At seven o’clock the next morning, Bruce slowly woke up from a deep, dreamless sleep.
The first thing he felt was the touch of unfamiliar sheets, softer than his own and carrying a faint scent of lavender.
Then there was the weight on his arm.
He turned his head and saw Ivanka Anderson curled up beside him, her blonde hair scattered across the pillow, her breathing steady and deep.
Looking at the beauty beside him, Bruce reminisced about last night’s wild and wonderful moments, momentarily unwilling to break the peaceful scene.
Suddenly, the phone on the nightstand vibrated.
Bruce gently withdrew his arm and glanced at the screen.
It was Hank Voight.
He tapped to answer and lowered his voice.
“Sergeant.”
“Stacey, your leave has ended early,” Hank’s raspy voice came through the receiver.
“Get to Pier 63 on the Riverwalk right now.”
Sirens and muffled shouting could be heard in the background.
Bruce sat up.
“What’s the case?”
“We’ll talk at the scene,” Hank’s voice was tense.
“Get dressed.
I need you there within forty minutes.”
The call ended.
Ivanka moved, slowly propping up her upper body.
The silky duvet slid down, revealing her full breasts.
“Work?”
“An emergency notice from Hank.
My vacation is over,” Bruce leaned over and kissed her forehead.
“Go back to sleep.”
“Be careful, Bruce,” Ivanka’s voice was sleepy and lazily seductive.
“There are clothes and car keys I prepared for you in the closet.”
Bruce got out of bed and opened the closet.
Inside hung a brand-new set of men’s clothing.
The shirt, pants, and underwear were a perfect fit.
On a metal tray lay a Rolex mechanical watch and a car key with the Mercedes logo.
(Picture in comments)
“I had my assistant prepare them yesterday, just in case,” seeing Bruce’s confused expression, Ivanka slowly stood up, her naked, voluptuous body pressing against him from behind.
“Looking at your face, you want to ask if I’m trying to keep you.
My answer is no; this is my way of expressing my affection.”
Bruce turned around in surprise and looked at her.
“I’ll tell you the details tonight,” Ivanka said as she helped Bruce into his clothes, tidying them.
“That is, if you can make it back tonight.”
A moment later, a fully dressed Bruce stood before the naked Ivanka.
She couldn’t help but praise him, stepping forward to give him a passionate kiss.
“OMG!
So handsome!
My taste was spot on!”
Bruce responded passionately.
Before leaving, he looked into Ivanka’s eyes and said seriously, “I’ll be here tonight, I promise.”
…
At 8:20 AM, at Pier 63 on the Chicago Riverwalk, a black mercedes-amg gt pulled up outside the police tape.
(Picture in comments)
Bruce got out of the car.
It took Bruce only twenty minutes to get here from downtown Chicago, all thanks to that bronze treasure chest from the human drug smuggling case.
Opening the chest had yielded $100,000, 2 skill points, and a LV1 skill: Fast and Furious.
At the time, Bruce had immediately used 1 skill point to upgrade the skill to Speed Passion LV2: When driving a vehicle, evasion rate increases by 50% and neural response increases by 20%.
Relying on this skill, Bruce had sped all the way here at 120 mph.
Katherine saw him and walked over quickly with a bulletproof vest.
“You look like…
you rested well,” Katherine looked him up and down with a subtle gaze.
“New car?
New clothes?”
“It’s a long story,” Bruce took the vest she handed him.
“What’s the situation at the scene?”
Patrol officers, forensics personnel, and a grim-faced Commander Ron Perry were gathered inside the cordon.
He was saying something to Hank.
“The victim is Charlotte Matthews, 28 years old, attacked this morning while jogging along the Riverwalk,” Katherine handed him the case brief and gave a short introduction.
“Rape, violent assault, the left ear was cleanly severed with a sharp object.
Bruce examined the scene.
The woman lay in a pool of blood, with only a bloody hole where her left ear should be.
“Shouldn’t this case belong to the Violent Crimes Unit?”
Hearing this, Katherine looked around, leaned close to Bruce’s ear, and whispered, “There was an almost identical case two days ago: nighttime on the Riverwalk, rape, assault, left ear severed.”
The woman’s breath tickled Bruce’s ear, making him unable to suppress a shiver.
Katherine looked at his reaction with confusion.
Not far away, Hank, who was talking to Commander Perry, saw Bruce and waved him over.
Bruce and Katherine approached quickly, hearing Commander Perry give Voight an ultimatum, his voice full of exhaustion.
“Listen, Voight, I want this bastard in jail within forty-eight hours.
The public doesn’t know this is a serial case yet.
Once it leaks, the whole city will panic.”
“We’re working on it, Commander.” Hank didn’t care at all about Perry’s threat.
“Not hard enough, Voight,” Commander Perry suddenly raised his voice, then softened again, whispering, “Hank, you know I don’t like you, and you don’t like me.
But I know that a case like this can only be handled by your Intelligence Unit.
So this time, I don’t care how you do it, I just want results within forty-eight hours.”
After saying that, Commander Perry walked away.
After Commander Perry left, the members of the Intelligence Unit gathered from all directions.
Hank was brief and to the point.
“What leads do we have?”
“There are signs of a violent struggle at the scene.
The victim’s fingernails were all pulled out, a change from the previous case,” Katherine spoke first, pointing to the struggle marks on the ground.
“So the victim might have scratched the attacker.
