Chapter 615: Morbid Crisis (Part Four)_1

Upon considering the use of props to mask the odor, the next task for the two of them was to determine which cleaning company the Central Bank had hired and what type of cleaning agent they were using.

It wasn't difficult to identify the cleaning company. Their all-blue uniforms were indicative. Lex, operating the keyboard nearby, said: "Luthor Manor had also hired this company before. It's full name is Metropolitan Snow Mountain Cleaning Co., Ltd., it's the largest cleaning company in the metropolis, with over 1,800 employees..."

"Here, this is their information. I hacked into their internal database and accessed their recent business data. According to these records, the Central Bank reserved a glass curtain wall cleaning service on March 18th."

Bruce came before the screen and looked at the displayed information. The order showed that the Metropolitan Central Bank had booked a glass curtain wall cleaning service and fifty employees were involved in this service. Deducting technical staff and drivers, there were forty-three cleaners, all male.

The information showed that they issued three vehicles, each with four large toolboxes, one of which contained all the cleaning agents, but did not specify the particular brand.

Having found their procurement order, Lex continued operating on the computer screen. He said, "The Pyro brand cleaner raw material, symbolized by a blue bear head, thus also known as the Blue Bear Cleaner. The Snow Mountain Company has been using this cleaner for over a decade."

"Cleaning agents specifically for cleaning glass curtain walls aren't available as finished products. After purchasing the cleaning agent raw materials, they need to mix and adjust the ratio themselves. I am currently checking their procurement details..."

He then continued working on the computer and remarked, "Their formula is a secret, but I can find the approximate chemical formula – it definitely has an odor, but I'm not sure if it can cover up the smell of blood."

Bruce glanced at the composition on the screen and said, "These ingredients mixed together will definitely produce a smell. Many of the chemical factories under the Wayne Family's name produce raw materials for cleaning agents. However, if the bottle is well sealed, the smell won't leak."

"This is easy to solve. Just need to create some accidents, break a few bottles and let the smell linger in the van, or just sprinkle the cleaner on cloth rags or wipes in advance. The smell will stay for a long time. Keep it in the same van and it can mask smells during transportation," Lex proposed.

Bruce gave him a passing glance, his eyes saying "why are you so skilled at this?", to which Lex confidently responded with the same expression, the meaning being "takes one to know one".

The two of them reviewed all the surveillance videos again, attempting to analyze which toolbox would be the one hiding the corpse. Once they found this toolbox, they could find who moved it, and that person would likely be the murderer.

Out of the eight large toolboxes, two had their lids open and held relatively few items, with footage showing the contents inside, thus they were ruled out. The remaining six toolboxes were completely sealed and looked exactly alike.

There were many blind spots in the Central Bank's surveillance coverage. Half of the very important ground floor hall was covered. More treacherously, there was no surveillance at the elevator on the ground floor, meaning that once the boxes were moved to the elevator, it was impossible to distinguish which box entered which elevator and where it went.

After twenty minutes of discussion, Bruce and Lex repeatedly recalculated the people, the boxes, and their movements. They were only able to narrow it down to three suspicious boxes, none of which had the moving and using scenes recorded.

Eventually, while looking frame by frame at the surveillance footage, they discovered one box whose frame differed from the others.

The surveillance footage showed that one cleaner, pushing one of the boxes, was suddenly stopped by a woman in a corridor.

The surveillance footage only captured their feet and the bottom of the box, no faces, and recorded no sound of their conversation. The cleaner and the box appeared normal, but the shoes worn by the woman were different from those of the bank staff.

Lex found a promotional video of the Central Bank online. All of the female staff dressed the same, wearing professional suits, even their shoes looked identical. The woman in the picture, however, was not wearing the grey round-toed high heels of the bank staff, but black pointed high heels.

With the style of these shoes in mind, Lex found the brand of them. They were Prada's current season products, very costly, even requiring a reservation. In other words, an ordinary female bank employee could not afford these shoes. Those who could were definitely either wealthy or noble.

Following this lead, Bruce and Lex inferred that this woman probably wasn't a bank employee, but a boss coming to do business.

So, Lex started checking the bank's large transactions on the day. He found that since the end of February, the Central Bank had been following a major transaction. The transacting parties were Pyro Chemical Material Production Co., Ltd. and Snow Mountain Cleaning Co., Ltd. Pyro had a large loan that was personally approved by the bank president.

