Chapter 646
Near Dawson’s Bar.
Luke, Jackson, and Blackie walked out of the parking lot.
Luke scanned his eyes around, “That’s Dawson’s Bar, right, where’s the entrance?”
Jackson rubbed his chin and looked around, “Let me see.”
Blackie said, “Haven’t you been here before? Why can’t you find the entrance?”
Jackson replied, “I came here at night, which is completely different from daytime, and that was a long time ago.”
Jackson reminisced for a moment, “Come with me, I know where in the entrance is now.”
With Jackson leading the way, the trio crossed the road and turned into an alleyway that had an underground entrance on the east side.
Blackie asked, “Why don’t we use the main entrance?”
Jackson pointed his hands towards the underground entrance, “This is the main entrance.”
“Heh, looks like my expectations were too high.” Blacky grunted.
“The outside doesn’t matter, you’ll see how great it is when you get inside.” Jackson led the way into the bar.
The trio entered the bar passageway, which grew progressively more spacious and ended at a dark gray leather doorway with a tattooed, bald, burly man standing in the doorway.
“I’m sorry, three, it’s not business hours?”
Black asked, “Can’t the bar drink during the day?”
The bald burly man glared at Blackie, “I’m not sure about other bars, but not here, business hours are at night.”
“I don’t like that rule.” Blacky flashed his badge, “LAPD, I want to see your boss.”
The balding, burly man shook his head slightly, “I don’t like cops either.”
Xiao Hei compared a middle finger: “I like to see, you don’t like me and can’t do anything about it. Cut the crap and hurry up and lead the way.”
The bald burly man didn’t give face, “Wait here, I’ll report to the boss.”
Jackson was also a bit dissatisfied, “Are you sure you want to have three cops waiting at the door, wanting everyone around to know that this bar is being watched by the police?”
The bald, burly man glanced at Luke’s trio, “Follow me.”
Upon entering the front door of the bar, the inside looked like a gloomy cave with a high top and a large black screen directly across from it, perhaps due to the dimmer lighting, it looked a bit depressing.
“You guys wait here, I’ll go get the boss.” The bald, burly man finished speaking and walked towards the inside of the bar.
Xiao Hei skimmed his lips, “Those who don’t know still think that this bar is owned by the mayor, it’s simply more hanged than the police chief.”
Luke pulled a chair and sat down, to be able to open such a big bar, a little background was normal.
Luke was here to investigate the case, not to look for trouble, as long as the other party was willing to assist in the investigation, more is better than less.
After a while, the burly man accompanied a white man in his thirties into the lobby of the bar, the man yawned and looked tired, sat down on the chair opposite Luke’s trio, and said in a self-conscious manner, ”Sorry, I’m not used to waking up so early. Officers, what brings you to my bar?”
Luke asked, “What is your name, sir?”
“My friends call me Pastor, you can call me that too.OK, tell us what you’re here for.”
“Mr. Paster, we’re here to ask for your help.”
“From what my security guard said, you guys didn’t act like you came to ask for a favor just now.”
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to do that. But if we couldn’t have failed to do it, your security wouldn’t have let us through and we wouldn’t have been able to see you.”
Paster twisted his head to look at the balding, burly man, “Hear that? This officer is complimenting you, double your bonus this month.”
“Thanks boss.”
“Go ahead, I want to talk to the three officers alone.”
After the bald burly man left, Paster stroked his chin, “This officer, what’s your name?”
“My last name is Lee.”
“Officer Li, how can I help you?”
“We are investigating a criminal case, two of the people involved have been to your bar before, we would like to check the surveillance of that night to confirm their whereabouts.”
“Checking the surveillance ……,” Pastor muttered, and asked rhetorically, “Got a warrant?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Officer Lee, I would love to assist you in your case, but, as the person in charge of this bar, I have to safeguard the privacy of my guests.
So, I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I hope you can understand.”
“Of course, I completely understand.” Luke stood up and made a move to leave.
Blackie said, “Captain, what about the case if we just leave?”
Luke said, “Go back and apply for a search warrant, and then follow the procedure to investigate the case when the warrant is in hand.”
Blackie laughed and gave an expression of this I understand, “Can we apply for it today?”
“I don’t know, when the application comes down, when will I come back.”
“Damn, I guess I’ll have to work overtime again at night.” Black grumbled, and turned to Pastor again, “Man, I’ll see you tonight, don’t forget to clear the area then.”
“Wait, it’s just checking the surveillance, there’s no need to clear the area.” Pastor questioned.
“Don’t be silly, it’s not easy to apply for a search warrant, we only have this one chance, we definitely need to search all the places where the suspect has been so that we don’t miss any valuable clues.” After Xiao Hei finished speaking, he looked at Luke again, “Captain, I suggest that we bring more people with us when the time comes, and it’s best to transfer all the surrounding patrol officers over.”
Luke squared his shoulders, “I will consider it.”
Paster stood up, “Hey, I don’t like being threatened!”
Jackson spread his hands, “You’re overthinking it, no one is threatening you, we’re just following the process and rules of the police force.”
