Chapter 36 Chapter 34 Santa Marta Dormitory

It was now exactly an hour after the murderer had committed the murder.Paula could still feel him in the room, like breathing in some smoky smell, metallic noise, but couldn't see it.When she talks about serial murders with people, she is always very rational.That's easy, but it's in her cozy, carpeted office, in an elegant setting.It's also how she often works.But now it's completely different. Now that she walked into a room, she had to be careful not to step on the blood on the floor. It was not easy to analyze the murderer here.To avoid damaging the crime scene, the main reason not to walk around here is that these blood stains can easily ruin a good pair of shoes forever.

The same is true for the soul. Chief Troy hadn't visited a crime scene in person for three years.Paula guessed that he was going out in person this time to impress the Vatican authorities.In fact he really had nothing left to ask of his Italian boss, the whole case was wrapped up. He went ahead, then Paula, and the others stayed in the hallway, uncomfortable looking at the void ahead.Paula heard Dante and Antony exchanging ideas, and they said a few words.She thought they weren't quite talking about the law, but now she had to pay more attention to what was inside the house than what was outside.

Paula stands in the doorway and lets Troy go about her business.The first is crime photography: from every corner of the room, from the top of the body, then from every angle, and finally every object that the investigators think may be related to the crime.When all of this was over, the flash had to flash over the scene more than 70 times, and the intermittent flashes bleached everything around into a very unreal scene. Paula took a deep breath, trying to ignore the taste of blood and the feel of her own tongue.She closed her eyes and mentally counted backwards from 100 to 1, very slowly, trying to match the rhythm of her counting to her slowing down heartbeat.From the rapid heartbeat of 100 to 50, the deceleration is very smooth, and now it is no longer like a heavy drum sound.

Paula opened her eyes. Cardinal Gallardo Crades Cardoso, 71, lies sprawled on his bed.Cardoso was tied at the head of the carved bed with two towels tightly tied.His cardinal hat was still on his head, tilted to one side, making him look comically stubborn. Paula slowly and silently recited the words of Weber's mentor: "Analyze his work and you will know what an artist is." She repeated it several times, moving her lips lightly, knowing that these words no longer meant anything to her.The words were etched in her mind, like she put a stamp into the inkpad and stamped it on a piece of paper, again and again, until there was no more inkpad, until the stamp was dry.

"Let's get started," Paula said loudly, taking a small tape recorder from her bag. Troy didn't look at her, he was busy collecting evidence, studying the shape of each pool of blood. Paula started to record, strictly following the method she learned in the FBI Kundick, and reasoned immediately after careful observation.These conclusions seem to be enough to rediscover the truth of the matter. Observation: The deceased's hands were tied in his private room, there was no trace of violence, and the furniture and other items had not been moved. Inference: Kaloski used trickery to gain access to the room.The victim was then quickly and silently captured.

Observation: There was a blood-soaked towel on the floor, looking crumpled. Theory: Kaloski likes to stuff a towel into his victims' mouths to stop them from screaming, and then removes the towel so he can, in the gruesome way, cut off their tongues. Observation: We hear a scream. Inference: It is likely that Cardozo called out when Karoski took the towel out of the victim's mouth, and Karoski ended up cutting Cardoso's tongue and then the eyes. Observation: Victim's eyes are still present, and his tongue has been shredded.The job appears to have been done under a lot of pressure, with blood splattered everywhere and the victim's hand still in place.

Inference: Kaloski's method of killing victims begins with torturing the victim's body, and then proceeds to dissect, cut out the tongue, goug out the eyes, and cut off the hands. Paula opened the door and asked Anthony to come in.Anthony's face twitched when he saw the horrible sight, but he didn't look away.Paula rewinds the tape recorder, and together they both listen to the last bit of Paula's recording. "Do you think he has a special sequence when performing the killing ritual?" "I don't know, as a priest I have the most say: the clergy use their voices to carry out the priesthood. The eyes are not the most important thing to a priest's work, because they are not directly involved in major duties, but, their But the hands are crucial: a priest's hands are holy, no matter what he does with them."

