redvbooks Chapter 693 Finally, the chapter is willing to leave!
Chapter 693 Finally, the chapter is willing to leave!
Jason sneered, "You're really good at bookkeeping."
"So after returning to the scene, in addition to the traces, we also need to check the neighbors' testimonies. Who saw which car first, at what time did they hear the first gunshot, and whether any unfamiliar deliverymen, repairmen, or food deliverymen had scouted the area beforehand. Those kinds of people wouldn't know Carmela was home today for no reason, and they certainly wouldn't have timed their attack to coincide with our meeting."
Jason glanced down and pressed his earpiece twice, issuing the orders. Soon, several more operatives rushed in from the other end of the corridor, carrying weapons and containment equipment. The atmosphere instantly shifted from a chaotic escape to genuine pre-operation preparation.
Lynn took off his filthy jacket and hastily changed into a clean, dark-colored windbreaker from the locker. As he zipped the jacket halfway up, a dull pain in his chest returned, causing him to pause for a moment. Jason noticed but said nothing, simply handing him a spare pistol and earpiece.
“The doctor doesn’t recommend close-quarters combat,” Jason said.
“I don’t recommend the other side get close either.” Lynn put on his headset, checked the magazine, but tucked the pistol behind his back without immediately cocking it. “We’ll talk about it when we get to the scene.”
"If you really get into a fight like this, I can't guarantee I'll be able to stop you every time."
"Then try to avoid making me charge."
Jason chuckled briefly: "You'd better think so too."
Twenty minutes later, several unmarked black cars emerged from the Federation Square underpass in batches, heading towards the north side of Harlem along different routes.
Lynn and Jason sat in the second car. Outside the window, the Manhattan night had fully unfolded, with traffic lights and billboards cutting strips of light and shadow across the glass. Traffic was still heavy, and people on the street were still chatting, buying drinks, arguing, and rushing to catch the subway, as usual. No one knew that less than an hour earlier, a sniper bullet had pierced through the window of an ordinary old apartment building, nor did they know that the people in the cars were heading back there at that moment.
Reports kept coming in through the headset.
"We have arrived at the perimeter of the scene and the Dongjiekou intersection is under lockdown."
“The rooftop of the building across the street is vacant and uninhabited, and new trampling marks have been found.”
"Tire tracks resembling those of an evacuation vehicle were found on the west side of the parking lot. Two minutes earlier, a gray car sped away from nearby shops."
"The security camera at the entrance of the building has been vandalized with paint, but there is a side view from the convenience store downstairs, which we are currently retrieving."
Jason listened to this and turned to look at Lynn: "Guess where the sniper position is?"
“If it’s an experienced gunman, the rooftop across the street is too exposed, the fire escape platform is too low, and the view behind the telephone tower is obstructed by cables.” Lynn looked at the street scene flashing past the window and said calmly, “The concrete crack in the northwest corner of the third floor of the abandoned parking lot is the most likely. There are many escape routes there, the angle can cut diagonally into Carmela’s living room, and it won’t cross the line with the assault team inside the building.”
“We’re on the same page,” Jason said to the driver in the front seat. “Let’s go to the parking lot first.”
At the third intersection, the car suddenly swerved and veered into a darker side street. Harlem seemed more chaotic and real at night than during the day. Blue-purple lights shone from a roadside bar, where several people stood smoking at the entrance, glancing sideways as unmarked black cars sped past. Further away, police lights flashed on another street, seemingly unrelated to them.
When they arrived at the abandoned parking lot, two advance operatives were already guarding the entrance. The concrete building was badly dilapidated, with damp stains and faded paint on the walls. The interior was dark, with only the whistling of the wind passing through the open spaces. Jason and Lynn led their men up to the northwest corner of the third floor, where they indeed found a recently compacted dusty area behind a partially collapsed railing.
“Here.” Lynn squatted down.
Behind the railing, there were several marks left by the anti-slip mat on the ground, and a small metal shaving flashed briefly under the flashlight. Technicians immediately went over and sealed it off. A little further out, there were fresh scratches on the concrete edge, indicating that the gunman had mounted a heavier weapon there. Looking across from there, the view was diagonally opposite the window of Carmela's living room.
Jason muttered under his breath, "You guessed right."
"Bullet hit point." Lynn crouched slightly at his gun position, indicating the height. "The first shot hit the window, the second swept the wall. It wasn't a miss; it was a headshot that forced the person behind the sofa. The gunman knew there was more than one person in the room."
“The instructions also contain information provided by someone,” Jason said.
“Or at least get a feel for the layout beforehand.” Lynn turned his head. “Ask the landlord, the repairman, or the deliveryman downstairs who has been upstairs recently.”
