Seven of Spades2: Trick Roller

"Definitely the same woman," Martin said.

On Monday morning, she and Levy were standing behind Carmen Rivera's desk, comparing two portraits on the computer, one left and one right.One of them was a photo of the driver's license provided by the DMV, and the other was a screenshot of the elevator monitoring at the Mirage Hotel. Levy picked out this picture, thinking that it was the person who was most likely to spend the night with Hensley.The woman appeared on Hensley's floor around [-]:[-] in the evening, and left just after [-]:[-] in the morning, and this point happened to be the presumed window of death.

She is a well-proportioned beauty with smooth wheat-colored skin, black hair as smooth as satin, and recognizable Mediterranean eyebrows and eyes.In the surveillance image, she is conservatively dressed, wearing a black and red tight skirt and low heels, with a duffel bag in one hand.

"It can't be wrong," said Carmen.There are a few technical wizards like her in the Bureau, all young and young.She has a habit of biting her lips when she is concentrating on her work, so her lips are always damaged.A casually tied bun was tilted to one side, crumbling. "Diana Costas. No DNA match was found, but there were fingerprints. She had a file with the Vegas Police Department for a work permit before, and the laboratory department came out after checking."

Levi frowned.In Clark County, under the banner of "providing door-to-door entertainment services," assisted dating agencies can get legal licenses and send entertainment workers to hotel or motel rooms.Those entertainment workers who come to the door must be registered according to this statement and obtain a work permit.By this sleight of hand, all involved are protected from being charged with engaging in actual prostitution.

Fingerprinting is a standard procedure for obtaining a permit, and Costas must have known that the Vegas Police Department could easily obtain her fingerprint information.Why leave fingerprints in such a conspicuous place?

"Criminal record?" he asked.

"none."

"Do you know which agencies she works with?" Martin asked Levy.

"I don't know, none of the call records are useful. Hensley must have ordered the service online." Levy turned to face Carmen and said, "Did you find anything?"

"Yes." She clicked the mouse, and the screen switched to a particularly eclectic black and red theme website, with the words "Sinful Secret" handwritten on it. "From what I can dig, Diana Costas only works with this door-to-door entertainment agency."

Martin whistled softly, and Levi's frown deepened. Guilty Secrets is a top agency that works with celebrities and executives from Fortune 500 companies.Their hourly salaries for compensated dating are astronomical.

Carmen pulled out the personal homepage of a certain compensated date on the website-by the way, the website design is quite stylish. "She came out under the pseudonym 'Pandora'."

The women in these photos aren’t Kostas, but they never would have been; agencies like this often use model shots on their sites to protect the identities of compensated sex workers.Of course, this one is already very similar.

"A person who can make thousands of dollars in a single release, why would he drug a prostitute for just a wallet, a mobile phone and a computer?" Levi said.

"That's not necessarily true, there are other possibilities." Martin said while pointing out other possibilities with his fingers. "It's possible that they took drugs together and the guy had a bad reaction. It's possible that she drugged him because he threatened her safety and she felt like she couldn't get away. It's also possible that she died after she left." I drank it myself."

"Where did his stuff go?"

Martin had no answer to this.

"It doesn't feel right," he murmured.

"I know, I think so," Martin said, "but we don't have any more leads until we ask this woman. Carmen, have you got the address?"

After Carmen provided Costas with his address in Henderson, the two dropped in to pick up their belongings at their workstations. "Can you drive?" Levi asked. "I need to think."

"sure."

However, just as they were about to leave, the landline on Levi's desk rang.Martin waved to him for him to pick it up.

"You'd better pick it up. I'll turn on the air conditioner in the car. Maybe when you arrive, we won't have to be steamed."

Martin continued to walk away while Levi returned to his work station and picked up the receiver. "I'm Detective Abrams."

"Hello, Detective. This is Dr. Modonado from the coroner's office."

"Well, doctor, what's the matter with you?"

"I'm calling about the Henslein case." There was the sound of keyboard tapping in the background. "I'll pass on the full report to you later, but I'd like to give you my latest findings on the cause of death as soon as possible. The cause of death was definitely a drug overdose—specifically, an overdose of flunitrazepam [1], aka Rolemian. There's little chance this case was an accident."

Levy's interest was aroused, and he asked, "How do you say that?"

"No one would have survived taking such a large dose of Lomian. Whoever administered such a large amount either wanted him dead or had no idea what he was doing. I should stress that I cannot rule out self-administration of the drug possibility, but most people would not choose this drug to commit suicide.”

After thanking her, Levi hung up the phone, and he couldn't be sure whether their thinking was right.On the drive to Henderson, Levi shared this information with Martin.

Kostas lives in a secluded suburban cabin, a small desert-style American bungalow.On a hot day, no one would go out and wander around at this point.Martin and Levi walked side by side along the flower path to the front door.Levi knocked on the door.

