Chapter 402
“It didn’t happen that way, I’m not deranged enough to intentionally kill a police officer.
But some things are not for me to decide.
There is no perfection in this world.
There are no perfect cases either, and accidents can happen at any time.” Davo Galli sighed, “We didn’t want to rob at first, but we were going to take advantage of the security loophole of the Getty Museum to enter the museum and steal.
I used my position as a security consultant to get the museum’s floor plans, security distribution maps, door lock codes, and so on.
I was always careful, but I still felt targeted.
Jens Hauraki.
I’d seen him at the Southern Division, and perhaps out of police intuition, I felt he was suspicious of me.
It made me uneasy, worried that he’d found out about the evidence, even if he didn’t have enough to expose me before the murder.
Then after the theft of the museum painting, he might also guess on me.
For me, he is a time bomb.”
“So, you killed him?”
“No, I didn’t kill him.
I just told Gyorgy about it and he said he would take care of it.
The killing and planting was his idea and he sent someone to do it, I didn’t know about it until after the fact.”
“And the two hundred thousand dollars and the museum floor plan you had put in the warehouse rented by Jens Jauregui?”
“No, it was still Jauregui’s idea.
Although, I agreed to help him steal the painting.
But I’ve been a little hesitant to make up my mind completely for fear that it might be compromised.
Jorgi is a very scary guy, and seeing what I was thinking, he offered to kill Jens Hauraki to put an end to it.
At the same time, place some ‘stolen goods’ in Jens Haurage’s warehouse and plant the story that he was the mole, which would clear me.
I was convinced by him and had a few less worries.”
Luke pressed, “Who was the man who killed Jens Hauraki?”
“All I know is that it was at Jorge’s behest, and I’m not sure exactly who did it.
I don’t want to get too involved in this matter, otherwise, I will probably reveal my identity.” Davao Gali sighed, “I didn’t expect to be discovered by you guys after all.”
“You guys initially planned to burglarize the museum, but then why did you change to robbing the transported paintings?”
“I got the floor plan of the museum and the security arrangement plan, after Jorj and his accomplices studied it, they felt that the difficulty of the theft was too great, there are security guards on duty in the museum every day, once the theft fails it may be discovered by the security guards, when it comes to the time after that not only did we fail to steal the oil paintings, but we may also be caught.
After that, we had to change the program, in the process of transporting the oil painting robbery.
The security force is relatively weak, as long as we can be informed of the transportation route and time in advance, the probability of a successful robbery is high.”
“Do you know any other clues about the robber besides Gyorgy’s identity?”
“No, he’s the only robber I’ve come into contact with.”
“What about other strongholds?”
“I’ve only been to the blast stronghold, which is now destroyed as well.
I actually didn’t have much contact with them.
Other than Jorj, the other hijackers don’t know my identity either.
Likewise, I don’t know their identities.
It’s better for everyone.”
Luke said, “We want Jorgi’s picture and fingerprints.”
Robbery-Murder Division Office.
Luke called a meeting and got right to the point: “Slain patrolman Jens Jauregui was not the mole, we wronged him.”
Earlier, the Vice Squad’s investigation of slain trooper Jens Haurage had revealed that he had a storage unit which contained the Getty Museum floor plans and $200,000 in cash.
At the same time, Luke also found out that Jens Haurage went to work as a security guard at the Getty Museum because of the lack of money.
Combining the many clues, the Heist and Murder Division speculates that Jens Haurage’s behavior is suspicious and that he could be the robbing oil painting gang’s mole at the museum.
Now it seems they were wrong, the real mole was Southern Division Detective Davo Galli, who felt that Jens Hauragui was on to him, and had his accomplices take care of Jens Hauragui as a nuisance, and at the same time, in order to prevent the police from finding out that he was the mole, deliberately planted evidence on Jens Hauragui by placing the stolen money and the museum floor plan into his warehouse.
Needless to say, his methods were sinister, not only wanting the other party’s life, but also pouring dirt on them.
Not only Luke, everyone present felt a twinge of guilt and fear.
It was fortunate that the truth was found out, or else Jens Hauraige would have been wrongly accused.
As for Davo Gali’s confession, Luke didn’t fully believe it either, from the previous interrogation, Davo Gali chose himself cleanly and pushed Jens Hauraige’s death on his accomplice Jorgi, but in Luke’s opinion, Jens Hauraige’s death was definitely closely related to him.
The first order of business was to find the other robbers first.
Luke swept his gaze over the crowd, “The situation is clear to all of you, what’s your opinion?”
The lieutenant said, “What does that group of FBI mean?”
Luke said, “Probably because of the bounty, the FBI isn’t very eager to cooperate this time, everyone is on their own, whoever finds the oil painting counts.”
Jackson said, “If the FBI doesn’t want to cooperate, why would they agree to us interrogating Davo Galli together?”
Luke laughed, “You really think the FBI can be lawless.
Davo Galli is LAPD, and it’s not as easy as Anthony makes it sound to interrogate Davo Galli.
But it’s different with us present.
