Chapter 242

After more than twenty minutes of first aid, George was finally out of danger.

However, the two close choking deaths had made his body even more fragile, and he had been put on a ventilator and transferred to the intensive care unit.

Considering the safety of the suspect George, the hospital did not allow the police to give George another statement.

In fact, even if the hospital allowed it, Luke didn’t want to give George a statement.

There was definitely something wrong with the bastard’s body.

Although he was temporarily out of life-threatening danger, it was temporary, and Luke would be held responsible in case he died or became ill again during the interrogation process.

Between investigating the case and self-preservation, Luke chose the latter.

Luke’s two lifetimes had long since seen that the greatest goodness of a man is to love himself and organize his own affairs before minding other people’s business.

If you reverse the order of priorities, even if you get a moment of praise, afterward, the taste only understand.

In the corridor, Luke saw Deputy Commissioner Reed, who was talking to Superintendent Mercedes.

Reed also saw Luke and Blackie, and praised, “Good job, if you guys hadn’t arrived in time tonight, the entire LAPD would be in trouble tomorrow.”

Mercedes said, “Luke, thank you for stopping this murder in time, I thank you on behalf of the entire Western Division.”

“You’re welcome, it’s what we should have done.” Luke and Mercedes had met once before, “I’d like to introduce you, this is my partner, Detective Marcus.”

Mercedes said, “Thank you Detective Marcus.”

Marcus smiled, “Nice to meet you, Detective Mercedes.”

After chatting for a few moments, Mercedes went to the hospital room to see suspect George.

Reed called the two men aside and asked in a whisper, “Luke, what do you think of this murder?”

Luke had been in Los Angeles for so long and had worked on many cases, but it was the first time he had encountered a case where someone was killed under the eyes of the police.

Although the thugs in America were vicious, they rarely dared to go against the LAPD because the LAPD was even more vicious.

Today’s incident was tantamount to openly provoking the LAPD.

“George is in the hospital, and there are still people who want to murder him when there are police guards, which means that he must be carrying a bigger case, and in this case it is most likely that the accomplices will kill and exterminate him.

I think our previous speculation is good, he should be related to the case of Quinnell’s murder.

Moreover, George is also a drug addict, and in line with our previous speculation, he most likely belongs to some kind of drug dealing gang organization.”

Reed said, “Don’t interrogate George for the time being, we’re all responsible for this guy’s death, let’s wait until his physical condition is stabilized.

For now, we can interrogate that female nurse first to confirm her motive.”

“Are we in charge of this case?”

“That’s right, and that’s what Frank wants.”

“I see.”

“Also, there are quite a few police officers gathered outside the hospital, so to avoid any complications and interrogate them on the spot, I’ll ask the hospital to provide a separate room.

The nurse will be escorted back to the Detective Bureau later.”

“Okay.”

Reed barked a few words and left as well.

On the side, Black showed a curious look, “Frank?

Is that the Frank I know?”

“That’s right, do a good job, your chance for a promotion is here.”

“Even buy Karma, are you serious?”

Luke had a premonition that this case was no longer just a case, there was a huge involvement behind it.

As long as this matter could be handled well, a promotion and pay raise was not a dream.

9th floor conference room.

The female nurse who had murdered George was handcuffed with her hands, sitting stonily on a chair, with a female police officer beside her to keep an eye on her.

“Cluck ……” a door slammed.

Luke and Blacky walked in, and after both sides exchanged words, the policewoman left the room and went to wait outside.

Luke put a piece of information on the table and sat across from the female nurse, “Maria, we meet again.”

The black female nurse raised her head and looked at Luke and Blackie somewhat nervously, “You’ve got it wrong, I’m not trying to kill him, I really am not.”

“That’s right, you just wanted to use a pillow to keep him from breathing, and when the doctor announces that George died of asphyxiation, everyone will think that it’s due to the LAPD’s violent law enforcement, and with the whole LAPD taking the fall for you, you don’t have to worry at all.”

“No, I never thought of it that way, I really didn’t.” The black female nurse cried.

“Maria, I originally thought that you were a fake nurse, but after I talked to the head of your hospital, I realized that you are really a nurse in the hospital and have been working in this hospital for five years.

I still remember the look of shock and disappointment on the head nurse’s face when they heard about this, and in their eyes you are an excellent nurse.

You worked very hard and were passionate about every patient, and all of your coworkers couldn’t believe that you would do such a thing.

You were supposed to be a respected white angel and yet you did the murder of a patient ……”

Maria yelled, “Stop saying that, please stop saying that, I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to kill anyone either, like you said, I’m a nurse, I do my best to take care of patients every day.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a kind patient or a cranky one, I take it seriously.

