Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 542: Death of Fabulon (8)

The notification sent by the police system, which Frank had not seen before, was a wanted poster. The man on the wanted poster was almost exactly the same as the portrait they had drawn based on Martina's description. Just now, when Liz snatched Frank's phone to answer the call, she checked the notification with her own phone, so when she found out that the man on the wanted poster was exactly the same as the one in the profile portrait, Liz was very shocked.

The notice issued by the police system only listed the wanted order, but Liz heard more information from her father, Chief Lugosi. First, she learned the name of the extremely dangerous wanted criminal, and then she heard that the prisoner was found near Oak City a few hours ago.

"So the person we're looking for is the one on the wanted poster?"

"The chief said that a few hours ago, a surveillance camera captured the wanted criminal's face in a tunnel near Oak City. We can check and confirm it."

While Liz was speaking, Frank opened the police system and found the relevant surveillance video. It didn't take much effort to find the surveillance video that Liz mentioned. It clearly captured the man's face, exactly the same as the one in the profile, as well as the car he was driving.

"Isn't this the car that was parked in the corner of the underground parking lot when we got here?!"

"It seems to be him, Frank. Check the information of this wanted criminal."

"What was his name? Adenauer?"

After entering Adenauer's name into the police system, his criminal record soon appeared. Looking at the crimes, although not many, each one was jaw-dropping, Frank and Liz knew that they were involved in a huge trouble.

Seeing that Liz's expression was becoming more and more serious, Frank tried to comfort Liz in order to prevent her from being too stressed.

"Don't be so serious. Judging by the nature of the police department in the city that arrested Adenauer, they're likely exaggerating his criminal record to attract the attention of other police departments. Perhaps this Adenauer isn't as exaggerated as they say."

"But you just said that he could quickly eliminate seven people in a relatively dense space. That doesn't sound good."

"hiss.."

Frank wasn't much of a comforter, and after hearing Liz's explanation, he licked his lips, not knowing how to smooth things over. While Frank was a novice at comforting people, his professional skills were excellent. In previous cases, Frank's deductions had rarely been wrong, and Liz knew this well. Especially in a case like this, which would cause such a huge social impact, Frank was even less likely to fool around. So when Liz repeated her deduction, Frank had no way of refuting it.

"Martina said at the time that the people Adenauer killed seemed to be the real culprits of Fabron's death. We should check Fabron's interpersonal relationships to see if there is any connection between the two of them."

"Okay, but there's a possibility that there's no connection between the two. We have to prepare for the worst."

Things developed just as Frank had expected. He looked up a lot of information but found no connection between Adenauer and Fabron.

"They probably didn't know each other at all, but if that's the case, why would Adenauer avenge Fabron?"

"Perhaps Adenauer was a fan of Fabron?"

"That's hard to say. Anyway, if we want to find the connection, we have to find Adenauer first. Our colleagues outside haven't sent any messages, so he should still be in the hotel, probably trying to figure out how to dispose of the body."

"In that case, as long as we can find those bodies, we might be able to find that guy. Although the hotel cart didn't contain all the bodies when Martina met him, so much time has passed. He must have returned to 2607 and taken away the other bodies. Where do you think he hid them?"

Frank and Liz thought about it and began to analyze the place where Adenauer might have hidden the bodies. There were eight bodies in total, and it was not easy to hide them.

"Although the hotel is large, there aren't many places that meet the requirements. First, we can rule out the first floor. It's currently crammed with reporters, paparazzi, and a ton of enthusiastic fans. Not to mention it has the most surveillance cameras, even if there weren't any, he definitely wouldn't risk being seen."

"It's unlikely that it's on the other floors of the hotel. After all, there are still many ordinary guests inside the hotel, and the flow of people is not small. Even if it's very late, there are still many people who stay up late. And since he can't go to the first floor, there's no way he can find out from the front desk that the room is empty."

"It's unlikely that he went from the 21st to the 23rd floor. After all, there are a lot of people here right now, and it's a key surveillance area. From the fact that he let Martina go, we can tell he didn't want to draw undue attention. Martina is a celebrity, after all."

"But according to Martina's statement at the time, Adenauer didn't know her. Furthermore, considering Martina's rise to fame, Adenauer was still in prison at the time. This doesn't make sense."

"That's what you said... Wait a minute, let me think about it."

Liz was right. If Adenauer didn't know Martina, then he naturally didn't know she was a celebrity. If he didn't want news of his murder to leak out, the best thing to do was to kill Martina as well. He'd already killed eight people, so one more wouldn't make a difference. So, letting Martina go was undoubtedly a mistake. No matter how Martina promised him she wouldn't say anything, words spoken under duress held no weight. Otherwise, Liz wouldn't have been able to get to know Adenauer.

But there was one thing wrong. Adenauer did not threaten Martina that she would be killed if she told him about her stay in the hotel. Instead, he told her not to tell him anything about herself for an hour. And things developed just as Adenauer said. It was two hours later that Liz really asked Martina about Adenauer.

"According to Martina, Adenauer didn't stop her from speaking out; he simply set a time limit. While this was due to the time it took us to investigate the others, Martina actually followed Adenauer's advice to a certain extent. In other words, Adenauer knew the news of his arrival at the hotel might leak out, but he needed some time—an hour. But what exactly did he do during that time? What did he do with the body?"

