Chapter 187
Modern Mother Moonchild Center.
At the front desk, there sat a fat Asian older sister around forty years old.
The fat big sister was brushing TikTok with her head down, the system recommended fitness videos, the video anchors were all young white handsome men, all tendon flesh, wanting to have a body, wanting to have a face, looking at the fat big sister gulped straight.
Like.
“Ringing ……” a phone rang.
“Hello, this is Mary.” The fat big sister picked up the microphone and said in not-so-standard English, “This is the Modern Mom Monthly Child Care Center, I’m very glad to receive your call, what can I do for you.”
A man’s voice rang out on the phone and asked in Chinese, “Do you speak Chinese?”
Too good to be true, the fat older woman asked with a slight hometown accent, “Sir, American and Chinese, I speak all of them, may I ask what you need.”
“Uh, I’m a Chinese man, my wife is pregnant, I heard that the medical care and benefits are better over there in the US, I’d like her to go to California to have her baby, is that okay?”
“Of course, America is a free country, anyone can come here to give birth, and as long as the child is delivered in an American hospital, it’s part of the United States of America.” The fat older sister went into a lull.
“And what about the cost?”
“We have three standards here, they are forty thousand dollars, sixty thousand dollars and eighty thousand dollars three standards, according to your needs you can choose on your own.”
“Is there any difference?”
“Of course, accommodation, food, medical checkups, services, different prices, there are different standards. I will send you the details and photos of the moon center later.”
“Is there still a discount?”
“This is already the lowest price.”
“Uh, I know Mrs. Kenneth, she referred me here.
She said she knows the owner of your moon center and can get an even better deal.”
“You are a friend of Mrs. Kenneth’s?”
“Yes.”
“Since you are Mrs. Kenneth’s friend, you can also get a 10% discount, which is the lowest price.”
“Thank you, I would also like to ask, what is the relationship between Mrs. Kenneth and your moon center?”
“Mrs. Kenneth is a good friend of our boss, back then, she stayed at our moon center when she gave birth to her child, she is an elegant and kind woman, every time she came to the moon center, she would bring us delicious snacks.
I believe that your future wife will be as elegant and graceful as her.
It is definitely the best choice for you to let your child be born in a free country.”
“Huh.” The man on the other end of the phone laughed, “That’s heartwarming.”
“Sir, I’m also looking forward to meeting you and your wife sooner.”
“Really?”
“Of course ……,” the fat elder sister finished, seemed to feel something was wrong, the voice just now did not seem to come from the phone.
Looking up, two men walked in the door, a handsome young brunette and a black man.
“Were you guys the ones who called just now?” With the experience of the fat elder sister to see that these two people should not be customers, vaguely realized something: “Who are you people? What’s the matter with coming to our moon center?”
Luke flashed his badge, “LAPD, I’m looking for the person in charge here.”
The fat older sister breathed a secret sigh of relief, “What exactly is your business? Why are you trying to trick me by disguising yourselves as customers?”
“We’d like to know something about Mrs. Kenneth.”
“I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you, Mrs. Kenneth hasn’t been here for a long time, and I’m not very familiar with Mrs. Kenneth.”
Luke waved his hand machine, “That’s not what you just said, want me to play it back?”
“That’s just a little trick to bring a client closer, the client said a mutual acquaintance, I can’t tell him he’s not familiar with it, wouldn’t that drive the client out of town?”
Luke said, “I want to see the person in charge here.”
The fat older sister spread her hands, “I am the person in charge.”
Blackie said, “Are you kidding me? You’re just a receptionist.”
Fat Big Sister shrugged, “It’s true that I’m just a receptionist, but I’m the one with a husband, and my husband is the boss here.
Besides, what’s wrong with a receptionist?
The work is easy, answering the phone, sending and receiving couriers, and there aren’t many walk-in customers in a week, and I love this job.
Why hire an extra person when I can do the job.
I really wouldn’t feel comfortable hiring a blonde, blue-eyed, ass-kicking white chick, don’t you think?”
Xiao Hei “……”
With this tone of voice, the fat older sister is obviously not too afraid of the police, there is a saying that one thing leads to another, brine tofu.
Luke took out a few business cards from his pocket and laid them one by one on the table, “This is Investigator Shakira from the Tax Bureau, this is Captain Bincy from the Fire Department, and this is Agent Capel from the Immigration Bureau, pick one.”
The fat elder sister stared at the three business cards, her eyes could no longer leave, and there was no more ease before, looking at Luke wanting to open her mouth to get close, but she did not know how to say.
Luke tapped the table with his fingers, “Why don’t you choose?
If you’re having trouble choosing, I can call them all in.
At that time you can interact with them one by one, I believe it will be very interesting.”