I never thought …… about it.”

“But you did, it’s clearly recorded on the law enforcement recorder that you tried to cover George with a pillow, you were trying to murder him.

Why?”

Maria closed her eyes, a pained commendation on her face as tears slid down the corners of her eyes.

Luke saw that she seemed to have remorse on her face and struck while the iron was hot, “Maria, you’re not a bad person by nature, you’ve saved so many patients, and I’m sure you’re a good person.

People can’t think, people will make mistakes, as long as you correct in time, or a good person.

Give yourself a chance, don’t give up on yourself, you still have a chance.”

Maria looked up at Luke, “Really?”

“I heard that you still have two lovely children, think about your children, they still need you to take care of them.

As long as you can assist the police in their investigation and give up the mastermind behind the crime, we can help you convert to a tainted witness.”

“Oooh ……” At the mention of her children, Maria cried even more fiercely, “Peck, Martha, my poor children …… ”

Luke knew he had poked the other party’s soft underbelly.

Seeing the other party so sad, Luke decided ……

continue to poke.

Luke took out a photo: “This was found in your locker, there is a photo of you and the children on it, I can see that they are very attached to you.

I understand that you’re a single mom.

If you go to prison, they’ll probably end up in a foster care center.

You know what? We’re investigating a homicide of a 14-year-old boy who lived in a foster home.

His mother was also a prisoner.

He had been looking forward to being reunited with his mother and hoped that she would get out of prison soon ……

He kept a thick diary in which he recorded his thoughts about his mother.

He lived on a shoestring and would use both sides of each page, labeling each side with three things.

The date of the day.

The date of the next visit to his mother.

And, how many days his mother had until the end of her sentence ……

78 days!

That was the time recorded in his last diary entry.

78 days until his mother was released from prison.

He was happy because it was one day closer to his mother out of it.

He had waited five long years for this day.

Instead of eroding his love for his mother, time had made this attachment and love deeper.

But after writing this diary, he left this world forever.

It was killed!”

Hearing Luke’s description, Maria cried even harder, as if thinking about her future.

Luke handed her a few tissues and said in a serious tone, “Maria, I want to help you, I really want to help you.

To be exact, I want to help your child.

I don’t want to see something like this happen again.

As long as you give up the mastermind behind it, I guarantee that you can get a nice plea deal, and you can also reunite with your children sooner.”

Blackie sat on the sidelines with his eyes red, although he knew Luke was lying, but …… he was really fucking moved.

“Maria, think about your children, they will also ……”

“Stop saying that!” Maria cried even more, “I didn’t want this, I didn’t want to lose my children either, I had no choice but to do it.

My child was kidnapped!

It was the kidnappers who threatened me to kill George, and if I didn’t do it, I would never see my child again.

I was really scared.

I didn’t want to kill anyone.

But I had no choice.

There was really no way!”

“Who did you get threatened by?”

“I don’t know, he sent me a picture of his child and then called and threatened me. Told me to kill George or kill my baby.”

“When did this happen?”

“This afternoon.”

“Did you know George before?”

“No.”

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“The kidnappers said they had my children and would kill both my children if I dared to call the police. I didn’t dare to call the police.”

“How did the kidnappers contact you?”

“They used my daughter’s cell phone to make the call.”

“Did you record the call?”

“No. I was scared out of my mind, my mind went blank, I couldn’t believe this could happen to me.

I’m just a normal nurse, God, why would you do this to me!” Maria was so emotional that she let out another cry.

Xiao Hei handed him a pack of tissues and suddenly sympathized with the other party a little, “Maria, you don’t have to be afraid, we will get your child back.

I promise, will not let ……”

Luke patted his shoulder and stopped him from continuing, “Maria, can you be sure that the children have been kidnapped? Not that the kidnappers are lying to you.”

“I can be sure, I heard the children’s voices on the cell phone, their voices were full of panic, and after I heard that, I was completely devastated.

Like you said, I’m a nurse and I wouldn’t kill someone if I didn’t have to.”

Luke held out a bag containing Maria’s cell phone, “Find out what pictures the kidnappers sent.”

Maria took her cell phone and manipulated it a bit while handing it to Luke.

The background of the photo was in the living room of the house, a black boy and a black girl were sitting on the sofa, zooming in on the picture, it could be seen that the two children looked a bit panicked, the person who took the photo was most likely the kidnapper.

“Do you know where the picture was taken?”

“My house, please, help them!”

Sajuvin neighborhood.

