DEATH NOTE:NOTE OF DEATH

As I immersed myself in the work, I began to record all the known clues and currently unresolved doubts.

The first victim's body was half skeletonized. I have a question. If, as you said, we are looking for the murderer within the scope of the investigation by Captain Alex, why would the murderer go to such great lengths to bury the body in the wild beside a small road in the urban-rural junction three kilometers away from us?

Besides, it is certain that he had a means of transportation, a family car? No, it should be a minivan, the kind used to transport goods. He was familiar with the geographical location and had a special reason for burying the body there.

The second victim was Michael Bloom, the owner of a flower shop, whose face was severely disfigured. But was it because he didn't want people to recognize him, or was it because he wanted to vent his anger? Or was there a clue on his face that the murderer didn't want people to know?

The third victim, the head and pelvis have not been found in the dismembered body, which increases the difficulty of solving the case. However, after comparison, the blood sample of the body was found to contain a special substance that can secrete dopamine, just like the first victim. Because the body parts had been soaked in hydrogen peroxide for at least five hours, not much substance was extracted.

The fourth person, the only eyewitness, has the same thing as the first victim, in that they are both from a disadvantaged group with low intelligence, and the cause of death is bizarre. The way the flower seeds are spread is probably through insect eggs left in the body? But one thing is, how can the insect eggs be left so accurately and purposefully on the beggar?

The most important common point is that the four victims died of the same cause but in different ways. Even Michael Bloom, who had no physical contact with the murderer, had this substance on his body. This is enough to prove that the murderer is the same person or the same organization and the crime was premeditated.

As soon as Alex got back the previous video footage from the traffic department, I gave him this full record to read. Of course, this is private.

"Ryan, you are really my good brother. I just checked the surveillance, and you have so many clues."

Just as the two of us were about to retrieve the surveillance footage, Lucy came running back from the laboratory.

"New discovery! Go to the laboratory and take a look!"

We didn't think about anything else at the moment and ran straight to the laboratory.

The intern who was scolded by me and cried stood up straight when she saw me come in. Her short bob haircut made her look a little cute. She called out in a trembling voice, "Chief Carter!"

I glanced at her and said, "Speak properly, what did you find out?"

"It's like this. After analyzing the blood sample under a microscope, you asked me to observe something moving inside..." The young intern also stuttered. Alex looked at her and was afraid that I was still teasing her -

"Stuttering and reporting... what police academy should I apply to?"

"Stop joking! Be serious. It's probably insect eggs. Remember what I said? The corpse-smelling arum produces dopamine, a substance that attracts cadaveric insects that emit a foul odor so that they can spread pollen. Humans need to reproduce, and this relatively rare species needs to know how to reproduce."

Lucy slammed the table: "I know! The murderer is looking for a better container!"

I nodded and added, "He knows a lot about flowers and plants. Judging from the classification of the body parts, the murderer must have mysophobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He is cautious, efficient, well-planned, and has good psychological quality."

"Do you remember? When Michael Bloom died, there was a flower shop next to him. The staff said that after Michael had an argument with a customer, the customer said he would go to the next door to buy. We all ignored the other flower shop. Another thing is that when we found Michael Bloom and the beggar, their trash cans were right between the two flower shops. They were very close, so they must be competitors."

Alex shook his head: "Could it be that the crime was committed in the heat of the moment? There is no pattern, just a moment of anger. The fact that the face was smashed is very telling. If this is really possible, then the murderer of these victims may be the same person."

"Perhaps the murder of Michael Bloom was a crime of passion."

So, Alex and a few of us took people to the flower shop next door again. When we saw the owner of the flower shop, the first impression we got was that the decoration here was very unique. The owner looked gentle and bookish, wearing a white shirt and jeans, looking refreshing. It was impossible to associate him with the murderer.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" When the boss saw us for the first time, he could tell that we were dressed casually and were not here to buy flowers.

"Hello, we are the police. Did you know that Michael Bloom, the owner of the flower shop next door, was murdered the day before yesterday?" Alex asked as ordered.

The boss paused, frowned, and looked at us suspiciously: "I know, you police even recorded my confession."

When asked whether he was the only one running the flower shop, he looked behind him and said, "There is also my younger brother. He mainly travels around the world. Last week he went to California to collect special flower species. As for me, I opened this flower shop with him after I graduated from university."

Lucy sneezed at an inopportune moment: "I have rhinitis, I need to go out for a while! Sorry!"

Then she sneezed a few more times, and I quickly waved my hand to tell her to get out.

I looked around and saw no strange flower species, so I asked, "So you grow all the flower species yourself? Does that mean you have your own greenhouse?"

I tried my best to make my tone of questioning less blunt, and to make the person being questioned less defensive.

"Yes, there are. Do you want to take a look?" His sincere invitation made Alex look at me questioningly, and we followed him thoughtfully.

"Wow! What's that smell?" Alex covered his nose.

The boss smiled and said, "The fertilizer used on my flowers is also organic, so it smells a bit."

"What's the stench? It smells almost like a corpse. Why is this an empty lot? There are no flowers?"

There is only one vacant space, and on it are plants that have just sprouted new buds.

"This is a new flower seed my brother found. I don't know if it can survive. I don't know how to cultivate it as he does. I just watered and fertilized it as he instructed. I don't know what kind of flower it is, and I guess he doesn't know either!"

I looked at the softness of the soil and was about to touch the sprouts...

"Mr. Policeman, you can't touch it!" The boss panicked as soon as I touched it. "Oh, my brother said that you can't touch this during cultivation. You two have finished reading it. Let's talk about it outside?"

Just like that, we were invited out. In the car, Lucy took some nasal medicine to ease the inflammation. She complained with her red nose: "I always smell a weird smell in his lousy flower shop. It's not a fragrance, nor a stinky smell. It chokes my nose."

But Alex and I looked at each other - there must be something wrong with that greenhouse! The stench was not feces, but the stench of a corpse!

I slowly put the tender leaves in my palm into a transparent bag. Alex was surprised when he saw it. He guessed that these were the leaves I broke off when I accidentally touched the strange flower seeds.

But I was very surprised. This boss seemed a little different from the one I usually saw, but I couldn't tell where the difference was.

So I secretly made an appointment with Alex and sneaked in once at night. I suspected something was wrong there and walked to the trash can in the alley in the middle of the night. Alex scolded me: "You bastard! How can you get in like this!?"

I answered while wearing gloves and a mask, "As a police officer, you lack observation skills. There is a greenhouse there, and plants need photosynthesis to grow better. You didn't see that although it is a basement, there is a skylight on the south side. Sunlight shines in from the plastic shed during the day, but I'm not sure if you can see what it looks like inside at night!"

"Didn't you steal the leaves during the day? Why did we come here and take this risk?"

"Don't you want to see the murderer?"

Hearing the word "murderer," Alex's eyes lit up: "I didn't let Lucy come here just to let her do logistics. Let's see first."

I got close to the outside of the plastic glass window, but I couldn't see inside at all. It was pitch black, without any light. We waited for nearly two hours before a car passed by, which made some noise. However, we looked like thieves squatting there in the middle of the night, which aroused misunderstanding.

I looked at Alex and smiled: "Okay, we've been discovered, why don't you leave quickly?"

Alex didn't notice at all that the car that passed by just a minute ago had already spotted us. The murderer must be there, so we both went from walking fast to jogging, and from jogging to running wildly.

This is just a form of extortion. It would be best if I could see the murderer's face, but it's okay if I can't. At least I can locate the murderer in this flower shop.

But I always had a feeling that it was unreal that the murderer was identified so easily, and I felt a little uneasy in my heart.

After finally reaching the roadside, I got into a car. After getting in, Lucy smiled and said, "This is so exciting. Sit tight. This is my private car. My engine is different from other cars!"

"Why are they different?" Alex and I asked in unison.

Lucy stepped on the accelerator and we bowed to the sky and the earth behind him. Lucy made a big turn similar to drifting, and we were stuck in the seat belts. It was not until Lucy started to go straight normally that we breathed a sigh of relief. Lucy also answered our question just now - "My engine! Has! Two!"