Chapter 18 Chapter Seventeen

The meeting room of Maybrick Medical Devices Co., Ltd. is as neat and cold as the products they deal in. The floor-to-ceiling tinted glass windows filter out the warm part of the sunlight, and the large stainless steel conference table is reminiscent of a mortuary. tower.Even with the air conditioner turned on, McCarthy felt a chill running down his spine. If he hadn't been waiting here for Hamada Kako, it would have been impossible for him to stay in this place for a minute longer. He couldn't imagine how those Japanese could stay here like this working eight hours a day. But when Kako Hamada showed up in the conference room, the freezing conditions immediately became bearable.McCarthy had known for a long time that he was going to meet a beautiful woman, but when he actually saw Kako Hamada, her beauty was still surprising—her body under the suit exuded a vitality that a corpse or a photograph could not give.She was about 5 feet 7 inches tall, which was a remarkable height for an Asian woman, and she wore flats instead of high heels, perhaps in consideration of her Japanese colleagues.Karate training gave the woman in front of her a well-proportioned physique, and her long, undyed black hair was tied into a ponytail behind her head, revealing her delicate face.Her eye sockets were not sunken like those of white people, which made her eyes look even more charming.She has a small and delicate nose like a cuff button. When she smiles, two dimples will appear on both sides of her nose.McCarthy stood up, thankful in his heart that he had wisely put on his best suit and went out today.When he was hesitating whether to shake hands with her or bow like a Japanese, Hamada Kako had already stretched out his right hand.

"Hi, are you the policeman looking for me?" "If you are Miss Kako Hamada, my answer is 'yes'." He spelled out the Japanese name carefully. "Hehe, only my father calls me 'He Zi', people call me Kayla, that's my English name. What do you call me, officer?" Instead of the wacky accent that most Japanese have, McCarthy noticed, she spoke in a fashionable New York accent that Japanese who came to the U.S. in college don't have.If she was not born in the United States, she came to this country with her parents when she was very young. "Ian McCarthy, you can call me Ian."

"Ian, this is the first time I have dealt with the police. I didn't expect to meet a type I don't hate." He Zi smiled. "I'll just take that as a compliment. I didn't expect to meet a pretty lady like you." Completely beyond McCarthy's expectations, this life-and-death conversation began in an almost flirtatious manner. . "Okay, let's get down to business, Officer McCarthy. What exactly do you want from me? I'm afraid I can't tell you much about my ex-husband David, who I haven't had in three years since our divorce news."

"No, I didn't even know that you were married and divorced." McCarthy lied. In fact, in the CIRIS confidential file, he already knew the basic situation of the woman in front of him. , but he had to pretend to be ignorant, "This has nothing to do with your ex-husband, it's about you, this matter is very important!" "Really?" He Zi adjusted his sitting posture, and began to look a little nervous, "What's the matter?" "I don't mean to scare you, Kayla, your life is in danger." "what?" "You may not have heard of it, because the police are still blocking the news, but two women have been killed. They are all beautiful women with dark hair, dark eyes, and light skin, just like you. We have reason to believe that, You could be the murderer's next target."

"Serial killer?" The Japanese woman was stunned, but facing McCarthy's serious expression, the horrified expression gradually transformed into a funny smile, and then she burst into a burst of laughter. "Ian, Ian, you know what, this is the most incredible approach I've heard this year. Can't you just do it the normal way? Hey, you haven't got your wedding ring off yet!" "You don't believe me? You think I made up this lie just to get you?" "Hey, I've never dealt with the police, but don't take me for an idiot, it's been in the movies too many times, you guys always work in teams of two, and only one of you goes it alone always means that he is engaged in a private operation that he does not want to be known about. Am I wrong, Inspector?"

Quite right, thought McCarthy, what a clever woman, but of course he couldn't admit being caught.He took out the ID with the golden police badge and handed it to her, explaining: "This is my ID, do you see the title on it? It says 'Inspector', a police detective at this level does not need a partner .everything the movie says is a lie, we often go it alone because the government budgets these days can't afford to hire enough people. We need to warn the 150 potential victims in the area, even if The officer in charge of alerting you today is a lower-ranking officer than me, and he will come alone. In pairs, that’s a fond memory from before the economic collapse.”

He Zi dismissively threw the police badge back to the inspector: "This is also part of the trick, isn't it?" "Do you have to ask me to show you the photo of the victim's body before you can believe it?" "Of course you have pictures of the victims, you have pictures of dead bodies of any kind, but that does nothing to prove that a serial murder took place, Mr Inspector." "If I'm not wrong, you have another job besides this job, right?" McCarthy didn't want to get too entangled in this matter, he started to change the subject. "What's the meaning?"

