Seven of Spades2: Trick Roller

When they arrived at the precinct, a constable came up to them and told them that Dr. Clarissa Northridge was waiting in Inquiry Room Two and that she wanted to speak to one of them.Levi thanked him and turned to Martin.

"Go ahead," she said, "I'm going to do some background checks on Travis Melo. And Jolie and her boyfriend. Get to the bottom of it."

Levi nodded, and instead of going to the big office with her, he turned into the corridor beside him.The woman waiting for him in the interrogation room looked ten years younger than the age he knew—tanned, well-proportioned, immaculately made-up.When Levi walked in, she stood up and smiled politely.

Her behavior gave Levi a strong sense of deja vu, and he stopped at the door, a little surprised.He's pretty sure he's never seen her before; he'll never forget a woman so attractive and confident.

"Dr. Northridge, nice to meet you." He shook off the strange feeling and shook her hand. "This is Detective Abrams, we spoke on the phone yesterday."

"I should say it was a pleasure to meet you, officer. I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. I can't reschedule yesterday's operation."

After motioning for her to sit down, the two chatted for a few minutes, Levy offering her condolences and explaining when and how she could go to the coroner's office to collect her husband's body.Levi knew it was inappropriate to judge the way others grieved; everyone grieved differently, and Northridge had had a few days to come to terms with her husband's death.But he couldn't help comparing her performance to Dr. Kapoor's and Dr. Warner's, noticing that Hensley's colleagues all looked more distressed than his wife.

"I heard you've arrested a suspect?" she said finally.

"Well, she has been released on bail. But in fact, in view of the circumstances of her husband's death, we are reconsidering our initial speculation about the case."

"Oh?"

Levi looked at her carefully. "Yes, preliminary evidence from the crime scene suggests an accidental overdose. But from Dr. Hensley's measurements, it is almost certain that the overdose was deliberate. Homicide. Deliberate murder."

Northridge leaned back in his chair, pale and with his mouth open.This is the most emotionally expressive moment Levy has seen so far. "What?"

"The woman currently accused of killing him - the one who was with him that night - had no apparent motive to murder him, and in fact would only have cost her dearly. Our current speculation is that ’s: Someone killed your husband for personal reasons, and put the blame on her to make her a substitute.”

"God," she murmured, pressing a trembling hand to her forehead.After slowly taking a deep breath, she lowered her hand and asked, "Who?"

"That's what I wanted to discuss with you. Who can you think of who would want Dr. Hensley's life?"

She swallowed her saliva, followed by a sharp lump in her throat.After glancing away, she moistened her lips and was silent for a while. "That's my husband. How do you ask me to answer this kind of question?"

"I understand," Levy said, "I'm sorry to embarrass you, but it's a necessary question."

She met his gaze again. "Steven was a... rough guy. Impatient, demanding, occasionally ruthless. Living and working with him was very challenging. I don't know anyone who would kill him, but he was far from People are likable."

interesting. "We're looking at his life to see if we can identify any suspects. I'm going to apply for a search warrant to get his text messages from his telecommunications provider, and then look at his emails that he may have. "

"Oh, you don't have to. Specifically, you need to read his emails. I think you still need a search warrant, but you don't have to go through those services-I know all of Stephen's usernames and passwords. I'll write them down for him. your."

"That would be a huge help, thank you." Levy hesitated before asking the next question.Bringing up the subject to Northridge was even more embarrassing than it was to Kapoor and Warnerty. "It appears that the killer of Dr. Hensley knew him very well, and anticipated that he would make an appointment for a door-to-door service that night. Other than that, it is impossible to explain why this person was able to match the time of his death with the time of the woman's visit. That's right."

She smiled wryly and said, "Everyone who has interacted with him knows about him. Stephen has never concealed his hobby of prostitution."

Levi wasn't sure how to respond, especially since his first instinct was—

"I found that sounded like my motive for killing him," Northridge said.

"Being two thousand miles away is the perfect alibi."

she laughed. "I'll do what I can to help you, officer. I'm going to show up for the rest of the palliative care seminars in support of Annika. You might want to ask her if Stephen has made any enemies in the industry— There are a lot of narrow-minded people who do research, secretly intrigue, and he doesn't often talk to me about work."

He thanked her for taking time out of her busy schedule, asked for the contact information of her place in Vegas, and sent her out of the branch.Afterwards, he returned to the big office to inform Martin of the progress just now.

"We don't have much time left," Martin said after listening to him. "If the murderers who killed Hensley attended this meeting, they will go back in a few days. We have to go there , and interview everyone again."

When Hensley had just died, they immediately asked the colleague who was with him that night, but Costas who appeared halfway prevented them from following that train of thought as planned.Now I have to start over again, and if necessary, expand the scope of suspects and conduct more in-depth inquiries.

"How are Melo and his friends?" Levi asked. "Any interesting discoveries?"

"Mello has a lot of criminal records, but petty theft and drugs, no violent crimes. Gilmour is similar. Jolie has no criminal records."

They decided to split up—Levy was going to apply for a search warrant to get Hensley's chat records, and then proceeded to make a list of people to question, while Martin continued to follow the Kostas route.After noon, Levy remembered that he had to help Dominique retrieve the pickup.He stared at the computer screen while dialing Dominic's cell phone.

The call went to voicemail.Did Dominique miss the call on purpose, or was he busy?There is only one way to find out.

After finishing the work at hand, Levi tracked the GPS in his car.The most recent location on record is a parking lot in the inner city, not far from the gym Dominique frequents.This suggests he was just exercising and may have left his phone in a locker.