We’re LAPD, too, and there’s a lot less pressure on the FBI.
So he’s not doing this out of the goodness of his heart, it’s mutually beneficial.”
Porter said, “If Davo Galli isn’t lying, this Jorgi guy is probably the mastermind of the robbery.
We now have his photo and fingerprints, and we should make every effort to investigate his identity.
As long as we can catch him, we’ll be able to wipe out the gang of robbers.
It will also be possible to find the ten oil paintings that were robbed.”
At this time, Xiao Hei grinned his thick lips, revealing his big white teeth, and laughed, “Guys, I’ve poked around and found clues about the oil paintings.”
Seeing that the crowd was looking at him, Xiao Hei straightened his waist and continued, “Previously, I’ve been in the black market inquiring about the stolen belongings of Mr. and Mrs. Gray’s house.
This morning I received another piece of news, someone is selling an oil painting called Rome, the painter’s name is Svensson Pilger, also a very famous master of the Impressionist school of painting.
Last year, this painting was auctioned off by the Getty Museum for 4 million dollars.
It is also one of the ten oil paintings stolen this time.”
This was unexpected news, and Luke asked, “Who was the seller?”
“Jim, he runs an antique store called ‘The House of Oddities’.”
Luke smiled, “Doesn’t he also run a pawn shop?”
Black asked rhetorically, “You know him?”
Kiwi House Antiques.
A black Ford Expedition was parked nearby, and Luke sat in the car and looked at the antique store.
Earlier, Luke accidentally obtained a vinyl record and wanted to sell the vinyl record at a high price, and had inquired about the price at this antique store, and it was the owner Jim who received him at that time.
Jim offered four hundred thousand dollars, Luke thought it was not suitable, did not sell, ready to put it to the Kerrys auction house.
As a result, a thief ran to Luke’s house to steal that night, and that thief was Luke’s current informant, Annelec Lauer.
Anlek is given a hard time by Luke and explains that Jim hired him to steal vinyl records.
Luke found his old partner David, David took people directly to the pawnshop Jim operated, the industry is more or less fishy, David cleaned him up and found a charge to arrest in the police station.
Jim is a know-it-all, after being released on bail, he took the initiative to find Luke to admit his fault, but also in the auction house at a high price to buy vinyl records, the premium is very high, Luke made a small fortune.
Look at him so understanding, Luke also did not care about him.
I didn’t expect the bastard to start drumming up all this nonsense again.
Not far away, an old white-haired man in a suit skulked along the side of the road with a civilized stick in his hand, followed by a young white man who looked like an assistant of sorts.
The old white-haired man swept a glance at the black Ford Explorer and walked into the Kiwi House antique store with a leisurely step.
The antique store was not a small area, and a young Latin woman stood at the door, enthusiastically saying, “Two gentlemen, what do you want, I can introduce you.”
The white-haired old man didn’t say anything and circled around the antique store, stopping by a wall with oil paintings, “Is your boss in?”
“What do you want with our boss?” The Latin female receptionist asked.
“I’d like to buy a couple of famous oil paintings, and I’ve heard that your boss has access to them.”
“What type of oil paintings do you want?”
The old white-haired man raised an eyebrow and glared, “Are you the boss?”
The Latin female receptionist snapped and walked away, and before long, he led a black man over to him, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and a faint smile on his face.
“What’s the name, sir?”
The old white-haired man said, “My friends call me Old Vincent.”
“Jim.” The black man shook Vince’s hand, “I heard you wanted to buy a painting by a famous artist?”
“Yes, I heard from my friends that you have some famous paintings in your collection here.”
“At the risk of asking, what is the name of that friend of yours?”
“It’s my friend’s friend, it’s not quite convenient to say his name.” Vince showed a you-know-what expression.
“OK, then which famous artist’s oil painting do you want?”
“I prefer the works of Si Vince Pilger, the master oil painter of the early 20th century.”
Jim looked the white-haired old man up and down, “I also like this master’s paintings, it’s just that the price is a bit expensive.”
“Do I look like someone who lacks money?” Vince laughed, pointing at a few oil paintings on the wall, “If you only have such crappy paintings in your store, there’s nothing to see.”
Jim nodded with a smile, “OK, I’ll show you the other oil paintings, the real masterpieces.”
Jim led the two forward to the back door of the antique store, Jim looked at Vince and the young man following him, “Sir, the collection room is a bit small, it can’t accommodate too many people.”
Vince said to the white young man behind him, “Wait here.”
“Okay, sir.” The white man nodded and watched the two enter the back door of the curio store.
The back door of the curio store was a warehouse, after opening the door, the warehouse was a little dark, Jim turned on the warehouse lights.
Warehouse is very large, the middle of the aisle is only about one meter, Jim led Vince to go inside, came to a glass counter, under the counter placed a photo album.
Jim took out the album and unfolded one side and put it in front of Vince.
Tattoo picked up the album and examined it, pointing to a picture of an oil painting, he said, “This oil painting should be the Impressionist master Svenson Pilger’s work ‘Rome’, right?”
