Chapter 374

Chinese Street.

At nine o’clock in the morning, the streets were bustling with activity, as Christmas was approaching, the Chinese street also had a bit of a festive atmosphere.

Although this was a foreign festival, but as the custom of the land, many Chinese people also started to celebrate Christmas.

Yu Xiang Restaurant, this restaurant specializes in Sichuan cuisine, the signature dish is Mao Blood Wanton and Dry Pot Chicken Minced Pork, these two dishes are made with sufficient ingredients, very authentic, many regular customers are running to these two dishes.

At this time, the restaurant has not opened, the shutter door is also closed, the door stood a thirty-year-old Asian man, grasping the shutter door tugged upward, some wondered: “are over nine o’clock, how not open.”

The man’s name is Sun Xing, and he is an employee of the restaurant.

Although the restaurant only opens at eleven o’clock, a lot of preparations have to be made before opening, and the employees have to rush to the restaurant to work in advance.

“Knock knock ……”

Sun Xing knocked on the roller shutter door again, and there was still no movement inside, which made him feel that something was wrong.

There were people living in the restaurant, why didn’t they open the door?

Sun Xing took out his cell phone and made a call, but the phone could not be connected.

Sun Xing felt more and more wrong, it is hard not really happened.

He yanked the shutter again, and it didn’t budge.

Sun Xing some anxious, eyes scanning around, want to smash open the roller shutter, and do not know where to start, and then think of the boss’s nature to give up.

He walked to the side of the restaurant, there is a window open to the inside, Sun Xing borrowed a ladder from the hardware store next to him, climbed the ladder to the window to see ……

“Ah!”

He was so startled that he almost fell off the ladder.

It was just after ten in the morning.

A Ford Explorer drove into Chinese Street, inside the car Jackson sat in the driver’s seat and drove, Luke sat in the passenger side.

Luke gazed at the surrounding stores.

Yesterday, they searched Yoshida Ryosuke’s car and checked the CarLog video and found some new clues.

The car recorder captured Yoshimi Hashimoto standing on the street, and also captured the suspicious vehicle, a black Volkswagen.

The car stayed at the scene for a full hour, and it was still there when Ryosuke Yoshida left.

Luke checked the license plate number and it belonged to a set of cars, which made it even more suspicious.

Immediately, Luke began through the road surveillance, tracking the whereabouts of this set of cars ……

This morning, Luke found out that this car came to the Chinatown neighborhood last night and disappeared after that.

That’s why Luke drove over here to patrol the area to check if there was anything unusual in the neighborhood.

Looking at the familiar restaurants on the street, Luke felt that he could stay over here for a while longer, even if he couldn’t find out any clues he could have a meal at noon, which was not a wasted trip.

Jackson drove while saying, “Captain, the deceased is an Asian, and the Chinatown neighborhood is also predominantly Asian, could there be any relationship between the two?”

Jackson’s speculation has a certain possibility, but when you think about it, it is not tenable, although they are both Asian but belong to the feud, just like France and Germany, Poland and Russia, they are both white but have been fighting for hundreds of years.

Take the relationship between the two countries, there are only conflicting interests between China and the U.S., and when there is a common interest one day, the relationship will naturally be better.

The relationship between China and Japan, however, is not something that can be solved by the word interests.

Luke looked ahead, there were several police cars parked on the side of the road, “Pull over, let’s go over and take a look.”

A cordon had already been pulled up in front of the Yu Xiang Restaurant, and there were quite a few people watching around, Luke walked up to a patrolman and flashed his badge, “I’m the captain of Squadron One of the Robbery and Murder Division, Luke Lee, what’s going on here?”

“The owner of this restaurant was killed.”

Luke crossed the police line and entered the restaurant to check it out.

There was a man lying on the floor of the restaurant, there was a large amount of blood around him, the blood had dried, and he should have been dead for a short period of time.

Luke walked in to check, there were multiple wounds on the dead man’s body, he should have been stabbed to death by a sharp blade, one of the scratches on his face caught Luke’s attention.

The dead man’s face looked like a letter ‘a’ had been carved into it.

The deceased, Yoshimi Hashimoto, also had a letter ‘H’ on her body after she was killed.

Could there be a connection between the two victims?

Or by the same murderer.

If that’s the case, why are the letters on the bodies different?

And considering that the suspect vehicle was in the neighborhood last night, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

Luke contacted Reed, told him what he had found out and speculated, and after some discussion, Luke took over the scene for the time being, and if the two cases were related, then they would be investigated together.

If the two cases were unrelated, then they would be handed over to other departments for investigation.

Subsequently, Luke began to view the scene, not far from the body of the table placed on the table to eat the rest of the dishes, a hairy blood Wanton, a Kung Pao Chicken, and a Chen Pei Chicken, the three dishes are not much to eat, but there are indeed traces of having eaten, the only thing that I did not see the chopsticks used to eat.

Luke speculated that the murderer is likely to be a diner, eating half of the storm to kill, in order to avoid the police to find clues, took away the chopsticks they have used.

So it seems that this murderer is really bold enough.

After checking the scene, Luke called the informant over to understand the situation.

The informant was none other than Sun Xing, an employee of the restaurant.

Luke sized up the other person and asked in American, “Are you of Chinese descent?”

Sun Xing replied, “Yes, China.”

Once he heard this answer, it was 80% that he didn’t know English, Luke turned to Chinese and said, “Are you of Chinese descent?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You were the first to find the dead man?”

