Law America, the Devil's Agent

Chapter 76 Major Breakthrough

The corridors of Jefferson Hospital's inpatient ward were unusually quiet in the afternoon.

Nathaniel had made prior arrangements to place Alex's hospital room in the most private and undisturbed room at the end of the corridor.

Two men in dark suits stood at the door, broad-shouldered and with their arms crossed in front of them.

They wore badges from AnDun Security Company on their chests.

Link and Kona slowly approached, and one of them nodded slightly and stepped aside to let them through the door.

The curtains in the ward were half-drawn, and sunlight streamed in through the gaps, casting a pale golden band of light on the floor.

Alex leaned against the hospital bed, with two pillows behind his back, quietly looking out the window.

His complexion was better than it had been a few days ago when he was huddled in the corner of the hospital examination room; at least he was willing to look up at people.

Martha had left the hospital in the morning because of an urgent shooting assignment at her studio, leaving two caregivers to look after her in the ward.

The two caregivers were sitting on chairs in the corner chatting quietly when they saw Link push the door open and immediately stood up.

"You all go downstairs and rest first, leave this to us."

Link nodded to them.

The two caregivers exchanged a glance, quietly packed their things, and closed the door.

Kona placed the paper bag she was carrying on the bedside table and took out a few items from it:

A box of colored pencils, a new sketchbook, and a can of hot chocolate.

She placed the jar of hot chocolate on the small table beside Alex's bed and inserted a straw for him.

"I heard from your mother that you like this drink. I bought it from the coffee shop across from the hospital. Want to try it?"

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Alex glanced at her, reached out and grasped the can of hot chocolate, feeling the warmth of the can seep through the paper cup into his palm.

He looked down at the cup for a moment, then said very quietly, "Thank you."

Link took the sketchbook out of the paper bag and sat down on Alex's bedside.

"Alex, I need your help today."

I need you to keep an eye on a few people for me. You might know some of them.

Alex's fingers tightened slightly on the hot chocolate jar, but he didn't back down, just staring at the sketchbook in Link's hand.

Link did not produce any photos.

Those high-resolution facial features were too cruel for a child who had just been pulled out of fear.

Asking him to identify someone directly from a photograph is tantamount to pushing him back into the scene he once desperately wanted to escape.

So he used another method.

[Sketching and Drawing - Proficient Level] came in handy at this moment.

He opened his sketchbook, which contained several hand-drawn cartoon-style portraits in pencil. The outlines were soft, the lines were simple, and the key features of the real people were preserved, but the aggressiveness that evoked instinctive fear was filtered out.

This was the first formal use of his sketching skills in the Alex case—in order to reduce psychological stress on Alex.

He labeled each portrait with a number, for a total of nine.

Three of them correspond to the three clergy members on the list provided by Costello who were the subject of repeated complaints.

The other six images were randomly selected portraits of ordinary people, used to dilute the density of the suspect and avoid giving Alex any hints or guidance.

Alex placed the hot chocolate on the bedside table and took the pencil Link handed him.

His fingers were still trembling slightly, but there was no longer any sign of the panic and desperate attempt to escape he had shown before.

Link flipped through the sketchbook slowly, giving Alex ample time to examine each portrait.

To identify and decide whether or not to react.

Alex looked at those faces, and most of the time he just shook his head in silence.

Occasionally he would glance at a particular portrait, but eventually he would look away.

Until the sixth card.

The man in the portrait wore a Roman collar, had a square face, prominent cheekbones, downturned mouth, and a small mole under his right eye.

These features were retained even after being transformed into a comic book style, making them easily recognizable.

When Alex's self-illumination stopped on the painting, his fingers tightened sharply.

The pencil tip left a deep mark on the blank page of the sketchbook.

He didn't speak, but his breathing began to quicken and become shallower, and his shoulders began to tremble slightly.

Link didn't urge him to speak, but simply placed the portrait in front of Alex and then put down his own pencil.

In the long silence, Alex slowly took the portrait from Link's hand and, just like last time, added a button to the chest of the black robe with his pen.

Then his eyes reddened, and he cried silently.

He pushed the portrait back to Link, then picked up the hot chocolate again, held it in both hands, and gulped it down.

It's as if I'm hoping to use this warm and fragrant dessert to cover up all the bitterness.

"You did a great job!"

Link flipped the portrait over, preventing Alex from seeing it again: "I'll take care of the rest."

That same afternoon, Benny arrived at Jefferson Hospital with information he had obtained from the staff roster of Sacred Heart Elementary School and the list of church personnel.

He met Link and Cona in an empty doctor's duty room outside the ward.

The desk in the duty room was covered with documents. The list provided by Costello had been broken into single pages, each with a different colored sticky note attached.

The portrait Alex had just pointed out was scanned and printed out, then pasted in the center of the table, next to the original painting.

The button that had been re-added with a pencil on the black robe.

Benny flipped to the middle page of the faculty and staff roster and pointed to a man in a passport photo.

Square face, prominent cheekbones, and a small mole under the right eye.

The name below the photo is:

Anthony Crawford.

His position is resident priest and director of religious education at Sacred Heart Elementary School.

His residency record at the Sacred Heart Church shows that he began this role four years ago, overseeing weekend worship and religious counseling for all boarding students, which perfectly matches Alex's weekly Saturday and Sunday church visits.

Cona turned to the third page of Costello's list.

Anthony Crawford's name has the most complaints among the three mentioned above.

Four internal complaints were filed, two involving inappropriate contact with minors and one involving threats against the complainant.

All cases were closed due to "insufficient evidence" or "withdrawal by the complainant".

Benny pulled out a second document from the list of church personnel and handed it to Link.

There is one more person.

There wasn't just one black figure in Alex's painting. He had painted over the mouth of the little blue figure in the painting, but there was more than one black figure with fingers on his shoulder.

The first is Crawford, and the second should be this teacher in charge of discipline, responsible for managing boarding students and supervising weekend students on campus.

Link took the document and looked at the ID photo on it.

A white male in his forties named Ray Mosley was the discipline supervisor at Sacred Heart Elementary School.

His responsibilities include managing student attendance, supervising and inspecting students staying on campus on weekends, and handling student disciplinary violations.

Each item on this list of responsibilities gave him ample opportunity for one-on-one contact with the boarding students.

The name appeared twice on Costello's list.

The first complaint against him came from the parent of a boarding student who had transferred to another school. The complaint involved corporal punishment and verbal abuse, but the outcome was "insufficient evidence."

The second complaint came from a former school worker, alleging that Mosley made unnecessary and inappropriate physical contact with several boarding students during his weekend patrols. The complaint was withdrawn by the complainant.

"The two individuals spent at least three years at school together, and their responsibilities also overlapped. Both were involved in the management of boarding students and were directly related to staying on campus on weekends and attending church services."

Crawford was responsible for taking them to church, and Mosley was responsible for locking them in the dormitory after they returned from church.

These two men, a priest and a discipline officer, covered exactly the entirety of Alex's school life: in the classroom on weekends, at church on weekends, and in his dorm at night. Everywhere, someone was waiting to hurt him.

Link placed the file on the table, crossed his hands, and said in a calm but cold voice, "The suspect has been found."