Legendary FBI Detective

University of California, San Diego campus, a parking lot not far from the main gate.

As Mona pulled open the SUV door and sat in, Luo An held his phone and asked:

"Which suspect is it?"

"University of California, San Diego, virology professor, Lloyd Webster."

On the other end of the phone, Michelle explained:

"From the laboratory equipment records you sent back, this professor stands out the most.

He not only entered and exited those labs multiple times from midnight to three in the morning, but each time he entered, the labs' electricity usage surged significantly."

Michelle thought for a moment and said:

"Either this Professor Lloyd Webster sneaks into the lab at night to steal electricity, or he is using large electrical equipment."

Luo An nodded and said:

"Like a centrifuge, which is an indispensable tool for making botulinum toxin; however, it consumes a lot of power.

Michelle, where is this Professor Lloyd Webster now?"

"After the gas poisoning case occurred, Professor Lloyd Webster took a week's leave, claiming he needed to recover from a chronic illness he suffers."

The clacking of the keyboard on the other end of the phone suddenly stopped, and Michelle answered:

"He's most likely at home right now. His house is not far from the University of California, San Diego, about a ten-minute drive."

Luo An hung up the phone, waited for Michelle to fasten her seatbelt, and immediately drove the SUV toward the location Mona mentioned.

In less than ten minutes, the SUV arrived at the destination.

Both Luo An and Michelle were surprised that Professor Lloyd Webster's house was very ordinary; just a standard apartment in a community building.

Stepping into the elevator, Michelle glanced at some unknown substance emanating a strange odor in the corner of the nearby staircase, her eyelids twitched, and she said:

"Professor Lloyd Webster seems to be short on money."

Luo An didn't speak, just held his breath.

The United States is a free country; where one goes to the bathroom is also a freedom of the people.

The elevator arrived slowly on the designated floor, and the two stepped out, heading straight for Professor Lloyd Webster's residence.

Standing to the left and right of the front door, Luo An raised his hand to knock, calling out loudly:

"Hello, is this Mr. Lloyd Webster? There's a package for you!"

"..."

After the words fell, the corridor was incredibly quiet; there was no answer from inside the room.

Knocking a few more times and still receiving no response, Luo An and Michelle exchanged a look and nodded before counting down from three and then ferociously kicking the door in.

Bang—

Under Michelle's shocked gaze, Luo An's immense strength instantly kicked the door down. She quickly raised her pistol, following Luo An as they rushed into the room, swiftly checking each room.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

The room was not big, and they quickly checked the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom to confirm there were no issues. However, the moment they entered the study, both furrowed their brows simultaneously.

The study was small and only contained a desk, a chair, a computer, some books and documents, and a potted cactus on the windowsill.

Sitting in the chair was Professor Lloyd Webster; his head tilted backward and up, eyes shut and mouth agape, a bloody hole in the center of his head, with a long splatter of blood on the wall behind the chair.

Professor Lloyd Webster's hands dangled powerlessly downward, his left hand naturally bent, while next to his right hand on the floor, there lay a handgun.

Bending down to check for a few seconds, Michelle's expression darkened:

"Did Professor Lloyd Webster commit suicide?"

Luo An, expressionless, nodded. The scene was not complicated; Professor Lloyd Webster had placed the gun barrel in his mouth and then pulled the trigger, ending his own life.

Luo An put on gloves, briefly looked through the files on the desk, didn't find an expected suicide note or anything of the sort, but did notice that the computer had been tampered with. His gaze shifted slightly as he continued to search, and Luo An quickly found some other clues.

After pondering for a few seconds, Luo An pulled out his phone to call the local FBI forensics department, meanwhile saying to Michelle:

"We're not the first ones here, someone else has been at the scene."

Michelle's face changed instantly upon hearing this, suggesting:

"You mean to say, Professor Lloyd Webster was forced to commit suicide at gunpoint?"

"It's a possibility, but not a very likely one."

Luo An pointed at the body in the study, explaining:

"Judging by the marks around the bullet hole in Professor Lloyd Webster's head, and the state of the blood coagulation, he hasn't been dead long, probably died on the day the media reported the poison gas incident.

But look at this."

Luo An led Michelle to the door he had kicked down, pointing out:

"There are marks on the lock where someone has tampered with it from the outside. If this person arrived while Professor Lloyd Webster was still alive, there would be no need to pick the lock."

Michelle fell silent for a few seconds, then looked up at Luo An:

"So, shortly after Professor Lloyd Webster's suicide, someone broke into this house, operated his computer, and then left."

"The person also took away something written by Professor Lloyd Webster before his suicide, like a last will and testament."

Luo An indicated that the position for a right-handed user at the desk had a pen laid out for writing, and there was an area in the center of the desk that was conspicuously bare, indicating something had been there before, but was now gone.

"Damn it."

Michelle swore softly upon hearing this, then asked:

"What do we do now?"

"Take the computer, and head back to Los Angeles."

After a thorough examination of the scene, Luo An was fairly certain that Professor Lloyd Webster's death was most likely suicide.

But the reasons behind Professor Lloyd Webster's suicide, why he secretly produced poison gas, why he put that bottle of gas in the bank,

And who was the person who stealthily entered the room, what was written in what they took, those are the questions Luo An needed to investigate next.

After a brief courteous exchange with the local FBI in San Diego, Michelle packed up all the computers, books, files, etc. they found at the crime scene, and Luo An drove the SUV back to Los Angeles.

At five in the afternoon, Luo An and Michelle returned safely to the Special Investigation Team. Upon seeing them, Mona quickly finished a piece of bread and loudly said:

"You two, I've figured out why Professor Lloyd Webster was short of money."

"What happened?"

"Professor Lloyd Webster's son has brain cancer."

Mona indicated she had carefully examined Professor Lloyd Webster's financial situation before his death and discovered that most of his funds in the past year were spent at a large hospital in Los Angeles.

Following this lead, Mona found out that Professor Lloyd Webster had been paying for the treatment of a thirty-something-year-old brain cancer patient. Upon checking the identity of the cancer patient, it turned out to be Professor Lloyd Webster's own son.

Professor Lloyd Webster had initially divorced, and his son went with the mother. Unfortunately, in her thirties, the mother suffered from a tumor in her brain and died in pain. Tragically, the son also inherited her family's disease.

After reading this information, Luo An nodded in understanding, while Michelle suddenly realized:

"Professor Lloyd Webster must have been secretly making botulinum toxin to sell for money, to pay for his son's treatment."

Mona nodded, then Luo An handed her the computer they found at the scene, asking:

"This computer has been tampered with. Can you find out exactly what happened?"

"Of course."

Mona took the computer with a chuckle and said as she booted it up:

"As long as it hasn't been physically destroyed, even if it's been formatted, I can still retrieve his browsing history from before!"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Luo An's eyelids twitched, thinking that he needed to ask the forensic agents downstairs if they could make a laptop that could self-destruct and burn up.