At noon, in the central part of Harrisburg, on a spacious street.
The SUV was slowly pulled over to the curb by Luo An. Reesi was taken aback by his words, her face filled with confusion and incomprehension:
"Do you have a guess where Anthony Soling might be? How did you guess that? Where is he?"
"Give me the map."
Luo An turned his body, reaching into the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat, and pulled out a city map of Harrisburg.
Getting a map of the city upon arrival had become a habit for most agents in the special investigation group.
The reason it's "most" is that Mona doesn't like doing this; she prefers to look at electronic maps on a computer.
Seeing the map in Luo An's hands, and noticing the points he marked on it, Reesi suddenly had an epiphany:
"Anthony Soling kills in a sequenced route!"
On the map, from the hospital where the crime was committed, to "Mr. Bodybuilding" Elliot's residence, to the home of the missing company manager, and finally to the motel where Adam Davis and two women were found dead.
The four locations were not on a perfect straight line, but overall, they formed connectable segments running from south to north.
"Indeed."
Luo An nodded solemnly. He had just recalled the map of Harrisburg in his mind when he noticed the situation with the segments.
Without hesitating, Luo An immediately took out his phone and called Mona, briefly explained his findings, and then said:
"The four locations are not close to each other; Anthony Soling is unlikely to move by running, and will most likely choose to drive.
Mona, you and Michelle carefully investigate and check surveillance recordings in the regions surrounding the above four locations, especially the cameras on each street, to see if you can find any suspicious cars."
"Understood!"
Mona decisively responded and started to operate the computer with Michelle, while Luo An hung up the phone, restarted the car, and once again headed to the manager's house with Reesi.
Five minutes later, the two arrived smoothly at the pharmaceutical company, in the manager responsible for drug transportation's home.
After several calls with no response, Luo An kicked open the villa's door, leading Reesi to rush inside, and they quickly found a male body in the second floor's study—unsurprisingly, it was the target manager.
"It wasn't cyanide poisoning."
Luo An holstered his gun, gave a quick examination of the body, and said:
"Like how Winslow and the others found 'Mr. Bodybuilding', this manager died from a broken neck, killed instantly."
"It seems we were right; another one silenced by Anthony Soling."
Reesi sighed, took out her phone, and began to call the trace evidence department, while Luo An stepped out of the study to search the villa for any surveillance devices.
"The trace evidence department will be here soon."
Reesi quickly hung up the phone, stepped out of the room, and upon seeing Luo An standing in the center of the living room, staring at the antique clock on the wall, she raised an eyebrow and asked:
"Is there something wrong with the clock?"
"Take it down and have a look."
Without any further conversation, Luo An took a chair to stand on and removed the antique clock from the wall.
After taking off the clock's external casing, a tiny camera came into view.
"Wow."
Picking up the camera for a closer inspection, Reesi's face was full of surprise:
"Luo An, how did you discover this?"
"Intuition."
Luo An smiled. As soon as he entered the villa, he noticed that the antique clock on the living room wall did not quite match the overall decor.
Luo An initially thought that the antique clock might have been hanging there because it was very valuable.
But after closer inspection, Luo An noticed a different kind of reflection in the corner of the clock, so he decided to dismantle it and investigate further, and indeed, the result did not disappoint him.
"Awesome!"
Reesi looked admiringly and lightly tapped Luo An's arm. Luo An instructed her to go upstairs to get the manager's laptop, and then inserted the camera's storage card into it.
After a few keystrokes, a somewhat dim but clear surveillance video appeared in front of them.
The surveillance video was lengthy, Luo An skipped through the irrelevant parts, and finally around yesterday at noon, he found a peculiar clip in the surveillance footage.
In this segment of footage, the manager was standing in the living room making a phone call, when a garbage truck slowly came to a stop by the corner of the villa's entrance.
Not long after the garbage truck had stopped, the manager, who was on the phone, seemed to notice something. He quickly hung up and pulled out a handgun from under the couch in the living room, then slowly made his way up the stairs.
In the following surveillance video, no gunshots were heard, and the manager never appeared again. Less than two minutes after the manager ascended the stairs with his gun, the garbage truck slowly drove away from the villa entrance.
"Garbage truck?!"
Reesi exclaimed, realizing a certain possibility. Luo An pulled out his phone again and called Mona:
"How's your investigation coming along?"
"Working on it."
The continuous sound of keys clacking ensued as Mona spoke rapidly:
"There are too many street surveillance videos near the four crime scenes, with heavy traffic. Michelle and I need some time."
"I've found some clues here."
Luo An briefly described the content of the surveillance footage he had found. Mona and Michelle were also somewhat surprised after listening:
"Garbage truck?"
"For mercenaries, assassins, it's an excellent mode of transportation, isn't it?"
Luo An smirked and said:
"The truck bed behind it makes it easy to load things, and the vehicle itself doesn't attract much attention. Many people also detest the smell of garbage and wouldn't approach a garbage truck on their own."
"That's right."
Reesi nodded vigorously in agreement. Before she could continue, Mona's voice of surprise sounded through the phone:
"Luo An, you're right! Not only did a garbage truck appear near the manager's residence at the time of his death!
Garbage trucks also appeared around the hospital, at Elliot's residence, and near that motel when the incidents occurred!"
Reesi quickly asked:
"Where's the garbage truck now?"
"It last disappeared in the southwestern part of Harrisburg."
Mona replied promptly:
"Luo An, I've found the trail of Anthony Soling!
Not long after the garbage truck disappeared, a Buick sedan appeared and left the area.
Now this Buick sedan is moving quickly towards Philadelphia!"
"Philadelphia again."
Reesi's eyebrows lifted:
"Why do assassins all like going to Philadelphia?"
"Because it has convenient transportation, very suitable for making a getaway."
Luo An chuckled and said into the phone:
"Mona, contact the Philadelphia law enforcement agencies, keep a lookout for Anthony Soling's movements, and we'll head there immediately."
"OK."
Mona agreed and hung up the phone. Luo An then immediately called Winslow and others to inform them of the situation, asking them to return and rendezvous with him and the team.
Winslow and Chenier immediately accepted the order and also said:
"Team leader, while we were investigating the surveillance near 'Mr. Bodybuilding's' residence, we noticed something."
"What?"
Chenier spoke with a strange tone:
"After Luo An described the situation with that garbage truck, we also found it in the nearby surveillance footage.
But shortly after the garbage truck left, a taxi followed it."
"A taxi?!"
Reesi was extremely surprised, turning her head to look at Luo An, who suddenly curved his lips into a smile:
"If I'm not mistaken, someone else is preparing to silence someone."