Chapter 506

It was a bit of a murderous statement, but it wasn’t entirely without merit, and the entire time of the capture Horny Lister didn’t fight back, maintaining enough restraint to do so.

Indeed, it didn’t seem like Fearful Points’ style.

“Ringing ……” Luke’s cell phone rang, and the screen displayed the number of FBI Deputy Director Lynn Brower.

“Marcus, take him to the car and don’t question him or have anyone touch him for now.”

“OK, I’ll take good care of this GI.”

Luke stepped aside and hit the answer button, “This is Luke.”

Lynn Blois’ voice came from the cell phone, “Counselor Lee, did you catch the man?”

“Yes, we’ve got Honey Lister, his car was flipped over but he didn’t fight back and had no weapons on him, did you find anything at his home?”

“The only weapons in his home were a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle, no suspected explosives or associated chemical materials were found.

Medication for mental depression was found in his home safe, a normal person wouldn’t put medication they regularly take in a safe, so I suspect he’s gone off his medication without authorization, which is likely to exacerbate his mental problems.”

Luke mused for a moment, “He made absolutely no move to fight back during the arrest, in your experience, does he look like he’s afraid of points?”

Lynn Blois replied, “It’s hard to say, some highly intelligent Dread Points like to pretend themselves to be harmless, and this kind of person happens to be the most dangerous.

If you can’t decide, you can leave it to me for interrogation.”

Luke said, “I’d like to talk to him first.”

“Okay, stay in touch.”

Luke hung up his cell phone and called Jackson over, “Does he look like a fear of points to you?”

Jackson showed a thoughtful look, “When he saw the police searching his home, he didn’t ask about the situation first, but just ran away, this action is indeed a bit suspicious.

But during the arrest process, he really didn’t have any aggressive behavior, nor did he make me feel threatened, I also feel a bit contradictory.”

“You don’t need to think much now, tell me your intuition.”

“I think he should be mentally ill, but it shouldn’t be fear of points.”

“Whether he’s a fear of points or not, you did a great job this time.” Luke patted Jackson on the shoulder and walked toward the police car that was guarding Honey Lister.

Investigating a case was all about teamwork, and Luke wanted his men to be able to do it alone.

Luke pulled open the door and unlocked Honey Lister’s handcuffs, “Man, get out of the car and have a chat.”

Honi Lister rubbed his wrists and looked at Luke, “I told you, I’m not afraid of points, can I go now?”

Luke, after a comprehensive consideration, also felt that it was unlikely that Horny Lister was a Dread Score.

But it didn’t mean that he had nothing to do with this case, and Luke hoped that he could dig up some valuable clues from him.

He could sense that Horny Lister was wary of the police, and what Luke was trying to do now was to remove his wariness and get him to cooperate with the police voluntarily.

At the same time, Luke would also pay attention to his expression during the conversation, if he showed signs of lying, it meant that he was probably a good camouflage of fearful points.

Luke handed him a cigarette and helped him light it, ready to start the talk mode, “Man, I’m sorry for visiting your trench without your permission.

But let me just say, nice digging indeed.”

Honey Lister took a drag on his cigarette, “You guys also knocked over my mom’s car that she lent me to drive.

Better give me a reasonable explanation or I’ll sue you guys for sure.”

“Don’t worry about the car, the FBI Counterterrorism Department will give you a satisfactory compensation.”

“What I want is not money.” Honey Lister questioned loudly, “Why are you treating me like a terrorist point? I threw my head and blood for this country and this is what I get in return?”

“I can understand how you feel, and I know you haven’t had a happy life since you retired, we’re not targeting you, but this city was terrorized, and we’re going to be suspicious of everyone associated with it.” Luke took the tablet from Blackie and tapped on a couple of photos of the explosion site for Honey Lister to see.

“If we don’t find the attackers in time, there will be another attack on the city in ten hours.

You and your family also live in Los Angeles, and I’m sure you don’t want this to happen.”

Honey Lister’s tone calmed down a lot after looking at the photo, “Why do you think I’m involved in this bombing?”

“Do you know Arnett Stone?”

“Yes, he’s an independent investigative journalist, I contacted him some time ago, was he involved in this bombing?”

“He’s dead, and he’s dead bad.” Luke clicked on a couple of photos of the shredding for Honey Lister to see.

