at the same time.
Moody stood in the forensic department of the New York Police Department, watching the police officers who surrounded him enter in two rows with their hands hanging down at their sides, each of them silent.
"I want to see her."
His voice was grainy and hoarse, as if he hadn't slept or spoken for a day and a night, and hadn't even drunk a sip of water.
The forensic doctor walked to the row of freezers where the evidence was stored, opened one of them, and saw a sleeping woman lying inside.
The woman was still wearing her prison uniform, her hair was neatly combed, and if it weren't for the black blood stains at the corners of her lips and the edges of her hair...she would have looked as if she was asleep.
The man in a neat suit stumbled closer and saw the haunting face appear in front of him, so quiet, so...dead.
Moody was instantly overwhelmed by the flood-like pain. He half-knelt in front of the freezer and grabbed the woman's hand. The cold touch chilled his heart.
"Elena."
"Lina."
He leaned over and rubbed his handsome face against the lifeless back of the woman's hand gently, like a lover's whisper.
"I'm back."
"Look at me."
"It is my fault."
"I shouldn't have left you here alone."
The man tried hard to raise the corners of his mouth and fell into a dream: "Look at you, your hands are so cold, you must be too cold that you don't want to talk to me, right?"
The medical examiner could not help but say, "Mr. Moody, please accept my condolences."
The forensic doctor's words triggered an unknown mechanism. The man who had just been indulging in tenderness lost his gentleness and looked at him with sharp brown eyes.
The chill of gravel blowing in my face.
"My condolences? What condolences?"
He stood up, his face as grim as a devil crawling out of hell, staring at everyone present.
Pointing at the woman who had already stopped breathing and was frozen to the ground, he said, "She's not dead!"
"She was just angry with me and didn't want to talk."
"She's asleep."
Everyone was silent.
No one dared to disturb him.
Moody's facial nerves spasmed and the corners of his mouth twitched. He once again looked at the forensic doctor who had just spoken, and looked at him as if he were a dead man.
"You said she was dead, so tell me, who did it?"
"I… "
The forensic doctor was stunned.
The man pulled out a machine from the waist of his suit, and there was a crisp sound of loading. The black hole was aimed at his eyes.
"tell me."
“Who did it!”
The forensic doctor's legs went weak and he almost fell to the ground. Facing the threat of life and death, he did not show the fearless bravery and calmness of a forensic professional. Instead, his face turned pale, and he opened his mouth and said, "Yes, there is a suspect, but... we have no evidence."
"Who?" Moody pointed the gun at him expressionlessly.
The medical examiner whispered, "Someone from country Z saw her, and she died after they arrived. I dare not perform an autopsy without the family's consent, so I cannot get the exact time of death...but they were the first to discover her."
Moody slowly lowered the gun and looked down at the lifeless woman lying there. His calmness revealed a desperate madness: "You said... Qiao Nian."
The forensic doctor was stunned for a moment, then reacted: "Yes, her name is this. In addition to her, there are several other people..."
Moody was completely deaf to the sound.
The last thing he heard was the words 'Yes, that's her name'.
He clenched his fingers tightly, and the raised lumps on the edge of the machine made his palms red, but none of this could bring him back to his senses.