CHAPTER 273: CHAPTER 181 ABNORMAL LOVE_1

At present, the police and the FBI only had a severed hand as a lead on the Cannibalistic Demon.

To find the Cannibalistic Demon, they first had to figure out to whom the severed hand belonged.

Why did the severed hand appear in a trash bin on the commercial street?

These two points could help the police determine the range and direction of the Cannibalistic Demon’s activity.

It was worth noting that the trash bins on this commercial street, surrounded by many restaurants and eateries, often contained leftover food, which was why they were frequently rummaged through by the homeless.

The street corner surveillance might provide Merck with some leads.

When Dean was about to leave work, the forensic team finally arrived.

Merck went forward and interacted with them.

Dean, after giving a nod to the bald Hawk and other patrol officers, swiftly made his exit.

「...」

「The next day.」

After enjoying Sheila’s breakfast, Dean drove his bulletproof Humvee ostentatiously toward the detective bureau.

「At nine o’clock in the morning.」

Upon arriving at the office building, he saw yesterday’s senior FBI agent, Merck, squatting at the elevator entrance, his eye sockets sunken and darkened, with numerous cigarette butts on the ground.

When he saw Dean, a spark of vitality shone in his weary eyes.

"Detective Dean, you’re here!"

Dean was somewhat puzzled, "Agent Merck? What’s going on with you?"

Merck’s face showed embarrassment. "I need your help, Detective Dean!"

Dean grew more puzzled. "Buddy, haven’t I been helping you?"

"The case of the Cannibalistic Demon has become troublesome!" Merck said. He dropped his cigarette butt and continued, "The severed hand discovered last night was posted online by onlookers. Someone leaked the previous crimes committed by the Cannibalistic Demon. Although colleagues in the cyber investigation department dealt with those posts, it still attracted the attention of Los Angeles netizens and incited wild speculation."

Dean frowned. "This is problematic. Even the homeless person who found the severed palm only knew it was human remains; those onlookers shouldn’t have known it was the work of a Cannibalistic Demon."

"Exactly!" Merck nodded somewhat fretfully, affirming Dean’s deduction. "I suspect this is the Cannibalistic Demon provoking us. He wants to make his presence known in Los Angeles. What’s more troublesome is, yesterday my colleague and I wanted to check the street corner surveillance, only to find that neither the cameras from the surrounding shops nor the one at the street corner covered that trash bin location. We can’t identify who discarded the severed hand!"

Merck was now under a lot of pressure. It didn’t matter that the Cannibalistic Demon appeared in Los Angeles. The problem was that the guy had committed a crime. Even that would have been fine, since under normal circumstances, the detective bureau here would have been the first to take the blame. But because of his colleague’s recklessness yesterday, the Los Angeles division hadn’t even reported it to the detective bureau; the case was directly handed over to the FBI.

Early this morning, Merck had gotten a thrashing from his immediate superior, who said if they continued to let the Cannibalistic Demon run amok, then Merck, in charge of this case, had better be prepared to take the fall. This made Merck, now middle-aged, very anxious. He didn’t want to be unemployed in middle age.

After hearing this, a thoughtful look flashed in Dean’s eyes. The severed hand, the lack of surveillance, the immediate online leak by netizens... Logically, it appeared the Cannibalistic Demon was preparing to publicly display his power, to manifest his presence to his followers. But as Dean considered this, he spotted an issue.

He looked up at the exhausted Merck and smiled. "You guys tracked the Cannibalistic Demon here on what, the second day?"

Merck nodded. "To be precise, today is the third day. We previously received intelligence that a woman was meeting the Cannibalistic Demon at a bar in Los Angeles. Through communication tracking, my colleague and I finally found the hotel where you gentlemen were staying before. The woman booked a room there but didn’t stay. Unfortunately, that idiot colleague of mine got the room number wrong. You are probably aware of what happened afterward."

As he spoke, Merck took out a file. "This is the information on that woman. She has a somewhat special identity, so for now we’re just keeping her under surveillance and haven’t directly subpoenaed her."

Dean took the file and shrugged. "You’re too tired. Head to our Squad Four’s conference room. The coffee there tastes decent and can help you regain some spirit."

「...」

「In the office of Squad Four.」

Lawrence and Harry were taken aback when they saw Merck following behind Dean.

They pulled Dean aside. "Buddy, isn’t that the FBI agent we had a conflict with before?"

"Right. Do you remember their excuse at the time?"

Harry, who had a higher tolerance for alcohol, roughly recalled, "It seems they were tracking a perverted cannibalistic psychopath, but ended up bungling the room search and had a conflict with us."

Curiosity flashed across his dark face. "Could it be a real cannibalism case actually happened?"

"Yeah, just last night, a homeless person rummaging through the trash discovered a severed palm. Upon examination, human bite marks were found on the palm." Dean chuckled. "I happened to be nearby, so I called this guy."

"Dean, why contact them?" Harry was puzzled. "Wouldn’t it be more satisfying to just take over their case and embarrass them?"

Lawrence rolled his eyes. "Buddy, you’re a real idiot. Cases like these can cause public panic. If Dean hadn’t done this, and the precinct had reported it to us first, and the case proved hard to solve, then our Squad Four would end up being the scapegoat."