Chapter 95: Chapter 095 Malignant Incident
The old man spat a thick glob of phlegm onto the grass and leaves beneath his feet; he took a drag of his cigarette, squinting as he scrutinized the approaching Roger.
The old man retorted.
Roger took out his identification, and upon seeing the photo and the steel stamp, the old man’s gaze tightened, becoming more cautious.
“Has something happened around here?”
The old man asked somewhat worriedly.
He felt his hunting rifle, “I just come up to the mountain occasionally, this isn’t a no-hunting zone, is it?”
Roger smiled, “Don’t worry, I’m only here to investigate some matters related to the White Apricot Tree Camp.”
Hearing this, the old man relaxed considerably.
“Do you live nearby?”
“Are you familiar with this camp?”
“How could I not be? Every year, the camp recruits people from around here, and I once worked here for quite a long time.”
“Mainly responsible for taking the kids here on outdoor activities,”
“Could you take me for a tour around the camp?” he said, pulling out several bills from his wallet and handing them to the old man.
“It might delay your work, consider it a little compensation.”
Feeling the bills in his hand, the old man’s mouth twisted into a grin.
Dealing with low-income laborers living in remote areas like him, sometimes money was indeed more useful than credentials.
The restraint on his face vanished, and the old man led Roger towards the interior of the camp, initially just making idle conversation, with Roger not asking too many probing questions.
It wasn’t until he saw a photograph on the exhibition wall in the camp’s cabin that he halted.
The picture was faded and yellowed, but Roger could still recognize that it was identical to the one he had obtained from Travis.
“Do you recognize the people in it?”
The old man took down the photograph, “That was my third year at the camp.” He pointed at a few people in the photo.
“Those bad kids sure left an impression.”
“You still remember them?”
“How could I forget?”
The old man wiped the dust off the photo.
“That year we had an unusually large number of people, and there were inevitably some oversights in management. Later on, I happened to overhear the person in charge making a phone call to someone.”
“It seemed there had been an incident at the camp that year.”
“What happened?” Roger’s heart skipped a beat.
The old man took a puff of his cigarette, “I heard it was a girl who was swimming, got… ah…”
“Besides the people involved, no one knew exactly what happened.”
The old man narrowed his eyes, “But we aren’t fools, after all; even through some clues and guessing, one could probably figure out who it was.”
“The one who did the wrong was this guy.”
The old man pointed to a silhouette in the photo.
“As for whether he had any accomplices, that’s unclear.”
Looking at the photo of Judd with his beaming smile, Roger felt he was getting closer to the truth.
“Do you remember the girl’s name?”
The photo didn’t have the figure he was looking for, but now that he thought about it, if something like that had really happened to her, it’s unlikely any girl would be in the mood to attend the closing party of the camp.
And leave behind a group photo.
The old man frowned, “It’s been too long, I can’t remember clearly.”
“Was it Danielle?” Roger asked.
“No… it wasn’t that name.”
The old man shook his head, “The girl’s name was quite distinctive, I can’t recall it, but it surely wasn’t that.”
Roger was slightly taken aback.
With all the clues linked together, he had thought he would find the beginning of the whole affair at White Apricot Tree Camp.
If the victim had indeed been Danielle, then the series of actions she took afterward would have made sense.
But now… the victim wasn’t her?
“Could it be a relative of hers?”
Roger considered another possibility.
Three years had passed; unless someone had plastic surgery, their appearance wouldn’t change much. Even if Judd hadn’t noticed anything initially, he would have realized something after being with Danielle for a while.
It couldn’t be possible that Judd or the others hadn’t paid any attention to the victim’s appearance during the assault three years ago, could it?
That seemed unlikely.
So, the victim was a relative or a friend of Danielle?
Roger had a headache.
“Do you have the list of campers from that session of the camp?” Roger suddenly thought of something.
The old man was startled, “The list?”
“I’m not management. How would I have something like that?”
“If you want to find it, you’ll have to go to their person in charge.”
Roger frowned; he had already tried calling the contact number provided by the police, but no one had picked up.
“If you’re looking for her, I do have a number here. You could try calling it.” The old man suddenly said.
Taking out his phone to jot down the number, Roger then followed the old man around the camp. At the back of the camp, over a small hill, was a tranquil lake, clear as crystal.
Had it been just as calm when the crime occurred years ago?
Leaving the camp, Roger dialed the camp leader’s number, Ashley, a middle-aged woman successful in her career.
Unfortunately, the call was still not answered. Roger then phoned the police station to expand the search into Danielle’s personal relationships.
As for whether those guys would really do their job, Roger always had his doubts.
Suddenly seeming to have nothing to do, Roger drove back to Swamp Town to Henrik’s hideout for a brief rest.
He figured sleep would be difficult tonight.
After lunch, he went to the police station again and obtained the information he wanted.
Flipping through page after page, Roger was unable to find a match of similar age.
His mind filled with many other thoughts.
What if Danielle had nothing to do with the incident at White Apricot Tree Camp years ago?
Then my current line of investigation would be entirely wrong. There should be some clues, even like the last case with Hannam.
The things he did and the people he killed could be linked intrinsically.
There are many ways to commit murder, and without clues to the motive, it’s impossible to analyze the specifics or accurately pinpoint the target.
As he was pondering, his phone buzzed with a message. It was from the old man he had recently met at the camp.
“Hey, I remembered something.”
“I went back and talked with a neighbor who worked with me back then, and they still remember the girl’s name.”
Roger perked up his ears.
“Her name was Amelie, a very special name.”
After hanging up the phone, Roger dialed Ashley’s number again. This time, after a long wait, the call finally went through.
A tired and drunken voice came from the other end.
“I’m agent Roger from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and we’re investigating the violent incident at White Oak Camp from three years ago.”
“We already know about the incident with Amelie.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a cacophony of noises came through the line, followed by a panicked voice.
“What do you all know?”