Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 796: Chapter 40: Nothing Unusual About That

The police car stopped in front of an old building.

Of course, the two officers who drove here are no longer present. At this moment, they are on the second floor unit of the building, accompanied by several forensic personnel.

Undoubtedly, this is a murder case. Normally, the number of personnel at such a crime scene should be at least several times what it is now.

But clearly this time, there are more forensic personnel searching for evidence than there are officers maintaining order and looking for clues—with “maintaining order” being nothing more than setting up police tape downstairs, without anyone even guarding it.

The reason for this is not that the officers maintaining city order are slacking or neglecting their duties—although the city is notoriously known for its poor security, the reality is: not only did a major hostage crisis occur last night, but even the Senate Speaker was assassinated on his way home. Meanwhile, local Chief Jose was shot and killed by bandits in a theater, leaving the entire police system in chaos, with many officers reassigned elsewhere.

All sorts of reasons ultimately resulted in only two officers being dispatched to the scene.

“Mrs. Riley, please repeat, you’re the owner of this house, correct?” One officer was holding a voice recorder up to Mrs. Riley.

Mrs. Riley said, “Yes, this house was left to me by my husband, and there are currently four tenants.”

On the other side, the second officer was questioning Arno, the tenant of the unit where the murder occurred.

Of course, the questioning here needed to be much more thorough, the officer not only turned on the voice recorder but also noted down any clues he deemed important in a small notebook.

“Are you sure you don’t know the deceased?” the officer asked.

“I don’t know her, I have never seen this woman.” Arno shook his head.

The officer sneered, “You say you don’t know the deceased, then why did she appear in your apartment? We’ve checked your door, and there are no signs of forced entry. While it’s possible to climb in from outside given the low height, even if we assume this woman was a burglar… but the most valuable item in your room would still be that single air conditioner in the bedroom, right?”

“Officer, please, I really don’t know this woman, and I have no idea how she got into my place,” Arno said hastily. “I was at school all night and only left this morning… the guard can testify for me!”

“Have I even asked you that?” the officer sneered, “Why are you in such a hurry to explain?”

“I…” Arno swallowed, subconsciously adjusting his black-framed glasses, not daring to speak further.

From the outside, Arno didn’t look like one of those flashy, trendy college students, instead coming across as a bookish type.

Just then, the officer’s shoulder-mounted communicator buzzed.

After listening for a moment, he looked back at Arno and said, “Through the ID left by the deceased, we found her personal information. Guess who this woman is?”

Arno curiously asked, “Who is she?”

“She is named Livia, formerly a prostitute with a record of previous arrests, so she might still be in the same profession even now,” the officer stared into Arno’s eyes, suddenly asking, “Sir, do you have a habit of hiring prostitutes?”

Arno was taken aback, then responded quite agitatedly, “What do you mean by that? Are you suspecting me of murder? Mrs. Riley was present at the time, and we both saw someone escape from my house down the stairs, it was a woman!”

“Quiet!” the officer scoffed, “Just answer my questions, additional information isn’t needed! Tell me, do you have the habit of hiring prostitutes!”

Perhaps overwhelmed by the commanding officer, Arno’s face turned pale, and he hastily said, “No.”

At this moment, the other officer who was taking notes from Mrs. Riley came over, and the two started conversing in low voices.

Then the second officer squinted at Arno, “You say you don’t know the deceased? Then why did your landlady Mrs. Riley tell me she’s seen women coming out of your place several times?”

“Impossible!” Arno shook his head, “I really don’t know this woman…”

“Really?” the officer sneered, “In fact, it’s quite simple to prove if this woman has been here before. There are surveillance cameras on the nearby streets, we can investigate previous records. Also, there are many nearby shops, with so many people around, if this woman really visited multiple times, someone would definitely remember her… don’t you think so?”

Arno’s face slightly changed color at that moment.

“You’re lying!” the officer sternly shouted.

Arno’s face turned pale as he hesitated, “Officer… I did hide something, but could I talk to you alone?”

After exchanging looks, the two officers took Arno outside, “Alright, if you’re smart, you’ll know to tell us the truth!”

“Officer, I swear, I really don’t know this woman.” Arno swallowed before hesitatingly saying, “But I think… I might know why she was in my house.”

“You don’t know her? Yet you might know why?” The officer was furious, “Kid, are you messing with us?”

Arno waved his hands hurriedly, “No, no, please let me finish. I… I actually have a brother, he might know this woman?”

“Your brother?” Both officers’ brows instantly furrowed.

Arno sighed, “Yes, my brother… we’re twins. It’s true, you should be able to verify this in the records. My brother’s name is Harry…”

The officers quickly conducted an investigation, and with the information provided by Arno, Harry’s details were swiftly verified.

Looking at a simple profile of Harry on the phone and the ID photo sent from headquarters, the police compared it with what Arno looked like at the moment, then furrowed his brows: “They really are twins… Do you mean to say that this deceased person was brought back by your brother?”

“Perhaps, I’m just guessing,” Arno sighed and said, “I don’t have a good relationship with my brother. The last time he visited my house was two months ago. However, something strange happened then, which was that a spare key in my house went missing. At the time, I didn’t think much of it… but thinking back now, I’m afraid my brother secretly took it.”

The officer asked suspiciously, “Even if he took it, why would he bring this woman? And why did you and Mrs. Riley see another woman fleeing?”

