"I see…"
Larry watched everything without flinching. His killer instinct kicked in, but he quickly pushed it aside—there were too many agents here who could discover him in seconds.
"Damn it!"
Larry looked at Max, then at the blood all over the place, and said, "You know what we have to do now—just our job. Leave the emotions to the agents responsible for catching the killer, and let's gather the evidence we need to do it."
"The children... that's a whole different matter, Larry. I can't…"
Turning his head toward Max, Larry replied, "Yes, you can. You're prepared for this."
"The workload for collecting samples is overwhelming. We'll help gather them," Beverly offered to take samples wherever Larry instructed.
Larry, on the other hand, said, "Max, make sure the forensic team does their job properly. I don't want any mistakes made with the bodies."
"Yes, I'll take care of it."
"And come back when you're done. We've got a lot to do here, and I need you."
"Understood."
Larry went into autopilot, and in less than an hour, between Beverly, Max, and himself, they gathered over five hundred blood samples, in addition to fingerprints and other types of evidence.
At the same time, they discovered signs of looting in several rooms on the second floor. All the searched spots were drawers—nightstand drawers, desk drawers, and wardrobe drawers.
It seemed something was missing from the desk and the nightstand in the master bedroom. Judging by the shape of the missing items, they appeared to be the size of a diary.
After sorting and labeling all the samples, they evacuated with the evidence box.
When Jack saw them finally coming out of the house, he quickly asked, "How is it? Any leads?"
Larry handed the box to Max, who walked ahead, and said, "We can conclude that the killer is the same person. Also, I might have a profile of the killer in the database."
"Are you certain?"
"Except for the male body on the second floor, all the others were killed with a single knife. The killer has obvious advantages in strength and height."
Larry paused briefly and clarified, "Although the blood prints lack a clear pattern and can't be matched, we can estimate their size. The person's shoe size is between 9.5 and 11…"
"At a glance, it was clear the killer applied pressure on the inner sides of their feet, turning them inward and dragging their heels. That's a sign of an introverted and timid personality. And yet, such a person could commit something so brutal."
Larry visualized the killer in his mental profile and said, "I fear he was probably scared himself. That's why I believe there must have been some trigger—something that made him commit the murders as if he were hypnotized."
"Moreover, the killer's method of slitting the throat and stabbing the heart was clean, showing excellent understanding of human anatomy. The man's face on the second floor was almost flayed, and the blade followed the bone structure with no scratches at all across the face."
"What does that mean?" Jack recalled the profile Larry had made of the killer he was hunting and asked, "The killer can't be a med student, right? If so, maybe your other killer profiles are misleading you."
"We can't rule that out.
The use of gloves and shoe covers to hide fingerprints and footprints shows strong anti-tracking capabilities. These aren't skills you pick up from just studying medicine," Larry said as he put on leather gloves. Then he continued in a calm tone, "Does this contradict his personality?"
"Is it a professional trying to deceive us? Or someone extremely good at pretending? Also, the killer only searched drawers in every room. His goal was very specific—just the drawers."
In the master bedroom, several items were missing from the drawers in the desk and nightstand. The empty space matched the size of a diary—it didn't look like money. In many homes like this, people tend to hide diaries in such places to make them harder to find.
"You were right about one thing: the young woman had recently gotten married... If whoever did this acted alone, they must have had a deep hatred toward this family." Jack put his hands in his pockets as he walked toward his vehicle. "That's why I suggest we stick to the basics—let's investigate the victims' social relationships, especially the second daughter, that girl named Alicia. She gives me a bad feeling based on what people said in the interviews."
Larry thought for a moment and said, "It makes sense to me that a family member opened the door. That would explain a lot, especially if it was Alicia, the newlywed…"
"You mean revenge?"
"Maybe it was someone she had a romantic connection with. We need to find her husband, who's currently at work."
After moving away from the other agents, Jack said, "It could also be that same killer who's playing with my patience."
Larry realized Jack was desperate, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He shook his head and clarified, "I still believe it's a revenge killing, committed by someone familiar to them. As for what they were looking for or what drove them to do this? Only the killer can give us those answers."
Jack nodded, made a few calls, and followed Larry to the car. After all, the death toll was high, and the social impact was huge, so Jack wanted to see the autopsy results himself.
No one spoke during the ride back to the center. Especially Beverly, who vanished after hearing Larry's analysis shared with Jack.
Larry assumed she went off to gather social information on the victims' family.
"We need to thoroughly investigate the family's son-in-law. He's my main suspect for now—or just another victim."
"If you're assuming infidelity, are you suggesting the killer is him and he's taking revenge on his wife?" Beverly didn't quite understand Larry's line of thought—it was too easy to mislead oneself with so many theories.
"It could be him—or he hired a professional killer. Though I doubt that part, especially given how brutal the murder of the man upstairs was."
While still theorizing about the case, Jack sped toward the center.