Chapter 764: Chapter 766: The Vector of Vireness’s Poisoning
"First, make a call to Mr. Clement; the CIA’s operation has seriously overreached this time."
Luo An leaned on his crutch, and amidst Winslow’s silent gaze, once again reverted to that frail and weak appearance, saying:
"Also, Dick Lawrence just said, he used a disposable phone to call his superior not long ago.
Mona, see if you can find that mysterious superior through the disposable phone’s number, or the signal base station."
Mona nodded:
"I’ll try."
Luo An stroked his chin, then continued analyzing:
"’Blue-eyed Roy’ was killed, and the jail riot incident, we can now basically determine that there is some connection between the two.
What exactly the connection is, we’re not quite sure at the moment, Reesi is investigating that side and it needs time.
Michelle is collating information on the nuclear laboratories under the Illinois Nuclear Energy Company, which also requires time.
Apart from these two matters, who exactly poisoned Vireness is still unclear.
Winslow, you go fetch Chenier, we’ll investigate this together."
"No problem!"
————
The next day, Luo An led Chenier and Winslow to the warehouse where those five agents under Vireness were located.
At this point, those five agents had already been taken away by agents sent by Mr. Clement for "training," which in reality was for short-term observation just in case.
Luo An and his two colleagues headed to the abandoned warehouse, mainly to investigate the items used and the food eaten by Vireness and others during their investigation period.
Through Agent Susan’s briefing, all of the food they investigated was purchased on the same day.
"Ten hours before Vireness was poisoned..."
Chenier, holding notes from Agent Susan, carefully flipped through them and said:
"The food consumed by their investigation team included leftover mineral water and milk from the previous day; breakfast was sandwiches and toast; lunch was pizza; dinner included roasted beef and big hamburgers."
"Common foods."
Luo An nodded, federal people are different from those across the ocean, even when out on missions, unless under very special circumstances, the food must be fresh hot meals.
Because of this, every time a special investigation team carries out missions, food expenses are a significant cost.
Luo An didn’t feel too strongly about this, firstly because the special investigation team had money, and the cost of the food wasn’t a big deal; secondly, this was in keeping with the customs of the federation, where it’s more appropriate to follow local customs.
Winslow looked at the record, and said in a grave voice:
"These foods, all were purchased by Agent Susan using an unrelated temporary phone for the mission, asking delivery personnel to deliver to a deserted civilian house in the distance, and then she would retrieve them.
During this process, apart from Agent Susan, the only people who could have come in contact with the food were the delivery personnel from various stores.
However, the food Agent Susan bought every day was not from the same store; the delivery personnel each time were different as well..."
By the end, Winslow frowned and said:
"To be honest, I do have some suspicions that Agent Susan was the one who poisoned."
"Check the information of the three delivery personnel that day."
Luo An said to Chenier, then patted Winslow on the shoulder, smiling:
"Agent Susan is a smart person, she was in charge of the food, ranking first in the tier of suspects.
To then poison the food, it’s too risky for her to be exposed."
"That’s also true."
Winslow nodded; he had originally thought whether it was possible that Agent Susan layered her deception, knowing she would be the prime suspect, so intentionally poisoned the food and then faked another layer, getting others to suspect her first and then removing the suspicion, causing them to mistakenly think it wasn’t her.
But remembering that Luo An had already completed interrogation of those five agents, and Luo An’s "micro-expression analysis" has almost never been wrong, Winslow ultimately chose to trust Luo An.
Just then, Chenier came over, her brows slightly furrowed and said:
"Luo An, I checked; those three delivery personnel are still working, their whereabouts are very normal, nothing unusual."
Winslow frowned upon hearing the words, pondered for a few seconds, and ultimately looked at Luo An. He really wasn’t very good at analysis, so it was most appropriate to follow Luo An’s arrangements.
Luo An fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly thought of something, and said in a grave tone:
"Which coffee did Vireness drink?"
"Coffee? What coffee?"
Chenier picked up the notebook and looked at it, puzzled:
"There’s nothing mentioned here about Vireness buying coffee."
"No, Vireness must have drunk coffee."
Luo An shook his head repeatedly, he knew Vireness’s habits very well. Vireness was often a workaholic and could hardly do without coffee.
Once, Luo An casually complained that the office coffee tasted bad, the next day Vireness changed all the coffee in her office to a brand that Luo An thought tasted very good.
The latter wasn’t necessary to tell Chenier and Winslow, so Luo An directly took out his cell phone and called Vireness.
Upon being told that Luo An suspected that the carrier of her poisoning was coffee, Vireness was also stunned for a moment. She indeed hadn’t considered this aspect and had always thought that someone had poisoned the food she bought during her mission.
"I did take quite a few coffees, the ones in my office, and you have had some, Luo An."
While speaking, Vireness thought carefully, her expression suddenly darkened in the middle of her sentence:
"Luo An, I remembered something.
Before carrying out this secret investigative mission, I saw that there wasn’t much coffee left in the office and was worried that the mission would take a long time, so I purchased some temporarily.
I mixed these newly bought coffees with the old coffee that had not been finished.
During the course of the investigation, I drank all the old coffee before drinking the new coffee.
The day after I drank that new coffee, I was detected with Polonium-210 poisoning!"
As she spoke, a chill surged up her spine to the back of her head, and she felt her body hair stand on end, her complexion turned very ugly.
The act of buying new coffee beans was her spur of the moment decision. If the mastermind really used this method to poison her, it means they understood her living habits very well and also accurately knew that she was on a secret mission!
In short, the mastermind understood Vireness very well!
"Damn it!"
Thinking of this, Vireness’s pupils constricted and she suddenly realized something else, and quickly lowered her voice:
"Luo An! If the person behind this understands me so well, then they probably also understand you very well!"
"I understand."
Luo An’s eyes narrowed slightly; he also quickly thought of this aspect.
A series of possibilities flashed through his mind, and Luo An said in a low voice:
"Chief, I will contact Mr. Clement right away to arrange for more people to protect you."
Mr. Clement had only assigned five agents to guard outside Vireness’s hospital room. Given the current situation, Luo An felt that this number should at least be doubled.
"You don’t have to worry about this. I will make the call."
Compared to herself, Vireness was now more worried about Luo An, and said gravely:
"During the investigation, you must be very careful! And your subordinates, you must keep a close watch on them!"
"Understood, Chief."
After discussing briefly, Luo An hung up the phone and looked towards Chenier and Winslow, briefly explained the situation, and said gravely:
"Our next main task is to investigate who had contact with the new coffee that Vireness bought at that time."
Winslow nodded with a grave expression, Chenier opened her mouth as if wanting to say something, and Luo An, seeing this, furrowed his brows slightly:
"Chenier, have you discovered something?"
"I was thinking..."
After a brief silence, Chenier clenched her teeth and spoke in a low voice:
"I think I might know who delivered the coffee to Vireness."