Chapter 436

The next morning, Luke finished his meal and rushed to work at the Detective Bureau refreshed.

Although the matter of the house was still unresolved, but he had disappeared for so long, he had to go to the bureau to show up first, in case the bureau still had a case waiting for him, it was not good to delay.

Luke drove the car into the police station parking lot, carrying the bag towards the Detective Bureau building, and on the way, he also met quite a few familiar colleagues.

The medical examiner Sheila greeted, “Hi, Captain Lee, it’s been a long time.”

“Yeah, I went away on vacation.”

“Did you have a good time?”

“Sure. Want a donut?”

Forensic Scientist Sheila waved her hand in thanks, “No, I recently quit sugar.”

“Why so tempted?” Captain Jones happened to walk by, “Give it to me.”

Luke handed him the donut, “Good morning, Captain Jones.”

“Good morning.” Jones hit on sizing up Luke, “I thought you went and got married in secret.”

Luke laughed to himself, “I’d like to, but it’s kind of hard. My wife isn’t even born yet, so I’ll have to ask my future father and mother in law to make an effort first.”

“Haha ……” the crowd laughed.

Luke went up to the third floor and pushed open the door to the Robbery and Murder Division’s Squadron One office, “Hey guys, it’s been a while, have you missed me?”

Jackson shouted with some excitement, “Hey Captain, you’re finally back.”

Porter laughed, “Captain, welcome home.”

Matthew put down his coffee cup and gave Luke a hug, “Welcome home safe and sound.”

Ramon said, “You’ve been gone a long time this time.”

Jenny snickered, “Captain, you didn’t go to New York for a blind date, did you?”

Luke stared at Jenny, a little surprised, “Wow, how did you know that word?”

Jenny said, “I have a Chinese-American friend whose parents live and live in Chinatown, and every time he has a break, his parents send him back to Chinatown for a blind date.

His parents want her to marry a Chinese.”

Luke celebrated, “Luckily, I have a pair of enlightened parents.

My parents don’t expect much from me, as long as it’s a woman.”

Jackson cautioned, “Captain, that’s a dangerous and very bad comment you’re making.”

Luke made a zipper gesture over his mouth, “Everyone forget what I just said.”

Luke placed the donuts and coffee on the table, “I brought you guys food, come get it yourself.”

The lieutenant picked up his favorite donut and took a bite with a satisfied look on his face, “You know what? I almost thought I was moving into the captain’s office.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, Lieutenant, but when you officially retire, I’ll consider letting you have your retirement ceremony in the captain’s office, you’re welcome.”

The lieutenant took another hard bite of his donut, “Damn kid.”

Luke picked up a donut and took a bite as well, “Any new cases on the team?”

“Yeah, we got a tough case shortly after you left.” The lieutenant patted his chest, “However, under my leadership, the case was successfully solved.”

You old man with a rebel bone, the few days you’ve been gone yourself have given you ideas?

Luke also knew this old man’s temper and was too lazy to get angry with him, “Very well, I will ask for credit for all of you in front of Director Reed.”

Luke finished the rest of his donut in three bites, “You guys keep eating, I have to go to the Chief’s office first.”

The lieutenant handed him another donut, “Don’t rush, Reed’s gone to a meeting at the Directorate today.

Instead of waiting in the office for a couple hours, why don’t you tell us about your experience on this trip to New York.”

Luke asked rhetorically, “Sounds like you guys know something?”

Jackson reminded, “We watched the news interview that day.”

Luke thought of the Chinese-American female reporter, “The interview where I yelled LAPD?”

“Yes, that interview is all over the internet, it’s very interesting.”

Luke hadn’t seen that interview, but he remembered that he was carrying Fobler’s credentials at the time, and since his teammates knew about it, it would be better to make it clear rather than letting them guess blindly.

Luke briefly recounted his experience in New York, but the specific details of the case were kept secret.

The vice team was a little envious: “The identity of a Fobler criminal investigation consultant is not easy to get, it seems that the head of Fobler’s New York office appreciates you, have you considered formally joining Fobler?”

“Not for the time being, perhaps when you retire, I will have that in mind.”

Lieutenant “……”

Damn kid.

He felt like he’d swallowed a fly.

Luke smiled, it was still fun to watch the old man suffer.

Scanning his eyes around, he always felt like something was missing, “Where’s the annoying and obnoxious Detective Marcus?”

Potter said, “He accompanied his wife to her maternity checkup.”

Luke counted on his fingers, it was well into February, I guess the months were getting bigger and the checkups more frequent.

The lieutenant was heartened, “Marcus has changed a lot now.

If it were a year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to believe he was getting married, much less becoming a father.

Life is still amazing.”

