Chapter 134: Whitechapel Serial Murders Every day for colleagues' hearts...
JUDY STARLING: ...
If you speak in this tone while standing in a pool of blood, passers-by will think you are a murderer, right?
I worry about my colleagues' mental state every day.
"Tell me more about it."
Judy turned to a blank page and wrote the words "Suspected Copycat Case" on it.
Although she complained in her heart, she still trusted her colleague's judgment.
"From the first to the second case, the murderer's violence has increased," the man said. "But it's clear that the murderer's methods have become more organized."
"In other words, his need for a 'sense of ritual' grew even stronger – from the unaesthetic scattering of entrails in the first case to the neat arrangement of the entrails and severed hands on a chair in the second, he artificially created a 'ritual' and gradually perfected it."
"With each crime, he would refine his ritual, making it better. With subsequent crimes, the ritual would evolve."
"And the crime you're seeing... is... a crime you don't even know what you're doing." The man lowered his gaze, looking at the blood, organs, and the woman's body slumped over the bathroom counter. He said calmly, "It's just the product of an impulsive crime coupled with violent venting."
"Do you remember the autopsy results of the victims in the previous two cases?"
Judy Stelling flipped the pages forward. "The body in the church was strangled to death. The body in the park was drowned."
"They were all strangled or drowned first, their clothes removed, and then their stomachs ripped open. But this one..." the man glanced at the body, "was stabbed to death with a knife in a vital area. Her clothes were still on, mixed with the blood."
"Think about it, if you were the murderer, would you let such a disgusting thing happen?"
JUDY STARLING: ...
First, she didn't want to bring in a serial killer who brutally murdered several women;
Secondly, does the “disgusting thing” refer to the pieces of clothing mixed with blood, making the clothes dirty?
"The body was soiled." The man seemed to know what she was thinking and said, "Think again, where were the bodies placed in the first and second cases?"
Judy Stelling: "In the church, and in the pond in the park...?"
"What's around them?"
Judy recalled it carefully and was suddenly shocked: "The holy image!"
The bodies in the church fell in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary, and there was also a statue of the Virgin Mary standing in the middle of the park pond!
The murderer also had his own "sense of ritual" when it came to placing the body!
"So, if he were to commit another crime, he wouldn't choose this place." The man's expression grew increasingly world-weary. "A bathroom with nothing special about it."
JUDY STARLING: ...
This crime scene is indeed quite different...
"Well, if this is indeed a copycat crime, who could be the perpetrator?"
Kim Bonnar turned and stared at her.
That means: I thought this was your job.
"Okay, okay, I know your mission has been accomplished, our psychological profiler." Judy Stelling waved her hand helplessly. "Although this 'poor imitation case' doesn't interest you, can you at least tell us the characteristics of the murderer?"
"White, green eyes, slightly overweight, short hair, wearing a three-piece suit and leather shoes, and wearing glasses." Jin said, stepping on the clean tiles and stepping over the pool of blood.
JUDY STELLING: ?
Her original intention was to ask this colleague, who was a psychological profiler, to briefly summarize the murderer's personality to make it easier for them to find him.
Unexpectedly, he told them his appearance and clothes directly.
Can psychological profiling be so specific?
Could it be that this guy already knows who the murderer is?
Judy couldn't help but ask her doubts.
"You already know who he is?"
"This is your job, Judy. If Shuichi Akai comes, that's his job. Since he doesn't come, that's your job." The white-haired man pushed open the door and didn't directly answer Judy's question. He just said coldly, "I have something else to do. I'll wait for you in the lounge."
After saying that, he walked past the police and FBI and headed towards the lounge.
Judy watched him leave, muttering, "This guy..."
Just like before, I only devote my efforts to the cases that interest me.
Most of the time, like Shuichi, he likes to act cool.
But why was he here? Schindler's new product launch... When did he become interested in the IT industry?
"Captain Judy, who is that guy? He's so cold-blooded!" The complaint of the new FBI agent next to her brought Judy back to her senses.
She smiled and patted the newcomer's shoulder: "That's our FBI's specially hired psychological profiler."
"Don't be prejudiced against him just because of this. His professionalism is unquestionable and he has solved many cold cases for us."
"Besides, he's actually a nice guy," Judy said, "just a little... um... not good at speaking and a little eccentric?"
Not good at speaking? I don't think so. Maybe he's just too lazy to talk to them... Unique? That's true. Isn't that guy a little too unique?
The new FBI agent muttered to himself.
Look at his posture and speech in the pool of blood just now, he is even more murderous than a murderer!
Judy didn't care what the newcomer was thinking. She opened her notes and prepared to write down the characteristics the white-haired man had just mentioned.
