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Disclaimer: This story is purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual individuals or events are purely coincidental.
E.D.N.Y. Courtroom No. 9.
Brooklyn wanted to help Mr. Jones.
After a morning of trial, he had figured out that both spouses had affairs, and not just once.
The only difference was that the wife caught her husband in the act, while the husband had nothing on her.
Therefore, Brooklyn could not help Mr. Jones.
He regretfully announced that Nicole had won the case, and Mr. Jones could not obstruct the divorce or bother Nicole anymore.
After sending the bizarre couple away, Brooklyn quickly invited the next pair.
This was a case he liked.
The driver hit someone with their car, and the victim demanded compensation, but the driver denied responsibility.
This case was straightforward, without emotional issues involved. All Brooklyn had to do was present the facts, reason logically, and provide evidence.
Brooklyn loved these kinds of cases!
God knows how much he had suffered during divorce cases.
He was not an emotional mediator, and this was not a family mediation program!
Based on the evidence provided by the dashcam and the police, Brooklyn quickly cleared up the case and announced that the victim's claim for compensation was valid.
This case seemed to be a start, and then he reviewed three more cases, all of which went smoothly without any appeals or refusal to comply with the verdict by the parties involved. Of course, there were no emotional issues involved...
As the time was approaching six o'clock, Brooklyn stopped the assistant judge's plan to bring in more parties involved.
"You go and tell them that the remaining cases will continue tomorrow," he said, while silently sighing to himself.
Indeed, it was the federal court of New York City, which was quite different from the local courts.
The cases he had presided over today could have been formal trials with a jury summoned if they were held in some remote areas.
However, these cases are just a small part of the fast-tracked cases in E.D.N.Y.
With these thoughts in mind, after the assistant returned, Brooklyn announced the end of today's work directly.
Returning to the office, he took off his robe, changed into his own clothes, and after some consideration, he grabbed the complaints and stuffed them into his briefcase.
Just as he was preparing to leave early, the office door was pushed open.
"Is there something, Ruby?"
"I'm sorry, Brooklyn."
Ruby stood hesitantly at the door, stammering and fidgeting before finally blurting out her words.
Brooklyn's mind was initially peaceful, even a little cheerful, but when he heard her words, the alarm bells rang instantly.
"What?"
Brooklyn sat calmly without getting up.
"It's about Selena. I'm sorry."
His alertness level dropped a bit.
"It's nothing. It's all in the past."
He had awakened this part of his memory when he saw Ruby in the morning.
Back then, his judicial assistant had resigned due to illness, and at that time, Criman Paul was still the chief judge of E.D.N.Y., and Ruby was still the chief judge's assistant.
That was not a small position.
At the time, Brooklyn needed a judicial assistant, but Criman was busy with a pending murder case involving minors and had no time to deal with him. Instead, he asked Brooklyn to find Ruby, who then arranged for Selena to work for him.
"You still need a judicial assistant over here..."
"I don't want to find anyone else for now."
Brooklyn waved his hand to stop Ruby from continuing.
Ruby left with a slight sense of disappointment.
Ruby stood at the door, while Brooklyn sat inside, a distance of more than ten meters between them, and he could not see Ruby's movements throughout.
After seeing Ruby off, Brooklyn quickly grabbed his file bag, locked the office, and rushed downstairs.
"Hey!"
Brooklyn stood in place, feeling a bit embarrassed. He wasn't sure whether to leave or stay.
As he rushed into the parking lot to get into his car and go home, he saw someone wearing a helmet on the muscular motorcycle parked next to him
Upon seeing Brooklyn, Michael appeared to be very happy. He took off his helmet and happily greeted Brooklyn.
"I..."
Brooklyn pointed to the car, hesitating about how to explain.
"Before becoming a judge, I wrote a letter to the government proposing to change the end of work time to 5:30 pm."
Michael smiled and said, "They didn't agree. At that time, I was determined to leave work at 5:30 pm."
"Now we've achieved it."
Brooklyn nodded with a perfunctory smile.
How should he respond? Agree or refute?
"Oh, do you know Ruby? She's my assistant."
After laughing, Michael still held his helmet and started a topic about Ruby.
He didn't seem to be in a hurry to go home as if he planned to chat with Brooklyn until tomorrow morning.
"Well, she's been working in E.D.N.Y for over twenty years."
"She's very diligent."
Michael commented, and suddenly changed the subject.
"Is she married?"
Brooklyn was stunned by the question, and couldn't help but look up and down at his direct superior.
Is this the reason why Criman's assistant hasn't been replaced?
"Hey! Don't look at me like that."
Brooklyn's gaze made Michael a little unhappy, and he complained.
"You see, I'm single now, and if she's single too, there's nothing wrong with it, right?"
"She is indeed single, but you should ask her about it, Michael."
Michael got off the motorcycle and hugged Brooklyn's neck.
"Come on, I'll treat you to dinner and we'll talk more about Ruby."
Saying that Michael hooked his arm around Brooklyn and walked towards the parking lot exit.
It was 10 o'clock at night.
Brooklyn only returned to his apartment.
Michael took him to a Mexican restaurant, talked to him about Ruby all night long, and didn't let him leave until the restaurant closed.
After taking a shower, Brooklyn lay tiredly in bed and quickly fell asleep.
The indictment brought back lay quietly in the briefcase, without a single word read.
...
New York Police Department.
The members of the homicide team gathered in the conference room.
"He's still in prison. The guard says he's not behaving abnormally."
As he spoke, Chris handed a list to David.
"This is his visitor list."
David glanced at the list and handed it to the team.
"Check these people out."
"We've been to the scene, and our preliminary judgment is that it's a copycat."
"The rose petals used are the same variety as Harn's."
"The red wine is cheap wine from the supermarket."
"The murder weapon is clean, and the technique is just as professional as Harn's."
He picked up one photo after another and posted them on the whiteboard, explaining.
"The victim's name is Ruth, female, 47 years old, married, unemployed, housewife."
"She doesn't have red hair."
Chris looked at the photo of the victim and interjected.
"That's right, she doesn't."
"If the copycat is really copying Harn, then he should prefer golden hair."
David affirmed.
One reason why the Red Devil was called the Red Devil was that he chose targets with red hair.
The targets the Red Devil chose were middle-aged women, married, unemployed, and housewives.
He would dress up as a plumber or another type of worker, get close to his target, and seduce them.
If the target showed disgust for his seduction, he would give up on the target.
If the target responded to his seduction, Harn would tie them to the bed, spread rose petals, open a bottle of red wine, and insert a knife into their genitals.
He would drink wine and play "Für Elise" while waiting for the victim to die, then clean up the scene and leave.
Harn's target's hair color might have slight differences. According to testimony, he assigned each victim a number.
For example, "No. 3: Rosy Red."
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