After a while, Costas answered the door; Levi was shocked to find that she was only an inch shorter than him without heels. "What's the matter with you?" she said.

"Are you Diana Costas?" he asked.She nodded, and he showed his police ID and said, "I'm Detective Abrams from the Vegas Police Department, and this is Detective Valcourt. We need you to come with us, about Stephen Hans Lay, I have some questions for you."

Costas paled in horror and took a step back.Before she could reply, there was a slapping sound of little feet accompanied by a cry of "Mommy!", and a little boy about four or five years old ran behind her.He saw Levi and Martin and hid behind his mother's legs, but Levi could still catch a glimpse of a small black curly head with big vivid eyes and a half-eaten biscuit in one hand.

A blond woman joined the group at the front door. "What's the matter, Diana?" Her tone was suspicious.

"Everything is fine, can I bother you to take Mason back to the kitchen?"

Although the blond woman narrowed her eyes and glared at Levi and Martin, she didn't argue about anything, she just pulled Mason and led him into the room.

"Your roommate?" Martin asked.

Costas shook his head and said, "Julie is just my friend. She helps me watch Mason during the day so I can study."

"Can she watch him for you when you come to the game?"

Kostas crossed his arms and said, "Am I under arrest?"

"Not yet," said Levy, "but Dr. Hensley is dead."

Seeing the consternation on the other person's face, he reminded himself that she might just be good at acting.Many sex workers are good at acting as part of their job.

"The patrol is coming soon, they have a search warrant, and they're going to search your house," he added, "so you're probably going to want Julie to take Mason somewhere else for a few hours."

Kostas pressed his lips together and nodded briefly. "Give me 1 minute."

She left the door open and Levi had a glimpse of the living room.The room is comfortably furnished, with toys scattered around and pictures of Mason all over the walls.

"My God, this is so annoying," Martin said.

Before entering the branch office, Levi stopped outside the gate and called Dominique. "Hey," Dominic said when he picked it up, "I'm going to interrogate a suspect, but I should be free in an hour and a half."

"Okay," said Dominic, "where do you want to go?"

"Hmm... I was thinking, or go to my place to eat?"

"Your place? Levi, I've seen your kitchen. You have two cans of soup, a loaf of bread, and the rest is all coffee."

Levi said nothing, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.He was standing in the scorching sun in his suit, and his back was sweating.

"Yo, officer, you said that," Dominique said slowly and happily, "you're telling me you're in the mood for a 'lunch exercise'?"

"You're such an asshole," Levi said, with a wide eye, though Dominic couldn't see it.

Dominic smiled. "Let's do it this way - I'll get some takeaway and meet you at your apartment, okay?"

"Okay." Apart from that, Levi didn't dare to say anything more.Taking advantage of the lunch break on a weekday to get shot at just thinking about it makes him aroused, but he doesn't want Dominic to know.

Dominique's voice became low and provocative, and he said, "I'll bring some non-breakable, if you really want to have sex, you can wait until you're done—"

"Uh." Levi said and hung up the phone.He was annoyed and funny, the way he always was when Dominic was around.Now he was so full of anticipation for lunch that he didn't know how he was going to survive the interrogation.

Diana Costas sat at the metal table in the interrogation room, her back straight and her hands clasped in her lap.She looked anxious, her lips pursed and her cheeks pale, but she kept her emotions in check.

"Ms. Costas," Levy said, sitting down across from her, "could you please tell me where you were between ten o'clock at night and three o'clock in the morning last Saturday?"

She hesitated, then quickly glanced at the camera in the corner of the room.

"I'm not interested in accusing you of prostitution," he said. "I can't prove prostitution anyway. All I care about is Dr. Hensley's death."

"Okay." She took a deep breath. "I took an order from Guilty Secrets that evening. The service time required for the order was [-]:[-] p.m., so that's when I got into Dr. Hensley's guest room in Mirage. I was there After... two hours, two and a half? I'm pretty sure I left at one o'clock in the morning. Then I went straight home."

"Can anyone prove it?"

"Yes, I hired a temporary nanny."

So far, Kostas' statements have been timed exactly as shown by Mirage's surveillance footage.After Levi secretly wrote it down, don't forget to ask for the nanny's contact information.

"While in the room, did either of you or Dr. Hensley ingest a hallucinogenic substance?"

"We had some champagne, nothing more." Costas's composure faltered for a moment, and she leaned forward, hands on the table. "Look, he was fine when I left, I swear to God. He was in a pretty good mood, even. I don't know how he died, but—"

"He died of an overdose of Luo Lemian. Some valuables were also missing from the room."

She blinked—and all of a sudden, she contorted her face and clenched her fingers into a fist, which Levi hadn't expected. "That's why you brought me here?" she snapped. "You guys think I did a fucking 'fairy dance'? Are you kidding me?"

"Ms. Kostas—" Levi started, but she kept going, not letting him in.

