Chapter 650

In a black Dodge car, Blackie was sitting in the passenger side and Jackson was driving.

Blacky was looking at his cell phone while pointing to the road ahead, “Hey, turn right at the stoplight up ahead.”

Jackson frowned slightly, “That’s not the direction to Volt Street.”

“I know.” Black glanced at his watch, “It’s dinner time, why don’t we have dinner before we investigate.”

Jackson glanced at him, “Are you serious?”

“Of course, I don’t want to investigate the case on a hungry stomach.”

“There’s a convenience store up ahead, we can get a sandwich.”

“No, I want a real dinner so I’m motivated to keep working.”

Jackson said, “I prefer to finish my work first, then eat.”

“Don’t be silly, by the time the work is done, all the restaurants are closed.”

Besides, Sharon Frank was driving that night in the wee hours of the morning, we’d be closer to the time of the crime by investigating later instead.”

Jackson was finally convinced, “OK, which restaurant do you want to go to?”

“Haha, that’s right.” Blackie commanded, “Turn right up ahead and keep driving, there’s a great Turkish restaurant, their kebabs are exceptional and the pies are freshly baked. I’m super fond of it.”

Eight o’clock in the evening. Near Dawson’s Bar.

A black SUV drove by, the passenger side window open and Luke looked out, the Dawson’s Bar was on the right side of the road and the parking lot where the three girlfriends had left their cars was on the left.

The car drove up to the entrance of the parking lot, the railing lifted automatically and the car drove in.

After the car stopped, Luke got out of the car and looked around, the parking lot is very large, the periphery of the street lamps erected, not bright, but basically can see the road.

The officers also stepped out of the car one by one.

The lieutenant looked around and commented, “This place is perfect for a crime, just hide behind a car, it’s hard to spot.”

Porter looked across the street to the bar, “There’s a lot of rotten people here too, they’ll do anything when they’re drunk.”

Luke set up the task, “Porter, you take the men and check the surveillance around the parking lot.”

“Lieutenant, you take someone to walk around and see if you can learn anything about the night of the murder.”

Luke himself walked toward the location where the blue Tesla was parked on the night of the crime …… just after eight o’clock in the evening.

Blacky and Jackson finished dinner and continued driving to Volt Street.

Blacky burped, “How’s the barbecue at this restaurant? Isn’t it great.”

Jackson shrugged, “It’s just regular barbecue, I wonder why I had to wait so long?”

“I know you’re in a hurry to get to the case, don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time.”

Jackson glanced at his watch, “Don’t you want to finish the case and go home early?”

“Don’t be silly, the captain and the lieutenant have taken their men to investigate near the bar, and if we finish too soon, we’ll still have to go back up to them.”

Jackson frowned, “So you’re mixing up the time.”

“No, I think you’re having trouble understanding, I’m just allocating my time wisely.

You can only work more efficiently if you’re well fed, understand?”

“Yay, now that you’re full, can we work properly?”

“Sure.” Black snapped his fingers and pointed at Jackson, “I’ll be supervising you well, rookie.”

As they talked, the car pulled onto Volt Street, Jackson slowed down and Blackie became serious, watching both sides of the road. It was close to nine o’clock in the evening, night had fallen, the streetlights were dim, and there were hardly any pedestrians to be seen on either side of the road.

Downtown Los Angeles, daytime and nighttime are completely two worlds.

Jackson slowed down his car and made two consecutive turns on the suspicious section of the road, but there was still nothing to be found.

Blackie glanced at his watch, it was already more than nine o’clock at night: “Wait, there’s no point in us strolling around like this, pull over.”

Jackson stopped the car and sighed, “Most of the stores along the road are closed, not to mention the people, there’s not even a dog shadow.”

“Hey, rookie, don’t be so absolute, there are still a lot of homeless people living on the side of the road. Don’t discriminate against them.”

“You know, that’s not what I’m trying to say.”

The captain was just saying that the suspect’s car stayed on this stretch of the block longer, but what Sharon Frank did, no one knows.” Jackson grumbled and analyzed, “I thought hard about it over dinner and I think there are two possibilities.