Luke led the team to the neighborhood of Maria’s house.

The kidnappers had made the call from Maria’s son’s cell phone at 4:00 p.m., and had sent Maria a photo at that time.

After that, the kidnappers again called from Maria’s son’s cell phone around 6 p.m. and threatened Maria with killing George.

From the available information, it is likely that the kidnappers kidnapped the children from Maria’s home in order to threaten her to kill George.

With Luke’s experience, he speculated that it was unlikely that the kidnappers would continue to stay at Maria’s house.

The reason was simple, since Maria was coerced, no one could guarantee that she would not call the police.

Even if she didn’t call the police, it was highly likely that Maria would be arrested.

Therefore, it was unlikely that the kidnappers would continue to stay at Maria’s house.

But still, the first direction of investigation was placed in Maria’s house, and since the kidnappers had been here, it was likely that they would have left some evidence behind.

Secondly, the previous confession was only Maria’s side of the story, Luke could not trust her unreservedly.

At the scene, besides Luke and Blackie, there were also Ramon, Jenny and several patrolmen.

During the interrogation of Maria, Luke had already asked about the structure of the house, the house was not that big, it only had one floor, three rooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen.

Luke made a simple arrangement and took out the infrared thermal imager from the trunk of the car.

The infrared thermal imaging camera utilizes infrared thermal imaging technology to identify a suspected target that is heating up by detecting the infrared radiation of the target.

Without identifying the situation in the house, Luke did not dare to rush into the house, for one thing, it was dark and he was worried that the officers might get hurt.

For another, it would be easy to accidentally injure a hostage without knowing what was going on.

This is a big responsibility.

Luke scanned the house with an infrared camera and found no suspected humanoid heat-generating targets.

After all, it was the first time he used this kind of device, and Luke wasn’t sure if it was reliable, so he was still careful when searching the house.

Luke then began to arrange specific actions.

Four patrolmen stood guard outside the house, while Luke and the others and two patrolmen went in through the back door of the house to search.

“Bang!” Blackie kicked open the door of the house and shouted, “LAPD!”

There was no movement in the house.

Luke was the first to enter the house turning on the light on the right wall, the house was empty and no one was seen.

Luke then led a search of the room.

“Clear!”

“No targets found.”

“Clear!”

Soon, Luke led people to search the room once, and no kidnappers or targets were found.

But this search was only cursory, the next step was to survey the scene for clues left behind by the kidnappers and hostages.

Luke first started to search from the living room, this is where the two children took pictures at that time, Luke speculated the location of the shooter based on the angle of the photo, and determined that the shooter should have taken the picture on the left side of the TV.

Luke looked closely and found no obvious shoe prints, and had no choice but to search for other evidence.

The living room left Luke with the impression that it was messy and clean.

Messy in the sense that the house was disorganized.

Clean meant that the kidnappers hadn’t left any valuable clues.

The good news was that no blood was found and no bodies were found, which meant that the two children were safe for the time being.

At the same time, the kidnappers would definitely need transportation to take the two children.

“Luke, I have something on my side.” Ramon came out from the house with a photo album.

Luke took the album, which was full of photos of Maria’s family, mostly of the mother and child.

One of the photos that caught Luke’s attention was a photo of four people, in addition to Maria’s mother and child, there was also a photo of a black man.

Judging from the age of the two children in the photo, it would have been taken a few years ago, and the man in the photo was similar to the other man in Luke’s criminal investigation sketch portrait.

This was interesting.

If we go by Maria’s story, she didn’t know George, much less the kidnappers.

The kidnappers kidnapped her child because she happened to work at the hospital and had access to and killed George.

In fact, Luke was suspicious at the time.

George was captured in the morning, and the kidnappers quickly set their sights on Maria, who worked at the hospital, and also found out her home address and her children.

The kidnapping had been carried out in the afternoon.

Not impossible?

But to do all these things, the kidnapper is by no means alone, there should be a not-so-small force behind him.

And this old photo Ramon found introduces the case into a different direction of investigation.

First of all, if the man in the photo is really George’s accomplice, then it is very likely that he is also the mastermind behind the killing of George.

From the photo, the man was very close to Maria’s family of three and was probably a couple with Maria.

Luke has learned about Maria’s family, Maria is a single mother, the father of the child is unknown.

Based on this information, it is presumed that Maria should have known the kidnappers.

Then, whether she killed George was coerced by the kidnappers will have to be a question mark.

Luke felt that there were two possibilities, the first, the man was close to Maria, knew that Maria worked in the hospital where George was treated, disguised as a robber to coerce Maria to kill George.

