Mysterious Hunting Ground

Chapter 78 78. San Quentin Prison, Plan

The two woke up early in the morning at the hotel. At five o'clock in the morning, the sky was still dark. Holden drove the Bronco through a quiet residential area. Dean rested in the co-pilot and checked the skill progress in the system.

格斗lv1(143/200→144/200）

射击lv1(89/200→90/200)
Shadow of the Past lv1 (24→25/200)
Balance meditation method lv1 (75→76/200)
Holden called yesterday to leave the relationship, and he found an indoor shooting range in Santa Monica to practice hard shooting, fighting and mental training at night, and finally improved the proficiency of several skills a little.

Although the progress was extremely slow, before the final murderer surfaced, it was a little bit more powerful.

……

"What do you know about San Quentin?" Dean asked looking out the window at the rapidly receding Olympic road sign as the car headed toward San Francisco Bay at the mouth of the lower Sacramento River in northern California.

"This prison is located on an isolated peninsula, where all kinds of vicious and serious criminals are held. It is the most heavily guarded, oldest, and largest prison in California, and it is also the only prison that can execute the death penalty for male prisoners. .”

Holden turned the steering wheel, and the car drove onto I-10E,

"A few years ago, I went there with my old partner to interview 'America's most dangerous serial killer' Charles Manson, recording his journey of leading a criminal organization and killing dozens of people."

"Sentenced to death?" Dean asked.

"No, life imprisonment. The current law is more cautious about the death penalty, and the methods are becoming more and more gentle and humane, from beheading, hanging, shooting, electric chair, poison gas, to drug injection... Even if the prisoner is sentenced to death, he must die. Queuing." Holden grinned a sarcastic smile, "But most of the death row inmates die of old age in prison before the day of their execution."

Dean was also an eye-opener, "Why should the law be so merciful to felons?"

Holden explained,

"I have been working for more than ten years, and I am more and more aware of such a phenomenon-a considerable number of people in the United States like moral kidnapping and double standards. They lack empathy for the families of the victims, but instead give the murderer Madonna-like mercy."

"With the efforts of a large number of enthusiastic prison volunteers, the inmates in San Quentin can participate in probation activities such as tennis, basketball, and drama. The homeless bum is much more comfortable."

"Isn't this just sending felons to enjoy life?" Dean commented succinctly, "This is a waste of taxpayers' money!"

"Who said no?" Holden said with emotion, "I used to think that people would commit crimes because of the bad environment, but in the process of communicating with these felony criminals, I gradually realized that there are indeed some felony criminals. The criminality remains."

"But the other part is born as a demon, and after staying with them for a long time, it will also affect itself."

……

The six-hour journey took several rounds.

Holden kept talking to Dean Cop about the various systems of San Quentin Prison, and by the way complained about some laws in the United States.

Around twelve noon.

They passed by the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge over the strait, and finally arrived at the 432-acre "prison paradise" San Quentin.

Surrounded by green water and luxuriant trees, the natural environment is incomparable.

At first glance, Dean thought he had come to a sanatorium or resort on a small island with beautiful scenery.

However, the defenses are strict, and there are guards every few steps. Patrollers can be seen everywhere, and barbed wire and electric grids are all over the high walls.

The two parked the car, entered the prison, and after registering, they were searched by the heavily armed prison guards, which was comparable to a full-body massage. They didn't even spare their hair and mouth.

The process really made Dean a little uncomfortable, but Holden looked calm.

After confirming that they were not carrying any sharp, pointed, or dangerous items, the guards led them through several iron gates and a group of prisoners with tattoos all over the place.

Entered a quiet and bright cubicle.

"What's the point of checking hair and mouth?" Dean sat down on a chair and looked around casually. The place was like a small cafeteria.

"Don't underestimate the intelligence of prisoners. The hairpin on the head and the braces in the mouth can be transformed into weapons and tools for killing, committing suicide and escaping from prison."

Holden explained casually, and then his eyes froze.

An Asian man in a light blue prison uniform was escorted into the compartment by the guards, and sat across from them in handcuffs.

