Chapter 256

Luke calls in to report to Reed.

Reed told Luke to take over the scene and would also send forensics and tech teams to the scene for support.

Cyanide was extremely toxic and had a quick onset, dying within seconds to five minutes after taking it.

According to the description of the two workers, the deceased had been working on the roof for some time, much more than five minutes, then the roof is likely to be the first crime scene.

The decedent fell unconscious, died, and fell from the roof to the ground in a very short period of time after being poisoned on the roof.

Luke again examined the fall site and found no suspected poisoning tools or items containing cyanide.

Luke then climbed back up on the roof of the house and asked the deceased’s workmates to identify the location where the deceased had fainted.

The house had a conical roof, and because of the size of the house, the slope of the roof was not so great that it could be stood on.

The Mexican-American man pointed to the east side of the roof, “At that time, Adams was standing right here, and he suddenly fell, and I didn’t even react.”

“Why weren’t you wearing a safety harness?”

The Chicano man sighed, “The roof doesn’t have much of a slope and we didn’t find a suitable place to hang the safety rope, and Adams didn’t like the idea of hanging the safety rope, he felt that hanging a rope on his body would interfere with his movements instead.

It was my fault, I should have persuaded him that if I had insisted that he hang a safety rope it might not have been ……”

In Luke’s opinion, it didn’t matter whether or not he hung a safety rope because the deceased didn’t die from a fall, but from poisoning.

Cyanide to oral, respiratory absorption and skin contact, which, skin contact absorption is weak, the dose is generally not too large, usually does not lead to immediate death.

The deceased was poisoned in a very short period of time, more like an overdose of cyanide taken orally or inhaled.

Luke surveyed the scene on the roof and found some tools for repairing the roof, but did not find any suspected cyanide poisoning items.

Luke looked over at his Mexican-American workmate who had stepped aside, “Was there anything unusual about Adams before he died?”

“Doesn’t seem to be, at least not that I can see.”

“Did he take anything before he died?”

“I …… don’t know.” The Chicano worker gulped.

Luke stared at the other man, “What’s your name?”

“Mario.”

“Are you not feeling well?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Then why do you look so nervous?”

“Uh …… probably because Adams is dead and it’s a little hard for me to accept.”

“Recall more carefully what Adams did in the five minutes before he died?”

“He was just standing on the roof working, picking off broken shingles, removing construction debris, and putting new shingles on …… It’s the same set of jobs, nothing different.”

Luke pointed to his forehead, “You’re sweating a lot, want to wipe it off?”

“Thanks, it’s too hot, this season is more suited for a beach vacation than work.”

Luke looked at the other man’s expression and felt as if he was hiding something, “Adams was poisoned, not killed by a fall.

What he took was cyanide, which is highly toxic and kills in a very short time.

Therefore, the scene of Adams’ death should be on the roof, and at that time, there were only two people on the roof, you and him.

Mario, I know you’re hiding something, and this is very unwise.”

Mario, with more sweat on his forehead and some weakness in his body, sat down directly on the roof and broke down emotionally, “Jesus Christ, why did this happen?”

“What the hell happened?”

Mario hesitated for a moment and said, “It was a hot day and I needed to hydrate a lot, so I brought two bottles of mineral water with me, and I opened and drank one, and when Adams saw it, he asked me if I had any more.

I then handed him the other bottle of mineral water.

This is normal, we are workers, we cooperate and help each other.

After giving him the water, I went to work.

Soon, something was wrong with his state; he was pressing his head, patting his chest, and had a pained look on his face, as if he couldn’t breathe.

I was about to go over and help him when he passed out and fainted and fell off the roof ……”

Mario’s voice trembled, “I was trying to help him, but didn’t have time, it happened so fast.

I rushed downstairs to check on him and thought about calling 911 for an ambulance, but I checked and he was dead.

That state was wrong, it wasn’t like he fell to his death ……

I thought about how he had behaved on the roof earlier and I guessed that there might be something wrong with that bottle of water.”

Luke had been watching Mario’s expression and it didn’t look like he was lying, according to him cyanide could have been put into the mineral water bottle, “Where’s that mineral water?”

“In my backpack.”

Luke questioned, “Why did you poison Adams?”

“No, I never wanted to poison him, I didn’t even know that the bottle of mineral water had poison in it, otherwise I would never have given it to him.”

“The fact that you hid the bottle of mineral water afterwards shows that you were consciously hiding the evidence.”

“I just don’t want to be taken as a murderer, let alone being taken to jail and imprisoned, I gave him the mineral water out of kindness, not to harm him.

I’m innocent and shouldn’t be implicated.”

“Did you have a problem with Adams?”

“No.”

“Any disputes of interest?”

“No. We have always been on good terms, and I had no reason to kill him, and never wanted to.”

“Where did you get that bottle of mineral water?”

