A New Obsession

Near the end of the workday.

Brian took the lab report receipts from the Forensic Chemistry Division, the death certificate, and so on, and handed them to Henry, the bald forensic examiner.

This was an obvious homicide.

The feedback email.

Had already been sent to the detective bureau that morning.

That meant that from this point on, the Forensic Bureau only needed to provide technical support for the case. The rest was no longer their responsibility.

Of course, if the murderer was caught and brought to justice.

Then, during sentencing, Henry would need to appear in court as the forensic technical expert for the case, holding the autopsy report and testifying to ensure the fairness of the proceedings.

As for Brian.

He was merely an inconspicuous technician, without the authority to testify in court.

After clocking out.

Brian did not hurry off.

He went to the morgue and handed a cigarette to the armed guard. "Buddy, did anything exciting come in today?"

"Hey, Brian."

The armed guard accepted the cigarette and warmly greeted Brian.

The handsome young man in front of him was something of a celebrity in the bureau. Anyone even slightly well-informed knew he had plenty of high-quality, safe used cars on hand.

As long as there was no conflict of interest.

No one would give such a valuable colleague a cold shoulder.

The guard did not think much of Brian's question. After considering it for a moment, he nodded.

"There's a male corpse that was chopped into many pieces, stuffed into garbage bags, and dumped separately.

Only part of the body has been found so far.

But the police confirmed the victim's identity through the serial number on a dental implant. I heard he used to be a successful lawyer. No idea what happened to him, but now he's a dismembered homeless man."

When Brian heard that the victim had been a lawyer, his interest was piqued. "That sounds like revenge."

He wondered whether a gift from a highly intelligent victim.

Would raise his intelligence.

The guard nodded.

"Maybe.

Quite a few lawyers in Los Angeles have been shot dead in revenge killings.

The person who found him was an undocumented Chinese homeless man.

That unlucky bastard initially thought he had found chunks of meat someone had thrown away. Then he saw a penis.

That was when he realized something was wrong and got a passerby to call the police."

When he mentioned the penis.

The guard gave Brian a dirty grin.

Brian:

May that unlucky undocumented Chinese compatriot spend the rest of his life without psychological trauma.

Though the rest of that man's life probably would not be very long.

Thinking of the conditions homeless people lived in, Brian could not help sighing to the guard. "Looks like this case will be hard to solve."

The guard nodded. "That place is a cockroach camp. Cockroaches vanish every day, and the police won't waste their energy on them."

It was obvious.

The guard held homeless people in contempt.

That was understandable.

Like Brian, the guard lived off taxpayers' money.

And those homeless people had no money on them.

Brian made a few more perfunctory remarks before the guard accompanied him into the morgue.

His excuse.

Was that there might be an assessment at the end of the month.

And he wanted to broaden his experience.

As for Brian's somewhat improper request, the guard, who had gotten several high-quality used-car contacts from him, was extremely understanding.

They were all one of their own.

If he would not help with something this small, could he still call himself a man?

Of course he had to help!

A moment later.

After Brian had gone through all the bodies brought in that day in one sweep, he stepped into the corridor for a smoke with an uncertain expression.

His collection of obsessions had not gone well.

The morgue had received thirty-eight fresh corpses that day, along with four rotten, incomplete bodies.

Forty-two corpses.

The only remains that had produced an obsession belonged to the lawyer's dismembered body the guard had just mentioned.

The man's obsession was utterly absurd: solve the survival problem of Los Angeles's homeless population.

Hah.

What a great man.

He himself had fallen into homelessness and had even been brutally dismembered.

Yet before death, he had not thought about revenge. Instead, he had worried about the homeless population's survival.

Brian felt rather helpless at that thought.

This obsession was most likely impossible to fulfill.

As mentioned before.

Brian did not think the undocumented compatriot who had reported the crime had much life left to live.

This was not him cursing the man.

It was simply that the average homeless lifespan in Los Angeles was only around three to five years.

And that lifespan did not mean a homeless person could turn their life around after three or five years.

It referred to an actual countdown to death.

Yes.

It was that short!

For men, if they could restrain themselves, avoid drugs, avoid participating in medical experiments, and avoid the women in the encampments, they could live a little longer.

Some experienced ones could even survive for twenty or thirty years and live past fifty.

Women.

Among the homeless population, women were public toilets and breeding grounds for infectious diseases.

That was why female homeless people were rarely seen in homeless tents.

Unless there was a fixed, secure rest area.

Otherwise, even with a husband's protection, it was difficult for a homeless woman to safely make it through the first month or two.

For example, she might suffer a gang rape by an unlimited number of men without protection, while her husband might have to kneel beside her and watch it happen in despair.

Or she might encounter theft, drug temptation, infectious diseases...

All of those were threats to their lives.

The best outcome for these women was to find a gang and willingly sell themselves.

Even then, only young homeless women qualified for that option.

For a group like that.

Brian could not fulfill the dead lawyer's obsession even if he gave his life for it.

Even the Los Angeles city government could only confine the homeless population, numbering in the tens of thousands, to a few fixed areas through measures such as designated encampments, temporary rest zones, and limited daily food distribution, and then...

Let them solve themselves.

After finishing a cigarette.

Brian prepared to leave in disappointment.

It seemed there would be no gains today.

Just as he was about to leave the morgue.

A hearse, pushed by a Forensic Bureau field investigator, came down the corridor toward the morgue.

Behind the investigator walked a large white man in casual clothes, frowning deeply.

Brian was genuinely popular in the Forensic Bureau.

When the investigator pushing the cart saw Brian, a smile appeared on his tired face as he greeted him first. "Hey, Brian, you look pretty good today."

"I've been working out lately." As Brian spoke, he glanced at the cart in the man's hands. His eyes lit up, and he changed the subject. "A victim's still being delivered at this hour?"

The investigator nodded helplessly. "Yeah, some unlucky guy died in a hotel. I was planning to head home early—"

"Ahem!"

The white man in the suit walking behind him deliberately coughed, cutting the investigator off.

The investigator glanced awkwardly at Brian and shut his mouth.

Brian did not mind. He stepped forward, made a show of tracing a cross over the body bag, murmured "Amen," then said goodbye and left the morgue.

"That pretty boy is with the Forensic Bureau too?"

Watching Brian's retreating back, the white man in the suit asked the investigator.

The investigator nodded. "Yeah. His name is Brian. He's a forensic assistant in the Forensic Department. He's a great guy. Everyone likes him."

The white man in the suit nodded at that.

He did not ask anything further and followed the investigator toward the morgue.

Back in his car.

A smile appeared on Brian's face.

A new obsession was in the bag!

Seeing that no one was around, Brian could barely contain his anticipation. He rubbed his hands together like a fly, closed his eyes, and checked the obsession.

There will be another chapter later.

Brothers, I should be getting a recommendation slot next week. Those of you who are keeping the book, please follow along and read daily.