Jack went to the vending machine in the police station hallway and ordered two bags of potato chips, handing them to Jiejie. "Take these to the interrogation room, and then ask Lieutenant Colonel Barnes to go to the monitoring room next door."
A few minutes later, Jack entered the interrogation room, carrying the evidence box Hannah had brought back. He glanced at the little girl, who was eating potato chips with an innocent smile, then glanced at the one-way glass wall facing her.
Although he couldn't see the monitoring room next door, he knew that many people were currently inside, including a heartbroken father.
Jiejie stood in the corner with her arms folded, her expression a complex mix of pity, sympathy, disgust, and even a hint of fear.
Although she had long been certified as a behavioral analyst by the BAU, both she and Jack were only half-way professionals. They hadn't been with the BAU for very long before being abducted and taken to New York.
As a result, Jack often described himself as only a semi-professional psychologist, and Jiejie was similar. Because she was often busy with office work, her case studies were far less extensive than Jack's.
Placing the box on the table, Jack pulled out a chair across from Rachel and sat down, his gaze fixed on her face.
Valerie and Ryan Barnes were a match made in heaven, both exceptionally talented and beautiful.
And as their only daughter, with her blond hair, blue eyes, rosy lips, and white teeth, Rachel inherited nearly all of their physical qualities, a classic example of the "daughter trick" story.
Some tragedies are inevitable, like fate playing a cruel trick: someone born as a pure angel turns out to be a demon.
With a silent sigh, Jack tapped his fingers on the evidence box. "It's over, Rachel."
The little girl paused in her potato chip chops, obediently brushing the crumbs off her hands. She sat up straight, a puzzled expression on her face. "I don't understand what you're talking about, Agent Tavolar."
Jack opened the box, revealing a Colt .38 pistol still stained with dirt. "My colleague dug it up in your backyard, right where we met you, right under that 'fort' your father built for you."
The innocent expression vanished from the girl's face in an instant, like that world-renowned intangible cultural heritage skill from Sichuan Province.
Jack couldn't describe the contrast he felt at the sight. When that grim expression appeared on this supposedly innocent face, it felt incredibly eerie,
like rummaging through a box in a dimly lit basement and suddenly seeing a torn doll, long forgotten from childhood, while the dusty music box began to chirp again.
"I really don't have time to bury it any deeper. I have to get back as soon as possible before Mr. Curtis finds out I sneaked out of his house."
Although he had experienced many similar confession scenes, the expressions on the murderer's face were always different, whether it was regret, sadness, despair, or indifference.
But when a human cub's childish face showed this "you caught me" expression, and then admitted to the fact of murder in a nonchalant tone, as if an adult had just exposed a small lie, even Jack felt a little creepy.
Jiejie, who was standing in the corner behind him, hugged her arms nervously. Jack also tried to restrain his emotions from showing, "Go on, tell me what happened."
"Don't look at me with that disgusting look, you remind me of my mother." Rachel suddenly looked at Jiejie beside her with a look of disgust.
"She looked at me like you did, saying she wanted to help me, and then she was going to send me to a special hospital in Montana for some fucked-up treatment.
I didn't need any of that help. I hated the way you looked at me. I hated you, and I hated her."
"But you don't hate your dad, do you?" Jack tapped the table, motioning for her to look at him and answer his question.
"Of course not. Dad's been bewitched by that woman. Everything seems so good when he's home." The little girl smiled sweetly, as if remembering those good times.
"Is that why you hurt yourself? Every time you do this, he comes back to you?"
The little girl rolled her eyes, seeming to find the question a bit silly. "Sometimes it works, but it's always short-lived and never quite satisfies me."
"So your mom is the obstacle. As long as she's gone, you and your dad will never be apart again, is that right?" Jack continued.
"It's all her fault. Who made her make that decision? Getting rid of her is the best solution. Just like Mr. Curtis's wife, after she died, Mr. Curtis had to come back to be with little Rogers."
The girl spoke expressionlessly about her mother's death, as if it were a trivial matter.
"That's what you told your father last night after seeing him?" Jack seemed to understand Lieutenant Colonel Barnes's strange behavior from yesterday to today.
The little girl replied nonchalantly, "Of course, even though he couldn't understand it at the time, so what? He'll eventually come back to be with me. I'm his sweetheart."
Seeing Jack's long silence, Rachel shrugged and picked up the potato chips on the table and began to crunch them.
-
When Jack and Jiejie entered the adjacent monitoring room, the atmosphere inside was quite eerie.
The small room was packed, but everyone's expression was as if they had just watched a horror movie together for half the night.
Jubal coughed lightly and motioned for everyone else to follow him. "I think Commander Barnes needs some private space right now."
Jack glanced around and found the Commander Barnes squatting in the corner with his knees hugged. This fearless Navy SEAL on the battlefield, a seven-foot tall man, now had empty eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, and he was as helpless as a child.
"Fate is so cruel. I think what you need now is to face reality, Commander Barnes."
He didn't know how to comfort the other party. He could only say that he was glad that such a tragedy did not happen to him.
"This is a psychological problem, right? They say you are a psychologist. Please tell me that Rachel can be treated." Commander Barnes held Jack's right hand tightly, his desperate eyes heartbreaking.
(End of this chapter)