Seven of Spades2: Trick Roller

Dominique got on his parked pickup and immediately took a flashlight out of the front storage box. Then he lay flat on the asphalt, got under the car, and shone the flashlight on the chassis.Some police officers walked by and looked at him strangely, but he ignored them.

Back in April, one night, Dominic drove Carlos' car to track down some clues about the "Seven of Spades".The killer himself stalked Dominic and ended up leaving a business card on the windshield, but he didn't know if it was a threat or a prank.The next day he dismantled Carlos and his own car looking for GPS trackers, but found nothing.So he deduced that the murderer either followed him directly or used some other method.

However, after hearing Levi's words this morning and experiencing the weirdness last night, he didn't check it again and felt uneasy.

He scanned the entire chassis of the saddle, looking for odd wiring or something else amiss.nothing.He got out again, carefully inspecting the four tires, the front and rear bumpers.Then he got into the driver's seat and slid his hand under the dashboard, then emptied the storage box, picked up the floor mat, and reached under the passenger seat.

His fingers touched a hard-to-the-touch, plastic-like shape.He grabbed a better grip, pulled it hard, and pulled out a rectangular black device smaller than a mobile phone, with the logo of a high-end private security brand printed on it inconspicuously.

"Damn it," he whispered.

He believed that Seven of Spades was still alive, and not just because he trusted Levy.But he also felt—or hoped—that the killer was gone.After successfully framing Keith Chapman, why keep this city?Why are you still spying on Dominic and Levi?Not to mention why they respectively intervene in the case at hand of the two of them?If the "Seven of Spades" cannot be reproduced in the public eye, what is the point of doing so?

It's not known how long the GPS tracker was in his pickup, and it may just be the tip of the iceberg.Dominique was trained in a lot of technical counter-surveillance techniques—although rusty, he didn't have the equipment needed to do a thorough investigation.

But he knew where to get some.

McBride Investigative Office is not far from Levy's branch.Within 10 minutes, Dominic walked into the technical department headed by Isaiah Miller.He was a cute young black guy with square glasses and a shy smile.

Isaiah is buried in a disassembled computer. He listens to music through earbuds and shakes his head to the music.Dominic greeted him, and he didn't look up, so Dominic touched his arm lightly.

Screaming like a scalded cat, Isaiah jumped to his feet and slammed into the workbench.A tray full of documents clattered to the floor, and a travel mug bounced and flipped, spilling coffee in a wide arc across the linoleum.He pulled off the earplugs, looked up at Dominic and opened his eyes wide.

"I'm sorry." Dominique said, holding back a smile.He knelt down, collected scattered documents, and said, "I didn't mean to scare you, I called your name several times."

"It's okay. Sometimes I get obsessed while doing things." Isaiah took out the phone from his pocket, turned off the music, put it on the stage, and then took out a thick tissue.

They returned the bench to its original state, and Dominic said, "Well, if you don't want to just let me go now—"

"What do you want?" Isaiah said with a smile.

"A spectrum analyzer, a nonlinear node finder."

"No problem." Isaiah motioned for Dominic to follow him to the main desk, where he sat behind a sleek computer monitor and asked, "What's the case number?"

"It's not for investigation." Isaiah blinked, opened his mouth wide, and Dominic raised a hand, "Don't rush to talk, I promise to return the equipment within 36 hours, intact, and there is no one except you and me People will know."

"You personally need to use professional-grade TSCM [1] equipment?" Isaiah asked skeptically.

"Yes. This is... can I tell you something secret?"

"Go ahead."

It wouldn't do him any good to "jump over Isaiah" like this, so Dominic sat down in another chair.He leaned forward against the edge of the table, lowered his voice, and spoke in an intimate tone.

"It was my ex, he was mentally ill," he said, "We were in the military together and he was jealous and manipulative, but now I'm dating another guy and he's really crazy. I think he's stalking me , probably bugged my house - I wouldn't be too surprised if he spied on me with a hidden camera."

