Chapter 168

Time passed by, the tracking against Darci had continued.

At two in the morning, Pierce’s cell phone didn’t ring, the police tried to locate Darci’s cell phone number again, it was still in a lost state.

2:30 a.m., still the same.

At 3 a.m., the cell phone was still out of range.

Luke knew something might be wrong.

Darcey may have sensed the anomaly and ran off early.

The only trace left was the black Volvo sedan.

At three o’clock in the morning, Luke was a little unable to carry on and was ready to sleep.

The rest room was already occupied by Blackie, and he could only go home.

On the way back, instead of driving, Luke rubbed David’s car.

Luke put the seat down and yawned, “I should have known better than to wait until now and go home early to sleep.”

David took a sip of his coffee, “Stop complaining, at least you didn’t have to drive.”

“You really think I’m rubbing up against you because I don’t want to drive?”

“Don’t I?”

“Of course not, my Mercedes G500 is spacious enough to make do in it for the night, I just had something I wanted to say to you before I excused myself to hitch a ride with you.

Can you understand my good intentions?”

“Then tell me your good intentions, so I can be touched.”

Luke skimmed David, “How’s your relationship with Captain Jones of the Gang and Narcotics Division?”

“There have been a few encounters, but not really close, why?”

“He came to me the other day and asked about you, said that their squadron’s lieutenant was transferred and he wanted to recommend a suitable candidate to take over, interested?”

David was a little surprised, “He wants to recommend me for Lieutenant?”

“Yes, he’s heard that you have a tough style of handling cases and thinks you’d be quite suitable for a transfer to the Gang and Narcotics Division.” Luke yawned again, “I’ve been a little busy the past few days and never bothered to tell you.

Now that the case involves Doppelganger, it’s likely that the case will be coordinated with the side of the Anti-Triad and Drug Enforcement Division, so I felt the need to let you know.”

After a moment of silence, David asked, “Do you think I should go?”

“The key is what do you think?”

“Of course I don’t want to transfer, but it would be a good opportunity to be promoted to vice team …….

What do you think?”

Luke thought for a moment, “If Jones comes to you about this, you might want to test the waters and see if he’s looking for a punchy gunner or if he really needs an assistant.

If it’s the former, I’d advise you not to go.”

“Luke, thanks.”

“You’re welcome, and I didn’t say anything nice about you.”

David shook his head and lost his smile.

The following morning.

Susan held a short case summarization meeting.

The crowd then focused their investigation on the black Volvo.

It was an old Volvo that didn’t have a positioning device installed and couldn’t be tracked and located through the manufacturer.

Only the most primitive and simplest way to check the surveillance could be used.

The crowd began to check the surveillance, and Luke’s speed of checking the surveillance was obviously much faster than the others.

In the afternoon, Luke found the black Volvo sedan with license plate number 8Aeb392 in the road surveillance.

The black Volvo drove towards the suburbs and into Highway One.

It disappeared about ten kilometers from the entrance to Highway One.

To be exact the car disappeared between the A113 and A114 surveillance intersections.

Luke guessed that the other party would probably abandon the car and escape.

An hour later, Luke and the others drove to the location where the car lost its trail on Highway One.

Considering that the car might be carrying blood plasma, the police also brought a blood search dog.

Blood search dogs are particularly sensitive to the odor of blood and are often used to track and apprehend suspects.

With the blood dog, the police are no longer blind, and combined with the track of the car tires, quickly identified the vehicle trail.

After searching for nearly an hour, the black Vol sedan was found at the bottom of a steep cliff.

This place was far enough away from the highway to be off the beaten path, and it would not have been easy for the police to find it if it had not been for the help of bloodhounds.

Not to mention the initiative of someone finding it and calling the police.

In the desolate parts of America, many similar cliffs are the best places to dump a body.

The cliffs are steeper, with a few short trees growing on the hillside, and the Volvo sedan crashed through a couple of thinner short trees and was blocked by a thicker diameter short tree.

To get to check out the sedan at the bottom of the steep slope, you also need to attach a safety harness first.

David was the first to go down.

Luke was the second to go down, still holding a dagger in his hand, to split the low branches that were in the way.

While the police wanted to keep the scene as intact as possible, they couldn’t risk the officers getting cut by a branch.

Luke walked near the sedan on his safety harness and didn’t get too close; the car was just stuck in a short tree and wasn’t parked very securely.

Through the window, Luke saw that there was a white man lying in the car.

There was a dead body lying, to be exact.

He recognized the other man’s identity-Darcy Ross!

An hour later, the car was hoisted up the steep slope, and the body was brought up with it, so that the forensic autopsy would be a little easier.

But the survey team was not so lucky. The car was part of the crime scene, as was the outside, and they had to go down the steep slope to collect evidence.

It’s dangerous.

The car was put on level ground and the door was opened to get a better look at the body.

