"There is always some madness in love."
— Friedrich Nietzsche
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As the butterflies were removed from the woman's abdomen, Lynn suddenly noticed the Female Spirit's expression shift.
A faint tide of Death Power seeped out of her translucent form and flowed straight into Lynn's body.
At the same time, a soft glow wrapped around her figure—and her entire form gently dissolved into light.
Good grief.
Lynn was momentarily speechless.
So her obsession wasn't about catching the killer at all.. she simply wanted the butterfly inside her stomach removed?
Now that her wish was fulfilled, her spirit returned to the Realm of Death.
But the other three victims showed no sign of lingering souls.
How was he supposed to track the killer like this?
"No clues at all?"
Seeing Lynn lost in thought, George Stacy looked disappointed, but forced a reassuring tone.
"It's alright. Don't stress yourself. Maybe you've been too worn out these last few days—your usual investigative intuition might just be—"
Before he could finish, Lynn suddenly looked up at him.
"What do you think it means to put butterflies inside a corpse's stomach?"
"I don't know."
George Stacy raised both hands helplessly. "Maybe this deranged killer is trying to make some kind of… performance art statement? Most serial killers we've dealt with have bizarre fetishes or severe psychological issues after all."
"No. It's not that simple."
Even without the Female Spirit's guidance, Lynn wasn't someone who relied only on ghosts to crack cases.
Did they really think the wraiths did all the work?
"When I was in college, there was a girl from London who chased after me."
"In one of her love letters, she wrote: 'I like you. And whenever you smile, it feels like my stomach is full of butterflies.'"
"Later in bed—" Lynn caught himself and cleared his throat. "Ahem, later, I asked her what she meant."
Looking at George, Lynn continued, "She told me it was an idiom. Having butterflies in your stomach means you like someone, but you're anxious and unsure if they like you back."
"Oh?"
George blinked, stunned. "So you're saying… everything the killer did was to express love to someone?"
"If that's the case, then from the first victim to the fourth, each body represents the killer's shifting emotional state as he falls in love?"
"That should be it."
Lynn nodded. "Think about it. The first victim had wooden sticks jammed into her eyes. The killer might be expressing that when he first met the girl he likes, he fell for her at first sight. He kept staring at her, but she never once looked back at him."
"The second victim was beheaded. That symbolizes that after seeing the girl, he fell into obsessive, unrequited love—her image stuck in his mind day and night."
Before Lynn could continue, George cut in, "So he became desperate to know whether the girl liked him back, which is why he took the second victim's head."
"The killer confessed his feelings over and over in his mind, then became frantic wanting to know her true emotions. That's why he dug out the third victim's heart."
George's gaze shifted to the pile of dead butterflies taken from the fourth victim's stomach. "And this body's message is that the killer wants to express his anxious, fluttering feelings—his 'butterflies'—about this love."
Arms folded, George looked at Lynn with a grim expression. "It seems this killer is so infatuated that he's lost all reason. If we don't solve this soon, that girl will definitely become his next target."
Listening to the two of them deduce the killer's psychology with such seamless teamwork, the Medical Examiner beside them gaped, then finally gave a thumbs-up.
"No wonder the department has so many investigators, yet the Director paired only you two together and even gave you your own office."
"Even your salaries and bonuses are the highest in the entire criminal investigation department!"
"With this level of coordination and deductive skill, I'm honestly impressed!"
At the Medical Examiner's praise, Lynn and George exchanged a glance.
George genuinely admired Lynn's talent.
It was a pity the guy was such a womanizer—otherwise, he and Gwen would actually make a perfect match.
…Wait.
The moment George imagined his daughter someday falling into Lynn's "evil clutches," being tossed around by this shameless womanizer, his admiration instantly evaporated.
He glared at Lynn with undisguised hostility.
"Huh?"
Seeing George's expression shift from praise to pure disgust in less than a second, Lynn frowned. "George, are you going through early menopause? Why is your face changing that fast?"
"Get lost!"
Just thinking of his precious daughter, whom he had raised so carefully, ending up in Lynn's bed and being "ruined" by him made George's heart ache.
Especially in the past few days, Gwen had been asking him about Lynn with suspicious curiosity.
That alone had put George on full alert.
"Is something wrong with his head?"
Watching George turn away, Lynn pointed at him and said to the Medical Examiner, "Why don't you crack open his skull and check what's actually going on in there?"
The Medical Examiner merely lifted his hands helplessly.
...
Back in the office,
Lynn sat in his chair, opened a drawer, and pulled out a handheld game console.
While playing, he said, "The clues are gone for now. We'll have to wait and see if forensics finds anything."
George, already accustomed to Lynn gaming during work hours, sighed. "That's all we can do for now. Oh—Lynn, are you really sure you don't want to find a stable girlfriend?"
"What do you mean?" Lynn quirked an eyebrow, still playing the game.
"You can't keep living like this. Isn't it good to have a girlfriend, settle down, get married, have kids? Only when you hold your newborn for the first time will you understand what real joy is."
"Trust me, Lynn. That feeling—holding that tiny life in your arms and realizing you'd give up anything, even your own life, for them—it's something you've never experienced."
As George spoke, Lynn's hands paused mid-game.
On the game console's screen, the character Lynn was controlling died, the display fading to gray.
Lynn casually set the console aside. "I'm not cut out for settling down, George. I prefer living freely, without constraints."
"Life is fleeting—like autumn grass. Everyone's time is short, so of course we should live as vividly and broadly as possible, instead of marriage and children becoming shackles."
"Sweet shackles, maybe. But shackles all the same—and they're not for everyone."
George could only shake his head helplessly.
Lynn always had some twisted reasoning prepared to counter every bit of advice he offered.
He genuinely cared about his partner… he was a talented individual who aced all his exams, solved unsolvable cases as soon as he joined the NYPD, and reached this position at just 22 years of age. If he put his mind to it, he'd become the director, George firmly believed that.. and if Lynn could just settle down.…
He would honestly be the best match for his daughter, Gwen!
(Ay-yo💀 George needs to chill. Maybe the revelation of his daughter being Spider-Woman made him a lil crazy...)
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(づ￣ 3￣)づ
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