“Jesus, did Dreadpoint do this? Arnett was a good man and didn’t deserve to be treated like this!”

“It’s still uncertain, but according to our investigation, the scene where he was killed and split up was at the slaughterhouse where you used to work.”

“Is that why you guys suspect me of being a Dread Score?”

“More than that, we also found chemicals related to bomb making in the slaughterhouse.

Shortly after this, there was an explosion in the TV news department.

And all these clues point to you, which is why we searched your house.”

Honey Lister scratched her hair hard, “That’s ridiculous, I can’t believe I’m being linked to the terror points, I can explain, I had nothing to do with the bombing.”

Luke asked, “How did you and Arnett Stone meet?”

Honey Lister took two hard drags on his cigarette, gazed up at the sky, and recalled, “A year ago, I retired back to Los Angeles, back to my mother, and I envisioned that I could start a new and better life.

But it was not to be.

I didn’t fit in with life in L.A. I couldn’t find a proper job, wasn’t treated with the respect I deserved, suffered from a serious mental illness and had to take that damn little pill every day.

It was nothing like the retired life I had envisioned.

And I’m asking myself, why is this? Is it me personally?

No.

It definitely wasn’t me alone.

I joined a veteran’s support group, and I knew a lot of ex-soldiers who had similar problems, couldn’t find a job, didn’t get respect, were depressed, suicidal, abused alcohol, took drugs, and ended up on the streets as vagrants, and even committed crimes.

I don’t want to be like them. I want to change, and I’m trying to change, but that’s hard.

I have approached the relevant departments and asked the government for help, but no one cares at all.

Therefore, I hope that through the media, more people can learn about the situation of retired veterans, which is not only my personal reason, but a social problem.

Last year, I mailed pleas for help to several TV news departments.

But only one person contacted me, Arnett Stone.

I don’t know if he did it out of concern or just to get a big story.

But he gave me hope.

We stayed in touch, and then he left CBS-TV, but he was still tracking and investigating the living conditions of retired veterans.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“About half a month ago, I took him to the veterans’ support meeting, he volunteered to do so, he felt that my case would hardly make much of an impact in the society to bring more attention to this matter, and those politicians would care even less.

If you want the country and society to pay attention to the issue of reintegration of retired veterans into society, there must be enough investigative basis and a large number of real cases to prove that I’m not an isolated case, but a problem that many retired veterans are facing.”

Luke took out his notebook, made a note of the Veterans Mutual Aid Society, and asked, “Did you tell Arnett Stone about the slaughterhouse.”

“Yes, I told it at the mutual aid meeting when not only Arnett Stone, but others heard it as well.”

Luke kept his eyes on Honey Lister and saw no obvious signs of lying in his face.

Assuming that what he said was true, the other ex-soldiers who had participated in the Mutual Aid Society were also aware of the fact that the slaughterhouse had gone out of business, and in addition, it was possible that Arnett Stone had come into contact with the other ex-soldiers who had been on the Mutual Aid Society.

Then, the object of suspicion for Fearful Points was also expanded from Honi Lister to the entire Mutual Aid Association retired soldiers.

“When you were talking about the work in the slaughterhouse, was there anyone who was more interested in the slaughterhouse or the address of the slaughterhouse?”

Honi Lister thought for a moment, “Yes, there was indeed such a man, I was just talking about the slaughterhouse closing down and he was very interested and said that he had worked in a slaughterhouse before and inquired if it was the same slaughterhouse.

Then I gave him the address and he said no.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“Yes, Tapani Reagan.”

“Do you know any other information about him? Like a cell phone number, home address, license plate number, that sort of thing.”

“I know his cell phone number.”

“It seems like this man has made an impression on you.”

“It’s not just me, Arnett Stone was also interested in him, and it was also Arnett Stone who asked me for his cell phone number.”

“Why was Arnett Stone interested in him?”

“It might have something to do with some of his experiences.” Honey Lister sighed and said, “He also served in the Middle East before, and because he couldn’t take care of his family for a long time abroad, he entrusted his best friend to take care of his wife and children.

When he retired and returned home, he felt that his wife’s attitude towards him had changed a bit, and his children had also become strange, and later, during an argument, his children told the truth, that during these days when he had gone to serve abroad, his best friend would not only help him take care of his family, but would also sometimes spend the night here.

