Chapter 169: The Hint from the Door Panel

Chapter 169: Chapter 169: The Hint from the Door Panel

The chief’s tone had been unusually serious. Zoe Sawyer and the others didn’t say a word, simply getting off at the next station and immediately buying tickets to their new destination.

Fortunately, the new location was relatively close. A little over an hour later, the five of them walked out of the high-speed rail station and hailed a cab to the crime scene.

The crime scene was inside an abandoned elementary school. By the time Zoe Sawyer and the others arrived, the area had already been cordoned off.

Seeing Zoe Sawyer’s group approach, the officer guarding the entrance moved to stop them from going any further. But Evan Keller produced his credentials just in time, and they were allowed to pass.

"The chief just texted," Heath Hale said, looking at his phone and relaying the message. "He said the teams from the other cases are heading this way with the case files. We’re to cooperate with the local operation and solve this as quickly as possible."

They had planned to head to the first victim’s location, but a new body had been discovered here, forcing them to divert.

Meanwhile, Evan Keller was already speaking with the officer in charge, asking for an update on the case.

Zoe Sawyer and the others gathered around to listen in.

"The first people on the scene were a couple, vloggers who do urban exploration videos. They said they were planning to livestream here tonight and came early to scout the place out and set up, to make sure the stream went well.

"They’d just reached a classroom on the fourth floor when they found the body lying on a row of desks. Scared them so bad they called us right away." Captain Morgan, the officer in charge of the case, gestured toward a couple huddled together and trembling a short distance away. His tone was tinged with exasperation.

’Some nerve they’ve got, wanting to be urban explorers.’

’They were lucky they’d never stumbled upon a real corpse before, or they would’ve found a new line of work long ago.’

’Still, it’s a good thing they found it. This place is so remote, almost no one ever comes here. The body could have decomposed before anyone noticed.’

"Found anything yet?" Evan Keller asked, leaning in to look at the file in Captain Morgan’s hands.

Captain Morgan shook his head. "We just found her. We’re still processing the scene and working on identifying the victim."

It was a coincidence, really. Their own chief had been paying close attention to that string of unsolved female homicide cases. As soon as he heard they’d found another body, he rushed right over.

A remote location, a completely naked female corpse, and strangulation marks on the neck identical to the others.

It was just like the others.

The chief didn’t hesitate for a second. He immediately reported the case up the chain of command.

Before long, they received the order to consolidate the investigations. Officers from the other jurisdictions were on their way, all hoping to crack the case sooner rather than later.

Normally, the process wouldn’t be this fast.

But these were special circumstances. If they’d waited for all the official procedures to run their course, it could have taken ages.

Time was of the essence; they couldn’t afford to be bogged down by red tape.

Evan Keller’s brow furrowed as he looked at the damp ground. It had been raining, which was not good.

A heavy downpour could wash away evidence. Even if things were preserved inside the building, securing anything outside would be difficult.

The officer dispatched to investigate the victim’s identity returned quickly and reported his findings to Captain Morgan. "The victim’s name is Lynch. She was well-known in the local social scene. No parents. She has a daughter, less than a year old, who she fostered with a local family and paid for monthly.

"A few days ago, neighbors mentioned they hadn’t seen her around. They figured she was busy with some big client and wasn’t making appearances. They never imagined she was dead.

"Miss Lynch’s social circle is... complicated. We’re working on it now and should have a clearer picture soon."

This victim was different from the other five. The previous victims had simple social lives, making it easy to vet their connections.

This woman, however, had a complex web of relationships, with numerous romantic and financial disputes. Any one of them could be a plausible motive.

Plus, with the constant rain over the past few days, much of the crime scene had been compromised. They still had to determine if this was a copycat or the work of the same killer.

The workload was staggering.

After staying at the scene for a while, Zoe Sawyer’s team determined there was nothing more they could do to help, so they followed one of Captain Morgan’s junior officers back to the station.

Less than two hours after they returned to the police station, the teams from the other jurisdictions began to arrive, files in hand.

Shea was among them, having arrived with his superior, Captain Scott.

Time was short, so there were no pleasantries. Everyone simply pulled out their files and huddled together, hoping to find a breakthrough.

Captain Scott glanced over at Zoe Sawyer’s team, committing their faces to memory.

’So these are the specialists the chief called in for backup?’

’They don’t look like anything special.’

Captain Scott lowered his head, pushing the thought aside. This wasn’t the time for that. The most important thing right now was catching the killer.

Zoe Sawyer’s team also took some of the case files and sat down to review them.

The first one they opened, naturally, was from Captain Scott’s case.

It was the first murder in the series and the one that had yielded the most clues. They had what should have been all the evidence needed to catch the killer.

But nothing they had matched anyone in the database. That was the most difficult part.

After all, someone living completely off the grid was the hardest kind of person to track down.

Heath Hale leafed through the documents. The local team’s investigation had been thorough; they hadn’t missed anything obvious and had checked every possible lead.

"Now I see why they called us in for Zoe," Evan Keller said, setting down the file and rubbing his temples. "This is a headache."

Before, a case like this would have stumped them, too. They would have reached a dead end, with no idea where to even begin.

"We can’t waste any time," Heath Hale said, putting down his file and heading for the door. "I’ll go ask for an empty room. Zoe, you memorize the details on these victims."

Zoe Sawyer nodded and went back to committing the information to memory.

The officers at the station didn’t understand why Heath Hale needed an empty office, but their chief had already instructed them to accommodate any reasonable request from the visiting team. It was just an empty room, and they had one to spare.

Soon, Heath Hale was standing in the doorway, waving them over.

Captain Scott, who had been keeping an eye on them, didn’t miss this. A flicker of confusion crossed his mind, but he didn’t follow them.

Instead, he turned his attention back to the discussion with the officer beside him.

Zoe Sawyer gripped the doorknob, her mind replaying the data and photos she had just memorized.

Finally, once the impression crystallized in her mind, she opened the door.

The surface of the door flickered, and then two lines of text appeared.

The color drained from Zoe Sawyer’s face as she read the words.

The first line displayed today’s date. The second read: "Lynn Grant, 8:00 PM. Drugged and abducted by a man from a bench on a busy street, resulting in her death."