Arno shook his head, “How would I know? I’ve told you, I just got back from school this morning, and I have no idea what happened here! But…”

“But what?” the officer pressed.

Arno frowned, “Hearing about the deceased’s identity reminded me of something from the past. Back when my parents were alive, the four of us were living together. My brother… Harry, even back then, liked to bring girls home to save the hourly hotel room fee. And since the deceased happens to be a ***, I have reason to believe Harry secretly brought her home to do those things while I wasn’t home…”

The officer snorted coldly, “If you had such an important clue, why didn’t you say it from the start? Why wait until we found out you were lying to reveal the truth?”

Arno seemed cornered, clutching his hair in pain, squatting on the ground.

“Because… because I don’t want anyone to know I have such a brother. Officers, you found his records, so you must know what kind of scumbag Harry is, right? Theft, drug use, fighting, injuring people, illegal racing, jail… I’m sure his file is as thick as a dictionary! But as for me? I’ve worked hard since I was young, excelled academically, and later got into a prestigious university. In the eyes of others, I’m someone with a promising future… I don’t want people to know I have a twin brother like this…”

Unable to control his inner emotions, Arno suddenly lifted his head, roaring, “Can you imagine that feeling? Having someone in this world who looks exactly like you but does every conceivable evil thing! Every day, I don’t know how many people hate this face behind my back! Every day, I don’t know how many are looking for this face to take revenge! Can you… can you understand that fear, the hatred in my heart?!”

“Recently, because of my good grades, the department awarded me an additional scholarship, and my mentor recommended me to an excellent internship company…” Arno took off his glasses, covering his eyes with a hint of sobbing, “If… if others find out that Harry is my brother and that he might be related to a murder case, then all my efforts… all of it, would be…”

Sobbing silently, the young man, barely in his twenties, squatted before the two officers.

The officer who initially questioned Arno shook his head, pulled out a pack of tissues, and patted Arno’s shoulder, “Alright, regarding what you’ve told us, we’ll verify it carefully when we get back. Of course, the fact that you didn’t cooperate with us initially is also true… but let’s forget about it for now, we won’t pursue it further.”

“So, do you know where your brother… I mean Harry, where he might be? Or how we could find him?” Another officer asked.

Arno wiped his eyes, put his glasses back on, and shook his head, “I don’t know where he is. It’s always been him contacting me. Even if I tried to avoid him, he always managed to find me. Honestly, someone like him can stay anywhere, today at this woman’s house, tomorrow at another’s, perhaps the day after at a casino, and who knows, the day after that in jail.”

The officer took notes and continued to ask, “When was the last time he came looking for you? You mentioned two months ago, do you remember the exact time? Did he say anything to you then? Mention anyone?”

“It should be in late October, around the 25th or 26th,” Arno frowned tightly, “I don’t quite remember what he said. Back then I didn’t want to talk to this guy at all, just perfunctorily responding to him.”

“Anything else? Try to think carefully, anything you could remember,” the officer pursued.

Arno rubbed his forehead, then hesitated, “Oh right, he did mention planning to get some money in a few days and said he’d buy me a big house.”

Arno shook his head, sneering, “What money could someone like that have? Even if he had some, it’d probably be from heavens-know-where or obtained somehow illegally. This kind of money, I don’t want any part of it!”

The two officers continued to ask Arno several more things, telling him to keep in contact and be reachable at any time, finally driving off when it was close to evening.

Mrs. Riley, unsure of what the officers said to Arno after taking him away, asked concernedly, “Arno, are you okay? They didn’t do anything to you, right? You mustn’t remain silent, if they bullied you, I’m going to report them! These loafers, always picking on us!”

“No, no, they just asked me some details.” Arno shook his head, comforting her: “They were polite to me, just curious about how the deceased got inside.”

“Yes, how did those two women get in? It is weird, isn’t it?” Mrs. Riley looked at Arno strangely, “You… you really don’t know?”

Arno smiled wryly, “If I knew, I wouldn’t have such a headache… Now they’ve sealed off the scene, I don’t even know where to stay tonight.”

Mrs. Riley nodded, suddenly said, “What a pity, my house had a sewage pipe split today, smelling terrible! Otherwise, you could definitely stay for a few nights… why not stay outside temporarily? Don’t worry, I can reimburse you.”

“No need, I’ll go back to school, there’s a place to rest there.” Arno, stepping back a bit from Mrs. Riley, said nothing more, lowering his head: “I’ll… I’ll just go back to school first.”

“Alright then, take care of yourself.” Mrs. Riley nodded, not holding him back.

…

“Sir, do we really believe what this kid said?”

Inside the departing police car, the conversation between the two officers started.

“It’s not about believing or not,” the questioned officer casually replied, “We’ll stop by the university to ask around, then check Harry’s detailed records. Also, the deceased’s phone is still on, we’ll unlock it back at the station to look at the last communication logs… plus, we’ll have forensics give us the results soon, then we’ll just follow the procedures.”

“Alright.”

His partner didn’t say much more, as there was chaos within the system, several factions already making moves, all aiming to seize the vacant position left by Chief Jose’s death.

Then, the officer questioned earlier suddenly said, “Do they exist?”

“What?”

“Such brothers. One’s a bad apple, and the other’s a future societal elite.”

“Plenty.” He responded nonchalantly.