Hearing her words, Evan Keller and Sean Hughes couldn't sit still any longer.
After comforting Zoe Sawyer for a moment, Sean Hughes immediately gathered their things and headed to her home with Evan Keller.
Soon, the two of them arrived at Zoe Sawyer's front door.
Seeing the untouched takeout delivery on the floor, they knew Zoe Sawyer hadn't come out.
She was probably afraid that if she opened the door, she would run into the same situation as before.
She had been lucky the first time, as both men had their backs to her.
If it happened again, the situation would be unpredictable and much more dangerous.
Sean Hughes knocked. After a look to the left and right, Zoe Sawyer slid her key out from under the door.
Sean Hughes was at a loss for words as he watched the key being painstakingly pushed from beneath the door.
But, understanding Zoe Sawyer's apprehension, he didn't say anything. He just picked up the key, unlocked the door, and went inside.
As soon as they entered, they saw Zoe Sawyer sitting on the floor not far away, staring blankly at the phone beside her.
The phone screen was still on the call interface.
"Zoe Sawyer? Are you okay?" Sean Hughes asked with concern, crouching beside her.
"Officer Hughes, you're here," Zoe Sawyer said, patting her face. "The video's on the phone. You can watch it yourselves. It was just... a lot to take in. I need a minute."
'I've seen plenty of gore in movies and on TV, but at least there's a screen in the way. You know it's fake, so the shock isn't as intense.'
'But this was thrown right in front of me, not even a meter away!'
'If I hadn't remembered not to scream and give myself away, I would have cried out long ago.'
Evan Keller shot Sean Hughes a look, signaling for him to comfort Zoe Sawyer.
He then pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket, put them on, and carefully played the video on the phone.
After watching the video, Evan Keller's expression was calm, but the way he kept dragging the progress bar back to the beginning betrayed his urgency.
Finally, on the nineteenth viewing, Evan Keller noticed something different.
At the very edge of the frame, there appeared to be several large hooks.
"Miss Sawyer, over here in the video... is there something here?" Evan Keller paused the video at that exact second and held the phone out to Zoe Sawyer.
Zoe Sawyer, who had since calmed down thanks to Sean Hughes's reassurance, frowned and tried hard to recall what she had seen as she looked at the phone Evan Keller was holding.
"There is! I remember it clearly!" Zoe Sawyer's voice was firm as she recalled the scene. "It's not in the recording because I was afraid that moving too much would draw their attention, but I saw it with my own eyes!"
The video might not have captured it clearly, but with her razor-sharp vision, she had seen it perfectly.
Furthermore, Zoe Sawyer realized she now remembered what she'd seen with perfect clarity, as if recalling it from a photograph.
"Alright. First, come with us to the station to give a formal statement and tell us everything you know."
"Your ability is still unstable, and we don't know its specific triggers. It would be best for you to wait until this case is closed before you leave," Evan Keller said with a serious expression as he placed Zoe Sawyer's phone into an evidence bag.
'Trigger conditions?'
Zoe Sawyer thought about how both times she had stumbled right onto a crime scene. 'Could the trigger be that someone has to be in the middle of committing a violent act?'
'But Ardane is a huge country. Vicious crimes like this must happen fairly often.'
'Could there be other conditions I'm missing?'
'And another thing... does it work on any kind of door, or only the doors to rooms?'
Zoe Sawyer shook her head, pushing the thoughts from her mind.
'No use overthinking it now. I'll just wait for it to happen a third time and try to find a pattern then.'
Evan Keller and Sean Hughes flanked Zoe Sawyer as they walked out, making sure she didn't touch the doorknob.
Downstairs, a few of the neighborhood ladies who were gathered and chatting saw Zoe Sawyer being escorted by the two officers and asked curiously, "Sawyer, dear, what did you do to get taken away by the police?"
Sean Hughes quickly explained, "Miss Sawyer was the one who filed the report this morning. We just need to go over a few more details with her."
"Of course, if any of you have any leads, please don't hesitate to contact us."
Zoe Sawyer would be coming back to live here, after all. If he didn't clear things up, there was no telling what kind of vicious rumors might start.
"Oh, I see. Well, we won't keep you then."
The woman who had started the conversation gave an awkward laugh, offered a few platitudes, and then scurried away.
'Who knows what else is going on here. Better not to get involved, or we might get targeted ourselves!'
"Let's get going. That young woman from the next complex over still hasn't been found. Her family's worried sick."
"Didn't they report it? Have the police made any headway?"
"Who knows? I haven't heard anything, anyway."
"Several people have gone missing recently, men and women both. We really have to be careful."
As they left, a few fragments of the conversation drifted over to Zoe Sawyer, making her glance back.
'I saw that in the news, but wasn't that a month ago?'
'They still haven't found a single person?'
Sean Hughes noticed her look and explained, "That case is being handled by another team, so we're not too clear on the details. After we get your statement, I can ask around for you."
He said that, but all three of them knew the prognosis for the missing people was likely grim.
To disappear completely under the current nationwide surveillance network—without spending money, using the internet, socializing, or even leaving the house... the chances were practically zero.
Soon, the three of them arrived at the police station, and the formal interview began.
Zoe Sawyer described to Evan Keller and Sean Hughes what she had seen.
"In the far corner, the part that wasn't in the video, there were several large iron hooks hanging. Next to them were a few water pipes," Zoe Sawyer said, describing the scene from memory to the officers before her.
Suddenly, it clicked. Zoe Sawyer finally remembered why those large iron hooks looked so familiar!
'Aren't those the same kind of hooks I've seen butchers use to hang pigs and sheep, to make them easier to work on?!'
Zoe Sawyer didn't keep it to herself, immediately telling Evan Keller what she had realized.
"That's a definite possibility," Sean Hughes said, slapping the table. His eyes were sharp. "We could tell from the video that their accents are clearly local."
'Excellent!'
'We finally have a breakthrough!'
"Liam, run a check on all the slaughterhouses and industrial plants in the city. I want a list of all of them, active and abandoned," Evan Keller ordered without wasting a second, turning to Officer Lee, who was scribbling furiously in his notepad.
"Yes, sir!"
Just then, an exhausted-looking officer walked over and happened to glance at the screen.
"Wait a second!"