"The deceased's name is Mudley Youngs, 68 years old, and she is an elderly woman who lives alone." The young detective led the two into the house.

"We found 17 sets of fingerprints in the house, most of them belonged to homeless people, and according to the neighbors, she would provide food and lodging for the kind old woman as long as she helped with household chores or took care of the yard."

At this time, Jack's cell phone rings, it is Emily calling, there is another homicide in Rockford, and Hodchner, Red, and Emily are rushing to the scene.

According to the local detective who first arrived at the scene, the modus operandi matched the suspect they were tracking.

Jack, who hung up the phone, was about to re-enter the house when he found a mark carved with a sharp object on the trunk of a cherry tree outside the house.

"Hey man, what's the direction of the nearby railroad?"

The young detective poked his head out of the house, "You can see it if you go in that direction along this road." ”

Jack and Rosie informed Emily of what she had just said on the phone, then tilted their heads in the direction the young detective was pointing and poked their fingers at the markers on the tree.

"Shall you go over there? I guess we'll find another camp for wanderers. ”

The three of them walked along the trail for less than fifteen minutes, and sure enough, they found an uninhabited camp under a tunnel in a railway bridge.

"Remember this?" Rosie pointed to an inverted cross, with an eye on each side, and said to Jack.

"This means that the surroundings are safe, and there are no police around, right?" Jack recalls the "knowledge" he had learned from the "Bos".

"How do you know what these marks mean?" The young detective was confused.

Rosie and Jack looked at each other and smiled, "Some alcohol, tobacco, and a curry." ”

"Look here." Jack found a drawing of a cat with the address underneath.

"718 Maple Street, the address of the victim's house just now." The young detective's eyes lit up.

"The cat represents the friendly old lady, and there is a letter 'T' here to represent that you can get food and lodging if you work for her."

After listening to Jack's explanation, the young detective suddenly realized, "So even if a stranger has just arrived here, he can know through these codes that Mudley Young's house is open to homeless people." ”

At this time, Jack's phone rang again, and Emily was still on the other side of the phone.

"We just saw the scene, the murderer's modus operandi is the same as before, and he has put his clothes over the male victim again, but this time the deceased is a Latino couple."

"Not only that, but he left a newspaper next to the body with a media report on the murder in Modesto, with the headline 'Highway 99 Killer'." Red added on the phone.

Rossi's face turned serious, "The killer doesn't care about the victim's race, and he's still laughing at us, he thinks we've mistaken the way he travels around. ”

"Challenging the police shows that he has self-destructive tendencies, but it also means that his modus operandi will become more and more crazy, and maybe tonight, 'Goldilocks' will be sleeping in a family's bed again." Emily said.

Another call came in, this time from Jiejie, who stayed at the Sacramento Police Department, and Jack simply switched to a three-way call.

"Modesto police have discovered that the suspect stole jewelry from the victim's home in Sacramento appeared in a pawnshop in Modesto, and a surveillance screenshot has just been sent to your mailbox.

The pawnshop clerk said he was about five feet eight inches (173 centimeters) tall, thin, under 40 years old, Latina of origin, and he had a rash on the side of his mouth, which matched our profile results. ”

Jack opened the mailbox directly with his mobile phone, and the photo showed a man wearing a peaked cap that covered half of his face.

Hanging up the phone, he called Garcia again, "Big beauty, have you had any results from the previous investigation into the suspect's wandering patterns?" ”

"Yes." Garcia's lazy voice came over the phone, looking unmotivated.

"Your previous guess was correct, every time the suspect committed a crime somewhere, it was the harvest season of the local crops, apples from Tehachabi, tomatoes from Beckersfield, and pumpkins from Flersno.

The lovely Agent Banner was working with the ICE guys to compile a list of temporary employees on the town's big farms, as well as state-subsidized temporary migrant farmer camps, which were in decent condition but required strict registration when moving in.

When these lists are in hand, I will be able to track down the floating population, and the results should be available soon. ”

"Very well, Garcia, it seems that we will soon be able to identify the suspect and find out his activities, don't be so listless, I'm done with this time, I'll fill the refrigerator in the office for you when I get back."

and Garcia, who had regained his spirits, said a few more nonsense, and Jiejie called again.

She and Jane Banner were preparing to meet with a makeshift camp manager who was also an ICE officer, and the three Hodchners were on their way to an apple orchard farm not far from them.

It was another long journey, and in the afternoon, the BAU people met first, and then, led by Jane Banner, met an ICE officer of Indian descent near the farm.

The ICE officer, who identified herself as Sisa, handed over an enlarged photo of the suspect after the two sides exchanged pleasantries.

"This photo will appear on the headlines of major media tomorrow, do you have any impressions of this person?"

"It's hard to say." Cesar frowned, looked at the photo carefully, and handed it back to Jiejie.

"Have you received any complaints from any of the camps you manage?" Red asked.

"The suspect is mentally unstable, irritable and aggressive, prone to trouble, and obsessed with cheap drugs."

Cesar shook his head, "The camp is very strictly managed, adhering to the 'no toleration principle', similar to those big city shelters, not to mention drugs, once found to have a bad habit of drinking, they will be expelled, let alone allow violence to happen." ”

"And who have you recently evicted?" Jane asked.

"In fact, because the beds in the camp are far from enough to meet the demand, we have to often evict people who have made small mistakes. ”

The meeting with the ICE official was not helpful, but it was not very helpful, and given that he and his few colleagues manage nearly a million migrant workers from Lao Mo, everyone can only understand this.

(End of chapter)