“Yes.”

“What was your relationship?”

“He was my boss.”

“When did you find the deceased?”

“Around nine in the morning, I saw that the store was still open, so I checked through the side glass and found my boss lying on the floor, covered in blood, I was scared silly.”

“What’s your boss’s name?”

“Ma Jiehui.”

“When did you last see him?”

“After nine in the evening, the store had no more customers, so we packed up and left work.”

“The exact time?”

“I can’t remember, we don’t have a specific time when we’re in the restaurant business, if we have customers, we sit longer, if we don’t have customers, we leave earlier.”

Luke pointed to the table, “Were there any of these three dishes on the table when you left?”

“No.”

“Who’s the chef at the store?”

“Our boss is the chef.”

Luke pointed to the dishes on the table, “Can you see if he made them?”

Sun Xing walked over to check, “That’s right, just by looking at the plating, I can tell that it should be made by our boss.”

“How many employees do you have in the store?”

“Four.

The boss is the chef, and I’m the assistant chef.

There’s also a waiter and a cashier and waitress.”

Luke pressed, “Do you think he made these three dishes for himself or for the guests?”

“Definitely made for the guests, our boss has always been frugal, even if he occasionally has a small drink, he always gets some simple dishes, such as a portion of hairy blood wanton and a portion of boiled peanuts, it’s impossible for him to take the time to make three dishes, and he can’t eat them either.”

“Didn’t you say earlier that you were already off duty? Why is Ma Jiehui still receiving customers?” Although Luke hadn’t done any catering, he knew that restaurants would clean up before closing, and once they closed, even if there were customers again, they wouldn’t easily cook again.

Sun Xing said, “Our boss is a good businessman, in his words customers are God and have to be served well.

If you don’t take good care of them, who will come to eat in the store next time.

Even after closing, as long as customers come in, I guess he will still cook for them.”

“Last night, before you left the restaurant, who else was in the store?”

“Just our boss, he sleeps in the restaurant at night.”

“Why would he sleep in the store?” Since he was the owner of the restaurant, he would not be able to afford to even rent a place to live.

Sun Xing said, “Some time ago, our restaurant was patronized by thieves at night and stole everything they could, making our boss furious.

So, he thought of sleeping in the store, and if someone really wanted to knock on the door, a yell would scare them away.”

Stealing from a restaurant?

Luke had been exposed to a lot of burglaries, but sneaking into a restaurant and stealing wasn’t really common.

Luke tried, “Did your boss offend anyone?”

“No, our boss has always been peaceful, every day with a smile on his face, never offend anyone.”

“Does your boss still have relatives in Los Angeles?”

“No.”

“Why don’t you go see what’s missing in the store?”

Sun Xing swept a glance, walked to the payment counter position, turned on the cash register machine, and said, “The cash in the store is gone, but nothing else is missing.”

“How much cash?”

“Around 200 dollars, I think, our boss won’t keep too much money, usually keep some change for exchange.”

“So why do you think, your boss was killed in the store?”

“I’m not sure.”

Luke kept staring at the other party’s expression, feeling that the other party seemed to be hiding something: “Are there any knives missing from your store?”

“No.”

“Why isn’t there any surveillance installed in the store?”

“There was surveillance before, the last time the restaurant was burglarized, the thief broke the camera and the owner never bothered to fix it.”

“According to you, your boss was good at this and that, so why was he still murdered?”

“Could it be that some thieves were seeking money and missed and killed the boss.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard of one coming to a restaurant to beg for money, and from the scene it doesn’t look like a robbery, it’s more like a vendetta.”

Hearing this, Sun Xing’s face changed slightly.

Luke pursued, “Sun Xing, are you still hiding some information?”

“No.”

“If you refuse to talk, then I can only ask the Immigration Bureau to assist in the investigation.”

“Don’t don’t.” Sun Xing panicked and sighed, “I actually don’t want to talk about other people’s personal matters, and since the boss is already dead, I want to save face for him.”

Luke asked back, “And then what, let the murderer go free?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then tell me what you know.”

“I don’t have any proof either, it’s all speculation on my part, and I’m afraid I’ve wronged the good guys.”

“You think the police will believe whatever you say.

Boldly say, we will investigate ourselves and will not wrongly accuse a good person.”

Sun sighed, “Our boss is married, but his wife and children are on the mainland, and most of the money he earns goes to his family.

He and his wife haven’t seen each other for several years.

In fact, there are a lot of cases like this where one person is out there earning money, it’s okay to be busy during the day, but at night there’s not even someone to talk to, it’s hard to get through it, I can understand how that feels.”

Sun Xing looked up at Luke and continued, “After a long time, some men and women who see eye to eye form ‘hitchhiking couples’, hugging each other and living together in life, but getting together and separating after returning to the country.”

Luke raised an eyebrow, “Your boss has been in L.A. for so long, he should have a hitchhiking partner too.”

“Yes, our boss also had a hitchhiking partner, however, the other’s husband came a while ago, so our boss moved out.”

“What’s the name of your boss’s partner? What does she do?”

“Her name is Chen Hui, she was originally a cashier in our store, but she quit a few days ago, so our boss found another one temporarily.”

“Does Chen Hui’s husband know about the ‘partnered couple’?”

“Chen Hui definitely won’t tell her husband, but this kind of thing is too much in our circle, his husband just needs to stay here for a while, he’ll understand everything.

Which other man could be indifferent?”