At a Loss

The rooftop.

This time, the police officers indeed collected some useful clues.

A set of footprints and dozens of fingerprints.

Besides these, there were also some cigarette butts.

However, these cigarette butts looked rather old, not like they had been discarded there in the past couple of days, so the officers simply ignored them.

They only collected the fingerprints and footprints.

"Take these back for analysis," Han Fei instructed the officers. "Get the surveillance footage from property management, transport the body quickly, and clean up all the blood stains on the ground."

After collecting all usable evidence from the scene, removing the body, and cleaning up, Han Fei led the officers to swiftly evacuate the scene.

This was mainly because they were in a busy district with too many people, and even a suicide could have negative impacts.

After all, a body from a fall is quite horrifying, especially for ordinary people who have never witnessed such scenes.

The man who Han Fei had just questioned, who had witnessed the entire jumping process, was severely frightened. He probably developed psychological trauma and might need to see a therapist.

Back at the police station.

The officers began their investigation.

The newly discovered victim was named Yang Meng, twenty-one years old, an internet streamer, and a local of Ram City.

Through their investigation, the police learned that Yang Meng had recently undergone cosmetic surgery, but it had failed.

According to Yang Meng's friends, she had been deeply troubled by this incident and had locked herself in her room, afraid to go out.

At first analysis, she likely chose to end her life by jumping off the building because she couldn't accept the failed cosmetic surgery.

Comparing the fingerprints and footprints collected at the scene.

The police found that none of the fingerprints on the rooftop railings were recorded in the police database.

Among these fingerprints, the only one they could identify belonged to Yang Meng herself.

The footprints were even more complicated.

There were all kinds.

High heels, sneakers, leather shoes...

Based on the size of the footprints and friction analysis, these footprints belonged to both men and women, tall and short people.

Even if the killer's footprints were among them, they couldn't investigate further - it was impossible to compare, simply too mixed up, covering people with almost every characteristic.

As for the surveillance footage they brought back, it was similar to the previous two cases.

For a long period before and after the victim went to the rooftop, the surveillance cameras didn't record anyone going up or down.

Moreover, the surveillance system hadn't been tampered with.

From a normal perspective, this would be considered a suicide...

But the officers now didn't believe this was suicide - the circumstances were too suspicious!

Han Fei organized the information, printed it out, and posted it on the whiteboard they had used before.

"Third victim, Yang Meng, female, twenty-one years old, occupation: streamer, also from Ram City, possibly committed suicide due to inability to accept failed cosmetic surgery."

At this point, the whiteboard displayed information about three victims.

The crucial problem was that the police could hardly find any connections or commonalities between these three victims.

The first victim, Zhu Xingde, thirty-five years old, financial company executive, unmarried, Ram City local, suspected suicide due to stock market losses.

The second victim, Lu Yu, eighteen years old, freshman at University of Technology, majoring in Hotel Management, from out of town, specifically from Su City, suspected suicide due to relationship problems.

First, regarding gender, two males and one female - no commonality between the three.

Second, age: thirty-five, eighteen, and twenty-one years old - again, no commonality between them.

As for identity and occupation, they were completely different: one corporate executive, one student, and one internet streamer.

The suicide motives were also varied.

The key point was that at first glance, everything seemed normal - people indeed might commit suicide for these reasons.

Moreover, through investigation, the police found that the three had absolutely no prior connection.

These three victims were completely unrelated to each other.

Why would the killer target these three?

Even more puzzling was how the killer committed the murders.

How did they manage to avoid the surveillance cameras while killing?

Looking at the three victims' information on the whiteboard, all officers were at a loss.

Even the experienced Han Fei couldn't make sense of it.

If anything, the only commonality between the three was that they were all relatively well-off financially, a point that Xu Mo had previously raised.

Han Fei picked up the whiteboard marker and wrote three questions in the blank space:

One: What commonalities exist between the three victims?

Two: Why did the killer target these three people?

Three: What was the killer's method?

After writing, Han Fei looked at everyone.

"These are the three questions we need to clarify now. Does anyone have any additional questions?"

Everyone shook their heads, indicating they had none.

"Alright, then let's discuss these three questions first, and if we think of others, we'll add them," Han Fei said.

Wang Dachuan pointed to the second question.

"Xu Mo mentioned this before - the killer might hate the wealthy. Looking at it now, this hypothesis might still stand, as the third victim was an internet streamer with considerable income."

After hearing this, Han Fei wrote "hatred of the wealthy?" after the first question.

At the same time, he wrote "good financial status" next to the second question, in the section about commonalities between the three.

Li Chen pointed to the third question.

"Is it possible that the killer went to the rooftop long before, waited there for the victim, pushed them off after they arrived, and then left much later? Because of the long time interval, and since we didn't check the surveillance footage that far back, we might have missed them going up to the rooftop before the victim."

As soon as he finished speaking, Han Fei shook his head.

"Impossible."

Then, Han Fei explained.

"There were only a few hours between the deaths of the first and second victims. If they had used the strategy of hiding on the rooftop to avoid surveillance, there wouldn't have been enough time to kill the second person after killing the first."

"Could it be a group operation, with multiple killers?" Li Chen added.

Han Fei pondered for a moment.

"That could make sense, but... how do you explain the third victim? We arrived at the scene of the third suicide immediately, less than half an hour after the victim's death, but we found no one else on the rooftop. The killer couldn't have used the hiding strategy, or we would have seen them when we went up."

This was precisely the most perplexing aspect of the case.

How exactly did the killer manage to avoid surveillance while committing the murders?