The cold light of the computer shone on Lex's face, casting his red hair in an eerie purple shade. After concentrating for quite a while, he straightened up and looked at Bruce: "Now there's good news and bad news."

"Start with the bad news." Bruce interrupted Lex.

"Good news is, I identified the woman, she is the boss of Pyro Company, and she came to the bank building today to talk business with the bank's president."

"However, the bank manager has already been murdered, so her business deal probably fell through." Bruce said, "She should have seen one of the toolboxes, and they talked for more than 30 seconds. If there was anything unusual with the toolbox, she should have noticed it, can we get in touch with her now?"

"That's the bad news." Lex turned around and looked at the screen, "She is the second victim."

Lex turned back and pressed a button, and a picture appeared on the screen. It showed a middle-aged woman with light makeup. But Bruce and Lex had seen her other side in the news, she was cut open in the chest and abdomen, her ears cut off, and a signal receiver put in its place.

Bruce paused for a moment, then said, "The killer is directing our attention."

He turned around, and looked at Lex, where both saw the same message in each other's eyes.

"Professor Shiller once said..." Lex began to pace in place, saying, "The real serial killer would deliberately leave various clues to guide the investigator's focus, to make the investigators notice what he wants them to notice."

"What does he want us to notice?" Bruce asked a question, not for an answer, because after a moment he answered his own question: "The first victim was a bank manager, the second victim was the boss of Pyro Company, and they both were in negotiations for a deal."

"What exactly is this transaction between the bank, Pyro Company and Snow Mountain Company? And why did the killer murder the leaders of two parties involved?" Lex narrowed his eyes and asked, "If the killer is directing our attention to what is behind this transaction, then, should we focus on this part as well?"

"Professor Shiller also said that when a murderer guides an investigator's attention, it is not purposeless, they often want to reveal some truth through the discovery of their motives by the investigators. It could be some grievance, or it could simply be their tragic experiences and feelings of hate, or perhaps just the murderer's own understanding of some event." Bruce recalled.

"In other words, there might be hidden information behind this transaction?" Lex stopped pacing and began to think right there.

"Generally, ordinary murder suspects use all sorts of methods to eliminate clues, so that investigators cannot discover them."

"But serial killers are exactly the opposite. They deliberately leave clues to guide the investigators' attention. Thus, following their lead when investigating serial killings may not necessarily be a bad thing; it may allow us to uncover their motive for killing." Bruce said before he turned and headed towards the door cup saying:

"I'm going to investigate the bank, Snow Mountain Company, and Pyro Company, to see if there are any issues there, and you…" Bruce stopped and looked back at the door, and then said: "Keep communicating with the police, get the information on the second case, also, keep an eye on the boss of Snow Mountain Company, he could well be the third victim..."

With that, Bruce left, and Lex pulled up another interface on his screen. It displayed the police investigation results, and the only useful piece of information was the timeline provided by witnesses.

The last one to see the bank manager was the security guard near his residential area.

On the afternoon of April 2nd at 6 pm, the bank manager drove to his residence. His family didn't live in this city, so he lived alone, and he never came out again. On the April 3rd, his body was found on the street in front of the bank.

There were no cameras near the street where the residential area was located. The patrolling security guards couldn't provide any clues about suspicious persons. Even in the two nearby blocks, no one noticed anything suspicious. Therefore, this clue was broken, so Bruce and Lex shifted their focus to what happened in the bank building.

Soon, Lex received the timeline of the second victim from the police, but there was a very strange point.

According to the police data, the last witness who saw the female boss said that he saw her near the president's office on the 16th floor at 1 pm, and then she disappeared.

But, the surveillance footage that Lex and Bruce had just seen showed that at 1:10 pm, the female boss stopped the cleaner in the hallway.

That is to say, the cleaner who was pushing the cart was actually the last witness. However, none of the cleaners' testimonies mentioned this.

In other words, Bruce and Lex's conjecture may be correct; the killer is among the cleaners. After discarding the body of the first victim, he killed the second one on the spot.

Lex looked down at the data transmitted from the police. It showed that the second victim's body was found on the street outside of Pyro Company's building.