The Last Killer

The group brawl under the black walnut tree was finally dismissed because no one involved was caught. Of course, the state university, which was devastated by the campus murder, had no time to deal with such a small matter. Violation.

Now the focus of the students' attention is no longer on Lei Zhe, but on Quentin, the son of the police chief of the city bureau, who has worked tirelessly as an unofficial spokesperson, revealing the details of the investigation process of the case that he obtained by using his identity. , Release it to the people around you bit by bit.

"The police have enough evidence to suspect that this homicide is closely related to the one in Forest Park five months ago, and the murderer may be the same person."

"The stray bouquet of roses found at the Forest Park murder scene, and the rose petals found at this murder scene, are deliberate marks left by the murderer—you know, many serial killers like to leave marks on the scene of the murder or on the body of the victim. Place unique marks, such as 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramírez's inverted pentagram."

"Serial? Yes, there are only two victims found so far. According to the police's standards, the 'Rose Killer' can't be considered a qualified serial killer, but as long as he hasn't been caught, he will definitely strike again. When there are more than three victims, he can be honorably upgraded."

"His target? According to the criminal profile made by experts, the murderer has so far targeted people of color and homosexuals. The way of killing shows the psychological tendency of hatred and venting anger. Therefore, he is very likely to be an extreme criminal. Racist and anti-gay."

"Speaking of which," a boy in the audience interrupted suddenly, "Didn't Clyde and Colin have another fight yesterday? It became a sadomasochism movie that hates extreme love, which is popular now."

Everyone laughed at this harsh taunt.

Only Lei Zhe frowned and murmured to Li Biqing: "In Latin customs, you can't speak nonsense if there are omens, as it will bring bad luck."

Li Biqing said in a low voice: "Our country also has a similar saying—one sentence becomes a prophecy." He said the last word in Chinese, Lei Zhe glanced at him, and seemed to vaguely understand the meaning of the word.

As it turned out, it wasn't just an ominous premonition. Just No. 14 days after the murder, another campus murder shocked the entire city of Portland.

The first person to be discovered at the murder scene this time was a girl who loves morning exercises. When she was jogging on the lakeside between the campus and the forest park, she was so frightened by the floating corpses on the water near the shore that she passed out.The police received the call and salvaged the corpse soaked overnight. After identification, they found that it was another student at the State University.

In the autopsy room of the city police station, forensic doctor Doug dragged out a body bag from the freezer, placed it on the autopsy table, and unzipped the bag, revealing the body of a young red-haired male inside. On his big toe, the deceased's name and date of birth are written in black ink: "Colin Miravich, 1993.5.1".

"Poor kid, he just celebrated his 20th birthday." Policewoman Amanda's eyes were flushed.

Standing in the room were two federal agents wearing FBI badges on their chests. Tia, a female agent with beautiful light blond curly hair, said to Sergeant Trivey with a gloomy face: "The third victim—we have reason to believe that After Daredevil, Oregon has another serial killer."

Sergeant Trivey looked haggard, as if he had aged several years in the past half month.He stared at the childish and bloodless face, and sighed: "I know this kid, he is my son Quentin's classmate, they are good friends...Doug, tell me what you found Bar."

The middle-aged forensic doctor wearing glasses nodded and said: "Same as the previous corpse, he died of excessive blood loss caused by internal organ rupture. The chest, abdomen, lower back, buttocks, and thighs were all stabbed with sharp instruments, and the wounds were irregular. , caused before death, the deepest wound was the anus, which was pierced by a sharpened branch 3 inches in diameter and 1.2 feet long, penetrating the intestines and reaching the stomach. Unlike the previous corpse, the throat of the deceased Thick branches were also inserted into the chest, and the tongue and esophagus were torn. The rose petals found at the scene were initially identified as the same species as those found at the scene of the previous murder."

"Are there any suspects?" Tia asked Trivi.

"There is one, who is also a student at the State University, named Clyde. Before the incident, more than one witness saw him having a serious conflict with Colin, and publicly threatened that Colin would be the next to die."

"Does he have a record?"

"Drag racing, drunk driving, and brawls were not recorded. In addition, according to the reflections of students and teachers, he often made some extreme racist and anti-homosexual remarks."