"My God," Isaiah said, opening his mouth involuntarily.

"He's a professional, he doesn't use cheap street stuff. I need anti-surveillance equipment of similar quality to prove me right."

"Dominic..." Isaiah was full of sympathy and worry, but he didn't fully buy it.Dominic needs to push harder.

"Please," he broke his voice, "I know that's a lot to ask, but I don't feel safe in my own apartment. I'm so scared of what he might do next."

Isaiah bit his lip, then nodded, and said, "Okay. As long as you promise to return the equipment intact as soon as possible, I can help you."

"Thank you so much." Dominique said across the table and squeezed his arm, "I'm going to take full responsibility for what goes wrong, for whatever reason. I'd say I sneaked in here and stole stuff, and you didn't I know. Trust me, I won't let it happen to you."

Isaiah smiled at him, turned to the computer, and said, "I'll check the inventory first." He typed and didn't speak for a while, and when he spoke again, his tone was so casual that Dominic noticed it right away. "I didn't know you were dating yet."

Dominic knew Isaiah had feelings for him, and he took advantage of that, but it would be too much to fan the flames. "His name is Levi." He revealed his feelings for Levi in ​​his tone, "He is a detective from the homicide squad."

Isaiah looked at him sharply and said, "A policeman? I thought you'd be the first to go to him if you wanted that kind of help."

"I don't want to cause too much trouble until my suspicions are confirmed. I could be wrong."

God, I wish I was wrong.

Isaiah fetched the requested equipment and stuffed it into an unremarkable duffel bag. "You know how to use it?" he asked as he handed the duffel bag.

"Hasn't used it in a while, but I'll remember," Dominique said.

He thanked Isaiah again and went home.He behaved normally in the apartment, greeted the anti-bone girl in a playful meal, and opened a Spotify playlist, as usual at home alone.Then he unzipped the duffel bag and went into action.

Spectrum analyzers can capture, map distributions, and analyze all spectral activity in a small area to detect surveillance devices transmitting signals; nonlinear node detectors can find electronic devices hidden in walls, under floors, or in boxes and cabinets , can be found even when the machine is turned off.Dominique hadn't operated equipment like this in years, and the technology had evolved over the years—but even today's civilian TSCM equipment was no match for the military-grade equipment he was familiar with.It only took him a few minutes to master the usage.

He knew he couldn't rely on electronics alone, and didn't do any physical inspections at all, so his eyes and hands were no less involved than the equipment in carrying out carpet inspections up and down the apartment.He inspected every door frame, every window sill, every inch of baseboard, removed all receptacles and light switches, checked the inside of the smoke detector, and checked every wire.Fan Gumei followed beside him, her ears pricked up, her head tilted to one side, looking at him.

He didn't dig the "treasure" - until he came to the table in the living room, even with the tools in hand and at his disposal, he didn't realize it all at once.

It's plug in.

There's no way he'd notice otherwise—seriously, who's going to look at it when the strips are all set up?His own, he hasn't touched it for many years, and only occasionally touches it when dusting the computer casually.But this is not the socket he bought at the beginning.The package was exchanged for this one, and the internal wiring was bugged-that is to say, the "Seven of Spades" does not need to come back, because it is connected to the power supply and has a steady stream of power supply.

Dominic made no further noises to suggest he had found it.He turned off everything connected to the power strip, unplugged it all, and threw it into a shoebox along with the GPS tracker he found in the pickup.He went on to check, because he knew it wasn't done yet.

This is just the beginning.

***

"I don't know how she did it," Levy told Martin. "The guy I was talking to at Johns Hopkins told me she was in the hospital on Monday. And I checked with Southwest Airlines. Passenger manifest - Clarissa Northridge was indeed on board Flight 484 from Baltimore to Las Vegas on Tuesday morning."

"Just because she wasn't home when the local police came to visit doesn't mean she wasn't in Baltimore," Martin said.

