"Heh, you'll be back inside soon enough, no need to rush," Danny taunted, his tone dripping with undisguised contempt for the psychopath in front of him.
"I wouldn't count on it. Why don't you ask your sister? What's her name again?" Dick Reed's smile grew more sinister. "Eileen, right? I still remember her in court. She left quite an impression on me."
Danny lunged forward, his fury barely contained, but Jack grabbed his arm and pulled him back. With the press camped outside the station, the last thing they needed was for Reed to walk out with visible injuries and flip the media narrative in his favor.
"Enjoy the short-lived freedom you have left, mama's boy. I hope you'll still have that grin the next time we meet," Jack said calmly.
At the mention of "mama's boy," Reed's expression turned icy and dark. But before he could respond, Jack dragged Danny out of the interrogation room.
"Ugh!" Danny exhaled sharply, his frustration boiling over as they exited the room. "I thought you were here to bring me some good news."
"Unfortunately, I just spoke to Eileen. The charge of witness intimidation won't stick. It'll just look like the police are unfairly targeting him. For now, we have to let him go," Jack explained, his tone neutral.
Danny's voice shot up an octave. "Let him go? The whole world knows that guy is a dangerously deranged sex offender. He's not going to stop. No way—I'm going to talk to my sister. If they push me too far, I'll take that bastard out myself."
He pulled out his phone, ready to call Eileen. Jack, however, didn't intervene. He simply stood there with a smile, waiting.
Danny paused, eyeing Jack suspiciously. "You're not going to stop me?"
"Why would I? I wouldn't dare interrupt a heartfelt sibling conversation," Jack said, his tone light. "And about that other thing—if you're not planning to do it tonight, I wouldn't mind helping you dig a hole by the Hudson River later."
"Damn it." Danny cursed under his breath, shoving his phone back into his pocket. He flagged down a passing detective, handed him the keys to the handcuffs, and said, "Hey, buddy, do me a favor and let the piece of trash in there go."
With that, he threw an arm around Jack's shoulder and steered him into a quiet hallway. "Now tell me, why did calling him a 'mama's boy' make his face go sour so fast?"
Jack couldn't help but chuckle. Despite Danny's often brash and reckless demeanor, his sharp instincts were impressive. It was no wonder he'd risen to the rank of senior detective on his own merits rather than relying on the Reagan name.
"Everything you need to know is in the profile I gave you earlier. You didn't bother reading it—now you're asking me to explain it again?" Jack teased, shaking his head in mock annoyance.
"Aw, come on, don't be like that, pal," Danny said, grimacing. The thought of wading through Jack's earlier psychological profile, filled with dense academic jargon, made him shudder.
Danny hurried back to his cluttered desk and rummaged through the mess until his face lit up. He held up a cigar box triumphantly and waved it at Jack. "How about this? Cuban cigars. Swiped these from the old man's stash. Last two left."
"But I'm hungry right now," Jack replied with a mischievous grin.
Half an hour later, the two sat in a Chongqing noodle shop in Hell's Kitchen. Jack was devouring a bowl of pig intestine noodles, slurping away with evident delight despite the sweat streaming down his face from the spiciness.
Danny, on the other hand, nervously picked at some soup dumplings. While he occasionally indulged in Mexican food, the sight of the chef earlier pouring a ladle of fiery red chili oil onto Jack's noodles had been enough to shock him.
Jack, who in his previous life had grown up in Jiangnan with a relatively mild palate, found himself thoroughly enjoying the occasional spicy dish. The fiery noodles gave him a sense of comfort, as though his pores were opening up and his whole body was revitalized.
This particular noodle shop was a favorite of his. The owner even grew their own pea shoots, which were freshly snipped and added to the bowls. Such fresh greens were a rare treat in New York, where pea tendrils in Western cuisine were often tough enough to double as dental floss.
After polishing off a bowl of pig intestine noodles and a beef noodle soup, Jack watched with satisfaction as Danny reluctantly paid the bill. Jack then drove them to a park by the Hudson River, where they leaned against the railing and lit their cigars.
"You ever heard of Ed Gein?" Jack asked, taking a puff.
"Of course," Danny replied with a shrug. Ed Gein wasn't a household name, but he was infamous enough. Gein was the real-life inspiration for a slew of Hollywood horror films, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, and The Silence of the Lambs.
Technically, Gein wasn't even a serial killer. He was convicted of killing just three victims. But his horrific crimes—grave robbing, corpse mutilation, murder, skinning bodies, and making furniture and clothing from human remains—had cemented his place in criminal infamy.
"Plenty of psychologists have analyzed his motives. But I'm more interested in his family background and how it parallels Dick Reed's," Jack began, launching into his lesson.
"Both of them had weak, alcoholic fathers and dominant mothers who controlled the family's finances. The difference lies in their upbringing. Gein was harshly disciplined by his mother, which turned him into a coward who submissively relied on her.
Reed, on the other hand, was spoiled and coddled by his mother. Oh, and don't forget, he also has an older sister who indulged him in much the same way."
Danny nodded, catching on. "I get why you're comparing the two. According to Reed's case file, he still lives with his mother."
"Exactly," Jack continued. "Gein's downward spiral began when his controlling mother died. He was socially withdrawn and couldn't cope with life alone, which led to his string of gruesome crimes.
For Reed, the trigger was similar. When his mother developed severe Alzheimer's, he lost the emotional outlet that had kept him in check."
"Wait," Danny interrupted, frowning. "But doesn't Reed still have his sister? Didn't you say she coddled him too?"
"True, but his sister got married and moved out long ago. They don't live together anymore," Jack explained, gesturing for Danny to hold his questions for now.
"You've seen what a spoiled brat acts like, right? Reed is highly intelligent but emotionally stunted. I don't know exactly what kind of ideas his mother instilled in him growing up, but if you think of him as an overgrown child in an adult's body, his reckless, depraved behavior starts to make sense."
Danny's eyes lit up with realization. "All four of his victims were brunette, slim, and resembled his mother when she was younger. Are you saying this mama's boy was trying to… replace her?"
"Not quite," Jack replied, shaking his head. "His victims were all abused and sexually assaulted. The abuse part makes sense—it's like a spoiled child acting out to get attention in all the wrong ways. But the sexual assault…"
Danny's face suddenly turned pale. He looked up at Jack, disbelief written all over his face. "Are you suggesting…?"
"I'm not suggesting anything," Jack said quickly, raising his hands. "This is just a hypothesis. Since his mother can't communicate properly anymore, and Reed himself would never admit it, we'll never know the details of this twisted dynamic. But if I had to guess, this started during Reed's adolescence."
Danny grimaced, visibly disgusted. "That's revolting. No wonder he reacted like a cat with its fur standing on end when you called him a mama's boy."
Instinctively, Danny reached for his cigar to calm his nerves, only to find it had gone out at some point during his stunned silence.
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I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 471)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 677)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 1059)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1418)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1422)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1452)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1504)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld!(Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 703)
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