章節 23: Examination (part2)
"Hey, don't act like I'm messing around there."
"Don't be ridiculous. So, what were you doing in Leonid's apartment? Taking care of him, for example?"
Dmitri blinked and stopped his hands from working, just imagining if he was really taking care of Leonid.
After thinking for a moment, Dmitri shook his head and replied sharply.
"First, it's foolish to think that I take care of someone like Leonid. Second, I'm just following orders from the commander to stay close to Leonid most of the time."
"The commander?"
Vasili's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed.
"What do you mean by the commander's orders?! We may be a team, but you guys are hiding a lot of secrets from us."
"Stop talking nonsense. The commander doesn't distinguish between us. He only commands those who are qualified among us."
Dmitri entered the fingerprints from the heel into the device and added,
"By the way, the fact that Leonid is the commander's son means nothing to me. You should know that Leonid himself can subdue anyone. He's someone you have to be careful not to anger."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean in short is that I have a scary friend whom no one dares to stand against. A blessing or a curse, guess that for me~."
The fingerprint device stopped working, and Dmitri pulled out the information page. He read the search results while Vasily leaned over from behind to read them with him. After a few moments, Dmitri's eyes widened.
"This heel has fingerprints..."
"Charlotte Smith."
Vasili blinked after reading the name "Charlotte Smith" and tried to connect the dots.
From his perspective, Leonid had been tracking Charlotte Smith for a while, and she was among the suspects as a victim, but she hadn't been killed yet, even though Leonid described her as naive.
"She's been in front of us the whole time."
"Vasili, calm down. You can't rush into accusations."
"What do you mean by rushing into accusations? We have a heel belonging to the woman Leonid watches most of the time and who is a suspect. Doesn't this mean anything to you?"
"I know. It's suspicious, but it's wrong to hurry."
"Alright, I won't rush and jump to conclusions, okay?"
Vasili raised his hands in the air and waved them in surrender.
"But tell me, what if you found a strange woman's heel in the apartment of a dead woman? How would you conclude then, huh?"
"I have several conclusions. Do you want to hear them all, or should I shorten it and tell you that Charlotte Smith wasn't at the crime scene when the victim was killed?"
"What?! How do you know?!"
Vasili furrowed his brows and turned to Dmitri, who stood up from his chair and looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"You're not trying to make up a lie for that woman, are you?"
"Why would I do something that silly? I'll tell you the truth about that day. First, the victim was killed three days ago."
"Well, I expected that after looking at her body."
"She was killed exactly at 10:23 PM. That evening, Leonid, Charlotte, and I, along with a person named Daniel, were at her apartment. Around eight o'clock, the power went out in the building, and no one was on the eighth floor except for us because of the party they were having somewhere."
"Are you saying she was under your eyes at that time? Well, if she wasn't the one who killed Sofia and returned to her apartment as if nothing happened... then who killed Sofia?"
"We're back to square one again."
"Well, what does the presence of her shoe there mean?"
Vasili pinched his thumb and forefinger on his chin and furrowed his brows, adding,
"Is the killer leaving a clue for their next victim?"
"Hmm, as you know..."
Dmitri adjusted his glasses and sighed, adding,
"This is the first victim we've personally examined; we don't know how or what happened in the previous victims' apartments, except for a photo taken of the crime scene in the bathroom."
"We're thinking and thinking, and it feels like we're stuck in a loop in the hands of this serial killer."
"You're right."
Dmitri started agreeing with Vasili's words, which he had phrased accurately. While doing so, he printed the search report for Charlotte's fingerprints.
"Let's think again."
Vasili closed his eyes and began to think deeply.
"What if Charlotte Smith was there and saw what happened to the victim, and when she tried to escape, she tripped and forgot one of her shoes behind her?"
"Well... that's a possible scenario."
Dmitri imagined the situation this way, and it seemed logical.
"But if that's the case, why hasn't Charlotte Smith reported it to the police yet?"
"Then, is the killer trying to manipulate us to frame her?"
"I don't think so; he still doesn't know we're behind him."
Dmitri handed the report to Vasili, and after Vasili received it, he said:
"Give the report to the deputy commander, in the meantime, I have something to take care of."
"Well, what about the autopsy report as well?"
