Cassel and Beckett arrive near the scene of the murder in Washington Heights, park their cars, and talk as they walk.

"I've noticed that Alexis has been very wrong lately, and she seems to have a strong crush on Chen Chong."

"Chen Zhong is very good, young and talented."

"But the crux of the matter is...... I'd rather Chan be an idle hippie. ”

"Kassel, I know what you're worried about, you can't be biased against Chan because of something. And Alexis is an adult, she has her own options, and you can't interfere with her too much. ”

"I know, Alexis is my daughter, and I just can't help but want to protect her. Alas~ I wish there was an awesome murder here, so I wouldn't have to dwell on her business. ”

The two came to the scene of the murder, and Ryan said, "The deceased's name is Susanna. Richland, 28, has a business card that says he's an accountant.

Lying at the scene was the corpse of a woman, dressed in a blue and green dress, with her arms outstretched and legs together, like Jesus on the cross, with wounds on her hands and neck.

Chen Chong, who had already preliminarily examined the body, said: "The fatal wound of the deceased was a stab wound to her neck, the murder weapon was a long knife with a gauntlet, and the time of her death was between 10 and 12 o'clock in the evening, because there was not much blood at the scene, I am sure that this is not the first scene, the deceased was placed here after being killed elsewhere." ”

Cassel pointed to the corpse's hands and said, "Do you think the wound on her hand looks like a stigmata?" I suspect she was thrown here after being killed and sacrificed by an evil priest at the altar. ”

Beckett glared at Cassel and said, "Cassel, if she is sacrificed, I hope that the summoned devil will seal your mouth." Ryan, you go and pull up the nearby surveillance footage to see if you can find the process of dumping the body. Esposito, you go and contact the FBI and ask if they have any murders with the same modus operandi. Chen, Kassel, let's go to the deceased's house to find out if there are any clues. ”

The three of them arrived at Susanna's apartment, where the caretaker helped them open the door, which was cluttered with a lot of books and materials.

Cassel picked up a few books and flipped through them, starting her own speculation, "She has a lot of medieval books in her house, maybe her secrets have something to do with the dark times, which also explains her posture when she died." ”

Chen Zhong looked at the symbols on a wall and said, "You guys come and take a look at this, I think these symbols have something to do with her death." ”

Cassel discerned the various symbols on the wall, "The five-pointed star symbol and the spiritual eye symbol are both objects of energy in dark magic, and the elements here, earth, water, air, fire, and ether are all medieval symbols related to evil magic, and it seems that Suzanne is obsessed with strange things." ”

Back at the police station, Esposito told Beckett that the FBI did not have the same deaths.

"Let's follow my theory to find the murderer, the truth is that the deceased Suzanne wanted to learn the dark arts, but accidentally summoned a demon, and the demon killed her," Cassel said. ”

Beckett teased, "Maybe she had a conflict with some obscure sect that killed Suzanne and sacrificed it to the evil god she worshipped." ”

Hearing the always sensible Beckett say such a thing, Cassel said suspiciously: "Why do you say this? ”

Beckett laughed at him and said, "I'm learning from you and starting to make things up." ”

Cassel corrected Beckett, "Oh, that's not going to work, it's our writer's job to make things up, and your job is to get the case done." ”

As the two were arguing, Ryan brought a surveillance video of the neighborhood near the murder scene, in which Suzanne could be seen walking down a street at 10:05, followed by a bald priest in brown robes.

Cassel said in amazement: "Oh, the mysterious medieval symbol, the murderous priest followed by the deceased, this is the real-life version of The Da Vinci Code!" I deduce it's Suzanne. Richland deciphers these mysterious symbols, discovers some dark, long-sealed secrets, and pays with his life. ”

Beckett ignored Cassel's nonsense and said to Ryan, "Can you find out the identity of this priest?" ”

Ryan said regretfully: "We don't have a positive picture of the suspect, so we can't look it up." ”

Chen Zhong pointed to the bald priest and said, "Look at the scar on the top of his head, I think it is a trace left by brain stereotaxy, you can investigate the medical system, you can know his identity." Okay, you guys are busy, I'm going to go to the lab and take a closer look at the body. ”

The group split up, with Cassel and Beckett investigating the deceased's recent contacts on his phone, and Ryan and Esposito checking the identities of the priests.

Chen Zhong came to the laboratory and began to examine Susanna's body in detail.

A few hours later, Alexis called Chen Zhong to another woman's body, with Detective Vera from the New York Police Department waiting.

"How? Did you find anything on this corpse? Chen Zhong asked Alexis.

Alexis read the inspection record he had written, "The deceased, Grayson, was 23 years old, driving on the highway at a speed of 140 kilometers per hour, and while driving, he broke through the guardrail and rushed into the sea with the car. With a blood alcohol concentration of 0.06, he suffered a head wound and drowned. Detective Vera and I both thought it was an accident. ”

After listening to Alexis's introduction, Chen Zhong came to the deceased's side and observed it carefully for a while, and said to the two: "She didn't die by accident, she was murdered." ”

Alexis and Detective Vera looked at Chen Zhong suspiciously, hoping that he could explain.

Chen Zhong pointed to a scar on the deceased's foot, "See the scar on her right foot?" This one is not a bruise, but frostbite. ”

Detective Vera asked, "Maybe the body of the deceased was frozen when it was transported back here in a refrigerated truck"

Chen Zhong motioned to Alexis to explain to Vera, "Chilblains can cause skin ulcers to produce blisters, which is not the case on the deceased. ”

"Then why did she get frostbitten? You should know that the water temperature at that time was 24 degrees. ”

Chen Zhong said confidently: "Dry ice, the murderer put a large piece of dry ice on the feet of the deceased stepping on the accelerator, and after the car entered the water, the dry ice decomposed, which caused the scene that the deceased died in an accident." Alexis did a toxicology test, and the killer must have drugged her. ”

Alexis glanced at Chen Zhong with adoration and stepped aside to give Grayson a toxicology test.

Beckett, Kassel and others also came to the lab to hear about Chen's latest test results.

Chen Zhong led everyone to Susanna's body and introduced his findings: "The deceased was killed by a long knife with a gauntlet, the gauntlet on the knife left bruises on her neck, and there were ink residues in the wounds on her two palms, and I restored the pattern on my hands according to the traces left by the underlying dermis." ”

Chen Zhong handed over to Beckett the reconstructed pattern from the deceased's hand, which is a composite of a circle and a hexagon.

Beckett looked at the pattern and said, "Suzanne's call log shows that she recently contacted Jason Brown, a professor of semiotics at Hudson University. Byford, let's go and ask him. ”

Cassel said excitedly: "This Jason. Professor Byford is like Tom in the movies. Hanks, this case is becoming more and more like the plot of "The Da Vinci Code". ”