"Do you know how much money I can get for doing this? I don't have to rob anyone. Even if I really do something wrong, I won't be so stupid as to commit crimes when it's announced. The agency knows my real name!"

She was already shouting when she said this.Realizing that she wasn't handcuffed to the table, Levi slid the chair a few inches away from the table and raised his hands halfway.

She closed her eyes abruptly again, and sat back on the chair.When she opened her eyes again a few seconds later, her tone was blunt but much calmer. "I make a living by introducing clients to me with 'sinister secrets'. If they dare to hurt clients and they find out, they won't work with me again, and I'm finished. No matter what you take from Hensley's room, It’s not worth the price.”

Levy tends to agree with her.He thought back to the surveillance video of Kostas leaving Hensley's room on Saturday night.She looked relaxed, without any sign of fear or apprehension; she certainly didn't look like someone fleeing a murder scene, accidental or not.

He spent another half an hour asking her, went over her statement several times, and asked a few related questions along the lines of her answers, such as what did she need the luggage bag for change of clothes in the room) and if she saw anyone in the hallway when she left (just some normal party drunks coming and going).He jotted down the nanny's name and phone number for further evidence collection, when someone tapped on the other side of the two-way mirror.

Levi said goodbye to Kostas, leaving her alone, and went into the observation room next door.He found that apart from Martin and a patrolman named Daly, there was also a strange woman, and his attention was suddenly attracted by her.

He could tell at a glance whether the other party was Lian Jiazi.Those who devote a lot of energy to practicing bare-handed fighting will get used to keeping themselves still, relaxed and unremitting all the time. Such people have a straight back, let the center of gravity of the whole body be evenly distributed, and have empty hands for defense from time to time.The woman was all fit for size, and she was in excellent shape, with lean muscles clearly visible under the silk blouse and pencil skirt.She has a golden-brown complexion, a chiseled nose, and black hair pulled back into a simple ponytail.

"Levy, this is Lila Rashid, Deputy District Attorney," Martin said. "Ms. Rashid, this is Detective Levi Abrams."

"Nice to meet you, officer," Rush said, stepping forward to shake his hand. "I have long admired your name."

"I'm afraid I can't retaliate."

"I haven't been at the ADA for long - I just started in March."

"Have you accepted the Hensley case?" he asked. "We don't seem to be able to provide you with any reliable evidence yet."

"Are you sure?" She looked at Daly.

Daly cleared his throat and said to Levi: "The police officers searched Kostas' residence, but found no stolen items, but found a shoebox behind the closet under the bathroom sink, with a pile of broken boxes beside it. There were some unlabeled glass vials in there, and the field test detected flunitrazepam. The stuff was sent to the laboratory for a confirmatory test, but it didn't look good."

Startled, Levi turned to the two-way mirror.On the other side of the glass, Kostas sat in a chair with his head in his hands.

"Are you going to arrest her now, or leave her alone?" Rush asked.

"That doesn't make sense." Levi said, speaking more to himself.

But Rashid responded: "What's wrong with that? I've been reviewing the progress of this case. You got her fingerprints and DNA that almost belonged to her at the scene, and there's video evidence that she was in the The satchel was gone during the death window, and it is not impossible to say that the bag contained stolen items. Now a suspected murder weapon was found in her house. What do you want?"

"It's better to have a motive." Levi said unhappily.

"Please," Rush said, waving his hand contemptuously, "Sex workers kill clients, even if I don't consider robbery, I can think of half a dozen reasons. Have you ever thought about it? Maybe she stole things just to make you have these doubts?"

He'd thought about it, of course, but Rush had to use it against him, and it only made him angry.He glared at her.

"Levy," Martin, who was as sensible as usual, interjected, "do you have another entry point? Suicide, maybe?"

"A man who has just rolled the sheets and is about to present a breakthrough research. He didn't leave a suicide note and was 'robbed of his wealth'? Impossible." Levi shrugged. "But there may be someone else who killed Hensley and then blamed her."

"Oh, you want to come back to the trick of 'someone framed'?" Rush said with a chuckle. "Is that your specialty?"

Levi froze.Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Martin's frowning face, and Daly took a few steps back.

Rush had to keep smiling, it was so cold it was freezing.Breaking the silent silence, Martin said, "Okay, we'll go the other way, but Levi, you need to know that with all the evidence we have, we have to arrest Kostas. If you can't I can come."

"I can do it." Levi said hastily.When leaving the observation room, he desperately restrained himself from banging on the door.

Once back in the interrogation room, Kostas looked up; when she saw Levi's face, she straightened up, her face full of concern. "What's wrong?"

"When the police officers searched your residence, they found Luo Lemian under the sink in your bathroom."

"What?!" Her eyes widened. "That's impossible, I've never left that kind of thing in the house, let alone where Mason can reach—"

"I regret," said Levy, "Diana Costas, that you have been arrested for the murder of Stephen Hensley."