"I understand." Levi clicked the mouse and focused on the computer screen, "but she's not there, I can feel it."

Martin narrowed his eyes and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Recheck the surveillance video of Mirage. When I met Dr. Northridge, I thought she gave me a familiar feeling. Since Warner accidentally said that he saw her on Monday, I have never seen her thoughts waving in my mind. Not going. This seems like the most likely place."

He finished an elevator monitoring, sighed in disappointment, and continued on to the next one.Martin sat in a chair and slid over to his desk.

"If you've seen her in these records, don't you think you should have recognized her when you ran into her before?" she asked, sounding curious.

"I don't know." Levi fast-forwarded to check the monitor, he was already bored-then he gasped and pressed the pause button.He rewinds and replays the last few minutes in slow motion. "If she was disguised, it might not be recognized."

He taps the image on the screen.A tall, slender woman stands alone in an elevator, wearing gloves, sunglasses, and a headscarf, as if about to drive a 20s convertible.

She was the right height and build, and there was something familiar about her demeanor that Levi felt when he greeted Northridge himself.But he couldn't be 100 percent sure it was the same woman, let alone convince a jury.

"Hmm." Martin took a closer look, "It might be her. She's going to the right floor."

Levy frowned at the time stamp and said, "2:47 in the morning. This time is close to the lower limit of the death time presumed by the forensic doctor."

"But not beyond."

He fast forwarded, looking for the moment when the woman returned to the elevator, but when the surveillance video ended, he didn't see her again.The monitoring of the other elevator is the same-assuming that the woman left the 22nd floor before Hensley was found dead, then she must have taken another way.

"Could she have gone by the stairs?" he asked.

"Possibly. She's in good shape—the 22nd flight of stairs probably won't bother her. Maybe she just went to another room."

"I intuitively think this is Clarissa Northridge. She met her husband the night he died and has been covering it up." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, "But call our evidence circumstantial The evidence has exalted it, and there is no way to build a case based on what we have."

Martin knocked on the table and said, "You got a search warrant for her phone records last night, right?"

"Yes. But the log hasn't arrived yet, and we can't count on it containing useful information. And Kalman still hasn't been able to crack the security on Walsh's computer."

They sat for a while in silence.Levy clicked randomly in the surveillance video, thinking aimlessly in his mind.If Northridge had seen Hensley the night of his death, and had tried so hard to cover his tracks, it was almost certain that she had killed him.And if there's no way to prove it, she can get away with it.

The woman in the elevator had no luggage, only a handbag.Did she go straight to Hensley's door and knock?still……

Levi froze. "The foyer," he said. "Mirage gave the surveillance footage from other areas as well—but we didn't use it after we identified Diana Costas, so no one saw them. The woman Must have walked through the foyer at some point and she may have even got the key to Hensley's room."

He rummaged through the database loaded with electronic evidence and found what he was looking for.There are several different angles for the monitoring of the mirage porch, he picked the best one to watch the front desk, and jumped directly to around 2:30.Martin moved closer to watch with him.

At 2:36 a.m., the woman, wearing a hood and gloves, came to the front desk—removed her sunglasses, and it was clear she was Clarissa Northridge.Both Levi and Martin exhaled heavily.

"It was Ellen Walsh who was talking to her," Martin said.

On screen, Northridge and Walsh talk for a brief moment before she pushes a small, thick envelope across the table.He returns a key card, and she puts her sunglasses back on and leaves.Walsh stashed the envelope in the inside pocket of his coat.

"My God, she bribed him to get the key to the room."

"I bet you, Mirage's system records which room's key card it is and when it was entered." Levi said and picked up the phone.

Then he made a quick phone call to confirm that the card had been registered to Walsh's account, room number 2, at 39:2218 a.m. on Sunday.Levi hung up the phone and turned to Martin triumphantly.

"We can build a case on this," he said.

"You liar son of a bitch." She shook her head, "I asked him personally if he saw anything suspicious that night, and he lied to my face."

