The Book Collection

The heart sat on the left side of the chest.

But in a small number of people, it sat on the right.

Unless someone knew them personally, there was no way to know that.

Qin Ran looked toward the door lock again.

There were no signs of tampering.

The door to the third victim's home, however—the retired athlete who had died there—bore obvious marks from a picked lock.

Had the Heart-Taker started targeting people he knew?

Or had this acquaintance been his target from the start?

Were the earlier victims just cover?

Or was this the work of a clumsy copycat?

Qin Ran propped his chin on his left hand. A bold theory suddenly took shape.

A theory that bold needed solid evidence.

But Qin Ran had a simpler way to test it.

With Tracking active, he searched for footprints inside and outside the room.

There were all kinds of footprints on the floor.

Most belonged to people at the scene, and Qin Ran could clearly match each trail to its owner.

Only one pair had no match.

Who had come to the scene, then vanished from it?

The killer!

And that pair of footprints had clearly been here more than once.

Through Tracking, the brightness of the prints showed when they had been made.

The bright ones were only a few hours old and stopped before the victim's body.

The faint ones dated back several days.

After comparing the two sets, Qin Ran turned to Shiqi.

"Give me a pen and a sheet of paper!"

"Do as he says!" Shiqi instructed a nearby officer.

Qin Ran took the pen and paper and quickly sketched the footprints to the size he had seen.

Three minutes later, a pair of footprints appeared on the page.

Even the patterns on the soles