Chapter 89

Zoey heard the command and walked directly towards the wooden bed.

Alexander immediately thought of the 'mess' at Brian's house and quickly grabbed Zoey. "Zoey, why don't you search the wardrobe? You should be more familiar with girls' clothes than I am. I'll search over here."

"Search carefully." Zoey rolled her eyes at him.

Only then did Alexander feel relieved. "Okay."

The group searched for a long time but found nothing.

Robert came out of the room, lit a cigarette at the door, and looked at the room they had just searched, deep in thought. "There shouldn't be nothing at all. It's just a draft book, it shouldn't be so clean that there's not even a single draft book, right?"

Robert added, "Let's go back to the crime scene later."

"Yes!" The group restored the room to its original state and prepared to leave.

Zoey paused at the door, looking at the clean and tidy room, and suddenly said, "Do you guys have a feeling?"

"What feeling?"

"It feels more like they were saying goodbye in this way."

As soon as she voiced her thought, Alexander's steps also halted. "I think your idea... um... I don't know how to say it, it feels both right and wrong. If they were saying goodbye as you said, they would at least take the money, right? The money in the piggy bank wasn't touched, and they didn't even take basic clothes. Two kids without these, where could they go?"

Dennis took a deep breath. "But, I feel like Zoey is right. Their behavior of saying goodbye, it fits with their planning to leave. Is it possible that the killer tricked them? Then said to meet at the church at a certain time at night and leave with Janet?"

Robert followed their speculation and continued guessing. "The killer might have said they didn't need to bring anything, which can avoid drawing attention, so as not to alert others."

"It could also delay time." Zoey added, "Generally, parents would think that as long as nothing is missing from home, they wouldn't immediately think their children are missing. The villagers said they wake up around five or six, but only Rilla said she was woken up at seven. The victim's parents didn't realize the children were missing until they didn't come home."

"However," Zoey paused and continued, "I always feel there's one unclear point. If the killer wanted to kill, there's no need to delay time. Because the murder would be discovered quickly."

If the killer really wanted to delay time, they wouldn't place the bodies in the church. But rather somewhere farther away.

Obviously, there was a logical conflict.

Inside the room, apart from their voices, there were the sounds of fowls from the yard.

"Have they all left?"

Robert glanced to the side. "They went out. These people are really trusting, leaving a few strangers in their home without watching."

"They think we're cops. With us here, they feel safer."

The group shared a knowing smile and left.

Returning to the church, they saw Jordan sitting on the steps playing with his phone from a distance.

Noticing the group returning, he quickly stood up and greeted them warmly. "Officer Davis! We've collected fingerprints and DNA from the villagers and the children. The men have gone to work and will be back later."

"Alright, thanks." Robert walked around the village, getting to know the villagers' living habits, which matched what Jordan had said. "Alright, we'll go together tonight to lighten your workload a bit."

Jordan responded and then asked, "How did your visits go? Any findings?"

Robert shared their investigation direction with him and then said, "The crime scene has been mostly examined. Let's see if there's anything new. Later, we'll visit the village head's house to find out who was pursuing Faye."

"OK!" The group arrived at the church, and the bodies of the three girls were no longer there.

They had been taken to the city police station for further examination.

The crime scene was marked with special dust.

Several evidence markers stood irregularly around.

Zoey bypassed the body outline and bent down next to one of the markers.

This spot had four overlapping footprints.

She slowly looked up, and above was the horizontal beam of the roof.

The distance between the beam and the ground was such that a man over 5' 6" tall could almost reach it by jumping.

Jordan took out the survey report on his phone and came to Zoey's side, thoughtfully explaining. "The four footprints can be divided into two groups. It's been confirmed that the larger group belongs to Janet, and the other group to Sadie."

He looked up and continued, "There are three sets of ligature marks on the beam. Based on the depth and friction characteristics, it's preliminarily determined that the bodies were hung with a 9.6-inch diameter hemp rope. We haven't found it yet."

Jordan pointed to the 5th and 6th markers on the ground. " There are four square marks, two in each group, with a distance of 3 feet between the groups. We compared them with a borrowed stool from a household, and it fit perfectly. This means the killer likely stood on the stool to hang the bodies."

Zoey asked, "What's the distance between the three sets of ligature marks?"

"About 1' 6", less than 3 feet."

Zoey nodded. "The stool isn't long enough, so the killer would have moved while hanging the bodies. But this spot has a lot of dust, so it left stool leg marks."

Jordan glanced around. "Officer Davis just told me you were looking for a draft book. When we examined the bodies, they had nothing on them, and there's no place nearby to hide a draft book."

Zoey responded, "The draft book might not be related to the case. It's just our speculation. If there's nothing in it, that's best, it means we overthought. The killer wouldn't let us find something easily if there is something."

Maybe the killer had already dealt with it, because a draft book was easy to dispose of in the countryside.

Jordan seemed to think this case had nothing to do with him, his attitude was very relaxed, and he smiled as he comforted Zoey. "Willowbrook Village is only so big. If necessary, we can search every house thoroughly."

Zoey responded perfunctorily, "Yeah, that's a good idea."