“I picked it up.”

“Where did you pick it up.”

“Picked it up in the subway, I rode the subway to work today, and in the subway corridor I saw a Vixen mineral water box with a note on it saying ‘free to pick up’, and I walked over and saw eight bottles of mineral water sitting in the box.

I thought someone was doing charity work, so I took two bottles of water and put them in my bag, thinking to quench my thirst at work.

Who would have thought that it was actually poisoned inside!” Mario pinched his forehead hard.

“It’s not my fault, my didn’t expect the mineral water to be poisoned, I’m not a murderer, I’m not …… begging you not to arrest me.

I’m a good person.”

Adams is dead, no matter what kind of suffering Mario has, he has to bear some responsibility, and Luke is now more concerned about the mineral water box he said.

Luke asked, “How many bottles of water does that mineral water case hold in total?”

“It seems to be around twelve bottles.”

“You drank a bottle of mineral water too?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you okay?”

“I don’t know.”

There were a total of twelve bottles of mineral water in the case, and there were eight bottles left when Mario saw them; there were two possibilities; there were a total of twelve bottles of mineral water in the case, and four bottles had already been taken before Mario took the mineral water.

In the second case, there were only eight bottles of mineral water in the case.

Also, according to Mario, he took two bottles, and he drank one himself with no problem, which means that his bottle was cyanide-free.

Luke ventured a guess that the mineral water bottle containing cyanide was not the only one, and that there might be other mineral water in that case that had cyanide put in it.

It could be one bottle, or two, three …… or even eleven.

At 50 percent, the likelihood is more likely to be four to six bottles.

That means there could be more victims.

Just then, several vehicles drove up to the yard entrance.

Reed led the team to the scene, as did the tech team and forensics.

Luke told Reed what he knew, and the latter looked grave, obviously realizing the seriousness of the problem.

Luke found two mineral water bottles from Mario’s backpack, and sure enough, residual cyanide was found from one of them, and Luke’s speculation was confirmed.

The ‘murderer’ was found, but the danger was not lifted, instead it made the crowd more worried.

The case of mineral water suspected to have dropped cyanide was like a time bomb that could kill more people at any time.

In order to prevent more people from being poisoned, Luke led the team to escort Mario to the subway station where the mineral water box was found.

The people rushed to the location that Mario said, and indeed found a Vixen mineral water box, which also contains two bottles of mineral water, the accompanying technicians for testing, from a bottle of mineral water was found to contain highly toxic cyanide.

This evidence, to a certain extent, proves the authenticity of Mario’s confession, which means that at least four other bottles of mineral water were taken away by others!

Luke immediately notified the people at the ground fall station and asked them to make a broadcast in response to this situation, telling the subway passengers to be safe and not to drink mineral water from unknown sources.

Luke then reported the situation to Reid, and whether or not he would hold a press conference was Reid’s business.

The focus of the investigation was divided into two aspects, the first aspect to catch the person who put the poisonous mineral water.

The second is to find the people who took the mineral water as soon as possible and remind them not to drink it.

The investigation is divided into two main ways, the first way is to check the subway surveillance.

The second way is to visit.

The people split up to investigate.

Soon, the first target was found in the surveillance, and a man was seen holding Vixen brand mineral water in his hands under the surveillance not far from the mineral water box.

The vice squad and Jackson took charge of the tracking.

The Vice Squad was experienced, and by observing the man’s clothing and demeanor, he guessed that the other man was probably a vagrant.

Through the camera tracking, they found the approximate location of the homeless man, and after some searching in the neighborhood, they found the homeless man who was suspected to have taken the mineral water.

However, all they found was a body, and the hobo was dead in his tent, with three bottles of Wesson brand mineral water scattered next to him.

He was also the second victim in the mineral water poisoning case.

The severity of the case escalated again.

At this point, there are still one to five bottles of suspected poisoned mineral water unaccounted for.

Luke, whose powers of observation are far beyond normal, is also involved in the surveillance of the exhumation.

During the sweep, he spotted a suspicious-looking teenager.

This is a white teenager, looks only twelve or thirteen years old, holding a box in his hand, carrying a shoulder bag on his body, Luke partially zoomed in on the video, and found that the box was painted with mineral water and the word Vixen was written on it.

Luke hit the space bar, he guessed that this teenager is likely to be the person who put mineral water in the subway.

The surveillance was located at the northeast exit of the subway at 8:45 AM.

Luke then told the others about the situation and asked the rest of the team to line up surveillance videos related to the teenager as well.

Soon, the police figured out the teen’s whereabouts in the subway.

At 8:42 a.m. the teenager entered the subway from the northeast exit of the subway holding a suitcase, and at about 8:45 a.m. the teenager placed the suitcase on the corner of the subway station.

