Paint the town red

Chapter XI

The working morning began with a review of the autopsy reports from Esteban, a review of the evidence and a more detailed study of the data on the deceased. It's good that Max came early today and managed to go to both Ocon and Logan to pick up all the reports and find out more from their words, and not from printed sheets. Sometimes it's more useful to go and find out directly from a specialist what he thinks about a particular case, rather than draw his own conclusions and rely only on the text.

I took a sheet with information about the deceased: "Name: Oscar Piastri. DOB: 04/06/2001. Place of birth: Melbourne, Australia. Occupation: student of the College of Economics. In Monaco he lived alone in the dormitory of the aforementioned college, the family remained in Australia." Nothing to do with Pierre. The age doesn't match, occupation -  not match either. They didn't even know each other to connect them in any way. How does the killer choose his next victim? How to we follow this chain? What could be his motive?

Oscar Piastri. Why does this name sound familiar to me? I was looking at a picture of a guy and couldn't remember where I'd heard his name. We definitely didn't know each other personally, and Pierre certainly didn't know him too, because we have a fairly small and mostly common circle of acquaintances and friends, and we know everyone by name. And I don't remember Oscar's name among the others.

Max was sitting at his desk reading the autopsy report, but judging by his expression, there was nothing that could help us. I wrote down some of my assumptions on sticky notes and got up from my seat, went to the blackboard, on which there were already two photos of the victims and notes about the first case, and pasted the latest data from the new case. My partner, on the other hand, made a couple of notes and also pasted them on the board. We stood and looked at it, trying to find at least some coincidences, but they just weren't there. There was nothing between them except a ribbon on their arms and the fact that they were both killed in a public place and with the same weapon.

"Maybe he's some psycho who likes to take risks, that's why he kills in public?"

"But what's the motive? Simple desire to get a shot of adrenaline?"

"Yeah, the adrenaline junkie killer sounds weird."

"I wonder why he ties ribbons on their wrists?"

Max shrugged his shoulders and took the list of evidence from both crime scenes. He quickly ran his eyes over the list, and then returned the sheets to their place. I rubbed my temples, like it would somehow help me put my thoughts together and find some tiny clue, but that miracle didn't happen.

"He doesn't rob them. He just... kills them and that's all. What's the point? Maybe he's really crazy. Crazy people don't really need special reasons to kill."

"And the ribbon, Charles? He wouldn't leave it at every crime scene."

"Psychos tend to act impulsively."

"A controversial statement."

I looked at Max a little surprised, and he was looking forward and carefully studying the photos with notes on the board in front of us. He walked up to it and pointed his finger at the photos of the bodies.

"Let's say the killer is insane and acting impulsively. What could've provoked him to kill these two?"

"Maybe he was walking by, and they said something to him? That provoke him and he attacked them?"

"Then he would have left the crime scene immediately after the attack, rather than bothering with ribbon."

"Agree. The murder looks like premeditated – too much preparation. But what can the ribbon mean? Are the victims somehow connected?"