Chapter 15 Chapter Fourteen

In the morning haze, McCarthy returned to the crime scene he was all too familiar with.Before entering the woods, he carefully counted the tire marks on the ground. Although the tire marks were criss-crossed, the tire marks extending from the parked car body could still be roughly distinguished—the coroner's office Ford Transit van parked on the road They did not drive in on the shoulder of the road, and they used stretchers to transport the bodies; the tire tracks of the three Ford Taurus police cars were the same; the Chevrolet Trailblazer belonged to the scene investigation team, and it left the deepest mark because it had the most people and equipment Heaviest; Jason's Toyota Camry was almost submerged, and he was either the first or the second to arrive at the scene; the 7.5-inch wide tire track was left by Sean Miles' Chrysler 300C sedan, while The wider set is the tire tracks of a large GMC Topkeek pickup that must have belonged to the angler who found the body.He double-checked, and there were no other tire marks—who the hell fishes here early in the morning at this season?Suspicion arose in McCarthy's heart. He took out a pad from his pocket and wrote down the license plate number.

When he saw old slippery Sean Miles, he was in a worse mood than the last time he saw him.He greeted Jason and Sean absently, listlessly uttering the "guess" about "serial killer." The day shift supervisor of CSU (Crime Scene Unit/Scene Forensics Team, the name of CSI in reality), the red-haired woman with clammy palms began to "introduce the situation"-McCarthy didn't listen to a word of those bullshit-what "first scene ’, they were all fooled by the killer, who was smarter than any of them.He must have killed the women somewhere on his own and moved the bodies to the scene of the crime, and in order to preserve the place where he felt comfortable and comfortable committing the murders, he had to erase all traces pointing there, Just as he poured cleanser into his victim's vagina, he erased the original traces and faked others so that whatever the forensic team found at the scene couldn't be trusted—acting alone, McCarthy was convinced again, that way A smart, cautious killer doesn't seek accomplices.

Before Gretchen finished speaking, McCarthy lost his patience. He left the three police detectives in front of him and walked straight towards the fisherman who found the body under the gaze of six astonished eyes. "Sir, for the investigation of the case, we need to ask you some questions." McCarthy said while taking out a pad and pencil from the inside pocket of his suit. "I've already told the two policemen over there everything I know." The fisherman pointed to Jason and Sean behind him. "I'm different from them. This is the second time the Pittsburgh Robbery and Homicide Team has interviewed you. Please cooperate. Your name, sir."

"Marcus, David Marcus." The angler was clearly impatient. "Is it convenient to leave your contact information?" "No, I don't think it's convenient. I don't want the police to come to me all the time. Let's settle the matter here." McCarthy stopped writing and raised his eyes from the legal pad: "Mr. Marcus, if you don't take the initiative to leave your contact information, we may treat you as a suspect until your alibi is confirmed. Are you sure you Do you want to do that?" This trick obviously worked. Marcus hesitated for a moment, then took out a ticket holder from his pocket, took out a business card from it, asked McCarthy to borrow a pencil, and wrote a phone number on it——

"Here's my phone—do I need to call my lawyer?" He handed his business card and pencil to the detective in front of him. "No, of course not!" McCarthy took the things and said, "If you didn't do it, you don't need a lawyer. If you think you need a lawyer, then things will be troublesome!" He said while Observing the reaction of the angler - the angler in front of him seemed a little uneasy, he kept changing his posture and making various small movements - it is still impossible to determine whether he is related to the murder case, but it doesn't look like he is the kind of scheming people.

"Well, what else do you want to know?" "Everything starts with why you came to this barren mountain to fish early in the morning." "You've never been out fishing, am I right? Otherwise you wouldn't know that this creek is a great place for trout fishing in winter. The nearby fishing clubs and anglers come here on weekends. It wasn't blocked by the police, there should have been twenty or thirty fishing rods here at this moment." As soon as Marcus started talking, he completely forgot about finding a lawyer and began to chatter, " You're right, I don't usually come that early, but I've had two weeks with nothing to gain - you know, the good seats are taken by early comers. I'm determined not to go empty-handed for a third week in a row However, I drove here before dawn, firstly, to grab a good seat, and secondly, fish are easier to bait when there are few people. I didn’t expect to encounter such a thing early in the morning. I think I Maybe I won't come here to fish again this winter..."

McCarthy listened to him explain how the body was found, while asking some irrelevant questions, such as "how do you know she is really dead", "did you see anyone else" and so on - the answer is obvious, this guy has nothing but the body See, otherwise Jason would have taken him to the police station for a suspect sketch - he just wanted to make sure this guy had anything to do with the murder. "One last question," McCarthy asked after hearing all the narrative, "did you do it?" "what?" "Did you kill her?" Marcus froze for a moment, then burst out like a bull: "No! I didn't fuckin do it! Who are you? Tell me your name, I'm going to fucking sue you! I know you bastards What the cops were thinking, you bastards were trying to put this on me from the start so you could have it easy. Fuck you bastard wasting taxpayers money!" He nearly poked his finger into McCarthy's tip of the nose.Two uniformed police officers rushed over to pull him away, and Jason and Sean also ran over upon hearing the sound.

"What happened, Ian?" McCarthy shrugged. "I just asked if he did it." "Come on, Ian. The killer came back to the scene again? That kind of thing only happens in movies! I questioned him, and it would never be him!" Jason said. "I don't think so either. To be on the safe side, let Frank check his alibi." McCarthy turned to Sean and said, "Hey, Sean, do you know how to fish?" "Understood, I used to join a fishing club, but it's been a long time since I went, what?" "Is this a good place for trout fishing in winter?"

"Yes, trout like cold, flowing streams, and you can't catch trout in a big, calm lake like Lake Erie. You need a stream like this. Does this have anything to do with the case? Or are you suddenly interested in fishing?" Interested in trout?" "Nothing, just a momentary curiosity." "Now, I'm going to take care of our witnesses." Sean Miles made a "see you" gesture to the two detectives, and then said to McCarthy, "Ian, you really shouldn't ask like that His question." McCarthy stood by the stream.The body has been packed into a body bag and taken away. Catherine and her on-site forensic team have also evacuated. Sean went outside to deal with the media and take care of witnesses. Only Jason is arranging the final aftermath for the two remaining uniformed police officers. .McCarthy looked at the babbling brook, about thirty yards wide, so clear that it seemed ankle-deep down here, not knee-deep, even taking into account the refraction of light.If you looked closely, you could indeed see fish swimming upstream—whether they were trout or not, McCarthy couldn't tell.On the opposite side of the stream is the same dense fir forest as this side, there is no road, and there is no pebble beach as easy as this side - it is much more difficult to walk than this side, which is why anglers gather on this side of the stream reason.McCarthy looked at the opposite bank, suddenly the blood rushed up, and his scalp tingled for a while, and he suddenly figured out why the murderer was able to abandon the body here without leaving a trace.

"Jason!" he yelled. Jason turned around and ran in two steps: "What's the matter, Ian? You scared me!" "Jason, what do you think of the water depth and flow rate of this creek? Can you cross it?" "That's all you ask, Ian? It's too simple, the water is a little cold." "Have you checked the other side of the river?" Jason looked at McCarthy's serious expression, and immediately realized their omission: "No! Damn, Ian, none of us thought in that direction! I'll call the forensic team and tell them to come back right away! "