Chapter 386

? Harvey Street.

The vice squad led the way to the scene of the crime.

Getting out of the car, he looked around the scene but didn’t see the expected cordon, removed?

Nope, more like it had been artificially vandalized.

Who is so bold?

A fire rose in the vice squad’s heart.

The location marked with a white pen and the victim’s location had also been artificially destroyed, the vice squad’s face grimaced, the old man himself was not a good temper, he had asked the relevant officers at the Patrol Division when he arrived, and because this street was relatively remote and could be bypassed, the scene had been asked to be retained for 18 hours.

The Robbery and Murder Division people were able to learn more about the case based on the location marked on the scene, but now that the scene had been artificially damaged in less than 12 hours, the Vice Squad was furious, and the consequences were dire.

The Vice Squad instructed the team to search the surrounding surveillance and walk around the area looking for witnesses from last night or the person who damaged the scene.

The vice squad pulled a box of gum out of their pockets and threw two into their mouths, chewing the gum while observing the scene.

The scene is labeled in white marker with the location of the two cars, the location of the dead man, and the lieutenant is experienced enough to backtrack from the fact that the dead man was shot in the back to where the killer is located.

The vice squad searched in the direction of the murderer, this is not far from the victim, only about ten meters away, the murderer fired four shots and was hit by two, indicating that the shooting skill is not very good.

There was no surveillance around the scene, and no suspicious items were found on the ground, and even if there were, they were probably taken away by the Patrol Department last night. The Vice Squad didn’t give up, and continued to search ahead, entering an alleyway.

He followed the alley for a few dozen meters, found a few scattered cigarette butts on the wall, here from the scene of the crime is not far, you can also see the police car and the suspect vehicle, the vice squad took out a transparent plastic bag will be the cigarette butts into it.

The vice squad carried the bag and walked to the entrance of the alley, Xiao Hei came over, “Vice squad, we caught the guy who broke the cordon.” As he spoke, Blacky pointed to a man of Mexican descent not far away, “That’s the guy, he owns the restaurant down the road.”

“How did you catch him?”

Blacky bristled, “A witness saw it when we visited, the owner of the hardware store next door.”

“What a good neighbor.” The vice squad said and handed the plastic bag in his hand to Xiao Hei, “This was found in the alley next door, hand it over to the tech squad.”

“Okay, Lieutenant.”

The vice squad walked over to the arrested Chicano restaurant owner and asked, “What’s your name?”

The Chicano owner had a big belly, the right side of his eight-pointed beard was slightly raised, and he had a heavy accent, “Reilly Santos.”

Seeing him like that made the lieutenant feel even worse, and he gave him a straight-up hatchet job, “Did you kill that patrolman?”

“No, my restaurant was closed at the time, I wasn’t even here.”

“Then where were you?”

“I was at home.”

“Who can testify to that?”

“My father, my wife, and my daughter can all testify that I couldn’t have killed the cop.”

“Then what is your relationship to the murderer?”

Disgruntled, Reilly Santos said, “I’m not related to the murderer? Nor do I know the murderer.

Why do you ask that? Is that slander?”

The vice squad pursued, “If you have nothing to do with the case, why did you vandalize the scene?

You are obstructing the police investigation and indirectly helping the murderer.

Therefore, I have reason to suspect that you have something to do with the case and may even be the murderer’s accomplice.”

Reilly Santos was anxious, “You can’t accuse me so wrongly!

I’m innocent and have nothing to do with the case that killed the police officer, and I didn’t think about destroying the scene, it was an accident.”

“But it’s a fact that you destroyed the cordon? Why did you do that? If you can’t give a reasonable explanation, I’ll have no choice but to arrest you under the law.”

Reilly Santos pointed at his restaurant and said with some chagrin, “I’m a businessman, and this cordon is just blocking the front of my restaurant, which not only affects my ability to get goods in, but also affects my business.

I thought you police had already investigated and that’s why you removed the cordon.

It’s almost noon, no one will patronize my restaurant if the customers see the cordon blocking the front of the restaurant, and I had no choice but to do so.”

The lieutenant grunted, “That’s your reason?”

“Yes.”

The lieutenant nodded, “Escort him into a police car and bring him back to the station.”

Reilly Santos shouted, “I’m telling the truth, I had nothing to do with the murder of the patrolman, I only took off the cordon because it was interfering with business.

Don’t bring me back to the station, please.”

This reasoning made the vice squad even more angry, deliberately destroying the cordon just so they could increase customer traffic? Couldn’t wait one noon?

The vice squad waved his hand, making up his mind to teach him a lesson and make him learn a lesson.

Robbery and Murder Division, 1st Squadron Office.

Luke and the Vice Squad and others returned to the office one by one.

Reed also walked in carrying a takeout bag and casually placed it on a vacant table, “Guys, lunch is on me today.”

“Thanks.” Luke took a taco out of the bag and took a big bite, eating it with gusto.

