"Yes, I did say that before."
Luo An nodded, then shook his head and said:
"But I've realized it might be futile to just look at the victims' wedding dates. We have to start with the perpetrator."
"?"
With puzzled expressions on their faces, Reesi and Rider left the eting room, while Luo An at his own desk, pulled out a folder with the victims' information.
He called over Mona, who was still typing at her keyboard, and with a sign pen, Luo An drew a big circle around the disappearance dates of the four victims.
"Pay attention."
Luo An placed the file folder in front of the three and spoke in a grave tone:
"I just realized that the first victim went missing eight months ago, which roughly translates to 32 weeks ago,
the second victim went missing two months ago, which is roughly 8 weeks ago,
the third victim went missing one month ago, which is roughly 4 weeks ago,
and the fourth victim went missing 2 weeks ago.
Of course, this is the ti when the cases were handed over to our Investigation Team Five, not today."
"Holy Shit!"
"Fuck!"
Seeing the numbers that Luo An wrote on the files, both Reesi and Rider cursed, while Mona's eyes lit up, exclaiming:
"Geotric sequence?"
"No, it's not."
"?"
Ignoring his own reflexive retort, Luo An nodded to Mona and said:
"It could be a geotric sequence with a missing 16. We can boldly speculate that there might have been a victim around four months ago, it's just that her body hasn't been discovered yet.
Or, the police in New Jersey may have found her body but attributed it to a different case."
"Damn it!"
Muttering a curse about the New Jersey police under her breath, Reesi shifted her gaze from the file and looked at Luo An, asking:
"But 2 is the smallest number in the geotric sequence; doesn't that an the perpetrator won't kill again?"
"It's only a possibility that it's a geotric sequence, it's not 100%."
Luo An shook his head and said solemnly:
"Think about it from another angle; two 2s make 4, and two 4s make 8, so what two items add up to 2?"
"Two 1s!"
"Son of a gun!"
Reesi responded, Mona cursed, Rider furrowed his brows and downed a bitter sip of coffee.
This ant that the perpetrator might continue to commit cris this week.
Whoosh—
Walking to the front of Investigation Team Five's office area, Luo An picked up a whiteboard, wiped off everything that Augustus had written on it, and then started writing seriously.
After a mont, under the solemn gaze of the agents from Investigation Team Five, Luo An finished docunting all the clues and analysis he had gathered.
He cleared his throat, just about to present to everyone, when Augustus and Virene suddenly walked in.
"Chief."
Virene waved her hand and, seeing that all agents of Investigation Team Five gathered around Luo An, coldly asked:
"What's happened?"
"Nothing much. Just about to discuss the case with everyone."
Luo An threw the pen in his hand aside, looked at Virene with a smile, and asked:
"Chief, do you have any new tasks for us?"
Without answering Luo An's question, Virene walked over to the whiteboard, closely inspected it for a mont, and tilted her head to ask:
"The Lake Serial Killer Case?"
While Luo An was joking around with Augustus, inquiring why Virene ca to Investigation Team Five, upon hearing her indifferent voice, he imdiately answered:
"Yes, that's right, it's this case. We've just got so new leads and were about to discuss them with everyone."
Virene nodded without saying much and carelessly pulled over an agent's chair to sit down, crossing her legs:
"Speak."
"...OK."
Seeing Augustus also pulled over a chair to sit next to Virene without telling him anything, Luo An licked the corner of his mouth without caring and picked up a pen to start explaining.
Snap—
The whiteboard marker tapped the top left corner, Luo An pointed to the PPT... pointing to the information on the whiteboard:
"The first victim, Linda Chipo, married, twenty-eight years old. The second victim, Beatrix Leon, married, thirty-four years old. The third victim, Natalie Carrel, married, twenty-five years old. The fourth victim, Tamara Terry, married, thirty years old.
When the case first landed with Investigation Team 5, we only found the following similarities between the victims:
First: All are married won.
Second: After the kidnapper abducted the victims, they were tortured for so ti, causing bruises on their upper bodies and lacerations on their lower bodies.
Third: The killer strangled them using a rope.