"I guess he thought it would be better to blackmail Northridge than to share the information with us. His supervisors were embarrassed - after he died, they reviewed all his recent work activities, as we asked but didn't double check the key cards he made. You should have heard how many times she apologized."

Martin stood up, slid the chair back to his desk, and said, "A warrant is all we have. Do you have any idea where Northridge might be right now?"

He looked at his watch and said, "I do know. Kapoor and Warner's presentation started 10 minutes ago, and she promised to be there."

"It seems that we have to go to this meeting uninvited again."

They drove up to the Mirage, checked the room assignments, and quietly walked in from behind.This space is extremely crowded, the hotel insisted on stuffing a lot of folding chairs in this room, so the edge is still full of people.Levy wondered if so many people were here for the research itself, or for the Hensley murder scandal.

On an easel by the door is a notice board with the titles of the papers to be presented: "Peripheral and Central Mechanisms of Visceral Pain" S. Hensley, M.D.; Ah Kapoor, M.D.; G. Warner, M.D. PhD.

Levy had read some of their research for background when he first started investigating the case.Most of the detailed science was beyond him, but he got the gist.Very interesting stuff, although Kapoor's so-called "breakthrough" he can't guarantee.

Martin stood with him, scanning the room.At the front of the podium, Warner chatted into a microphone about inflamed internal organs.He looked sober today—in fact, Levi had never seen him sober.There was energy in his face, passion in the movements of his hands, and enthusiasm for the subject in his voice.Kapoor stood beside him with a faintly proud smile on his face.

Martin touched Levi's shoulder with his elbow and tilted his head.He looked in the direction Martin indicated, and saw Clarissa Northridge, sitting in the third row, legs together, hands clasped in her lap, nodding as she listened.

The phone was buzzing in his pocket, and he took it out, ignoring the annoyed eyes of the people around him.

"What is it?" Martin asked.

"Text from Kalman," he whispered, "from Northridge's phone records, she got two calls on Sunday and Monday from a Las Vegas area code that was the same as the The number was linked to a disposable phone with no legitimate billing information."

"Walsh."

"Until we actually find the phone, there's no way to prove it, but yeah, I'd bet big money on it."

They all looked at Northridge again. "We should wait until the report is over," Martin said. "City officials are not going to be happy that the Las Vegas precinct detains a respected doctor in front of a room full of her colleagues at a meeting that draws a lot of money. have witnessed."

Levi rolled his eyes, but he knew she was right.They hovered in the rear, Warner and Kapoor taking turns reporting on their research.After the two doctors finished their reports, they concluded with a tribute to Hensley. The tribute was so touching that it concealed what a terrible person he was.

It took some time to clear the room, and half the crowd looked like they wanted to speak to Kapoor and Warner in person.Levi and Martin waited until there were only a few people hanging around, and Northridge, Kapoor, and Warner were standing together talking.

Northridge was the first to notice their approach. She turned pale and her throat quivered violently, but she stood still.Seeing her reaction, Kapoor and Warner fell silent and turned around, their faces full of confusion.

"Dr. Northridge," Levy said, "we have a warrant for your detention. If you will cooperate, out of respect, I can go to the car without the handcuffs."

"Detention?" Kapoor exclaimed, stepping between them. "Why?"

"I think it was Stephen's murder," said Northridge.Levy nodded, and she took a shaky breath and put her hand on Kapoor's shoulder. "It's okay, Anika. It's just a misunderstanding, and I'll fix it."

Kapoor ignores her and confronts Levi and Martin, saying, "You're not serious. Clarissa was in Baltimore when Stephen died."

Warner ducked his head, arched his shoulders, and moved his feet like a skinny school chicken.Northridge closed his eyes for a moment.Kapoor glanced back and forth between them, opened and closed his mouth without saying a word.

"Excuse me, can you come with us?" Martin said, motioning for Northridge to go ahead of her.Northridge nodded, and followed them toward the door without arguing.

