"I only have one question for you: how did you find out about the case where my family was the victim?" Larry asked in a calm tone, while holding a long metal pipe in his hands.
Brian, glancing around, immediately understood the situation he was in and replied with a mocking tone, "This isn't exactly the kind of place a good detective brings his criminals to…"
"This time, I'll make an exception for you. Answer my question."
"Have you started killing now?" Brian asked, searching desperately for the figure of his brother, but he couldn't find him anywhere.
Larry knew exactly what Brian was looking for, so he asked, "Do you think your brother is going to save you?"
"You know that too?" Brian asked, repeating the words while lowering his head and thinking.
"You were too careless. It was only a matter of time before I caught you. If you hadn't been so emotionally attached to your mother's murder, it would have been much harder to track you down... But you used a similar method to hers, which led me to you much faster than anyone else."
"Do you think I'll beg for mercy? If my brother isn't here, that means you're not going to bother him. That gives me peace."
"Hahahahaha… You're hilarious!" Larry couldn't help but burst out laughing, as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world. He laughed so hard he couldn't breathe. He doubled over, clutching his stomach, but the laughter didn't stop.
"What's so funny?" Brian's expression gradually turned cold.
"I knew you found the case of my family somehow. Maybe it was a coincidence, but while searching for whoever killed your mother, you stumbled across my family. And when you realized a criminal profiler might ruin your connection to your killer brother, you thought about removing me from the equation."
Upon hearing this, Brian sighed, looked at Larry, and muttered, "You really are terrifying…"
"That's why you were playing with me slowly and methodically, like a cat playing with a mouse, right?" Larry suddenly raised his voice, interrupting Brian, with a strange smile on his face.
"What do you mean?" Brian felt something was wrong. His eyes widened, and he asked anxiously, "You've always known?"
"Idiot." Larry shook his head and said, "I'm a criminal profiler. I analyze every murder in my environment, looking for patterns that could point to a serial killer. Your murders led me to believe you were connected to the frozen corpse case… When I got a composite sketch of you, I confirmed you were the killer from the ice truck, especially after I found the case involving your family."
He looked at Brian as if he were a fool and coldly added, "Now you're useless to me. But your brother isn't—he'll help me kill criminals. And if I see he's turning out like you, I'll get rid of him too."
"No… Impossible!" Brian snapped, a trace of panic on his face.
"You'll die knowing this, and I'll live on mocking how pathetic your performance was, Ice Killer," Larry relished playing with his prey.
"I'll kill you with my own hands…!"
With that, Brian quickly lowered his head, trying to free himself from the restraints—which, in truth, weren't very secure.
Larry had made them that way on purpose. After all, he wanted to play with his prey.
Just as Brian was about to free his arms, a powerful gust of wind swept down from above his head—
Crack!
A steel pipe, as thick as a baseball bat, slammed into Brian's head. With a terrifying, muffled thud, Brian collapsed to the ground, screaming in pain.
Larry's brutality was fully unleashed. Years of pent-up rage exploded at once, turning him into a monster.
Brian's head was smashed and bleeding from the blow, and he nearly lost consciousness on the spot.
How could he possibly fight back in that condition?
"I told you, you're an idiot!" Larry lifted the steel pipe and smashed it into Brian's left arm. He wasn't going to give his enemy a chance to retaliate.
If the guy in front of him had been a little smarter, he never would have messed with Larry. If he had been clever, he wouldn't have used a modus operandi that led straight to him.
He was a man who teetered between stupid and smart—just smart enough to be dangerous.
But people who are not entirely dumb and not truly smart tend to die the fastest.
And that's something that defines most serial killers.
Just then, while Larry was reveling in the physical torture he was inflicting on Brian, a shout rang out from afar:
"Larry Luk, I knew it!"