The deceased was also a young female.
This couldn’t help but stir associations in his mind.
Harry jumped into the dumpster with some reluctance.
As he put on his gloves and squatted down to search, he suddenly heard a noise from above. He looked up, his face changing drastically. "Fuck, stop!"
Almost at the same time, a woman’s scream was heard, drawing the attention of Dean and Robert, who was holding his cellphone, to the dumpster.
A pair of slender legs, attached to disproportionately large Fasting, emerged from the garbage chute, landing right on Harry’s upturned face.
When he was ’attacked’ by Fasting, it seemed he even opened his mouth to shout at the newcomer...
Dean shrugged. "Alright, Robert, no need to make that call. We can directly ask the person involved now."
This was because the screaming woman was wearing the standard-issue police trousers from their precinct.
Presumably, she was a colleague from the precinct who, after checking the dumpster and finding nothing, had decided to be lowered by a rope through the garbage chute to inspect its interior.
It seemed the woman’s scream had startled someone upstairs.
A white male stuck his head out from a fourth-floor window. Seeing the scene below, he yelled, "LAPD! Assholes, what have you done? Arlene, are you okay?!"
A moment later, Harry sat dejectedly beside the dumpster, a clear red handprint on his face, smoking a melancholic cigarette.
That was the price for breathing in the "ocean’s fragrance" up close.
It shouldn’t have come to this.
Ironically, Harry had just antagonized the female officer’s colleague.
Now, he didn’t even dare approach the female officer and could only awkwardly hide to one side.
Dean spoke with the white male officer and the embarrassed female officer of Chinese descent, who had come downstairs, to understand the situation.
In fact, they weren’t here for the ’sharp-point case’ Harry had mentioned.
The female victim in that case, for some unknown reason, had voluntarily dropped the lawsuit, and the school had smoothed things over.
That case had ended before it even began.
They had come this time primarily for a missing person case.
"A missing person case?"
Dean’s expression was strange.
The Camille he intended to call to apologize had apparently mentioned that a classmate of hers had gone missing, so she might not return for a couple of days. But Camille lived in a mid-range community and seemed to come from a decent family. It made no sense for her to attend a school that was basically an unaccredited university.Dean thought he was overthinking it.
The male officer, thinking Dean was curious about the missing person case, explained in detail, "Yes, it’s a missing person case. A girl named Sophie disappeared three days ago. She often stayed out all night, so no one paid much attention at first. It wasn’t until winter break was approaching and the dormitory management couldn’t reach her that they realized something was wrong and called the police."
The female officer of Chinese descent added, "There’s something odd about the case. Sophie packed her luggage three days ago and told her roommate she was planning to go on vacation in Europe. Then she went out that evening and never came back."
"I remember there are many security cameras around this school, right?" Robert chimed in.
The male officer nodded. "Yes, but someone maliciously covered the hallway cameras before Sophie’s disappearance. We only saw her get into a car in front of the apartment building. But it was pouring rain that night, and visibility was poor. We couldn’t get the license plate. So we suspect this isn’t just a simple missing person case, but potentially a murder. We were planning to inspect the chute and then hand the case over to you."
"Then why did you need to inspect the chute and the dumpster?"
Dean hadn’t expected another case before the previous one was solved. Suddenly, his interest was piqued.
He had the Dragon-Slaying Saber now. He couldn’t wait for more cases to test its mettle.
The female officer of Chinese descent looked embarrassed. "That was for personal reasons. I was in charge of that previous ’sharp-point case.’ The victim was an international student from China. She was threatened by the school administration, and I couldn’t just stand by. To help her, I knew I had to find useful evidence."
Sharp-point cases at universities in the United States. Actually, the numbers are quite alarming. This is related to the housing environment: mixed-gender dorms. Of course, it’s not that men and women share the same room, but on the same floor, male and female dorm rooms are often right next to each other or across the hall. Students here also like to throw parties. Drink a little, play some suggestive games, and things often happen naturally. However, many international students from Asia, eager to fit in, attend these parties. Yet, due to differing attitudes, they aren’t as open as some of the local students, who can be as uninhibited as animals in heat. This can lead to incidents of violence and coercion. And often, these incidents end without any resolution. Victims can even be mocked by their peers, called prudes who can’t let loose...
Perhaps because they were both of Chinese descent, the officer before him felt a surge of compassion for the victim. She had intended to find useful clues in the dumpster, but the trash had been cleared out the previous night. So, she’d crawled into the garbage chute, hoping to discover something.
It’s a clumsy method, but her heart’s in the right place.
Dean, though he considered himself a bad guy, didn’t reject good people. "My grandfather and father are also of Chinese descent. Your name is Arlene, right? Give me the victim’s contact information. I’ll handle this."
It was still a case. And every little bit counted.
"Okay!" Arlene’s face lit up with joy as she gave Dean a phone number.
Dean was a detective; his handling of the situation would be much more convenient than for her, a mere patrol officer.
The white police officer beside her, who was clearly interested in Arlene, quickly stepped in front of her, pulled a photo from his pocket, and changed the subject. "Detective Dean, this is a photo of the missing student, Sophie."
Dean looked down at it, and his pupils constricted.
The clothes Sophie was wearing in the photo were identical to those on the female body found previously at the dump!
How could that be possible! Sophie had gotten into a car and been missing for three days. Yet the female body had turned up in a dumpster, dead since last night! Could these two actually be the same person?
Dean asked hurriedly, "Arlene, did you find anything in the chute earlier?"
Arlene shook her head. "No. But now that you mention it, Bert, when he was rummaging through the dumpster earlier, noticed that in an indented part at the bottom, the murky rainwater was slightly reddish, as if it contained blood."
Bert shrugged. "Actually, that’s normal. Students here often bring back small rabbits to dissect, hoping to get into medical school for their graduate studies, although that’s practically impossible."
Dean, however, paid no attention to this. After seeing the two officers off, he called Holz. Then, he and Harry jumped into the dumpster and cleared out all the garbage inside.
Before long, the bloodstained water Arlene had mentioned appeared before the three of them. The bloody water was very faint. And because of the grime at the bottom of the dumpster, it was difficult to notice the reddish tint without looking closely. Rainwater must have washed bloodstains from the trash to the bottom of the dumpster, resulting in its current state. But this also provided Dean and his team with a clue that could lead to a breakthrough!
Holz arrived quickly. "Dean, any new findings?"
"Yes, we found some bloodstains, but we’re not sure yet if they belong to the victim. Also, a female student disappeared from this university three days ago. The clothes she was wearing before she went missing match those on the corpse. We need to confirm if they’re the same person."
"That’s an excellent breakthrough," Holz praised, then jumped into the dumpster and began collecting forensic evidence.
Sophie’s parents, having received a call from Daisy, were also rushing to the detective bureau.
Once the identity of the female body was confirmed, the case would have a clear path to a breakthrough!