Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty-Five

In the early hours of Thursday, February 5th, in the dead of night, this deserted vacation cabin on the edge of Pittsburgh suddenly became the busiest place in the entire city.The police who first came to the scene called more police, and then came the various people who got the news—dozens of marked and unmarked police cars, large sedans and utility vehicles. A car came to this place and surrounded the scene tightly, until the Mayor's Office spokesman's Mercedes-Benz and the district assistant police officer's BMW arrived at the scene, the successive traffic flow came to an end.

To keep a low profile, only one searchlight was set up to illuminate the open space in front of the house.Those with lower ranks were sent to guard the cordon to prevent harassment from the all-pervasive media.McCarthy watched the big figures gathered here talking in low voices as if they were facing an enemy, as if the secret would be leaked out if the voice was louder.The detective in charge of investigating the serial murder case is a murderer himself. For the media, this is undoubtedly enough to cause a national headline, but for the Pittsburgh Police Department and the city government, it is a devastating scandal that must be handled carefully.Whoever is ultimately responsible for this will likely end his political career.The big shots are most nervous about who will take the blame, so until now no one has asked McCarthy for a detailed statement, and the detective is not surprised at all.No matter what, he will play the role of "hero". His situation is probably the least worrying of all the people present.The inspector leaned leisurely by the door, watching these guys unstoppably wreck the scene, watching the scene appraisal team in Tyvek protective suits cursing softly as they entered the house, trying their best to save those who Evidence as a treasure.Things are progressing as he expected, even better than he expected.He thought of Mr. Chief who was far away in Florida, he must have got the news, and now he must be like an ant on a hot pot, calling the major airlines over and over again, looking for the earliest flight back to Pittsburgh.Missing such a "big party" would probably be the worst thing that happened to him this year.

Then he saw Jason Gregg. The second-level police detective put on his shoe covers and entered the scene. He stared blankly at his "former partner" who had been dead for a long time on the ground. The assistant police examiner and on-site forensic personnel were busy on the corpse, not paying any attention to the bystander. Only McCarthy noticed the old friend—the expression on Jason's face was a mixture of frustration and disbelief. He has every reason to be in a bad mood, the inspector thought, if Jason hadn't turned off his phone at a critical moment, he would have shared the honor of cracking this serial murder case with him, and bad luck made him miss his chance to become famous again, It even made McCarthy suspect that he was the murderer.Maybe it wasn't just bad luck. McCarthy couldn't help feeling gloating when he thought of Jason's slack in finding witnesses.

He was about to walk over to say hello to this old friend who was in a bad mood, when a man stopped him. "Hey, Ian, where are you going, I have something to see you!" It turned out to be Deputy Director Kevin Schneips - this strong African-American senior police officer instantly occupied McCarthy's vision.This guy has always been known for his resolute actions and accurate judgment. When he was on duty in the robbery team, he once maintained a 90% detection rate, a record that has not been broken so far.And his talent is not only manifested in his ability to investigate cases, but also in his ability to deal with police department politics. It only took him nine years to go from a street patrolman to the No. 2 man in the Pittsburgh Police Department.

"Sorry, officer, I was just going to say hi to Jason, the other detective in charge of this case, and talk to him." "Shawn Miles will talk to him, your task now is to talk to me. The above is very nervous about this case, and now I will be in charge of the follow-up work of this serial murder case, and I will record it myself Your testimony, let's get started." So McCarthy began to tell the deputy director the set of testimony that he had already rehearsed several times in his mind: "Okay, officer. All the investigations before Monday have been recorded in the case file. It is very detailed, so I will omit it." , let’s start on Tuesday. At that time, I logged into the CIRIS system in order to search for potential victims. During the search process, I saw a familiar face—the current victim, Kako Hamada. Her physical characteristics Fits perfectly with our victim profile, so I went to visit her once..."

"Wait, you said you knew the victim before today?" "Yes, she has a store on eBay that sells various tickets and discount coupons. I have visited a few times and bought a few concert tickets and discount coupons from her." No matter what he says, he will not be exposed. The deputy director lightly pressed the "pause" button of the recording pen, but this little action did not escape McCarthy's eyes. "Did you visit the victim on Monday? Did you disclose the case to her?" "Yes, just a little bit, about the murderer's selection of victims. I also suggested that she accept police protection, but she refused. She thought she had the ability to protect herself. So I left my business card and mobile phone number."