He was greenmailed, and the saddest part was, by his most trusted friend.

No, I was wrong, that’s not even the saddest.

The guy beat up his friend and then was taken to jail by the police.

When he gets out of jail, his wife wants to divorce him and take away custody of the kids and the house.

The guy was left to wander the streets.

Compared to him, I’m undoubtedly lucky that I have a loving and caring old mom, which is why I haven’t become a bum or a criminal.”

Luke stroked his chin, from what he could hear from Honey Lister’s description, Tapani Reagan’s experience was indeed harrowing enough that it would likely resonate with retired soldiers, as well as those still abroad, once it was broadcast in the media.

Luke brings in Arnett Stone’s identity, and if he were also a journalist, he would also report Tapani Reagan going as a typical story, and it would definitely cause a huge reaction.

Through Honey Lister’s description, combined with the known clues, Luke had a new speculation and analysis about the murder of Arnett Stone.

If, for example, Tapani Reagan was the terror point who made the bombing, then the reason why he poked around the address of the slaughterhouse was to use the slaughterhouse as a stronghold for making bombs.

Again, because his case was more typical and tragic.

Arnett Stone set his sights on him and wanted to investigate him and report him as a miserable case of a retired veteran.

Instead, Arnett Stone, in the course of following up, discovered that Tapani Reagan was probably planning a terror attack.

Unexpectedly rewarding, it was an equally big story.

And this news, again, confirms Arnett Stone’s earlier point that the issue of retired veterans must be taken seriously.

They are the strongest in the military, used to the military lifestyle, and may be out of place or even become weak when they return to society.

But this group of weaklings were not really weak, once they were pushed to the limit, they would pick up their weapons again and turn into a killing machine, treating this society as a battlefield.

Luke tapped on his tablet again and played a video, a surveillance of the TV station’s lobby and mailroom.

The man in the video was holding two black packages, the man was tall and wore a mask and a hat that made it hard to see exactly what he looked like.

And these two black packages in his hands were the same courier that had exploded in the newsroom.

“Do you recognize the person in the video?”

Honey Lister watched the video carefully and asked with a frown, “Are there any other videos? Like frontal surveillance, for example.”

“If there was a frontal surveillance photo of the suspect, we wouldn’t have suspected you, look closely at his physical features and the way he walks, is it similar to the Tapani Reagan you remember?”

Honey Lister bit the nail of her right thumb, “Can I look at it again?”

“Sure, you can look at it as many times as you want.”

Horny Lister looked closely again and pointed to the suspect man’s feet, “Can you zoom in on his shoes?”

Luke contacted Matthew and asked him to send over a high-resolution image of the enlarged shoe.

After a while, the high-resolution picture of the shoes was transmitted.

Honey Lister nodded her head after looking at it, “The person in the surveillance has a figure more similar to Tapani Reagan, but I’m not very familiar with him either, so I’m not very sure.

However, I recognize the shoes.

A pair of brown, thick-soled leather shoes that he wore the day he went to the Mutual.”

With Tapani Reagan’s suspicions rising further, Luke turned to Honey Lister and asked, “Can I have his cell phone number?”

“Then you’ll have to give me back my cell phone first.” Honey Lister pointed to his head, “I can’t remember it here.”

“Sorry, should have given it to you a long time ago.” Luke asked the officer for Honey Lister’s belongings and gave them all back to him.

Honey Lister looked up Tapani Reagan’s cell phone number from his cell phone.

“Thanks, you’ve been a big help.”

“But you guys got me into bad luck, I promised my mom I wouldn’t get into any more trouble, but it’s hard for me to account for the car being wrecked like that.”

Luke comforted, “I’ll give you an idea, these days first avoid your mom, when we solve the case of this terrorist attack, you can proudly tell your mom, you are in the process of arresting the terrorist points crashed the car.”

“Does that count as a good lie?”

“Not in my opinion, if the clues you provided are true, then it’s the same as being indirectly involved in the capture of the terror points, only the details of the operation are a bit different.

This is quite normal, after all, the real capture process can’t be told to the public.”

Honey Lister smiled, “In that case, I am also considered a hero for protecting this city.”

“Definitely sort of.” Luke encouraged.

Sometimes, a small kindness could pull someone back from the edge of the cliff.