Just as Link was about to take a closer look, he noticed his movements had stopped. Lena came back to herself slightly and asked, "What's wrong, honey?"
Distracted, he lost sight of the figure. Link said, "It looks like something happened to Mira. The situation doesn't look good. She still hasn't moved, and no matter what happened, there's a high chance she's dead. Come on, let's go downstairs and ask whether anyone called emergency services."
When Lena heard that something had happened to Mira, she had initially felt a little gleeful. But when she heard Mira might be dead, she was suddenly shocked, even a little worried and afraid. She clung tightly to Link all the way downstairs.
They were all high school students, so someone had naturally called the police and emergency services. Since Dart's house was less than five minutes by car from both the police station and the hospital, a police car arrived just as the two of them reached the ground floor.
The police car and ambulance drove directly to the backyard, stopping not far from the pool. Link immediately recognized the short-haired blonde policewoman who stepped out of the cruiser as Annie.
Then a second police car arrived, and Robert was the first one out. He watched the medical personnel check on Mira but did not immediately go over. Instead, he directed the arriving officers to maintain order.
When he spotted Link, Robert said, "This is the party you attended, right? Do you know who came here?"
Link glanced at Lena. She said, "Everyone who was invited was one of our classmates. I know the guest list, but I don't know whether anyone who wasn't invited snuck in."
"That's fine. This is enough." Robert's eyes lit up as he said to Annie, "Write down the list."
"No problem."
Just as they finished talking, another round of startled cries came from the other side. Moments later, a stretcher covered by a white sheet was carried into the ambulance.
Mira was obviously dead.
The crowd stirred uneasily, and quite a few people had already begun preparing to leave.
As the cheerleading captain, Mira had never gotten along particularly well with Lena. Still, Lena felt a touch of sorrow at seeing someone like herself meet such an end.
As the school's queen bee, she knew a great deal of information, including who had been invited to the party. At the police's request, everyone at the scene chose to remain.
After all, they were just high school students and did not have such complicated thoughts. Someone had died, so it was perfectly normal for the police to ask them to stay for a while.
It would have been one thing if they had run away earlier, but leaving after the police had already told them to stay might make them look guilty.
More than ten minutes later, aside from the two officers left on duty at the station, every other officer had arrived. Fourteen officers in total began busily taking statements from everyone present.
The town was not large, so it did not have many police officers. What gave Robert a headache was the sheer number of people at the murder scene.
According to the information registered so far, more than two hundred people had attended this high school party. Besides the majority of high school students, they had even identified three edgy girls under the age of fifteen—the sort of middle school girls commonly seen at parties.
With over two hundred kids, even visiting one household a day would take more than half a year. By then, any leads would be long gone. Unless they could uncover an important clue within a few days, Robert estimated that the odds of solving the case would be close to zero.
Still, the work had to be done. After a frantic stretch of activity, they had mostly wrapped things up before midnight. Only then did Robert return to the police car with a weary expression, where he saw that Link and Lena were still there.
Robert immediately said to Link, "You should head home early. Do you need a ride?"
Link shook his head. "No need. You'll definitely be busy next, so I won't take up your time. Lena invited me to hang out at her place."
Link had been Lena's tutor at her home for two years, so Robert naturally knew her. He had even collected some information on her before and understood her personality.
Fortunately, he knew Link and Lena were only fooling around. Under normal circumstances, he might have offered a few reminders, but he had no energy for that now. He merely said, "All right, but don't forget to call Lisa so she doesn't worry."
The next day, Link woke when the sky was only beginning to brighten.
Link needed far less rest these days. He did not wake Lena. After tidying himself up, he headed straight home and found Robert eating breakfast just as he entered the house.
When Robert saw Link, he said, "Kid, you're back pretty early."
"I promised to visit Sheldon's house today, so I still need to head out later." Link said it casually, then asked, "How's Mira's case going?"
