Chapter 399
The robbery and murder division interrogation room.
Georgia Gray was brought into the interrogation room, looking at Luke who was sitting across the interrogation table, and then at Jackson, a sad look appeared on her face, “You still haven’t found the real murderer?”
This woman was full of nonsense and good at hiding it, Luke was too lazy to talk nonsense with her, directly took out his tablet and played the ‘mime’.
Looking at the familiar video, Georgia Gray seemed like a deflated ball, her face changed and changed, and finally just sighed in dismay.
There was video evidence that no matter how skillful she was, she couldn’t be cleared of the charge of murder.
Luke pointed at the tablet, “Want to see it again?”
Georgia Gray shook her head, “No need.”
“Then tell me, why did you kill Kiru Jones?”
“He betrayed my trust and affection ……
I really liked him and didn’t want to kill him, it was just an accident, the gun went off.”
“He installed this miniature camera?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he install the camera?”
“I asked him that too, and at first he said he wanted to keep it as a souvenir, to take it out and look at it when he missed me.
I’m not stupid, and I’m past my twenties, so naturally I didn’t believe him.
It was only after I pressed him that he told the truth, that my husband had arranged for him to come.”
“What do you mean? Your husband was in league with him?”
“That’s the saddest part, I thought I had met true love, only to find out in the end that he’s a relationship fraud.” Georgia Gray wiped the tears from her cheeks, “What’s even sadder is that he was still sought out by my husband.”
“Why did your husband do that?”
Luke’s heart lit up with gossip, was this sort of a hatchet job on himself?
Thinking about island movies, it seemed like some men did have a BT hobby in this area.
“My husband and I signed a prenuptial agreement that if he cheated on me, in addition to alimony, he would have to leave me the villa in Los Angeles.
If I cheated on him, he could not pay alimony and the house would go to him.
I think that’s what he’s up to.”
Luke said, “He wants to divorce you?”
“Yes.
We’ve both been having marital problems since last year, but I didn’t think about divorce, nor did I think he’d be determined to get a divorce.
Much less did I think he would use such despicable tactics as to hire a man to seduce me and to steal evidence of the two of us having a good time.
He was horrible.
The two most important men in my life actually teamed up to cheat on me.
I was …… almost furious when I found out about all this.”
“Does your husband know that you killed Kiru Jones?”
“How could I let him know, he had every intention of harming me and would have called the police if he had known.”
Luke asked, “Who disposed of Kiru Jones’ body?”
“I was the one who disposed of it, because I was inexperienced, and I realized that I had forgotten to bring a shovel when I got near Highway 1. The trunk of the car was carrying a body at the time, and I was so nervous that I hastily dumped the body near Highway 1, and I had to use some vegetation to cover it up.
If I had been more careful, it might not have ended up like that.” Georgia Gray lamented.
“The only reason we found Kiru Jones’ body was because someone had called to report him missing, and even if Kiru Jones’ body hadn’t been found, the police would have investigated the case just the same.” Despite Luke’s words, the intensity of the investigation was definitely different.
“Wasn’t Kiru Jones sent by your husband? He suddenly disappeared and your husband didn’t see a problem?”
“After the incident, I was also worried about this, and have been observing his reaction, and then I felt that the connection between him and Kiru Jones was not as strong as I thought.
They should be part of a long term engagement between them and not be in constant contact.”
Luke said, “Why did you kill your husband?”
“On the 29th of December, a close neighbor contacted me and said that the police had gone to my house to investigate.
That’s when I knew things might have been exposed.
If I didn’t want to die, I had to find another ‘real killer’, and after I thought about it no one was more suitable than my husband.
As long as he was dead, I was safe.
As long as he’s dead, the property is mine too.
It is the best possible result.” Georgia Gray wiped the tears from her eyes and choked, “I didn’t want to kill anyone either, they made me.”
“How did you kill Ariel Gray?”
“I poisoned the red wine, he drank it and was poisoned to death, then I disposed of the poisoned bottle of red wine and replaced it with one that had ecstasy in it.
This was my second time committing the crime, and I was much more subdued than the first time, transporting his body to the wilderness and burying it, this time I brought a shovel and buried all the evidence.
Then I hid in a secret room and pretended to be imprisoned.
I thought it would be foolproof ……” Georgia Gray closed her eyes, helplessness in her tone, “How did you find the body?”
Luke said, “You’re a good learner, and we did put a lot of thought into this one.”
“Is that a compliment?”
Luke didn’t answer, the Highway 1 body dumping case, the patrolman’s murder case, and the oil painting robbery case, three indirectly intertwined and intricate cases, and now one of them was finally cleared up.