"Very well, racism, sexual orientation discrimination, plus a liar, he is eligible to run for Congress!" Tia sarcastically said, "Why haven't he been arrested?"

The black sheriff hesitated, and said: "He is the eldest son of the Brandy family and the first heir of the Brandy consortium. His father is a member of the Senate, and the previous illegal acts were caused by the interference of the Brandy representative. been wiped out of the case."

"So the city police backed down, didn't they? Because the suspect's father's business had deposited a large sum of dollars into the state government's tax account?" Tia raised her chin contemptuously, "If you dare not do it, let the FBI do it. She turned to her assistant: "Arrest him! Don't forget to read his rights."

Clyde?Brandy's arrest triggered a turbulent tide of public opinion, and various TV stations and newspapers broadcast and published it as headline news.The apparent strength and weakness between the victim from the middle class and the suspect from the billionaire family quickly turned the tide of public opinion to one side, saying that the second generation of rich officials and second generations should be severely punished for their crimes, and that the police must not succumb to the powerful The hustle and bustle of the day.

No matter how the young suspect proves his innocence and criticizes the police for dereliction of duty, he seems so weak in this wave of public opinion, and even seriously affects the reputation of MP Brandy and his status in the parliament.The case is still under trial, but the media has already given Clyde?Brandy was convicted, calling him a "campus serial killer," a "rose killer."

In the rented apartment, Li Biqing put down the newspaper in his hand, and hesitantly glanced at the federal agent drinking black tea—the latter seemed to be addicted to Lapsang Souchong recently.

"What do you want to say?" Leo asked.

Li Biqing hesitated again and again, and whispered: "I think... Clyde may not be the murderer."

"Why? Do you have evidence?" Leo put down his teacup.

"No, but..."

"In other words, it's based on intuition?" Leo laughed. "The court will not accept a source of evidence called 'gut feeling', boy."

Li Biqing threw the newspaper aside a little discouraged, "I will find out the evidence."

"I don't allow you to intervene in the murder case, Li Biqing!" Leo warned him.

"Why? I'm not a minor, and you're not my parent. Speaking of which," the Chinese boy smiled maliciously, "As a brother-in-law, I should be considered half of your parent, right?"

"Because I'm a policeman." Leo replied unmoved, "If you insist on getting into trouble, I will suspend your class and lock you in the apartment!"

"Okay, you won." Li Biqing raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, "I promise not to meddle in my own business."

"I hope your promise works," Leo said. "Otherwise I'll inform Molly—you know she called again yesterday to find out if you're getting used to life here. Almost every two or three days, I never I've never seen her care about someone so much, if you dare to make her sad, I'll put a gun in your heart—I'm serious."

"—Although the feasibility is not high, the mentality is indeed serious." Li Biqing said softly, "I swear it will be effective."

"Good boy." The future brother-in-law who was several years older said to him in the tone of an elder.

After the federal agents thought the matter was over, a familiar number called his cell phone. At that time, he was in a Japanese garden in downtown Portland with Rob and several colleagues from the FBI's Oregon branch. Dine in a Japanese restaurant.

"Where are you? I have something urgent to talk to you." Li Biqing said on the phone.

After reporting the address, Leo asked, "What's so urgent, do you need me to find you?"

"Wait for me for a while." The other party hastily finished and hung up the call.

Twenty minutes later, the figure of the Chinese boy appeared in the Japanese restaurant. Rob saw him and waved happily: "Hi, Bi Qing, here! I guessed it was you when Leo answered the phone in Chinese just now. Come and eat with us - waiter, add a seat!"

Sitting down on the newly added tatami mat, the Chinese boy calmed down after running around, and politely greeted the agents who introduced Rob one by one: "Hello, it's the first time we meet, please take care of me."

"What's the matter, do you want to talk alone?" Leo asked.

"No, there's no need to avoid everyone." Li Biqing took out two small transparent plastic bags from his bag and put them on the dining table.There are some withered flowers and residual petals in the plastic bag.

"What's this?" said Leo. "It looks like a rose."

"It's not a rose, it's a rose."

