The investigation was slower than expected. Listening to the neighbors’ comments, their opinions were roughly “We didn’t get along well, but I thought she was a little weird, but she didn’t get into a lot of arguments. She didn’t like to talk very much in the first place.” As the inquiry continued, Tim grew a little uneasy. Could this be the first crime of another serial killer? What if there was a grudge against a middle-aged woman of that age, rather than a grudge against Mrs. Zegens? What if the murderer turned the doorknob randomly and then went into an unlocked house and committed the crime?
“Well, I don’t know if the door was open, but I didn’t hear any screams or resistance, looking at that, well, was it open?”
“If you think so.”
The testimony of Mrs. Amanda next door.
“The lady? I know. I was playing baseball on the street, and the ball went into the yard, and the lady chased me with scary eyes, and everyone ran away without saying anything about the ball.”
The story of Hans, the little neighbor.
“Oh, come to think of it, I’ve seen a suspicious-looking man snooping around her house. It’s not even a pretty girl’s house, so I wondered why. Even if it’s a robbery, the only person who comes by is the salary man, his son.”
After hearing the testimony of Clara, a high school girl next door, Jude and Tim stopped walking around the house and headed to the crime scene. At the crime scene surrounded by yellow tape, there was still the smell of dry blood.
“Is the testimony made by a high school girl correct?”
“I don’t know. There could be evidence from the inspection team.”
“Could it be a robbery …”
“I don’t think it’s impossible. But it wasn’t the robbery that caused the murder. If it’s a robbery, you can just stab her once and get the money, but in this case it’s too much. Did you investigate the son’s side?”
“Yes, the financial record was clean, and there was no evidence of a big argument with his mother. On the contrary, he was the only one who came to this house, and he was very obedient when he was young.”
“Oh yeah.”
“And all the neighbors around here have alibi. Besides, as the son said, no one has fought big enough to kill this middle-aged lady like this. They’re all ordinary families, so there’s nothing strange about that, it’s naturally out of focus …”
“Alvin Jones looked normal, too. No, he seemed rather outstanding.”
Tim stopped for a moment and looked back at Jude. There was not much emotion in the eyes of his partner.
“Do you think this case was also… …a guy like Alvin Jones?”
“No, I don’t mean that. It’s too emotional to think it was done by someone like Alvin Jones. You can feel the hatred in this case. Alvin Jones, like, sort of killed and tortured people as if he was killing ants. Well, you know what little kids say naively, “I was wondering how long it would take to burn an ant if I lighted the ants with a magnifying glass.” There’s a high possibility it’s an action purely experimental.”
“……. same person, who?”
“He doesn’t see others as being like him, and he doesn’t really feel someone else’s pain. They’re psychopaths, don’t they? Strictly speaking, I think he’s a mixed psychopath, but he’s got it perfectly.”
“When he talked to you, did he say that?”
“Yes. Well, having purely experimental passion was the main reason, and the little things that caused it were just literally trivial. Someone was a little rude, or was trying to get too close to him. Someone with no feelings confessed that they liked him in the face and he thought, “Oh, it would be good to use these people to do it,” and after that, you know.”
You actually put a colleague in a place where he could hear this story for four hours? Tim turned his head and chewed it out, feeling both deep guilt and anger at the moment.
“Better hell, those guys would know how painful the dead were when they were sick.”
“He doesn’t even feel his own pain. It’s hard to recognize that it hurts even in a painful situation. There are some psychopaths who only feel compassion for themselves, but this one is the opposite. He doesn’t even have much affection for himself.”
“How do you know?”
“He didn’t move a muscle on his face even when he was told he was going to die.”
“… …crazy.”
With a deep disgust, Tim spat out a curse, and looked around the bloodstained kitchen. The weapon that killed the woman has yet to be found, but the autopsy doctor told him it was probably a large one, such as a kitchen knife. The criminal cut her throat carefully. Maybe the criminal took it and ran away.
As Tim was careful not to step on the bloodstain, Jude, who was looking closely at the sink from the other side, waved his hand to call Tim.
“Tim, Tim. Come here.”
“Why?”
“Here, look at the kitchen knife. One of the things that should stay there is empty.”
Looking back, only the largest compartment was empty in the kitchen knife with the sink compartment neatly inserted.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Was the weapon taken out of here?”
“Maybe. Other places are pathologically clean and perfect. There’s a sense of incompatibility that it’s empty only here.”
“… …weird. It’s strange that the weapon the criminal killed with is this kitchen knife. If the criminal had planned to come into this house, he would have prepared his own weapons and brought them with him.”
“Well, maybe he came bringing something like a club first and then killing her later with a kitchen knife?”
“That’s weird. If he was holding a club or something, he should’ve hit her first so that there was no scream. Yes, that’s the inevitable order. Bang her head from behind, knock her out and cut her throat. That makes sense. But I didn’t hear such blunt damage from the autopsy. So he’s going to kill her with a kitchen knife from the start? Then he should have walked to the sink and pulled out the kitchen knife. But there’s no way the lady didn’t see it. She would have screamed, or rebelled.”
“What, then. What happened?”
Jude shut his mouth for a moment. His face when he agonizes over the incident is not much different from his face when he chooses pizza at a pizza parlor. Tim looked at Jude, feeling somehow stupid in his nervousness. He soon turned away in a weird manner.
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“Let’s go back to the police station.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I’ve got a few things to check. You haven’t sent back the officials yet, have you?”
“Oh….. soon, probably.”
By the side of Jude’s swagger, Tim quickly followed. He was well aware that when a partner with little seriousness comes out like this, there is a way out of the predicament.