Chapter 389

Luke sized up Darwin Morrison, the Canyon Precinct Detective Division had listed him as a key suspect based on 3 main points.

The first point was that he was the last contact of the deceased, and the deceased had sent him a text message inviting him to meet him at Highway 1;

The second point is that he had driven to Highway 1 during the time period of the crime but lied that he had not been there, which is the most suspicious thing about him;

The third point police found a suspected shoe print left by the murderer at the crime scene, which was countered with a similar height and foot length to Darwin Morrison.

Luke, through footprint identification, determined that the footprints at the crime scene were left by a woman, and did not match Darwin Morrison’s gender and height, then the third suspicion can be ruled out, and it can’t be proved that Darwin Morrison has been to the crime scene.

As for the first two doubts, can only prove that Darwin Morrison has a certain suspicion, to convict the other party is far from enough.

Moreover, through the transcript just now, Luke did not see any obvious signs of lying from the other party, however, he had been refusing to say the reason why he had met with the deceased, so he must be hiding something.

Even if he wasn’t the murderer, he was most likely the one who knew about it.

Luke said in a serious tone, ”Mr. Morrison, we are not here today to arrest you, on the contrary, we are here to help you and want to prove your innocence.

But only if you are willing to assist us, if you put up an attitude of refusing to cooperate, there is nothing we can do if we want to help you.”

Darwin Morrison said, “I have been assisting you in your investigation, and what I just said is true.”

“Perhaps everything you told the police is true, but you must be hiding something that is very unfavorable to you, such as why you rushed to meet the deceased in a remote place late at night, and what kind of ulterior secret you have between you.

If you can explain this clearly, it will be very helpful to the investigation of the case.”

Darwin Morrison pursed his lips, “This is my private matter …… I have the right to privacy.”

“Yes, you do have a right to privacy, but Kiru Jones was brutally murdered and his body was dumped on the side of the road.

In order to get to the bottom of his death, we need to know exactly who he was in contact with and what he did before he was killed.

I’ve made it very clear that I respect your right to privacy, but it can’t jeopardize the investigation of the case, even if you won’t talk about it, we’ll find out the relationship between you.

For example, we’ll visit the surrounding neighbors, if one household doesn’t work, we’ll visit the next, we’ll visit all the neighbors in the community, and I’m sure there’s always someone who can provide some valuable clues.”

Darwin Morrison clenched his fists and said in dissatisfaction, “You are invading my privacy.”

“No, I’m on the case.” Luke’s subtext was clear, either tell the police or let all the neighbors in the community know.

Darwin Morrison glared at Luke and scratched his hair hard, “He’s close to my wife, and I asked him to meet me to have a man-to-man conversation to keep him away from my wife.

Don’t tell anyone …… I don’t want anyone to know about this.”

Luke’s face was impassive, but in his mind he added to the other man that the motive for the crime was there.

“Do you have a pistol?”

“No, I don’t need one of those.”

“Where were you on the night of December 25th, between ten and twelve?” That’s the time of operation when police officers are shot.

“I was at home.”

“Can anyone prove it for you?”

“My wife.”

“The two of you were together all this time.”

“Yes. We both watched TV shows together, her favorite shows, and went to bed afterwards.

Neither one has gone out.”

“What are your thoughts on the death of Kiru Jones?”

“I don’t know what to say, at first contact he was a nice neighbor, funny, humorous, rarely cold with him around, however, the guy was a bit indiscreet in his private life, loved to court women, not just my wife, but other female neighbors as well, from that point of view …… the guy was very owes a beating.

I would like to beat him up, but I won’t kill him.

I don’t have a gun either.”

“Cackle ……”

Just then, the door to the room opened from outside and a black woman walked in, “Honey, guests at home?”

“These two are the police officers in charge of investigating the Kiru Jones case, they are here to find out what happened.” Darwin Morrison finished and introduced the two to Luke, “This is my wife.”

Luke sized up the black woman, looking to be about in her early thirties, wearing a dark blue trench coat, black leather shoes, and carrying a bag in her hand, “I’m Luke Lee, Captain of Squadron One of the Robbery-Murder Division.