"What do you want to tell me?" "Even Kaloski, who is like a devil, thinks his hands are still holy. During his priesthood, he was no different from other priests, a pure priest. Maybe it is absurd, but it is true. " Paula shuddered.It made her sick and horrible that a person could communicate with God with such audacity.She tries to tell herself that this is one reason she refuses to acknowledge the existence of God, who has become a tyrant sitting on a cloud of cotton.But if you think about the horrors a little more, leaving out people like Kaloski who pretend to work for God, the effect on Pola is quite different.Paula even thought about God for a few seconds: if she was in God's place, she must have felt betrayed.She misses Pontillo very much now, and thinks that if he is here, maybe he can give some reasonable explanations to these twisted souls.

"God." Anthony shrugged, not knowing what to say to Paula.Then he walked out of the room, and Paula turned the tape recorder back on. Observation: Victim is wearing robes, fully open.Underneath is a cotton underwear and panties.The underwear was torn open, as if stabbed open with a sharp instrument.There are several stab wounds on the chest, written in one word: EGO TE ABSOLVO. Conclusion: In this case, Kaloski's ritual of torturing his victims involved carving with a knife.Tongues cut off, eyes gouged out, hands cut off.The word EGO TE ABSOLVO was also present at the scene of the first victim, Cardinal Potigny. According to the photos Dante provided us, it was also present at the site of Cardinal Robaya.This is an unusual variable.

Observation: Blood is everywhere.Also splashed on the wall.There was a partial fingerprint mark on the floor next to the bed, which also appeared to be blood. Conclusion: The scene at this scene is very strange.I don't know if his way of killing has changed or because he is adapting to the new environment.His usual tricks can be seen everywhere, and... Paula hits the "stop" button, something doesn't fit, something just isn't right. "How is it, boss?" "It's getting worse. I've had fingerprints taken on the door, and the bedside table, and there are fingerprints on the bedside, but not anywhere else. There are a lot of half-prints, but I think maybe only one is Kaloski's."

As he spoke, he pressed a plastic card against the head of the bed to take his fingerprints, where he found half of his index finger.He took out a digital comparison of Kaloski's identity transparencies, which Anthony collected after Kaloski escaped from St. Matthew's Institute. "Something like, a lot of similarities, at least I think so. This upward line is very characteristic, and this tiny..." Troy seemed to be speaking to himself rather than to Paula. Paula knew that was what Troy would look like if he recognized a good fingerprint.He is well known in this field and is an expert.Watching him work, Paula couldn't help feeling that it was a slow process of transforming a criminal expert into a corrupt bureaucrat. "Nothing else?" "No, no hair, no fibrous tissue, nothing. This man is like a ghost. If he had been wearing gloves, I would think that Cardoso was killed by a ghost without a body." "It wasn't some ghost that cut his windpipe." Troy held his breath and looked at the corpse from a distance, as if thinking about his subordinate's words, or pondering his own conclusions. "No, no, that's for sure." Paula walks out of the room, leaving Troy to work inside alone.But she also knew Troy wouldn't find out.Kaloski was fully prepared and, despite some pressure, he left nothing behind.But some doubts just now were still in Paula's mind.She looked around, Serin had already arrived, and there was another person beside her.The man was short in stature, very thin, and looked fragile, but he looked sharp and had a sharp nose.Serling walks up to Paula and introduces her to the only judge in the Vatican: Magvallon.As Paula thought, he showed no sympathy: he was like a thin yellow vulture hiding under his jacket. The judge signed a document allowing the body to be removed.The body will be removed secretly.The two Vatican police officers standing guard at the gate have now changed their clothes and are now dressed in black overalls and rubber gloves.They'd clean up the room after Troy and his team left.Anthony was sitting in a chair at the other end of the corridor, quietly reading his prayer book.When Paula finished explaining things to Sellin and the judge, she came and sat next to Anthony.Anthony suddenly had a feeling of déjà vu. "Great, Paula, now you know more cardinals." Paula smiled, a sad smile.How many things have changed in the past 24 hours, from the time when the two of them waited in the Pope's office to the present, there have been many subtle changes in their relationship.But they made no progress with Kaloski. "I thought these terrible jokes were Deputy Inspector Dante's specialty." "Oh, yes, I'm just borrowing it temporarily." Paula opened and closed her mouth.She wanted to talk to Anthony about how she felt, what was bothering her about Kaloski's killing ceremony.But she wasn't sure what was bothering her herself, so she decided to wait until she had a clearer idea before telling him. But afterwards Paula knew what a big mistake this decision was.