Conclusion, Maria didn’t lie.

The second possibility is that the man was close to Maria, and he asked Maria to kill George to avoid George giving up on him.

Conclusion, the kidnapping was a fake, the two were working together, the reason why Maria said she was coerced was to minimize her guilt.

Luke thinks the second one is more likely.

As for why it wasn’t obvious that Maria was lying, it wasn’t surprising.

Maria had broken down emotionally when she was interrogated, with a look of panic and fear that masked the rest of her emotions.

It was like when you ate a spicy hot pot and then any other dish would be bland and tasteless.

After listening to Luke’s analysis, Xiao Hei was incredulous: ”Maria is lying to us?

The so-called kidnapping of children and coercion to kill are all lies?

Damn liar!

I saw how sad she was and felt sorry for her.

Women, what a horrible animal.”

“Luke, what should we do now?” Blackie had ‘I’m not happy’ written on his face.

“Since she lied, it means she’s still sensible, even if we reveal her relationship with that man, she won’t admit that the kidnapping was fake.

The best way is to a give her a crash therapy to make her lose her mind.” Luke then began to arrange tasks to prepare for the next interrogation.

“Ringing ……”

A cell phone rang.

Luke looked at it, and the number displayed on the screen was Reed’s.

“Chief.”

“Luke, what’s the status of the investigation?”

“We found pictures of George’s accomplices at Maria’s house, Maria is probably an accomplice and she lied.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Search surveillance around the community, visit neighbors, and investigate the whereabouts of the ‘kidnapper’ and the child.

Gather new evidence and then interrogate Maria.”

“When the investigation is over, come to my office.”

“Okay.”

Luke arranged the task first.

Susan arrived at the scene and the two made a brief handover as he returned to the detective bureau.

“Knock knock ……”

A knock sounded outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

Reed sat behind his desk and looked up, “Come in.”

Luke pushed his way in, “Chief.”

“Have a seat, want some coffee?”

“Captain Susan’s searching for the two kids and I’m going back to sleep in a little while.”

Reed grimaced, “Let’s get down to business then.”

“What happened again?”

“George is dead.”

“Dead!” Luke gave a surprised look.

“When did it happen? Was it another assassination, or did something happen to his body?”

Reed changed his tone, “Hypothetically, I mean hypothetically George is dead, what do you think would happen?”

“The public might get emotional about the police and feel that the LAPD is enforcing the law violently, the media might make a big deal out of it, George’s family might sue for damages, all sorts of hassles.”

Reed nodded, “You’re right, but the realization isn’t deep enough.

Frank got the message that if George dies, someone will probably make an issue out of it.

The entire LAPD, and even Frank himself, would have to face a huge dilemma at that point.

In fact, that’s evident in the media’s reaction so far; there’s no way this would have gotten this big without someone pushing behind it.”

Luke guessed, “So George can’t die. You want me to secretly protect George.”

“That’s right.”

“But protecting people isn’t something I’m good at.”

“There are many ways to protect people, and you can protect him in the way you’re good at.”

“What do you mean?”

“As I said earlier, suppose George is ‘dead’. Then the assassinations against him would stop, and George would naturally be safe.”

Luke understood what he meant, “You want the outside world to think George is dead.”

Reed nodded, “When the news of George’s death spreads, there will be people pushing behind the scenes, either trying to target the LAPD or simply trying to use the incident for their own purposes.

Either way, these people have already offended the LAPD, and they’re using the LAPD as pawns, trampling on them recklessly.

LAPD had no fear of anyone, and Frank didn’t like being passive.

Since those people want to pit the LAPD against us and make a fool of themselves, let them jump out, and only by recognizing the enemy can we fight back better.”

“But if the LAPD announces a fake death, it will be condemned by the media and the public afterward, and will have to bear the blame just as much.”

“I never said the LAPD was going to publicize George’s death.

There are no impermeable walls in the world, and it could have been spread through other channels that had nothing to do with the LAPD, and the LAPD would not have recognized it.”

“You want to leave this to me.”

“Can you?”

“I don’t want to take the fall.”

“And I’m not going to let one of my own take the fall.

It’s not Frank’s style to let subordinates take the fall either.

Like I said, the LAPD had nothing to do with this.

It’s just that being in our position would be watched by a lot of people, and sometimes it’s inconvenient to do things instead.”

“Leave it to me.” Luke thought about it, it would be an opportunity for him to be involved in this matter, as for the risk there was definitely something, but it was not a big problem for him.

“Be careful, Captain Luke.”

“I will.”