It wasn't until a little nervousness disappeared that Levi realized that he had a grudge.Thinking that Dominic might not answer his call on purpose, Levi really didn't want to admit how uncomfortable he was.

"I'm going out to lunch," he said to Martin.

"Yo, are you going to eat Italian food?"

"You're so funny." When he passed Martin, he bumped his butt on her shoulder, and Martin laughed.

He asked a colleague who was going downtown to give him a ride.Ten minutes later, he walked into Rolando's gym with the expectation that Dominic hadn't left yet.

He has never been to this gym.Although the place is old and simple, it is very clean, without any frills. It is a place with various functions and strong practicality. It is not at all like the fitness center attached to the apartment building that he uses now.The stereo was blasting hard rock music, turned down so low that even from the front door he could hear the thud of the sparring inside.

In the foreground sits a young woman, her racerback showing off her shoulders and biceps.When he arrived, she didn't take her eyes off the magazine.

"I'm not a member," he said, "I'm just looking for people."

"No problem." She looked Levi up and down, and then completely ignored him.He guessed it was because he was wearing formal clothes and didn't carry a sports bag, so he obviously didn't come to exercise for free.

Levy wandered aimlessly around the gym until he spotted Dominique in an area with mats and several heavy sandbags hanging from it.Dominique was wearing basketball shorts and a top with the sleeves ripped off, soaked with sweat, clinging to him.He's wearing a pair of boxing gloves, and he's punching a punching bag like it's a motherfucker.

Levy stopped by the far wall and watched him play for two or three minutes.Whether it is Dominique's stance, footwork, or boxing combination, it shows that he is a boxer who has received orthodox training.He never hit the same spot on the bag with the same punch twice in a row, never wasting a single punch.He never stays in place, but avoids counterattacks from imaginary enemies.The heavy sandbag kept shaking under such a ferocious attack; it was impossible for a person without similar training to last ten seconds under such an attack.

Levy is no stranger to punching bags to relieve stress, and he can tell from Dominique's tense body that he's still upset about what happened last night.His concern, however, was soon replaced by admiration—Dominique's technique, his incredible speed of punching, and the insane sheer power of each hit.The admiration quickly turned to admiration, Dominique's shiny muscles tightened and relaxed, his broad shoulders moved back and forth, his strong buttocks were wrapped under tight shorts——

Levy realized that his pants were getting uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and walked forward, onto the mat to Dominic's side.Seeing Dominic's state of mind, he didn't want to alarm him.

Dominic stopped hitting the sandbag and turned around, his chest heaving with heavy panting.A look of surprise flashed across his face, and then a smile appeared on his face. "Hey, how did you find me?" Before Levy could say anything, he added, "GPS in your car. Of course."

"I hope you don't mind," said Levi, who only now realizes that he looks like a creepy stalker.

Dominic shrugged. "That's your car." He faced the sandbag again, and hit a "straight left, straight right, left uppercut" combination.The strength was so strong that Levi couldn't help but wrinkled his face.

"How long have you been fighting here?"

"Half an hour, maybe?"

"Does this work?" Levi asked in a low voice.

Dominique's response was a set of "straight left, straight right, uppercut, right straight punch", the last punch sent the sandbag shaking until it was out of reach.

"I wouldn't force you to talk about it if you didn't want to," Levy said, "but I don't know if it's best for us to just pretend it never happened."

"Oh, how is that possible," Dominique's bleak laugh was nothing like him, "I can't forget how fucking weak I am."

"It's not a weakness, Dominique, it's a disease—"

"Sometimes it doesn't feel like a disease."

He threw straight left and straight right several times in a row.Levi stood silently, not knowing what to do.When he and Dominic first started dating, he read all the academic material he could find on compulsive gambling addiction.He knew that it was a lot like drug and alcohol addiction, and that the process of withdrawal was extremely complex, not a simple matter of inner strength or willpower.However, although he could empathize with Dominic's torture, he couldn't really understand what the other party went through.

"You told me once that no matter how good you are, there's a part of you that's always angry." Dominique started punching the punching bag again, but this time, a little absent-mindedly. "Every day, every second, you have that little piece of anger inside you."

Levi lowered his head.He only confessed it to Dominique, because he was drunk at the time, but he didn't regret it when he was sober.

"As for me, that voice that keeps chattering in the back of my head, that emotion that's always scratching inside me—not anger. It's fear. I have dangerous urges that I can't control. Every morning I wake up, Scared that this is the day I'm going to stumble again and I'm going to ruin my life again. My worst enemy is in my head, with me, and I'll never be able to completely ignore it."

This was the most Levi had ever heard Dominique talk about his gambling addiction.He leaned closer and said, "Last night, when I proposed to use force to stop you from gambling... did you really agree, or did you just panic."

Dominique grabs the heavy sandbag to stop it from swinging. "I'm serious, how about you?"

"Me too. But I'm not sure we've got the healthiest coping mechanism in mind."

"That's for us to decide. You can't do anything worse to me than I can do to myself. If I'm in trouble, I trust you and allow you to stop me. I don't care what other people say. think."

At this moment, Levi thought of a way to help Dominic relieve some anxiety. "The problem is, we're not sure if I have the ability to stop you." He said slowly in a deep tone.

Dominic frowned. "What do you want to say?"

"I'm a well-trained fighter, maybe better than you, but the difference in our size is not for show. Maybe I can't beat you even if I try my best." Levi walked to Domi Nick's close body, almost touching him.He had to look up to meet Dominique's gaze, but he wasn't afraid. "So, to be safe, we should have an answer.

"Levy," said Dominique, his face relaxed, "you mean—"

"Play with me," Levy said.