The takeout bag had tacos, a burger, and pizza.

The others chose their favorites and chowed down, it was almost one o’clock now, and after a morning of checking out cases, they were already hungry.

Reed took a coke and burger and ate with the crowd as well.

A burrito is simply not enough for Luke to eat, he quickly ate the burrito, and then took a piece of pizza, french fries, Coke, after eating all these is only seventy percent full, good thing not hungry, first pad it pad it, and then talk about it in the evening.

Reed finished eating, wiped his hands, looked at Luke and inquired, “Any progress on the morning’s investigation?”

Luke yawned, “I was at the southern precinct all morning today, making a trip to the night detective department, the identification section, talking to the deceased’s partner, and finally going to the coroner’s office to view the deceased’s body.

At the same time, I contacted the deceased’s family to get some information with them, but his family has not yet arrived.

While talking to the deceased’s partner, Timo Jensen, both Jackson and I got the feeling that the other was hiding something, and I asked Ramon and Jenny to keep an eye on him to see what he did next.”

Reed asked, “Keep an eye on the dead man’s partner? What’s wrong with him? How did you guys find out?”

Luke was analyzing through micro-expressions and felt at first that his partner was hiding something, as for Jackson, he was relying on his experience as a patrolman.

Luke gave Jackson a wink, signaling him to speak.

Jackson said: ”Director, I have also been a patrolman for a while, and I understand the situation of the patrol department better, the relationship between patrol partners is very close, it can be said that they are entrusted with their lives and deaths, and it is even closer than a husband and wife relationship.

Last night, the deceased and his partner chased after suspected illegal vehicles. They patrolled the streets all day long and had their own informants and channels, as well as the help of their colleagues.

If they did not have the slightest clue about the suspect in the red Honda, I absolutely do not believe it.

Afterwards, the captain and I also looked at their law enforcement recorders, and the deceased’s law enforcement recorder captured the appearance of a female suspect, which further solidified my suspicion.

I think the deceased’s partner, Timo Jensen, had enough to get hold of certain clues, and he refused to tell us, either because he had a ghost in his heart.

Either that or he wanted to investigate on his own and catch those two suspects himself to avenge his partner’s death.”

“Not bad, the analysis makes some sense.” Reed nodded and looked at Vince on the other side again, “Lieutenant, did you find anything on your end?”

“Caught one of the idiots vandalizing the cordon and the scene, plus I found a couple of cigarette butts in the alley at the crime scene, I suspect someone has been hanging out in the alley for a while.” The lieutenant walked over to the projector and set up a map, “Here is the crime scene, the suspect vehicle, and the location of the deceased.

And the alley where the cigarette butt was found is less than thirty meters away from the scene, so if I were the killer and wanted to attack the officers, there’s a good chance I’d hide in the alley.”

Reed frowned and asked rhetorically, “You think this is a premeditated murder!”

The lieutenant rubbed his chin, “I’m not sure, but killing a police officer is no small matter, and it stands to reason that there would have to be a great deal of thought before the shot was fired.”

Reed said, “If your analysis is correct and the murderer killed the patrolman with premeditation, then the driver and passenger of the red Honda were most likely accomplices, deliberately leading the patrolman to the murderer’s ambush site.”

Luke said smoothly, “Assuming, the vice squad’s guess is correct, killing a police officer is no small matter, so what was their purpose in doing so?”

Luke wrote the name of the deceased on the whiteboard and turned to Matthew, who was beside him, “Check the details of the deceased in the system and see if we missed any information.”

“YES, Sir.”

Luke instructed, “Jackson, play what the deceased and his partner Timo Jensen’s law enforcement recorder captured, so everyone can see what happened and what the female suspect looked like.”

Jackson stood up and played the contents of Timo Jensen’s law enforcement recorder first, the footage began with sitting in a police car, chasing the red Honda, then the red Honda in front of them stopped, the driver’s door opened and a man scurried out of the driver’s side and ran.

The police car stopped and Timo Jensen got out and chased after the driver.

The driver was not very old, estimated to be in his twenties, and ran very fast, in addition to being familiar with the terrain, Timo Jensen was very difficult to catch up with each other from behind.

The two ran across the opposite lane and entered a street with no streetlights, Timo Jensen took out his flashlight to continue tracking, turned another corner, and ran forward for some distance.

“Bang!”

A gunshot rang out.

Timo Jensen stopped, called for backup, and then returned to the location where the police car and suspect vehicle were located.

When he returned again, the dead man was on his back not far from the red Honda, blood oozing from his back and dripping all over the ground.

The contents of the law enforcement recorder were generally consistent with Timo Jensen’s description, and he did not lie in this regard.

The First Squadron then reviewed the decedent’s law enforcement recorder.

After Timo Jensen got out of the car, the decedent also got out of the car, walked over to the red Honda and searched it, and met a woman of Mexican descent inside the car while the law enforcement recorder captured the woman’s appearance.

