Chapter 160

A tangled look appeared on Maigal’s face.

The more he refused to say, it meant that the bigger the matter was.

Luke tried, “Parley Jones has chosen to cooperate with the police, if you don’t say anything, she’ll come out and identify you just the same.”

“FUCK, had I known that this black woman was unreliable, I shouldn’t have trusted her.” Meagher cursed.

“Do you want to wait to be identified by her, or do you want to take the initiative to give an account for a favorable plea deal?”

Meagher realized there was no longer any way to be on the run, “I want an exoneration deal.

I’ll tell you everything I know and I’ll give you all the evidence if you’ll give me an exoneration deal.”

“If I agreed to give you an exoneration agreement right now, I would absolutely be lying to you.

No one is going to give you that kind of promise right out of the gate.

You have to give an account of the crime first, and the police and the prosecution will consider the sentence based on the actual situation, and if you have a good attitude towards confessing, it’s not impossible for you to be exonerated from the charges.

But the prerequisite is that you confess, don’t lie, and don’t hide.”

Meagher thought for a moment, “What did that Parley Jones woman say?”

“Do you want the police to take her statement at face value?”

“No.”

“Then leave her alone, tell them everything you know, you cooperate with the police, and they’ll give you a good plea deal.”

“Can I trust you?”

“You have no choice.”

Parley Jones and Meagher were on a front, and by breaking through to one side, they could form a siege on the other.

Parley Jones was a journalist, knew the law, knew how to maneuver with the police, and while she may have been exposed to some gray areas, Luke figured her violations were not serious.

It wouldn’t be easy to break through her mental defenses, and there might even be a news incident.

But Meagher was different; with a history of drug use, priors, and being out on bail, he was a scaredy-cat.

The fact that Luke had caught him in a parole violation had already caused him to panic and tell part of the story of the Dracula’s Bar murder case.

Just letting her think that Parley Jones had already given an account would be even more psychologically stressful.

When Meagher was brought back to the detective bureau, the psychological defenses completely collapsed.

Many suspects were bullish outside, but once they entered the police station, they would wimp out, “Inspector Luke, I do know something else and am willing to give an account on my own accord.”

Luke brought him into the interrogation room, “Meagher, you can talk now, this is your last chance.”

“I parked my car at the back door of the bar the other night, I wanted to go to the bar and have some fun.

The good thing about leaving your car at the back door of a bar is that you don’t have to pay for parking, but the bad thing is that you can be missed by car thieves.

So, I’ve been paying more attention to the movements at the back door of the bar. I heard what sounded like a noise outside, so I went out to check it out.

It was scary to see a woman lying on the ground with two bloody holes in her neck and blood on the ground.

I rushed back to my car because I have a car recorder in my car, and I checked the car recorder’s surveillance just in time to capture that horrible scene.”

“Captured what?”

“The video is in my cell phone so you guys can watch it.” Meagher pulled a copy of the video out of his phone and handed it to Luke.

Blackie probed over as well.

The video was none other than the back door of the bar, which was somewhat dimly lit.

Nicole was standing at the back door of the bar talking on the phone, she looked a little hesitant as she hung up her cell phone, then as if she had sent a message, she looked as if she was relieved.

She put away her cell phone and tried to leave, when the back door of the bar suddenly opened, and a man in a black cloak scurried out, directly pouncing on the unprepared Nicole.

“Ah ……” came Nicole’s scream next.

Nicole was tackled to the ground, and the person in the black cloak seemed to be tearing into Nicole.

Soon, Nicole was no longer moving.

The man in the black cloak also stood up, froze in place for three seconds, and fled into the distance.

Combining this video and the statements of Nicole’s father and Laura, Luke probably guessed the cause of Nicole’s death.

Nicole had been scared by vampires since she was a child, and was fearful of such unknown creatures.

But she was not someone who knew how to say no.

Laura invited her to the bar and she said yes anyway.

But that didn’t mean she liked it; on the contrary, she hated, even feared, this vampire bar.

While she went outside to answer her cell phone, she tried to find an excuse to leave the bar.

She had just finished texting Laura and breathed a sigh of relief.

A ‘vampire’ sprang out of the back door of the bar and lunged right at her, tearing her apart, a situation that would have startled anyone in the dimly lit environment.

Nicole was scared to death of the living daylights out of her.

Luke lifted his head and looked at Meagher, “Go on.”

“After that, I thought about calling the police, but I was in a bit of a predicament right now, so I thought I’d use this video to make some money.

Later, I contacted Pari Jones through a friend and sold this video to her.

You all know the rest.”

Luke shook his head, “I told you not to hide it.”

