Jenn sighed quietly as she detected the slight disdain in his tone, hinting that he'd already guessed who Ray was. She turned to Ray and said, "Ray, meet Agent Warner."

Ray was already coming forward to greet him when Ben said, "Ah, the prime suspect." He spoke coolly, making no effort to hide the derision in his eyes. "I'm Special Agent Bennett Warner from the National Security Secret Service. How nice to finally meet you."

Ray's eyes narrowed at his unfriendly tone. Jenn decided to step in before it could get any worse. "In case you weren't informed by the general, Ray is no longer on the suspect list."

"Huh," Ben uttered indifferently. "Perhaps the general left out that part during the briefing. Sorry about that." He did not sound the least bit apologetic.

Jenn shot him a warning look before turning back to Ray. "Okay, now that you've met the both of them, why don't you go have some breakfast? J. Lee made some toast and fried eggs."

Taking the hint, her friend moved towards him. "There's fruit juice too," she said, steering Ray towards the dining table. "Let me know if there isn't enough food. There's still some bread in the kitchen."

In the meantime, Jenn turned to Ben, wearing a grim look. "You, come with me," she instructed in a low voice, striding towards the office.

"Your wish is my command," he replied smoothly, following her into the room. He shut the door behind him while Jenn started to speak.

"Mind explaining what that was all about?" she asked, crossing her arms in front of her. She had walked to the other side of the conference table, putting some space between them.

Ben let out a small sigh, dropping the arrogant façade. "Look, Catherine, Ray Darce might not be on your suspect list anymore, but he's still on mine. He has been in contact with the serial killer for more than three years," he explained, grimacing. "For all we know, his mind could have been twisted by the killer. I just thought that it would be better if we keep our guards up around him."

Jenn's eyes were on the floor as she slowly nodded, showing that she was listening. Then she looked up, meeting his gaze with a frown. "First of all, in this town, I'm Jennifer Cole, not Catherine Nelson. Do not address me by my alias here." She gave him a pointed look. "Second, Ray was under the influence of hypnosis and tricked into believing that he is the killer. He has no knowledge of the motive or method of killing of the serial killer. This means that he is actually innocent so we don't have to worry about him being a mole." She paused to let the words sink in. "Third, your attitude just now was not you being cautious around him. You were just being mean to him." She hardened her gaze, daring him to disagree with her.

Ben made a disgruntled sound. "Fine, I'll be frank. I don't trust him, okay? I don't know where this feeling come from, but I just don't like the guy." He was clearly trying to hide the confusion in his voice, but it sounded obvious to Jenn anyway. "And you can never know what he could be hiding from us. Better be careful," he added.

"I've talked to him about the murders – very thoroughly," she stated, exaggerating a little. "I would know if he is lying or holding back any information." She was trying her best to be patient with him. "If only you'd put your ego aside just now, you would have noticed how naive of a person Ray is. His credulity made him the perfect subject for hypnosis. That is exactly why the killer chose to hypnotise him."

"You hypnotised him too, didn't you?" Ben asked, frowning.

"Yes, but I did it to bring him here, not for the reasons you've implied," she replied calmly. "His mind wasn't under my influence when I questioned him."

"Then you can never be too sure if he's speaking the truth," Ben reasoned with her. "Subjects under hypnosis tell you what they believe. Ray Darce could be feeding you with lies or misleading half-truths from the killer. As long as they're commands from the killer, he could not disobey. For all we know, he's just a puppet of the hypnotist." Jenn held on to her point. "A subject cannot be hypnotised to do something that is against his moral values. And I can assure you that Ray is a good person."

Ben was silent for a few moments, his green eyes staring at her intently. Then he spoke again in a calm manner. "Jennifer, time changes people, you know that? No matter how close you both were or how well you knew him four years ago, he can never be the exact same person now, especially when his mind has been twisted and toyed with by a psychopath. God knows what he has been through these years under the influence of a cold-blooded serial killer. He might have been brainwashed or gone through torture when the serial killer dealt with him."

"I know," she answered. "But I've talked to him, really talked to him, about the case and his situation. I can assure you that he really is innocent."

Now that he was being his true rational self again, Jenn found it much easier to talk to him without getting irritated. This was who he really was, calm and sensible. He could be playful, humorous, and sarcastic at times, but personally she preferred it when he was just being himself.

"Okay," Ben said, breaking her reverie. "I trust you."

Dismissing the trail of thought inside her head, Jenn mentally kicked herself for being so careless. She shouldn't have let her mind wander like that. She gave him a diplomatic smile, trying to maintain her cool. "It's settled."

"I hope that you can extend the same courtesy to me. Just try to trust me like before." he slowly said, starting to move towards her.

Jenn could see where he was going with this. "Stop right there." There was an edge to her voice now. Squaring her shoulders, she continued in a business-like tone. "Let me make things clear. We're here to solve a case, nothing more. As high-ranked agents, we keep things professional between us. Period." Then she added, "When you learn how to behave, then we'll talk about my extending the same courtesy to you."

With that, she swept out of the room.

~

After her little chat with Ben, Jenn decided that it was time to get things back on track. She gathered everyone, including Ray, in the office to brief them on her progress on the case so far.

She started by sharing the information which she had managed to dig up in town during the last few days. She went into details about her visit to the crime scenes and what the witnesses had told her. Then she moved on to the confrontation at Ray's house. When she came across the part where she kissed Ray, Jenn saw a hint of s blush on Ray's face and Ben's lips were pressed into a thin line. Only J. Lee seemed unaffected after hearing about the incident.

