Larry looked toward the central room where he had laid out his research and nodded. "The scene is too complicated to explain clearly with words, so I drew a diagram to make it more intuitive."
At that moment, the door opened again, and Jack entered, followed by the field agents in charge and the rest of the team.
"Thank you for your hard work, Forensic Doctor Luk!"
"It's my job. Now that I've refined the information we have so far, we can get started."
"Good, then let's begin the meeting." Jack walked toward the conference room, followed by all the agents. Some knew little about Larry, but others, like an agent named Marcus, greeted him: "Good to see you again, kid."
"Marcus, I'm glad to see you too."
"You're no longer a trainee. Now you're a criminal profiler and forensic expert. I'm really glad you're on the team."
Larry greeted everyone, not skipping a single person. "Alright, bring everything to the meeting room."
Max, who understood what Larry was referring to, quickly asked Dilan to help him carry the documents from the table, and they started moving them into the meeting room.
"I'll bring the whiteboard," said Dilan, gently pushing the board covered in numerous notes.
Max wrinkled his nose and said, "I should've carried that..."
"Next time."
When Larry entered the meeting room, he noticed more people had gathered than expected to hear his analysis.
Larry didn't think too highly of himself, but that was exactly what was happening. This would be his trial at the FBI—every high-ranking official wanted to know if he would prove as valuable as Jack claimed.
"Then, let's begin with what we found in the forensic investigation," Jack ordered before the agents started discussing their findings.
Larry walked over to the whiteboard and looked around. "This is a photograph of the murder scene that took place around eleven o'clock at night."
"Today, we won't discuss the nature of the case. Since it's quite complex, I combined the inspection and autopsy results to map out the sequence of events."
Standing in front of such high-level agents didn't intimidate Larry. On the contrary, it made all his thorough research feel worthwhile. "Let's analyze it together."
"Based on the distribution of footprints and mixed blood traces, I drew two paths—red represents path A, and green represents path B."
"Let's look at the red path A first." Larry pointed to the blue folder in front of the agents and said, "On this route, there were multiple dense, bloody footprints at the entrance, all around the pool of blood under the youngest family member. Only the DNA from the bloody footprints was extracted."
"The prints headed toward the stairs but then turned into the kitchen. The bloody prints contained mixed blood from the child and Alicia, the youngest member of the family."
"Then, the suspect went upstairs with the blended blood of those two victims and went directly to the second room, opposite the stairs. Bloodstains found on the bedsheets contained the same mixed blood."
Larry paused and indicated it was time to switch folders. "Now let's look at the second path. At the entrance, there were only intermittent, one-sided blood footprints from a foot stained with Ron's blood."
"These intermittent bloody prints led directly to the living room, where they overlapped with mixed blood footprints from Alicia."
"The combined bloody footprints of three individuals passed through the hallway and ran up the stairs in large strides. There was a continuous trail of blood, as if someone had tried to mislead our investigation."
"At the location corresponding to path A, there were bloodstains from a fourth person. This same individual went upstairs and headed straight to the master bedroom, stopping at every drawer."
"Additionally, bloody handprints were left on the nightstand and the desk drawer. Only the DNA of Alicia, Ron, and another victim was found in the handprints."
"Judging by the gaps in the drawers, each one was missing an object about the size of an Alicia-sized dictionary. Afterward, paths B and A merged and exited quickly without returning."
"The distribution of bloody handprints and mixed bloodstains at the scene, as well as the blood collected from the edges of the victims' wounds, are consistent with the routes I just described."
Larry clearly pointed out, "I discovered through the autopsy that the murder weapons used in the killings were not the same. Here, I've drawn the differences in the blades of the murder weapons."
"You'll see, the weapon that killed Ron was a knife with a semicircular, deeply curved blade. Each stab caused a wound only 6.5 centimeters deep, the deepest in the center and slightly shallower on either side."
"The killer was very strong—every blow penetrated the bone. So, the blade was slightly curved, but the curvature was only in the middle of the blade."
"The wound on Alicia's body showed that the knife had pierced her heart. When the killer pulled the knife out, it cut directly through her lungs, liver, and spleen, causing a massive twisting cut and scraping the inner edge of the ribs at the front of her chest."
"This knife wound indicates that the weapon was extremely long, with a somewhat curved blade. The spine of the knife was straight, and the tip was curved, which also curved further as it cut through the ribs."
"Taking all of these factors into account, my conclusion is: There were two killers. Both were right-handed. The crime was committed by someone familiar to the victims. The murders occurred between 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM," Larry said, staring at everyone. "Beyond hatred, I believe there was a secondary motive—to obtain the family's relic, valued at 15.9 million dollars."
"The first killer hated Alicia deeply. She was the youngest in the family and recently married. We must assume it was someone who knew her personally and had strong feelings involved."
Larry looked at the house blueprints and said, "Blood paths don't lie. At least one of the killers knew the victim's home perfectly. That's why we need the family's son-in-law on our side and under suspicion. We'll treat him as a suspect."
"Of course, that'll remain until proven otherwise through a thorough investigation into Alicia's life." Larry felt slightly dizzy after finishing the analysis all at once, but the entire room burst into a long round of applause.
It goes without saying how much work went into preparing such a detailed analysis in just 24 hours for a family of six who had no idea they were about to be murdered.
Beverly, who was part of the group, looked at Larry differently, thinking: What kind of person is this?
There was undoubtedly something driving him to pursue killers so obsessively. She didn't know Larry's backstory, but she recognized his talent. After all, it's often said that good criminal profilers aren't so different from the killers themselves.
Jack stood and gestured for Larry to sit next to him. At the same time, he raised his phone and took a picture of the content on the temporary glass whiteboard Larry had written on.
"Forensic Doctor Luk's analysis summary is very thorough. This path is so important that it may reflect the killer's intent. Let's treat the two paths as two different murderers!" Jack approved of Larry's investigation and, turning to a field agent, said, "Marcus, tell me about the progress of your work yesterday."
Marcus was a bit surprised to suddenly be called by name and quickly stood up with his notebook.
"We split into three groups. One group investigated Alicia's social relationships and discovered she had dated no fewer than 20 boyfriends while working as a nurse at the university hospital."
"Do we have the dates for these relationships?"
"Yes. They all happened at the same time."
"At the same time?" Marcus looked at a baffled Jack and nodded.
"Yes, her private life was quite complicated. According to her colleagues, Alicia dated at least three boyfriends simultaneously—and they were all from work."
"Among them, two hospital doctors had relationships with her. We've included the rest of the staff on the list, including people from all walks of life. Currently, six individuals are the focus of our investigation."
"Next, we'll conduct an investigation based on the timeframe of the crime provided by Forensic Doctor Luk."
"Our second group looked into the social relationships of the Snow family. The elderly couple's social ties are relatively simple."
"What about her husband?"
"Ah, his real name is Christopher Licoms. He changed it years after meeting his wife… He's an excellent employee at a company specializing in international freight routes. We've confirmed his employment."
"Yesterday morning, his work ship was unloading in the Texas port and is still en route."
"Why would he change his name?"