"One hour isn't too much, but it's not too little either. If Adenauer had been using the hotel cart to transport the bodies, based on the cart's capacity, he could have carried a maximum of three bodies at a time, requiring at least three round trips. This means he would have left the hiding place twice. It's difficult to find a hiding place in the hotel that can guarantee no one would go there during his absence. We've already ruled out many of them."

"The hotel's three underground floors are all parking lots, with numerous surveillance cameras. To avoid being photographed, he had no choice but to use the hotel's cleaning cart, which is completely unreasonable in a parking lot. Furthermore, the entrance to the underground parking lot has been sealed, so he couldn't get out. The pickup truck he drove into the hotel could hold eight bodies, but his car is in the underground garage. He wouldn't risk hiding the bodies there."

"The hotel is located in the city center, so there is no incinerator in the hotel to burn garbage. He can't burn the bodies. If there are other places in the hotel that are often frequented by people, it would be unsafe. Where would he hide these bodies..."

Frank and Liz sat on the floor of room 2607 and began to think about whether they had missed anything. After thinking for a minute or two, Liz suddenly remembered the conversation between Martina and herself before and thought of a key piece of information.

"When Martina recounted her experience, she said she returned to her apartment on the 21st floor at around a.m., and she didn't look back from the moment she got out of the elevator until she reached her room. In other words, she had no idea where Adenauer went after the elevator closed. What if he had gone upstairs instead of going down?"

"Go up? But the upper floors of the hotel, starting from the 25th floor, are the entertainment area. The cafe Martina went to is also on one of these floors. There are more people there, unless he went to a place that is not open now..."

"The 31st floor rooftop observation deck!"

"The 31st floor rooftop observation deck!"

During the continuous communication, the two finally remembered that the only place in the entire hotel that no one would enter or leave was the observation deck on the rooftop. Now was not the peak tourist season, and the observation deck had been closed. Moreover, there was still heavy rain outside, which could perfectly block the glass wall of the observation deck. Even if someone deliberately observed the current observation deck, he would not be able to see anything. After all, it was in a closed state, so many furnishings in the observation deck were removed to avoid damage, and these things were stored on the ground of the observation deck, including the decorative fountain inside, which was not turned on now. The large fountain located in the center of the observation deck was just right for hiding corpses.

"go!"

Having deduced this, Frank and Liz immediately left room 2607 and ran to the elevator, intending to reach the hotel's rooftop. However, upon entering the elevator, they discovered that there was no button directly leading to the rooftop observation deck. This wasn't surprising, as the observation deck was built after the hotel was completed, so it wasn't surprising that there was no elevator shaft. They pressed the button for the 30th floor and quickly arrived in the elevator.

The 30th floor was divided into three areas, one of which was a dining area. The cafe Martina had visited earlier was also located in this area. Besides the cafe, there were two other places in this area: a French restaurant and a wine tasting center. However, due to the time of day, all but the cafe were closed. Even the cafe was now deserted, with only a few night shift waiters present. One of them was still dozing off.

The second area is the entertainment area, which is a cinema. The hotel's cinema is different from the ones outside. It is closed after nine o'clock in the evening. When Martina left the cafe, she happened to see the cinema staff cleaning.

In the last area, there are no specific stores or projects. This is the corridor leading to the rooftop observation deck, but due to seasonal reasons, the entrance here should be closed.

“It was opened.”

However, when Frank and Liz arrived at the entrance and observed, they found that although the entrance door was still closed, the door lock had been pried open. By simply turning the handle, they could open the corridor door leading to the upper observation deck.

"Wait, let's not rush in."

"what happened?"

"There's no surveillance footage at the entrance to the observation deck. We need to make sure our guess is correct. Liz, check the surveillance footage at the elevator door on the 30th floor, as well as the surveillance footage in the cafe across the street. If we can see a hotel cart or Adenauer, then we can confirm our guess. While we're at it, I'll ask the guys around the hotel if they've found anything."

"it is good."

Liz quickly searched the surveillance footage near the elevator. Although she found nothing, she did find footage through the surveillance footage inside the cafe of someone pushing a different model of hotel cart out of the elevator. Although the face was not captured, judging from the body shape and gait, this was the person they were looking for.

Frank contacted all his colleagues and brothers who were lurking near the hotel. Everything was normal outside the hotel, with no suspicious people or vehicles entering or leaving. Adenauer should still be in the hotel.

"He's wearing a maintenance worker's overalls, but you can tell by his build that it's him."

"The brothers outside didn't see any suspicious people or vehicles entering or leaving the hotel. He is still inside the hotel."

After taking a few deep breaths, Frank and Liz drew the pistols from their waists and quietly opened the door to the corridor. In the quiet corridor, apart from the breathing of Frank and Liz, the only sound was the creaking sound caused by the dry door hinges when the corridor door opened, which sounded a bit creepy.

The corridor at the other end of the gate was pitch black. The observation deck was not open, and the areas related to the observation deck naturally did not need electricity. Frank took out the tactical flashlight from his pocket, held up his right hand holding the gun, and moved forward cautiously. When he was about to reach the sightseeing ramp leading to the observation deck, Liz patted his shoulder and shook the ramp with her flashlight.

Following the light of Liz's flashlight, Frank saw two clear wheel marks on the dusty sightseeing ramp, which looked like they were left by some type of hotel cart.