Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen

Puller quickly sketched out the main floor and basement. On each page of the loose-leaf book, he marked his name, rank, date, weather, lighting conditions on site, etc., and marked the direction with a compass.While drawing the iconic objects and other things in the room, he also marked their actual size. Cole waited for him to finish the sketch and asked, "Did the army teach you this move?" "The military taught me a lot." "Why do you say these killers came back to the scene, Puller?" "Take something, or put something back. I can't tell which."

Cole sighed in frustration. "Never thought that something like this would happen. He came back here and killed the police guarding the scene." Putting the sketch aside, Puller pulled a 35mm camera and tripod from his backpack, along with flashes and extension cords. Then he inserted what looked like a flashlight into a holster on his belt. "My guys have taken pictures," Kerr said. "I have to do it myself. As I said, we all have to follow our own procedures." "Okay. But our technical investigators are good, and we're willing to let you use what we have."

"Thank you very much. By the way, where is he? The investigation of the car site will not take so long." Cole goes to the window. "I'm really talking about Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here," she said. "Landry Monroe," Pooler said. "how do you know?" "I saw his name in the field notebook." "We all call him Thalan." "Tell me about him." "Twenty-four. Graduated from West Virginia University, majored in criminal justice, qualified as a computer programmer. Worked in the police department for two years." "How did he get his qualification certificate?"

"He developed a computer program for the state." "That's right." "That's a great program, Puller." "I didn't say it wasn't." "Come on, I can tell by the look on your face." "What is your purpose here?" "what?" "Your purpose." "Grab these guys, whoever they are," Cole replied grimly. "That's my goal as well. If we follow our mutual agreement and work well with each other, we have a much better chance of finding those criminals." They stared at each other for a moment in an unpleasant atmosphere.

Cole turned to the door.The man outside was bending over to rummage through the trunk of the car.Cole yelled at him, "Lan, get your stuff and come up here. Someone here is looking forward to working with you." She turned back toward Puller, pointing a finger at Lan outside. "Let's get one thing straight. He's still a kid. You can play with him, show him things, let him learn, but you can't destroy his self-confidence. After it's over, you'll leave West Virginia, I can't do it. I have to work with him, and he's the only technical detective here. Understand?"

Puller nodded: "Understood." Thirty seconds later, Landry Monroe came over, struggling with some bags and backpacks.He was a black man in a green hazmat suit.He stopped at the front door, put the various gear on the floor, put on shoe covers, and pulled on latex gloves.After signing in the on-site log book handed over by the police officer in charge of security duties, he entered the house. Monroe was not much taller than Cole, with narrow shoulders, stubby legs, and most of his weight on his stomach and hips.His head was shaved clean, and his wire-rim glasses fell almost to the tip of his nose.

Cole said, "Lan, meet CID Special Investigator John Pooler soon." Monroe smiled and looked up at Puller, who was thirty centimeters taller than him.They shook hands. "Nice to meet you, Investigator Puller." "Just call me Puller." He looked at the bags. "Your gear?" "yes." Cole asked, "Did you check out Larry's car?" Monroe nodded. "Did an initial search and found nothing. There was no blood in the car. I towed the car back to the bureau. I'll do a more thorough inspection of it next." Puller said, "Sheriff Cole said you've taken pictures of the scene. May I see the pictures?"

"Of course, my dear fellow." Monroe reached into the bag and rummaged.Puller looked at Cole with raised eyebrows.She shook her shoulders and smiled unnaturally. Monroe took out the camera, turned it on, and displayed a batch of photos he had taken through the flip-screen viewfinder. "Full-frame DSLR?" Puller said. "That's right. That's what they taught us to use in school. You see, I took three shots of each identical scene, one with something next to it as a frame of reference, one with a scale, and one with Up close, nothing works." "Good. How is the aperture set?"

Cole gave Pooler a sharp look.Puller pretended not to know. Monroe paid no attention to the glances they exchanged."F/16 for three feet or more. F/28 for close-ups," he says. Puller nodded approvingly. "What's your viewing angle?" "All photos are head-up shots." "Did you take the 360-degree overlay?" Monroe became a little overwhelmed, shook his head and said, "Oh, no." Puller glanced at Cole and saw that she was still staring at him intently, her hands clasped around her waist, her lips drawn tight.For a moment Pooler thought she might pull out the King Cobra again.

Puller said to Monroe, "No problem, that's just a military nitpicking thing. You know, I need someone who knows how to help me, Lan. And you obviously know how to handle a camera." "No problem," Monroe said, his spirits rising again. "I'd love to help." He pointed to the tripod and something else Puller had pulled out of his backpack. "Is this an extension cord for the flash?" he asked. Puller nodded. “We use it for fingerprints, tire marks, and tool marks. Using this extension cord keeps the exposure going.” "At what distance do you soldiers use it?" Monroe asked eagerly.

"The ideal distance is three feet, and at a forty-five-degree angle. Four sides, front, back, left, and right, take two pictures for each side." "What is the use of an external flash with an extension cord?" Puller replied: "You can avoid excess light affecting the frame. Otherwise, the top of the frame will be overexposed." "Great," Monroe said. Pointing to the bodies of the Reynolds family of four, Puller said: "Since they haven't been moved, we should take the exact faces. Shoot all sides, including the back of the body. The face, the wound and everything else. You need to take five pictures of the traces. You don’t need to use a scale to take pictures. The shape of the corpse spot, the gunpowder residue of the bullet, and the distribution of the impact point should all be photographed. Do you have a video camera?” Monroe nodded. "You can videotape it all, but don't expect detail clarity from it," Puller said. "A defendant's lawyer can get you out of the water on that one." Cole asked, "Have you ever met this ending?" "It happens to everybody," Puller said. Puller was about to set up his tripod to take a photo of the corpse when he stopped staring at the carpet beneath his feet.He knelt down on the tufted rug to examine it carefully. "Did you see anything?" Puller asked. Monroe and Cole approached.Monroe also knelt down to study the rug. "I'm not sure," he said, "it looks like an indentation." "A few indentations, to be precise. There are three in total, distributed in a triangle." Puller set up the tripod, placed it one meter away from these indentations, and then raised the tripod again, " Did you see it?" Monroe looked at the carpet, and so did Cole.The two of them were startled at the same time, and looked at the original mark again.Almost identical indentations. Cole said, "Someone set up a tripod here. Why?" Puller looked at the prints on the carpet, then at the line of corpses. "Sit in a row, on the sofa. In front of you is a tripod with a video camera on it." "They filmed the Reynolds family?" Kerr asked. Puller took several consecutive shots of the indentations in the carpet. "They're interrogating the Reynolds family."