Chapter 20

Alexander felt pretty shaken up inside by Zoey's words.

Back in their police academy days, he thought he'd found a kindred spirit. They were on the same wavelength, always bouncing ideas off each other. He dove deep into those cases, analyzing every detail, all because of her.

But it was all in his head.

Zoey never saw him as a rival. To her, it was all about the scholarship, and he was just the biggest obstacle in her way.

Alexander couldn't even describe how he felt right now. It was worse than a desperate counterattack. He was heartbroken.

He took a deep breath and asked, "The police academy's tuition is higher than regular schools. With your smarts, you could've gone anywhere. Why insist on the police academy?"

Zoey rolled her eyes, "What's it to you?"

Alexander fell silent. She didn't care about anything he said.

Zoey turned back to the car window, "Are we going back or not? If you don't, I'll tell Officer Davis you're slacking off!"

Alexander was speechless. He had no way to deal with Zoey.

He restarted the car, and they drove back in silence.

At the police station, Dennis and Charles immediately surrounded them, eager for updates. "How'd it go?"

Alexander said, "We went to Lawrence's supermarket and talked to the lower-level employees and their team leader. Aside from their personal opinions of Lawrence, almost everyone knew he liked to bring women's clothes and wigs to work. This pretty much confirms our suspicions about Lawrence!"

Dennis nodded excitedly, admiration flashing in his eyes as he looked at Zoey, "Great work. I've got something even better! Remember the bloodstain in the bathroom? It's confirmed to be from the missing Lily!"

But then he sighed. "However, the long hair Alexander found under the mirror doesn't match any of our suspected victims. It's not from any of the three women."

This suggested there might be a fourth victim they hadn't found yet. They needed to expand the search, but they still didn't know where to start.

Expanding the search from three months of missing women to six months would require a lot of police resources.

Not to mention those, what if the family of the owner of the long hair hadn't reported her missing?

At that moment, Robert joined the discussion, "Lawrence is a clean freak. He even bought a robot vacuum to keep his place spotless. Do you think he wouldn't clean under the mirror? We saw the long hair right away. Wouldn't Lawrence see it? I told you it wasn't necessary to bring it back, but you insisted."

"How is it not necessary!" Charles only dared to talk to Robert like this when discussing the case, "Now we can confirm there's a fourth person, can't we?"

"Then go find the fourth person yourself. This task is all yours," Robert frowned, utterly speechless at Charles.

Charles knew this investigation was going to be a headache, so he picked up his phone and started searching for something.

The impromptu "meeting" wrapped up, and everyone went back to their tasks.

This was Zoey's first time in a discussion since her transfer, and she was so caught up in the heated atmosphere that it took her a moment to snap out of it.

Alexander noticed and chuckled, "You'll get used to it. They argue all the time, but it's no big deal."

Zoey ignored him and went back to her seat.

Alexander fell silent. Was he being ignored again?

Things were moving fast, and now they had both witnesses and physical evidence.

With the case shifting from stalking to a criminal investigation, Robert had Lawrence transferred from another station's holding cell to theirs for the next round of questioning.

Since Lawrence hadn't lived in his current place for long, he denied everything, "I don't know anything. It must've been left by the previous tenant. You guys are cops, but you can't just frame me, right?"

They were only holding Lawrence as a suspect for now, without much solid evidence. His constant denials were making the interrogation tough.

As long as Lawrence didn't confess, it remained a criminal case. No one was dumb enough to send themselves to prison.

Lawrence was sure they had no evidence; otherwise, they wouldn't need his confession.

Everyone looked pretty grim as they gathered again.

"Did you see Lawrence's attitude? Total provocation! He's sure we can't find the bodies, so he's playing games with us!" Robert slammed his fist on the table, "For now, there's no better way. We need to look for clues in the surveillance footage. You guys handle Lawrence's movements from three months ago. You and Zoey will cover the area around his current residence. Keep investigating and interviewing. Got it?"

Zoey nodded, "Got it!"

Lawrence's current place was in an old complex called Pleasantville Apartments. The surveillance was pretty lacking, making Zoey and Alexander's investigation and interviews a pain.

Thinking about the possibility that Lawrence might be responsible for more than just three lives, Zoey and Alexander were even more determined.

To avoid wasting time on evidence collection, they backed up all the surveillance footage they could find, even from nearby shops.

Zoey felt a bit hungry on the way and grabbed a hot dog.

Seeing her eat so heartily, Alexander couldn't help but comment, "You have a good appetite."

Alexander thought, 'In such a pressing situation, she still has time to eat.'

Zoey replied, "If I don't eat, how can I have enough energy?"

She quickly finished her food and got back to work.

As they returned to the station, Alexander suddenly stopped at the entrance, looking at Zoey seriously.

He said, "Lawrence doesn't have his own car. If he really is the serial killer, how did he transport these people without leaving any traces? Could it be dismemberment?"