Saturday, 10:30 AM, a temporarily borrowed office, conference room.
"These are the personal details of the eight victims from the second serial killing."
Luo An stood up from his chair, gesturing for everyone to review the docunts spread out in the center of the table. He took a whiteboard marker from Michelle and began:
"Jas, male, 30 years old, worked at a chemical plant according to the investigation.
Next is Mandy, female, 26 years old, a store manager before her death.
Jero, male, 18 years old, a high school dropout who worked in a watch shop.
Hazel, female, 40 years old, worked at a laundry.
Hayes, male, 31 years old, a sales manager at a lawn care company.
Pedro, male, 24 years old, worked in a supermarket.
Emily, female, 22 years old, a waitress at a restaurant.
Evren, male, 37 years old, a basketball club coach."
"These victims included Black, White, and Hispanic individuals, both male and female, so financially stable, so still in debt..."
Reesi, who got a folder, looked at the docunts in her hand with furrowed brows:
"It really seems like there's no common link; they didn't even visit the sa places before their deaths, nor banked at the sa bank."
Recalling what Luo An said last night and just now, Mona glanced briefly at the folder then put it down, asking:
"Luo An, you just ntioned a discovery, what did you find?"
Everyone looked up at Luo An, who chuckled and responded:
"My discovery is, there is no prominent common link among these eight victims."
Everyone in the room was bemused, and Reesi remarked:
"Your joke seems a bit cold, Luo An."
"This is not a joke; it's an important clue."
Luo An's face turned serious as he continued:
"Everyone, since we started working on this case, we have focused on the victims, trying to identify common traits or characteristics that might lead us to the killer's habits or targets.
But the problem is, these eight victims differ in race, skin color, social status, so immigrants and so not, and we can't find any useful connections among them."
Chenier raised her eyebrows, understanding Luo An's point, comnted:
"So, you an, we should shift our focus to the killer?"
Luo An nodded, and seeing this, Reesi looked perplexed:
"But we have no leads, where do we start investigating the killer?"
"No, the killer has actually left us a lot of clues."
Luo An shook his head, digging out photos of the site where the eight victims were unearthed and their autopsy reports, explaining:
"First, according to the forensic report, the cause of death for these eight victims was a gunshot to the back of the head.
Second, the graves where the victims were buried have exact dinsions: 1.8 ters long, 1 ter wide, and between 1.2 to 1.5 ters deep.
The burial pits of the victims with little difference in stature have very small variations in their dinsions, almost identical..."
Tapping the whiteboard with the marker sternly, Luo An asked:
"Everyone, assuming that the killer behind this case has the ans to transport the victims, the strength to dig holes, and forces the victims to kneel before the hole he dug, shooting them from behind in an execution-like manner,
what sort of person do you think this killer is?"
As Luo An finished, the room was filled with a sudden change in expressions, and various guesses erged:
"Assassin!"
"Scavenger!"
"Executioner!"
"A self-proclaid righteous executioner!"
"ntally ill!"
"..."
Hearing the last word, everyone montarily paused, turning their heads towards Reesi who had spoken out.
Reesi raised her eyebrows:
"I feel I'm right."
"The possibility of a psychopath cannot be ruled out."
Luo An cleared his throat to draw everyone's attention, and continued:
"Initially, my hypotheses mainly had four directions:
First, the killer is a Scavenger, specifically dealing with things for others.
Second, the killer is an Assassin, and the eight victims were all his contracted targets.
Third, the killer is a self-righteous individual, who saw so actions of the eight victims and felt they violated justice or religious rules, thus representing 'justice' or 'God' to kill them."
The agents sitting on both sides of the conference table nodded in agreent with Luo An's speculations, and Chenier asked:
"What's the fourth hypothesis?"
"The fourth hypothesis is a bit special; I only thought of it last night."
Luo An picked up a whiteboard pen, wrote a few words on the board, then turned around and asked:
"You all know about the 'Brotherhood', right?"
The Brotherhood, a special cultural association within the federation, typically forms organizational gatherings,
College campus Brotherhoods have beco a major venue for students to expand social networks and seek career opportunities after graduation.
However, newcors wanting to join the Brotherhood are generally required to "show loyalty" by completing extrely difficult tasks, such as doing push-ups on broken glass, to prove their determination.
This serial murder case, most likely, is not the masterpiece of the "Brotherhood" inside college campuses.
But hearing Luo An ntion the term "Brotherhood," everyone present suddenly thought of sothing; Chenier was the first to change her expression, saying:
"Luo An, do you an that these eight victims might have been part of so organization's 'loyalty test' for new mbers?"
"Using murder to show loyalty?"
Winslow also changed his expression and speculated:
"Sothing done by a gang?"
"It could also be so other ideologically extre criminal organizations."
Luo An put down the whiteboard pen, crossed his arms over his chest, and said:
"The main problem is that there is no connection between the eight victims; there is no information in the records about them having offended soone.
Additionally, among the eight victims, aside from the sales manager working at the lawn care company who had so money, the rest had low incos.
Especially the 18-year-old boy working in the clock store, who depended entirely on the store owner for his livelihood, and was cleaner than clean.
Therefore, the likelihood of the killer being a Scavenger or Assassin is not high; killing these eight victims likely wouldn't earn them much."
"That's correct."
"It makes sense."
The agents unanimously nodded upon hearing Luo An's speculation and analysis; they found no issues.
Chenier briefly summarized Luo An's hypotheses, then asked:
"Chief, what do we do next?"
"Continue investigating and organizing information."
Luo An said solemnly:
"If the killer believes he represents justice, then he must have acted out against the eight victims for so behavior they exhibited; thus, we need to thoroughly investigate the behavior and experiences of the victims.
Moreover, if the killer is part of a gang, a radical organization, or so group, then this organization cannot be completely unknown as they need to recruit mbers.
And if they recruit mbers, they must leave clues; these are what we need to find."
"Hmm..."
After listening to Luo An, the agents present scratched their heads, Reesi looked troubled and said:
"Luo An, investigating the victims' pasts earlier, although troubleso, isn't particularly difficult.
But investigating how the organizations recruit mbers... It seems like we don't even have a direction to investigate."
These criminal organizations are inevitably very secretive, lacking organization information and without anyone's recomndation, the investigators are completely in the dark, not knowing which direction to go.
Luo An nodded; he was of course aware of the difficulties, but he was already prepared.
Taking out a familiar dark red, phone card-sized card from his pocket, Luo An grinned:
"This Federation land has nurtured many talents.
Now that we've encountered difficulties, it's ti for them to cooperate with our FBI work."
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