America: The Gear-Up Detective

As expected, Rhodes was overthinking things.

These past few days, Luo De has been asking Liu Qingxi out to play whenever he has a spare moment.

Unfortunately, no equipment was found. It seems that Lady Luck doesn't always work its magic.

"Let's just wait patiently for the next equipment information." Rhode had no choice but to give up for the time being.

......

Time flies like an arrow, and holidays pass in the blink of an eye.

The two-day weekend flew by.

Monday morning.

"Buzz buzz buzz~~"

The alarm clock by the bed rang, the first time Rod had been woken up by an alarm clock in a long time.

"A morning without birdsong is so comforting."

Rod stretched and noticed that as his physical condition improved, his sleep quality also improved; for example, he no longer had morning grumpiness.

After turning off the alarm, Rod began to wash up.

Rod originally planned to invite a few of his friends and family to get together and have a meal before moving in.

But now that Jackson is hospitalized, Hank and the others are also busy, so Rod can only check in first and find time later.

Without having breakfast, Rod went straight to the police station after washing up.

On the third floor of the police station, in the same meeting room as last time.

Rhodes sat in his chair, with the union representative sitting a short distance behind him.

Looking at the scene and familiar faces that were exactly the same as last time, Rod was still a little dazed.

An hour and a half later, Rhodes concluded the FID agent's investigation and questioning.

Similar to what Connor said, since everything about the shooting was reasonable, legal, and compliant, and since Rhodes fired the gun to save his police colleagues, even if it was an FID agent deliberately looking for trouble, they wouldn't make things difficult for Rhodes.

The office of Team Six.

After concluding his investigation, Rhodes went straight to his office.

But once inside the office, Evan sat at his desk, leisurely sipping his coffee, looking quite content.

Jose looked down at his phone, not at all like someone in a hurry to solve the case.

"?" Rhodes asked, puzzled. "Where are the others? Weren't they supposed to be very busy these next few days? Even my administrative leave ended early..."

Evan greeted Rhodes with a smile as he walked in, then explained:

"Connor has been with the forensic pathologist these past two days, following up on the autopsies of those two bodies. He also took Hank with him this morning."

"An autopsy? Did something go wrong?"

"The autopsy went smoothly... but we ran into trouble."

In the past two days, the preliminary autopsy report has been released. Due to the severe decomposition of the body, its original appearance is no longer visible.

The identities of the two deceased cannot be found at all.

After a pause, Evan finished the rest of his coffee in one gulp, his face somber, and continued, "The forensic science department first conducted bone age tests on the two corpses."

"Bone age?" Rhodes asked. "Are the results in?"

Evan nodded, his voice low. "The corpse of an eight-year-old girl, and the corpse of a six-year-old boy..."

Rhodes remained silent for a moment.

The worst-case scenario has come true.

"Have you identified any suspects?" Rod asked in a low voice.

Evan shook his head. "That's exactly the trouble we're in right now."

We can't even confirm the identities of these two bodies, let alone identify any suspects.

Connor and Hank went there to examine other evidence, like the suitcase, hoping to find any new clues.

Generally, when the police discover a body of unknown origin that cannot be directly identified, they will investigate from the aspects of fingerprints, teeth, and DNA.

However, each of these methods has its own problems.

Fingerprint matching requires that the deceased's body be relatively well preserved in order to extract fingerprints.

Furthermore, the fingerprints uploaded to the Department of Justice database can only identify people with a history of criminal activity, which is clearly not applicable to identifying the remains of these two children.

The same applies to DNA testing.

The National DNA Index System (NDIS), managed by the FBI, primarily contains DNA information of convicted felons, suspects who have not yet been convicted but have been arrested, and DNA samples of unknown origin extracted by forensic experts from crime scenes.

In addition, there are DNA files of missing persons and their relatives, as well as unidentified remains, used to help identify missing persons and unidentified bodies.

Therefore, unless the parents of these two children report them missing, even if the forensic team extracts their DNA, the FBI's database will not be able to find a match.

In addition, there is the comparison of dental records.

Children aged eight or nine are in a stage of active dental development, leaving behind a large number of distinctive dental records. This information is unique and is one of the quickest and most reliable means of identification.

But this is contingent on being able to find the dental records of these two children before their deaths.

Otherwise, it is still impossible to confirm the identity.

But if they could find their dental records from before their deaths, they wouldn't be sitting in the office leisurely drinking coffee.

Rhodes was experienced enough to know that identifying unidentified corpses was the most difficult, which explained Connor's headache.

"What about anything else?" Rhodes asked. "Didn't we find any fingerprints on the plastic wrap or the suitcase?"

Evan shrugged. "Connor and Hank went to see these things, hopefully they'll find something useful."

Rhodes sat in his chair, sorting through the current clues, but as he thought about them, he realized that he had entered a dead end.

The biggest problem right now is that the identities of the two bodies cannot be confirmed.

The case appears to have reached a stalemate.

......

Two hours later, Connor pushed open the office door. Hank stood behind him, holding a file folder. The two stood in the doorway, their faces calm and their emotions unreadable.

Before Rhodes could even ask what was going on, Connor spoke up, "Guys, we've made a small discovery. Meet in the conference room."

Inside the meeting room, everyone gradually took their seats.

Connor frowned and looked at the group. "You probably already know the details of the two bodies; one was eight years old, and the other was six."

He paused, then continued, "Currently, we cannot confirm their identities solely based on the bodies."

The bodies were wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and according to the forensic doctor's preliminary assessment, the murderer deliberately strapped a large number of ice packs to the children's bodies after killing them. The melting ice packs accelerated the decomposition of the bodies...

Anna, unusually, interrupted the captain, asking the same question Rhodes had asked before, "What about the suitcase? And the other things?"

Connor looked at Anna.

Anna's face was flushed, and her expression was filled with anger.

Anna was also shocked by the cruelty of the case; no matter what, two young lives were lost.

Connor sighed softly, then shook his head. "This is what I want to say next: the surface of the box is too dirty, so the fingerprint extraction is not very effective. The lining is relatively clean, but because it is made of fabric, no valuable fingerprints were extracted either."

The only two clues are the label on the side of the container.

And another thing, that pile of ice packs.

Then, Hank took out three photos from the file folder.

Two of them are product labels on a suitcase and an ice pack.

There's also a Walmart internal inventory management number.