芒種 [5] / [5]
Comparing DNA with several families who reported their family members missing, it turned out that the old man was the brother of an old lady currently living locally with her own family. He was apparently living with her as well, up until his disappearance. He had visited a video shop everyday to rent video tapes; most of them being pornos. One day he left home to go to the video shop, and didn't return.
The evidence they found was enough to prosecute Liza in court, as well as to justify future search warrants. By collecting those proofs against her, the trial procedure was made simple and quick. Liza's case was the rare one which had obvious proofs that didn't need any more confirmatory evidence. Even though they still had some work left to do―check the rest of videos, establish Liza's true identity more firmly, etc―they could pause to take a breath.
Everything seemed to be coming together nicely. Liza was in custody, and it didn't look like that was going to change anytime soon. Once sentencing was over, Sarah, or whatever name she chose to go by now going forward, would be lucky if she would ever see the outside of a prison cell again. Alexander was also feeling better knowing that she was off the streets.
Still, something didn't seem quite right, and that feeling was gnawing at him. A sense of foreboding, a tension for something yet to pass, perhaps an unexpected storm emerging from the calm. Alexander shook it off. It's nothing, he thought to himself, more, it seemed, to convince himself that was indeed the case rather than an expression of genuine affirmation.
It was already midnight when they got off after dealing with some minor things from work. Liza never answered about her identity nor about anything else for that matter, and the caller also didn't give any new information about her, not even her nationality. They couldn't even be sure she was a citizen of anywhere. She might be stateless. If she left her motherland in her youth before she registered as a citizen in her country of origin, and came to this country by illegal means, that was entirely plausible.