Blackie laughed, “That’s right, you have your rules and we have ours.”
“Officer Li, wait a moment.” Pastor softened his tone and invited Luke’s three to sit down again, “I would like to know which department you are from? What specific case are you investigating?”
Blackie replied, “Robbery and Murder Division, we are investigating a homicide case. What are you worried about? Did something illegal happen to you here too?”
“No, absolutely not.”
I never touch anything illegal, but as you should be well aware, the bar has a mixed clientele, so I would be a little concerned.”
Luke advised, “I’m well aware of the cattiness in the bar, and we’re not interested in that. The Robbery and Murder Division only investigates major criminal cases.”
Paster hesitated for another moment before making up his mind, “OK, I can take you to the surveillance room, but the surveillance video can’t be taken away.”
“No problem.” Luke agreed painfully, as long as tangible clues were found, the search warrant was just a matter of going through the procedures.
Pastor led Luke and the three of them into the corridor behind the bar, and at the end of the corridor there was a room with a ‘surveillance room’ sign above it.
Paster opened the door to the surveillance room, which was dark and somewhat dim, he casually turned on the wall sconce.
The surveillance room is not large, only about ten square meters, a black security guard is lying on a chair to rest, perhaps suddenly stabbed by the light to the eyes, he rubbed his eyes while standing up: “What the hell, which asshole ……”
Halfway through his words, he saw Pastor standing in the doorway, and was startled, and swallowed back the latter half of his sentence.
“Boss …… why are you here?”
“I came over to ask if you need a pillow and a quilt?”
“Sorry boss, I shouldn’t be sleeping here.” The black security guard hurriedly stood up and straightened his clothes.
“Turn on the video surveillance playback.”
“Okay boss.”
The black security guard opened his computer and found the surveillance video, “Boss, the surveillance video is all here.”
“You can go out now.”
“Okay boss.”
Seeing the black security guard leave, Paster asked, “Officer Lee, do you need anything else?”
“No more, thanks.”
Paster nodded, “OK, I’ll head out then, I’ll be at the bar, if you guys want a drink too, feel free to stop by.”
Jackson said, “Thanks, we don’t drink on our work time.”
Paster closed the door and left.
Blackie turned to Jackson and said, “Why the quick refusal? We could have ordered something to drink, even a glass of juice would have been nice.”
Jackson laughed, “You’re right, and two more hot girls to dance with, what do you think of my offer.”
Luke interrupted the two, “Guys, time to get down to business.”
“OK, you’re the boss.” Blacky squeezed Jackson’s shoulder and sat him down in front of the computer, “Rookie, get to work.”
“I’m not a rookie anymore.” Jackson grumbled, but didn’t stop moving his hands, opening the video to view the surveillance from the night of November 15th.
Black reminded, “Sharon Frank and Marissa Hocking arrived at Dawson’s Bar around nine forty, you can check from that time frame.”
There was a lot of surveillance in the bar, and Jackson first clicked on the surveillance video of the entrance at exactly nine forty.
The video multiplied and quickly came to nine forty-five, Jackson pointed to the computer screen, “I think I found Sharon Frank, and Marissa Hocking …… wait, there seems to be a girl beside them.”
Blackie plopped his right hand on the chair and leaned over to look at the computer screen, “Is it the deceased Ellie Bergman?”
“Can’t make it out.” Jackson played back the video and still couldn’t make it out, then clicked on the camera surveillance video from another location and stared carefully at the screen, “No, the third girl isn’t Ellie Bergman, it’s a girl who hasn’t been seen before and her hair seems to be black. From their demeanor, they are very close, they should have come together.”
Luke stared at the screen as well, “Find a clear image and take a screenshot.”
“Okay.”
Blackie was a bit puzzled, “Who is the third girl? Why is there another one?”
Jackson speculated, “Could they have met by chance in front of the bar?”
Blacky retorted, “How low do you think the odds would be that three minors who know each other would meet by chance in the same bar?”
Luke said thoughtfully, “If this girl was also meeting in advance, could she have been at Ellie Bergman’s house as well?”
Jackson asked rhetorically, “If she’s been to Avery Bergman’s house as well, then why didn’t Sharon Frank mention her when she brought up Marissa Hocking?”
Luke surmised, “That would mean that this girl is different from Sharon Frank and Marissa Hocking, or that she has a different opinion on the matter of Avery Bergman’s death.”
Blackie said, “Since she’s involved in the case, should we reach out to her.”
Luke shook his head, “We don’t know either her identity or the role she played in this case, making contact isn’t the best option.”
Jackson said, “I agree with the captain, we can get to know her indirectly and confirm her relationship with the deceased and her attitude towards him before we make the next contact.”
“Horse’s ass.” Blackie muttered and followed up, “So what do we do now?”
Luke said, “Jenny just messaged that the dead man’s mother has arrived at the station to identify the body, and I’m going to go back and talk to her. Maybe she knew the third girl.”
Black snapped his fingers with his right hand, “And the dead man’s boyfriend, the dead man’s secrets may not be shared with his mother, but it’s possible he shared them with his boyfriend.”