The two of them observed carefully and confirmed that it was the David Lee they had seen in the file, but after only two months of transformation, his demeanor changed drastically, his thin body seemed to be blown down by a gust of wind, and his full forehead shriveled away. , with an unhealthy pale complexion, protruding cheekbones, a sluggish expression, and evasive eyes when looking at people. The confident sunshine in the previous photos has become submissive.

The prisoner who killed children was at the bottom of the prison, and he was a handsome Asian.

God knows what he's been through these past two months.

David looked at the two gentle smiling men opposite him, shrunk his shoulders reflexively, moved his butt, and a trace of fear flashed in his eyes, as if recalling some painful memory.

"Relax buddy, we won't hurt you, we are investigating a local child murder case, which is unexpectedly similar to yours," Holden said bluntly, "Can we talk?"

"I'd like a coffee and a hot dog," David said hesitantly.

"Wait a minute." Holden went out to find the guard, and after paying twenty knives, he brought steaming food to David, including not only hot dogs but also precious soaked instant noodles and butter bread.

Dean is not surprised by this. To a certain extent, prisoners are also the source of income for the prison.

David grabbed the hot dog and started to gobble it up, his mouth was full of residue, and he made an ugly sound of slurping, eating like crazy, as if he was competing with someone.

After finishing a hot dog quickly, he took a sip of the boiling coffee, heaved a sigh of relief, a tinge of blood appeared on his face, and he began to enjoy the instant noodles slowly.

"David, do you still remember Kelly Scott?" Dean spoke at the right time, and Holden next to him turned on the recording equipment.

"Is that girl I've never known, never met, or touched in my life?" David shook his hand, half of the instant noodles in his mouth accidentally fell on the dining table, and he immediately picked it up and ate it, " I swear to God, if I were to hurt a child, I would kill myself."

"And I have no criminal record since I was a child, and I haven't even hurt a small animal, let alone a person! I shouldn't have to endure these inhuman tortures!"

Dean nodded quietly. It's normal that David doesn't know Kelly. After all, Abby doesn't know Bucky Fran either.

"David, although the evidence is solid and the court found you guilty, I believe you are an innocent person. I need your help to catch the real culprit!"

Hearing this for the first time in more than two months, David was almost moved to tears.

"do you know her?"

Dean put a picture of Abby Clark on the table.

David took a look at the photo, shook his head,
"Sorry, I have no impression of her, is she a student at Santa Monica University?"

Dean shook his head,

"More than two months ago, on July 7, the surveillance video captured you appearing on the beach in Santa Monica, and she was there at the time. Have you ever seen her?"

"July 7, the day Kelly was killed?" David sighed, "You may not believe it, but I have been hot all over since around July 22, and my brain was burnt to a pulp. Please ask the school I took a vacation and rested at home to recuperate. On July 7, the fever was the worst. I was alone at home and almost passed out. I couldn’t remember anything. How could I go to the park and kill a child? Go to the beach and enjoy the sea breeze!"

hiss--

Holden glanced at Dean in surprise. This guy asked Abby the same way, and everyone, including the district attorney, was puzzled.

Now he asked David again, and David's answer was exactly the same as Abby's.

Unexpected prophet?

The corners of Dean's mouth were slightly curved, and his eyes were shining with excitement.
"Very well, David, can I see your wrist?"

A trace of confusion flashed across David's face, but he still pulled up his sleeves and showed his bare forearms in front of the two of them.

No!

Dean's pupils narrowed, and he asked again,

"Before going to prison, have you been injured in recent months, leaving a scar somewhere on your body?"

The man frowned and recalled for a moment, then reached out and touched the back of his neck,

"How do you know? I hurt the back of my neck in May."

"Let me see!"

Dean got up, walked around the table, and glanced behind the man——

A half-finger-long crescent-shaped scar has healed, but the traces are obvious, like a ferocious centipede under the skin.

Dean reached out and touched it, and took a few photos of the scar from Holden, and it became more and more sure that it was exactly the same as Abby's.

