Chapitre 87: Chapter 87
When Yan Su and Zhen Ai arrived at the small town of Sun Tree on the New Jersey state border, it was already 11 PM.
The Sun Tree City Police Station was brightly lit, filled with officers from New York's N.Y.T., Sun Tree, New Jersey, and Elizabeth Town, Connecticut. These four cities are located at the tri-state border, with a straight-line driving distance of no more than half an hour between them.
Inside the police station, the atmosphere was tense. The meeting room was filled with five or six plainclothes officers. Unlike the oppressive mood outside, the people inside seemed much more composed and calm. It was clear that the BAU team was used to sacrificing rest time, having taken a night flight to get there.
As soon as they entered the station, Zhen Ai heard quiet sobbing. A few couples were sitting on benches in the hallway, crying. Judging by their ages, they were likely the parents of the girls from the audio recordings.
Yan Su didn't pause. He walked straight to the meeting room door, stood still, and knocked twice.
The people inside were speaking in low voices and all looked over at the sound. Most of the BAU profilers were in their thirties and forties. One of them, a younger man with black-framed glasses, seemed about the same age as Yan Su's brother.
He had been holding a pen, writing and sketching on a whiteboard. When he saw Yan Su, he came over to open the door, smiling like an old friend, polite and restrained. "Hey, S.A.!"
Yan Su replied, "Hey, Spencer!"
It was Spencer Reid—the one with the same first name as Yan Su's brother.
Zhen Ai was slightly surprised. Yan Su usually addressed people by their last names, maintaining a respectful but distant formality. Even with someone as familiar as Eva, he called her by her last name, Diaz. Clearly, this Spencer Reid had a good relationship with Yan Su.
The other people in the room also greeted Yan Su: Agent Nell, who had been at the Maple Street Bank; the seasoned Agent Cooper; the strong African American Agent Smith; and the curvaceous Latina liaison, Lopez, who had a figure similar to Eva's. They all seemed to know Yan Su.
There was also an older man who didn't look like a profiler but more like an administrative officer for the group. He walked over, his movements smooth and polished, giving off an air of someone well-versed in bureaucracy.
Reid noticed something and was about to intervene, but the man had already extended his hand toward Yan Su. "Mr. S.A., I've heard a lot about you."
Zhen Ai felt a bit awkward.
Yan Su glanced at the extended hand but didn't move. Reid quickly said, "Mr. Laise, I've mentioned before—there are millions of types of bacteria, even viruses, on human hands. Shaking hands is actually quite unsanitary."
Yan Su agreed, as if he had found a kindred spirit. "Let's work together to prevent the spread of viruses and contribute to public safety."
He said this with such sincerity and seriousness that it was clear he wasn't joking.
Laise's face froze. This administrative officer, used to dealing with all kinds of people, was encountering Yan Su for the first time and was left speechless. His usual smooth social skills were useless here. After a long pause, he finally muttered, "Well… okay."
For some reason, Zhen Ai was reminded of how Eva had once described Yan Su as "a hostile environment."
And now, she stared at Reid for a few seconds. There really was someone in the world on the same wavelength as Yan Su!
Looking around, the other profilers were all smiling knowingly.
As Yan Su stepped into the room, he paused, noticing that everyone's eyes were on Zhen Ai, who had followed him in. With his hands in his pockets, he turned to glance at her, then looked back at the others and said, "Hmm, this is Ai, my student."
Zhen Ai: ...
What an imaginative introduction.
But she didn't mind. She was more curious about this group of people. After hearing Professor Hill's rebuke over the phone during the last case, she was even more eager to see what professional behavioral analysis experts were like.
There wasn't much small talk. They quickly got to the point.
"The local police are gathering information and images of the missing persons. Let's take a look first," Lopez said as she clicked the remote to bring up a display on the screen. "These are videos sent to five families from New York City, N.Y.T., Sun Tree, and Elizabeth. Their children have been tortured."
Zhen Ai frowned. Five?
After Lopez's brief introduction, she paused and looked around at the group. "Prepare yourselves."
Nell was puzzled. "Lo, we've seen plenty of terrible cases, haven't we?"
Lopez pursed her lips. "Trust me, even for you, this will feel... chilling."
The atmosphere in the room tightened, almost imperceptibly.
The first video was set in a basement with white walls on all sides. A well-endowed young girl was completely naked, her arms spread wide and tied to a thick cross. Her jade-like body was covered with marks from whips, electric shocks, and other unknown forms of torture. Blood flowed between her legs.
