Chapter 349 Closing the case and a little advice

Jack put away his gun and walked into a room inside with the two CSIs.

This is a very magical room, with thick Persian carpets, and the shelves against the wall are filled with crystal balls, various lizard tails soaked in unknown liquids, toads and other strange things. .

There is a dressing table against the wall of the room. The wall on one side of the dressing table is covered with various newspaper clippings and photos of the Riordan family.

Some of them are photocopies of newspapers, and more are printed directly from pictures downloaded from the Internet, as well as various shocking tabloid headlines.

It says "TC Riordan's cheating", "The third woman in the Riordan family", "Riordan's illegitimate child", "Natalie's innocence is clear" and so on.

"What a pervert." Old Detective James Burress muttered to himself.

"It seems you were right. She really thought she was Natalie." Nick Stokes took a photo off the wall and handed it to Jack.

The photo was spliced ​​together, with half Natalie Riordan’s face and half Karen Chavala’s face, looking indescribably weird and terrifying.

There were more similar photos on the wall, some with half of Karen Chavala's face, others with a quarter, or even less, with just one eye left.

This is like a concrete interpretation of how Karen Chawla's self-awareness was eliminated bit by bit and was gradually taken over by another soul.

There are many things on the dressing table, and many of the toiletries and perfume bottles are marked with the abbreviation "NR", which is Natalie's initials, indicating that these were once belonging to Natalie.

Jack guessed that Karen had requested this from TC in the name of psychic.

"Well, is there a possibility that Karen is really scared by the feeling here." Sarah Seidel muttered softly.

Nick and the old detective looked at each other, feeling chills standing on end at what she said. None of them were talkative people, but the atmosphere here was really good.

"Dong-dong-dong-dong-dong."

The sudden knocking sound startled everyone present. Jack was the first to react and quickly walked out of the room, followed the sound, walked through the corridor, and came to the bedroom.

The banging sound came from behind a wardrobe in the bedroom.

"There's a door behind the cabinet."

Jack greeted everyone behind him loudly, and then stepped forward to move the wardrobe. Nick, who was following him, quickly followed up to help.

The closet was very high, and it just blocked the hidden closet door. Only a little bit of it was exposed, which was missed by the police who just entered the house to search.

The wardrobe was carefully moved away, and Sarah Seidel opened the small door. Behind the door was a small space with a small bed, and a little boy still wearing pajamas, rubbing his eyes sleepily and looking at everyone.

"Hi, little one, it's great. It's okay. It's okay. Are you okay?" Sarah looked surprised and gently hugged him into her arms.

"Hubble, we are the police, don't worry, everything will be fine."

She gently stroked the little boy's back and whispered some incoherent comfort to him.

Everyone, including Jack, breathed a sigh of relief. More than 10 hours had passed and everyone was preparing for the worst.

Just as the old detective mentioned before the golden three-hour rule for missing children, generally speaking, if a young child is missing for more than three hours, the chance of survival is infinitely close to zero.

Jack's hand subconsciously touched his trouser pocket and stopped because he saw Inspector James Brace's old face smiling like a blooming chrysanthemum. He had already taken out his mobile phone and was calling Russell.

"Russell, this is Bryce, we found Hubble, he's alive and well. Yes, it looks like he just slept, what a lucky kid, but we didn't find Karen."

Russell seemed to have said something on the other side of the phone, and the old detective looked up at everyone in shock.

"He said he found Karen."

——

Although Hubble was only a five-year-old boy, he was really cute and well-behaved. He didn’t cry or fuss along the way, and looked around curiously in Sarah Seidel’s arms.

The round blue eyes are clear and pure, with the innocence unique to human cubs that has not yet been exposed to the troubles of the world.

Jack teased him by taking out a lollipop that had slipped away from a certain police officer's desk before setting off, causing the little guy to giggle.

The police car sped along and soon appeared at the door of the luxury villa. Russell was waiting there early, accompanied by an anxious-looking TC Riordan.

"Daddy!" Hubble shouted through the car window when he saw his father.

Russell stepped forward and opened the car door. Sarah reluctantly put him down from the car. The little boy, with his short legs, threw himself into his father's arms without even taking two steps.

"Thank you, thank you." TC picked up his son and thanked him hurriedly, with tears in his eyes.

After shaking hands with everyone and thanking everyone, he took his children back to the villa first, while Russell led everyone along the path and around to the swimming pool behind the villa.

There is a female corpse floating in the swimming pool, and two CSIs whom Jack has never seen are salvaging it with tools next to the swimming pool.

The female corpse was face down and her face could not be seen clearly, but Jack knew who she was without having to guess.

"TC watched this scene when he got home. He was so frightened. It was like a nightmare reappearing." Russell's expression was a little speechless.

"She probably felt that she had to go to that world in order to truly integrate with Natalie?" Jack saw the wedding ring on the corpse's finger at a glance.

Half an hour later, Jack and Russell sat in the living room, and TC placed two cups of coffee on the coffee table in front of them.

"Thank you again for helping me find Hubble. I really can't imagine whether I would have the courage to survive in this world if I lost him again."

Jack took the coffee and moved his butt unaccustomedly. This was the first time he sat and chatted with the client after the case was over.

Just now, Russell told TC the entire case from beginning to end.

Jack considered his words for a long time before slowly speaking, "Mr. Riordan, I'm not used to communicating with the parties, or the families of the victims. Normally, this is the specialty of another colleague of mine.

If there is any offense in my words, please forgive me. "

TC waved his hand quickly. When Russell told the case just now, he gave most of the credit to Jack, which made him dare not underestimate the young and excessive FBI in front of him.

Jack continued, "I can understand some of your actions. After all, whether it is the death of your wife or Hubble's life experience, these are the privacy of your family. You have no obligation or responsibility to explain all this too much." .

But have you ever considered for Hubble how being an illegitimate child will affect his future growth?

And his mother's death. If you don't clarify the outside world, how will he look at you in the future? "

Seeing that TC was hesitant to speak, Jack made a gesture to tell him to calm down.

"I don't want to accuse anything, but judging from the results, Shelby Burress's death is inseparable from your previous negative attitude.

And if I guess correctly, you have developed a certain degree of drug dependence, right? "

Jack deliberately said it tactfully. In fact, the crystallized powder of the drug TC used is commonly known as "K" powder, which is highly addictive.

The well-dressed guy in front of him has been addicted to the mental anesthesia caused by drug addicts in the name of depression since his wife passed away.

Maybe the truth is really as he said, and he doesn't bother to explain to outsiders and expose his family privacy, but it is more likely that he no longer has this idea.

TC looked a little embarrassed, as if his privacy had been exposed. Maybe it wasn't because Jack had rescued his son not long ago, but he was already furious at this moment.

Jack didn't really come to persuade him to quit DU or anything. He didn't need to say these words at first. After all, if he said something carelessly, he might get bitten back.

In fact, he saw that the little boy Hubble was too cute before, so he took this opportunity to give him a small nod. No matter whether it had any effect or not, he was trying to get an idea. After all, if the other party listened to the advice, Woolen cloth?

After all, this world is still subtly different from the real world in his previous life. As we all know, in the world of American TV dramas, addicts quit as soon as they are told, and they become a good man after quitting.

However, Jack has no interest in verifying this, and he has not encountered any similar real-life cases yet.