Chapter 39: The Human Skin Case 1

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: The Human Skin Case 1

Zoe Sawyer gasped, digging a finger into her ear in disbelief.

’What did he just say?’

’A faceless corpse?!’

"The situation is serious. I don’t have time to explain right now. Zoe, get Coach Hale and bring him out to help," Officer Lee said hurriedly before running toward the entrance.

Zoe Sawyer didn’t dare waste a second. She rushed back to the office and repeated Officer Lee’s words to Heath Hale, who was waiting inside for news.

Heath Hale, who had been lounging rather casually, shot to his feet.

’Is it really that bad?!’

The two of them hurried toward the entrance of the police station.

When they got there, Zoe Sawyer realized that Officer Lee’s description of a van "crashing in" had been an understatement.

’This was a suicide run!’

The front of the battered van was completely caved in where it had slammed into the wall of the station’s courtyard.

The doors had been knocked loose by the violent impact.

The trunk had burst wide open, revealing a pile of bodies stacked inside.

The police had cordoned off the area from a distance and were setting up red screens to block the horrific scene in the van from the prying eyes of the curious crowd that had gathered.

Several bodies had already been removed from the van and laid on the ground, each covered with a white sheet.

The medical examiner, Lynn Grant, was squatting beside the bodies with her assistant, examining something.

A moment later, she stood up, her face grim.

"Any findings?" the Chief asked, a bad feeling rising in his gut as he looked at Lynn Grant’s grave expression.

"The victims’ facial muscles show clear signs of tightening and hardening, which is a symptom of muscle spasms. I suspect their faces were skinned off while they were still alive." Lynn Grant’s expression was grim. She had handled many corpses, but this was the first time she had encountered a method of execution so close to death by a thousand cuts.

"After all, if this was done post-mortem, their muscles wouldn’t be so rigid. They’d be relaxed, even."

"The few bodies we’ve moved out so far are all the same. It’s not hard to guess that the dozen or so still in the van will be no different."

Standing beside Heath Hale, Zoe Sawyer couldn’t help but gasp when she heard Lynn Grant’s words.

Crashing a van full of corpses into the wall of a police station... it was hard not to suspect this was some kind of terrorist attack.

The officers still processing the scene around them let out sharp breaths.

Honestly, even after so many years on the job, this was the first time they had ever encountered a crime this vicious.

"This is a blatant provocation!" The Chief’s expression darkened even further.

He had just spoken with Barry Quinn’s superior and gotten a general idea of his mission. Not long after, this van had come crashing in.

Given the state of the bodies inside, the Chief refused to believe it was a coincidence.

"Process the scene first. Then find out where this van came from and identify these victims," the Chief said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he quickly delegated the tasks.

With this many bodies, they would have to carefully check the missing persons reports to see if they could find any matches.

Before he could give more orders, Officer Lee walked over, phone in hand and a solemn look on his face. "Chief, someone has posted about the scene online. And they’re trying to stir things up."

The Chief took the phone and saw that the timing of the post was far too convenient.

It had been published just one minute after the crash!

Although the photos were pixelated, the Chief could tell at a glance that they were definitely of the scene inside the van.

The poster described the scene with an air of authenticity, while also maliciously speculating about whether the police department was somehow involved.

Every so often, a few "insiders" would pop up to confirm that it was true.

Watching the unsuspecting netizens below being led by the nose, the Chief took a deep breath and handed the phone back to Officer Lee. "Investigate! I want the IPs of these posters traced. I’d like to see just what kind of monsters are trying to stir up trouble at a time like this!

Liam, this task is yours. Can you handle it?"

"Yes, sir! I guarantee I’ll get it done!"

Officer Lee saluted the Chief and hurried back to the office to begin his investigation.

Evan Keller and Sean Hughes also received their assignments and left with their teams to investigate.

Zoe Sawyer followed Heath Hale back to the office. Watching people rush back and forth, she asked uneasily, "Shouldn’t we be helping?"

She felt a strange sense of guilt just sitting there, doing nothing.

Heath Hale glanced at Zoe Sawyer, his tone making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course we’re going to help. All the theory I could teach you isn’t worth one bit of hands-on experience."

He hadn’t said anything earlier because he was just considering what Zoe could do. Now that he thought about it, reviewing surveillance footage would be a good task for her.

Thinking of Zoe Sawyer’s abilities, Heath Hale pushed his tongue against his cheek. He glanced at his own arm, his eyes dimming.

’If I weren’t injured, if my combat skills were still at their peak, maybe I could have requested to lead a team out in pursuit with Zoe.’

’Instead of being stuck here watching monitors.’

Once he decided what to do, Heath Hale took Zoe Sawyer to the surveillance room. They started with the station’s own cameras, piecing together the van’s route bit by bit.

After what felt like an eternity, Zoe Sawyer lowered her head and rubbed her dry eyes.

It was her first time staring at security monitors for so long, and she felt like her eyes were about to go blind.

Evan Keller walked in holding a stack of files, which he placed on the table. "These are the filtered missing persons cases. But we’ve compared their fingerprints from the database with the victims’, and there isn’t a single match."

Not a single fingerprint matched.

The difficulty of the case just skyrocketed.

If they weren’t among the reported missing persons, could they be people sold by their own families? Or undocumented individuals? Or perhaps women in the sex trade.

Indeed, if people from those groups went missing, it was unlikely anyone would file a report, and their fingerprints wouldn’t be in the database.

But that meant identifying them without their faces would be exceptionally difficult.

"The public opinion online is getting more and more skewed. A lot of people are asking on our official account if this is real.

I ran a trace. The person who made the post used a virtual IP, routed through hundreds of nodes.

And do you know where I finally traced it to? Zanthos!" Officer Lee came in as well, holding his laptop, his voice filled with fury.

From the crash to the post to the manipulation of public opinion, everything pointed to one conclusion: this was a deliberate act.

They were being targeted!

Just then, Sean Hughes ran in, his face pale and grim.

"They found more bodies on the outskirts of the city!"