"Selling things online, an active eBay transaction account." Although his "ebay theory" is still speculation for the time being, McCarthy decided to take a chance. He Zi's face darkened: "It seems that you really spent a lot of time investigating me, Mr. Inspector, can you show me your police badge again?" McCarthy handed him his badge, and Kako Hamada carefully inspected every corner of the badge before returning it to the detective. "Tell me, what does this have to do with my eBay account?" He Zi began to show a dubious expression on his face.

"I...we think the killers use ebay deals to get close to their victims and put them on their toes. You better keep an eye out for your latest ebay deals, especially those where the buyer asked for an in-person deal." "If you put it that way, then I'd just get out of business. I sell concert tickets, party passes, discount coupons on ebay...nobody calls a FedEx for that stuff, they usually do it themselves Come and get it by car. Hey don't worry, I think I can protect myself, do you know how many harassers I have to deal with every month? You should give me a medal for doing all the work that should be your police, now Nobody here dares to mess with me." Her face was shining with confidence and pride when she said this.If he hadn't known what was going to happen, if he hadn't seen her lifeless body lying on the dissecting table, McCarthy would have believed her, but right now, he couldn't be sure.

"So, are you going to suspend your business on eBay? Not even for a month?" "One month? Officer, I don't think you know how important credibility and quick response are to this business! It's no exaggeration to say that this is a battlefield, and being slow often means that the goods are bad in your hands. I Now it's the number two seller in Pittsburgh. Do you know how many people are staring at this position? I can't afford to delay even a week, let alone a month. It may take half a year, or even longer, to re-establish My reputation and ranking may never be regained."

