Chapter 24 - 9 [Case Details]

The police station in White Beach Town was located in an old grey building, with weathered walls covered with the marks of time. The entrance to the station was inconspicuous, and a faded police badge hung above the porch of the building, long since losing its former glory from exposure to the elements. Behind the door, a dimly-lit and narrow corridor stretched out, with peeling paint on the walls revealing the yellowed plaster underneath. At the end of the corridor was a row of iron bars, with a sign hanging on the door that read "Detention Room," although the words were barely legible. This was the worst part of the station, where a small space of seven or eight square meters often held over a dozen people, like a group of desperate beasts crammed into the same cage. A heavy thud of footsteps broke the silence, the sound of leather shoes clashing against the floor echoed through the empty corridor, finally stopping outside the iron bars of the detention room. Chief Constable Conges' tall figure appeared in front of the bars, his cold gaze sweeping inside the detention room. He lightly tapped his baton against the iron bars, producing a "clang clang" sound, a silent threat that sent a chill down one's spine. "Someone come out." The iron bars opened, the baton pointed randomly, and Conges yanked out a gang member and dragged him in front of a computer. The screen was playing surveillance footage from the "Scorpion" Tavern. Pointing to a blurred figure in the footage, Conges harshly questioned, "Before the shootout ended, there was a tall and fat guy crawling toward the corpses in the opposite direction. Who is he?" The gang member squinted, staring intently at the screen. After a few seconds, his face suddenly turned ashen, and he cursed through gritted teeth: "Damn it, that's Toto! That high school kid, Lomi's brother! We all ignored him. Turns out that bastard took the lottery ticket!" The case was solved just like that. The pulled-out gang member confessed everything willingly. Maxim had won a super jackpot, but was stabbed to death by the other gang leader, Tochi; before dying, Maxim shot Tochi in the head; And Toto, this seemingly irrelevant high schooler, surprisingly took the lottery ticket amid the chaos... "Boss, what do we do now?" the partner asked excitedly, eyes gleaming. "Whatever we do, first find Toto." Conges pursed his lips, "A lottery ticket worth over twenty-two billion US dollars; I ought to get my hands on it at least." The two tacitly kept this information from their colleagues and quickly tracked down Toto's home address, driving there immediately. But as they got out of the car, they faced an unexpected turn of events. Toto's grandmother sat in front of her house, holding a double-barreled shotgun in her arms, covered in blood, her face ashen and gaunt. Her eyes were empty, devoid of life. Conges immediately raised his gun and shouted harshly, "Damn it, what happened here?" The old woman looked up, her scattered gaze falling on Conges, thinking the neighbors had called the police. She shrugged, saying calmly, "I blew off my son's head. He's a junkie, a lazy bum, a loafer always demanding money from me. I couldn't stand it anymore, I wanted to fire a warning shot over his head to scare him. But I'm old, my hand shook, and the bullet hit him, blowing his head off." With that, she turned the shotgun's muzzle into her mouth, took off her shoes, and used her toe to pull the trigger. Though the motion was slow, it was without hesitation. Conges and his partner shouted desperately, "No, stop! We still have questions to ask you!" The gunshot rendered their shouts futile. The old woman's head was blown to bits, blood and brain matter splattering everywhere, her lifeless body collapsing at the doorstep with a dull "thud." "Damn it! Why do I have to deal with such crap every day?" Conges couldn't help but roar in anger. His partner cursed as well, kicking a stone on the ground, frustrated by the sudden tragedy. Despite their cursing, Conges and his partner soon realized a graver issue—Toto was missing. With his father and grandmother both dead, where was he? They exchanged a glance, simultaneously struck by a sense of foreboding. They rushed into the house, meticulously searching every corner. The scene in the kitchen was chilling, akin to a slaughterhouse. The walls, floor, and even the ceiling were splattered with brain matter and bone fragments, the air thick with the nauseating smell of blood. Toto's father lay dead beside the sink, his mangled head blown to bits, blood flowing down the sink into the drain with a rhythmic "drip drip." However, apart from the two bodies, there was no one else. Toto, the high school kid, seemed to have disappeared without a trace. "Where the hell did he go?" Conges muttered a curse under his breath, anxiety creeping in. A thought flashed through his mind: "Could he have run off with the lottery ticket?" A lottery ticket worth twenty-two billion US dollars would drive anyone to madness. Conges and his partner exchanged another glance, once again tacitly jumping into the police car and speeding towards the "Scorpion" Tavern. When they arrived at the "Scorpion" Tavern, the sight that greeted them confirmed their worst fears. In front of the tavern, a third body lay sprawled on the ground—Raul had been strangled to death, his body stretched out with his neck twisted at an odd angle upward. He had struggled fiercely before death, his eyes bulging, his hands twisted like claws, still trying to grasp at something in his final moments. "Damn it, this guy was alive two hours ago," Conges muttered under his breath, feeling increasingly uneasy.