Meagher wryly argued, “I’m not hiding it.”

“Where is the black backpack on the dead man, the killer didn’t take it after he attacked Nicole.”

Meagher was silent again.

Luke walked over to the interrogation chair and intoned, “Like I said, Parley Jones has already explained that you gave her something more than just the video, which you and I both know, and if I’m allowed to voluntarily take it out, your plea deal is gone.”

“OK, I’ll tell you. I did take the black backpack.”

“What was all in it?”

“Cell phone, business cards and some feminine items, some change.”

“What did you do with all this stuff?”

“I took the change and used it, I hid the cell phone and the backpack to wait for some time before I took it for money, and I sold one of the business cards to Parley Jones.”

“How much did it sell for?”

“The video was four thousand dollars and the business card a thousand.”

Black smiled, “It’s a shame you’re not in business.”

“Did you realize these belonged to the crime scene evidence?”

Meagher nodded.

“Does Parley Jones know about this?”

“How could that woman spooky not know.” Meagher gave a supplicating look, “Detective Luke, I’ve told you all I know, shouldn’t we talk about a plea bargain?”

Luke pressed, “You should know the importance of this video, you could have sold the video and business card to Parley Jones, why not give a copy to the police?

You could send it to the police anonymously and it wouldn’t hold up your small business.”

Meagher froze, “The woman wouldn’t let me do that, she said she wanted a scoop and said the video couldn’t be seen by anyone else until it was broadcast on news stations, much less the police.

That was part of our deal, the woman wanted a big story.”

“Which woman?”

“Parley Jones.”

“Is what you just said true?”

“Of course.”

“Are you willing to turn tainted witness and identify Parley Jones?”

“I do.”

Out of the interrogation room, Black’s mouth pounded, “That video was weird, why did that guy pounce on Nicole.

Could ‘it’ really be a vampire.”

Luke looked at him and sighed, “Where did your brain grow up?”

Kuro said, “You saw it, that guy jumped right in and tore into Nicole, how could a normal person do that if they were normal? What was the motive?”

“We’ll naturally know when we catch the murderer.”

“I didn’t even get a good look at his face, how can I catch him?”

“That one can be put aside for a while, first take care of Parry Jones. If the police department executives see the video of the ‘vampire’ biting people on TV, we’re screwed.”

Reed and Susan both bore the brunt of it.

Luke’s promotion to vice squad is also expected to go down the drain.

CBE News TV.

The United States can be said to be the birthplace of television program hosts, but the interesting thing is that the United States has neither a contest to select hosts nor a school or profession dedicated to training hosts.

U.S. news program hosts are journalists from the beginning, few can not interview only as a microphone host.

Big media rarely directly hire students who have just graduated.

Because the reporter is one of the most prone to “mistakes” of the profession, the novice sometimes interviews are not in place, the news reported inaccurately, easy to say the wrong thing, wrong often lead to trouble and even lawsuits.

Pari Jones is a dynamic reporter, she has a dream, a clear goal.

She wants to be a real newscaster.

Competition in this industry is fierce, and in order to get to the top, you need to have enough valuable scoops to attract the audience’s attention and make the program get higher ratings.

Pari Jones has always felt that she has the ability to do this, she just lacks an opportunity to get to the top.

She has a keen sense of judgment and knows what viewers want, such as the School Y shooting, something related to children and education that easily resonates with the public.

And the presence of an exhibitionist police officer at the scene of the shooting is just the thing to catch the audience’s attention.

She wanted to use the school Y shooting case to make a name for herself, but after the second shooting incident, the police quickly solved the case.

The exhibitionist officer was also packaged as the lone hero.

Pari Jones’s plan went out the window.

Mentally holding her breath.

She was going to get a big story, something bigger than the school Y shooting.

She was going to rise to the top!

This time, no one could stop her again!

Not even a real vampire.

Seven p.m., one hour before the evening news.

Pari Jones was reading the script in the live room, this was considered her live debut, and it would be a lie to say that she wasn’t nervous.

In order to avoid forgetting her words, she had to be familiar enough.

Self-introduction, opening remarks, and then play the bite video, the incident review, the style should be humorous and flirtatious ……

Pari Jones had memorized the broadcast sequence by heart, and she made a lot of effort for this broadcast.

Even made some violations of the action ……

In Pari Jones’ opinion rules are made by the strong, and if you want to move up the ladder, you either have to be lucky enough, rely on outside forces, or overstep the rules.

The rules are there to limit the weak and divide the class, and if you follow the rules to the letter, you can never cross the class.

If you follow the rules, you will never be able to cross the hierarchy. It’s worth it to take a risk for the future.

