Chapter 366: Chapter 232 Lame Master_2
Lawrence nodded. "Dean, girls who get involved in gangs and start dealing Silver at such a young age generally come from unbearable family conditions and drop out of school early. They often have decent looks, the type other kids their age might see as having a special charm—the ’bad girls.’ There have been cases before where, after a prostitute was disciplined by the gang controlling her, it provoked her suitors into a retaliatory shooting. So I suspect this is a similar case."
In a country overrun with guns, even eleven or twelve-year-old kids have the ability to kill a strong adult casually. So, what Lawrence suggested wasn’t impossible. But this murder was definitely not that simple!
Dean shook his head, squatted down, and pointed at the destructive wound on the victim’s throat. "Lawrence, you must pay attention to the splattered transparent liquid on the wall behind the victim. It’s cerebrospinal fluid, indicating that the wound was penetrating. This requires a great deal of strength and skill. Therefore, the murderer is likely an adult male. The wound is at a significant angle. Based on the force applied, the killer is probably around 1.75 meters tall, has strong hands, is skilled with a weapon similar to a diamond-shaped military spike, may have military service experience, and must harbor a deep hatred towards the victim. Otherwise, an expert in close combat would rarely use such a laborious method to kill someone!"
After saying that, Dean pointed to the victim’s lower body and hands. "There are wet stains on the victim’s trousers, and his hands are damp. He must have just finished using the toilet and carelessly wiped his hands on his trousers. The very moment he stepped out, he was killed right outside the door, which is why he fell near the bathroom entrance. This means the murderer was tracking the victim. According to the information provided by the bartender, the victim’s subordinate had called away a young woman who was drinking here more than ten minutes earlier. These types of people usually accompany the women to work, both for surveillance and protection. To remain inconspicuous, they typically sit in their car, which also makes it convenient to transport these women to locations specified by customers. So, we should be able to find the clues we need from the bar’s surveillance footage!"
"FK!" Lawrence’s jowls quivered, a look of pure satisfaction spreading across his face. "Dean, the feeling’s back! This is exactly it!" He pulled out a crumpled cigarette, lit it, and said somewhat wistfully, "Partnering with you was always so comfortable. It wasn’t until I started leading my own team that I realized things weren’t nearly as smooth. It’s like a woman who’s been with a more skilled man—she can never go back!"
Dean remarked, "...Lawrence, you certainly have a way with words!"
The interior of some bars might not have surveillance installed, but in a place where incidents frequently occur, there are definitely sufficient surveillance facilities outside for security.
After the forensics team arrived, Dean and Lawrence took the surveillance footage provided by the bar and went with them to the forensics department. It wasn’t that they couldn’t view the footage elsewhere; rather, the forensics department, as a professional agency, not only had the necessary equipment for playback but also technical personnel to provide assistance. This included enhancing image clarity, reducing noise, and enlarging and restoring faces—tasks impossible for the naked eye.
With the help of the technicians, the originally mediocre-quality footage immediately became much clearer. After a flurry of activity on their keyboards, everyone appearing in the footage was highlighted with a bounding box. The boxes varied in color, indicating the different heights of the individuals and helping Dean and his team find their target.
Considering when the victim appeared and the time of death, Dean and his team focused the surveillance footage on the half-hour before the body was discovered. Soon, they found the target vehicle.
About twenty minutes before the body was discovered, a gray sedan appeared on the surveillance footage, stopping across the street from the bar. Three men alighted: one tall and two short. The tall man was the victim, Anbu.
After the three exited the car, one of the shorter men took out a phone, held it to his ear for a moment, and walked into the quiet bar, seemingly muttering curses. About five minutes later, he dragged out a petite, scantily clad girl. The girl was pulled in front of Anbu. He grabbed her, said something, and then tried to drag her into the car.
The girl appeared terrified and became very agitated, trying to struggle. Anbu slapped her so hard she slammed against the car and then rolled out of the surveillance frame.
A moment later, the car’s trunk was opened. The two shorter men drove off first, while Anbu, still cursing, walked into the back alley and never reappeared on camera. Because... he was dead.
After the first review of the surveillance footage, Lawrence stroked his chin. "That girl, Annie, was probably knocked out or killed on the spot by that bastard Anbu. But I didn’t see anyone following Anbu’s car in the footage."
Dean nodded. During the time Anbu and his companions were present, although many people passed by, they were all in groups; no one fitting their earlier suspect profile appeared on screen.
The only things they could be sure of were that the victim, Anbu, had entered the bar around 9:20 PM, and the commotion from the discovery of his body occurred around 9:25 PM. Excluding the time he spent in the restroom, they were almost certain: both the time and manner of Anbu’s death matched Dean’s conjecture. The man had been killed just after finishing in the restroom.
This meant the murderer had been in the bar *before* Anbu entered!
"Lawrence, I suspect your initial thought was right," Dean said. "Extend the surveillance timeframe. Let’s review the footage from before and after that ’Silver Girl,’ Annie, entered the bar. We might find something."
Lawrence shrugged. "Alright. Though you just dismissed my theory."
Dean rolled his eyes. "That’s because I wasn’t sure if the victim was being followed before he died. He probably had a sudden urge for a ’banana’ and figured he’d use the restroom at the quiet bar, only to be killed right after. What crossed your mind?"
"Someone in the bar witnessed their assault on Annie and was driven to kill?" Lawrence ventured.
"Exactly!" Dean affirmed. "If I’m not mistaken, those two punks who left are in serious trouble by now, but that’s not our problem. Our priority is to identify a suspect!"
Dean was quite intrigued by a killer who could use a bladed weapon to pierce straight through someone’s throat and out the back of their head. Such experts in bladed weaponry were becoming increasingly rare with the rise of firearms.
This time, they shifted the focus of their surveillance. Dean and Lawrence finally spotted a potential suspect.
After ’Silver Girl’ Annie entered the bar, a slim man wearing a baseball cap, his movements somewhat uncoordinated as he limped, followed her inside and made what looked like a greeting gesture. His height was right around 1.75 meters!
Lawrence was skeptical, seeing the man limp and his movements appearing somewhat awkward. In his opinion, such a person, even armed with a bladed weapon, would find it incredibly difficult to pierce the skull of a nearly two-meter-tall, burly man, avoiding all the hard cranial bones to deliver a single, precise, fatal strike.
But when Dean observed the rhythm of the man’s walk and the swing of his arms, he immediately concluded that this limper was an expert—an extremely skilled one!