"We'll be with you, Clarissa." Kapoor turned to Warner, for support, and when he didn't answer, she bumped him on the shoulder.

"What?" He jerked his head up. "Oh, um, of course."

Levi and Martin successfully escorted Northridge to the waiting car."I can't talk without a lawyer," she said, as they helped her into the car, in a calm but firm voice, and said nothing else.

***

After Dominic checked the apartment, no surveillance equipment was found.Other than the power strips, there were no obvious bugs—nor a hidden camera of any kind, much to his relief.He put the device back into the travel bag, grabbed the notebook and pen, and took the rebellious girl to No. 2G next door.

"Hi, Dom," Carlos said when he answered the door.He was sleepy and his hair was messy, as if he had just woken up.He was on the last shift of the Devil Rays last night. "What's wrong?"

"I don't have any beer left, do you have any?" Dominique said while holding up the words he just wrote.

Don't respond aloud to this, I need to check your apartment for bugs.

Carlos, looking less sleepy, blinked at the note, stared at Dominique for a few seconds, and said, "Ah... yes, come in."

The anti-bone girl trotted into the apartment behind Dominic's ass, and Dominic put the luggage bag on the coffee table in the living room.He saw Carlos froze in place, raised his eyebrows, and turned his head towards the kitchen.

Carlos was taken aback, clapped his hands, and said, "Hey, little rebellious girl, would you like something to eat?"

The anti-bone girl turned around excitedly, and ran into the kitchen after Carlos.Dominique unzips the duffel bag and prepares to go through the TSCM process from scratch.This time, he checked the socket first.

When Fan Gumei came back from the kitchen, he was still squatting behind the TV.Jasmine stocked up on some crunchy organic dogbone biscuits, and Rebel took one, settling down on the rug.Carlos followed, holding two uncapped bottles of Stella Artois, one of which he handed to Dominique.

"Thanks." Dominique touched the bottle with Carlos.He took a sip, stood up, and swapped the beer for a spectrum analyzer.

Carlos walked up and down the middle of the living room, beer in one hand, and he watched Dominique fiddle with it dumbfounded.After watching it for a while, Dominic sighed, put down the spectrum analyzer, and grabbed the notebook.

Normal performance! ! !He wrote hastily.

Carlos glared at him.

"So are you ready for tomorrow's marriage proposal?" Dominique asked.It was the only topic he was sure would wake Carlos up, make him stop being so dazed and embarrassing.

It worked, although not in the way he thought.Carlos scowled, his shoulders slumped. "Yes, probably." He said, swayed to the sofa, and sat down.

Dominique took a screwdriver out of his bag and began to remove the housing of the light switch near the front door. "You sound unsure, have you changed your mind?"

"No! It's just..." Carlos waved his bottle, "I'm a little scared."

"I thought you two had talked about getting married before."

"Of course I said it. If I didn't say it, I wouldn't even think about proposing. It's just a little earlier than we planned, that's all."

Dominique shone a flashlight inside the light switch, looking for suspicious wiring. "Are you sure Jasmine is the type of person who enjoys being proposed in front of the whole family?"

"Of course," Carlos said with a smile. "You don't know how much she likes those marriage proposal videos on YouTube that involve family and friends."

"Then why are you so nervous?"

Lost in thought, Carlos took a swig of his beer and said, "I don't know if I can make it clear. She's going to love the ring and I know she's going to say 'yes'. But it's still the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done gone."

It seemed that he hadn't finished speaking, but his voice gradually became inaudible.Dominique listened as he closed the light switch box.

"I want everything to be perfect," Carlos said. "I want Jasmine to have a beautiful romantic proposal that she can tell all her friends, you know? It's... the most important thing in a man's life." One of the things I must do well."

what.

Before Dominique could speak, Carlos held up a hand and said, "I know it sounds heterocentric, okay? I can hear that, but it doesn't change anything."