Fourth: After murdering them, the killer took the rings off the victims' hands."
Listening to Luo An's narrative, Mona, Agent Reesi, and the rest of the agents beca more focused. Augustus nodded with satisfaction, Virene swapped the leg that was crossed, pursed her lips slightly without changing her expression, and didn't say a word.
"Due to the victims' bodies being soaked in the lake water for too long, the forensic doctor couldn't find the killer's DNA, and the above information was not sufficient to determine the identity of the killer, which is why we carried out subsequent investigations."
Holding the whiteboard marker, Luo An tapped the text in the central area of the whiteboard, and spoke with a grave expression:
"During the investigation, we discovered new connections between the victims:
First: The church where the four victims got married was the sa, all at Little Saint Phil Church.
Second: Drawing a circle with a radius of 3 miles centered around Little Saint Phil Church, we found that the lakes where the bodies were discovered, as well as the hos of the four victims, are all within this circle.
Third: The ti of the victims' disappearances, which is also when the killer took action, converted into weeks, were 32 weeks ago, 8 weeks ago, 4 weeks ago, and 2 weeks ago respectively, missing 16, suggesting a geotric sequence."
Hearing this, Mona and Reesi, who was embracing her slender waist, remained expressionless; Agent Rider took another gulp of his bitter coffee. The rest of the agents' expressions turned solemn. Augustus opened his mouth wanting to ask a question but then fell silent again after looking at Virene.
Virene stared at the text on the whiteboard, her eyes narrowing slightly, pondered for a mont, and questioned:
"What are you planning to do next?"
Luo An glanced at Virene, his expression unchanged, pointed at the text in the top right corner of the whiteboard with his whiteboard marker and said gravely:
"Firstly, Agent Reesi and Agent Rider have already retrieved the list of newly married couples from Little Saint Phil Church from the last two and a half years.
Secondly, according to the records, the first victim, Linda Chipo, was married eleven months ago and disappeared eight months ago. The second victim, Beatrix Leon, was married five months ago and disappeared two months ago. The third victim, Natalie Carrel, was married four months ago and disappeared one month ago.
Aside from the fourth victim, Tamara Terry, who was married eight years ago but disappeared two weeks ago, all the others were abducted by the killer during their third month of marriage.
Therefore, we have four actions to take next:
First: Thoroughly investigate the people within Little Saint Phil Church, it's impossible for this case to have no connection with them.
Second: Focus on investigating couples who were married at Little Saint Phil Church three months ago and currently reside within the circle, to see if there have been any disappearances among these couples this week.
While investigating, leave our contact information so that the victims' families can reach us promptly if another incident occurs.
Third: Investigate couples who were married at Saint Phil Church seven months ago, which is three months before the 16th week interval, and resided within the circle within four months of their marriage, to see if any of them have gone missing.
If such cases are found, then we may be able to trace the killer and catch him.
Fourth: Investigate ex-convicts who reside within the circle near Little Saint Phil Church, those who have been incarcerated for forcible cases, stalking cases, indecency cases, etc., but have been released within the last year.
Because the forensic report shows that the killer is not a first-ti murderer and that the cris are progressively escalated, these people are also highly suspect."
Having said this, Luo An turned around, his expression serious, and addressed everyone:
"The more the killer does, the greater the chance of making a mistake, and the higher our chance of catching him. I believe that as long as we, Team 5, work together, we will definitely catch this killer!"
"GOOD!"
"That's right!"
"Well done!"
After listening to Luo An's analysis, the agents of Investigation Team 5 felt encouraged and started to applaud.
Augustus too stood up from his chair, slapped Luo An on the shoulder, laughed heartily for a few monts before turning back to the rest of the agents, and shouted:
"Now, everyone start investigating the individuals Luo An just ntioned! Let's throw the killer into prison with utmost speed!"
The agents took the big cardboard box containing the information of newly married couples back to their workstations and got to work.
Virene's expression remained unchanged, but she felt very satisfied. She stood up from her chair and walked towards Augustus's team leader office.
As she passed by Luo An, Virene said to him in a cold voice:
"Co in."
Luo An: "?"
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