The body’s hands were bound and there was visible blood on the right side of the neck and a bloody hole that looked like a puncture wound.

Unlike the double blood hole from the previous bite, this time there was only one blood hole and it looked like the wound was deeper.

With the two previous experiences, Coroner Sheila’s speed in completing the autopsy was much shorter this time.

“I’ve completed the preliminary autopsy, the deceased died between 12:00am and 3:00am.

The car was most likely not the first scene and the body shows signs of having been moved.

The victim’s fatal wound was in the neck, he bled to death from an artery stabbed by a syringe type object.”

Luke looked inside the car, there wasn’t a lot of blood in the car, consistent with not being the first scene of the crime, but where did the victim’s blood go?

“Coroner Sheila, do you think the blood lost by the deceased was at the first scene, or was it collected by the killer?”

Sheila thought for a moment, “I can’t say this, we have to find the first scene of the crime to know, in addition, since the victim was stabbed to death by a syringe type of object, there is a possibility that there was blood drawn.

The scene can only conduct a preliminary autopsy, when the body is transported back to the police station will conduct the next step of the autopsy, find out new clues will notify you.”

“Thanks.” Susan answered and watched Sheila leave.

Blackie sighed, “We searched for half a day, Darcy was found, but he was already a corpse.

Why did he suddenly die?”

David said, “Could it be that he was silenced by his superiors.”

Since it involved trafficking in uniques, Darci was most likely not alone, either an organization or there were other collaborators.

The police had just found evidence of Dalsi’s peddling of independence and he was killed, the most likely scenario was that the upper family chose to abandon Dalsi in order to protect themselves.

As soon as Darshi is dead, this line of investigation is broken.

It would also be difficult for the police to find out more about Dalsi’s sole source.

Luke felt that there was such a possibility, and that the sole source’s upper family did have such a motive.

But there were things that didn’t fit.

For example, the way the victim died.

If it was a lone trader who exterminated the victim, the easiest thing to do would be to kill him with a single shot.

No need to even get out of each other’s cars, just shoot to kill and leave cleanly.

Even if Darci was tricked into a remote place to exterminate, again, one shot to kill is even simpler.

If you’re afraid of the police tracing the bullet marks, stabbing with a knife would also be very economical.

But the fact that the dead man had been stabbed to death by an object like a syringe needle was a bit bizarre.

To put it mildly, it feels like the murderer is either a pervert or has another agenda.

The pervert kind of possibility was put aside for the time being, after all, Luke was not a pervert, and it was hard to guess the pervert’s thoughts for a while.

Luke felt that the murderer might have another purpose.

He associated it with Angela’s murderer, that murderer was directly biting Angela’s neck and sucking blood, causing Angela to bleed to death.

Darcy also died from a neck injury that caused him to bleed out, the difference being that the murderer didn’t bite him directly, but stabbed him with a syringe.

Luke guessed that the other party’s reason for using a syringe might not just be to kill people, after all, there are many ways to kill people, and killing people with a syringe isn’t a time saver by any stretch of the imagination.

And another function of the syringe is to inject or draw blood.

From this speculation, the similarity between the two cases is very high, both of them are killing and drawing blood, only one is drawing blood at the scene and the other is saving the blood.

Looking at it from another angle, the murderer has upgraded his criminal methods.

He is no longer satisfied with sucking blood at the scene, but is storing the blood with a purpose.

From a criminal perspective, this does not bode well.

It shows that he already possesses the traits of a serial killer.

Once that stored blood is consumed, he will likely choose to kill again.

From a certain perspective, he had already turned into a true ‘vampire’.

The survey team hadn’t finished investigating the scene on their end.

At Luke’s suggestion, the blood search dogs began to search again – looking for the first crime scene.

Led by the blood search dogs, Luke and the others traveled east, and after about half an hour, they came to the surroundings of a farm.

There was a police car parked near the farm.

Blackie went up and inquired about it, and learned that a burglary had occurred here.

“Woof woof ……”

Before further inquiries could be made, the blood search dog gave a signal.

Luke and the others walked in to take a look, some blood stains were found on the ground, judging from the color of the blood stains, it was most likely left from last night.

Could this be the first scene?

It didn’t look like it either.

The blood was too little, too scattered, and too far apart, more like a person who was injured and then ran for his life.

That’s the problem, Darci was injured in the neck, and that area is fragile, and when it’s injured there’s a massive spurt of blood, definitely not something that resembles a line of blood drops.

Also, it was questionable whether Darcy could run after the injury.

With these questions in mind, Luke enters the farm to investigate.

The owner of the farm, Jefferson Carcieri, was a white man of about fifty, wearing a cowboy hat and carrying a revolver on his belt.

He had just finished being questioned by the police.

Luke flashed his badge, “Mr. Carcieri, I’m Detective Luke from the Robbery-Murder Division and I’d like to talk to you.”