Ma’am, I’d like to talk to you if it’s convenient.”

Mrs. Morrison placed the bag on the shoebox, “Talk to me about what?”

“Just a few simple inquiries.”

Mrs. Morrison hesitated for a moment, looked at her husband and nodded slightly, “OK.”

At Luke’s gesture, Darwin Morrison went into the bedroom to recuse himself, leaving Luke, Captain Rey and Mrs. Morrison in the room.

“Ma’am, did you know the deceased, Kiru Jones?”

“Yes, he was our neighbor, we often get together sometime, he was a good man …… unfortunately.” Mrs. Morrison gave a sad look.

“How was his relationship with your husband?”

“Not bad as far as I know.”

“Was your husband with you between 10:00 p.m. on December 17th and 3:00 a.m. on the 18th?”

Mrs. Morrison thought for a moment, “No.”

“Where did he go?”

“He was out drinking with a friend.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Yes.”

“Which friend did he drink with, did you ask for confirmation?”

“No, I trusted him, and that’s the most basic thing a couple can do.”

“Ma’am, I’m sorry to hear that.

Your husband failed you, instead of having a drink with a friend that night, he made an appointment to meet with Kiru Jones, near Highway 1, do you know why?”

Mrs. Morrison glanced at the bedroom and shook her head, “I don’t know.”

“Was there any grudge between your husband and Kiru Jones?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Do you have any suspects as to the murderer of Kiru Jones?”

Mrs. Morrison bowed her head, “No.”

“Where were you between ten and twelve o’clock on the night of December 25th?”

“At home.”

“Is there anyone who can testify to that?”

“My husband.”

Luke stared at Mrs. Morrison; he could sense that the other woman had lied.

But it was impossible to determine if she was lying to hide her relationship with Kiru Jones.

Or was she lying because of the murder of Kiru Jones.

In short, the woman was definitely hiding something and could dig deeper.

However, considering that Darwin Morrison was in the bedroom, Mrs. Morrison was afraid that even if she wanted to tell the police the truth, she wouldn’t want her husband to hear it, which wasn’t a good opportunity to go deeper.

Luke left a business card and left the Morrison house with Captain Rey for the time being.

Upon returning to the Canyon Precinct, Luke called a meeting in the conference room.

Luke showed Mrs. Morrison’s transcript to the crowd.

After reading the transcript, Black said, “I saw Mrs. Morrison sitting in the car, and from the contents of the transcript she should be hiding something, and from my experience, she probably had an affair with the deceased, Kilu Jones.

That would give Darwin Morrison enough motive to commit the crime.”

Jackson said, “But based on the clues in the police officer’s murder case, it doesn’t add up that the murderer in that case was likely a black female and Darwin Morrison was a male.”

Rey asked, “Is that clue accurate?”

“Accurate. The eyewitness was also a person involved in the crime and the only person who saw the killer’s back.” Luke said.

Rey looked down, going through the two men’s statements again and analyzed, “Could it be a husband and wife team?

On the night of December 17th, Darwin Morrison went to the vicinity of Highway 1 to kill Kilu Jones.

On the night of December 25th, Mrs. Morrison, again armed with that gun, murdered that Southern Division officer.

Then the two of them conspired to make false alibis for each other on the 25th.”

Luke went along with Rey’s speculative analysis, and it made sense.

The shoe prints found at the crime scene were probably stepped on by Mrs. Morrison.

But there was still the problem that the Canyon Division Detective Bureau had searched Darwin Morrison’s home and found no stolen property or murder weapon related to the case, making it difficult to convict the two men even if they really were murderers.

“Knock knock.” The conference room’s were knocked open, and a police officer walked in and whispered something into Rey’s ear, and then also handed him a hard disk.

Rey said, “We’ve got a lead on the informant.”

Rey walked over to the projector and played a video, describing it, “This is a video of a storefront that was close to the public phone booth where the 911 call was made.

The owner of the store went on vacation earlier and just returned today before we got the video.”