The “golden age” of a news program host is around forty, an age when people are mature, stable, authoritative and sexually attractive, and easy to win people’s favor and trust.

If you can’t become a news program host in your thirties, it’s too late.

The news program director came over and reminded, “Pari, the program starts in a few minutes, that video is going to the guide for early editing.”

Pari was a very shrewd woman, she knew that that video was her capital and was not willing to take it out until the last minute.

“OK, that video is here.” Pari opened her purse and pulled a hard drive out of it.

“Hi, we meet again!”

At some point, there were a few more people in the back row of the studio’s audience.

A dark-haired young man got up from the audience and walked over to the live stage.

The director got angry and pointed at Luke and shouted, “Who are you? Who let you in?”

Luke shook his head, “And who are you? I don’t like your attitude.”

“I’m the program director, I’m in charge here, get out of my studio right now!”

Luke flashed his badge, “You may have been in charge here before, but not anymore.

From now on this place is being taken over by the LAPD, all equipment is to be sealed off and no one is to leave without my permission.”

The director questioned, “What are you doing, who gave you permission to do this?”

David walked over and slapped the warrant on the director, “Read this thing through and shut the fuck up.”

Parley Jones pouted her thick lips and looked a little tight, “Why are you guys barging into my booth, want to do a show with me? Talk about violent law enforcement.”

Luke laughed, “How about this top of mine? Still like it?”

Parley Jones asked back, “Are you going to take it off? Is it true that you like to show your muscles whenever you’re in law enforcement?”

Luke took a step back, “Don’t talk to me in that flirtatious tone, you’re not my type. Be careful I’ll sue you for harassment.”

“You came to my live room to sue me for harassment. Wow Wow ……LAPD can be really intimidating.

Is it true that our station manager is here and you’re grabbing along?”

“You’re right, I will talk to your station manager. Jenny, take her back to the station.” Luke waved his hand and said, to the tech team

“All equipment is to be packed up and taken back to the station, and all personnel are to be taken back to the station for questioning.”

Parley Jones held her head high in awe, “What gives you the right to arrest me? I want a reason.

This is a news station, I don’t know how many cameras are pointed at you.

If you don’t want a live broadcast, give a valid reason.”

Luke flashed the arrest warrant, “Is that reason enough?”

Parley Jones took the warrant and scrutinized it, “Purchasing stolen property? Obstructing law enforcement?

You guys are simply making false accusations, I’ve never done anything like that.”

Luke said, “I’m all too familiar with that phrase, it’s almost every suspect’s mantra.

You know in your heart what you’ve done.

Now it’s not that I won’t give a reason, it’s that you won’t admit it.”

Parley Jones didn’t give up, “Are you referring to the video? That was bought by me from an informant, it was an item that belonged to him, it didn’t belong to the deceased, it’s not even considered stolen property.”

“No, I’m referring to the business card.”

“The business card?” Parley Jones sneered, “A business card can be considered stolen property, don’t you think it’s ridiculous?”

Luke said, “Ordinary business cards don’t count, but business cards that were stolen from a crime scene and sold for thousands of dollars do.”

Pari wryly argued, “I just wanted to know the identity of the deceased, I didn’t realize it was classified as stolen property.”

“You might as well tell that to the judge, I’m sure he’s interested in a thousand dollars worth of business cards too.”

“And the charge of obstructing law enforcement? I’ve never done that before?” This was a more serious charge for Pari as opposed to buying stolen property.

Luke asked rhetorically, “Where did you get the video?”

“Bought it from an informant.”

“What was the informant’s name?”

“Meagher Carter.”

Luke said, “That’s right, according to Meagher’s confession, he originally wanted to send a copy of the video to the police, but you wouldn’t agree to that, you wanted a scoop.

He was also warned that the police couldn’t be made aware of the video until the news stations covered it.”

Pari denied, “I never said that, he’s lying. He’s just too much of a rotten, criminal to deal with the police.”

Luke asked back, “What makes you think that Meagher Carter is afraid to go to the police? Even if he had a previous offense, that doesn’t mean he had anything to do with this case? Are you discriminating against ex-cons?”

Pari was silent.

The reason was simple, she suspected that Meagher had taken the stolen goods from the crime scene, but that ah couldn’t be said without indirectly admitting that she knew the business card belonged to the stolen goods.

“You guys would rather believe a lousy person? Than believe a reporter?”

“We only believe in evidence. Take her away!”

In fact, with Luke’s experience he could probably guess something about the situation.

Judging from the fact that Pari wanted to do an exclusive story, she should have said something similar, just maybe not as explicitly.

Both suspects were shifting blame and trying to pick themselves clean.