The first possibility is that Sharon Frank, after dropping Marissa Hocking and Lacey Wayne off in the Angelus neighborhood, waited for Lacey Wayne to drive up to pick up the bodies and make the dump, and just stayed in the neighborhood for a while and didn’t do anything else.

The second possibility, while Marissa Hocking and Lacey Wayne were away, Sharon Frank met with someone else here, someone who is probably the fourth suspect we’re looking for.

I think the second possibility is more likely. And it’s the only one that makes sense for us to investigate tonight.”

“Then what else is there to say, just continue the investigation according to the second scenario.” Blackie looked out of the car, “There isn’t much surveillance around here, so if we want to find witnesses, we’ll have to look for those homeless people.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Jackson pulled up the handbrake and prepared to get out of the car.

“Wait, see that store with the light on? Drive over there.”

Jackson looked into the distance, “That looks like a convenience store, are you hungry again?”

“Those bums aren’t easy to deal with, you’ll have to prepare some small gifts ahead of time if you want to get valuable clues out of them.”

“OK,” Jackson started the car again and drove to the front of the convenience store, “Bring me a cup of coffee.”

“Get out of the car and buy your own if you want one, be careful of getting hemorrhoids if you move your ass, haha.”

Blackie laughed and got out of the car.

Jackson, on the other hand, followed him into the convenience store with a helpless face.

The inside of the convenience store was brightly lit, a stark contrast to the outside, and a man of Mexican descent stood behind the counter to his left, looking at Blackie with a critical eye.

Black walked over to the shelf on the right and grabbed a mention of beer and put it on the counter, and Jackson chose two bottles of coffee.

“How much?”

The Mexican clerk looked over, “Twenty dollars.”

“What?” Black thought he’d misheard.

“Twenty dollars.”

“Why is it so expensive?”

The Chicano clerk shrugged, “Because this is the only convenience store on this street that’s open at night, want to buy it?”

Blackie froze for a moment and seemed to think of something, “This store of yours is open in the wee hours of the morning?”

“24 hours.”

“Do you work the night shift all the time?”

“Yes, I have other jobs during the day.”

“Would you remember if someone had come into the store a few days ago and bought something?”

“I’m not sure; after all, I see too many people every day to remember every one of them.”

Black pulled out a picture of Sharon Frank, “Did you see this girl around midnight on November 16th?”

The Chicano clerk looked at it and said with an odd expression on his face, “Yes, I remember her.”

“Didn’t you just say you weren’t sure? How come you recognize her all of a sudden now.”

“Because she made a deep impression on me.” The Chicano clerk smiled and continued, “You’re right, that girl came in early in the morning, and very few female customers come in at that time.”

She looked around the store and grabbed a cucumber from the fresh produce section.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it; after all, cucumbers are discounted and more affordable at that time of day. But then she walked over to the counter and grabbed another box of condoms.”

Jackson revealed a surprised look and confirmed, “Cucumbers and condoms.”

“That’s right.”

“If I hadn’t been on duty that day, I would have asked her, ‘Hey, pretty lady, need some help? I’d be happy to oblige.'” The Chicano clerk raised one eyebrow and gave a wicked grin.

Blackie laughed, “OK, I think we found that fourth suspect.”

Jackson also cried a little.

The Chicano asked, “Gentlemen, would you like another beer?”

“Not for beer, but we need more coffee. Also, give me the surveillance video of your store.”

The Chicano clerk took two steps back, “Why? What do you guys do?”

Blackie flashed his badge, “LAPD.”

The parking lot near Dawson’s Bar.

The parking lot was a little brighter than usual, and there were a number of police officers walking around the parking lot, causing many of the patrons trying to park to turn around and leave.

A black Dodge pulled into the parking lot and Black stepped out of the passenger side and called out, “Hey guys, how’s the investigation going?”

Porter said, “No progress yet, what brings you guys here?”

Black pulled out a mention of filled coffee, “I brought coffee for everyone, so take a break, have a cup of coffee and then you can go home and sleep.”

The vice squad came over from the crowd and said, “What a big mouth, if you didn’t know, you’d think the chief was here. Kid, when did you call the shots here?”

Blackie laughed, “It was just a friendly suggestion for a cup of coffee?”

