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Chapter 138: Bernie: D.C. People Are Truly Perverted
Mr. Halleck re-examined the body.
After careful observation, he confirmed that the deceased was not Annie Halleck.
"Annie is taller than her, and much thinner. Much, much thinner."
Mr. Halleck stood beside the body, gesturing with his hands above it, then pointing to the scars. "Annie would never hurt herself like this."
Bernie asked him, "Where is she now? Can we find her?"
Mr. Halleck nodded hesitantly. "I saw her last month. She said she was working at Star Laundry."
Mr. Halleck provided the address for Star Laundry.
Detective Thomas wrote down the address and went to find a patrol officer to verify it.
While waiting, Theodore received a call from the FBI laboratory.
The fingerprint comparison results were ready.
The deceased's fingerprints did not match Annie Halleck's fingerprints.
The deceased was not Annie Halleck.
Detective Thomas looked somewhat lost after hearing the news. "If she's not Annie Halleck, why did she register under Annie Halleck's name?"
He looked at Theodore and Bernie. "Who is she?"
No one could answer that question yet.
More than an hour later, the patrol officer brought back the real Annie Halleck.
She was noticeably thinner than the deceased, with long reddish-brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.
This was an unusual hairstyle for someone her age.
Annie Halleck had deep lines around her mouth, and her skin was loose and somewhat rough, making her appear much older than the deceased.
After completing the registration, Annie Halleck was led into the interrogation room.
She looked at Theodore and Bernie across from her with a bewildered expression, clearly not knowing what had happened.
Bernie asked her, "On the night of April 3rd, this past Monday, did you go to the Riverside Hotel?"
Annie Halleck shook her head. "No, I didn't."
"What were you doing?"
Annie Halleck answered, "I was with my boyfriend all evening after work."
"We watched a movie at the drive-in theater."
"Around eleven o'clock, after the movie ended, we went home."
Bernie asked for the address of the drive-in theater and her boyfriend's address, then handed them to Detective Thomas to verify.
He softened his tone slightly. "On Tuesday morning, a woman was pushed down the stairs and died."
"She was registered under your name at the Riverside Hotel."
Annie Halleck covered her mouth in shock.
Theodore took out a photograph of the deceased and handed it to her. "Do you know her?"
Annie Halleck picked up the photo, examined it carefully, then looked at Theodore and Bernie, and finally shook her head as she pushed it back. "I'm sorry. I don't know her."
Theodore put the photos away, then took out the deceased's clothing from Room 511. "Are these your clothes?"
Annie Halleck picked up the clothes and examined them, looking uncertain. "I think I used to have an outfit like this."
Bernie asked, "When?"
She thought carefully, her expression stiffening slightly. "Ten years ago."
Annie Halleck put down the clothes and pushed them back across the table. "Later, when I moved, I don't know where they ended up."
Theodore put the clothes back in the bag and asked her directly, "Is this what you wore the day you were assaulted?"
Annie Halleck looked at Theodore. Her entire body went tense.
She was silent for a moment, then relaxed. "No. This is what I wore the day I testified in court."
"The media took pictures of me wearing this and called it a 'slut outfit.'"
The interrogation room went quiet for a moment. Then Bernie asked, "Did you contact Special Agent Vincent R. Lombardi last week?"
Annie Halleck nodded. "Yes."
"I wanted to apologize to him."
"Last year, I went to his house and his workplace and said some things to him."
"I wasn't doing well during that time."
"I blamed some of my terrible experiences on him."
"I called him to arrange a meeting, hoping to get his forgiveness."
Bernie was curious about her change in attitude, but Theodore had no intention of wasting more time.
He chose to end the questioning.
Annie Halleck clearly didn't know the deceased.
Even though the deceased had obviously been imitating her.
Using her name for registration, wearing the same clothes as her, dyeing her hair reddish-brown, and even having the same scars as her.
After leaving the interrogation room, Detective Thomas, unwilling to give up, arranged a 'family reunion' for Annie Halleck.
He first had officers take her to meet Mr. Halleck.
Mr. Halleck was very happy to see his daughter, and the atmosphere between father and daughter was warm.
Then he brought Mrs. Halleck over.
The atmosphere in the small conference room immediately dropped to freezing.
Mrs. Halleck immediately criticized Annie Halleck's clothing, saying she would eventually be assaulted again.
Annie Halleck was provoked and immediately started arguing with her mother.
Mr. Halleck tried to mediate, but the two women simply wouldn't listen to him.
The mother and daughter argued, moving closer and closer together, and then started fighting.
Detective Thomas had no choice but to call for officers to rush in and pull them apart.
During the struggle, Annie Halleck grabbed his face, leaving three bloody scratches.
Detective Thomas covered his face and waved frantically at the officers.
Seven or eight officers worked together to separate mother and daughter, and it took considerable effort to send the family away.
