Chapter 3: The First Case We Met Last Night

"So there's so much free time here."

Rosalia flipped through the notebook from time to time, clicking her pen on the table.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't say that!" Goby, who was sitting across from her, suddenly turned pale. He interrupted her with a wave of his hand and banged the table twice. "Pah, pah, pah."

Rosalia suddenly realized what was going on and banged the table twice: "Pah!"

Unfortunately, it's too late.

"jingle---"

Suddenly, the phone on her desk rang. When she picked it up, she heard Greg sitting across the wall from her. She looked through the glass door of the office and saw him waving at her.

Greg walked hurriedly in the corridor, followed by Rosalia and Gobbi. He explained as he walked, "There's a new case. The person who called the police has a special identity, and they've asked you to lead the team to investigate."

Seeing the door of the conference room appear before him, he stopped and turned to face Rosalia. With a slightly serious expression on his face, he said:

"We all know why you're here, but this isn't a springboard for you. I hope you're truly capable of a promotion, not just…" He paused, his tone softening. "Anyway, if you have any questions or need any help, just ask. Don't go to those gendarmerie guys."

Rosalia was indifferent to Greg's sharp words. She didn't even say a word or even look at him.

She had been looking through the call information and the identity of the caller. Only when she mentioned the military police did Rosalia raise her head, look directly at Greg, and say word by word:

"I am a police officer now, and I will follow the rules and regulations here."

She was really annoyed that these people always pointed fingers at her previous job, as if if a woman wanted to get promoted in the gendarmerie, there must be some romantic affair behind it.

Greg wasn't angry, and his attitude was very calm, but what he said made people feel inexplicably angry: "I hope so."

Without waiting for Rosalia to speak, Greg pushed open the door to the conference room. Several people were already inside. However, Greg did not introduce them to each other. Instead, he said to Rosalia:

"These are your team members. The information has been synchronized with them. You can lead the team over."

Unlike others, Gobbi and Rosalia did not drive the police car to the caller's home. Greg only assigned them one, obviously not taking the case as seriously as he said.

Rosalia asked the others to drive the police car first, and she and Goby drove Goby's car and followed slowly behind.

There were only two of them in the car. Rosalia said as she tightened her seatbelt, "What do you want to say?"

Her sudden cry startled Gobi, who was trying to light a fire. "What? How did you know I was going to speak?"

Rosalia said, "You should go to the interrogation department and have them teach you a lesson about facial expressions. They're too obvious. If they sent you out undercover, you'd walk through the door and the next moment you'd be out on the high seas with a rock."

When they encountered a red light, Goby stopped the car steadily and turned to look at Rosalia and explained: "Greck wasn't targeting you. He just said that."

Rosalia propped her chin on one hand, looking at the people outside the window, and said calmly, "If he does it once or twice, it means he doesn't mean it. If he always speaks in a hurtful way, then he's doing it on purpose. Or, in other words, he's fearless and doesn't care what others think."

"..." Gobi was speechless. After thinking about what she said, he felt that it made sense and stopped talking. Originally, it was just a matter between the two of them and had nothing to do with him. Explaining it a few words would make it all the same.

The car drove through the bustling city center and became quieter as it got closer to the destination. However, it was not remote, nor was it the desolate wilderness as imagined. On the contrary, the greenery and public facilities here were better than those in the urban area.

Going further in, you can see independent villas. The distance between the houses is very far, providing good privacy for each other.

Because they were following the police car, the security guard did not ask Gobi to stop and register. He just glanced at them and waved them in.

The car didn't stop until it reached a villa near the back. The garden gate was wide open, and several policemen in uniform, wearing equipment on their waists, were coming in and out. They must have been the patrolmen who had arrived first after the alarm was called.

One of the men seemed to be the leader. He was instructing his men to search the corners of the garden when he turned around and saw Rosalia leading the group in. He quickly stepped forward and greeted her:

"Hello, sir. We have searched this area and found no signs of intrusion."

Gobi took the gloves he offered, looked around after hearing what he said, and asked, "Not at all?"

The man shook his head: "No."

Rosalia also asked, "What's missing?"

The man's expression became strange, but he still shook his head and said, "Nothing is lost."

"What?"

This situation was obviously beyond their expectations. Rosalia and Gobi looked at each other.

The three of them continued walking through the garden and into the house. Rosalia looked around and pointed at the surveillance camera in the corner and asked, "Have you checked it?"

"……not yet."

Gobi turned his head and glanced at the man, his tone becoming impatient and he said, "Who are you waiting for to check?"

Rosalia was surprised by this change in attitude. She watched Gobi scold the man without saying anything, waiting for them to finish. After the man ran to check the surveillance, she spoke:

"Did he offend you?"

"No," Gobi frowned. "These patrolmen are just superficial. They just show up when something happens and push all the work onto us."

Unlike the military police, which are more disciplined and have clear divisions of labor between superiors and subordinates, police stations are divided into different types, each with its own specific responsibilities. This kind of inaction often occurs among lower-level police officers.