She hung her head, her long hair disheveled, and a round patch of scalp was missing from the top of her head, leaving her skull exposed.
Zhen Ai felt a visceral ache in her body as she watched. A mechanical, distorted voice came from the screen: "My child, repent."
The girl trembled weakly on the cross. "If I repent, will this end?"
The voice didn't respond, simply repeating, "My child, repent."
The girl sobbed, her cries broken and weak. "When I was in college, I babysat for a family. I'm sorry. I was too young and didn't know better. The boy was so naughty that I left him on the street in anger. He went missing and was later abused by a pedophile. I didn't know it would end like this. I was wrong. Please forgive me. Please forgive me."
The video cut off.
The second video showed a woman Zhen Ai recognized as the missing kindergarten teacher Suki had mentioned. She was bound to a cross in the same position, enduring similar abuse.
Her scalp was intact, but her breasts and lips had been cut off—horrific to behold.
The prompt tone played, and though her lips were gone, the teacher's words were still audible, though slurred, each word dripping with blood:
"No one else is to blame. It's all my fault. Repentance won't be enough. Five years ago, I worked at an N.Y.T. public kindergarten. A lively five-year-old girl, Megan Zora, went missing. I used the child's trust to lure her away and handed her over to monsters. She was probably abused and killed by those men long ago. Everything that's happening now—I deserve it. Will my repentance even help?"
The third video was even more gruesome. The woman's body was unrecognizable, her face mutilated beyond recognition. It looked like she had endured the ancient punishment of death by a thousand cuts. Her entire body was a mass of bloody, mangled flesh, with no intact skin anywhere.
Zhen Ai stared at the blood-soaked figure, her heart pounding.
Yet the woman was still alive, bound to the cross, her voice hoarse:
"I repent! I repent for my licentious behavior, for never giving my heart sincerely, for betraying countless people." Her voice was guttural, like a demon from hell. "I stole many of my friends' men. I had countless affairs with married men. I even carried on with my stepfather behind my mother's back. As a human being, I feel ashamed. I'm sorry. I repent. Please forgive me!"
The mechanical voice was dissatisfied. "My child, repent."
A bucket of scalding water was dumped over her, and the woman's agonized screams pierced the air. "God, it was my fault! I ruined the prosecutor's marriage, smeared his wife's reputation, and pushed his pregnant wife down the stairs. I didn't know she was pregnant! I didn't know..."
The video cut off again.
Zhen Ai pressed her temples hard, each scene more tragic and vile than the last. She could no longer bear to watch or listen. Glancing around, she noticed Yan Su frowning slightly, wearing his usual expression of deep thought. The other profilers were also focused, seemingly unmoved by the suffering and evil before them.
The fourth video was unexpectedly not bloody. The victim this time was a man—the missing writer.
The camera only captured the upper half of the writer's body, which was covered in lash marks. His fists were clenched, and his whole body was taut, muscles twitching like a frog in a lab being electrocuted, Zhen Ai thought.
He looked at the camera, his gaze unfocused. "I have nothing to confess to you. As a man, I don't bully women; as a police officer, I've never used my authority to humiliate others."
This answer seemed to displease someone. The writer suddenly jerked, breaking into a sweat. "I killed my boy, though it was out of my control. It is my only sin."
When the fifth video began, someone inhaled sharply.
A little girl stood on a stool under a large crucifix, her small body tied to it. She wore no clothes, her skin marked with bruises and welts. Her eyes were covered with a black cloth, and beneath it, two streaks of blood ran down her tiny face.
Her voice was innocent and confused: "I confess, I argued with Jimmy and pushed him out of the car. Mommy said I sent him to heaven. I feel sad."
Her sweet voice tugged at the hearts of those watching.
The screen went white, and a line of black text appeared:
"S.A., are you enjoying now?"
S.A., are you enjoying this?
Zhen Ai froze. Was this addressed to Yan Su again?
But Yan Su remained calm.
No one else reacted much either, except for Laise, who gave Yan Su a complicated look and asked, "What do you think?"
Yan Su didn't seem to pick up on Laise's underlying tone and simply replied, "The people in the video should all be dead by now."
Laise's expression grew more nuanced. "How do you know?"