"You don't have to justify your feelings to other people," Dominique said, turning to the spectrum analyzer. "Especially not to me. Do you still use the idea we came up with?"

"Yes. Mind if I tell you what I'm going to say first?"

For the next hour, Carlos rehearsed his proposal speech and took notes.Dominique continued to inspect the apartment while offering his thoughts.They made it to the kitchen, where suspicious readings began to appear on the spectrum analyzer, and Dominic spent a few minutes searching intently to find the problem.He dragged a dining chair and stood on it, reaching for the smoke detector.

The bug is attached to the device, which again has a constant supply of power to it.This is professional equipment - not military grade, but comparable to that used by ordinary law enforcement agencies.

It took Dominic a moment of concentration to remove the bug without damaging the smoke detector.Carlos watched him silently, but when Dominique jumped off his chair again with the bug in his hand, he said, "What—"

Dominic stretched his empty hand across his neck and raised another finger.He hurried back to his apartment and dropped the bug into the shoebox.

Carlos was waiting for him in the corridor outside, and the anti-bone girl was standing beside him. "What the hell happened, Dom? I didn't ask a question before, but you can't just tell me to check the bugs in my apartment and pull crap out of my smoke detector without explaining anything."

That's right. "Do you remember 'Seven of Spades'?" Dominique asked.

"The serial killer? How could I forget."

"'Seven of Spades' isn't dead."

"What do you mean, not dead?" Carlos looked at him suspiciously, "Didn't Keith Chapman commit suicide in front of you?"

"He wasn't the killer," Dominique said. "Just a scapegoat. Most people in the Las Vegas precinct don't believe the real Seven of Spades is still on the loose, but Levi and I know the truth."

Carlos opened his mouth wide, but said nothing.The anti-bone girl moved to Dominic's feet and sat down, all the weight of her body rested on his legs.

He lowered his hand and stroked her head. "When 'Seven of Spades' committed the crime in April, he had a strange obsession with the two of us, and it seems that he has not given up. I can't go into too many details, but last night 'Seven of Spades' arranged some things, not only for the Got me what I needed for my investigation in McBride and also helped with a case for Levita. Then this morning I found a GPS tracker in my car, found a bug in the apartment, and counted The ones you found in your apartment. I don't even know how long they've been there. It could be a week, it could be three months."

"My God," Carlos whispered, "You're serious, right? You really feel like you're being watched by a serial killer that everyone thinks is dead."

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's true."

Carlos raked his hair and said, "If it's true, are Jasmine and I in danger? What about you? Are you in danger?"

"No." Dominique said firmly, "'Seven of Spades' was—was—a vigilante who thought he was righteous, and only killed people who he felt were seriously treacherous and unforgivable. They may only monitor you because Know how much time I spend here with you."

"And what if the killer makes an exception for someone who wants to be arrested?" Carlos asked. "Because that's what you and Levi are doing, aren't they—trying to track down the real killer?"

Dominic shrugged.

"Oh my God, Dominic. Have you ever wondered why 'Seven of Spades' is so 'obsessed'? Probably trying to keep an eye on you and Levi so you can stop it before you get too close to the truth." you."

"Of course I thought about it. But that doesn't mean I'll give up, and neither will Levi." He clasped Carlos' shoulders tightly with both hands, "If you and Jasmine are in danger, I will tell you without hesitation. Yes. I will never do anything that puts you both in danger."

Carlos looked at Dominique's face carefully for a long time, took a long breath, and nodded.Dominic let him go.

"How did this guy break into our apartment and not let us know?" Carlos said.

"I don't know," Dominique said.Who knows, the Seven of Spades might have a key. "I'll talk to the building management about putting in tighter security measures. In the meantime, we're going inside. I'm going to check the bugs in your bedroom, too."

Carlos paled.

[1]? It is the abbreviation of Technical Surveillance Countermeasures, that is, the anti-surveillance technical means mentioned above.