To avoid leaving evidence, the attacker chose to pull out her nails.
Forensics is working hard to extract whatever they can.”
Hank didn’t speak, but a look of appreciation showed in his eyes.
He liked his two new subordinates, Bruce and Katherine.
“There are no surveillance cameras at the scene.” The second to speak was Antonio, who was responsible for looking for surveillance with Jay.
“No witnesses either, except for the person who reported it,” Erin also spread her hands helplessly.
“It happened too early; few people are up this early in this area.”
After hearing everyone’s reports, it was basically a total lack of leads.
“Listen up, both cases were on the Riverwalk.
The interval was short, and they were less than two miles apart.
It’s clear the perpetrator is very bold, maybe even at the scene right now.
He’s watching us fail, watching the public panic, and searching for his next target!”
“Now, everyone, take off your gear, get into undercover clothes, and search for suspicious targets around here for me.”
Ruzek had an urge to prove himself.
After hearing Hank’s arrangement, he immediately asked, “How do we identify the suspect?
There are a lot of people on the walk.”
“Look for lone males whose eyes aren’t right when looking at women, or those dressed inappropriately,” Hank raised his voice, clearly infuriated by the perpetrator.
“Remember, we’re here to prevent a third one, not wait for it to happen.”
“Yes, sir!”
…
At nine o’clock that day, at the middle section of the Riverwalk.
Bruce and Katherine were dressed as a trysting young couple, wearing wireless earpieces, sitting and being affectionate not far from the crime scene.
Time passed.
Just as Bruce and Katherine were about to change positions, he noticed a suspicious figure nearby.
A male, sitting alone on a bench, wearing a dark jacket, constantly scanning the passing women.
“Ten o’clock,” he whispered.
“The man in the gray jacket on the bench.”
Katherine pretended to tie her shoelaces and observed out of the corner of her eye.
“He’s looking at every woman passing by, but he hasn’t moved.
Could he just be a creep?”
Just then, the man suddenly seemed to select his prey and ran quickly toward a woman carrying a satchel.
Bruce and Katherine reacted quickly, both raising their guns in warning.
“CPD!
Stop right there!
Hands behind your head, get on the ground!
Now!”
As they spoke, they approached rapidly.
Bruce used a reverse armbar to pin the man to the ground, while Katherine hurried forward to comfort the assaulted woman.
“Bruce!
Report!” Hank’s voice sounded.
“One suspect in custody, currently processing the scene.”
When Hank and the others arrived, the man was still struggling desperately.
“Let me go!
I didn’t do anything!”
Erin also checked the man’s identity in the police system: John Miller, forty-two years old, with multiple priors for petty theft but no record of violent crime.
“Take him back to the station for questioning,” Hank ordered, though his tone carried disappointment.
“Doesn’t look like our guy.”
…
In the Intelligence Unit’s own interrogation room, Bruce and Katherine were in charge of the questioning today.
John sat in the chair, repeatedly insisting he was just “taking a walk.”
Bruce didn’t argue with him and pushed the crime scene photos directly in front of John.
“Do you know her?”
John glanced at them and immediately looked away.
“No!
Oh god, that’s horrible…”
But Bruce still caught that split-second micro-expression—it wasn’t fear of the gore, but the surprise of recognizing someone, mixed with the shock of “How is it her?”
“You’re lying,” Bruce said calmly.
“You know her.
Where did you see her?
When?”
“I don’t!
I said I don’t!” John’s voice rose.
Bruce leaned forward, his voice even lower.
“Listen, John.
You’re currently a suspect in two counts of rape and aggravated assault.
No surveillance, no witnesses.
If we pin these crimes on you…”
“Impossible!
I didn’t do it!” John’s face went pale.
“You can’t do this!”
“Can’t I?” Bruce raised an eyebrow, unfazed.
“Why?
I have a hundred ways to prove you were at the scene when it happened.
That place is your playground, isn’t it?”
John opened his mouth, then closed it, sweat dripping from his forehead.
Bruce switched strategies: “Or, you saw something.
You were on the Riverwalk when it happened, right?
Scavengers like you don’t like violence, but the prey you choose is the same as those rapists.
So, you saw the victim, or you saw the attacker.”
John’s eyes flickered—a silent admission.
“Tell me what you saw, and I can help you,” Bruce enticed him step by step.
“Otherwise, two counts of aggravated assault will get you at least twenty years.
You’re forty-two; you’ll be over sixty when you get out.”
“I…
I didn’t see the attack,” John finally broke down, holding his head in his hands.
“But I saw that woman before it happened.
Around 5:30 AM, near East Lake.
She was walking alone.
A man was following her.
I even brushed past him and instinctively glanced at him.”
“Why?” Katherine’s eyes lit up beside him.
Bruce’s performance was excellent.
“Was that man suspicious?”
“He kept his distance from the woman, but his eyes were always on her,” John took a sip of the water Katherine handed him, trying to calm down.
“I thought to myself, this guy is either a cop or a criminal, but I’ve never seen a cop wearing such a nice watch.”
“Describe him,” Katherine pressed.
“Tall, at least six feet, well-built, short blonde hair, with a fake smile on his face,” John tried to recall.
“He followed her as she turned toward the pier, and I didn’t follow anymore.”
Bruce and Katherine noted the information and stood up to leave the interrogation room.
Hank was waiting outside.
“Good job!”