Chapter 506: The Candid Trio

Chapter 506: Chapter 506: The Candid Trio

The homeless man’s expression was calm. He placed his hands on the table and said, "When we first met him, Uncle Donovan told us we were able-bodied, with brains and brawn. He said we shouldn’t be homeless and that we should use our own two hands to earn money for food.

I was just lazy and chose to be homeless because I didn’t want to work. Back then, none of us paid him any mind. He came back a few more times after that, but he never managed to persuade anyone.

We thought he’d give up, but that old man was stubborn as a mule. One time, he followed us all the way back to our temporary shelter."

They weren’t heartless people. Besides their own parents, Old Man Donovan was the first person who refused to give up on them.

Soon, someone took the first step and went home with the old man. At Old Man Donovan’s house, they took showers and changed into clean clothes.

Some of them, not wanting to refuse the old man’s kindness, tried their hand at some manual labor.

It was the kind of work where your background didn’t matter, only whether you had the strength for it.

And while they still slacked off from time to time, at least they wouldn’t go hungry.

"We also asked Uncle Donovan if helping people like us was worth it." The other homeless man scratched his head, looking a bit helpless, and continued, "But Uncle Donovan said he had his own selfish reasons. He wanted to do more good deeds to build up some good karma for his nephew. He hoped a miracle might happen one day and his nephew would return to normal.

Recently, Uncle Donovan met a new homeless man. The day before yesterday, he even told us that this guy was different. He was young and had a strong drive to get ahead. He said we might even see him working on a construction site in a few days.

And it’s true, we haven’t seen him around lately."

Hearing this, Evan Keller quickly jotted down the relevant information in his notepad.

A young homeless man.

’I’ll have to check if there’s a connection to the blood at the scene.’

The situation with the other three old men was much simpler. Old Man Donovan purely went over to play chess and chat with them. Over time, they became good friends and their conversations grew more varied.

But whenever something came up with the homeless men, Old Man Donovan would rush over without a second thought.

In his eyes, his old buddies had children and pensions. They were living comfortably and wouldn’t miss him if he wasn’t around.

But the homeless men were different. Their ability to handle risks was low. If a problem arose and wasn’t solved in time, all the money they had painstakingly earned could be lost.

Evan Keller nodded at them and said, "Thank you very much for your cooperation. If we need anything else later, we hope you’ll be willing to come in and help again."

The old men nodded, saying it was the least they could do.

As they left, they couldn’t help but sigh. ’Why is it that good men like Old Man Donovan never live long?’

As for the other two homeless men, they stopped before being escorted out and looked at Evan Keller. "You’ve caught the killer. You should be able to get justice for Uncle Donovan soon, right?"

"We will," Evan Keller said, looking at them with a serious expression, making a solemn promise.

With a clear target, Evan Keller and his team expanded the scope of their surveillance investigation. They finally spotted a fleeting glimpse of Old Man Donovan behind a small, nearly bankrupt supermarket.

And beside him was a homeless man who looked similar to the one the other two had just described.

Evan Keller made a snap decision and sent people to search the area. They eventually found some daily necessities in a small, abandoned, single-story house.

Meanwhile, back at Old Man Donovan’s place, although The Bearded Man and his crew had cleaned the entire house, there were still plenty of nooks and crannies they had missed.

The police extracted a significant amount of blood from these corners. Both samples were sent for analysis. As long as they were a match, Old Man Donovan’s case would be more or less solved.

Because it was a rush order, the test results came back quickly.

Looking at the conclusion on the report, Evan Keller let out a long sigh of relief. ’It’s the same person!’

"Alright, we have everything we need. Now, let’s begin the interrogation!" Evan Keller slammed his hand on the table, his presence intimidating.

His target was also clear. Of the trio, the easiest one to break during interrogation would actually be The Bearded Man.

He was a big guy who served as the muscle for the trio. He had a violent temper and had already shown multiple signs of wanting to get physical when he was apprehended by the police.

Furthermore, according to the officer guarding the door to The Bearded Man’s interrogation room, he was already showing clear signs of agitation, glancing at the door from time to time. Now was the perfect time to go in.

As expected, things went more or less as Evan Keller had predicted.

Just as he walked in with the evidence, he heard The Bearded Man furiously slam his hand on the table.

However, The Bearded Man was mentally weak. After a few bluffs from Evan Keller, he spilled almost everything he knew.

From his confession, Evan Keller was able to piece together the full story of the crime.

The Bearded Man and his two accomplices were all orphans who roamed from place to place. They met during a robbery, discovered they had similar interests, and decided to team up.

They specifically targeted remote mountain villages or elderly people living alone.

Because they always killed and ran, and because the victims usually weren’t discovered until their bodies started to smell or decompose, the three of them had evaded capture until now.

But there was one drawback: these victims didn’t have much money, and the trio was often short on cash.

They targeted Old Man Donovan this time because their third member had accidentally discovered that the old man’s room contained a lot of cash, and even some gold bars.

If this operation was successful, they could live it up on that money for a long time.

This time, however, the area was populated, and Old Man Donovan went out frequently. It would be impossible for him to be dead for a long time before being discovered, unlike their previous victims.

So, to buy themselves more time, they cased the surrounding area again, found an escape route, and purchased a series of tools for the job.

On the night of the crime, The Bearded Man’s trio discovered a young man in the living room, fast asleep.

To prevent their plan from being exposed, the three of them killed the young man sleeping on the sofa, sending blood spattering high into the air.

Then, they killed Old Man Donovan, who had been woken by the noise and came out to see what was happening.

Seeing that there were still a lot of people coming and going outside, the three of them first cleaned the entire living room. They even deliberately sprinkled disinfectant and other substances in an attempt to destroy the bloodstains so the police wouldn’t find anything.

After the number of people on the street outside dwindled, the three worked together to put the young homeless man into a burlap sack, tie a rock to it, and throw it to the bottom of the nearby river.

Once they were gone, they didn’t care when the body was discovered.

Immediately after, The Bearded Man’s trio moved Old Man Donovan’s body to 704 and used the bricks they had prepared earlier to wall it up.

Once they had taken care of everything, the trio bypassed the apartment Wren Rowan was renting and moved into the one next to it.

They had originally planned to target Wren Rowan, but before they could make their move, they were captured by the police lying in ambush outside.