CHAPTER 798: CHAPTER 800: INTERROGATION CLUES, PHOTOS

In the interrogation room, Reesi sat behind the desk, writing furiously, looking very competent, yet her face seemed somewhat bewildered.

On the other side, Thonaka, who had kept his head low all day, now raised it.

His emotionless gaze focused on Luo An, appearing unchanged, but the few beads of sweat on his forehead suggested he was not as calm as he appeared.

Next to him, sitting beside the interrogation desk, Luo An wore a slight smile, his tone quite relaxed.

Only Luo An’s voice filled the room; it seemed like he was talking to himself, but only those involved understood the real situation.

"Ashiya was first captured by you, then handed over to someone else, someone who was your superior."

Luo An crossed his legs, his smile very amiable as he said:

"Not Thonaka, your superior? Was it someone else sent by your superior? I see.

What is your organization? An assassin’s organization? No. Related to religion? Yes. Very well, next question..."

As time ticked by, Luo An asked more and more questions, his smile growing ever wider, and Thonaka’s forehead sweated more copiously, his eyeballs moving rapidly.

"...Are there many more like you? A lot, good, next question."

Luo An, unhurried, was about to continue his inquiries when Thonaka’s expressionless face suddenly contorted violently; he leaped up towards Luo An, roaring loudly:

"Enough!"

Thonaka’s sudden eruption startled Reesi, she instinctively stood up and pulled out her pistol, yelling loudly:

"Don’t move! Luo An, step back!"

"It’s okay, don’t panic."

Being the target of the attack, Luo An remained completely calm, his smile unchanged, he didn’t even move from his chair.

Snap—

The next second, Thonaka’s hands, stretched out towards Luo An’s face, abruptly stopped just a few centimeters away, his advancing foot also trapped in place.

Luo An tapped on Thonaka’s handcuffs, smiling,

"Don’t be agitated, Mr. Thonaka, the handcuffs and shackles will only tighten the more you struggle; your leg injury hasn’t healed, there’s no need to inflict more wounds on yourself."

Thonaka’s eyes reddened, he panted heavily and stared intensely at Luo An, after a long silence, he asked in a low voice:

"FBI, can you read minds? Where did you learn that? Did the Archbishop teach you?"

Without waiting for Luo An’s response, Thonaka dropped his head and sat back down in his chair, his expression quite absent.

Reesi let out a sigh of relief, sheathed her pistol, and picked up her pen and paper to resume taking notes, Luo An thoughtfully watched Thonaka, noting the emphasis in his words: Archbishop.

As for the mind reading technique mentioned by Thonaka, Luo An genuinely lacked such a skill; he had merely shifted slightly to using an "Emotional Detection" approach.

"Emotional Detection" discerns whether a person is lying by feeling the emotional fluctuations when someone speaks; the emotional fluctuations of telling the truth and lies are distinctly different.

Since Thonaka was not speaking, Luo An decided to directly approach from emotional fluctuations; different thoughts and responses in the mind produce different fluctuations.

Thus, Luo An first asked a bunch of physiological, psychological, and other questions to attract Thonaka’s attention and discern which fluctuations represented truth and which represented lies.

Having found a basis and verified it experimentally, Luo An began to formally inquire about the issues related to this case.

At that time, Thonaka was disturbed by Luo An’s accurate guesses, the more he tried to hide the correct answers, the more his mind would reveal the real answers, the more agitated Thonaka got, the more information Luo An gathered.

In the following forty-some minutes, Luo An kept questioning non-stop, though Thonaka still didn’t speak, his complexion grew paler, and Luo An obtained a lot of information.

After asking three times to ensure there were no mistakes, Luo An smiled, patted Thonaka’s shoulder to express his thanks, and then led Reesi out of the interrogation room.

As they closed the door of the interrogation room, Reesi’s eyes sparkled, looking at Luo An with utter astonishment.

Luo An gently massaged his temples and said:

"Reesi, show me the interrogation record."

Reesi snapped back to reality, hurriedly handed the folder to Luo An, then leaned in close and asked quietly:

"Luo An, can you teach me that Mind Reading Technique?"

Luo An, pushing Reesi’s head away, said speechlessly:

"This isn’t Mind Reading Technique, it’s micro-expression analysis."

Micro-expression analysis is the cover Luo An used for "emotional perception," and as for why other experts in micro-expression analysis couldn’t accomplish what Luo An could, Luo An would only answer with two words: talent.

Don’t ask, the answer is talent.

Rebuffed by Luo An’s remark "You don’t have the talent," Reesi immediately fell into a slump, squatting on the ground and started drawing circles.

The other agents didn’t bother with Reesi; seeing that Luo An’s folder actually contained text, they all hurried over, Chenier with a face of astonishment:

"Thonaka spoke? Luo An, how did you do it?"

Luo An smiled:

"He didn’t speak, but he answered questions."

"?"

The statement was somewhat incomprehensible, but the other agents didn’t care and quickly started looking through the folder.

The contents of the folder were mostly questions and conversations, marked with ’correct’ or ’incorrect.’ After integrating all information, indeed Thonaka was the murderer of Leisha, as well as the man who left the footprints at Ashiya’s kidnapping.

Thonaka acted because he was commanded by an "Archbishop," the Hierarch ordered the killing of Leisha, while Ashiya was to be left alive.

Why Ashiya needed to kill Cadillac owner Imre, Thonaka didn’t understand; he didn’t ask but just contacted the Archbishop after capturing Ashiya, and that evening people came and took Ashiya away.

After reading the first three pages of interrogation records, Chenier’s expression turned solemn and she pointed out the critical question:

"Who is this ’Archbishop’? Did Thonaka say?"

"He didn’t say, but by the name, we can assume the person is a cult leader."

Luo An shook his head, as the other party isn’t talking, he could only ask more specific questions to judge the correct answers.

Questions like the name and identity of the "Archbishop," or the name and location of the cult, Luo An himself didn’t know the answers and couldn’t ask, thus couldn’t get correct outcomes, only some peripheral information.

However, the contents of the folder were already a rich harvest, Winslow and Chenier looked impressed, and gave Luo An a big thumbs up.

At that moment, Mona spoke:

"Luo An, Michelle and I also found some clues inside that phone and computer.

For instance, Thonaka had captured other people before, not a few, both men and women. I’ve restored those people’s photos on the computer.

Also, I pulled Thonaka’s call records, which should help us locate where that ’Hierarch’ who gave him orders is."

"Well done!"

Luo An cheered up, loudly praising Mona and Michelle for a moment, after a brief discussion, the two women continued tracking the "Archbishop," while Luo An and Reesi organized information of other people captured by Thonaka. Winslow and Chenier took Thonaka away to be temporarily imprisoned.

After a long period of busyness, seeing it was getting late, Luo An waved his hand and declared it was time to go home and rest, and they would continue the investigation the next day.

The group dispersed in the parking lot, Luo An still shared a car with Mona. They arrived at the villa, Mona got out of the car first, Luo An was about to open his door when he suddenly received a text message:

"Good evening, Group Leader Luo An, how about we talk?"

Below the text was a photo showing the backs of Mona, Winslow, Michelle, Reesi, Chenier from this morning as they arrived at work, along with a picture of a bullet.