Los Angeles Legendary Sleuth

As they say, no one knows a child better than their mother. Since Tom had always lived with his mother, she should have been one of the people who knew him best.

Since Tom's mother stated he was cheerful and unlikely to have suicidal tendencies, the possibility of Tom's suicide significantly decreased.

Assuming Tom did not commit suicide, that would prove he was unaware of the poison in the bottle of mineral water.

It's very likely he wasn't the actual Poisoner, considering the forty US Dollars found in his pocket.

Luke boldly speculated that the real Poisoner, to avoid being caught by the subway station's surveillance, hired Tom to place the box of mineral water at the station, and that forty US Dollars was the payment he received for it.

After placing the box of mineral water, Tom took a bottle home to drink and died from poisoning.

According to Mario's statement, there were eight bottles of mineral water in the box when he took some, plus the one Tom took, there should have been at least nine bottles of mineral water.

However, the police have only accounted for eight bottles: one taken by Tom, two by Mario, three by a homeless person, leaving two bottles remaining in the box.

This means at least one more bottle of suspected poisoned mineral water was taken by someone.

Or possibly four...

7:00 PM.

Robbery and Murder Department meeting room.

Susan convened a meeting of the group.

Susan placed a document on the projector, her expression grave, "According to the forensic doctor, all three victims died from cyanide poisoning.

Based on the time of death, the first victim was a homeless person in the subway station, without an ID, and his true identity is currently unknown.

The death times of construction worker Adams and young Tom were very close, both approximately at ten o'clock in the morning.

All three victims died within a very short time after ingesting cyanide. Construction worker Adams fell from a roof and had some abrasions but no signs of being tied up or tortured.

No obvious injuries were found on Mario and Tom's bodies, suggesting that they likely drank the cyanide-containing mineral water voluntarily."

Susan presented another document, saying, "The technical team surveyed the crime scenes of the three victims and the location where the bottles of mineral water were placed.

Only Tom's fingerprints were found on the mineral water box; no fingerprints of the suspected Poisoner were found on the bottles.

The Poisoner is very cunning."

Jackson twirled his pen and asked, "Could the Poisoner be that young man, Tom?"

Luke said, "I spoke with Tom's mother, and according to her, Tom was mentally normal, had no suicidal tendencies, and had no reason to seek revenge on society. I lean more towards him being merely employed by the real Poisoner and exploited by them.

If Tom hadn't died, we could have possibly obtained clues to the real Poisoner from his testimony, but now that Tom is dead, this lead is difficult to pursue further."

The assistant chief said, "Since we can't find any leads on the Poisoner, let's analyze the motive.

From the existing evidence, the killer's motive could likely be one of two: the first is revenge on society, killing randomly.

If that's the case, the investigation will be even more challenging.

The second scenario is a vendetta.

The killer's real target was just one person, and the large-scale placement of poisoned mineral water was merely to conceal the real intention of the crime.

Take, for instance, the homeless victim in the subway station. There are two types of homeless people: those with identities who can collect social benefits and actually live decently.

The other type are those without identities, and their survival is the most difficult.

The homeless man who was poisoned to death belongs to the second category. We interviewed homeless people in the area, and he rarely communicated with others. All we know is that his name was Henry, but we don't know where he came from or anything about his past.

Now that he's dead, even finding someone to identify the body is impossible.

Assuming someone wanted to kill Henry but didn't want the police to trace it back to them, placing poisoned mineral water at a place he frequented would be a clever idea.

If Henry drank the mineral water containing lethal poison, it would be difficult for anyone to suspect that it was a murder targeting him."

"This is a good thought; let's start by investigating the relationships around the three victims," Susan nodded and continued, "Additionally, according to Mario's statement, at least one more bottle of suspected poisoned mineral water was taken by someone.

Luke, you are responsible for finding this bottle's whereabouts as soon as possible."

"Yes, Captain."

…

Evening.

Luke returned home, took a shower, and suddenly felt rejuvenated.

He couldn't help but think about the case from today.

This poisoning case was proving quite challenging for Luke, different from the cases he had investigated before.

The poisoning case seemed more like random acts; the three victims had no direct connection besides the box of mineral water.

And the source of that box of mineral water was a broken lead.

Previous cases had been traceable, with clear motives, investigative directions, and clues.

But this case was different; the police still weren't clear about the suspect's motive, couldn't find connections among the three victims, and didn't even have a concrete suspect in mind.

It was all a fog.

Luke thought about the two Profile Cards he still had and subconsciously used one to quickly learn profiling skills.

Profilers, through analyzing the methods of the crime, scene arrangements, and criminal characteristics, sketch the criminal's mindset, thereby making further predictions about their race, gender...