Among them, the dead man in the Highway 1 body dumping case, Kiru Jones, and the patrolman who was shot dead died from the same pistol, and this clue might be a breakthrough in the patrolman’s murder case.
Luke tried, “Where did you get the pistol that killed Kiru Jones?”
“It belonged to my husband and had been kept at home for protection, so I took it out in a moment of anger and used it.”
“Why did you kill the patrolman?”
“Kill the patrolman? I don’t know what you mean?”
“A patrolman was shot and killed on December 25th, and the pistol that killed the victim was the same pistol you used.”
Georgia Gray froze, “I didn’t kill a cop.
I’ve confessed to two murders, there’s no need to lie about it.”
Luke changed his mind, “Where is that pistol?”
“I put the pistol in a safe at my home in Los Angeles.”
“Why did you put it there?”
“Because I knew a police search of my home would prove that I was already suspected.
You won’t rest until you find the killer.
I needed a fall guy, and I left the pistol behind to plant it on my husband.
As long as you don’t find his body, he will always be a fugitive from justice.”
Luke had searched Gray’s house and did see a safe, but didn’t find the pistol in it, “What’s in the safe?”
Georgia Gray thought for a moment and said, “$50,000 in cash, my jewelry, and a couple of my husband’s limited edition watches.”
Luke said, “We looked in the safe but didn’t find any of those items you mentioned in the safe.”
Georgia Gray spread her hands, “Then I don’t know.”
“Did you check the safe when you got home?”
“Yes. I also noticed that the contents of the safe were gone and wasn’t sure what was going on, but I didn’t dare call the police considering the pistol.”
“Does anyone other than you and your husband have a key to your house?”
“No, only the two of us have a key, plus even if we had a house key we couldn’t have said the combination to the safe.”
Luke stared at the other woman, she had already gone from admitting to killing her lover and her husband, there was no logical reason to lie again.
Speaking of lying, Luke remembered something, “Since I have been in the police force, I have seen many criminals since I asked myself, and few people can lie to fool me.
But you are an exception, I gave you two statements, and I didn’t find any obvious signs of lying.
Why?”
Georgia Gray said, “Since killing Kiru Jones, I have had trouble sleeping every day thinking about it.
I’ve thought about being questioned by the police, I’ve considered all sorts of questions, and I’ve thought about the answers for a long time, and I’ve rehearsed them many times on my own.
Maybe practice makes perfect.
Who knows.
Or maybe I have a talent for acting.”
Luke pulled out photos of the people involved in the other two cases for her to identify, but she didn’t recognize each other.
The murderer confessed, but the whereabouts of the gun remained elusive.
However, Luke had some speculations in his mind that Georgia Gray didn’t need to lie anymore since she had confessed to the murder.
If what she said was true, the pistol was gone and so were the belongings, could they have been stolen?
The Gray’s were targeted by thieves who went to their home to burglarize it because they had moved to a vacation home and no one was home.
And could this gang of thieves be the same gang as the oil painting robbery, if so, the three cases are smoothed out.
Luke returned to his office, ready to call a meeting.
Porter came over with excitement, “Captain, I found the stronghold of the robbers of the oil painting robbery.”
Earlier, Luke and Porter went to the crime scene of the robbery of the oil painting, and found a camera nearby that happened to capture the Ford commercial car driven by the robbers, and Porter had been tracking the car’s whereabouts through surveillance along the way.
This group of robbers may well be the key to solving all three cases, and Luke asks, “Where’s the stronghold?”
The Dalman neighborhood.
Next to a red-roofed yellow two-story villa, several police cars were parked around the villa compound, a cordon had been drawn around the perimeter, and there were a number of police officers in patrol uniforms, as well as a few plainclothes officers wearing badges.
These people were all police officers from the Southern Division, and the one leading the group was none other than the Detective Chief of the Night Shift Detectives Department of the Southern Division, Davao Gali.
At this moment, he was holding a cell phone and talking to someone, his eyes looking at the yellow villa next to him from time to time.
After a while, he hung up his cell phone, and a black detective beside him gathered around, “Detective Davo, should we do it now?”
Davo Galli frowned slightly, “Wait a little longer.”
“I had someone question the neighbors, and the house is likely empty, so why not just go in?”
Davo Galli said meaningfully, “Captain Leo will be here soon.”
The black detective shrugged and looked at the villa with some anticipation, “Do you think the oil painting will be hiding in this villa?”
“This should be a stronghold of the robbers, even without the oil painting, some clues can be found.” Davao Gali glanced at his watch and was about to say something when three cars drove by in the distance, instantly attracting his attention.
