Nilesh was confused. "Tsk, tsk. Did they copy each other's decorations?"

Tristan told Nilesh to check the information of the opposite apartment. Soon, they found out who had contacted the family recently. Since it was the vacation, the family barely went out, so they only contacted three people.

One was a pizza shop owner, one was a part-time worker, and the last one was their landlord.

Since the division was established in the busiest urban area, they rented an old office building and redecorated it.

As for why the superiors ordered them to solve the cases, it was mainly because there were so many unsolved cases in Norgular. Needless to say, there were more unsolved new cases.

To achieve the standard of the superiors, the bureau drafted in 23 people from all departments to form the homicide division.

When Tristan went back to the office, the officers had already taken two suspects to the interrogation room.

The part-time worker, Emma, was either crying or cowardly when she was interrogated.

Tristan learned from her that she used to clean Ben's apartment at nine o'clock every Friday.

Since the vacation was coming, Ben asked her to get the work done in advance. Therefore, Emma arrived there at 9:00 and left at 9:30. She didn't return there anymore.

After learning this basic information, Tristan asked the final question, "Have you looked at this one inquiry down, asked the last sentence, "Do you get along with the couple? Any unpleasant history?"

Emma immediately stuttered and shook her head. "No, no, I, uh, I'm just a cleaner."

Tristan remained silent, noticing how panicked she was. "You can go back first."

The second suspect was the owner of the pizza shop, Masod. The deceased Ben called for pizza at 7:34 p.m. last night. Since Masod had no more delivery man, he did it personally.

Tristan asked, "Are you familiar with the couple?"

Masod was calm, seeming helpless. "Well, I know them, if you ask. Their daughter likes to eat my pizza, so I accepted their orders and delivered the takeout several times at night."

Tristan asked him about the case, again and again, but the latter was so calm as if he didn't care whether the couple had died.

Finally, Masod lost his patience. "Officer, I got work to do in my shop. Can I leave now?"

Tristan could tell how impatient he was, so he said, "Thanks for your cooperation. You can leave now."

Tristan stayed in the inquiry room after Masod left. "Nilesh, where is our third suspect?"

Nilesh put her head in through the door, saying cautiously, "He's, uh, he's still in the massage parlor."

Tristan's face turned cold. "We have three suspects, and two of them have alibis. What do you think?"

"Well, what the cleaner and the pizza owner said match our investigation, and they have witnesses. I'd say they have big chances not to be the suspect. We don't know that for sure yet, of course." Nilesh wrung her fingers, staring at the side of Tristan's face. "That leaves us with the last suspect, the one who had time to commit the crime but didn't show up yet, Pavel Stone."

Tristan picked up a photo, reading in a faint tone, "Pavel Stone."

Nilesh enjoyed Tristan's face for a while before she shifted her gaze to the photo in his hand. Ben had a number "1" on his hand.

Something occurred to Nilesh all of a sudden. "Mr. Lewis, do you think the number has anything to do with Pavel Stone's name? You know, 'Stone' includes the number 'one'. Ben didn't have much time left after he got shot, so he wrote the number to lead us the clue to the murderer."

Tristan didn't echo but asked, "Any information about Pavel Stone? Also, what about the residents living in Unit 11?"

Nilesh immediately shouted toward the outside. "Ian, give us the information of the third suspect and the residents in Unit 11."

Ian was in another office, his hair messy, printing the documents. As the last page was printed, he went out of the office and read, "Here is the information. Pavel Stone, 23 years old, operates the Billiard Hall in College Street. The surveillance showed that he returned to the Realm at 11:00 last night and didn't leave until this morning. He has plenty of time to commit the crime. Also..."

Nilesh took the document and handed it to Tristan. "Go ahead."

Ian continued, "Our third suspect is also the resident living in the opposite apartment in Unit 11."

Tristan read the material. Pavel rented out the apartment in Unit 13 to Ben two years ago, while he lived in the opposite apartment in Unit 17. They were on the same floor.

Nilesh frowned, "Two apartments in one place? One for himself and one for renting? Leaving aside the fact that the apartments in this area are too expensive, it is unusual for anyone to buy two houses so close to each other in one place."

Ian showed them the floor plan of the Realm and added, "The two apartments are quite close. If people look out of the window in Pavel's bedroom, he can monitor everything the victims do in the living room."

Looking at the documents in Tristan's hands, Nilesh suddenly got excited, "Pavel has a criminal record! He was arrested for picking quarrels and provoking trouble three years ago and was detained for engaging in affray two years ago. Last year, a student reported his indecency, so our colleges also investigated him. He's definitely not a decent man!"

Tristan was still indifferent. "So, where is he now?"

Nilesh looked at Ian embarrassingly. "Yeah, where is he?"

Ian scratched his messy hair. "I'm afraid he is still in the massage parlor."

Tristan was angry. "For four hours? What kind of massage is he doing?"

Ian replied, "According to the staff member in the massage parlor, Pavel Stone has been perverse, saying that he was too afraid to come here, so he slept there. He also made it clear that he was naked when sleeping. So if anyone touched him, he would sue the person for harassment."

"That's shameless." Tristan sneered. "Are you sure you have no way to take him here?"

Nilesh hurried to explain, "As a new team, it's extenuating if we need some time to better our cooperation!"

"All the twenty-three people on this team are the elites transferred from all over the city. You are all experienced officials! Tell me again you don't know how to get your work done!" Tristan took out his phone, "Who's there to take him back?"

Nilesh replied, "It's Mr. Stein."

"Nick Stein?" Since Nilesh nodded, Tristan called him.

The man who led the team to look for Pavel was in his early forties, dressed in a tidy police training uniform. He didn't wear any police rank. The messy hair and beard-stubbled face made him look like he was in his sixties.

Right now, he was standing outside the informal massage parlor. The girls inside stood in a row tremblingly. As for the officials who had been here for more than two hours, they all stood outside a room.

Nick blinked his eyes when he got the call, stroking his hair and then telling the rest, "It's from Tristan!"

To be continued