It’s like a tourist’s wallet was stolen and he had no choice but to register. By the time he received the next call to synchronize his information, two years had passed. This kind of thing is not uncommon.

Pushing open the door to the inner room, he went straight to the living room. There were several people sitting on the sofa. The team members who came with Rosalia were already distributed in twos and threes at their familiar positions. Some went to ask for information about the person who called the police, and some took the equipment box to check the status of the door lock.

Rosalia glanced at the person on the sofa and turned to walk towards the balcony. There was a sliding floor-to-ceiling glass door. She reached out and shook the handle twice, then squatted down to carefully examine the door lock.

"The door locks were not broken."

As she was watching, a soft voice suddenly came to her ears, which sounded a little familiar.

Rosalia looked back and saw a tall man standing behind her, but her appearance was unclear due to the backlight.

Perhaps it was too difficult for Rosalia to squat on the ground and look up, so the man also squatted down and grinned:

"We met last night, do you remember me?"

Oh! Samoyed!

Rosalia suddenly understood.

This was a name she couldn't say out loud, otherwise it would seem unprofessional, so she extended her hand first:

"Did you find the restroom last night?"

Seeing that Rosalia still remembered him, Kaka smiled even more brightly, revealing a row of white teeth, and also extended his hand:

"I found it, thank you. My name is Ricardo Leite, everyone calls me Kaka, you can also call me Richie."

"Rosalia Bianchi, how did you get back last night?"

"I wasn't driving drunk. My teammates drove me back." Kaka quickly explained, "I can ask my teammates to call and prove it."

After saying that, he was about to take out his cell phone, but was stopped by a slender white hand.

"I know," Rosalia said. "Although I can't see what's in your garage, that car should be your daily car. There's a pendant with your team's logo hanging on the rearview mirror."

She straightened up and pointed to the open space directly outside the balcony. "There's no car in the garden's regular parking space. If you had hired a designated driver to take you back, the car would have parked there. So the person who took you back must have been someone you know, not a staff member or assistant. This rules out the possibility that someone close to you committed the crime last night."

She asked again: "Didn't you lose anything?"

Kaka shook his head. "No. There are no valuables in the house, and my personal belongings are all in their original places. The officers just now also said there were no signs of rummaging."

Rosalia was lost in thought. She tapped her fingers twice out of habit. The soft touch from her fingertips startled her, and she subconsciously rubbed them twice more.

Kaka blushed. When Rosalia interrupted him to get his phone, she had pressed his wrist. The subsequent string of words had made both of them forget about it. So Rosalia's hand was still on it, and Kaka didn't pull it away.

Rosalia was even more shameless. She withdrew her hand as if nothing had happened and even praised him, saying, "I didn't expect that you guys have such good skin even after playing football and being exposed to the sun and wind."

As soon as these words were spoken, Kaka's cheeks flushed, and even spread all the way to his neck and ears, and even his chubby earlobes looked ripe.

After teasing the man, Rosalia was in a good mood. She stood up, brushed the dust off her pants, and waved to Gobi.

"Pino, here!"

Gobi was adjusting the instrument in his hand. When he heard the shout, he glanced towards the balcony, turned on the switch and scanned the area.

Kaka saw the red light flashing on it. Gobi was walking around with it, stopping at the table and the TV, and carefully circling it. He was very curious:

"What is this? Are you checking for bugs?"

Rosalia hadn't expected him to guess. She'd assumed these players were all muscled and simple-minded. That wasn't meant to be disparaging, but she'd always known those who were exceptionally good at sports to be less intelligent. They'd either been scammed or failed in their business ventures, forcing them from being third-generation rich to second-generation rich.

"Yes, you said nothing was lost, so we have to rule out other possibilities. What if you offended someone, or a fanatical fan wants to collect information about you?" Rosalia turned to ask Gobi, "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing." Gobi was also puzzled, but when he thought of Kaka's identity, he felt it was normal. "Maybe it was really a fan who wanted to come in to see you. Did you bump into each other?"

Rosalia also turned to look at Kaka.

Kaka recalled what happened last night. Because of the championship, the coach had generously given everyone a few days off, so everyone had been drinking a bit too much. He was no exception, and even woke up this morning still feeling a bit groggy.

"Pippo walked me back from the party last night. He had a stomachache and didn't drink." Kaka glanced at Rosalia. "After he dropped me off, he drove home in my car. It was probably around midnight when I got home. My father was already asleep in the living room. I washed up and wanted to watch some TV, but I fell asleep as soon as I lay down. I stayed asleep until this morning."

Gobi couldn't help asking, "Then how did you find out someone had been in your house?"

Before Kaka could speak, someone next to him suddenly interrupted:

"It was the cleaning lady who asked me if anything had been blown down last night. She said that when she came in this morning, she found that the balcony door and the living room window were not closed."

He added, "But I closed all the windows before I went to bed last night."