The fat elder sister wimped out, her fat face piled up with a smile, “Sir, I said the wrong thing just now, for the sake of the fact that we are all one old ancestor, you can give me another chance.”
Xiao Hei corrected, “What A Sir?
I’m Detective Marcus from the Robbery and Murder Division, and this is Lieutenant Luke.”
“Hello Vice Squad, you don’t have to call them, you really don’t need to. Let’s have a nice chat, if you have any questions, just ask me.” The fat elder sister led Luke and Blackie to sit on a sofa aside.
“Both of you, please have a seat, what do you want to drink, I’ll ask someone to prepare, tea and coffee are available.
The tea is still sent from China, several thousand dollars a catty, my husband usually can’t afford to drink it, I’ll go and pour you a pot.”
Luke suddenly had a feeling of a domestic case, pointing to the sofa across the door, “Sit down and talk.”
“Yes.”
Luke shook the business card in his hand, “What I ask, you answer, got it?”
“No problem, we just do a little business, we don’t do anything illegal, there’s nothing to hide, surely we’ll cooperate well with the two of you to investigate the case.”
“What’s your name?”
“Zhang Wenyan, this is my business card.” The fat elder sister handed over a business card with both hands.
Luke took the business card and took a look, Modern Mother Moonchild Center:
Lobby Manager, Zhang Wenyan.
“Who is in charge of this store’s moon center?”
“My husband is in charge of the big things, I’m in charge of the small things, my husband is not here, you can just talk to me.”
Luke observes the fat big sister’s figure and secretly says, without some connections, the big sister won’t be able to be the front desk with this size.
“Do you know Mrs. Kenneth?”
“Recognize.”
“What’s her real name?”
“Yanfang Ma, then she thought it was dirt, so she changed her name to Amy Ma.”
“Looks like you guys know each other pretty well.”
“I can’t say that I do, but the Chinese circle is so big, it’s not hard to find out about someone.”
“What’s the relationship between your moon center and her?”
The fat elder sister frowned, a little embarrassed, “It’s not much of a relationship, it’s just …… how to say it.”
“I know that there is a relationship of interest between you, I came here just to investigate Amy Ma, and I am not interested in the gray chain of interests of your moon center.
You can make hypothetical statements now, and what is said will not be admissible as evidence in court.”
The fat elder sister breathed a sigh of relief, “It’s really nothing, it’s just that she’ll introduce clients for us, and for every client she introduces, she can get a commission.”
“How much can she get for introducing a client?”
The fat elder sister hesitated again.
“Don’t hide it at this time, we’re not from the IRS, and we don’t care if you’re cheating on your taxes among yourselves, we just want to investigate Amy Ma as a person.”
The fat older sister was still unsure, “Then why are you investigating her?”
“Amy Ma has been kidnapped, and we are investigating the people who have a stake in her.”
“Kidnapped!” The fat older sister revealed a look of surprise, “When did this happen, why didn’t I know?”
“On the night of June 19th, where were you between nine and twelve?”
“At home, it was my husband’s birthday, I got a bunch of friends to celebrate his birthday, and the party didn’t break up until after eleven, and it was twelve when I finished cleaning up.”
“When was the last time you saw Amy Ma?”
“It’s been at least half a month, actually, I don’t really like to hang out with her, you said she’s not too young, she dresses up all day long, and I don’t really like dealing with people like that.
We just contact each other once in a while because of our work, for example, if we have a client, she will give me a call.”
“Was there anything unusual about her during this time? Or offended anyone?”
The fat elder sister thought for a moment, “About a week ago, someone came to her on June 14th or 15th.
Now that I think about it, that person was quite strange.
As soon as the man came, he said that he was introduced to me by Mrs. Kenneth, saying that a relative of his family wanted to come over here for a monthly visit, so I chatted with him.
At first, I felt quite normal, asking about the situation of the center, the living environment, food, hygiene, etc. I saw that he did have this idea, and I also inquired carefully about the current prices.
Talking about almost, the topic shifted to Mrs. Kenneth, asked me repeatedly if I could contact Mrs. Kenneth, let me ask her out.
I felt something was wrong, I thought to myself you were not introduced to her?
Now why are you asking me about her.
I felt there was something wrong here and didn’t say yes.
Later, he asked for Mrs. Kenneth’s address, and I didn’t tell him either.
And then later, when he saw that I wasn’t talking to him, he left.”
“Did he say why he was looking for Mrs. Kenneth?”
“No.”
“Do you have any pictures or surveillance of him?”
“There is no surveillance inside the moon center to protect the privacy of pregnant women, but there is surveillance installed outside.”
“Would you describe to me what the man looks like?”
“Asian, thick eyebrows, wearing sunglasses, a bit dark, medium build, about one meter eight, looks to be in his early thirties.”
As the fat older sister described, Luke compared the man’s information with the information from the footprint identification at the scene.
