Chapter 620

Having associated with the props to cover up the smell, the next task for the two was to determine which cleaning company the Central Bank hired, and what kind of cleaner this cleaning company used.

The cleaning company was quite easy to judge; their all-blue uniforms explained everything. Lex operated the keyboard on the side, then said: "Before, Luthor Manor also hired this company. Their full name is Metropolis Snow Mountain Cleaning Co., Ltd., which is also the largest cleaning company in Metropolis, with over 1,800 employees..."

"Here, this is their information. I hacked into their internal database and retrieved their recent business information. According to this information, the Central Bank booked the glass curtain wall cleaning service on March 18th."

"Stepping on the Stars"

Bruce came to the screen and looked at the information displayed on it. The order information on this showed that the Metropolis Central Bank reserved the glass curtain wall cleaning service. There were 50 employees participating in this service, among which, excluding technicians and drivers, there were 43 cleaners, all male.

The information showed that they sent out a total of three trucks, each truck had four large tool boxes, among which one tool box contained all the cleaning agents, but the specific brand wasn't displayed.

Having found their purchase order, Lex continued to operate on the computer screen. He said: "Pailuo brand cleaner raw material, the logo is a blue bear head, so it is also called Blue Bear cleaner. Snow Mountain Company has used this cleaner for over ten years."

"The cleaner specifically used for cleaning glass curtain walls doesn't have a finished product. After purchasing the cleaner raw material, it needs to be mixed and prepared by oneself. I am querying their specific purchase information..."

After operating the computer again, Lex said: "Their formula is confidential, but the approximate chemical formula can be found. Judging by the ingredients, there must be a smell, but whether it can cover up the bloody smell isn't certain."

Bruce glanced at the ingredients on the screen and said: "These ingredients mixed together will definitely emit a smell. The Wayne family owns many chemical plants, and a part of them also produces cleaner raw materials. But if the sealing of the bottle is relatively good, then the smell won't leak out."

"This is easy to solve. Just create some accidents, let a few bottles break, and then let the smell stay on that truck, or simply sprinkle the cleaner on fabrics like mops or rags in advance, then the smell will remain for a long time. Put it in the same truck, and it can also serve to cover up when moving." Lex said.

Bruce glanced at him, the look was probably "Why are you so familiar with this?", and Lex didn't back down at all and returned the color, meaning "Same to you."

The two watched all the surveillance videos again and began to analyze which tool box was the tool box for hiding the corpses. Once this tool box was found, then the person who moved this tool box could be locked onto, and then he would most likely be the murderer.

Among a total of eight large tool boxes, two of them weren't sealed, and the things inside were relatively few. There were images capturing the items inside the boxes, so they could be excluded. The remaining six tool boxes were completely sealed and looked exactly the same.

The surveillance in the Central Bank was missing in many places. Half of the important lobby on the first floor was a blind spot, and what was even more terrible was that there was no surveillance at the elevator on the first floor. That is to say, after this group of boxes was moved to the elevator, which box went to which elevator, and where it went, was completely impossible to distinguish.

Bruce and Lex discussed for 20 minutes, repeatedly calculated the people, boxes, and routes, and in the end, they could only lock the suspicious boxes within the range of three. And these three boxes were all ones where neither the moving scene nor the usage scene was captured.

Finally, when watching the surveillance screen frame by frame, they finally discovered that one box's screen was different from the others.

The surveillance screen showed that a cleaner was pushing one of the boxes, and when walking through a corridor, he was suddenly stopped by a woman.

The surveillance screen could only capture the feet of the two and the bottom of the box, couldn't capture their faces, and didn't record the sound of their conversation. Among them, that cleaner and the box didn't have any abnormalities, but the shoes worn by that woman were different from those of the bank employees.

Lex found the promotional video of the Central Bank on the Internet. All the female employees here were dressed the same, and even their shoes were the same, while the shoes worn by the woman in the screen weren't the gray round-toed high heels worn by bank staff, but black pointed-toe high heels.

Relying on the style of these shoes, Lex found the brand of these shoes. That was a new product of Prada for the season, the price was very high, and it needed to be reserved in advance. That is to say, the ordinary female staff of the bank couldn't afford these shoes. The person who could wear these shoes must be rich or expensive.

Following this clue, Bruce and Lex also inferred that this woman shouldn't be a bank staff member, but a boss who came to handle business.

So, Lex queried the large-amount business of the bank on that day again, and then he discovered that from the end of February, the Central Bank had been following up on a large-amount transaction. The two sides of the transaction were precisely Pailuo Chemical Raw Material Production Co., Ltd. and Snow Mountain Cleaning Co., Ltd., among which Pailuo Company had a large-amount loan, which was approved by the president.