Rey fast-forwarded through the video, stopping at the time period near the time the call to the police was made, and it wasn’t long before a woman’s figure appeared in the video, the woman looking left and right in the direction of the phone booth.

However, the camera was unable to capture the phone booth because of its orientation.

A few minutes later, the woman returned the same way to reappear in the video.

Rey pressed the pause button: “Although this camera was unable to capture the public phone booth, the woman first entered the video at the exact time the call to the police was made.

The time she returned the same way again also coincides with the time the alarm call was made.

One can surmise that the woman would have entered the phone booth and made the 911 call.”

Luke stared at the video, “This woman looks familiar, can you zoom in on the video?”

Rey partially enlarged the video and the woman in the video became clearer and clearer.

The crowd said in unison, “Mrs. Morrison!”

Rey was also a bit surprised, “How could it be her?”

Half an hour later.

Luke and the others returned to Morrison’s house again.

“Knock knock.” Knocking on the door of the room.

This time it was Mrs. Morrison who opened the door.

She sighed and called into the house, “For you, dear.”

Darwin Morrison came to the door as well and spread his hands, “I told you all I know. What are you guys doing here again?”

“We’re not here for you.” Luke looked aside to Mrs. Morrison, “Ma’am, we’d like to ask you to go to the police station to make a statement.”

Mrs. Morrison clasped her hands on her chest, “What do you mean? Suspecting me of being the murderer?

Come on, you guys can’t catch the murderer but you have time to pester an innocent housewife.”

“Ma’am, we are asking you to come to the police station to give a statement, not on suspicion that you are the murderer, but we need to give a statement to the person who reported the crime.

Thanks to your act of calling the police, the police were able to find the body in time to file an investigation.”

Mrs. Morrison blushed slightly, glancing at Luke and then at her husband.

Darwin Morrison was also a little shocked and pointed a finger at his wife, “You called the police?”

“I ……” Mrs. Morrison was momentarily speechless.

Luke made a gesture of invitation, “Ma’am, please.”

Without much hesitation, Mrs. Morrison put on a coat and directly got into the police car, leaving Darwin Morrison standing alone in the doorway in a daze ……

Once in the car, Mrs. Morrison stared in the direction of the house until the car was far away, then slowly asked, “How did you find me?”

Captain Rey said, “You did do enough to be stealthy, using a public phone booth and deliberately changing your voice.

But apparently that wasn’t enough, our police have more investigative techniques than you can imagine.

Why did you conceal the identity of the caller?”

Mrs. Morrison tugged at the coat she was wearing, “I had an appointment with Kiru Jones for the morning of the 18th, but he didn’t show up, his cell phone didn’t work, and he didn’t come home.

He’s never missed an appointment before and I was worried something had happened to him so I called the police.

The reason why I hid the identity of the police caller was because I was worried that my husband would think too much ……

He always thought I was too close to Kiru Jones ……

He thinks too much, we’re just good friends, something like male best friends.”

Luke didn’t quite believe that it was an innocent friendship between the two, and from her previous words he could tell that it wasn’t the first time the two had been on a date alone, “Did your husband kill Kiru Jones?”

Mrs. Morrison shook her head, “No, I don’t think so, my husband didn’t have a gun and he wouldn’t have done anything to kill anyone.

He didn’t have the guts.

Besides, he had no reason to do it ……

Kiru Jones and I were just friends.”

Luke said, “But that’s not what your husband thinks, he thinks that you and Kiru Jones have a super-friendship relationship, and has made plans to meet up with Kiru Jones on Highway 1 to have a man-to-man conversation.

From what I understand, that kind of conversation can easily rub off.”

Mrs. Morrison was silent.

Luke continued, “Where were you between 10:00 p.m. on December 17th and 3:00 a.m. on the 18th?”

If a husband and wife had committed the crime together, then the woman at the crime scene wearing leather shoes was probably Mrs. Morrison.

“I was at home.”

“Who can prove it?”

Mrs. Morrison shook her head, “Just me.”

One person meant she had no alibi.

Both the husband and wife were deeply entangled in the case.

If the husband and wife were really working together, why would Mrs. Morrison have taken the initiative to call the police?