Chapter 618: A Diseased Crisis (Part Four) (Patreon)

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Thinking about the scent of a cover-up, their next task was to determine which cleaning company the central bank had hired and what kind of cleaning agents this company used.

Identifying the cleaning company was straightforward, as their distinctive all-blue uniforms revealed everything. Lex operated the keyboard nearby and said, "Previously, Luthor Manor also hired this company. Their full name is Metropolis Snow Mountain Cleaning Limited Company, and they are the largest cleaning company in Metropolis, with over 1800 employees."

"Here, these are their materials. I hacked into their internal database and retrieved their recent business information. According to this material, the central bank scheduled a glass curtain wall cleaning service on March 18th."

Bruce approached the screen, studying the displayed information. The order details showed that Metropolis Central Bank had reserved the glass curtain wall cleaning service, involving 50 individuals, with 43 of them being male cleaning staff, excluding technical personnel and drivers.

The information indicated they dispatched three vehicles, each equipped with four large toolboxes. One of these toolboxes contained all the cleaning agents, but it didn't specify the exact brand.

Lex continued to navigate on the computer screen, "They use a cleaning agent called 'Pailo,' marked with a blue bear head logo. It's also known as the 'Blue Bear Cleaning Agent,' and Snow Mountain Company has been using it for over a decade."

"It's a cleaning agent specialized for glass curtain walls, and it's not a finished product. They need to purchase the raw materials and mix them themselves. I'm currently looking up their procurement details."

After a few more computer commands, Lex said, "Their formula is confidential, but I can find the approximate chemical composition. Based on the ingredients, it definitely has an odor, but whether it can mask the smell of blood is uncertain."

Bruce glanced at the screen's ingredients and commented, "These ingredients, when combined, will definitely produce a smell. Wayne Family owns many chemical factories, some of which produce cleaning agent raw materials. However, if the bottles have good sealing, the odor won't escape."

"That's easily manageable. Just create a little accident, break a few of the bottles, and let the scent linger in the delivery truck. Or better yet, apply the cleaning agent to a cloth or mop in advance. The scent will linger for a long time, especially when stored in the same truck during transport; it can act as a cover-up," Lex explained.

Bruce gave him a sidelong glance, as if asking, "Why are you so proficient in this?" Lex responded confidently with a look that said, "We're in this together."

They reviewed all the surveillance footage once again, trying to analyze which toolbox might contain the concealed body. Once they found that toolbox, they could potentially identify the person responsible for moving it, who might be the murderer.

Among the eight large toolboxes, two were not sealed and contained relatively few items, with footage showing the contents. These could be ruled out. The remaining six toolboxes were tightly sealed and looked identical.

There were significant blind spots in the central bank's surveillance, notably in the important first-floor lobby, where half of it was obscured. Even more worrisome was the lack of surveillance at the first-floor elevator. In other words, after these boxes were moved to the elevator, it was impossible to determine which box went onto which elevator and where they went next.

Bruce and Lex discussed for 20 minutes, repeatedly calculating the movement of the boxes and their potential routes. Ultimately, they could only narrow down the suspicious boxes to three, all of which had no footage of the moving or usage scenes.

Finally, while scrutinizing the surveillance footage frame by frame, they discovered something different about one of the boxes.

The surveillance footage showed a janitor pushing one of the boxes down a corridor when suddenly a woman stopped him.

The footage only captured their feet and the bottom of the box, without their faces or audio. The janitor and the box appeared normal, but the woman wore different shoes from the bank's employees.

Lex found a promotional video of the central bank online, showing that all female employees wore identical attire, including professional suits and the same type of shoes. However, the woman in the footage wore black, pointed high heels, which were not the standard gray, round-toed high heels worn by bank staff.

Using the shoe's style as a clue, Lex identified the brand of these shoes as the latest season's Prada, which had a very high price tag and required advance reservations. In other words, ordinary female bank employees couldn't afford these shoes, and the wearer was likely affluent.

Following this lead, Bruce and Lex deduced that this woman was probably not a bank employee but the business owner who came to transact.

So, Lex began to investigate the central bank's large transactions on that day. He soon discovered that since the end of February, the central bank had been monitoring a significant transaction involving Pailo Chemical Raw Material Manufacturing Limited Company and Snow Mountain Cleaning Limited Company, with Pailo receiving a substantial loan, personally approved by the bank's president.

