But... this round of repeated questioning on the same issue still has to be done again; because “testimony” of this kind, when obtained from only one person, is of very low credibility.

Not to mention the possibility of “deliberate lying,” even just “memory” itself is a huge problem.

Human memory is far less reliable than people think. For example, right now, as you are reading these words, you probably can’t recall exactly what you had for lunch the day before yesterday.

Most people need about a minute to trace back to a specific memory point within the last forty-eight hours. If you can’t remember it within a minute, you might never recall it again, or... you’ll only get a so-called “rough,” “vague” impression.

Such an impression is less “memory” and more like a guess—based on your understanding of yourself and fragments of memories before and after, you make a conjecture.

This is the real nature of our memory: human memory is not black ink on white paper, nor is it data stored on a hard drive. Human memory is merely a fragmented puzzle pieced together from many key fragments. Our brains automatically treat experiences that are not particularly important as junk information, clearing them out to make room for what we consider more important.

If even experiences related to ourselves are like this, then... memories unrelated to you are even less reliable.

We often see in film and television that, during the trial of a murder case, a witness is asked to identify a suspect who flashed past them, maybe dozens of meters away, in the middle of the night several months ago... This is simply a joke. That witness probably can’t even remember their own hairstyle or what clothes they wore that day, and you expect them to recognize the face of a stranger they only glimpsed for a second?

Therefore, “testimony” or “memory” from a single person must always be questioned. Even if multiple people provide testimony about the same event, their statements must be compared and analyzed to determine the truth—if they completely contradict each other, at least one person is lying; if there are slight discrepancies but the main points match, it’s likely to be true; if they are exactly the same, seamless... that’s called collusion.

The account given by Logan Carter falls into the second category: there are slight differences from what the officer said, but basically, they’re talking about the same incident.

The main difference is that, in the officer’s version, the officer faced the FCPS agents with uncompromising integrity, writing tickets impartially, and when his gun and motorcycle were requisitioned, he acted very composed—putting on a cool face and saying coldly, “Hmph... then I’ll leave it to you.” That kind of vibe...

But in Logan Carter’s version, and according to nearby street surveillance... that kind of exchange probably only happened in the officer’s imagination.

In short, Logan Carter continued speaking, and when he got to the part about entering the Internet Addiction Center and seeing the bodies, he also shared with Scram his reasoning after seeing the first three corpses.

But Scram seemed rather unimpressed by this, and interjected, “Detective Carter, you just need to describe in as much detail as possible what you saw and heard there. The analysis will be handled by EAS specialists.” He paused for half a second. “Of course, I’m not questioning or denying your analysis or your professional ability. I just want to tell you... even if your speculation is correct, the analysis you provide will not be adopted by EAS, nor will it have any impact on our final judgment.”

Upon hearing this, Logan Carter was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Alright, I’ll continue.”

“Mm, please do,” Scram replied.

After a moment, Logan Carter continued, “After entering the main entrance of the building, the first thing I did was quickly check the rooms on both sides of the corridor where the bodies were.

“On both sides of the first corridor, there was a storage room, a reception room, and two offices. The electronic doors to those rooms were all open at the time, so I could enter directly. Upon inspection, there was no one in any of the rooms, and the furniture and items were all in their normal places—at least at first glance, there were no signs of disturbance or damage.

“After finishing the check, I proceeded further into the building. After turning the first corner, I found another body in the second corridor, with the same condition as the three in the previous corridor. Judging from the remaining head, it was a woman, about thirty-five to forty years old. I didn’t linger near her for long. There was only a storage room and men’s and women’s restrooms on either side of that corridor, and I checked those as well... they were also empty.”

At this point, Scram suddenly asked, “By the way... during this process, you didn’t try calling out to look for survivors, did you?”

“Of course not,” Logan Carter said. “Judging from the scene, the perpetrator probably hadn’t gone far, and might even have been hiding in one of the rooms, waiting to ambush the officers arriving at the scene, or looking for a chance to escape.”

“So, you moved in silence, right?” Scram asked.