"The body has been sent for an autopsy. The preliminary assessment is that it probably wasn't an accidental drowning, but we'll need the detailed autopsy report before reaching a conclusion. By the way, did you notice anything unusual yesterday?"
Link thought for a moment. "Not for now. If I remember anything, I'll tell you."
"Okay. Have fun. I need to get to work." Robert ate breakfast more hurriedly than usual because this case was troublesome.
If the girl had accidentally drowned, it would not have much to do with the police station. But if someone had done it, he had to solve the case as quickly as possible.
The town had not seen a homicide in a long time, especially not one involving the daughter of a local resident. They could not afford to relax. The faster they solved the case, the more it would prove that the Town Police Station officers were not just collecting paychecks for nothing.
The United States and China were different. Their administrative divisions went from states to counties to cities, followed by smaller towns and villages, but their law enforcement system worked in reverse.
Matters that town and city police stations did not handle fell under the county sheriff's authority. Matters that even county sheriffs did not handle fell under the jurisdiction of the state police.
The town police station was not under the city police department. It answered directly to the town's residents, and its officers' salaries were funded by the town's administrative system.
This system meant that the town police station often did not need to pay attention to the city police, and could even push back directly against the FBI when they came to investigate cases. Unless a case could not be solved and had an extremely bad impact, local police departments generally would not hand investigative authority over to another department.
The town police station was responsible only to the town's residents, but once a serious case could not be solved, it could easily trigger a crisis of confidence among them. At best, the budget might be cut and incomes affected; at worst, the person in charge could be dismissed outright.
After thinking it over carefully, Link said, "But I do know a few things about Mira. She had an official boyfriend at school, Joe, the captain of the Football Team.
"Besides that, she was fairly close with two Football Team players. As for anyone she had temporary relationships with, I'm not sure."
Robert gave an acknowledging sound. This sort of thing was not uncommon, especially among cheerleaders. He nodded and asked, "How did you know all that?"
"Lena and Mira didn't get along, so she had always collected little bits of gossip about her. That's where I learned it."
"Oh, looks like your efforts last night were pretty effective." Robert casually cracked a joke. He had been through major cases before, so despite the seriousness of the situation, he remained in good spirits. "Tell me more."
Link nodded. "Aside from Joshua, her official boyfriend, Mira was also involved with Boris and Rhoda, two Football Team players. Oh, Boris was a defensive end, and Rhoda was the quarterback."
"Ah, kids these days..." Lisa could not help sighing from the side.
Link did not say much more. Those three could be considered the three most popular players on the Football Team. Besides them, Mira had also had friendly matches with several classmates. Even Lena could not say exactly how many. She could only say that this was simply everyday life for many cheerleaders at American high schools.
In fact, Mira's official boyfriend knew about her dealings with other men, just as Mira knew that her boyfriend was hooking up with several cheerleaders. This was so American.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, a boy like that might receive a slightly nicer label, such as playboy. But a girl like that would be looked down upon and called a gold-digging bitch.
But in the United States, not to mention boys, a girl like Mira—sweet-looking, with a good figure and a lively personality—would still have plenty of people flocking to her even if she acted that way openly.
It was like Penny from The Big Bang Theory. She had started dating at fourteen, and the story had even mentioned that she once cheated on a pair of brothers. There was no need to mention all the other gossip that had never been revealed.
Even so, Leonard still treated Penny like a goddess and tried every possible way to pursue her. All it meant was that different cultural environments produced different ways of thinking.
Of course, not every girl was like that. There were also many girls in the United States who kept themselves clean. This phenomenon merely showed that attitudes in the United States toward such matters were completely different from those on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
As he spoke, Link took out a sheet of paper. "This contains some detailed information."
Robert nodded, accepted the paper from Link, and said, "Thanks. You've helped me a lot. I need to head to the police station now, so go take care of your own business. If you remember anything, contact me again."
"No problem."
Before you continue