"We’ve found the work schedule of the service staff on the night of the cri," Chenier said over the phone without mincing words, directly indicating that she and Winslow found these service staff’s work schedule in the room of the head maid of that villa.
The work arrangent at the start of the party wasn’t important; what was important was the list of people who stayed behind in the villa after the party ended.
"The work schedule shows that, on the night of the incident, there was no maid nad Ao Na supposed to stay behind," Chenier said coldly as she looked at the notebook in her hand.
"But there was a maid nad Belinda who had a family ergency and took leave at the last minute. This Ao Na replaced her and ended up staying in the villa that night."
"Ao Na?"
Upon hearing this, Luo An’s eyebrows twitched slightly, and he asked,
"Is this woman among the 26 victims?"
"Yes," replied Chenier.
"The scene report from the Trace Evidence Division shows that Ao Na also died that night in the room she shared with several other maids."
"However, there’s sothing fishy about this woman’s death."
As soon as Chenier finished speaking, without waiting for Luo An to respond, Winslow’s voice ca through the phone:
"Team leader, after the Trace Evidence Division arrived at the cri scene, photos were taken of each of the victims’ death scenes.
There were four maids in the room where Ao Na lived.
The other three maids all showed expressions of agony on their faces, with ghastly expressions and clear signs of struggle.
But Ao Na didn’t. Although she was in pain, she clenched her teeth tightly, lying straight on the bed, giving one the impression more like..."
"More like she committed suicide by poisoning herself after successfully carrying out her act, right?"
"Exactly."
Luo An’s expression shifted subtly. He picked up the tail end of Winslow’s sentence and quickly thought to himself. Then, he continued to ask:
"Any other discoveries?"
"The three phone lines connecting the villa to the outside world – two commonly used and one backup – were all cut by soone," Winslow reported a few clues he had found. He then took a deep breath and said solemnly,
"Additionally, team leader, I suspect that on the night of the incident, there were not only the 26 victims and one Rekasha O’Dell inside the villa. There may have been others... and not just one person."
"??!!"
On hearing this, Luo An’s expression turned stern, and he commanded,
"Detail everything after the on-site inspection is complete!"
"Understood!"
After hanging up, Luo An returned to the hotel suite with Michelle. Not noticing any signs of intrusion, Luo An breathed a sigh of relief.
He waved his hand, instructing Michelle to sort out the diary, then Luo An plopped into the chair and began to close his eyes and contemplate the clues of the case.
After a long ponder, several follow-up investigation plans for the case erged in Luo An’s mind. He decided to adapt flexibly according to the actual situation in the future.
Raising his head to check the ti and noting that Mona, Chenier, and the others would not return for a while, Luo An closed his eyes again and began to check the system page in his mind.
The system gave Luo An an [Outstanding] evaluation for his recent performance and accumulated ten treasure chests.
After praying to all the gods he knew of from the east and the west, Luo An opened the ten treasure chests one by one.
The ten chests yielded two bottles of [Featherfall Potion], two bottles of [Painkiller Potion], two bottles of [Hemostatic Potion], one bottle of [Aqua Lung Potion], one bottle of [Swiftness Potion], and two bottles of [Danger Perception Potion].
At this mont, in Luo An’s system inventory page, there were [Stamina Potion x6], [Hemostatic Potion x4], [Antidote Potion x5], almost available every day.
[Swift Potion x3]
[Strength Potion x3]
[Sensitivity Potion x1]
[Painkiller Potion x6]
[Featherfall Potion x2]
[Sleep Potion x1]
[Water Breathing Potion x1]
Seeing the two bottles of [Danger Perception Potion] that he had longed for but had never appeared, Luo An instantly broke into a wide smile and, without a second thought, took them out from the system and gulped them down.
After drinking the two bottles of [Danger Perception Potion], Luo An sat on the sofa waiting for a while, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, quietly anticipating the new effects the potions would bring.
But...it seed like nothing had changed.
With a puzzled face, Luo An fell silent for a few seconds, then tentatively started chatting with Michelle with his "Emotion Perception" turned on, only then did he notice that his "Emotion Perception" of others’ emotional changes had significantly improved.
When Michelle answered different questions, the various emotional fluctuations that arose allowed Luo An, after several attempts, to deduce the truth of her words as if he were in a card ga, with a success rate of almost ninety percent.
Not only that, but when Luo An prompted Michelle to throw a pen at him, he discovered he could clearly sense whether Michelle truly intended to harm him and thus make appropriate judgents and reactions.
This ability...
Handing the pen back to Michelle, Luo An scratched his head and walked back to the living room, beginning to ponder how this new ability could be useful in the future.
Michelle, holding the pen in her hand, appeared utterly befuddled and was at a loss for words for a few seconds, and then continued to pour over the diary, feeling a premonition that it might contain important clues.
————
At one o’clock in the afternoon, Mona, Reesi, Chenier, and Winslow, all four of them returned to the hotel suite one after another.
Luo An pulled over five temporarily purchased whiteboards, affixed photos of the duplex villa, the 26 victims, and Rekasha O’Dell to three of them, and then looked at everyone and said:
"Let’s discuss the clues that everyone has found."
"I’ll start."
Reesi was the first to raise her hand and speak, but she didn’t have much to say, sticking to the causes of death and autopsy reports of the 26 victims.
Having finished, Reesi returned to her seat, and Luo An, expression unchanged, turned to Mona.
"I looked into the surveillance situation."
Due to the concern for personal privacy and distrust in modern technology, Pranay O’Dell had not installed surveillance inside the villa, so what exactly happened inside the villa on the night of the incident remained a mystery.
However, outside of the villa and around the periter fence, the security personnel did install quite a few surveillance caras.
"After careful observation, I’ve found a problem with the surveillance footage from the night of the incident."
Mona showed everyone the surveillance video from her laptop. In the third hour after the conclusion of the party, that is after the guests had already left, the surveillance footage had a very subtle shake lasting less than a second.
Pointing at a tree in one of the surveillance shots, Mona said coldly:
"Starting from this shake, the surveillance footage that followed was tampered with; what’s been playing is all doctored surveillance footage."
"Wow, seems like our culprit is a computer whiz."
Luo An narrowed his eyes slightly, then turned to look at Chenier. Chenier stood up, distributing a stack of docunts to everyone and said as she handed them out:
"This contains the identity information of the 26 victims, along with basic information about their families and friends.
In addition, this thicker folder at the back, the first page has the guest list for that night’s party, and the following dozens of pages have identity information for all the participants of the party, as well as basic information about their families and friends."
Everyone received the thick folders and looked at Chenier with faces full of surprise, wondering how she managed to get her hands on all this in such a short ti.
Chenier didn’t smile, rely explaining in a calm voice:
"It’s simple, Las Vegas never lacks talent."
"OK, thanks for the hard work."
Luo An didn’t ask for details, knowing that Chenier wouldn’t do anything out of line, so he turned his head to look at Winslow sitting beside him, his expression serious as he asked in a concentrated tone:
"Winslow, you ntioned before that there were other people at the scene of the cri; what exactly happened?"
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