"White, green eyes, slightly overweight, short hair, wearing a three-piece suit and leather shoes..."
Judy suddenly stopped writing halfway.
She turned to the police officer and asked, "Where is the first witness at the scene?"
Police officer: "His name is Rainer Bart. He is currently relaxing in the lounge with the audience. Do you want me to call him over?"
Judy nodded.
It suddenly occurred to her just now that this man's appearance was exactly the same as what Kim Bonnar had described before he left.
Judy had seen cases where the first witness was the murderer before, and now that it had been confirmed that this was a copycat case, the real murderer should have some connection with the deceased. No matter what, it would be a good idea to call him over and ask him about it.
Soon, the man was called to Judy.
He looked to be in his thirties or forties, short and fat, wearing glasses, and sweating profusely. He was constantly wiping the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief.
He first glanced into the bathroom, his whole body trembling, his expression a mixture of panic and frustration, and he muttered, "Officer, I heard them say that this case was done by the Ripper... Can the police really find that terrible murderer?"
Judy Stelling gave him an inscrutable look.
She did not answer his question, but asked: "Rainer Bart, what is your relationship with the deceased?"
The man was startled: "Report, report to the officer, she is my girlfriend!"
Judy paused holding the pen. "Describe the crime scene as you saw it."
Well, it really is related to the deceased.
"Does this even need to be described?! Officer, that damn murderer brutally murdered my girlfriend, ripped her open, and threw her internal organs everywhere!"
As the man spoke, he became excited and tears were about to well up in his eyes. He looked very pitiful.
"I want you to describe in detail the scene when you discovered the crime scene."
Judy said patiently, "Mr. Reiner, your girlfriend died in the women's bathroom."
"And you're a man. I'm asking you to explain why you were the first witness at the scene, and not some other woman who went to the bathroom."
"Ah, yes." The man wiped his sweat again, "Because I waited for her for too long."
"We went to the bathroom together. But we separated at the bathroom door. She went to the women's bathroom on the left, and I went to the men's bathroom on the other side."
"After I finished using the bathroom, I waited for her at the door of the women's bathroom for a while. But after waiting for a long time, she didn't come out. I was a little worried that she might have had an accident, so I knocked on the door...but I didn't hear her reply."
"So I turned the doorknob, and then... I saw my girlfriend. She was... lying on the ground, her stomach cut open, face down on the bathroom steps. The room was full of blood... Ugh..."
He couldn't control his urge to vomit and dry heaved a few times.
The new FBI looked at him with sympathy.
Seeing his girlfriend in this miserable state was a huge test of his mental strength...
Now that he has not collapsed and can still stand here and communicate with them normally, he can be considered to have strong mental qualities.
"Where's the surveillance video?" Judy Stelling asked the police officer next to her.
"It's just as this gentleman said," the officer replied. "The surveillance camera at the bathroom entrance only shows Reiner Bart and his girlfriend arriving at the bathroom entrance together, then each of them going inside. Then, Mr. Reiner knocks on the bathroom door, opens it, and sees the body."
"Schindler & Co. has uploaded the surveillance footage to my phone. You can take a look."
The police officer turned on his cell phone screen and handed it to Judy.
Judy took the police officer's phone while sighing in her heart that technology was convenient, as she no longer had to go to the monitoring room to watch the video like before.
She dragged the surveillance video to the part where Rainer Bart was walking towards the bathroom holding his girlfriend's hand, pointed at the handbag the woman was carrying in the video and asked, "What's in it?"
"Ah, it's thick clothes." The man was about to cry again. "Tracy, she's wearing too little. It's hot outside, and when she comes in, the air conditioner is on full blast, so the temperature is too low."
"Luckily we brought some warm clothes. She went to the bathroom to change."
Judy nodded and continued playing the surveillance video.
Everything that happened next was exactly as the man said.
"Is there a surveillance camera outside the bathroom window?" she asked.
The men's and women's restrooms on the first floor of Schindler's company are next to each other.
Walking in from the bathroom door, there are independent cubicles on both sides of the women's bathroom, while there is an independent cubicle on the left side of the men's bathroom and a row of urinals on the right side.
But they had windows on the wall opposite the door, and the windows were large enough for one person to pass through after being opened. Outside the windows were lawns, paths, and fences.
If the murderer did not come in through the main door, then he must have climbed in through the bathroom window to commit the crime.
"There's no camera that can directly capture the window," the officer replied. "But there's a surveillance camera on the fence not far from the window that can capture people coming out of the window and climbing over the fence."
He took the phone, switched the video to that surveillance camera, and handed it to Judy.
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