“That’s more like it.” The lieutenant took the coffee, opened the lid and took a sip.

Luke walked over as well, grabbed a bottle of coffee and asked, “Any progress on your side of the investigation?”

Blackie raised his voice, “Yes, we caught the fourth suspect.”

Luke was a little surprised, “Where?”

“In the car.”

The lieutenant peered into the black Dodge, “You’re a big talker, there’s not even a ghost in the car.”

“It’s not that there isn’t, it’s just that you didn’t look closely enough.” Blackie opened the car door and took out a cucumber from inside.

The crowd was at a loss.

The vice squad was dissatisfied, “Are you playing with us?”

Xiao Hei sounded certain, “No, this is the fourth suspect we are looking for.”

“A cucumber, haha.” The vice squad snorted a laugh.

The other officers laughed along with him.

Jenny shook her head, “Marcus, this ‘prank’ isn’t funny.”

“Oh, and it needs a dress-up.” Marcus pulled out a box of condoms and said, “Put this on it’s the fourth suspect.”

Luke understood, “You mean someone used this to violate the victim.”

“That’s right.”

“Is this your guess or have you found tangible evidence?”

Black organized his words, “This evening, Jackson and I went to investigate along the road in Volt Street, and found that after dark, all the stores around were closed, and no pedestrians could be seen on the road, just a few homeless people passing by occasionally.

And I wondered, if Sharon Frank did stop at this street, what attracted her? And what did she do somehow?”

Black paused and continued, “With this question in mind, we drove around the street again, and I noticed that there was only one store with lights on, a convenience store.

I then wondered if it was possible that Sharon Frank had also been to this convenience store on the night of the murder.

Then we walked into the convenience store and asked the clerk if she had seen Sharon Frank.

To my surprise, the clerk immediately recognized the other person and said that Sharon Frank had made a deep impression on him.

According to the clerk, Sharon Frank came to the convenience store alone on the night of the murder and hurriedly purchased a cucumber and condoms, which I also verified on the surveillance.

So, I surmise that the so-called fourth suspect doesn’t even exist, but that Sharon Frank used some sick tactics to violate the victim.”

Jenny wondered, “Why would Sharon Frank do that?”

Blackie said, “Regarding this question, I think there are two possibilities.”

The first, Sharon Frank and the deceased belonged to the plastic BFFs, seemingly on good terms, but in fact, Sharon Frank had long been displeased with the deceased, so even though the victim was dead, she still violated the other party with perverted means to discredit the other party.

The second possibility, Sharon Frank had special feelings for the deceased, she loved the deceased, and after learning that the deceased had a boyfriend, hatred was born out of love, that’s why she designed to kill the victim and used perverted means to possess her.”

Jenny listened and shook her head, “You really know enough about perverts.”

Blackie snapped his fingers, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Jackson got out of the car and was also confused, he didn’t expect Xiao Hei to actually have so much “drama”, and said, “If we follow your speculation, the victim’s death would most likely not be an accident, but a premeditated murder.”

However, no relevant evidence has been found at this stage.

According to the confessions of the three suspects, this case should be an accidental death caused by a prank.”

Blackie asked rhetorically, “If it was just an accidental death, why would Sharon Frank use such a perverted method to deal with the corpse?”

The vice squad pondered for a moment and said, “Actually, we can consider it from another angle, is there any benefit for Sharon Frank to do this?” Without waiting for the crowd to respond, the vice squad continued, “I think there is, she managed to interfere with the direction of the police investigation.”

“Do you guys remember?

When we first found the body, the medical examiner determined that the victim had been assaulted, and my first thought at the time was that the killer was most likely male.

I think most people should have had similar thoughts.

Then, our focus was also on investigating the victim’s boyfriend.

Even though we now had three suspects, we still couldn’t close the case because we still had to find the fourth suspect who had assaulted the body.

Sharon Frank’s little tactic wasn’t very clever, but judging from the results, the direction of our investigation was really interfered by her.

Even more, if we hadn’t found out that Lacey Wayne was involved in the case at the time, it’s likely that we would have kept the investigation going in the direction of the male suspect, resulting in a delay in solving the case.

That may be what Sharon Frank is really up to.”