Chapter 36

Two hours later.

Marcus came by with four state troopers for backup.

At six p.m., Susan arrived on the scene with a survey crew.

“David, Luke, Marcus, good job, hard work.”

David said, “Captain, based on Dave’s description, we surmise that Steven abandoned the car yesterday evening, almost twenty-four hours ago.

The longer it drags on, the more likely it is that he escaped, should we send out police forces to search.”

Susan looked out over the vast expanse of the Gobi, “Where do you guys think Steven would have gone? Is there any other means of transportation?”

Luke thought for a moment, “Dave was put in the trunk and Steven’s situation is unknown to him. We checked the surrounding tracks and found no obvious ruts or footprints.”

David spat on the sandy dirt that blew into his mouth, “It’s so sandy here that any tracks from 24 hours ago would have been buried or blown away by the wind and sand. I would surmise that Steven would have been prepared, like a mini-motorcycle, and he may not have gotten as far as Mexico.”

Luke agreed, “I agree with David, it would be too hard to get out of the Gobi alive without transportation. Besides, Steven now has forty thousand dollars, enough to escape anywhere.”

Susan pressed, “You also think he’ll run to Mexico?”

Luke, still somewhat unfamiliar with the situation around Los Angeles, shook his head, “I can’t say for sure, he could flee to Mexico, or he could do the opposite and sneak back to Los Angeles to hide.”

“I see.” After listening to their descriptions, Susan probably had a decision in her heart.

Half an hour later, Luke’s trio withdrew from the Gobi to return to Los Angeles to recuperate.

The site surveyors had already set up night lights around the area and were expected to survey the area all night.

Susan, Raymond, Jenny stayed in the Gobi with a large number of patrol officers to search for Steven’s whereabouts.

The complexity of the Gobi situation made the search much more difficult, but considering that Steven had already absconded for 24 hours, the police had no more time to delay and had to search through the night.

A dimly lit basement.

The basement was small, only about twenty square meters, with a wall lamp clamped to the head of a wooden bed.

A woman with long blonde hair was curled up next to the wall lamp, her body trembling slightly as she murmured, “Oooo…… why did you do this to me? Why did you arrest me? Let me out.”

Suddenly, a footstep sounded, accompanied by a man’s voice, “Alisa, I’m back. No one can separate us this time, you belong to me alone.”

Hearing this voice, the woman’s body trembled even more and cried out helplessly, “No, don’t come over, please……”

Saturday afternoon.

Susan returned to the Robbery and Murder Division in a windy manner.

Not being able to rest, she directly called the people to the conference room for a meeting.

Susan opened the door and said, “The area around the Mercedes for several kilometers has been searched, and there was no hunt for Steven. Does everyone have any new leads?”

The lieutenant said, “Judging from the bloodstains in the store, Alisa has probably met an untimely end, but her body was not found inside the store.

In order to transport a body, you definitely need transportation, and I suspect that Steven should have another vehicle that is not known to the public.

He could have used it to commit the crime, or even to escape.

I suggest we pull up the surveillance around the three crime scenes and compare it to any suspicious vehicles that have been seen around the area.

If we can find this vehicle, we can trace Steven along the way.”

Susan nodded, “That’s a good idea, what else do the others have in mind?”

Luke cleared his throat, “Last night, I’ve been analyzing Steven’s motive.

I remember the first time I met Steven, he said he wanted to open a small store and start some small business.

At the time I thought he was being perfunctory, but now that I think about it he was probably telling the truth.

Steven rented the store on February 11th and wanted to surprise his wife, which suggests that the couple’s relationship was fine at the time.

The first Taser robbery occurred on February 18th, and although the victim was not Alyssa, the victim was clearly Alyssa’s replacement in terms of age and physical features.

It suggests a huge shift in the relationship between Steven and Alyssa during this time.

This is where one person has to be mentioned – Harry the Drag Racer.

Harry had a conflict with Alyssa at the club, stole photos of Alyssa dancing, and put them in Alyssa’s house.

Steven sees the photos.

It was probably the trigger for the Taser robbery to happen.”

Susan thought for a moment, “This speculation is generally not a problem, however, it costs $15,000 to rent the store, which is not a small amount of money, where did Steven get this money from?”

Luke replied, “That’s something I thought of as well, indicating that Steven has other financial channels. The reason he hides it from his wife is probably because this financial channel is not visible.

This reminds me of Tony Weir.

Tony Weir has other financial outlets as well.

Also, the modified Taser was bought by Tony Weir, but the gun was being used by Steven.

Indirect proof that the two are connected.

Although I’m not sure about their financial sources, I can make a bold assumption that they probably have other cases on them.”

“VERY GOOD,” Susan was satisfied with Luke’s analysis.

Seeing Luke’s performance, Marcus wasn’t shy either, “Uh …… I’ve already contacted my friends in the gang and asked for their help in finding Steven’s whereabouts, I believe we’ll have news soon.”

“GOOD,” Susan nodded, her hands on the table.

“Our mission now is to search for Steven and Tony, once we find their whereabouts, the case will be cleared up.

Let’s split up.”

After the meeting broke up, Luke went to Matthew’s to get Tony Weir’s information.

Everyone was looking for Steven, no more or less than him.

Why don’t we just change the target of the search, maybe we’ll find something new.

The key to finding Tony was still to find out Tony’s real identity twenty years ago.

People belong to the herd animals, it is difficult to do and friends and relatives cut off contact.

It was likely that Tony still had contacts with his former friends and relatives in these twenty years, such as the rich man who often visited him.

Another example is the wife and child he mentioned.

It’s just that the time span is a bit long and it’s not easy to find clues to their meetings.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Eliza’s parents came to the Robbery and Murder Division to inquire about the progress of the investigation.

Mr. and Mrs. White were not as angry as they had been when they learned that their daughter had been stripping, and were only looking forward to the safe return of their daughter.

Mrs. White’s low sobbing made the atmosphere in the office a little depressing.

Luke went downstairs to get some air and Marcus followed upside down.

Blackie threw him a cigarette and laughed, “Luke, how did it go with that pretty girl?”

Luke lit the cigarette, took a drag, and said helplessly, “It’s okay, she even asked me to meet her yesterday, but because of the pursuit of Steven, we’ll have to do it another day.”

“Hey man, do you want me to teach you a few tricks to keep your hand in.”

Luke shook his head and lost his smile, “You might want to keep that for yourself.”

“Don’t say I didn’t help you if you get dumped by that chick.” Marcus touched Luke with his shoulder and said with a mysterious face, “I also have a new target, do you want to compete to see who will get it first.”

Luke responded directly with his middle finger.

A white BMW X5 drove into the Detective Bureau and parked in a parking space not far away, and a man in a suit stepped out of the car.

Blackie let out a bad laugh, “Luke, do you smell a urine odor, hey ……”