Chapter 11 chapter Ten

The first murder finally happened "as scheduled".The day after the murder, as was usual procedure, Frank called the only person close to the deceased—her roommate—to inform her to come and identify the body. It was a woman named Irene who came to identify the body. She was not young anymore. Although she was still dressed like a girl in her twenties, no amount of makeup could conceal the passage of time on her body.She looked tense, clutching the straps of her backpack with both hands, looking precarious, and McCarthy began to worry about calling an ambulance for her later. When the forensic doctor lifted the shroud to reveal the face of the deceased, Irene covered her face with her hands and exclaimed in a low voice:

"Oh, God……" "Is it her?" The young police officer Frank asked from the side. She nodded repeatedly and began to sob softly, the tears leaving two black streaks on her face. "Are you sure, ma'am?" "Miss!" she corrected, "It's Stella, I'm sure, I went with her three days ago to get this beautiful blond hair... oh my god!" McCarthy's heart moved: "Miss Irene, you said her blond hair was dyed?" "Yes, it was the barber shop at the end of Knock Street three days ago—it's called 'Tuixi Bird Salon', yes, I remember that name, and the workmanship is good there, and the price is not expensive. . . . "

"What color was her hair?" McCarthy interrupted Eileen. "Black, like her eyes, black." Damn—McCarthy was a little annoyed that he didn't even think of lifting the dead man's eyelids to see the color of her eyes—blond hair, but a pair of black eyes, that's obviously not right.Now he knew why the killer chose them—he took a ballpoint pen and legal pad from the inside pocket of his suit, and on the page titled "DK (short for Dime Killer)" wrote "Black eyes, black hair".He closed the book, thought for a while, opened the book again and turned to that page again, wrote the word "Greek" next to "black eyes and black hair", and then put a big question mark next to it.

The forensic doctor covered the body again. Irene had stopped crying, but she still looked like she was about to collapse at any time. Frank supported her, and she continued to murmur in a low voice: "God, Jesus Christ..." "Miss, Miss Irene!" McCarthy called Irene's name. "Oh, sorry, officer." "I think it's time for us to move, and I have a few more questions for you." "Okay, officer." She hastily wiped the tears off her face, but that only made her face look worse. Frank helped the woman out of the mortuary, and while passing the bathroom, Erin went in and fixed her face, and came out with all traces of makeup gone from her face, making her look much better .Instead of taking her directly into the interrogation room, McCarthy had the young detective take the middle-aged woman into his office, which would have been out of order, but the detective didn't want a woman on the verge of a breakdown in the interrogation room That impersonal place—he knew that catching the Coin Killer before he locked down another victim depended entirely on what the woman in front of him could tell him.

"Are you ready, Miss Irene?" McCarthy sat in his seat, leaned forward, and put his hands together on the table.There was a tape recorder on the table, and Frank, who was sitting beside him, took out his PDA and was about to start recording the main points of the inquiry. "Yes, officer." The blond woman adjusted her sitting posture and smoothed her sideburn hair, signaling that she was ready. "Okay, let's start with your relationship with the deceased." McCarthy pressed the "record" button on the tape recorder, and the tape began to spin. "What is your relationship with Stella?"

"We were serving at the same restaurant, 'Jack's Choice Steakhouse', and I hit it off, and I happened to live alone, so I asked her if she would move in with me, and she thought it would be a good idea. I had no idea, so she came and lived in the apartment I rented, paying half of the rent." "So you are colleagues and roommates, how long have you lived together?" She tilted her head and thought for a while, then said, "It's been almost two years." "Where is she from? Do you know her full name?" "Her full name is Stella Saffirino. She doesn't talk much about her past. I only know that she is from Australia."

"Saffirino? Is that an Italian name? She doesn't look very Australian." "I don't know, Stella never talks about her family, I don't know if that's her real name, but it's on her driver's license. I asked about her parents, but she wouldn't Said she seemed to have a falling out with her family, I guess she ran away from home - but I don't quite believe what she said about Australia, you know, she doesn't have an accent like Australia , but I can't tell where." "So you can't contact her family either?" "yes."

"As far as you know, does she have any enemies locally? Has she been involved in anything? Or, has someone been harassing her?" "Harassing her? Officer, you can see what a beautiful girl she is. It's not an easy job to serve a restaurant, especially for a girl as beautiful as her-everyone who walks in the restaurant The bachelors want to sleep with her, the thugs pester her every day, they come into this restaurant because of her, and the manager turns a blind eye because of that - you know, none of those men are good, They come to take advantage of her every day, but Stella has a good way of dealing with them, and she rarely suffers——Officer, don't get me wrong, Stella is not that kind of woman, she never does that kind of thing for money, she Saying she's going to Hollywood, she's just stuck here temporarily, she'll leave as soon as she saves enough money, she's a good girl, who knows what will happen..." At this point, Irene covered her face and sobbed again, McCarthy had to hit the "pause" button.

The next step will be the most critical and the hardest part. It wasn't until Irene stopped sobbing that McCarthy turned on the recorder again and said in a gentle tone: "Miss Irene, we need to check your alibi. It's just a routine, okay? January 28th, Wednesday night, Where are you?" "I'm watching TV at home." "All night? All by yourself?" "Yes, Stella is out, I'm at home by myself." "Can someone prove you're home? Like a neighbor or something..." "No, we have nothing to do with our neighbors." "So... anyone calling? That's fine too,"

"Oh, yes, yes. My boyfriend called twice, one was at the end of the TV series at eight o'clock, the second one was quite late, I was already going to bed, it should be around twelve o'clock. "Irene reported her boyfriend's name and contact information, and McCarthy motioned Frank to write it down. "Do you know where Stella is and what she's doing?" "No, I don't know, we don't know much about each other's private lives. Oh, wait..." The blond woman seemed to remember something, "I think she's on a date. She worked the night shift, you know , where we live is not very peaceful, so if one of us works a late shift, we usually call the other after get off work and ask the other to drive to pick her up, but I didn't get a call from her that day. We don’t call when we’re being driven, and I think she’s got a drive that day, she’s probably on a date.”

"Dating? You mean, Stella has a boyfriend?" "I'm not sure, there's a man, but I've never seen it—oh my God, could it be that man..." "Tell us about that man." "Three weeks ago, Stella didn't let me drive to pick her up from get off work on several night shifts. I asked her what happened and she said she met a man who was pursuing her, but she was not sure yet. Going out with him, she seems to like the guy, she went to dye her hair blonde a week ago and said she was going to 'surprise him'. Oh my gosh!" "Did she tell you how she met that man?" "No, she didn't say that." "You never met that man once? Are you sure?" "Yeah, he never comes to the store, he always calls Stella to get out. Oh, God, he must be doing the right thing! Will he come and kill me? Officer, I ask for protection!" Ai Lynn looked horrified, and McCarthy knew that this dull woman would not be able to ask any more questions, so he decided to end the conversation—there were new clues, and he had to start investigating immediately. "Calm down, Miss Irene, listen to me, it's okay, I need Stella's mobile phone number, we will catch the murderer, you write Stella's mobile phone here, and we will leave the rest to us Alright. Detective Frank will take you downstairs and he'll arrange for an officer to take you home. Then, here's my business card with my cell phone on it. If you remember anything, or if anything happens to you, Just call me right away and I'll be on 24 hours a day, okay?"