The cold light of the computer shone on Lex's face, reflecting his red hair in front of his forehead into an eerie purple. After looking at it intently for a long time, he stood up, then looked at Bruce and said: "Now there is good news, and bad news."

"Tell the bad news first." Bruce interrupted Lex and said.

"The good news is, I found out the identity of this woman. She is the boss of Pailuo Company. She came to the Bank Building today to discuss business with the bank president."

"But the president has already been murdered, so her business shouldn't have been discussed." Bruce said: "She should have seen one of the tool boxes, and their conversation time exceeded 30 seconds. If that tool box had any abnormalities, she should have noticed it. Can she be contacted now?"

"This is the bad news." Lex turned around, looked at the screen and said: "She is the second victim."

Lex turned back and pressed a button. An image appeared directly on the screen. That was a middle-aged woman wearing light makeup, but Bruce and Lex had both seen her other appearance in the news, which was the appearance of having her chest and abdomen cut open, ears cut off, and a signal receiver stuffed into her ears.

Bruce suddenly paused, then said: "The murderer is guiding our line of sight."

He turned back and looked at Lex. Both of them saw the same kind of information in each other's eyes.

"Professor Shiler said..." Lex began to pace on the spot. He said: "The real serial killer will deliberately leave all kinds of clues, guiding the investigator's gaze, letting the investigator pay attention to the things he wants the investigators to pay attention to..."

"What does he want us to pay attention to?" Bruce raised a question, but he wasn't asking, because a moment later, he answered his own question: "The first victim was the bank president, the second victim was the boss of Pailuo Company, and there was a business being discussed between the two of them..."

"What exactly is this transaction between the bank, Pailuo Company, and Snow Mountain Company? And why did the murderer kill the leaders of two of the parties?" Lex narrowed his eyes. He asked: "The murderer is guiding us to pay attention to what exactly is behind this transaction, so, should we pay attention to this part?"

"Professor Shiler also said that the murderer guiding the investigator's line of sight isn't without purpose. They are often trying to reveal some facts by letting the investigator discover his motive. It could be some grievances, it could also just be his miserable encounter and hatred, or it could just be the murderer's understanding of a certain matter." Bruce said while recalling.

"That is to say, there is likely some hidden story behind this transaction?" Lex stopped pacing and stood on the spot to start thinking.

"Generally speaking, ordinary murder case murderers will use all kinds of methods to erase clues, letting investigators discover themselves as little as possible."

"But serial killer murderers are just the opposite. They will deliberately leave various clues, guiding the investigator's line of sight. So, when investigating serial murder cases, following his guidance isn't necessarily completely a bad thing; it might let us unearth the motive for his killing." Bruce said. After speaking, he turned around and walked toward the door, saying while walking:

"I'm going to investigate the bank, Snow Mountain Company, and Pailuo Company to see if there are any problems in these three places. And you..." Bruce paused at the door and then said: "You continue to contact the police, get the information on the second case, and additionally, keep an eye on the boss of Snow Mountain Company. He is very likely to become the third victim..."

After speaking, Bruce left. Lex re-retrieved an interface. That showed the results investigated by the police. The only useful information inside was the timeline provided by the eyewitnesses.

The last eyewitness who saw the bank president appear was the security guard near the villa area where he lived.

April 2nd, 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the bank president drove his car back to his residence. His family wasn't in this city, so he lived alone, and after that, he never came out again. April 3rd, the corpse appeared on the street in front of the bank gate.

Near the street where the villa area was located, there were no surveillance cameras, and the patrolling security guards didn't provide any clues about suspicious people. Even in the two street blocks nearby, no one discovered any suspicious situation. Therefore, this clue was broken like this. So, Bruce and Lex put their focus on the things that happened in the Bank Building.

And very quickly, Lex obtained the information on the timeline related to the second victim from the police, but there was a very strange place in it.

In the police information, the last eyewitness who saw that female boss said that he had seen her near the president's office on the 16th floor at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and after that, no one had seen her again.

However, the image of the surveillance equipment that Lex and Bruce had just seen showed that at 1 o'clock and 10 minutes in the afternoon, that female boss stopped that cleaner in a corridor.

That is to say, that cleaner pushing the box was the last eyewitness, and none of the cleaners' testimonies mentioned this point.

That is to say, Bruce and Lex's inference was very likely correct. The murderer precisely mixed into this group of cleaners, and after throwing the corpse of the first victim, killed the second victim on the spot.

Lex lowered his head and looked at the information transmitted by the police. That showed that the place where the second victim's corpse was discovered was on the street in front of the Pailuo Company Building.