The three cars stopped not far from the villa, the door of the first car opened and a dark-haired young man in his twenties stepped out from the passenger side.
“Captain Luke!” Davao Gali’s eyebrows frowned even tighter, his own captain didn’t wait for him, but he waited for someone from the Robbery and Murder Division.
This could be tricky!
The black detective also revealed a surprised look, “Luke Lee of the Robbery and Murder Division, how did he wait for this one?
Where did he get the information?”
“I’ll deal with him, you tell everyone to get ready to move.”
The black detective whispered, “Not waiting for Captain Leo?”
“Luke Lee wouldn’t listen to Captain Leo.”
“You’re right.” The black detective agreed, they had found this stronghold first and if they waited any longer they were going to be cut off by the Robbery and Murder Division.
If the people from the Robbery and Murder Division got lucky and found the painting in the villa, the credit would go to them, the reward would go to them, and their own party would still be crying.
Davao Gali squeezed out a smile and greeted, “Captain Li, why are you here too?”
This is the third time Luke has met Davao Gali, the first time they met was to take over the murder case of Constable Jens Hauraige, when Davao Gali was in charge of handing over the case.
The second time was to go to the southern precinct to find out about the oil painting robbery, when Davo Galli was also hosted by Davo Galli.
“We found this stronghold when we were tracking down the murderer of Constable Jens Hauraige. What about you guys?”
Davo Galli said, “We found this stronghold while investigating the case of the robbery of the oil painting. Why would two cases find the same stronghold.”
“I’ve been saying for a long time that the two cases are somehow related.” Luke pointed at the yellow villa, “What’s going on inside.”
Davo Galli briefly introduced, “We visited the surrounding neighbors, and we haven’t seen anyone hanging out at the yellow villa for the past two days, so there may be no one there.
However, we can’t rule out the suspect living deep in the villa and hiding.”
Luke raised his chin in the direction of the villa, “What are you going to do?”
“We’re about to enter the villa and search it.”
“Need backup?”
Davao Gali was tempted to say no, but he wasn’t at Luke’s level, so he couldn’t really do anything in case Luke flipped out and more or less took credit for it.
“I’m going to bring people into the villa to search, if the villa is hiding robbers are likely to wait for an opportunity to escape, need someone to keep an eye on the outside?”
Luke sized up Davo Galli and the southern division’s group of police officers, he could feel these people’s wariness of him, and smiled, “OK, I’ll take someone to the back door to keep an eye on it.”
Davo Gali breathed a sigh of relief, he was really afraid that Luke was going to take over the scene based on his high rank, that would be silly.
Fearing that Luke had changed his attention, he ordered his men to check their equipment and enter the villa to search as soon as possible.
Luke also gathered the men of the 1st Squadron and took them to the backyard to guard the area.
Blackie said with some regret, “These guys actually ran ahead of us.”
Luke tightened his bulletproof vest and checked the magazines, saying, “The robbery happened in the early morning of the 30th, the night shift detectives of the Southern Division rushed to the scene at the first time, these guys must have more clues than us, it’s not surprising that they could find this place.”
Xiao Hei stared at the villa and asked with some envy, “Do you think the oil painting is hidden here?”
“Bang!” With a sound, the door of the villa’s room was slammed open by a door breaker.
Davao Gali rushed into the villa with several heavily armed police officers.
“LAPD!”
With a sprayer in his hand, Davo Gali led the search of the living room, “Clear.”
The other officers entered each room and searched them as well.
“Clear.”
“SECURE!”
“Clear.”
The officers did not find the robbers inside the villa, and numerous members of the team breathed a sigh of relief and some loss.
The black police detective probed from the second floor and shouted with some excitement, “Inspector Davao, we found a wooden box in the study on the second floor, looking at the size and style of the box, it’s likely that it’s used to contain oil paintings.”
Numerous police officers were excited, these ten oil paintings were not only related to the case, there was likewise a two million dollar reward.
“Go up and take a look.” Davao Gali led several police officers up to the study on the second floor.
The lock of the study’s door was broken, and it was estimated that it should have been locked before, and there was a large brown wooden box placed in the corner of the study against the wall, and several corners of the box were padded with thick foam pads.
The black constable walked over to the crate and directly used a hammer to knock the lock right off: “Bang!”
The black police officer rubbed his hands together and opened the lid of the wooden crate, his eyes looked inside the crate, his eyes stared blankly as the crate resounded with sounds that
“Tick-tock ……”
“FUCK!” the black constable cursed.
“Boom!”
An explosion shook through the roof of the house, smoke and fire rushed to the sky, and half of the villa collapsed.