with the serial killer's phone recordings on her computer.Although she has just graduated, she is already a strong member of the technical team.As usual, she had her black hair piled in a tangle on top of her head, and her mouth was always chapped from biting her lips.

"Can't you -- I don't know what to say, can't put it back?" Levi asked.It was beyond his competence; in all his years as a detective, no killer had ever called him directly with a voice changer.

Carmen shook her head. "Restore the human voice from the cost? It can't be done. The masking algorithm destroys too much information during the conversion process. It can't be restored. But there is one thing I can do, that is, wait for the murderer to use this algorithm to contact me next time. In your case, by comparing the two samples, confirm that they are the same person. In addition, the voice of a person can be changed, but the accent is difficult to change. So in theory, if you encounter this in reality If you are a human, you might be able to recognize it based on this.”

"Sheriff Wen's business is over, and he's on his way back to the branch." Martin hung up the phone and turned to look at them. "He met with the Superintendent and briefed him on the case. I told him that the situation is now quite grim."

"Will you accept 'Seven of Spades'?" Carmen asked.

God, how could she be like this.Levi held back his complaints.There are still people watching them at the moment—except for the person who just witnessed the phone conversation, there are other people, such as Gibbs, after the news spreads in the branch, they are curious. Driven to run to the big office.

"We can't do that at all," Martin said, sparing Levi the trouble, trying to figure out how to answer without inciting others. "That would create panic, not to mention the possibility of a copycat. Besides, it would set a bad precedent. Bargaining with a murderer will only encourage the person to do more in the future."

"What about the person the other party threatened to kill?"

"We can't take the blame on ourselves," Levy said.There is nothing wrong with such an answer, and such an answer will satisfy the consultant, although it is basically bullshit.If the murderer really killed someone tomorrow night, he, Martin, and even Sergeant Wen would bear that life for the rest of their lives.But that won't change their decision. "We cannot give this person special treatment just because he targets criminals. No one is above the law."

"That's just to say, right?" Gibbs blushed easily because of his fair complexion, and now he was pink. "If Dreyer hadn't been rich and powerful, the Financial Crimes Unit would have taken him months earlier. Everyone knows Campbell beat his wife to death, but there's no way to convict him. At least 'Seven of Spades' Do something real."

Martin stared at him in disbelief. "The so-called fact is murder."

Gibbs shook his hands. "I didn't say that was the right thing to do. Certainly not. But I can understand, you know? I can understand what 'Seven of Spades' is doing, and it's better than selling drugs to kids." Raping a woman, or randomly shooting innocent people in the neighborhood in a gang fight is a lot easier to understand."

Martin and Gibbs got into an argument, but from the expressions of the onlookers, it could be seen that many people were on Gibbs' side.And Levi knew that, this, was the problem—once the serial killer's crimes were made public, there would be support.Even if the vast majority would condemn the cold-blooded murder, many would sympathize with its motives.

The vigilante's act of justice evokes the dark side of human nature, calling them to pursue unrestricted tit for tat.This is what the killer relies on, and the person may even expect that law enforcement will turn a blind eye to the investigation as a result.

It doesn't work here in Levy.