Case Upgrade

"No, it's not that I'm a step late. I'm just too late."

Roan wrinkled his nose and smelled a faint scent in the room. He walked to the kitchen with a gloomy expression. After walking around twice, he looked at the confused Lacey and said,

"Call the Trace Inspection Team. We need to investigate this place carefully."

"why?"

Lacey obediently took out her phone. After dialing the number, she subconsciously asked, "What did you find?"

Roan's expression was very ugly. Hearing Lacey's question, he grabbed the door of the fridge in the kitchen and pulled it open.

Pieces of frozen meat were neatly placed in the fridge, and on the top of the fridge, a female head with open eyes was quietly looking at Lacey, who was opposite the fridge.

"Holy sh*t!"

Lacey was so frightened that she almost threw her phone away.

"What did you say?"

The person on the other end of the phone was very unhappy. Why was she cursing at him the moment she called?

...

Half an hour later...

"That Joseph can be temporarily ruled out as a suspect."

Mona's crisp voice came from the other end of the phone. She said calmly amidst the tapping of the keyboard, "According to the information, Mr. Joseph is a freelance journalist. In recent months, he has been involved in car accidents in New York Urban area. In the two hours before and after Sabrina's kidnapping, he had been arguing with the program producers at the NBC television station and had no time to commit the crime."

"Ok."

Roan nodded and continued to ask, "What did the boss of Serena's newspaper say? They said that they had issued an announcement saying that they had been fired because Serena had been missing for a week for no reason. During this period, did they not send anyone to look for Serena?"

Hearing Roan's question, Mona, who had already learned of Serena's death, said angrily, "The newspaper boss said that they called Serena for a week, but no one picked up, so they fired her. As for going to Serena's house to look for her…The boss of the newspaper said that they were busy with work and did not have time to send someone to Serena's house. Moreover, there were quite a few freelance reporters like Serena who would quit as they please. There were also quite a few who directly lost contact with each other. Their newspaper office had long been used to it."

"Alright then."

"Thank you for your hard work, Mona."

After hanging up the phone, Roan realized that while he was making the call, Lacey had asked the patrol officer to record Joseph's contact information and home address before chasing him away.

Looking at the fridge beside her, Roan walked over to Lacey and whispered, "I'm sorry, Lacey. I didn't mean to scare you."

Roan was also shocked. He had only smelled a strong smell of blood in the fridge, so he had determined that the murderer had killed the female reporter and stuffed her into the fridge.

After all, Lacey was a professionally trained FBI agent. Seeing a corpse was not a big deal.

However, he never expected the murderer to dismember the victim and place it neatly inside.

He even placed her head at the top.

"It's not your fault."

Hearing Roan's apology, Lacey shook her head and said, "I'm just thinking, based on the corpse, it doesn't seem like the murderer killed someone for the first time. How many other women have been killed by the murderer before this?"

"..."

Roan was silent. He could not answer the question.

America had its own national conditions. It was very rich in serial killers, and most of them targeted women. No one knew how many women died at the hands of these perverts every year.

Just as Roan was thinking about what to say to comfort Lacey, Agent Neil from the Trace Inspection Department walked over and handed Roan a small evidence bag. He said in a serious tone, "We found fingerprints that don't belong to Serena in the bathroom. We've sent them back to the laboratory for comparison. There should be news soon.

"In addition, these are the two credit cards found in the bathroom. After comparison, we determined that they are most likely not the victim's, and we did not find the victim's credit card."

"Alright, thank you."

After taking the evidence bag, Agent Neil turned around and left.

Roan looked at the two credit cards with an ugly expression. Lacey seemed to have understood something and said hesitantly,

"They…"

"If nothing goes wrong, something must have happened to the owner of the credit card."

Roan took out his cellphone again and called Mona.

"Mona, check the credit cards numbered **3 and **8. Find out who the owners of these two credit cards are."

"Ok."

There was the sound of typing on the other end of the phone, and on the other end of the phone were Luo An and Lacey, who were looking at each other speechlessly.

"Found it."

Three minutes later, Mona's voice came from the other end of the phone."

"The name of the owner of the two credit cards is…"

Without waiting for Mona's introduction, Lacey interrupted her and asked,"

"Their names are not important. They are two women, right?"

"... Yes."

Mona felt that her throat was a little dry, but her heart was beating faster and faster, and her mind was getting angrier.

Why did the murderer always kill women? Why?

As a man, Roan looked at the information of the owners of the two credit cards that Mona had sent him. He saw that one of them lived in Brooks. After pondering for two seconds, he called Ryder.

"What's wrong, Roan?"

Ryder, who was investigating the information about the 'Female Corpses in the Lake Serial Murder Case', was puzzled when he received a call from Roan. He asked, "Did you find a clue to the serial murder case?"

"I did find clues to the serial killer case, but it's not the serial killer case in your hands."

Roan's words confused Ryder, but Ryder still understood Roan's arrangements.

"You're going to the apartment in Lower Brooks District, right?"

Ryder nodded and repeated Roan's arrangement. "If there's a body inside, I'll call you immediately and contact the Trace Inspection Department, right?"

"That's right."

Hearing Roan's affirmation on the other end of the phone, Ryder expressed that it was a small matter and then hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Roan stopped Lacey, who was searching the room with Agent Neil from the Trace Inspection Team, and said, "Let's go back to the headquarters first, Lacey. This matter needs to be reported to the team leader, Augustus."

"OK."

...

Investigation Team No. 5, 8 PM.

Mr. Darren was still sitting in the conference room, waiting for news from his wife Sabrina.

It had been 14 hours since Sabrina went missing.

In the team leader's office, Augustus was sitting on a chair, his right hand pressing against his forehead. He looked at Roan and Lacey with a complicated gaze.

"So, you mean that the 'Missing and Kidnapping of a Rich Female' case has escalated into a new serial murder case?"

"Actually, I'm not sure yet."

"We don't know if the owners of those two credit cards are alive or dead. Ryder went to the apartment in Brooks to investigate…"

Ding, ding, ding!

Halfway through his sentence, the phone rang. Roan had just pressed the answer button when Ryder's standard loud voice came from the other end of the phone.

"F*ck! Roan! You will never guess what happened here! There was a huge pile of meat in the fridge! And..."

"Okay, contact the Trace Inspection Department."

Before Ryder could finish, Roan calmly interrupted him and hung up the phone. He looked up and said to Augustus, "It's a serial murder case now."

Augustus was speechless.