"Do you still remember, on July 7, apart from having a fever, did this scar feel any strange?"

"It's true when you say that." The man said with lingering fear, "The scar was inflamed again at that time, and the pain was so painful, it was like some foreign object was drilled into my bone, and I was so painful that I was unconscious."

Right!
Leaving scars—scar pain, fever—mysterious power begins to operate—commits crimes.

A clear logical chain quickly formed in Dean's mind, pacing slowly in the cubicle, muttering to himself,
"On the day when the scar is the most painful, the mysterious power reaches its peak, and the framed person commits a crime."

"David Lee, Abby Clarke."

Dean's eyes were hot,

"The two cases have the same process, which cannot be explained by coincidence, so the case is full of supernatural powers, which drove David and Abby to commit the murder! This is the way the real murderer commits the crime!"

Holden grinned and rubbed his temples.

But David was puzzled, as if he had heard a bible,
"Is this scar related to my case?"

Di An ignored it and continued to fall into a daze.

"Don't pay attention to him." Holden shook his head and smiled, but did not explain, "His thinking is a bit different from ordinary people, and he will occasionally fall into hysteria."

David nodded, "Who is Abby Clark, the girl in the photo?"

"Yes, she killed a boy in Las Vegas, there is DNA evidence, there is video, there are witnesses."

"Isn't this another me?" David opened his mouth wide, feeling sympathetic, "I don't know her, but I believe she is also innocent. If she hasn't been convicted, please help her, don't let her The law wronged a good person, I have experienced this inhuman pain!"

"David, you've helped me a lot. The real culprit is about to show his feet." Dean regained his senses and looked into the man's eyes. "But do you still remember how the scar on the back of the neck came from?"

"May [-] or so... somewhere in Santa Monica, someone touched me." David looked at Dean with a strange expression, hesitant to speak - this guy asked some inexplicable questions .

"Are you sure it's Santa Monica and not somewhere else?"

"Well, for half a year before I was sent to prison, I never left the surrounding area of ​​the school."

Dean raised an eyebrow.

"Do you still remember your clothes, clothes, pants and shoes in the surveillance video on the day of the incident? Is it a completely unfamiliar set?"

"In the surveillance video, I am wearing a popular shirt, slacks, and leather shoes..." David said seriously, "To be honest, I have such a suit."

Dean pursed his lips.

In Las Vegas, he deduced from the source of Abby's three-stripe sportswear when he committed the crime and the source of Abby's wrist scar that the murderer's last crime was in Santa Monica.

But now, David actually got a scar in Santa Monica, and the clothes are nothing special, so Dean can no longer deduce the location of the last crime in the old way.

He can't continue to pursue past cases.

……

So how to proceed with the investigation?

Di thought for a while, and his eyes lit up after a while.

Past cases are hard to track down, but what about the future?The murderer also carelessly left a clue in the future——

Abby left a crescent-shaped scar on the wrist of the bar owner Jack on the night of the crime!
The scar passed from David to Abby, and from Abby to Jack.

If there is no accident, the mysterious power has been passed to Jack. One day in the future, Jack will be like the two predecessors, and he will be in a coma with a fever and commit terrible murders involuntarily.

As long as you keep an eye on him quietly, the murderer will reveal himself.

The system progress jumped to 60.00%.

"Holden!" said Dean eagerly, turning abruptly to his companion. "Now that there's ample evidence in sight, we've got to keep an eye on the owner of the Black Jack bar, to whom Abby passed the scar!"

Holden looked embarrassed,
"Scar hypnosis leads to crime? It's impossible to convince our colleagues. I have to think of a reasonable excuse."

"Hurry up." Dean turned around and looked at the skinny and pitiful man, and the situation of visiting his old home yesterday appeared in his mind, "David, did your parents die in an accident?"

"Accident?" David put down the instant noodle bucket, clenched his fists, his eyes were red, "It wasn't an accident! When I was locked up in the detention center, Kelly Scott's father broke into my house angrily and shot him dead. My loved ones, and then shot themselves."

