Paint the town red

Chapter XIII

Monday morning began with Max and me reporting to Frederick – he wanted to know what we had found on two cases in almost two months. Of course, he wasn't happy that we didn't have any leads, and that the case was practically not moving forward. But what could we do? And when Max told him about the photo Logan had found online, Frederick wanted to dismiss me from the case at all. "What if you're the third victim? I don't want to risk my detective, especially since the first victim is your best friend. It would be better to transfer the case to another person and put a round-the-clock guard on you just in case", he said. Of course, I was against it, and I was surprised when Max supported my position. He was worried about me himself, but he also understood that it was important for me to solve this case because of Pierre. Therefore, as ridiculous as it may sound, Frederick has left me in charge of Max.

After the report to the chief, we went back to our office, where Esteban and Logan were already waiting for us. Did they find something that could help move the murder cases forward? We entered the office, and then I sat down at my desk. Logan sat down on a chair by my desk and handed me a folder.

"There's nothing special, just a couple more shots from the murder scene, but again, the killer never showed his face anywhere."

I opened the folder and flipped through a couple of photos, but from a different angle. In addition to the printouts from the DVRs, there was also a report on the contents of the second victim's laptop.

"Yeah, the laptop's also clean – an ordinary laptop of a young guy. There is nothing interesting in the folders, only study materials, more personal and family photos, and there are no links to strange pages in the browser history. Just studies, social networks with nothing compromising in them, and a couple of links with some hot stuff, if you know what I mean."

Sargeant raised his eyebrows and laughed softly, causing three pairs of surprised eyes to stare at him. He realized that his joke was lame, so he just waved his hand and said that we'd lost all sense of humor with our work. While Logan was telling me about the data from Oscar's laptop, in which, just like in the case of Pierre, nothing was found, Esteban and Max stood at the blackboard with photos of the victims and animatedly discussed our handwritten notes. The M.E took a photo of me with both victims off the board and turned to me.

"Aren't you afraid of becoming the third?"

"Esti, don't even start. I just got a lecture from Fred about this, so I'm sorry, but I don't need a repeat."

I sighed wearily, and Ocon nodded and raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture, then returned the photo to its place. At one point, Logan snapped his fingers and slammed his hands on my desk.

"Right! I also noted in the examination that there were signs of hacking on both laptops!"

I flipped through his report on Oscar's laptop, and then on Pierre's laptop, and that's right: in the very middle of the text there was a casual mention of traces of hacking. Damn, how we didn't notice this before?! Of course, it was worth seeing the words "No suspicious files and links found" in the first lines, so there was no need to read further. Such a dumb rookie mistake. I made a note about the hacking attempts and, getting up from my seat, stuck it to the board.

"So, what we got is two victims, both bodies found in public, both killed in the same way."

"Yes, Charles, one precise blow with a double-edged knife. Moreover, the blow was struck when the victim was with his back to the killer."

After Esteban's words, Max also reminded us about one thing:

"And they both had ribbons tied around their wrists. And yes, both of them were engaged in karting as children."