A technician made another discovery in the corner: "There are fiber remnants here, black mixed weave, like the edge of a glove. And... well, cigarette ash."
Jason went over to look: "A sniper smoking?"
"It might not be from smoking; it could just be something someone left behind." The technician shook his head. "But the ash is very fresh; it hasn't been blown away by the wind."
Lynn looked up at the broken window of Carmela's house in the distance. The lights were still on inside, and the cordon downstairs had been set up, with some neighbors temporarily evacuated to the street corner. An old woman wrapped in a blanket was standing in the crowd, gesturing excitedly, clearly describing to the agents what she had just heard.
The headset rang again.
"Back alley team reports: The fire escape door was found to be propped up by a temporary jamming bar, and there were signs of forced opening and closing on the kitchen back door. The lock cylinder of the living room front door was damaged by a precision pry tool. A 9mm short cartridge case was found in the hallway, which may be used by the assault team as a warning shot."
“Keep searching,” Jason said. “Focus on finding the transparent headset, breaching tools, and shoe print molds.”
Lynn stepped out of his gun position in the parking lot and was about to go downstairs when the technician suddenly called out to him, "Detective, there's something else here."
It was a small piece of black tape, stuck to the inside of the railing, very discreetly. On the back of the tape, someone had drawn a tiny mark with an oil-based pen: a broken loop with a vertical line through the middle.
Upon seeing this, Jason's face instantly turned icy cold: "They left it there on purpose."
“It wasn’t left there on purpose, it was on purpose so we could recognize it,” Lynn said.
"provocative?"
“It’s more like a notice.” Lynn put the tape into the evidence bag. “It means: We were here, and we’re not afraid for you to know who we are.”
Jason ground his back teeth: "Fuck you, that's arrogant."
After leaving the parking lot, they went to Carmela's apartment building. The scene had been almost completely cordoned off. The broken window in the living room was covered by a temporary plastic sheet, rattling loudly in the wind. Dust still lingered around the second bullet hole in the wall, and several family photos had been taken down by the evidence collectors and laid flat on the dining table. The kitchen back door frame was warped, and a mop handle lay broken in two to one side.
Lynn stood in the middle of the living room, looking at the mess that had stood there just hours before, with lunchboxes and water glasses now scattered everywhere. The coffee table had been moved, and shards of glass littered the floor. Carmela's cast-iron frying pan still lay beside the sofa, its edges stained with dirty water and dust.
"What did the neighbors say?" he asked.
An investigator handed over a preliminary record: "After the first loud bang, the old lady across the hall on the third floor saw two men running up the stairs, both wearing baseball caps, one of whom had a slightly dragging right leg. Another resident on the fourth floor said that fifteen minutes earlier, a man claiming to be a gas company inspector knocked on his door and asked if Carmela lived on this floor."
Lynn and Jason looked up at the same time. "A fake reconnaissance," Jason said.
“Right foot drags.” Lynn repeated, glancing at the record. “Matto said there was a man with a missing finger whose right foot dragged slightly. He could very well be one of the assault team members.”
"We've also retrieved the convenience store's surveillance footage." Another detective quickly came over and handed over a tablet. "Six minutes before the shooting, a gray van stopped next to a fire hydrant on the street corner. Three people got out. One stayed in the van, one went across the street, and one went into the blind spot of the apartment's side entrance. The license plate was fake."
The image resolution isn't high, but you can clearly see a worn-down old mark on the side door of the car. Another shot shows the passenger door opening, revealing a row of white disinfectant wipe boxes inside.
“The source of the smell,” Jason said. “They keep this stuff in their cars all year round.”
Lynn continued watching. The third video clip was from a security camera across the street, capturing a very short, reflective flash high up before the window shattered. The gunman's location perfectly matched the parking lot's prediction. Less than twenty seconds after the shot, a blurry, dark figure quickly retreated from the west entrance of the parking lot, rushing out of the alley along a pre-parked motorcycle.
“Snipers don’t ride in gray cars,” Lynn said.
"Professional." Jason's face darkened. "The division of labor is very detailed."
When they found Matteo's room, the technical team also made a new discovery.
Preliminary analysis of the powder on the glass on the table and the coat cuff revealed trace amounts of amethyst compound residue, but the purity was extremely low, indicating that it was merely contact traces rather than a source of preservation. The note by the bed that read "Don't let C know" was confirmed to be inconsistent with any handwriting found in the room. More importantly, a hidden compartment behind the back panel of the wardrobe, which had been temporarily pried open and then reinstalled, was discovered; it contained nothing but a few remnants of black velvet fibers.
Jason finished reading the report: "He originally hid the samples here?"
