North American Detective: I am Proficient in All Kinds of Gun Quick Draws Chapter 376 - 237: Scene Replay! (Monthly ticket bonus!)1

Under the warm orange light, a pink room ca into view. The little girl’s room was warmly decorated.

The deceased couple must have loved their daughter dearly.

Sadly, the chaotic bloody footprints on the floor added a sinister feel to this warmth. The bedsheet, piled with stuffed animals, was spattered with bloodstains.

A sweet-looking blonde little girl, dressed in clean clothes, seed to be peacefully asleep, her lips slightly upturned as if enjoying a beautiful dream—a picture of serene tranquility.

Unfortunately, this little girl, at most six or seven years old, was also dead.

A bullet had penetrated her forehead. The resulting fan-shaped splatter of brain matter and blood coated one side of the nightstand. These splashes, resembling blooming plum blossoms, conveyed to Dean what had happened here a few hours earlier:

The killer had grabbed the little girl at the head of the bed, gun pointed at her forehead.

BANG.

Holz, looking again at the sweet little girl’s ’sleeping’ form, couldn’t help but sigh. "Her clothes and the blood on them have been cleaned. The killer used several different weapons to brutally murder her parents and grandmother, but after killing the little girl, they changed her into clean clothes and tidied up her likely unsightly appearance after death. Just like... how one would treat a beloved Barbie doll. The killer harbored extre hatred for the girl’s family but showed special tenderness towards her. The only thing I can think of is that the killer must be an extre pedophile."

Dean didn’t speak. He walked to the nightstand, crouched down, and peered under the bed. A drag mark caught his eye.

Combining this with what he had briefly seen of the cri scene, a picture imdiately ford in his mind:

The killer burst in, first killing the old woman, then the husband. The wife urgently told her daughter to escape upstairs while she stayed behind to fight the killer, only to be gruesoly murdered in the bathroom. And the helpless little girl, shivering with fear, hid under the bed. It might have been the safest place she could think of. But this was a massacre, not child’s play. The poor little girl was eventually dragged out by the killer and shot in the head...

Holz, still standing nearby, offered his opinion, "There’s been a similar case before. A pedophile fancied the son of his new neighbors. At first, he just got close, took secret photos, then it escalated to voyeurism. He was eventually caught by the boy’s father, arrested, and expelled from the community. After being bailed out, he believed the boy’s family had taken away his beloved, so he brutally murdered the whole family. Then, holding the boy in his arms, he set fire to the house with the police surrounding it. This case is very similar to that one!"

"But a pedophile wouldn’t treat their target so brutally!" Dean picked up the little girl’s dusty fingernail, congealed blood visible at its base, and pointed to the underside of the bed. "The killer dragged her out from under the bed quite forcefully before shooting her. That’s not how one treats a beloved object."

"So what characteristics do you think the killer in this case has?" Though Holz thought Dean had a point, he hadn’t been proven wrong by Dean in a while and couldn’t resist retorting.

"Multiple people!" Dean snapped his fingers. "And a detailed, ticulously preditated cri, right down to how they’d evade the law! Holz, you’re overlooking sothing very important!"

"What?"

"The victims’ reaction ti!" Dean took off his gloves and patted Holz on the shoulder with a lecturing tone. "The weapons found so far include knives, guns, and a broken iron fra. Apart from the wife, none of the others showed signs of resistance. And, except for the little girl, the rest were sadistically killed! Did you consider the reaction ti of the others while one person was being killed?"

Holz had a sudden realization. That’s right! It was a crucial detail, but because he had no experience with murder, he’d subconsciously overlooked it. The old woman was stabbed four or five tis. Even if the dagger was incredibly sharp, the process—opening the door, tackling her, stabbing, pulling the knife out—would take at least ten seconds. Faced with a sudden event, ordinary people, unless they were complete novices who had never witnessed such a scene, would have enough ti to react. The sa was true for the husband. He was shot at least seventeen tis. There were no signs of missed shots nearby. Even if the shooter was an experienced marksman with a pistol that had minimal recoil, it would have been difficult to fire all those bullets in such a short ti and then pursue the wife and little girl. So, while the old woman was being stabbed, another killer must have been shooting the husband. When the wife tried to flee with her daughter, the killer who had stabbed the old woman likely pursued them. In desperation, the wife must have confronted that killer to let her daughter escape, only to die in the bathroom herself.

Having sorted through these points, Holz said with admiration, "I understand now, Dean. There were at least two killers!"

Dean wagged a finger. "Wrong. Three!" As he observed the bloody footprints on the floor, he explained, "Actually, your previous deduction about a pedophile was probably correct. However, of the three, only one is a pedophile! For the current scene to make sense, one of the other two must have harbored hatred for the old woman and the wife, and the last one for the husband!"

Dean paused, walked out into the corridor, and took out a cigarette. Holz, eager to learn more, quickly took off his gloves, pulled a lighter from his pocket, and attentively lit Dean’s cigarette. "Go on, Dean!"