Farmer Jefferson laughed, “Wow wow, Robbery Murder Division, I’ve heard a lot about you, I heard that you were the ones who solved the school Y shooting a while back.”

This comment scratched Black’s itch and laughed, “You’re right, we solved this case.

Detective Luke and Detective Marcus.

Together we caught the shooter.”

Farmer Jefferson didn’t seem too impressed with Blackie and extended his right hand at Luke, “Inspector Luke, good to see you.

What brings you to my farm?”

“I heard there was a burglary here last night.”

“That’s right, an unscrupulous little thief ran onto my farm to steal, I found him and drove him off.” Jefferson patted the revolver on his belt, “I am capable of protecting my farm.

This sort of thing shouldn’t alarm the Robbery and Murder Division.”

Luke said, “There’s been a murder near the bluffs a few miles to the west, we’re here to investigate the homicide, did you hear any commotion last night?”

“No, I’m only concerned about my farm, the cliffs you mentioned are rather isolated and few people in the neighborhood go there.”

“Did you see any suspicious vehicles last night?”

“No.”

Luke turned the tables, “OK, then tell me about the thefts from the farm and see if I can help in any way.”

Jefferson recalled, “Last night, about 1:00 a.m., I was lying on the roof looking at the stars.

Have you ever tried that?

It’s really great to lie on the roof of a farm you own and look at the stars and drink beer.

I suggest you guys try it.”

Luke said darkly, I’m ready to try it, but I’m still missing a farm of my own, and then he realized something else: “Isn’t it too late to be looking at the stars after 1:00 a.m.?”

“You’re right, actually …… I had a fight with my wife and got kicked out of the house.”

Blackie “……”

“You go on with the case.” Luke made a gesture of invitation.

“I heard some movement and then saw a figure sneaking toward the farm.

I then berated him and told him to leave my farm or he would be treated badly.

I received no response, but I felt as if he was reaching for something.

I was worried that he was reaching for a gun, so I just shot him.

After that, he ran away.”

Luke pressed, “On which roof were you stargazing? And where did you see the burglar?”

Jefferson pointed to a house and led them to the thief’s location again, “It would be around here.”

Here, not far from where Luke had found the blood.

“Did you shoot the burglar?”

Jefferson thought for a moment, “Sure, I’m always a great shot.”

The patrolman laughed, “Jefferson, as much as I love to hear you brag, now is not the time.”

Jefferson shrugged, “OK, actually I’m not so sure.

It was too dark and I didn’t dare get too close for fear that he had an accomplice.

As long as he left my farm, I didn’t bother much.

Then, the next day I called the police.”

“Did you lose any items?”

“No, I caught it in time, he didn’t even have time to steal anything.”

“Has anything like that happened before?”

“It has, but it was so long ago that I can’t remember exactly when.”

“Was there anyone else on the farm besides you?”

“There was my wife, but she was asleep and didn’t see what happened.”

“Can you describe the physical characteristics of the thief last night?”

Jefferson shook his head, “The light was dim and I couldn’t see the thief at all, but he would have been a black man.

That’s the only thing I can determine.”

Luke made a note in his book, “If you had hit the thief, where do you think it probably would have been?”

Jefferson thought for a moment, “I don’t know, it was so dark that it would have been hard to hit, it’s hard to tell exactly where.”

Through Jefferson’s description, Luke roughly understood last night’s burglary.

The burglary and Darcy’s murder didn’t seem to have much to do with each other, and the only other connection was most likely the proximity and the time of the crime.

But it was also these two things that made Luke feel that the two cases should be related in some way.

If what Jefferson said was true, then the blood found outside the rural area should not be the victim Darcy’s.

First of all, there was no gunshot wound on Dalsey’s body, and secondly, his injuries did not match the bloodstain characteristics.

Luke had a wild guess that the thief Jefferson found could be Darcy’s killer.

The murderer had killed Darcy and dumped the car with him at the bottom of the cliff, which was far enough away from Los Angeles that it wouldn’t be easy to get back to it, or even some distance from Highway 1.

The best thing to do would be to find a new means of transportation.

And with the farm being relatively close to the dumping site, the killer would likely try to steal transportation from here.

But unfortunately encountered Jefferson lying on the roof of the house looking at the stars, not only did not steal the transportation, but most likely was shot.

However, since the other party was able to escape that means the gunshot wound was not very serious.

Still, blood was left at the scene.

Very important physical evidence.

If Luke’s speculation was correct, then it was likely that he had found the key evidence to solve the case.

As long as the bloodstains outside the farm were collected for DNA matching, he could find Darcy’s killer.

Taking a step back, he was a suspect in the attempted theft of the farm even if he wasn’t Darcy’s killer.

Whichever way you look at it, the blood justifies an identification.

If the blood outside the farm was really Darcy’s murderer, according to Luke’s previous speculation, this person was probably also the murderer of the singer Angela.

Then, the whole vampire murder case could be successfully solved!