"Inspector McCarthy, this is a violation of the regulations..." "I'm sorry, Deputy Director, but the situation at the time was that all the clues in our hands were cut off, so I made this move. In fact, according to the victim's profile, I initially screened out a potential victim based on the information provided by CIRIS. The list of victims is about to be arranged for the police to visit one by one, hoping to make the next victim more vigilant. Starting from Heko Hamada, of course it is only because of my personal reasons..." "Okay, don't get entangled in this point anymore, just keep talking!" Deputy Director Kevin pressed the "Record" button again.His reaction was completely within McCarthy's expectations. In order to survive this crisis, the police department is eager to establish a "superior detective" image, so naturally it will not be hindered by this regulation.As for the appointment visit to Maybrick Medical Devices Co., Ltd. before the incident, they will find out sooner or later, and there is no need to hide it.

"Today is my 15th wedding anniversary with my wife. I came home from get off work early to celebrate with Laura. In the evening, I got a call from the victim. She asked me if I was free to go out for dinner. It sounded like a date. So I told her that today is my wedding anniversary with Laura. I got another call from her around the end of dinner, around nine o'clock, and the call came from the landline in the cabin Yes, not her cell phone, she panicked on the phone, said that someone was trying to kill her, and gave me the approximate location of her location, the call was cut off in the middle. I went out immediately, and found here in about forty minutes .”

"Forty minutes? Why didn't you enlist the help of the Intelligence Resource Group to locate the phone number?" "I left in a rather hasty walk without my coat and my sidearm, and I killed the criminal with my own miniature pistol, a good GLOCK 26, which I've always used as a backup. You know, strapped to The one on the ankle. I followed the victim's directions on the phone without thinking too much about it, but it turned out to be a mistake, the victim's estimation of distance was very inaccurate, but by then I had There was no time to seek help. Besides, I had a vague premonition that the murderer had a deep relationship with the police, and I couldn't take this risk."

"What made you think the murderer was a policeman?" "It's CIRIS. The question of how the murderer finds victims has troubled me for a long time. At first I thought that the murderer relied on dating sites like Facebook to select victims, and then lowered the vigilance of the victims by pretending to be eBay buyers, and then approached Victims, committing crimes. But these websites either require too much identity information and are too easy to leave clues, or they don’t have a physical feature retrieval system that meets the murderer’s requirements, or they can’t be linked with eBay. When I checked CIRIS again today, I suddenly realized I realized that this police database was almost the perfect choice for the killer. To be honest, I was really scared at the time by thinking that if it was true, the killer was either a high-ranking detective or had a relationship with the police. There are pretty deep ties. Very few civilians even know that this database exists."

"You found this place, and what happened?" "I kicked open the door. From the door, I can see the back of the murderer in the living room. He is... setting up the scene." "Please be specific." "I think ... he was using a syringe to inject bleach into the victim's vagina." "Did you recognize him as Detective Frank Kepler?" "No, I didn't, he had his back to me, I kicked the door open, he got up quickly, ran into the living room to get the gun, I didn't see his face and I shot—damn, even I can see that bastard's face, I'll still shoot!" "What's next? Did you call the police right away?" "No, I first confirmed the identities of the murderer and the victim, then surveyed the scene and confirmed that he is the 'coin killer' I have been chasing, and then I made an emergency call from the bureau." "How did you determine that he was 'The Coin Killer'?" "The scene was exactly the same as the previous two murders, with coins on the eyes and bleach on the vagina." "But this victim was shot, unlike the previous two victims who were strangled, what do you think?" "This victim is different from the previous two victims. She is not the kind of woman who can't hold a dick. As far as I know, she is a karate master. I think maybe the murderer encountered an accident when he tried to strangle her. Strong resistance, and then had to use guns to solve the problem." "Okay, Inspector McCarthy, one last question, why didn't you call Jason, who is also in charge of this case, when you set out. Detective Gregg for backup?" "It's not my fault!" the detective laughed. "I did call him, but his phone was switched off. Seriously, he was even my number one suspect at the time!" Kevin Schnepes laughed too.McCarthy knew that he had successfully turned the tables. Although it was still a cold winter night, McCarthy could almost feel the warm sea breeze in Hawaii and the way Laura's plump figure was clad in a bikini.