At 8:47 a.m., the teenager reappeared in the subway surveillance, this time he did not have a box in his hand, only a shoulder bag, 8:49 a.m., he again moved to the northeast exit of the subway to leave.

The police also temporarily lost track of him.

Soon, Luke focused his investigation on the teenager.

First, the surveillance along the road outside the northeast corner of the subway was retrieved to look for the teenager’s traces.

The road surveillance was not very effective at this time, Luke had someone investigate the surveillance around the store, and sure enough, the teenager’s trail was found.

However, not every store has installed external surveillance, so in addition to lining up surveillance, the police also arranged for people to visit and investigate, asking the surrounding stores and pedestrians whether they had seen the teenager.

After some tracking and investigation, the teenager finally entered an apartment building and took the elevator to the 7th floor.

Luke and his team went up to the 7th floor, and there were twelve households on the 7th floor of the entire apartment.

Luke was going to start knocking on the door to investigate from 701.

“Knock knock ……” Luke knocked on the first door.

The person who opened the door was an old white man around sixty years old, “Who are you? Can I help you?”

Luke flashed a picture of the white teenager, “Do you recognize him?”

“This is a bad boy, last time he smeared Tabasco sauce on my cat’s ass, my cat screamed all night and almost died.

What do you guys want with him?”

Luke flashed his badge, “LAPD, where is he?”

“I knew this bad boy was going to get into trouble, not surprised at all.” The old white guy gloats a little, pointing to the door at 705.

“That’s his house.

Don’t say I told you guys, my poor cat can’t stand the toss anymore.”

“What’s his name?”

“Tom.”

“Bang!” The old white man slammed the apartment door.

Blackie laughed, “Poor kitty.

But this kid reminds me of my childhood playmates.”

“Do those playmates of yours know you’re getting married?”

“Most of those bad boys are in jail, so I wouldn’t be able to attend even if I told them, so I’d rather not.”

“Knock, knock ……” Black walked over and knocked on the door of 705’s room.

No one answered.

“Keep knocking.” Luke wasn’t in a hurry, there were people guarding the outside of the apartment, the kid couldn’t get away even if he climbed out the window.

“Hey, why are you guys surrounding my door?” A white woman approached with a bag containing a number of items.

“We’re LAPD,” Blackie flashed his badge and pulled out a picture of white teenager Tom, “Do you recognize him?”

“Yes.” The woman was a little wary, “What do you want with him?”

“What’s your relationship?”

“I’m his mom? What’s wrong with him?”

“We’re investigating a criminal case and we’d like to find out something about him, is he home?”

“Even buy the Karma’s.” Tom’s mother gave a helpless look, “What kind of case is it? I’m his guardian, I have a right to know.”

“The poisoning case.”

“What poisoning case? How could Tom be involved with a poisoning case.”

“We’ve already told you, as for the details we won’t know until we see him, where is he?”

“I don’t know, maybe at home, maybe outside.”

Luke raised his chin, “Open the apartment door.”

“You guys don’t want to scare him, he’s still a kid, I’ll go in and talk to him first, and then you guys can go in afterward.”

“OK,” Luke agreed, but gave a secret gesture.

“Click.” Tom’s mother opened the door to the room.

“BANG!” Ramon slammed the door to the room and stormed in with his men.

Mother Tom questioned, “Why are you doing this? Did you just promise me you wouldn’t scare the child?”

“Ma’am, this matter is far more serious than you realize, your son is suspected of being involved in a major poisoning case that is hugely dangerous to the city, and we must take urgent measures.”

Ramon came over and waved, “Luke, we found the teenager.”

“What kind of poisoning case is it and why is my son involved in it?”

“You should ask him.” Luke said and walked in to the house.

Ramon whispered, “The teenager is dead, his body is on the couch.”

“FUCK!”

Luke frowned slightly and walked over to the couch to check it out, the teenager’s lips were blue, his skin was flushed, there were no other visible injuries on his body, and there was an upside down Vixen brand mineral water bottle on the couch.

“Tom! What’s wrong with you?” Tom’s mother saw this and tried to step forward to check on him, but was stopped by Jenny.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry ……

He’s dead, I’m sorry for your loss.”

“No! No! No! Why is this happening? It can’t be ……

Tom, my son ……

I don’t believe it, I was fine when I left, you can’t be.

It can’t be!”

Tom’s mother cried and screamed, and it took three officers working together to yank her aside and prevent her from destroying the scene and the body.

Luke moved closer to the body, examined it more closely, and picked up the bottle of mineral water he was holding, and with professional sensitivity, vaguely smelled a faint odor of bitter almonds.

Teenager Tom is also likely to be poisoned by mineral water.

There are no obvious injuries, no traces of binding, it is highly likely that he voluntarily took the poison.

From the surveillance video, he’s the suspected poisoner, and now he’s been poisoned by the mineral water as well.

Why is that?

And what was his purpose?