Luo An, with his keen observational skills, noticed the change in Beren's eyes, smiled, and said:
"Looks like you know something."
Due to several days of confinement and the lingering smells of alcohol, body odor, and vomit on him, Beren's scent was particularly complex. Hearing Luo An's words, Beren frowned slightly, scratched his scalp, and a flurry of dandruff fell as he asked in return:
"What happened to Kevin?"
Luo An exchanged a glance with Chenier and noticed the problem in the other's words. Unperturbed, he asked:
"What was the cause of death?"
"Mr. Beren, it's our turn to question you."
Luo An lightly tapped on the table, pretending to be annoyed:
"Do you know about this key?"
"I know, but I don't want to tell you."
Beren flashed a grin, revealing a set of somewhat disordered, yellowed teeth:
"Unless you give that beaten-up guy some money and have him drop the lawsuit against me."
"You're too greedy, Mr. Beren."
Chenier's expression turned slightly cold, while Luo An chuckled, leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed:
"Just a piece of information, it's not worth that much."
"What will you exchange for it?"
"A cleaner cell, a clean shirt, and a chance to shower."
"...Not enough, add three packs of cigarettes as well."
"Half a pack! Just half a pack! Deal!"
Seeing Luo An reducing the offer more and more, Beren was momentarily stunned and quickly agreed to prevent the offer from lowering further.
Chenier, with amusement in her eyes, gave Luo An, who was feigning disdain, a subtle thumbs up. Her cold demeanor unchanged, she flipped open her notebook and said solemnly:
"Kevin was a friend I met while taking a taxi. We had a good relationship; he often drove me to... uh, find women to drink with."
Seeing that he almost slipped and admitted to the crime, Beren quickly changed his wording. Luo An tapped on the table and said seriously:
"We're not interested in your lower-body activities. Tell us about that key."
"It's a key to a rental warehouse!"
Beren breathed a sigh of relief and explained:
"Once, after going out to drink with Kevin, this key of his got damaged, and I had someone fix it for him."
Luo An nodded in satisfaction:
"Where is this warehouse?"
"I don't know the exact location, but I know that the warehouse company is in Northwest Washington D.C!"
Warehouse companies, a unique industry within the federation.
As most federal residents rent their homes and find moving cumbersome, or buy small houses without storage space, warehouse companies build a batch of warehouses on a plot of land, rent them out for profit, while people use these dedicated spaces to store their belongings.
There are two warehouse rental companies in Northwest Washington D.C. After not finding the target in the first one, Luo An and Chenier drove to the second company.
Outside the gates of the warehouse district, just as Luo An and Chenier stepped out of the car, they heard a fierce argument nearby.
Turning the corner, they saw that the arguing parties were a man in a suit and two white women in their thirties.
Both sides were red-faced and yelling at the top of their lungs, with every sentence peppered with "F"-starting words.
Chenier pulled out her gold badge to show her identity, temporarily interrupting the quarrel. The man in the suit took a deep breath and quickly flashed a smile at Chenier, asking:
"Can I help you with something?"
Chenier handed him the search warrant, then showed him Nockvic's identity information and said:
"We need to check the warehouse he rented here."
The man in the suit was the manager of this warehouse area. He quickly entered the nearby office, located Nockvic's rented warehouse, led Luo An and Chenier over, and unlocked it with the keys.
The warehouses here resembled shipping containers. The moment the door was opened, Chenier immediately walked in with a flashlight.
Not far away, two middle-aged women once again approached angrily. Seeing this, the manager cursed under his breath, and Luo An asked:
"What's going on here?"
"Their father died, and they're accusing me of killing him, damn it..."
The manager's face looked terrible, and he explained that the two women's father used to work in this warehouse area, responsible for night shifts, monitoring surveillance, and ensuring the security of the warehouse area.
Yesterday early in the morning, the father of the two women died suddenly from a heart attack, and their company had already decided to pay them a sum of money.
However, the daughters were extremely dissatisfied, insisting that their father died from overwork due to long nights, demanding the company provide more compensation.
Hearing this, Luo An's expression changed slightly, thinking of something, and before he could ask, Chenier suddenly came out of the warehouse with a very unsightly look:
"Luo An, we're too late."
At this point, Chenier had already located the warehouse's lights and turned them on. Under the glow of the lights, the interior was clearly visible.
The warehouse wasn't large, with a folding bed and a suit in the corner, a few unopened bottles of water, and some bread on the floor in the middle.
What was most striking was that one whole wall of the warehouse was covered in tape, and Luo An could tell at a glance that many photos had once been stuck there.
But now those photos had all disappeared without a trace, leaving only a few scattered fragments clinging to the tape, fluttering in the wind.
"Nockvic must have rested here, and those photos on the wall must be the information he uncovered."
Chenier, wearing gloves, picked up a bottle of mineral water from the ground and said with a grim expression:
"But they've been ripped to shreds and taken away.
I suspect that the person who came here before us is the same one who killed Nockvic in the park!"
"Call the forensic unit, have them come here to look for fingerprints and other clues!"
After a few seconds of contemplation, Luo An shifted his gaze away from the tape on the wall. After Chenier acknowledged the order, Luo An immediately stepped out of the warehouse.
"I told you, there's no way you're getting that money!"
"You are all a bunch of vampires! Disgusting vampires!"
Not far away, the manager was still arguing with the two women. Seeing Luo An, the manager, unable to argue with the two women, quickly ran up to him, hoping to use Luo An's identity to avoid further confrontation.
"Mr. Manager, I have a question for you."
Luo An grabbed the manager who was about to hide behind him and asked with a serious tone:
"You said their father died early yesterday morning?"
The manager was taken aback but nodded in response:
"What was the exact time?"
"The cause of death was a heart attack? Are you sure?"
"That's what the company said, they said that's what the autopsy showed, that's all I know."
"Do you have surveillance here? What's the status of the surveillance equipment and footage?"
"The surveillance equipment is all working normally now; it just broke for a few hours yesterday, so there's a gap in the footage. This kind of thing is not uncommon, it's happened before..."
As the two of them talked, the middle-aged women, because of Luo An's FBI identity, stood by, glaring fiercely at the manager, trying to hold back their anger.
The more the manager answered, the colder Luo An's expression became, and by the end, the manager himself had realized something and felt the hairs on his back stand up. He swallowed his saliva and cautiously asked:
"Mr. FBI, are you suggesting there's something wrong with their father's death?"
The two women were also drawn to Luo An and the manager's conversation, exchanging surprised looks.
They had only come here to demand more money, but now it seemed there might really be something wrong with their father's death?
"Go check the surveillance."
Luo An didn't answer the manager's question but instead instructed him to check the surveillance equipment and asked Chenier to follow him. Then Luo An stepped aside and took out his phone to call Mona.
Luo An relayed the name of the night watcher and the information about his two daughters, and said:
"Mona, is there any way to find out his real cause of death? Or to have an autopsy performed again?"
A flurry of keystrokes sounded from the other end of the phone, and after a short while, Mona took a sharp breath in surprise:
"Luo An, the Night Watcher was cremated within 10 hours after his death was confirmed!"