Theodore leaned toward Detective Thomas, examining the three scratches on his face. "Now you're certain she's Annie Halleck."
Detective Thomas sank into a chair, wiping the blood from his face with a tissue, and asked in a muffled voice, "What now?"
Thinking that they couldn't even confirm the deceased's identity and had to start everything over, Detective Thomas felt a surge of frustration.
Solving cases was far too troublesome. It really should be left to FBI agents.
Detective Thomas thought this to himself, then looked up at Theodore and Bernie.
Theodore thought for a moment and suggested returning to the crime scene.
Detective Thomas pointed to his face. "I'm not going with you. I need to take care of this so it doesn't scar."
He made a phone gesture. "Call me if you need anything."
He hurried out of the conference room.
Theodore and Bernie drove to the Riverside Hotel and met the manager again.
The manager was very cooperative, readily taking the keys and leading them to the fifth floor, once again asking when the room's lockdown could be lifted.
Bernie repeated Lombardi's answer, telling him to ask the Third Precinct.
Arriving on the fifth floor, the manager unlocked Room 511.
Theodore stood in the doorway and glanced inside. The room was still in the same condition as when they'd last left it.
He asked the manager, "Can you open Rooms 509 and 513 as well?"
The manager had someone check the registration at the front desk. After confirming both rooms were empty, he opened the doors.
Theodore picked up the table lamp in Room 509 and asked the manager, "How much is this?"
The manager looked puzzled. "Nine dollars."
Theodore nodded, took out ten dollars and handed it to him, then walked out with the lamp and asked the manager to have an employee bring a glass bottle. He walked into Room 511 with the lamp and the bottle, directing Bernie and the manager to return to Rooms 509 and 513 respectively and close their doors.
He first examined the damage to the lamp in Room 511, roughly estimated it, then picked up the new lamp and threw it to the floor.
After waiting more than ten seconds, he picked up the glass bottle and threw it to the floor.
After throwing it, he walked out of Room 511 and asked Bernie and the manager if they'd heard anything.
The manager's expression was somewhat awkward. He turned to look at Bernie.
Bernie nodded. "Very clearly."
He looked at Theodore, with a hint of excitement in his expression. "Looks like we need to talk to those two test sleepers again."
The facts proved that the soundproofing in the Riverside Hotel's single rooms was not very good at all.
The manager pointed at the now-messy Room 511 and asked them, "Can I have someone clean this up?"
"Can this room be unlocked now?"
No one answered.
The manager sighed, muttered a few words under his breath, and re-locked all three rooms.
In the afternoon, test sleepers Dennis and Cooper were brought back by detectives from the Third Precinct.
After registration, they were sent to separate interrogation rooms.
Theodore and Bernie questioned Dennis first.
Dennis stuck to his statement from yesterday.
Bernie told him they'd already conducted an experiment at the Riverside Hotel.
Dennis was silent for a moment. "I really didn't hear anything."
"I fell asleep very early that night."
"I slept soundly, straight through until morning."
"I didn't even know there were people in the room next door."
"Really!"
Theodore shook his head, not wanting to waste more time with him. He stood up and left to find Cooper.
At first, Cooper's performance was the same as Dennis's, insisting he'd heard nothing.
But when Bernie told him "you could hear a fart from next door clearly," his expression began to waver.
After a moment of silence, Cooper looked at Theodore, who'd been writing since entering the room. "I can tell you what I heard, but you can't tell my boss."
Bernie nodded. "Fine."
Cooper swallowed and said quietly, "Dennis and I booked the room that morning."
"After work in the afternoon and dinner, we went straight to the Riverside Hotel."
"There was nothing in that single room. I read a book for a while, then went to bed early."
"Around ten o'clock, I was woken up by sounds from next door."
Cooper heard cries for help and screams. He thought the person next door needed help, so he ran out of his room and pounded on the door.
The sounds inside quickly stopped, and then a naked man opened the door, asking him fiercely what he wanted.
Only then did Cooper realize he'd interrupted something.
He returned to his room embarrassed, buried his head under the covers, listening to the pleas for help, then pleas for mercy, then curses, then screams from next door, unable to sleep at all.
He endured for over two hours, and just as these noises finally stopped and he was about to fall asleep, the sounds from next door started again.
It wasn't until past two in the morning that the noise next door completely stopped.
Cooper paused here.
After a moment of hesitation, he added, "I only slept two or three hours. I got up at five in the morning to wake Dennis."
"You know the traffic situation on Pennsylvania Avenue in the morning, if we didn't leave early, we'd definitely be late."
"I went to ask Dennis to check out, and Dennis, like me, hadn't slept well at all."
"We were still complaining that next door was too noisy and the room's soundproofing was terrible when we ran into the woman from the room next door as we were leaving."
Bernie pulled out the victim's photo and handed it over. "Is this her?"
Cooper only glanced at it before quickly looking away. "I, I don't know."
