Chapter 211

False.

Although Maxine hadn’t seen it, judging from the other party’s profession, Luke still trusted her words more.

If the suspect really used props, there were three possibilities in Luke’s opinion.

The first possibility, the suspect had mental problems and was a pervert.

The second possibility, the suspect has physical problems and can’t.

The third possibility, the suspect is a woman.

The first and second scenarios require checking whether the male involved has similar tendencies, and also investigating whether there are any relevant case files or medical records.

The third scenario, line up the suspicion of the female involved.

Taken together, Luke feels that the third scenario is greater.

First of all, first analyze the 6.25 car robbery and rape case, the female involved in the case, in addition to the victim Maxine, there is also a male victim Abal Flick’s wife.

If Mrs. Flick had known that her husband was looking for a young lady, it might have been possible to retaliate against the other in this way.

But it would be a little hard to justify the suspect committing the crime again on June 28th and also killing the second male victim, Barron Smith.

At least for now, there seems to be no obvious relationship between the two parties, and there is insufficient motive.

Luke felt that she wasn’t too much of a suspect.

Plus the June 28th car robbery and rape case of the people involved in the case, which female including the victim Shirley, from the mouth of the eyewitnesses can be ruled out Shirley’s suspicion, then the rest of the female involved in the case there is a male deceased Barron Smith’s wife.

Luke gave a statement to Mrs. Smith, a female doctor at Maynes Hospital, full name Zoe Smith.

According to her description she was not in the city of Los Angeles on the night of the murder, but was in the city of Long Beach on business.

Mayence Hospital has a branch in the city of Long Beach, and a patient at the branch needed surgery.

On the morning of June 28, she arrived at the Long Beach branch of Maynes and first gave the patient a full body examination to make sure that the patient was physically able to perform the surgery.

That night, she checked into the Long Milan Hotel in Long Beach, spoke to the victim, Barron, on the phone at 8 p.m., and by 9 to 12 had gone to bed.

She had to be at the hospital early the next morning for pre-surgical preparations.

The first time he gave a statement, Luke didn’t see any signs of lying on the other side.

However, Zoe Smith was motivated to commit the crime, her husband Barron went behind her back and car sex with the female victim Shirley, she had enough motivation to get back at her husband.

The premise was that she knew about her husband’s cheating.

The main reason why the police did not include her in the key investigation at that time was because the female victim, Shirley, was raped by the murderer, and she thought that the murderer was a man, and the police also put the investigation focus on the male suspect.

Now with the clues provided by another female victim, Maxine, that the murderer is likely to be a woman, then Zoe Smith’s suspicions have risen.

The first thing to line up was Zoe Smith’s alibi.

The city of Long Beach is the second largest city in Los Angeles County and not far from the city of L.A. Luke checked online and it was just over an hour’s drive from the Long Milan Hotel in Long Beach to Carbon Hill in the city of L.A..

The time it took to kill someone back and forth was more than enough and did not delay the surgery the next day.

Luke then reported the situation to his captain, and the two men discussed the situation and split the first squadron into three groups to investigate.

The first group was Susan, Vice, and Matthew, and the three of them were responsible for lining up males involved in the case for any mental or physical problems, as well as ex-convicts with relevant records.

The second group was Ramon, Jenny, and Jackson, who rushed to Long Beach to investigate, mainly investigating whether Zoe Smith had left the Dragon Milano Hotel on the night of the murder and whether she had an alibi.

The third group was Luke, Blackie, who was responsible for investigating Zoe Smith’s situation in the city of Los Angeles.

First, Luke investigated the sedans in the Smiths’ names, two in total, one of which was a Mercedes S, the car that the deceased Barron Smith was driving at the time of the murder.

The second was a BMW X6.

Assuming that Zoe Smith was the killer, she would certainly have had to return to the city of Los Angeles from Long Beach to commit the crime.

She would definitely need transportation, and most likely it would be a car.

So, Luke and Blackie started to line up surveillance near the crime scenes on June 25th and June 28th.

On June 25th, focusing on the Mercedes and BMW X6, Zoe Smith is likely to drive one of the sedans to commit the crime.

On June 28th, only the BMW X6 was examined because the Mercedes was driven by the deceased Barron Smith.

Of course, the possibility of the suspect driving another vehicle cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile the cars that had been present at the two scenes were also the focus of the lineup.

Luke and Blackie had been canvassing all afternoon and found no trace of a suspicious vehicle.

On the contrary, there was progress in the investigation on Raymond’s side.

According to the surveillance of the Dragon Milan Hotel, Zoe Smith was suspected to have left the hotel after seven o’clock in the evening and returned to the hotel after five o’clock in the morning.

The reason why I say suspicious is because there was no surveillance video at the entrance of the hotel room where Zoe Smith was staying, and Zoe Smith had gone through the process of dressing up and intentionally wore a domed visor, so the police were unable to recognize her appearance from the surveillance.

However, from the suspicious person’s physical size and the floor where he was located, it is presumed to be Zoe Smith.

Whether this can be used as incriminating evidence is still a toss-up, but it is enough for the police investigation to surmise that Zoe Smith’s alibi is questionable.

Then, the police’s next investigation will also focus on Zoe Smith.

In addition, after Raymond investigated the hotel surveillance, he found that Zoe Smith did drive a BMW X6 when she entered the hotel, but did not drive that BMW X6 when she left midway through the night.