The decedent then had the Chicano woman get out of the car, lie down on her stomach, and handcuff her.

“Bang, bang, bang, bang!”

After four gunshots, the deceased fell to the ground and the screen of the law enforcement recorder went black.

Because she was shot in the back, the law enforcement recorder was unable to capture the murderer.

After watching the two videos, Reed said, “Although it’s not possible to determine whether the two suspects in the red Honda are related to the murderer, from the content of the two law enforcement recorder videos, it can be ruled out that it was the two of them who shot the gun themselves.

The killer would have been a third person in the vicinity of the scene.”

Luke continued, “Only the blood of the deceased was found at the scene, and there was no blood of the arrested female suspect, which means the murderer didn’t hurt the other person.

From this point of view, the murderer wasn’t worried that the female suspect would betray him.

I guess both parties should know each other, or even have a more familiar and trusting relationship.

If the two parties are not related, there’s no reason for the murderer to leave behind a witness since he dared to kill a cop.

Therefore, the most important clue now is to find the two suspects in the red Honda, and by finding them, we can follow the trail to find the murderer of the police officer.”

Reed instructed, “Marcus, send the photos of the female suspects to the Technology Division in a moment, and have them use facial recognition to identify the female suspects as soon as possible.”

“Okay Chief.”

Reed looked at Luke on the sidelines again, “So, you also think this is a premeditated murder?”

Luke thought for a moment, “There’s no relevant evidence yet.

What I’m most worried about now is the murderer’s motive, will he continue to kill police officers?

This is something we have to guard against.”

“You’re right.” Reed’s face was grave as he exchanged a few words with Luke and then left the office with quick steps.

If, according to Luke’s speculation, there was a possibility that the murderer would continue to commit crimes, then the entire LAPD would be in danger.

This was simply a provocation to the entire LAPD.

No, a declaration of war!

Reed had to be cautious and give advance warning, or at least put every officer on alert to prevent another officer from being shot.

If it really was a series of murders targeting police officers, it would be a lot of fun.

“Ringing ……,” Luke’s cell phone rang.

“Hello.”

Jenny’s voice came from the phone, “Captain, we’ve been keeping an eye on Timo Jensen, and he’s got something here.

It’s likely that he’s found a lead in the case.”

“Where?”

The Ectorian neighborhood.

A black Ford Explorer entered the neighborhood with Luke in the passenger seat.

Driving a little further, Luke saw Jenny and Ramon’s car, and Luke lowered the window and exchanged a few whispered words with them.

Not far away, there were several patrol cars parked in front of a gray-roofed house, which, according to Jenny, would be where the suspects lived, and they had been hiding in the car to avoid being spotted by the patrols.

Luke and Jackson got out of the car, however, instead of going directly to check out the gray-roofed house, the two of them went to the neighbor’s house next to it.

At this point, there were a number of neighborhood residents watching the action, and Luke said to an older Mexican-American woman, “Ma’am, the peppers in your yard are growing nicely.”

The big Mexican mom smiled, “That’s thanks to the LA sunshine.

They don’t just grow well, they’re delicious too, and the neighbors around here love them.”

“I envy your neighbors.” Luke gave a pat on the back and turned the conversation around, “Do you know the family next door?”

“Recognize.” The older woman asked back, “What do you do?”

Luke flashed his badge, “LAPD.

Can you tell me about the family?”

“A young couple in their twenties, they love my chili too, is something wrong?”

“We’re investigating a criminal case and they are among those involved.” Luke nodded and pressed, “Do you know their names?”

“I only know the woman’s name, Salma Gonzalez.”

Luke pulled out a picture of the female suspect in the red Honda, “Is that her?”

Big Momma took a closer look, “Yes, it’s her.

Poor thing, I told you she should have stayed away from that guy.”

“Who are you referring to?”

“Who else could it be? Her boyfriend.”

“Don’t they have a red Honda.”

“Yes, I’ve seen that car parked in the yard, whether it’s theirs or not I don’t know.”

“Thank you ma’am, that’s an important clue you provided.” Luke left a business card and headed toward the Salma Gonzalez house next door.

Luke had just reached the door when he was stopped by a black patrolman, “Hey, there’s a case going on here, who are you guys?”

Luke flashed his badge, “I’m the Captain of Squadron One of the Robbery and Murder Division, get your man in charge over here.”

“YES, SIR!” the black patrolman blushed slightly and jogged into the house, when he came out again, he was followed by a white man in his forties.

The white man extended his right hand across the distance, “Captain Lee, I’ve heard a lot about you.

I’m Superintendent Henry Joseph of the Southern Division Patrol Department.”

Luke asked, “The deceased Jens Hauraige was one of your men?”

“Yes, he was a respected police officer and one of my most relied upon men …… unfortunately.” Superintendent Henry finished and tried, “Captain Lee, what brings you here?”

Luke said, “I’m investigating the murder of Jens Hauraige and happened to track down this address.

On the contrary, what brings you guys here?”