Chapter 172

Early the following morning.

The office of Squadron One of the Robbery and Murder Division.

“Creak ……” a door slammed.

Reed walked into the office from outside with a cardboard box in his hand, “Guys, it was a rough night last night, I brought you breakfast.”

The lieutenant took a donut out of the box, “Thanks, it’s my favorite.”

Everyone else gathered around and took donuts out of the box to eat.

It was a little sweet for Luke, but it tasted good with some coffee.

The door to the captain’s office opened as well and Susan came out of it, “You’re just in time Chief, we were just getting ready for our morning meeting.

Just in time to update you on the progress of the case.”

“GOOD, I happen to have something to announce as well.” Reed strides into the conference room.

Luke finished his donut and entered the conference room with his coffee.

Susan asked, “Chief, why don’t you go first?”

“No, let’s discuss the case first, I’ll talk last.”

Susan flipped open her laptop, “Luke, tell us about yesterday’s interrogation.”

Luke recounted the case.

Reed asked rhetorically, “Do you find his confession credible?”

Luke thought for a moment, “His confession makes logical sense and there are no contradictions in the evidence.

I asked the Technical Division to have all the seized holy blood authenticated and found that some of it was indeed made from cow’s blood.

From this point of view, the farm is most likely the base for manufacturing holy blood.

Therefore, I feel that Kavro’s confession has some credibility, but it can’t be completely believed.”

Reed asked, “Tell us about the doubts?”

Luke replied, “According to Kavro’s statement, Jefferson is most likely Darci’s accomplice.

Jefferson is in charge of manufacturing the holy blood and Darci is in charge of selling it.

And the farm is their base for manufacturing sacred blood.

Darcey brought Cavro to the farm in order for Jefferson to kill Cavro.

Kavro claimed he didn’t kill Darcy.”

Luke paused some and continued, “Personally, I feel that Darci and Jefferson are in cahoots, and that should be fine.

The key point of the question now is who killed Darcy.

It seems to me that both Cavro and Jefferson had motives.

I personally feel there are 4 possibilities. The 1st possibility is that Kavro was telling the truth and he didn’t kill Darcy.

Then Darcy most likely had an infighting with Jefferson.

He was then killed by Jefferson, who cleaned up the scene and dumped the body;

The 2nd possibility is that Kavro lied and it was he who killed Darcy and cleaned up the scene and dumped the body at the cliff.

Afterward, goes back to the farm to attack Jefferson and gets shot by Jefferson instead.

Possibility #3, Cavro killed Darcy, but did not clean up the scene immediately, but was going to go to the farm and kill Jefferson and then clean up the scene together, but unfortunately, his plan did not work and he was shot by Jefferson instead.

After Cavro was wounded, he did not have time to clean up Darcey’s body.

Jefferson took it upon himself to clean up the scene and drove his car into the cliff to avoid implicating himself in Darcy’s body.

Possibility #4 Darcy was killed by an unknown 3rd person.”

Reed nodded, agreeing more with Luke’s analysis, “What else do the others think?”

David said, “Since Jefferson is a suspect, we’ll just get an arrest and search warrant. Searching the entire farm will always lead to clues.”

The lieutenant continued, “It would be good if we could find evidence, of course, but what if we don’t find any after searching the farm?

We didn’t find the murder weapon at the scene of Darcy’s body dump, the key question now is how to convict.

Also have those equipment and instruments for making holy blood been moved?

The former relates to the murder case and the latter to the drug manufacturing case.”

David speculated, “Personally, I feel that the instruments for making holy blood should still be left at the farm.

Since it was an accident, no one expected Kafro to attack the farm.

Coupled with the fact that there was still Darcy’s body to deal with, there were only three or four short hours between the crime and dawn, so there wasn’t that much time to move the tools for making sacred blood.

Blackie said, “Actually, I’m a little confused as to why he called the police.”

Jenny said, “That’s not hard to understand, because he shot the gun that night, and there are other farms around, even if he didn’t call the police, the police might have taken the initiative to find him.”

Susan looked over at Jenny, “You and Raymond have been keeping an eye on the Jefferson farm, have you found anything?”

Jenny and Ramon had been investigating the farm since the last time they realized that Jefferson, the owner, might have been lying.

Jenny replied, “Ramon and I have been staking out the vicinity of the farm, and Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson have not been out for the past two days.

In addition, we secretly inquired around about the Jefferson farm, and someone provided a rather important piece of information.

According to that person, he used to work at the Jefferson farm.

Some time ago, Jefferson asked him to dig a cellar in the northeast corner of the farm. The cellar was two meters deep and twenty to thirty square meters in size. Not long after the cellar was dug, he was dismissed by Jefferson.

Luke asked, “What about the reason for digging the cellar?”

“Jefferson didn’t say.”