Obviously, Zoe Smith had other means of transportation.

Luke guessed that in order to avoid being captured by the surveillance near the crime scene, Zoe Smith probably chose other vehicles to commit the crime.

Two possibilities, the first borrow someone else’s car to commit the crime, such as a friend or family member.

The second possibility, renting a car to commit the crime.

Luke preferred the second.

Luke then rushed to the rental car company to investigate.

There is a certain market for the car rental industry in the United States, and there are quite a few large car rental companies that have operations all over the world.

It was very convenient and could be done by placing an order on a website.

Luke and Blackie both went to one of the biggest car rental companies in Los Angeles to investigate, this car rental company is called Herez, based in Los Angeles, there are some local tax exemptions, so it is more competitive than other car rental companies, with medium and high-end cars.

Luke and Blackie arrived at Herez, showed their badges and search warrants, searched the company’s customer list for Zoe Smith’s driver’s license, and found two rental car records.

The first car rental.

Car rental, June 25, 8:00 a.m. to June 26, 8:00 a.m.

Pickup location, downtown Los Angeles.

Car type, black Audi A6

Second rental.

June 28th, 8am to June 29th, 8am.

Pick up location, Long Beach.

Car model, gray BMW 5 series.

The two rental car records and the time of the crime coincide, and Zoe Smith is very cunning, Caboolture Hill, the traffic is not small, the two rental cars are not the same, the police, even if compared to the two crime scene near the surveillance, but also difficult to find people car.

Checked the rental car records, basically has been able to determine the suspicion of Zoe Smith’s crime.

Subsequently, Susan was responsible for applying for an arrest warrant, and Luke was responsible for laying out the arrest.

Maynes Hospital, outside the operating room.

The indicator sign for the operating room was on.

There were several people waiting outside the operating room, either standing or sitting, all of them were full of anxious looks, they should be the patient’s family members.

The only two men who looked calm were Luke and Blackie, who had come to arrest the suspect.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the indicator sign in the operating room dimmed.

The family members all hurriedly crowded to the entrance of the operating room.

“Cluck ……” the door to the operating room opened.

A doctor wearing a surgical gown walked out, took off her mask, and before she could speak, the surrounding family members asked, in a chorus of voices

“Dr. Smith, how is my father’s condition?”

“Dr. Smith, was my father-in-law’s surgery successful?”

“Dr. Smith, how is my grandfather doing?”

Zoe Smith said, “The surgery was successful, the patient’s condition is basically stable, but he will have to be observed in the operating room for half an hour.

You guys don’t have to worry too much.”

“Thanks.”

“Thank you so much.”

“Thank you very much.”

Zoe Smith nodded her head in greeting, her gaze inadvertently sweeping over Luke and Blackie and freezing.

After a while, Zoe Smith came back to her senses and took the initiative to walk over, “Lieutenant Luke, are you guys here to see me?”

“Mrs. Smith, we would like to talk to you.”

“Okay, I’ll go change my clothes first.”

At Luke’s gesture, a policewoman came around the corner of the corridor and followed Zoe Smith to change her clothes.

Zoe Smith just looked at it and didn’t say much.

On the way to the police station Zoe Smith was calm and didn’t take the initiative to ask why she was taken away.

Half an hour later, Zoe Smith was brought into the Detective Bureau interrogation room.

Luke got right to the point, “Ms. Zoe, do you know why we brought you to the station?”

“I assume it has something to do with what happened to my husband, have you found out who killed him?”

“Yes, we tracked her down.”

Zoe heard the difference in Luke’s words, “You think it was a female killer who killed my husband.”

“Yes.” Luke asked back, “What do you think about that?”

“I’m a doctor, not a police officer, it’s not my specialty, I just hope that my husband’s killer is found sooner rather than later so that his body can be put to rest soon.

I’ve had a hard time since he left, every day I think of him and what we had together.

It’s a good thing I still have a job and can keep myself busy, otherwise, I don’t know if I’d be able to hold it together.”

Luke kept watching her expression, it was flat and Luke could see no signs of lying.

“The last time I gave a statement, I asked you about your whereabouts on the day of the murder, June 28th, and you said you were in Long Beach on a business trip to perform surgery on a patient.

You returned to the hotel at 8:00 p.m. to rest and did not leave the hotel until the next morning, is that correct?”

“Yes. What’s the problem?”

“I’m going to ask you again, did you ever leave the Long Milan Hotel that night?”

“No.”

Luke pulled out a screenshot of the hotel’s surveillance video, “Is this the woman leaving the hotel wearing a domed visor you?”

Zoe took a look at it and blushed slightly, “It’s not me.”

Lies.

Luke had been watching her with micro-expressions; she had said earlier that she hadn’t left the hotel, and Luke hadn’t seen the signs of a lie.

But asking if the person leaving in the photo was her, she said no, and Luke saw signs of a clear lie.

That doesn’t make sense.

If she didn’t leave the hotel, then how could the woman in the hat leaving the hotel be her.

The only other possibility was that the micro-expression analysis had made a mistake.

But the problem is not big, micro-expression analysis is not to do scientific experiments, do not need to be 100% accurate.

Only need to find anomalies, in-depth investigation is yes, this thing is like looking for loopholes, other places to cover up again, as long as there is a little problem, that is a problem.

Luke pressed down the doubts in his heart, ready to investigate first, and then study the cause later.