As soon as Jiang An’s words fell, Wan and Qin Feng both simultaneously contracted their pupils, immediately capturing the crisis signal hidden in the captain’s words.

They exchanged a glance, a look filled with absolute understanding cultivated through years of partnership, and in the next second, they spoke in unison, "Captain, do you mean the killer’s next target is him?"

Jiang An lightly tapped his fingers on the table, the edges of the spread-out case files on the tabletop were already wrinkled from being repeatedly perused.

He nodded slowly, his brows furrowed into a deep trench, "That’s right."

"The trickiest part of this case is that the motive has always been shrouded in mystery."

"Earlier, we thoroughly investigated the social relationships of those two adult victims—interviewed their colleagues, neighbors, even relatives far away, and dug out old accounts from a decade ago, but we couldn’t find a single clue linking to the murder."

"Until just now when I was organizing the materials, I suddenly thought of his eldest daughter’s issue, which might be the key to unraveling the motive mystery."

Seeing that Wan and Qin Feng still carried confusion on their faces, Jiang An reached out to pull the crime scene photos on the table in front of the two, pointing his finger at a picture of the female victim.

"When I took you to visit in the morning, I went through these photos again and discovered a detail we previously overlooked."

"Look at where the eldest daughter is—on the bed, covered in a thick layer of clothes, almost wrapping her body completely."

"Initially, I thought those clothes were used as accelerants, but then it occurred to me that if it were for burning the body, there was no need for the killer to differentiate. The male victim in the living room didn’t have such a large amount of foreign objects covering him."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the two, "Comparing the handling of the two victims, I judged that the killer showed a clear bias in the postmortem treatment, and behind this bias lies a guilty conscience in his subconscious."

"A guilty conscience?"

Wan subconsciously swallowed, his voice tinged with disbelief.

"Captain, this killer is ruthless enough to burn bodies, how could there be a guilty conscience? You’d think he should be cold-blooded to the extreme."

Jiang An picked up the thermos cup on the table, took a light sip of warm water, his tone steady yet carrying an undeniable professionalism.

"No matter how heinous someone is, in the end, they are still human, not entirely emotionless machines."

"Especially when facing someone they know—whether it’s relatives, friends, or acquaintances they’ve crossed paths with, after doing the deed, an instinctive compassion will more or less emerge."

"And this psychology often leaves ’guilt marks’ at the scene, which is a common phenomenon in crime scene investigations."

He set down the cup, his fingers slowly gliding over the photos, "For instance, some killers cover the body with the victim’s belongings to avoid seeing the victim’s face."

"Some would cover the body with a quilt, as if afraid the other might catch a cold."

"More extreme ones would light incense sticks or joss paper at the scene, pretending to offer solace to the deceased."

"These actions seem contradictory but are actually external manifestations of the killer’s internal guilt."

These words acted like a key, instantly unlocking Wan and Qin Feng’s train of thoughts.

The two exchanged a look and nodded in agreement.

Wan rubbed his chin, his brow gradually relaxing, speaking in a deep voice, "Now that you mention it, I do recall the situation back then."

"When I saw the pile of blankets on the bed at the scene, I even joked with a colleague that this family was really not tidy."

"But after reviewing previous visit videos and photos, I noticed the rest of the house was immaculately organized, even the cups on the coffee table were neatly arranged."

"Who would pile so many clothes on the bed under normal living habits?"

"This really doesn’t seem right."

"You’re absolutely right."

Qin Feng immediately picked up, "This shows there must be some connection between the killer and the victim, and quite a deep one, or else the killer wouldn’t go out of his way to perform such ’compensatory’ actions."

"Maybe this is a crime committed by an acquaintance."

Jiang An abruptly stood up, his gaze sharp, his tone urgent yet clear, "Now is not the time to dwell on the relationship of the crime, the pressing matter is to find Wu Guang—we must find him before the killer does, we can’t let him become the next victim."

"Quickly notify everyone in the team, investigate the surveillance along Wu Guang’s route after leaving the interrogation room, track his path thoroughly, leave no clue unchecked!"

"Understood!"

Wan and Qin Feng responded in unison, almost simultaneously grabbing the walkie-talkie and notebook on the table, and dashed towards the office door.

As they reached the corner of the corridor, they encountered Brother Zheng who was organizing files.

Wan grabbed him, speaking so fast it was like a machine gun, "Brother Zheng, stop organizing, come with us!"

"We have a lead on Wu Guang’s whereabouts, we need to check the surveillance since he left the interrogation room, you’re familiar with the surveillance system, come help us investigate!"

Brother Zheng froze for a moment, then immediately caught on, grabbed his badge from the table and followed the two quickly towards the monitoring room.

In the monitoring room, the cold glow from the screen reflected on their faces, and the sound of typing filled the air.

Ten minutes later, Brother Zheng pulled up footage from ten surveillance checkpoints, and in each frame, Wu Guang’s figure could clearly be seen.

But just as Wan zoomed in on one of the frames, his finger suddenly froze, and his breathing instantly hastened.

In the frame, a man wearing a black helmet was riding a motorcycle, following Wu Guang at a not-so-close distance, his helmet’s visor pulled so low, his face was completely obscured.