“Most likely.” Lynn looked at the backdrop. “What he came back for today wasn’t just a sample, but something that could save his life.”
"As a result, it attracted everyone."
“It might not have been exposed just today.” Lynn glanced around the room. “Someone has always known that he’s been keeping something, just waiting for him to make a move.”
Jason leaned against the door, arms crossed: "How much of the truth do you think this kid is telling now?"
“Seventy percent,” Lynn said.
"That high?"
“He wasn’t prepared to confess everything at once,” Lynn said calmly, “but tonight’s shot loosened up the remaining 30% of him.”
Someone else reported through the earpiece: a water-soaked transparent earplug, a broken small lock pick, and two different shoe sole patterns were found in the back alley; a fragment of a white plastic bag that had been washed away halfway was found at the sewer entrance, with a convenience store logo on it, the same style as the bag Matteo brought home.
"At least it shows they caught up with the wellhead," Jason said.
"Then they realized the item wasn't in the bag." Lynn nodded. "That's why they didn't continue the pursuit deeper and instead withdrew to cover their tracks. They knew that the risks would increase once they ventured deeper into the Federal District."
He walked back to the living room window and looked out through the temporary plastic sheeting. The night wind made the sheeting billow and then collapse. A few neighbors, unwilling to leave, stood whispering in the red and blue light shadows near the cordon downstairs. The delicatessen in the distance was still open, its lights warm, and someone hurried past carrying a paper bag. The whole street looked no different from many other ordinary nights, except that this building had an extra broken window on the fourth floor.
Jason walked over to him: "The dorms are all settled. Carmela has been standing guard outside Matteo's door since she took a shower, like she's afraid he'll climb out the window and run away. The medical staff said the abnormal reaction in Matteo's wrist has been temporarily suppressed, but a systematic evaluation is needed. The sample has been put into the freezer, and the technical department has started running purity analysis."
"What about his emotions?"
“It was terrible,” Jason said. “At first he wouldn’t let anyone touch him, but then he heard that Carmela was in the next room, so he barely behaved. He even asked you a question.”
Lynn tilted her head: "What are you asking?"
“He asked if you were out of your mind to go back to the scene right after escaping.” Jason chuckled. “I said yes, and he seemed a little relieved.”
Lynn was silent for a moment, then let out a soft, almost laughing sound from his nose.
Jason added, "Carmela didn't scold you. She just asked me if you've always been like this."
"What did you answer?"
“I said it depends,” Jason said, looking at him. “If things are bad enough, you’ll be in even worse shape.”
Lynn didn't take it, but instead pressed his hand against the outside of the brace on his chest. A dull ache throbbed there, reminding him that he shouldn't be standing in this dilapidated living room filled with shards of glass and dust. But despite the pain, his mind was clearer than ever before.
“There’s one more thing.” Jason turned the tablet to a new page. “We’ve traced the source of the fake license plate; it’s a scrapped car from Queens that was parked two weeks ago. We haven’t caught the gray car yet, but a side-view camera outside the parking lot captured the outline of the driver’s jaw, and the system is comparing it.”
“Don’t just check the regular warehouses,” Lynn said. “Link the marginalized individuals involved in the case of the mutated drug distribution three years ago, the underground compatibility experiments, and the unresolved elimination operation. In particular, check people with slightly dragging right feet, missing little fingers on their left hands, and those who frequently handle medical disinfectants.”
“It’s already been given to the portrait team.” Jason paused. “What are your plans for talking to Matteo next?”
Lynn looked out at the dimly lit street and after a long while said, "Let him get some sleep first."
"That's it?"
“He’s already had his house smashed up tonight, chased all the way into the sewers, and witnessed Carmela almost getting caught in the crossfire,” Lynn said. “If we take him into the interrogation room at this point, he’ll only become more defensive and put on a brave face. We’ll show him what we found at the scene once he’s calmed down a bit.”
"For example, a broken ring marking?"
“For example, they didn’t come to take him back today, they came to clean up the mess.” Lynn’s eyes turned cold. “He thought he still had room to negotiate with them. After tonight, he should understand that in those people’s eyes, he is essentially just a half-finished product who knows too much and took away things he shouldn’t have taken.”
Jason nodded in agreement. Then he glanced at the time: "It's almost eleven. Are you still planning to look through the entire building?"
“Go back to the rooftop and the bar across the street again,” Lynn said. “Then go back to the branch.”
"Finally willing to go back?"
“I need to see the address that access card led to myself.” Lynn turned away from the window. “Also, don’t evacuate anyone from the Carmela Apartments yet. Remove half of the visible security, but keep the sentries on the ground. They might not come back tonight, but who knows what will happen later.” (End of Chapter)