"He avenged his daughter, but he found the wrong person from the beginning to the end!" David sobbed heartbreakingly, "I am innocent! My poor parents should not suffer this kind of bad luck!"

Dean caught his breath.

The victim's family shot the murderer's family, and the murderer was wronged.

It was a human tragedy.

"My condolences, David, you are not the only ones who are pitiful." Thinking flashed in Holden's eyes, "Kelly's family also failed to escape a tragic fate, as if they were cursed, they died one after another, first Kelly, then It was her grandmother, her mother, and finally her father who lost his mind. All gone."

"They're all dead? I'm the only one left in the two families?" David was shocked, and the sadness and anger on his face disappeared, leaving only deep despair and confusion——

It seems that there is an invisible big hand playing with these two families wantonly, pushing their fate into the bottomless abyss.

The three of them were all heavy-hearted and silently responded.

The entire compartment fell into an unbearable silence, and the air was so sticky that it was hard to breathe.

"Sorry for bringing up your sadness, let's stop here today." After a while, Holden turned off and put away the recording equipment, and glanced at Dean, who nodded. The special status of all of them has been verified, and this visit should end.

"We will visit you again when we catch the mastermind behind the scenes, or when the case progresses. We will try our best to get you out."

"Life here is not for human beings. All criminals can bully, beat and scold me at will, and insult me ​​as a 'child killer'. But the matter has come to this point, and the water is hard to recover." David wiped away his tears and swallowed the bread, "Well ...I don't expect the two of you to rescue me. If I can change to a better environment and stay away from those perverted criminals, I will be grateful. By the way, wait a little longer... Um... wait until I finish eating, otherwise it will be later It doesn't belong to me anymore."

Dean nodded silently, and then watched David being escorted back to the iron fence.

The two left the prison and returned to the car.

"Holden, now you are asking if it is possible... Kelly Scott, and even the two families, all the deaths were driven by the real murderer."

"The murderer is not a god," Holden said in an erratic tone. "It is reasonable to say that he cannot manipulate the two families. You can't deify it too much."

Not God?
But maybe it's not a person, but some kind of supernatural monster?

Dean nodded.

Against an existence whose race cannot be determined, no amount of caution can be overstated!

"No possibility can be ignored. In Santa Monica, it is no coincidence that the family members of the victim and the murderer died one after another. In order to avoid a repeat of the tragedy," Dean flashed the heartbroken parents in LVPD again, "We must have people monitoring and protecting the parents of the victim Bucky Fran in Las Vegas day and night, and the parents of the suspect Abby, preventing them from committing suicide or making a big mistake on the spur of the moment!"

"Well, Abby is locked up in the detention center, don't worry about it for now."

"Then add Jack, the bar owner who has been planted with scars," Dean said, rattling like a machine gun, "The LVPD must be divided into three groups, carefully and covertly monitor and protect these three targets!"

All risk groups that Dean can think of are under surveillance. As long as the real murderer dares to come next, how can he escape from their grasp?

The progress jumped to 70.00%!

Holden helped his forehead helplessly, and drove away from the prison parking lot.

"When did you become the director of the LVPD? When you give orders, the police officers have to run to carry out the orders honestly? Come on, your inferences all involve supernatural factors and cannot be explained by science. It is impossible for the LVPD guys to listen to this Put theory into action!"

Dean checked the progress of the skyrocketing investigation in the system, and the dawn of victory was just around the corner.
"Have you forgotten, we just got the case files, audio recordings, and photos of Kelly Scott and David Lee, and handed them over to Carl, asking them to compare them with Abby's case. will trust us."

There was madness in Dean's eyes,

"At that time, we will ambush in advance on all the murderer's action routes!"

"Wait for it to jump into the trap by itself!"

boom!
Dean slammed his fist on the window glass,
"Let it go nowhere! Plead guilty and get punished!"

"You are really crazy!" Holden stared at Dean for two seconds, then suddenly grinned, releasing a long-lost sickness and madness in the smile, "But I also want to see who the murderer is. You didn't let me down, I will support you to the end!"

(End of this chapter)