Animal Whisperer: Take Back My Life and Love Chapter 429: The Art of the Weld

The team members were visibly energized. "Officer Marcus, your connections are unbeatable! At this rate, we might identify the suspects before the other groups even finish their preliminary reports!"

Marcus looked at his efficient team, a wave of pride washing over him. The meeting had only been underway for an hour. Because of Simon’s arrogant promise, his rival would have to wait at least another sixty minutes to receive Nancy’s gathered intelligence.

Meanwhile, Marcus was already closing in on the killers.

…

On the other side of the building.

Simon’s group had been assigned a private discussion room equipped with the latest AR holographic projection system. All the files from the three-year-old Ghost Ship case, the crime scene photos, the evidence logs, and the complete laser-scanned reconstruction of the vessel were consolidated here in digital form.

With a single gesture, a massive holographic model of the Seabed-173 materialized in the air, allowing them to examine every detail from any angle.

The lighting in the room was soft, dominated by the glow of the holograms and the occasional sound of turning pages. Simon stood at the console, his deep blue uniform highlighting his broad, straight shoulders. He had rolled his sleeves up to his mid-forearms, and his fingers traced a floating structural diagram of the ship, his gaze focused and calm.

His team showed no signs of restlessness despite the delay. On the contrary, they had turned these two hours into a golden window for preparation. They were immersed in a sea of information, systematically reviewing every maintenance log, personnel transfer, and associated file since the Seabed-173 first entered service.

There was no noisy rush for results, only the steady labor of digging through details. Simon would occasionally look up to exchange a glance with a team member or issue a clear, low-voiced instruction. The entire group functioned like a precision instrument, piece by piece connecting the scattered threads of the case.

They were not waiting for information. They were ensuring they knew the heart of the mystery before the new data even arrived.

"Nancy’s intelligence is here!"

The moment the two-hour delay expired, Conan, the team’s tech expert, projected the animal intelligence onto the main screen. After a brief silence as they absorbed the transcripts of Nancy’s interviews with the dolphins and gulls, a low discussion broke out.

Conan was the first to summarize. "The number of suspects and the sequence of the crime are clear. Two divers entered from below and struck in succession."

Benson Morrison immediately pointed out the missing pieces. "We are still lacking two core elements, the identities of the killers and their motive."

Another member flipped through his notes. "The suspects are intimately familiar with ship structures and possess underwater welding skills. Experts like that are rare. The original investigation vetted every engineer and shipyard worker involved with the Seabed-173, and they all cleared the background checks."

"Wait."

Simon spoke up. The vast amount of data he had processed over the last two hours was clicking together in his mind. He stepped to the console and pulled up high-definition close-ups of all the maintenance welds on the hull.

His gaze settled on several seemingly ordinary patches. His voice was calm but certain.

"Perhaps we have been looking in the wrong direction from the very beginning."

The team looked up at him in unison. Simon pulled up the schematics of the Seabed-173. The diagram showed that besides the main door, the engine room had a small underwater access hatch for emergency maintenance.

"The killers likely entered here," Simon explained, pointing to the hatch. "This area is covered in welding marks because it requires frequent maintenance."

He then brought up crime scene photos from the original file, locking onto two relatively new weld points. "The file notes that these two points were recent. I suspect these are the points the killers resealed after they left."

A team member leaned in, looking confused. "But there are dozens of weld marks on the hull. These look identical to the others."

Simon didn't answer immediately. Instead, he pulled up high-definition microscopic comparisons of all the historical weld points.

"They are different." He pointed at the screen. "Look at the technique on these two new points. The direction of the ripples, the density of the pattern, and the way the arc was finished are identical. They were clearly done by the same person at the same time. But look at these..." Simon switched the image to older welds.

"These older points were done during our internal maintenance. The technique and the ripple patterns are completely different from those two."

The office went silent for a moment before a few gasps of realization broke the silence.