"I haven't finished it yet. When I do, I'll send you all the information I've gathered."
"As you wish, see you later."
Then, Vasili left the room, leaving Dmitri alone.
On the way to the hospital, Charlotte suddenly woke up. Her vision was still blurry, and she felt like she was being pulled down with the passing time.
"Where am I?"
Leonid ignored Charlotte's frantic question and continued driving at a moderate speed. He wasn't actually ready to start another conversation centered around complaints, so he planned to stay silent.
Charlotte blinked her eyes as she looked at Leonid and understood why he remained silent.
After Leonid ignored her, Charlotte tried to press the seatbelt to free herself, but her arms refused to move, as if gravity was trapping her and pulling her down.
When Charlotte gave up and lost hope in pushing the seatbelt, she immediately complained in a low voice, saying:
"Take it off me..."
"What are you talking about?"
"The seatbelt feels like it's choking me and..."
Leonid didn't bother listening to Charlotte's answer to his question. He simply asked her without looking at her, wanting to take some quiet time for himself while she tried to explain what she was talking about.
Given her condition, it would take longer since she was delirious most of the time.
He steered the wheel with his hand and carefully parked the car in the hospital parking lot. Then he took out the key, unbuckled the seatbelt, and got out of the car towards the passenger door.
In less than a minute, Leonid opened the car door and let the sunlight behind him shine on Charlotte's pale face.
Charlotte closed her teary eyes and covered them with her hands in reaction to the sunlight that hit her eyes. In fact, she couldn't bear the brightness of the sunlight that was too harsh.
She had always been this way, and even Leonid knew that.
"What's wrong? Does the sunlight bother you?"
"Mm..."
After hearing Charlotte mumble in response to Leonid's question, Leonid sighed and sat next to her on the seat.
He was generally careful not to press his thigh against Charlotte's or bother her while reaching into the small center console between the seats to pull out his sunglasses from inside.
"Move your hands."
"Mm..."
Charlotte slowly removed her hands from her face, but still kept her eyes closed.
Gently and carefully, Leonid placed the sunglasses over her eyes, and this time it was a real gesture, not just spy glasses.
"Better now? Can you open your eyes?"
"Mm... but it still hurts."
Charlotte complained again, covering her ears as the sound of passing cars on the highway reached her. Leonid sighed again and watched her for a few moments.
This girl was spoiled in every sense, but that wasn't what bothered Leonid.
"Does the noise hurt you? Well, no worries, I have a solution for that too."
Leonid reached into the center console again, this time searching for earplugs, but the task seemed a bit difficult due to the number of things he kept there.
He might appear to be a well-dressed and organized man, but he wasn't a fan of organizing and arranging things.
Luckily, Charlotte wasn't in the mood to be curious about what was in the center console between the seats since she was barely able to keep herself from passing out from the fever.
It was good that Leonid was willingly cooperative in giving Charlotte everything she needed at that moment.
"Hang in there a little."
Leonid whispered softly and leaned a little toward Charlotte, his free arm gripping the ceiling of the car while his other hand searched the center console.
Leonid's sunglasses slid down the bridge of her nose, but Charlotte didn't complain about the sunlight.
Thanks to Leonid's muscular body, the sunlight was blocked from her eyes, and all she could see was Leonid's solid torso.
Finally, Leonid grabbed the earplugs, lifted himself, and at the same time, Charlotte got a clear view of Leonid's tight chest muscles as he struggled with his shirt's buttons.
"Alright, let's see."
Leonid opened the earplugs' package and looked at Charlotte, noticing that she was closing her eyes again because her sunglasses had slipped down her nose.
He raised an eyebrow, wondering why Charlotte hadn't adjusted her sunglasses. But at the same moment, Leonid moved his hand toward her and adjusted the sunglasses, then took some earplugs and carefully placed them in her ears.
"Better now, right?"
Although Charlotte couldn't hear him now, Leonid asked her in an unexpectedly warm tone.
When Charlotte didn't react to his question, Leonid knew everything was alright. He got out of the car after taking a quick look, unbuckled the seatbelt, stood up, and then lifted Charlotte in his arms, his left arm under her knees and his right arm under her shoulders.
At this point, Leonid expected fierce resistance from Charlotte, but there was none.
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