Luke asked, “When was he dismissed? What about the reason for the dismissal?”

Jenny replied, “Early May. The reason for the dismissal was that the farm was not doing well enough to pay the workers.”

Luke analyzed, “It was from May that the quantity of human blood purchased by Darcy started to decrease, coinciding with the time when the cellar was dug, and from this point of view, the cellar was most likely used to manufacture holy blood.”

Susan made an instant decision, “OK, I will apply for a search warrant. Search the cellar covertly and then determine the next move.

Director Reed, what do you think?”

Reed nodded, “Fair enough.”

Susan closed her notebook, “That’s enough for today’s meeting, Chief Reed, do you have anything else to say?”

Reed stood up, “In addition to coming here today for the meeting, I have an announcement to make.”

Reed’s tone was solemn, “Luke, you have been performing excellently lately, playing a key role in the detection of several cases, and making great progress.

The bureau has decided to appoint you as the deputy commander of the Robbery and Murder Division’s 1st Squadron.

Congratulations!”

“Pah-pah ……” Reed began to lead the applause.

The crowd froze for a moment, their faces varied, but they all applauded in unison.

The lieutenant lamented, “A peer 40 years younger than me, shouldn’t I retire?”

Black muttered under his breath, “Lieutenant Luke, Detective Marcus, does this make sense?

Why are you doing this to me? Shouldn’t it be Detective Marcus?”

For the matter of promotion to lieutenant, Luke had prepared for it in his heart.

However, when the formal appointment was handed down, there was still some excitement in his heart.

In the afternoon, Luke went to the relevant department to go through the formalities of being promoted to vice team.

Inspector Luke also officially became Luke’s vice team.

Luke behaved in a very low-key manner, and there was nothing unusual compared to previous days.

David and Marcus coaxed Luke to treat them.

However, because the ‘Holy Blood’ case had not yet been solved, Luke did not want to be too high-profile and deferred for a period of time, waiting for the case to be solved before treating them.

This promotion was important to Luke.

If he wanted to be promoted from detective to captain, it was impossible to cross over to the vice squad position.

David and Ramon had been in the detective position for many years, but had never been promoted to lieutenant.

The lieutenant was the equivalent of a captain candidate.

Once the captain’s position became vacant, the chances of the lieutenant being promoted to captain were high.

As long as Luke was competent in the position of vice team and was recognized by his colleagues. Once Susan transferred and left, he would probably take over the captaincy directly.

As for Vince’s vice team, he was too old and the possibility of promotion was extremely small.

Two days later, 11pm.

Jefferson Farm.

In the darkness of the night sky, a pickup truck drove toward the northeast corner of the farm.

The lights were not on, and the car did not leave the farm, but stopped at the northeast corner location of the farm.

Two men stepped out of the car, one was the farmer, Jefferson, and one was the farmer’s wife.

The two men looked around, lowered their voices and exchanged information. They did not look like the owner of the farm, but rather like thieves who had infiltrated the farm.

Jefferson fumbled around on the ground and lifted a plank of wood, which was plastered with sod no different from the surrounding grass.

Underneath the board was a dark cellar, Jefferson took out a flashlight and shone it downward, finally stepping on a ladder to get inside.

Jefferson’s wife frowned with a slight look of disgust on her face and followed her down into the cellar.

Jefferson turned on the cellar’s lights, and the entire cellar immediately lit up.

There were quite a few glassware and plastic buckets, weighing machines, refrigeration equipment, and a small plasticizer machine placed in the cellar.

Jefferson scanned the contents of the cellar and said to his wife, “As long as we get all this stuff out of here, we’ll be safe.”

Jefferson’s wife said, “I’ve been wanting to ship it out for a long time, you’re the one who’s been putting it off.”

“You think I’m willing to put it off, but I’m still afraid of those stinking cops watching us.”

These days Jefferson has been living in fear.

The night of the murder Jefferson fired his gun and the surrounding farms could hear it.

Early in the morning some of the surrounding farm owners came over to visit.

Jefferson knew he couldn’t keep this from the police, which is why he voluntarily chose to call the police, and at first he didn’t put too much stock in it.

He knows too much about the police here, in the past when something was lost on the farm, it’s not like he didn’t report it to the police, but not once did he get it back.

In that case what was there to be afraid of, he called the police.

But what he didn’t expect was that someone from the Robbery and Murder Division was also here, and this was no ordinary patrolman.

It really made him nervous for a long time.

He still can’t figure out a bit why the Robbery-Murder Division people found Darcy’s body so quickly.

Fortunately, before reporting the crime, Jefferson had anticipated all the questions the police would ask and had rehearsed them with his wife for a long time, which prevented him from being seen by the people from the Robbery and Murder Division.

Jefferson turned to his wife and said, “Let’s pack up the stuff and then we’ll hang it up with a rope.”