[Shoes, diamond-soled leather shoes
Sex, male
Height, 175-180cm
Weight, 70-80 kilograms
Age, between 30 and 35 years old.]
The height, weight, and age that the fat older sister said roughly matched.
Luke pursued, “What kind of shoes is he wearing?”
The fat big sister scratched her forehead, “I can’t remember too well, it seems …… like leather shoes.”
“How did he get here?”
“Seems to be driving.”
“What kind of car?”
“A black car, I can’t remember exactly what brand.”
Luke walked outside and swept a glance at the camera above the doorway, “Pull up the surveillance video, I want to check it out.”
Although the fat elder sister was a little reluctant, but she didn’t dare to refuse, or in accordance with Luke’s command, the surveillance video was transferred out.
Luke began to check the video from the morning of June 14th, and the fat elder sister was also called aside by Luke.
Because the camera was fixed and the target was a parked black vehicle, it was easier to view, Luke quickly found a black sedan and pressed the space bar: “Is this the car?”
The fat older woman took a look, “Looks like it.”
Luke continued to fast forward the video and a man stepped out of the car just facing the direction of the camera.
“Snap!” Luke hit the space bar again, “Is that him?”
“Yes, that’s him.” The fat older woman pointed at the screen with a look of certainty.
Luke stared at the screen for a closer look, an Asian man wearing sunglasses, observing the surrounding situation before walking in to the moon center.
From this angle, the license plate on the front of the car, 8lFb898, could just be seen.
Luke asked, “Did he leave contact information?”
The fat elder sister shook her head, “No.”
Luke revealed a thoughtful look, this man was highly suspicious.
First of all, just shortly before the murder, he came here to see Mrs. Kenneth, also known as Amy Ma.
Luke guessed that the other party, like himself, probably also found this place through the soft advertisement posted on WeChat’s circle of friends.
However, Amy Ma did not send the address of her own neighborhood, after all, her Mrs. Kenneth’s identity is fake, and she is also afraid of being broken up.
In addition, the man’s physical characteristics match the characteristics of the footprints found at the crime scene, indicating that he may have been at the crime scene, and may even be the kidnapper.
Now that we know the license plate number, it won’t be hard to find the owner of the car.
Detective Bureau.
Robbery-Murder Division Office.
There were quite a few people sitting around the office, Reed, Susan, the Vice Squad, Deputy Mayor Li Mei, Brown Kenneth, and the officers from the Tech Squad who were in charge of the listening devices.
Brown’s cell phone was on the table and had become the center of attention.
Brown glanced at his cell phone and had become a little sullen, “It’s already 2:00 p.m., how come the kidnappers haven’t called yet?”
Reed comforted, “Don’t worry, as long as the kidnapper calls, we can track his location.
In addition, the kidnapper named a new trading location, we can rush ahead to set up control to ensure the safety of Betty and Amy Ma.”
Rao Li Mei, who was used to seeing big scenes, also revealed a worried look, “What if the kidnapper never calls?”
The crowd was silent.
Susan said, “As long as the kidnappers want money, they will definitely call.”
“That’s not necessarily true.” The vice squad shook their heads and recalled, “I remember participating in the detection of a kidnapping case ten years ago.
At that time, the kidnappers also made a ransom demand, and the first time the ransom was delivered, the police gave up on the capture because the time was not ripe for the capture, considering the safety of the hostages.
Subsequently, the insatiable kidnappers tasted sweet, and the second demand for ransom.
This time the police made every effort, want to arrest the kidnappers, rushed to the delivery location in advance of the deployment of control, well prepared for the complete ……
But we never saw the kidnapper appear.
Only after half a month did we find the hostage, and she …… had been starved alive.”
Brown revealed a nervous look and pressed, “The kidnappers clearly demanded a second ransom, so why didn’t they call again?”
The vice squad sighed, “At that time, we were also puzzled as to why the kidnappers clearly offered to demand a second ransom, so why did they not make a move and starved the hostages alive instead.
Two years later, the kidnapper was caught because of other cases, and in order to figure out why, I specifically went to the prison to meet him.
According to him, he knew it was risky to take the ransom, and he had taken a big risk the first time. The second delivery of the ransom was just an excuse to delay and confuse the victim’s family to buy more time for the escape.”
Completely panicked, Brown looked at Reed, then at Susan, and finally stared at the lieutenant, “What should we do then? In case the robbers are aiming for the same thing, won’t Betty be in danger!
We can’t keep waiting around foolishly, absolutely not!”
Li Mei also said, “Deputy Reed, besides waiting for the call from the kidnappers, does the Robbery and Murder Division have any other operational arrangements?”
Reed nodded, “Of course, Lieutenant Luke is leading an investigation into another clue, I believe there will be progress soon.”