Rob chimed in: "Is there a difference, it's all the same anyway."

"No, it's not the same. This is Rosamultiflora." Li Biqing explained seriously with the botanical name, "It belongs to the Rosaceae family like roses, but it is indeed a different species."

"Then?" The silver-haired Dr. Claremont, a criminal psychologist sitting directly opposite him, waited patiently for him to continue.

"They come from two murder scenes, this one," he pointed to a plastic bag containing a dead flower, "picked up in the grass at the first murder scene I found; and this one," he pointed to Another bag of residual petals, "I salvaged from the lake near where Colin's body was found." He paused, and said quickly before Leo's face changed, "I don't know that the murder scene in Forest Park Is it this kind of flower, but I can be sure that the police have biased their definition of important evidence in the latter two cases."

"I still don't understand." Rob looked puzzled. "It doesn't matter whether the murder left a rose or a rose? It doesn't matter to the detection, and the suspect has already been captured."

"I don't know how to express it, my English is not very good..." Li Biqing considered the words: "This is, uh, just like different images in literature create different moods... It can be seen that the murderer is different. To put it simply—it may not be appropriate to say this, but I can’t think of a more appropriate one—roses represent pure femininity, and roses represent masculinity with partial femininity. If you use human metaphors, roses are beautiful women. Qiangwei is a beautiful boy."

Dr. Claremont's deep eyes narrowed behind the lens, as if his sensitive nerves were touched by something in an instant...

"Ha, it's really mysterious, but it doesn't seem to be an objective theory?" Rob laughed disapprovingly. "This is very interesting, boy, let's continue to play detection games."

Li Biqing showed a frustrated expression. He also knew that this kind of understanding was too far-fetched, and it could only be understood but not expressed in words. It was really not strong evidence that the murderer did not only have hatred when he committed the crime.

"No, what he said made me suddenly have some inspirations... wait, I have to catch them!" Dr. Claremont murmured, "The murderer's psychological projection..." He suddenly shot up: "I I need to go back to the Criminal Evidence Division!"

"What?" Rob asked as he hurriedly left.

"Do another spectral analysis for the murder weapon!" Dr. Claremont said without looking back.

After looking at each other with Tia and several other agents, Rob said inexplicably: "Leave him alone, let's eat. Leo—"

His partner jumped up and pulled the Chinese boy up: "You take your time, we are going to take a step ahead!"

He was almost dragged back into the car, and Leo asked angrily: "What do you want to do! Li Biqing, I think I have warned you—"

"Yes, I promised, but I broke my promise, that's wrong." The Chinese boy admitted his mistake sincerely, "But I can't just stand by like this. Colin is someone I know, although he can't reach the height of a friend, But we talked, and I remember the vivid look on his face, the light in his eyes as he spoke, and then he suddenly turned into a battered, cold corpse—I had to do something, Li Oh, I know I can't do much with my meager strength—but I have to do something! Leo, can you understand how it feels?" His brown eyes widened in an almost pleading look Looking at the federal agent, "If you can understand, you can understand the pain I have been unable to sleep at night for the past few days..."

Leo froze.In these words, he felt a sense of sadness that pointed directly to the depths of his soul, especially the last sentence, which made him feel as if he was suffering from a disease.

He slowly let go of his hand, with a sad expression on his face, "I can tell by looking in your eyes that this is not a person who gives up lightly..." He smiled wryly, "It's the same as me."

Li Biqing breathed a sigh of relief, and reassured: "I know you are worried about my personal safety, and I promise to be sensible and not put myself in danger."

"The credibility of your guarantee has been greatly reduced, and I will not believe it easily again." The black-haired federal agent said unmoved, "As you wish, Dr. Claremont has gone to re-examine the murder weapon, I don't know Why was he moved by your words, and I'm not sure what doubts he will find out, but your dangerous actions stop here-I don't want to imprison you, but if there is another time, I will charge you with obstructing law enforcement. You're handcuffed to the police station, I swear!"

Li Biqing heard from the cold and resolute tone that this was not just a threat, Leo was doing what he said.Facing strong pressure from national law enforcement officers, he could only nod obediently, "Okay, I won't interfere again."