Chapter 21

"Have you been watching too many detective movies? That's impossible," Zoey said, shaking her head firmly.

The room went dead silent.

Alexander was caught off guard by her words. They locked eyes for a few seconds before he let out a helpless smile. "Alright, then explain it to me."

Zoey wasn't a fan of discussing things with others; it usually messed with her train of thought.

But seeing how eager Alexander was, she decided to give him a little lesson. "Do you know why a dismembered body, if not chemically treated and just tossed in a trash bin, gets found so quickly? Remember that twenty years ago's infamous dismemberment case our police academy instructor told us about?"

Alexander watched her quietly; he had never really thought about it that way.

He usually focused on the killer's motives, the disposal sites, and the purpose of the murder. He never really considered why the body would be discovered, assuming it was always due to witnesses and not the killer's actions.

"Why?" Alexander asked, genuinely curious.

Zoey replied, "Because you don't understand us regular people."

Alexander looked puzzled.

Zoey gave a self-deprecating smile.

"Zoey, this isn't the time for jokes," Alexander said, still serious.

Zoey felt a bit satisfied seeing his serious face. "I'm not joking. We haven't implemented strict garbage sorting here yet, so sanitation workers or garbage collectors don't usually check the contents of the garbage bags when cleaning up."

Alexander nodded. "Yeah, that's true."

Zoey found his naivety endearing. "That's why I said you don't get how us ordinary people live! If it were you, you wouldn't look inside the garbage bags. You'd probably find it gross and throw away the gloves you used to take out the trash."

She could tell by the look in his eyes that he would definitely do that.

Being wealthy, he didn't care about the cost of a pair of gloves and would never bother washing and reusing them.

Zoey continued, "That's just the mindset of you rich folks. The reality is, people willing to do such dirty and tiring work are usually older folks with kids who don't make much money. They don't want to burden their kids and don't have any special skills, so they take up this job. They go through the garbage looking for anything they can use, even if it's a beat-up jacket or something that can be reused, just to save a few bucks."

She went on, "Remember when we drove back from Pleasantville Apartments? You saw those elderly people rummaging through the trash bins, right? The person who reported the dismemberment case found a lot of meat in the garbage bag, thought it wasn't spoiled, and wanted to take it home to eat. But when they checked the meat at home, they found a few fingers."

With that, Zoey smirked and raised an eyebrow at Alexander.

Alexander took a deep breath. These were definitely things he hadn't considered. Was it really his wealth that made him overlook such details?

Alexander said, "I gotta admit, there's no flaw in your logic."

Zoey took his words as him trying to save face and didn't push it further. She'd been competing with Alexander since their school days and knew his level well.

Overall, she wasn't as good as him.

But Alexander had his blind spots. What gave her an edge was her background. Growing up poor gave her a deep understanding of how regular folks lived, letting her grasp the general public's mindset better.

Zoey shrugged, "This isn't really about logic. It's just everyday life. Rich people are the minority; most folks aren't wealthy."

Thanks to Zoey's little lesson, Alexander finally quieted down.

They grabbed a quick bite in the police station's cafeteria and then got back to watching surveillance footage.

There weren't many cameras at Pleasantville Apartments, but the key entrances and exits were covered.

Both vehicles and people coming and going were captured clearly enough, and with these two cameras, they could get some useful info.

Zoey and Alexander split up the footage, each taking half to review.

It took them three to four hours to get through all of it.

Zoey's eyes were sore, and her body ached. She stretched but still found no loopholes in the footage.

In the past few months, Lawrence never took anything with him when he went out, except for the occasional bag, which was undoubtedly for women's clothing.

From the rented apartment where Lawrence lived, the living traces and some evidence indicated that at least two victims had stayed there, but they found no bodies in Lawrence's home.

What did this mean? He had disposed of at least two bodies in three months.

From the surveillance footage that captured the trash bins, Lawrence threw out the garbage every two to three days, and the garbage didn't seem to weigh as much as containing bodies.

Moreover, the black plastic bags he carried were just ordinary plastic bags, nothing special.

The problem that puzzled both Alexander and Zoey was the same: since he didn't dismember the bodies, where were the victims' bodies?

Time flew by as they worked from the afternoon into the evening.

Robert saw everyone with dark circles under their eyes because of Lawrence's case and patted the table to get their attention. "This case is a tough nut to crack, and you've all been working hard, but you need to take care of yourselves. You need enough sleep to think clearly. Let's call it a night!"

In the past, everyone would have rushed to compete with the suspects.

But recently, with no solid evidence, they had been stuck watching surveillance footage every day.

They definitely needed some rest.

Everyone said goodbye to Robert one by one and left the police station.

Charles saw Zoey's tired look and called out to her, "Zoey, you okay? Need a ride?"

Alexander immediately added, "Take my car, Zoey."

Zoey thanked them for their kindness. "No need, it's close by, just a few steps away."