The atmosphere in the room grew tense. Zhen Ai didn't like Laise's tone, but Yan Su didn't seem to mind. He looked at Laise for a second, perhaps playing with words: "Everyone here knows that."
Laise squinted. As an administrative leader of the BAU, not a profiler, he didn't know.
Rheid picked up where Yan Su left off: "Our statistics from last year show that 98% of sadists with a specific goal kill their victims once that goal is achieved. Judging by the current situation, the unknown perpetrator is torturing these people to make them confess. Now that they have confessed, his goal is complete. The moment they finish their confession, their existence becomes meaningless."
Cooper's expression grew grim. "To this person, torturing his victims is simply a justifiable means to force their confession. He binds them to a religiously significant cross, like Jesus was crucified. He's performing a ritual, and he sees himself as the moral authority conducting it."
Rheid twirled his pen and added, "He repeats the same phrase from beginning to end: 'My child, confess.' With that tone, who does he think he is? A savior? A priest? Or God?"
Nell joined in the discussion: "Several victims said, 'Please forgive me.' That 'you' refers to the suspect, meaning he communicated with the victims during the abuse. But in the recordings, when they didn't confess as he wanted, he didn't respond or reprimand them. He just repeated that phrase. What does that indicate?"
"He's distancing himself from them," Smith continued. "Why? Is he too arrogant, viewing himself as a judge who looks down on them, or is he socially inept?"
Zhen Ai had been listening for a while before realizing that Yan Su hadn't spoken in quite some time. He sat upright, his back straight, his face as calm and stern as ever.
She knew he was listening, thinking deeply.
Nell speculated, "This unknown person is punishing evil."
Lopez quickly interrupted: "These are just our initial hypotheses. Until we know more about the victims' specific circumstances, let's leave it here."
No one objected. Laise, not being a profiler, didn't understand that premature assumptions and overreliance on experience are major pitfalls in behavioral analysis. He was still puzzled as to why such a powerful intellectual exchange had abruptly halted.
Rheid agreed with Lopez's point but was thinking about something else. He tapped the marker in his hand and muttered to himself, "Something feels off."
He looked directly at Yan Su, showing he was in deep thought. "The perpetrator didn't record the torture process. It seems his only goal is to make these people confess. His behavior resembles the 'self-proclaimed moral enforcers' we've encountered in other cases. Ritualistic, cleansing darkness. But..."
But what?
He was talking to himself, but the others, who had finished their discussion, were drawn back in.
And then, unexpectedly, Yan Su, who hadn't participated in the criminal profiling, suddenly spoke, picking up Rheid's thread: "But why is there a little girl among the victims? If the perpetrator sees himself as a moral enforcer, targeting those he believes need to confess, this little girl doesn't fit the 'criminal' profile."
"Exactly!" Rheid's eyes lit up. "It's like..."
"It's like he's misleading us," Yan Su spoke rapidly, as if his thoughts were sparking. "This person is clever. He's setting up red herrings."
"Double-layered red herrings!" Rheid was now only speaking to Yan Su. "He's playing a game—no, not just playing, he's writing the game!"
"Yes, he's manipulating the game, and he understands behavioral analysis and profiling." Yan Su's response was seamless. "It's very likely that everything we've just analyzed, he's already anticipated."
"Not just anticipated," Rheid matched his pace, "he's actively guiding our analysis."
The rapid-fire exchange between the two was like machine guns—no, machine guns couldn't keep up with the speed of their thoughts.
The entire room was stunned into silence for several long seconds.
Finally, someone knocked on the door. Local officers came in to announce that the families of the missing were ready for questioning.
The group snapped out of their daze and began preparing for the next phase.
Zhen Ai slowly followed Yan Su, feeling a bit emotional.
Yan Su glanced down, his expression stiffening slightly. "Why do you have that look, like a parent feeling proud?"
"Oh," Zhen Ai explained, "I just think you've been behaving so well since Professor Hill scolded you last time."
Yan Su: ...
Laise, who was walking at the back, watched Yan Su's retreating figure and suddenly asked Lopez and Cooper, "You may know a lot about behavioral analysis, but did you miss the most important question?"
"What?"
"That audio, and this video—they were all sent to Mr. S.A."
Lopez was unimpressed as he walked out. "We didn't miss that, Laise. But in our line of work, you need to understand one thing: A psychopath doesn't become one because of anything you did. If they want to challenge you, is that your fault?"
"Instead of placing blame, let's focus on catching the criminal."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone