Las Vegas, in an office atop a certain building.
Luo An set down his coffee cup, leaned slightly forward, and stared intently at Rekasha as he posed his question.
Rekasha’s expression did not change; she raised her head and met Luo An’s gaze unwaveringly, and said word by word:
Rekasha explained that the locked basement where she was imprisoned was located at the very back of the duplex villa’s basement.
Initially, Rekasha had used the skills she learned from swindling on the streets over the years to unlock those locks and managed to escape several times.
After being captured by security personnel, the locks were upgraded and several more doors were added to the basement.
It would take the staff, who brought her meals daily, over ten minutes to gain access, one door at a time.
As for what actually happened on the night of the incident, she had no idea, only knowing that no one came to bring her food the following morning.
Had it not been for two patrolling officers who learned of Rekasha’s situation and struggled to locate the keys and find her in the basement, Rekasha felt she would have been left to die there.
After listening to Rekasha’s account, Luo An remained noncommittal and then asked:
"Did you notice anything unusual with your meal that night?"
Rekasha shook her head, stood up to pour herself a cup of coffee, and after taking a sip said:
"My father believed that overly delicious food would motivate me to keep resisting, so he changed my meals to the most basic of jam, slices of bread, and milk, occasionally adding some bacon or a vegetable salad.
These were delivered to the basement in one go every morning, and I had to carefully ration every bite, or I’d have nothing to eat by evening."
Michelle, who had been jotting down notes beside them, twitched at these words, and the corner of Luo An’s mouth quivered, indicating that both Rekasha Audel and Pranay Audel were indeed no ordinary individuals.
Putting aside the jumble of thoughts in his mind, Luo An picked up a folder from the desk and glanced at it before asking:
"So, has the Audel family antagonized anyone lately?
Or, to put it another way, who holds a deep grudge against the Audel family?"
If Rekasha had also died that night, it would have meant the complete annihilation of the Audel family, a feat not indicative of trivial enmity nor within the capabilities of an ordinary person.
Rekasha snorted coldly, walked behind the desk to pull open a cabinet, and retrieved a metal box that she handed to Luo An, saying:
"This is what I found after having someone cut open the safe in my father’s bedroom and study.
In addition, there’s a document I compiled in this box listing companies and families that have clashed with the Audel family economically or otherwise over the past decade.
I think it might provide Group Leader Luo An with some help."
Luo An took the metal box, exchanged a few more words with Rekasha, and after obtaining no useful leads, left the building with Michelle.
The brand-new Dodge car slowly traveled through the streets of Las Vegas, with Michelle sitting in the passenger seat scrutinizing the diaries inside the metal box, while Luo An yawned and asked in a light tone:
"Besides some love stories and spiteful complaints about competitors, there aren’t any useful clues."
Michelle shook her head, indicating that Pranay Audel was quite the romantic figure in his youth and was quite playful, gradually settling down only after the death of his first wife.
Luo An was somewhat speechless; while gossip was indeed interesting, he was not interested in it at the moment, and was about to continue speaking when Michelle suddenly frowned and said:
"Wait a minute, something’s not quite right with this page."
"Look here, these marks."
Turning the diary to a page filled with text, Michelle flipped it to show Luo An the backside, and spoke with a grave expression:
"This imprint left on the back doesn’t match the text on the front, and there are traces of erasing, altering, and overwriting.
Based on my experience, Pranay O’Dell must have written something here and then erased it, then wrote the current text over it."
Luo An glanced briefly at the diary. Not being particularly knowledgeable in this area, he directly asked:
"Michelle, can you figure out what Pranay O’Dell originally wrote?"
"I’ll do my best, but I need some time."
"You can take your time when we get back to the hotel."
Luo An, confident in letting a professional handle it, entrusted the diary to Michelle. Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
On the other end of the call, Reesi said sternly:
"Luo An, Mona is reviewing the surveillance records but hasn’t found any clues yet.
However, we have obtained the autopsy reports of the victims."
The autopsy report showed that there were 26 victims in the duplex villa.
Including four members of the Audel family: Pranay O’Dell, Pranay O’Dell’s wife, and Pranay O’Dell’s two daughters-in-law.
Six temporary guests, three men and three women, the three men were locals from Las Vegas, well-known wealthy individuals, the two women were companions of two of the men.
The last woman, older in age, was a long-time close friend of Pranay O’Dell who was staying temporarily in the villa due to health issues.
Besides them, there were two drivers, two chefs, nine maids, one nanny, and two security staff.
Luo An, with an unchanged expression, asked:
"What was the cause of their deaths?"
On the other end of the call, Reesi, looking at the autopsy report, spoke gravely:
"The autopsy results show that all 25 victims had traces of arsenic trioxide and alprazolam in their bodies."
"Alprazolam? Arsenic trioxide?"
Luo An was momentarily stunned, then remembered Reesi had mentioned arsenic trioxide, which is known in the far East by another name: arsenic.
As for alprazolam, Reesi explained it is primarily used as a sedative, hypnotic, and anti-anxiety medication, often prescribed for short-term treatment of various types of insomnia.
Luo An slightly narrowed his eyes and said:
"So, the murderer mixed these two drugs into the food that evening, making everyone feel sleepy and go to bed, and then they lost their lives in their sleep, right?"
"For most victims, that was the case."
Reesi nodded, then mentioned that many woke up from the severe pain due to the violent toxicity; they tried to call for help but couldn’t contact the outside world for some reason and ultimately died in agony while holding their phones.
Thus, when the forensic team arrived at the scene, they found several people with agonized expressions lying next to phones, and some clutching their phones on the floor.
As Reesi finished speaking, Mona, who was next to her, stopped what she was doing and pointed to the computer, saying:
"The forensic report indicates that the phone lines leading outside from the villa were cut inside the villa.
Moreover, I found that during the third hour after the party ended that evening until 2:30 AM the next day, the patrolling police in that area reported brief signal outages.
So, during the time of the incident, someone might have intentionally blocked the signals in that area."
"It looks was an organized, premeditated crime."
Luo An rubbed his temples and parked the car in the hotel parking lot, then made a call to Chenier:
"Have you found anything on your side?"