This requires some professional knowledge.
Moreover, according to the traces at the scene, this place has been deserted for quite a few years.
This is not a good sign.
Serial killers, regardless of their motives, are highly likely to share two overlapping characteristics.
The first characteristic: the first victim murdered is highly likely to have some sort of connection with the killer, such as hatred, friend, conflict, or bullying...
This connection stimulates the killer to commit their first crime, thereby flipping the switch on their bloodlust.
The second characteristic: addiction.
Murder can also be considered a kind of hunting activity.
It’s an instinct imprinted in human genes.
Once they’ve seen blood and continue to see blood, it becomes addictive like a drug.
After some time, if they don’t kill again, they begin to feel itchy.
Only when they tire of this game or get caught or die accidentally does the hunting cease.
Those serial killers who kill randomly just to vent do not fit this profile.
Such serial killers have different behavioral traits and character profiles, they wouldn’t have such regularity and ritualistic tendencies as this case, they don’t fall into the categories mentioned above.
So why is it a bad sign that this place has been deserted?
Because it means the killer either changed locations, died, or grew tired of this behavior.
Brian looked at the two male police officers, "Earlier, I heard Officer Shara say that the last owner of this place committed suicide by setting a fire due to debt, and that’s when this place became deserted. Are you sure that the whole family died in that fire?"
Watching the older male officer nod:
"I was involved in that case.
We found the remains of the farmer’s family in the rubble of the house.
Following normal procedures, we would contact the deceased’s relatives to handle their affairs and incidentally inherit any remaining estate and debt.
In fact, we did find a brother of the man of the house in Texas, but after he came and realized that the value of selling off this notorious farm wouldn’t cover the debts, he took care of his brother’s family and left without accepting the inheritance.
What happened next was handled by the farmer’s creditors, namely the people from the Seed Company.
Something went wrong in the middle.
It seems that several people they sent here mysteriously disappeared, and after that, the Seed Company kept people busy on this land for a while before everyone stopped coming.
Later, some nearby residents, coming to pay respects to people buried a hundred years ago who died of infectious diseases, were surprised to find no vegetation growing here anymore, and so the story of this being cursed land spread, and it became what it is now."
Hearing this, Brian nodded, "Sounds like something a third-rate screenwriter might concoct, but I found that somebody had intentionally mixed quicklime into the soil here, preventing any plant growth. Based on the leads you’ve provided, it looks like we need to have a talk with someone from that Seed Company..."
Finally, Brian and Green, carrying some human remains found in the crematory, followed the two officers to their office.
Throughout the Federation, apart from some large cities, various towns large and small have their own police precincts, some called police stations, some called public security offices, and some with other names; some of the poorer places don’t have a police station at all and report up to the next level of police organization when incidents arise.
even though Brian had been in this world for over twenty years and had joined the Forensic Bureau and NW organizations for a total of three years, he still could not completely understand these complex organizational structures.
It was fortunate that the NW organization was a community of interest in capital and power, widely accepted across all of Los Angeles County, with absolute authority.
Otherwise, cases one would be difficult for them to take charge of and quite troublesome to deal with.
The nearby town was just a poor police station.
Including the chief and an old man at the door, there were only six people, and the office was a small two-story building with a yard.
When Brian and the others arrived, a white police officer who was balding and dressed in uniform was escorting a woman with thick lips, provocative lipstick, and exposing attire out of the police station’s main door.
The officer carrying the body bag with the skeletons looked at the white officer and said, "Chief Arthur, these are two investigators from the NW operations department; we’ve come back from the farm. Oh, and I must remind you to wipe off the lipstick mark on your collar, otherwise we might not see you tomorrow."
The white police officer looked down, and his face showed an awkward smile, "Thanks for the tip, buddy. You take them inside, and I’ll see this lady off."
After saying that, he walked away with the flashy woman and disappeared from sight.
Green looked at the chief who seemed more like a customer than an officer and shrugged, "Hey, buddy, your chief sure is colorful."
The two officers looked embarrassed: "Chief Arthur is a bit unreliable, but he has good intel and often catches some wandering drug mules, which is one of the main sources of income for our station."
Hearing this, Green understood.
Drug mules were actually mobile drug consumption and production vehicles.
Actually, making chemical drugs is not difficult; many with a bit of a chemical background could produce them.