Eye of Sin

Chapter 4 Black hole

These two individuals walked to the entrance of the cinema without haste. The deceased's friend said something to her, and the deceased stopped next to a trash can. She took out the items from the small shopping bags she had been carrying and stuffed them into her own bag. She then balled up the shopping bags and tossed them into the trash can before clutching her phone and entering the private cinema with her friend.

Her friend had a small bag slung over her shoulder, seemingly only large enough to hold a phone and keys, and she was carrying a bucket of popcorn in her arms. Clearly, the bucket of popcorn was not purchased by the two of them at the cinema; it had been bought beforehand and brought along.

Jiajia furrowed her brow. When she was watching the surveillance footage inside the screening room earlier, the deceased's friend had handed her the popcorn bucket as soon as they entered, but she hurriedly left before the movie was halfway through, never touching it herself. Only the deceased had eaten from it.

A young woman in her twenties, seemingly normal before the movie, showed no signs of discomfort or weakness. In fact, from the surveillance footage before and after they entered the cinema, the deceased appeared not only comfortable but also unusually excited. She gestured animatedly as she talked to her friend.

A horror movie, a friend leaving hastily halfway through, a bucket of popcorn only eaten by the deceased, and a sudden death from heart failure shortly after the friend's departure...

All these separate pieces of information gave Jiajia a sense of foreboding.

The surveillance from other areas of the mall was beyond the jurisdiction of the private cinema. Jiajia copied the footage from here and informed Zhao Dabao, who stayed behind to continue handling other matters, before making her way to the mall security room again and attempting to contact the deceased's family or friends.

This time, Howard didn't need anyone to assign him; he followed Jiajia of his own accord.

On her way to the mall security room, Jiajia finally managed to contact the "aunt" listed in the deceased's contacts. She had expected the person to be a relative of the deceased, but to her surprise, the voice on the other end sounded quite young.

Upon realizing it was a call from the police, the person on the other end was startled and hurriedly explained to Jiajia that she was actually just a close friend of the deceased from the internet. The deceased had jokingly saved her as "aunt" in her contacts because the deceased was preparing for postgraduate exams.

Jiajia couldn't help but find the deceased's behavior before her death somewhat amusing.

Fortunately, among the other numbers she had saved, there was indeed one person who had some family relationship with the deceased. She obtained the contact information of the deceased's father and successfully contacted him.

Throughout the journey, Jiajia was busy making phone calls while being slightly bewildered by the friend labeled as "aunt." She was focused on contacting the family and didn't pay much attention to anything else. She vaguely noticed that Howard seemed to step away for a moment, but each time they moved on, he silently gestured her in the right direction.

When she finally finished communicating with the deceased's father and hung up the phone, she realized they had arrived at the entrance of the security room.

"When did you find out?" Jiajia asked, somewhat surprised. Although her attention had been on the phone calls, she still had some impression of the journey. They had taken several turns and gone from building A to building B, then taken the elevator upstairs. The location of the security room was not particularly easy to find.

"I passed by a service desk in the middle, and the person there told me," Howard replied.

Jiajia gave him a thumbs-up, to which Howard offered no response, but she didn't find it strange.

Before, when she had slapped her thigh to get this "g*n god" to help improve her physical fitness, she had already noticed that this person, while not difficult to get along with, was definitely not an easy person to deal with either.

He was different from another notorious figure in the detective team, Ji Yuan, who exuded a strong aura that made people want to keep their distance, avoiding any unnecessary interactions with him to prevent any discomfort.

Howard wasn't like that.

He was like a black hole, where emotions transmitted to him were all swallowed up, leaving no response behind. He always maintained an indifferent demeanor, seemingly devoid of any fluctuating emotions, like still water.

He could engage in conversation with others, but it didn't make him any more familiar.

It could be said that he was deeply self-contained, transforming himself into a dense fog that obscured any view of his true self.

However, Jiajia didn't mind. Everyone had the freedom to choose how they lived their lives, as long as they didn't harm others or violate laws and morals, she didn't feel the need to interfere.

Arriving at the security room, she presented her work ID and explained their purpose. The on-duty security guard promptly retrieved the surveillance footage from several major entrances of the mall for them to review.

The footage from the elevator area was already crowded and chaotic, and now, with the location switched to the main entrance of the mall, it was even more crowded. People streamed in and out, making it necessary to focus intensely and carefully scan the footage.

There was nothing on the footage from the first entrance, and the same was true for the second entrance. When they reached the footage from the third entrance, Jiajia noticed that this entrance seemed to be the busiest, with a particularly large number of people.

At that moment, Howard gestured to the security guard to pause the footage, and then pointed out the exact moment the deceased had entered from outside. He almost instantly captured her presence as soon as she appeared.

The security guard was somewhat surprised and looked at him, praising, "Bro, you've got some eagle eyes!"

Well, of course he did. As a former elite sniper, sharp eyesight was probably one of the most basic skills in Howard's arsenal!

Jiajia quietly muttered to herself in her mind, her focus still on the footage of the deceased.

The following segment of the video resumed at normal speed. It showed the deceased entering the mall without carrying anything in her hands, just her bag slung over her shoulder. On the other hand, the girl with her already had a bucket of popcorn in her arms.

They entered the mall nearly an hour before the movie started, and the deceased seemed to be in the same high spirits as she was in the theater surveillance footage. She appeared cheerful and even slightly excited.

After switching between several surveillance positions, the path the two took inside the mall became clearer. It was evident that the deceased was in good spirits, not rushing straight to the cinema. They stopped and shopped along the way, buying various items.

The girl with her, however, occasionally glanced at the time and seemed to urge them to move along.