"Before that." I spoke very clearly, making sure that every word and sentence was free of ambiguity and ambiguity: "Serena invited me to a party hosted by this farmer, a man named Dick, and Dick offered for a detective game. The rules of this game are that everyone is given a random script written by him, and everyone has to act according to the script in the game, but Serena suddenly disappears at the beginning of the game. ”

"I went to her and found this—" I spread my hands over the pictures scattered on the table, "and that's what you see now." While I was wrestling with the murderer, the belated messengers of justice succeeded in capturing me and letting him go. ”

I asked, "Did I make the whole process clear?" Do I need to repeat it? ”

Mike withdrew his hand and touched his chin, he stared at me thoughtfully, and was silent for a moment before he spoke to me: "If you've seen the news lately, you'll know that there's a new psychopathic serial murderer in Texas City. ”

His words puzzled me a little. "So you suspect that fanatical suitor of mine is the murderer you're looking for in another case?" I asked, thinking, and for a moment I thought that the suspicion was actually not unreasonable.

"Nope." Mike didn't use any more tricks, and he was frank and honest with me about their opinions, even if they were outrageously wrong: "We suspect you are the criminal who hunted innocent women." ”

This sentence was like a thunderbolt from the sky, and I felt a violent electric current rush from the top of my head to the center of my feet, causing my spine to tingle and my muscles to tense. I stared at Mike's face and subconsciously reconfirmed, "I'm sorry I misheard or misunderstood, you suspect I'm a murderer?" ”

"Yes, that's what I said." Mike's tone was as calm as if he were talking about what he had for breakfast today, and he looked at my angry expression, gestured for me to calm down, and explained to me, "We started out with a simple suspicion that you might be Serena's drug dealer, so we did some reasonable investigation into you, and then we found something out of the ordinary. ”

"Reasonable investigation?" I pressed my hands on the table, raised my voice, and yelled at Mike as if I was growling, "I don't know of a 'reasonable' investigation that could forcibly attach a suspicion to an innocent citizen!" I pointed at myself and yelled angrily at Mike, "I'm a victim too!" ”

Mike was unusually calm in the face of my rage, neither flinching nor being irritable, but he picked out a few of the photos on the table and placed them neatly on the table under my chin. "Do you know these women?"

I glanced down at the pictures, and then my brow furrowed deeply. "They ......." I spoke dryly, but didn't know how to answer Mike's question. I've seen them, and they've all been women I've loved.

"They were all victims of serial homicides." Mike's mouth was lukewarm, and he emphasized the word 'all', then watched the change in my facial expression, and continued, "In our investigation of you, we found some conclusive evidence that you had stalked and contacted them. ”

I looked up and stared at Mike incredulously, as if he were a menacing beast with its bloody jaws wide open, and its mouth was bursting with an incomprehensible roar.

"Actually, I'm willing to believe what you're saying, because the modus operandi of the previous serial murder case is completely different from that of Serena's case." Mike said to me unhurriedly, his eyes blazing, and he made another self-righteous point: "But I also think that even though you are a victim in some cases, that doesn't prevent you from being the perpetrator in another case at the same time. ”

"Maybe it's just that he's robbing you of your prey and making you irritable and unhappy, and he unilaterally thinks he's going to please you, but in fact it's just making you hate him more, right?" Mike asked me, his expression and tone of voice were particularly intriguing, and he analyzed me as if he were taking a step-by-step approach: "So what are you fighting for?" A contest between two murderers? ”

"You're better suited to be a writer or a screenwriter than a police officer." I kept walking from one end of the table to the other, trying to keep my blood pressure and mood steady by pacing back and forth, but I felt like they were still climbing. "Just because the person I love was killed by a pervert, I'm suspected of committing a crime? Your logic is incredible. Do you have anything more real and powerful? ”

"Nope." Mike replied. "It's precisely because you don't have that you're more suspicious. It's a good idea that you brought Ellie back to your home, but we didn't find any traces of Ellie when we searched it. Your home is so clean that we didn't find anything in your room, it was thoroughly cleaned without sparing even a trace of dust in the corners. ”

Mike's gaze froze, his gaze piercing me like a dagger, and he asked, "Why are you deliberately and meticulously cleaning the room?" ”

After a few encounters, I learned that Mike was not an easy cop to deal with, but that his cleverness and perseverance were completely used in the wrong direction, which made me both distressed and angry. "Why not?" I stopped, looked down at Mike's eyes looking up at me, and squeezed the words out between my teeth: "Officer Mike, everyone doesn't want to live the same life, cleaning can make a difference." Can my hard work make me one of the criminals? ”

Mike tapped on the table with his pen in hand, and he seemed to have nothing to do with me, frowning at my lack of cooperation. He said to me, "Don, if you've been in contact with Ellie, and you actually killed her, then that list 'should' be on you, and you know what I mean by that is, whether it's really on you or not, everybody will think it's on you." ”

"How many more times do you want me to say it?" I cursed inwardly for a few seconds, and I finally realized that he wouldn't listen to Mike no matter how much I tried to explain it, and that he was convinced that I had an inescapable connection to Ellie and the list she had in her possession, and that he would keep an eye on me unless I made up a list and handed it to him. I said to Mike in a very angry voice, "I haven't killed anyone, I haven't seen any damn lists, and the cases you've handled, whether it's that hell serial murder case or drug trafficking list, including this one now, have nothing to do with me. ”

Mike's expression looked genuinely sorry for my stupidity after hearing me say that. He put away his pen and closed his notebook. "Don, Ellie is dead, right?" He asked. "She's your lover, but she's long dead, and you knew it from the beginning, didn't you?"

He watched my expression, and I didn't answer him, he went on to say to me, "You're in a big trouble now, and you can't get out of it." Although we have a misunderstanding of you, most of the time we are thinking about you. You yourself should feel that the ruthless drug cartel and the extremely dangerous crush who is secretly watching you will definitely not let you go easily. ”

"So what am I supposed to do, hold you and cry with tears in my eyes?" I was furious and said to him, "All I want is to live quietly with the person I like, and I don't understand why things have turned into the inexplicable situation they are now?" ”

"Fate is not in our personal control." Mike tried to get me back in his chair and admonished me, "It's not going to do any good for either of us if we continue to argue like this." ”

He said: "I want the murderer and the list, you want to be quiet and innocent, then we should cooperate, not quarrel here." ”

Inevitably, there was a long silence in the room.

I was thinking about the sincerity of his words, and the fact that they were trying to get my words out so that I could be brought to court instead of a real criminal. I know he's right, that at times like these our common enemy is the same and that we should be united.

Mike looked at me without saying a word, he was waiting for me to make a decision. He knew that anyone who could calm down and think clearly would know what choice to make, unless there was a real reason why I couldn't cooperate with the police.