The two men began to organize the contents of the cellar.

There simply wasn’t enough equipment from the site to make a solo product. It was more like a place to synthesize holy blood, mixing ready-made solitaires and oxblood in proportions and putting them into ziplock bags or glass bottles.

Jefferson’s wife said, “There are some leftover solitaires here, what are you going to do with them?”

Jefferson said, “Keep the solos for now, we’ll talk about it later.”

Jefferson’s wife was disgruntled, “Keep them for what? Don’t these things bring enough trouble?”

Jefferson said, “These uniques were bought with real money, and as long as we sell them, it’s a lot of money.

Jefferson’s wife retorted, “How do we sell them? Who’s going to sell it? Darcy is dead.

And he’s caused us a lot of trouble.

I can’t sleep well every day. I feel like someone’s watching us.

You still want to get your hands on these things? Are you going to sell them yourself? You really don’t want to die?”

Jefferson retorted, “Are you complaining about me? Who killed Darci? If you hadn’t killed Darci, the situation wouldn’t be in such a mess right now.”

Jefferson’s wife pointed at her husband’s nose and cursed, “Bullshit, how dare you accuse me!

You don’t know what Darcy is, if Darcy hadn’t gotten into trouble with the Robbery and Murder Division, the latter wouldn’t have traced it to the farm.

That guy had to die. Why do you think the police found his body so quickly?

The holy blood he was selling had gotten people killed, and the police had been on to him for a long time.

If he hadn’t died, he would have been caught by the police, and then he would have been the first to give you up.

You should be thanking me because I saved you, not whining at me.”

Jefferson’s temper weakened, “I’m not complaining, I just think you do things too impulsively sometimes.”

“You’re right, the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done in my life was marry you.”

Jefferson raised his hands in a surrendering gesture, “OK, I don’t want to argue with you anymore, let’s hurry up and organize these things, bury them in a place no one knows about, and this matter will be considered over.

A peaceful life can be resumed again.”

Jefferson’s wife grumbled as she moved things, “If you hadn’t agreed to work with Darci in the first place, you wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble.”

Jefferson sighed, “You know the situation of the farm, after we work hard for a year to pay our workers’ wages and taxes, there is hardly much profit left.

I’m just trying to make us some more retirement money, we haven’t been to Hawaii in two years, it’s your favorite place.”

“You liar.” Jefferson’s wife grumbled under her breath, her mood easing.

The couple finished their fight and quickly made up, organizing their belongings underneath the cellar opening, and finally Jefferson climbed up the ladder, ready to pull the items outside with a rope.

No sooner had he opened the cellar planks, however, than he felt a bright light shoot into his eyes and fixed his eyes on the fact that there were people everywhere around him.

“LAPD, Jefferson Carcieri, you are under arrest.”

Time back to two days ago.

Susan applied for a search warrant.

After some discussion, instead of doing it right away, they prepared for the night to covertly investigate the possible cellar.

That night, Lieutenant Luke led the team into action for the first time.

To avoid being spotted by Jefferson, Luke and the others stopped a few miles away and walked to the farm.

After some observation with binoculars, no sign of Jefferson was found before sneaking into the northeast corner of the farm to look for the cellar.

After some groping and searching, a hidden cellar was actually found.

After Luke and the others sneaked into the cellar, they found tools hidden inside, which were enough to prove that the farm was the base for manufacturing the Holy Blood.

At that time, David proposed to directly arrest the Jeffersons, but Luke gave it a miss.

The equipment, utensils, cow’s blood, and solo products found in the cellar do prove that the couple is connected to the Holy Blood.

However, they do not find the murder weapon that killed Darcy in the cellar.

Luke takes pictures for evidence and then decides to wait.

The equipment couldn’t have been left here forever, the Jeffersons were sure to dispose of it, Luke installed hidden cameras and listening devices to see what the two of them would do.

This setup of Luke’s was not in vain.

The couple’s conversation just now was enough to prove that they were involved in the making of the Holy Blood and that Jefferson’s wife was Darcy’s murderer.

This deposition was crucial for the rest of the interrogation.

Soon the husband and wife were brought back to the Detective Bureau, and in front of the surveillance, recordings, and tons of evidence, the couple quickly confessed.

The two admitted to collaborating with Darci in the manufacture of holy blood, with Darci providing the solo product and the two of them providing the cow’s blood, and as for the source of the solo product they weren’t sure where it came from, it was all Darci’s responsibility to purchase it.

As for the murder weapon that killed Darci, it was a Plexiglas vessel for drawing blood.

It had been destroyed by the couple and could no longer be used as incriminating evidence.

From this point, it could also side by side prove the correctness of Luke’s decision at that time, without getting the audio and video evidence, it would be hard to convict the Jefferson couple.

This was also considered Luke’s first victory after he was promoted to vice squad.