Chapter 268: Are You a Portrait Artist?

Chapter 268: Chapter 268: Are You a Portrait Artist?

Director Lennox took the report Evan Keller handed him. After glancing at the issue he’d pointed out, he explained, "The man who stopped the expedition team is a well-known madman around here.

"Whenever he gets a hold of someone, he rambles on about a Mountain God in the mountains. Sometimes, when residents go up to gather some firewood, he’ll block them at the foot of the mountain. If it weren’t for his brother and sister-in-law taking care of him, he probably would have run off somewhere else long ago."

"He’s been mad for over a decade. Every kid who grew up here knows about him."

That was why, after hearing the description from Gia Lowell’s group and confirming which madman had said it, Director Lennox and the others had dismissed the issue.

’Mad for over a decade, and he tells this to everyone he catches?’

Evan Keller frowned. ’This feels... strange.’

Perhaps sensing Evan Keller’s doubtful gaze, Director Lennox thought for a moment before explaining, "Captain Keller, I know what you’re thinking, but this madman is really just a coincidence.

"At first, we were suspicious too. Why would a perfectly normal person suddenly go mad? We wondered if he saw something he shouldn’t have, or if he was feigning insanity to cover up a crime. But after investigating, we found no suspicious leads."

They had even organized search parties in the mountains afterward, but they still found nothing.

Gradually, he became the madman everyone in the area knew. Many parents warned their children not to go near him or listen to the things he said.

Since Director Lennox had put it that way, Evan Keller had no choice but to suppress his doubts and move on to other questions. "Have there been any missing persons reports recently?"

The exact time of death hadn’t been determined yet, but judging by the body’s state of decomposition, it was likely less than a month.

Director Lennox had already assigned people to look into this before Evan Keller and his team arrived.

So, as soon as he asked, Director Lennox handed Evan Keller the file he had prepared.

Over the past month, there had indeed been a few missing persons reports, but they were all found by the second or third day.

None of them matched the victim’s description.

The deep mountain region was vast, and many areas lacked surveillance cameras, making an investigation based on CCTV footage extremely difficult.

Looking at the file, Evan Keller and Sean Hughes understood the main difficulty of this case.

They needed to identify the victim. Once they had an ID, they could follow the clues to catch the killer.

"Understood. We’re going to go take a look at the body now." Evan Keller nodded at Director Lennox and walked out of the office.

Not long after Evan Keller and Sean Hughes left, another person pushed the door open and entered the office.

Looking at Director Lennox, who was focused on his work, the man spoke up. "Mr. Lennox, are you just going to let them take over? It’s not like our provincial bureau lacks capable people."

Director Lennox looked up from his work at the man standing before him and said, "This was a decision from above. We just need to follow orders."

There was a reason the case was given to them.

The man scoffed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and left the office.

But after just a few steps, the man stopped and turned to walk in a different direction.

’I’ll go see for myself what skills this out-of-province team actually has!’

Meanwhile, over by the body, Zoe Sawyer and the others were wearing masks, observing it carefully.

The police department’s medical examiner was explaining the findings from the past few days of the autopsy.

"The deceased is a female, between 30 and 35 years old, height between five-foot-five and five-foot-seven, and shows signs of having given birth." The medical examiner told Zoe Sawyer and the others everything he had discovered.

While this information could help narrow down the pool of potential victims, there were still too many people who matched the description.

Pinpointing the victim’s identity among them would take more time and effort.

"Thank you for your hard work." Heath Hale nodded at the medical examiner, then went to the doorway to get an update on the case from a police officer.

Ten minutes later, Heath Hale turned around to see Beau squatting next to the victim’s skull. Her eyes were fixed on the head, and her finger was tracing patterns on her knee.

Zoe Sawyer stood to the side, not daring to make a sound, holding the sketchbook Beau had just thrust into her hands.

Seeing Heath Hale approach, Zoe Sawyer quickly made a shushing gesture.

Another ten-plus minutes passed before Beau finally stood up. Her eyes sparkling, she walked toward Zoe Sawyer. "Zoe, give me the sketchbook! I’m going to draw!"

Everyone present knew of Beau’s terrifying talent for drawing. Upon hearing her words, Zoe Sawyer hastily handed the sketchbook over.

The moment she got the sketchbook, Beau ignored her surroundings and plopped right down on the floor. The pencil in her hand seemed to have a life of its own; without a hint of hesitation, she quickly sketched a portrait on the page.

When Zoe Sawyer and the others gathered around to look, they saw that the facial features in the portrait weren’t quite harmonious. But on closer inspection, they could faintly discern some unusual traces.

"That’s normal. The victim is not only highly decomposed, but there’s also still a lot of flesh on the skull, making it almost impossible to see the bone structure," Heath Hale said reassuringly, patting Beau’s shoulder.

Beau looked a little deflated. She stared at the portrait in her hand, her mind replaying the lessons her teacher had taught her.

"If only I could see it clearly... I’ve learned how to do this," Beau said, turning to look at the body with a hint of regret in her voice.

"A CT scan would solve that. I heard people from the provincial bureau mention it during a meeting I attended. You can scan the victim’s skull."

"Some skilled forensic artists can even reconstruct the victim’s original appearance using the anatomical landmarks on the skull." A strange male voice sounded from the doorway.

Zoe Sawyer and the others looked toward the voice and saw Evan Keller and Sean Hughes standing at the entrance with a man they didn’t recognize.

Before Zoe Sawyer could speak, the man strode over to Beau, crouched down, and asked her for the drawing.

After seeing the face in the drawing, the man’s eyes lit up. He looked at Beau. "You’re a forensic artist? In that case, I’ll file a report with the provincial bureau to request a CT scan immediately!"

Their provincial bureau had an incredibly talented forensic artist who could draw a victim’s face from their skull with a very high degree of accuracy.

He also had a special skill: age progression drawing.

Initially, Director Lennox had wanted to ask that artist for help, but he was swamped with too many cases and simply couldn’t spare the time.

Now that he had run into another potential forensic artist, the man felt he couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

Zoe Sawyer and the others looked at Beau without speaking, their faces full of encouragement.

Beau glanced at her teammates, then at the man, and finally nodded.

"I’m an artist. That scan you mentioned... I want to see it."