"I can't recognize her."
He seemed to remember something and started to gag.
Theodore glanced at Bernie, picked up the photo, held it in front of Cooper, and asked, "You and Dennis went into Room 511, didn't you?"
Cooper turned his head, came face-to-face with the photo, and was so startled he nearly fell backward. "Dennis and I left very quickly."
"She was fine when we left!"
"If I'd known she would die, we would never have, ugh, "
His words were interrupted by dry heaves, and his voice took on a sobbing quality.
Theodore took back the photo, looked at it, then looked at Bernie in confusion.
Bernie shook his head silently and kicked the trash can over.
Cooper grabbed the trash can and continued gagging.
His reaction was extremely intense, as if he were pregnant.
The questioning had to be temporarily suspended.
Bernie called two officers to take him to the restroom to calm down.
Theodore put down the photo and asked Bernie in confusion, "Is it that disgusting?"
Bernie stared at him. "You'd know if you tried it."
Theodore glanced at him. "How would I know who's about to die?"
Bernie felt their discussion had taken an abnormal turn. He stood up, went out to pour two cups of coffee, and abruptly changed the subject. "Cooper and Dennis, plus the previous two, that's four people total, which matches the four condoms found in the trash can at the crime scene."
Theodore was still staring at the photo. He nodded at Bernie's words. "Cooper said he heard sounds of pleading, crying for help, cursing, and beating, which might be the source of the victim's injuries."
Bernie glanced at the victim in the photo, then thought about the conversation he'd just had with Theodore.
He suddenly felt that people in D.C. were all very abnormal, nothing like people from his home state of Texas, who were conservative and wholesome.
About ten minutes later, Cooper was brought back and the questioning continued.
Theodore put away the photo and asked Cooper, "Did you and Dennis also tie her up?"
He gestured twice. "Just like those two you mentioned earlier."
Cooper's face went pale. He shook his head repeatedly in denial.
Theodore searched through the stack of photos, found the photo of the wine bottle reassembled by the Third Precinct forensic lab, and handed it over. "Have you seen this?"
Cooper hesitated, not entirely sure.
Theodore then asked him about the lamp.
Cooper said, "It was fine."
"The room lights weren't on at the time. Only the lamp was lit."
Theodore found the crime scene photos and asked Cooper to identify any differences from when they'd left.
Aside from the broken wine bottle and lamp, at Theodore's prompting, Cooper also pointed out the wardrobe and the blanket. According to him, the wardrobe was closed and the blanket was fully spread on the bed when they left.
Cooper denied seeing any ropes.
However, he mentioned that the room had been dimly lit at the time and his attention hadn't been on the room's interior, so he might have missed something.
Theodore put away the photos and finally asked, "Are you certain there were only two people before you?"
Cooper hesitated. "I only heard one pause in the middle, so it should have been two people."
The conversation ended. Cooper repeatedly asked them not to tell his boss about this.
Bernie told him directly that instead of worrying about them, he should worry about Dennis.
This made Cooper breathe a sigh of relief.
Before leaving the interrogation room, Theodore asked him curiously, "How did you feel when you learned of her death?"
Cooper's face immediately went pale. "Ugh, —!"
[End of Chapter]
"Nuceria — a world without origin or natives, where the night remembers the sun and lost fragments of every reality fall from the sky. Among the first to ever arrive, one traveler rides through the golden sands beneath a sky that refuses to darken."
T/N:- You know, I have been thinking about this idea for few days, imagine a world.
Basically, with no end, it just never ends. Who knows what reality is? But till now, no one has found whether it's round or flat, whatever.
Now, imagine you have MC obviously, but this world of Golden Sand is connected to a fictional universe, and many times it pulls these characters into this world. For now, let's call it (Nuceria).
And that's how we build this up, like people getting dropped from all background normal anime characters, movie characters, Eldritch, I, and it's everyone, just not people sometimes even things.
Imagine you are on a camel riding the land on a glowing night, and suddenly a fucking Star Destroyer drops from the sky slowly and loudly, burning, and you are the only one who knows what it is.
And did I tell you about one of the most beautiful aspects of this world, that unlike our world, the night (Nuceria) doesn't really happen like night, I mean, yes, there is dim light, but still it is very much observable, the sun has set, but the land is still glowing.
Nuceria's night isn't glowing unnaturally, it's just brighter than any natural night we've known, like stepping back into an age before artificial light ruined the world's darkness.
The sky is deep and cosmic, but the land softly holds the memory of day, enough that you can see every dune's curve, every shadow's edge. You don't squint, and you don't need a torch; the air itself feels like it wants you to see.
It's that pre-electric, mythic kind of night, the kind travelers, poets, and ancient wanderers used to write about when they said the moonlight painted the earth. Only in Nuceria, the land itself seems to return that light.
....
Well, that's all from me. How do you like the idea? I mean, it has potential even as an original novel.
What do you say?