The cold light from the computer illuminated Lex's face, turning his red hair an eerie shade of purple. After concentrating for a while, he straightened up and turned to Bruce, saying, "Now, there's some good news and some bad news."

"Let's start with the bad news," Bruce interrupted Lex.

"The good news is, I've identified the woman. She's the owner of Pailo Company, and she came to the bank building today to negotiate with the bank's president," Lex began.

"But the president has already been murdered, so her business deal likely didn't go through," Bruce said. "She should have seen one of the toolboxes, and their conversation lasted over 30 seconds. If that toolbox had something unusual, she should have noticed. Can we contact her now?"

"This is where the bad news comes in," Lex turned to the screen. "She is the second victim."

Lex pressed a button, and an image appeared on the screen. It was a middle-aged woman with a calm demeanor. However, both Bruce and Lex had seen another image of her in the news: a gruesome one where her chest and abdomen were cut open, her ears removed, and signal receivers inserted into them.

Bruce suddenly paused and said, "The killer is directing our gaze."

He turned to Lex, and they exchanged a meaningful look, both understanding the same message.

"Professor Shiller once said," Lex began pacing, "that real serial killers intentionally leave various clues to guide investigators' attention, to make them notice what the killer wants them to notice."

"What does he want us to notice?" Bruce posed a question, but it seemed more like he was thinking aloud. "The first victim was the bank's president, the second victim was the owner of Pailo Company, and there was a business deal between them."

"What is the nature of this transaction involving the bank, Pailo Company, and Snow Mountain Company? And why did the killer choose to eliminate the leaders of two sides?" Lex squinted his eyes, questioning, "What's hidden behind this transaction, and should we be looking into it?"

"Professor Shiller also mentioned that the killer's guidance isn't without purpose. They often want to reveal their motive to investigators, potentially exposing some injustice, their own tragic history, or their understanding of an innocent act," Bruce recalled while walking.

"So, there could be hidden motives behind this transaction?" Lex stopped pacing and pondered.

"In general, regular murderers try to eliminate all traces and prevent investigators from finding them. But serial killers tend to do the opposite; they deliberately leave clues to guide investigators' gaze. So, following their guidance in an investigation may not necessarily be a bad thing. It might help us uncover the killer's motive," Bruce explained. Then he turned and headed towards the door, saying, "I'll investigate the bank, Snow Mountain Company, and Pailo Company to see if there are any issues in these three places. Meanwhile, you..."

Bruce paused at the door and turned back, "You continue working with the police to obtain the materials for the second case. Also, keep an eye on the owner of Snow Mountain Company; he might become the third victim."

After Bruce left, Lex brought up another interface displaying the results obtained from the police investigation. Among the information, the only useful piece was the timeline provided by witnesses.

The last person who had seen the bank's president was a security guard in the residential area where the president lived. On the evening of April 2nd, the bank president had returned home in his car. Since his family was not in the city, he lived alone and hadn't left his residence since. On April 3rd, his corpse was found on the street in front of the bank's entrance.

The street in the residential area had no surveillance cameras, and the patrolling security guards hadn't noticed any suspicious individuals. Even two blocks away, no one had reported anything unusual. Consequently, this lead came to a dead end, prompting Bruce and Lex to focus on the events inside the bank building.

Soon after, Lex received the timeline materials concerning the second victim from the police. However, there was a particularly strange detail in it.

According to the police materials, the last eyewitness who claimed to have seen the female business owner stated that he had seen her on the 16th floor in the bank president's office at 1:10 PM. After that, no one had seen her.

However, the monitoring equipment's footage that Lex and Bruce had just reviewed showed the woman on a corridor at 1:10 PM, where she had stopped a janitor.

In other words, the janitor pushing the toolbox was the last eyewitness, and none of the janitors' testimonies had mentioned this.

This strongly supported Bruce and Lex's hypothesis that the killer had infiltrated the group of janitors. After disposing of the first victim's body, they had killed the second victim on the spot.

Lex lowered his head and looked at the materials transmitted by the police. According to them, the second victim's corpse had been discovered on the street in front of the Pailo Company building.

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Next Chapter >>Chapter 619: Pathological Crisis (Part Five)