American forensics, but the gourmet system

In the warm hotel suite, Aina sat on the carpet, typing away on her laptop keyboard.

Russell paced back and forth in front of the French windows, fiddling with a triangular nail in his hand.

The mechanic found it inside the Cybertruck's left front tire.

Russell borrowed some super glue from the repairman and, using what he had on hand, made a simple fingerprint imaging device.

However, the guy who scattered the three-pronged nails on the road was very alert, and Russell was unable to find any fingerprints on the nails.

"...The two most suspicious people are the funeral home manager, Fitcher, and the hearse driver, Andy..." Russell muttered to himself as he paced back and forth. "Or maybe they were in cahoots with Simmons... Fitcher reported our whereabouts to Andy, and Andy scattered this stuff on our route as a warning to stay out of our way..."

"Fitch can be ruled out." Aina stopped typing and turned the computer screen toward Russell. "According to the funeral home's surveillance video, from the time we entered the funeral home until the time we had the flat tire, Fitch was sitting in his duty room reading gossip magazines. He didn't even touch his phone."

"Then it can only be Andy, the hearse driver." Russell walked over and sat down next to Aina, asking, "Did you get your hands on the funeral home's security camera footage?"

"I secretly left a backdoor in the computer in the monitoring room," Aina said with a mischievous smile. "But I swear, I never expected to need it so soon..."

"I didn't expect anyone to be so sensitive," Russell said, taking a deep breath. "There's no way anyone could know our real purpose in going to the funeral home, but that guy still attacked us... Can you get the CCTV footage from the intersection leading to the farm, Aina? We can check the footage from that period and find out who was warning us."

  

Aina turned the laptop back towards herself and scratched the tip of her nose:

"Not too easy, but not too difficult either... I need to hack into the Ulster County municipal office system first, and then..."

Aina started operating the machine rapidly.

"Aina".

Russell suddenly called her name.

"Um?"

Aina didn't even look up, continuing to concentrate on operating the computer.

Russell hesitated for a moment, then spoke:

"Actually... you didn't have to take this risk with me."

"Yes, it's obvious."

Aina continued typing rapidly on the keyboard, bringing up an interface on the computer that Russell had never seen before.

"What I mean is—"

"I understand what you mean." Aina stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Russell. "You don't need to advise me to stay away from danger or say anything like that... You should know my personality; I'm actually a stubborn person."

Russell blinked but didn't say anything more.

Aina smiled at him and looked back at the computer screen:

"By the way, I also want to send that guy to the execution chamber... Our goals are very much in sync."

Russell shrugged, which was an admission of Aina's opinion.

"Alright." Aina clapped her hands, and a video appeared on the computer screen, showing the entrance to the road leading to the farm. "Hacking into the municipal management system seems a bit easier than I thought..."

Aina dragged the progress bar of the surveillance video with the mouse, and finally, Russell saw a black van in the picture.

Russell and Aina had both seen the van; it was the van that transported Simmons' body to the hospital's autopsy room on the night it was discovered.

Amidst the swirling snow, the van turned onto the only road leading to the farm and disappeared from the surveillance footage a few seconds later.

"We've only just arrived at the funeral home at this hour..." Russell said in a low voice. "It seems he's been following us for longer than we thought... We've probably been watched by this guy ever since we left the coroner's office."

"The tire tracks on the road were left by him," Aina recalled. "When we passed by, the tire tracks he left were almost covered by snow. But... we don't think we saw any tracks he left on his return."

Russell took out his phone and opened the map.

"There's a fork in the road here," Russell said, swiping through the map. "It's about a mile past where we had the flat tire..."

"Oh, right." Aina patted her forehead. "There's a fork in the road that leads back to Kingston by winding around the hills along the Hudson River. Many tourists drive there for sightseeing."

"That's right," Russell nodded. "Andy realized that our investigation might put him in danger, perhaps even involved in Simmons' murder, so he decided to give us two clueless outsiders a warning..."

Aina picked up the conversation and said:

"Andy must have thought about killing us both, but the deaths of two forensic doctors in succession were too suspicious and might attract a more intense investigation... So he scattered three-pronged nails in the snow as a warning, hoping that we would back down."

Russell gave a dismissive laugh:

"In this light, his biggest mistake was trying to intimidate us... He made our job much easier. What was supposed to be a very difficult problem was solved. Now, all we have to do is prove that Andy, Simmons, and Fabian are in cahoots."

"A proof problem... that's a bit difficult, isn't it?" Aina turned to Russell. "Or do you have a special solution?"

"I want to find Jennifer's body directly," Russell said, making a startling statement. "If the three of them have connected every link in some dark chain of interests, then Jennifer and Rachel are definitely not the first victims... We might be able to use Jennifer's body as a breakthrough, follow the clues, and find more victims."

"Find the body? How?"

Aina asked the crucial question.

"Hmm... good question." Russell picked up his phone from the coffee table. "Since a raccoon found Jennifer's body, we shouldn't be weaker than raccoons... but before proving we're stronger than raccoons, I need to consult a professional."

……

Weatherby Clarkson was in his backyard watching his playful beagle, Kaka, roll around in the snow.

Little Ka's big ears were covered in snowflakes. It shook its head vigorously and then excitedly jumped into the soft snowdrift.

Suddenly, Clarkson's phone rang.

"It's so late..." Clarkson complained, turned around and walked into the living room, picking up his phone from the sofa.

"Good evening, Dr. Russell... Have you returned to Brooklyn?"

"Not yet? Could it be another one—that skeleton is a female raccoon, I'm 100% sure… You want to know the range of a raccoon's hunting activities? When did you become interested in animal behavior, Dr. Russell?"