She ignored their reactions and proceeded with the briefing. After all, they were a team, so nothing concerning the case should be kept hidden from each other. When she broached the topic about how the victims were killed, she made sure the others fully understood what she was talking about.

"Based on the autopsies, none of the victims had physical traumas, nor were there any drugs in their systems. The examiners couldn't find any cause of death after examining the bodies. However, I have an idea of how the killer did it, but it's just a hunch."

"Are you saying that you know the cause of death in the murders?" J. Lee asked.

Jenn answered with a nod. "Just a hunch, but I'm pretty sure that I'm right on track."

"Do share, then." Ben leaned forward in his seat with his elbows on the table, entwining his fingers as he stared at her expectantly.

Jenn smiled thinly. "Hypnosis."

At this point, Ray was completely dumbfounded. "H-how does that work?" His eyebrows furrowed, uncomprehending.

Ben and J. Lee seemed slightly confused, but they waited for her explanation.

"Okay, I'll try my best to explain this," she said calmly. "You see, the killer hypnotised Ray not only to let him take all the blame; he was also using Ray as bait to bring the victims to him. That was why the victims were seen leaving parties with Ray. When Ray got the victims alone, I believe that he chloroformed them, as suggested by the killer beforehand."

Ray was listening intently, fighting the doubts in his mind. A deep frown appeared on his forehead.

"After that, the victims were brought to the killer and Ray was dismissed immediately, so he would not know anything about the actual murders. Now the real thing begins. First of all, the girls were blindfolded so that they wouldn't see what the killer would be doing to them. Then the killer woke them up somehow and started putting them into trances," Jenn continued, keeping a close eye on Ray.

"If we look at the spots the killer chose to commit these murders" – she gestured to the map that she had put up on the board – "we can see that all the locations chosen were found in secluded and deserted areas. The killer took these spots and created the perfect environment for hypnosis, so it wasn't hard for him to reach into their minds. What the killer would mainly focus on was inserting negativity into their heads, convincing them that it was the end for them. When the girls had lost any hope of surviving, they would beg him to end their lives quickly." Her voice turned cold.

"At this point, the killer simply needed to trick them into believing that he had done it. I believe what the killer did was graze something against their skin. He must have used something hard with a rough surface but not rough enough to leave any mark on the victim. I think that he did this on their wrists because when the victims' bodies were discovered, the ropes that tied them to the chairs were too tightly tied around their wrists. This meant that the blood circulation at their wrists was mostly cut off so they could not detect his trick.

"In the end, all the killer had to do was to create a water dripping sound near them so that they would get the idea that they were bleeding to death. This was the critical moment of the murder. If the girls realised that the whole thing was a hoax, then they would be totally unaffected by the ruse. However, if the subjects were too deep in trance, they would only be immersed in the thought of losing their lives. Once they lost their will to live, their bodies reacted accordingly. Their hearts weakened, and their breathing became shallower." Jenn ended her speech.

"So the killer made the girls kill themselves," J. Lee stated flatly, but her expression was quizzical.

"In a way, yes," Jenn replied slowly, after a moment of consideration.

"Is that even possible?" Ben wondered aloud. "To use someone's mind against herself in such a way?"

"You'd be surprised what humans are capable of."

"Huh," Ben uttered, plainly trying to wrap his mind around this.

"So basically, we know that this serial killer is completely obsessed with hypnosis," Jenn concluded. "Noticing the patterns in his choice of victims, we know that he aims for redheads around the age of twenty. Perhaps it's because red hair is by far the most common hair colour in this town so the police can hardly narrow down the possibilities of the next target. It's also possible that the killer has a personal grudge against redheads. So we can't be sure of his motive yet.

"I have come up with a list of suspects based on what I've learned in this town so far. Ray is the key point. The killer could only hypnotise him if Ray trusted him. So I figured that the killer must be someone he's close to. The names on my list are—" The sound of her cell phone ringing cut her off. She saw Ray's tense body visibly relaxed at the interruption. That was odd.

Muttering an apology, she fished out her cell phone from her pocket and checked the caller ID. It was Agent Turner. What impeccable timing he had. She spoke smoothly as she answered the call. "Agent Turner." Ben cocked an eyebrow at her at the mention of the name, but Jenn kept her expression neutral.

"Jumping Spider," Agent Turner greeted back, his voice stiff.

"How can I help you, Agent?" Jenn asked as she stared ahead, not meeting anyone's gaze.

"I ... uh ..." As he hesitated, she heard him taking a deep breath. "First things first, I'd like to ... apologise for the misunderstanding that I caused yesterday. I ... I sincerely did not mean to complicate things for you."

Something told her that the general had given Agent Turner a call after she had explained the situation to him.

"And, uh," Agent Turner uttered awkwardly, "I promise not to make the same mistake again."

Her eyes were filled with mild surprise. Though she knew that he must have rehearsed his apology a few times before calling her, she could hear the sincerity and respect in his tone. Perhaps the general did trust her after all. And judging by his attitude just now, it seemed as if the agent was really trying to patch things up with her.

"Okay, I accept your apology," she said at last. Jenn heard him heaving a huge sigh of relief, and she laughed quietly, shaking her head. "But from now on, if we're going to work together, your lack of trust has to be dealt with. Understood?"

"Crystal clear," he replied instantly.

"Good. Now, get to the main point, why did you call me?"

"Oh, the main point – right." Agent Turner stumbled over his words. "I think it will be easier to explain things after you get here. I'll text you my current location."

Her ears pricked at his words. "What happened?" she demanded.

"We've got another murder."