Chapter 37

Dave offered a greeting, “Good morning, Officer Luke.”

“How’s the recovery going?”

“It’s no longer a problem, I’m here to make a statement and ask about the progress of the case, did you catch the bastard?”

“No leads on Steven yet.” Luke responded, looking over at the white BMW, “Changed cars?”

“The car’s been a couple years, it’s been sitting in the garage most of the time, the Mercedes is still at the station, so I switched to this one.”

“I’ve always wanted a car, how does this one drive?”

“Not bad, 4WD, good visibility, and comfortable space. Want to try it?” Dave pulled out the car keys.

“Better not, the car is nice, but it’s out of my budget.” Luke sighed softly and said to Marcus, who was beside him, “You lead Mr. Dave to the statement.”

“Why don’t you go?” Marcus was a little disgruntled.

“I need to call my girl, is there a problem?”

Marcus squeezed his eyes, “Accept my challenge?”

“Don’t keep Counselor Dave waiting, GO,” Luke dismissed the two men with a wave of his hand.

Witnessing the two men up to the detective building, Luke walked over to the BMW to take a closer look, and tapped the back of the BMW.

Then dialed Susan’s number, “Captain, can you talk?”

“Just dropped off Mr. and Mrs. White, I’m alone now, go ahead.”

“I just found out about a situation that may be related to the Taser robbery, but it’s just my guess and there’s no definitive proof.”

“Where are you?”

“Downstairs at the Detective Bureau.”

“Why don’t you come up and say it?”

“The situation may have something to do with Attorney Dave, who just went upstairs to give his statement.”

“Give me five minutes.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later, Susan came downstairs.

Seeing that there wasn’t much around, Susan handed Luke a cigarette, “What’s Dave’s problem?”

Luke pointed to a parking space not far away, “Tony Weir’s homeless friend said that a rich man often visits Tony, and this man is dressed in a suit and his car is a white BMW X5.

Dave was just driving a BMW X5, and he owns the car.”

Susan frowned slightly, “Assuming your deduction is correct, Dave is not only Steven’s attorney, but he also knows Tony Weir, what is his role in this case?”

Luke analyzed, “First possibility, Dave has nothing to do with this case and just happens to know both men. Just because two suspects have a common acquaintance doesn’t mean that acquaintance is a suspect.

Second possibility, Dave is their accomplice.

Then the previous drama of Dave being kidnapped by Steven could have been self-directed by the two men, and explains why Steven didn’t kill anyone and just put Dave in the trunk to ‘fend for himself’.”

Susan preferred the second possibility and pressed on, “Dave is a lawyer, rich, powerful and well established, why would he do that?”

Luke thought for a moment, “Could it be that there is some kind of leverage on Steven? Or maybe there is some special relationship between the three of them.”

Susan walked over to the white BMW X5, “There are at least a few hundred of the same car in Los Angeles, that alone won’t prove that he was involved in the ‘Taser Robbery’.”

Luke suggested, “We can investigate privately and keep looking for evidence.”

The police had been looking for Tony and Steven, but there had been no sign of the two, and no leads on Alyssa.

Dave, however, was close by, and once they found out that he was involved in the case, they could follow the trail to the other suspects.

Susan agrees to Luke’s plan and the two return to the Heist and Murder Division as if nothing had happened.

In order to avoid being alerted by Dave, Luke didn’t try Dave again and sat at his desk dutifully looking up information.

An hour later, Dave left after making his statement, and Susan called the group together for a meeting.

Luke spelled out his speculation.

The crowd was a little surprised to hear it.

“Wow wow, the pants pissing lawyer becomes the final big boss, I like your idea.” Marcus smiled, then frowned.

“But there’s one thing I can’t figure out, we were the ones who saved him that day at the Gobi, and if we hadn’t found the Mercedes, he’d probably be stuck dead in the trunk.”

Luke guessed, “He probably locked the trunk because he heard the rescue vehicle.”

“His hands were cuffed to his back, a difficult position to be in.”

Luke continued, “Unlike handcuffs and duct tape, Dave could have handcuffed himself, he could have closed the trunk and then put on the handcuffs.”

Marcus froze for two seconds, “Seems like that’s what happened, so we were all fooled by this asshole.”

The lieutenant analyzed, “He managed to divert attention and get the police to lower their guard with the pants-wetting trick, and while people were laughing at him for peeing his pants, he’d already succeeded.”

Marcus was depressed, thankfully his face was dark not looking embarrassed, “I hate lawyers, they’re all a bunch of crooks.”

“Since everyone agrees with Luke’s speculation, the next focus of the investigation will be Dave, finding evidence that links him to the case.” Susan set the tone and went straight to assigning tasks,.

“Matthew, gather all the information on Dave.

Ramon, track the white BMW X5 through road surveillance.

Marcus, Jenny contact BMW, I want the BMW’s driving records for the last period of time.

Luke, David make a trip to the bank and investigate the flow of Dave’s large sum of money.”

“Yes, captain.”

Finally, Susan admonished, “Everyone play it smart, if Dave realizes we’re investigating him, not only will he spook us, he’ll sue us to death.”

The lieutenant laughed, “Captain, you’ve changed.

But I like it.”

Suburb of Los Angeles.

A dimly lit basement.

A woman with long blonde hair was curled up in the corner, and the wall lamp shone on her side face, which had a kind of pathetic beauty that gave birth to a desire to protect her.

“Cluck ……” First came the sound of the door opening.

“Ta-da ……” came another sound of footsteps.

“NoNoNo……” Alisa clasped her hands in front of her body, her two long legs trembling uncontrollably as a tear slipped from the corner of her eye.

“Cackle……” came the sound of another door opening.

“Alisa, I’m back. Bought your favorite dessert.” The man stood in the doorway, carrying a delicate cake box in his left hand.

The man set the box aside and changed into his slippers, moving casually, like a husband returning home from work.

“Alisa, do you want to eat now? Or should I chat with you for a while.”

Alisa looked up, gathering her courage, “Dave, why are you doing this? Are you going to kill me?”

Dave walked over to the bed, crouched down, and said in a soft tone, “I never thought that. Alisa, I love you. As long as you don’t do anything stupid, I would never hurt you.”

“What the hell do you want? Lock me up for the rest of my life? Is that what you call love?”

“No, you’re not calm right now, when you are, we can plan our lives again. Change places, change identities, and live the life we want.”

“Are you crazy? That’s not even possible. The police are probably looking for me, and if they catch you, you’ll go to jail.

If you let me go now, I can pretend nothing happened.”

Dave laughed, “Alisa, you’re dead. The police brass won’t waste too much money on dead people. In half a month at the most, the police won’t be looking for you again. I know them too well.”

“Why would the police think I’m dead?”

“It’s just a trick.”

“Even if the police don’t look for me, Steven won’t give up.”

“Comeon, don’t mention Steven.

He took forty thousand dollars from me and ran away, and is probably having a fling somewhere in Mexiga.

He doesn’t give a damn about you.”

“Why did Steven run away? What the hell did you do?”