"Well, I usually don't advise people to do this, but considering the current situation, I suggest you buy a gun for self-defense." "Guns? Well, I'll think about it, officer." McCarthy knew his advice was being ignored again, but he couldn't do much more than pray that God would be on his side this time.He took out a business card from his pocket, wrote his mobile phone number on the back, and handed it to Hezi Hamada: "Kayla, I'm serious! If there is anything that makes you feel wrong, just call, okay? Any Things! My phone will be turned on 24 hours a day." He Zi took the business card and took out one of her own, wrote her mobile phone number and the address of her eBay store on it, and handed it to the inspector: "I hope the next time we meet will not be because of business, Ian. ’ She flashed a charming smile. McCarthy walked out of the office building where Maybrick Medical Devices Co., Ltd. was located, still thinking about Hamada Kako's smile in his heart.The conversation was far from pleasant, but certainly memorable.The detective walked to his old Mercury sedan parked on the side of the road, opened the door and sat in the cab, when the phone rang, it was Jason, and the cross-comparison of the eBay accounts of the first two victims had results , They did have a common buyer, and Jason applied for a search warrant as quickly as possible, but the information used for registration of the suspicious account given by eBay was a pseudonym and a stolen credit card number-the bank's information shows, The actual credit card holder was an old lady in Texas who hadn't set foot outside the state line in almost twenty years.This has long been expected by McCarthy.When he and Secret Service agents of the Treasury Department were investigating the counterfeit bill three years ago, he knew that on the heavily disguised hacker website, it only cost thirty dollars to buy a banknote containing the name, social security number, card Credit card account number with expiration date and three-digit security code. Most of the ebay line is still nothing.It may be unfair to say that nothing was found, but it at least further validates McCarthy's theory that the killer approached the victim through eBay, and yesterday's unanswered question resurfaced in his mind. The detective hung up the phone and called Frank Kepler, who was still trapped in the DMV and was doing a second cross-check of the JEEP files to try to narrow down the suspects. "Frank, listen, put your work aside for a moment, I need you to help me think about a question, is there a website that allows me to associate an eBay account with someone's real identity-at least appearance? Or , I know someone's appearance or identity information, how do I know if he or she has an eBay account?" "Officer, this sounds like a dating site thing, but as far as I know, no dating site encourages users to provide ebay account information unless he or she registers with the same username for all sites, Then it may be possible to find his or her activities on different websites on search engines. Yes, many people have this habit, but it is also very difficult. You can hardly find the person you want from so many people using the same network. Picked out from people with nicknames." "Hey, Frank, don't answer me so quickly, think about it, okay? It's important. Listen, I'm on my way to your side, I'll be there in about twenty minutes, give me another one you've thought about answer, okay?" "Okay, officer!" Twenty minutes later, McCarthy saw the young police detective who had already suffered from dark circles in a small conference room of the DMV. Although he described it as haggard, Frank's mental state did not seem to be affected much. "Officer, I think I know what you're looking for. Have you heard of Facebook?" "I heard from my daughter that she seems to use that website to keep in touch with her classmates." "It's a new generation of social networks, and there are quite a few people registering on the site with their real identities, because Facebook encourages people to record their every thought, every activity on the site and share it with their friends. It's not just identity information. , photos and blogs, if you want, you can move your whole life online.” "Including ebay transactions too?" "Yes. Facebook has an eBay component, and an ordinary user can easily create a link on his Facebook profile that is updated synchronously with his eBay account." "At the same time you can see his or her name, photo and other information?" "Yes, provided he or she adds you as a friend through your friend request." "If she didn't know you, how would she accept your friend request?" Frank smiled: "Officer, you probably don't know much about this way of making friends online, you just make up a reason, such as 'I think you are very attractive', or 'Your name is so special, I think you must be very attractive too. Someone special', or even simply say 'I want to meet you, can you add me', 90% of people will approve your friend request, after all, this website is to meet more friends, isn't it? If you If you think you don't like this person, just delete him from your friend list." McCarthy's eyes lit up. "Frank, can you borrow a laptop? I need you to show me what this website called Facebook is all about." Frank looked at the serious expression of the inspector and began to become uneasy: "Officer, do you think serial killers use Facebook to select and approach their victims?" "Isn't that convenient?" "My God!" The young police detective sighed softly and took out his iPhone from his pocket, "That's really terribly convenient! I don't need a computer at all, I can log in to Facebook and get all this information with an iPhone or something. " "Stella Saffirino and Diana Knightley, let's see if they have Facebook accounts." Frank typed the names of the two victims into the site's name search box and quickly got results: "Stella Saffirino is very rare, and I added the search restriction 'Pittsburgh' and there was only one Turns out. Judging by her uploaded avatar, I'm pretty sure she was the first victim, but she was still black at the time. Diana Knightley, wait, I'm afraid there are too many people with that name, There are over twenty Diana Knightleys in Pittsburgh, and Diana L. Knightley, Diana F. Knightley, look, this looks a bit like it, but I can't be sure, they Some of them didn’t upload their avatars, and some of them used cartoon avatars from Facebook.” "Last question, Frank, does Facebook support physical attributes other than names? Say, hair color or pupil color." "No, I'm afraid it can't be done. Facebook is different from those dating sites for offline dating. They want all communication between users to happen on the site." While the current information is insufficient to make a conclusion, it is sufficient for the Inspector to continue his investigation. "Thank you very much Frank, your information is very useful, I think you don't have to go through the information of those bloody JEEP owners, go back and take a shower, get a good night's sleep-we are not close to the time when we caught that bastard Far." The young detective let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thank you, Officer. Seriously, this is probably the worst weekend I've had in Pittsburgh." McCarthy drove back to his office after a hasty lunch of two donuts and a cup of coffee at the DUNKIN DO-NUTS across from the DMV.The first thing he did when he walked into the office was to turn on the computer in a hurry. The startup of the Windows system is as long as human evolution. Taking advantage of this gap, he went to make himself a cup of coffee.When walking past the desk of Miss Anne, the administrative assistant, Anne half flattered and half seriously reminded him that she could do the work of making coffee in the future—McCarthy suddenly realized that it was almost as soon as he sat in the glass office. It's been half a year, but I still haven't gotten used to enjoying the privileges that only detectives can enjoy-except for the separate office cubicle and the slightly higher number on the payroll than before.The life of the past six months has brought him only double hardships.Sometimes he even began to doubt whether he had made the most correct decision in the first place.Maybe the free life of an ordinary police detective is more suitable for him. When he returned to his desk, the computer had already started up. He opened the Facebook homepage in the web browser and followed the prompts step by step to create an account of his own—it was surprisingly simple and took less than five minutes , he has his own Page.He entered "Hamada Hezi" in the friend search bar, and quickly found the account of the woman he was looking for. On the profile picture, Hezi smiled so sweetly.McCarthy clicked the link of "add her as a friend", and a pop-up dialog box asked the reason for adding the other party as a friend. McCarthy filled in his own name, thought for a while, and added the prefix "Detective" in front, but after clicking " Before confirming, I changed my mind.The inspector hit the "Delete" key, simply left the reason blank, and then pressed the Enter key. The confirmation reply sent by Hamada Hezi was surprisingly fast, and the confirmation reply was received almost within one second of McCarthy's request.He went to her home page and got her name, photo and ebay account without any trouble - if he was the murderer, he already got all the information he needed, it was just a matter of skill.The Inspector realized with exasperation that his morning's warning hadn't had any effect, and the self-righteous woman had pressed "OK" without even reading the sender's name.Don't be fooled by her oriental appearance, she's just like any young girl with a New York accent, ready to start a romantic relationship.She had clearly seen his wedding ring and flirted with him indifferently. "Such a woman deserves to die at the hands of the 'coin killer'!" McCarthy was taken aback by the idea that came out of nowhere.No, he told himself, even the most slutty woman should not have to suffer like that, and it was his job as a policeman to try to avoid the tragedy. The detective took out his mobile phone and looked for the number of the person he hadn't contacted for a long time.He hesitated for a long time before pressing the green "Call" button. It was a difficult decision, but time was running out, and now it seemed that there was no one else who could help him.