“Yes.”
“Does the store have this blessed oil painting?”
“This oil painting is not cheap.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I wanted to buy a cheap one.”
Jim looked at the other man for a moment, “One moment.”
Jim walked to the corner, opened a padlocked box, moved a wooden box from inside the box, opened the wooden box inside an oil painting, the oil painting is mainly figures there are half-naked women, running children, men riding on steeds.
Vince fished out the eyeglass case from his pocket, put on his glasses and lamented, “This ‘Rome’ is Si Vince Pilger’s masterpiece, the last time I saw it was in the auction, but unfortunately it was intercepted by those bastards from the Getty Museum.”
Vince stared at the oil painting for a long time, and an excited look appeared on his face, “That’s it, it can’t be wrong.”
“Is this an original by Si Vince Pilger?”
Jim didn’t answer positively, nor did he say whether it was true or not, “I just received this painting yesterday, and it cost me 200,000 dollars.”
This sounded a bit awkward to people, usually, the seller will certainly boast about the goods, but Jim did not say anything more about the oil painting, instead, he emphasized that he spent $200,000 to acquire the painting.
A serious businessman wouldn’t say what he paid for his goods, otherwise, how would he sell them at a high price?
Come to think of it, Jim may have another layer of meaning, whether it is true or false you see for yourself, anyway, I spent two hundred thousand dollars to acquire, will not spend two hundred thousand dollars to buy a fake painting.
Vince averted his gaze, “How much do you want to sell it for?”
“Four hundred thousand dollars.”
“Acquired for 200,000 dollars, sold for 400,000 dollars, that’s a profit of 200,000 dollars in one entry and one exit.
Isn’t this business too easy.”
“It’s worth it.”
“How about 300,000 dollars?”
“I did it by the book, too.”
“Cash.”
Jim was unmoved.
Vince shifted his gaze to the painting again, “Is this painting real?”
“Do you think I’d pay two hundred thousand dollars for a fake painting?”
“Where did this painting come from?”
“I bought it from a friend, and I’ve taken a lot of responsibility for making the $200,000 dollars.”
“As far as I know, this painting originally belonged to the Getty Museum and was taken by a gang of thugs a few days ago, you didn’t do it, did you?”
“I had nothing to do with it.”
“Then why is the painting in your possession?”
“If you want to buy the painting, I welcome it with both hands; if you’re here to pick a fight, then go away.” Jim grimaced and assumed the air of a send-off.
“What a slick guy.” Vince originally wanted to set up a conversation, but the other party was slippery, refusing to say where the oil painting came from or whether it was real or fake, with a willingness to take the bait.
Vince felt there wasn’t much to get into, and bowed his head, “Bring someone in.”
Jim frowned slightly, “Who are you talking to?”
“My boss.” Vince wasn’t covering up.
Jim covered the box containing the painting, “What are you?”
“LAPD.”
“Wow, that’s the first time I’ve seen a LAPD of that age.”
“You haven’t seen a lot of things, better think about how you’re going to get out of this.”
Jim didn’t seem to be in a hurry, “Can I see your badge?”
“You want to see my ass?”
Jim “……”
Old pervert.
“If you’re really a cop, why are you afraid to show me?”
“If that painting cost $200,000, why didn’t you tell me if it was real or not?
Besides, did I ask you to do anything? Why should I show you the badge.”
Jim gave a dry laugh, this was the first time he’d seen a cop with this kind of demeanor, it was more like an old scoundrel.
“Ta-da ……” came a sound of footsteps from outside.
Jim looked outside and saw a familiar figure, “Captain Lee, what brings you here?”
Luke didn’t answer and walked over to the painting, “Boss Jim, it’s still you who has the ability, what we police couldn’t find, you found it so quickly.”
Jim forced out a smile, “You may have misunderstood.
This painting is not the original, but a high quality oil painting.”
Lieutenant Vince grunted, “You spent two hundred thousand dollars to acquire a high imitation painting, are you stupid, or are we?”
“Sorry, I lied about the acquisition price.
This oil painting was not acquired for two hundred thousand dollars, it was acquired for one thousand dollars.” Jim opened the box and held the oil painting out to Luke, “I’m an antique store here, and I mess around with all sorts of things.
There have been quite a few people looking for Svenson Pilger paintings lately and I got one.”
Luke looked at the oil painting, but it was something he couldn’t appreciate, much less tell the difference between real and fake: “The original of this Rome was in the Getty Museum, and it was taken by a group of robbers some time ago, do you know about this?”
Jim looked at Luke, some sweat stains on his forehead, hesitated for a moment and nodded, “I know.”
“Did it have anything to do with you?”
“No.”
Jim looked at Luke and didn’t see the disappointment on his face.
After getting this news, Luke knew that it was unlikely that it was a real painting, that the gang of robbers had planned well and acted carefully, how could they take a huge risk and rush to sell the oil painting.
The reason why he personally led the investigation had other purposes.
Since Jim was involved in this case, regardless of whether he was related to the robbers or not, he did not want to get off easily.