Luke finished his donut and wiped his hands, “Lieutenant, tell me about that case, is there anything I can do to help?”

“It was indeed a complicated case, but we’ve solved it, just write a report.”

“OK, then tell me how complicated the case is, so that I can follow and learn.”

“Cough ……” the vice squad coughed lightly and said, “This is an old case from ten years ago, and was originally investigated by a detective from the Western Division.

Now that the suspect in the case has retracted his confession, in order to avoid suspicion, Reed transferred the case to the 1st Squadron to be in charge of it.

The case took place in a villa in the suburbs of Los Angeles, the suspect in the case is the man who owns the villa, the victim is the woman who owns the villa, and the witness is the adopted child of the two, an eight-year-old boy.”

The vice squad paused and continued, “At the time of the crime, the little boy was sleeping on the second floor of the villa, he was woken up by the commotion downstairs, and came out of his bedroom to check it out, only to see a scene he will never forget.

The living room was a mess, there was blood everywhere, his mother was lying on the floor and his father was riding on top of her with his hands around her neck. The little boy screamed and was stunned.”

Neighbors around the house also heard the commotion in the villa and called the police thinking that the couple had a fight, and when the police arrived, they saw blood and signs of struggle all over the house, but the couple were missing except for the little boy.

The next day, the police found the huffing and puffing man in front of a bar, he admitted that he and his wife had a fight, but did not admit to beating his wife, but only said that after a fight with his wife, he gambled and left the house and went to the bar to drink.

But the police checked the CCTV and he left the house at 1 a.m. and was found by the police at 8 a.m. During this time no one could prove where he had been or what he had done?

But the police found blood on his clothes, which was identified as the victim’s blood, and combined with the little boy’s statement, the police arrested the man for intentional assault.

But here comes the problem. The police have not been able to find the female victim to examine her injuries and prove that she was indeed violently attacked.

In the ensuing period of time, the police have been looking for the female victim, but have not been able to find her whereabouts.

The police on the case suspected that the female victim had met with an untimely death, but the problem was that the body could still not be found.

The police can only collect evidence from other sources, many visits to the investigation found that the male owner has a violent tendency, has repeatedly violent female victims, female victims have been beaten is not the first time.

And many times threatened and intimidated to kill the female victim.

Based on the above clues and evidence, the case police determined that the female victim may have died, the murderer is likely to be the male owner.

The male owner refused to confess, but his confession was contradictory. The judge and jury found the male owner guilty and has already served ten years in prison.

During this period, the man has been in contact with the boy, the last two years the boy frequently visit his foster father in prison, the relationship between father and son has become close, this year is even more direct change of words, said that he did not see his father’s murder scene, just that year, the age of young, by the interrogation of the police officer’s seduction, and demanded that the police re-investigation of his father a clear.

As the only witness, the little boy’s retraction of the confession has a great impact on the case, the man also bites his tongue that he did not kill his wife.

Subsequently, many journalists also began to report on the case, and the prosecutor’s office reopened the investigation of the case.

It was also based on this situation that the case was transferred to the Robbery and Murder Division’s Squadron 1 to re-investigate.

Hearing this, Luke also knew the difficulty of this case, the case had already passed for ten years, and a lot of evidence and clues had disappeared.

If new evidence and witnesses could not be found, this case would also become an unsolved case.

Luke asked, “What’s happening with this case now?”

The vice squad said, “We are focusing the investigation of the case on two aspects, the first one is to re-understand the case and look for witnesses and new evidence in the case, and preferably find the body of the female victim.

We re-searched the villa where the crime took place, but did not find the body of the female owner.

We started investigating again the whereabouts of the male owner after he left the house, someone claimed to have seen him near Klinkau Park and we also found dirt under his shoes.

We suspected that he may have buried the body in the park and began a wide sweep through the park.

The second aspect was to get the only eyewitness, the suspect’s son, to refresh his recollection of what happened that year.

According to the young boy’s recollections, his adoptive parents did not have a very good relationship, and his adoptive father had a violent temper, which was also confirmed from the surrounding neighbors.

After the little boy’s foster father went to jail, he was adopted by a new family, and his new foster parents treated him quite well.

We got another new clue from him, that every year a good samaritan would give him gifts and he had never met this good samaritan.

After that, we also started to investigate from this clue and found that kind person through the mailing address.

And that well-wisher was none other than the female victim’s mother.

She was sending gifts to her daughter’s adopted son because she missed her daughter.”

The lieutenant’s throat was dry from talking and he took a sip of coffee and continued, “Through the conversation, I found that the woman was a little tense, but not as angry as I thought she would be.

Moreover, I realized that the female victim’s family didn’t react much to the case since the beginning, unlike a normal family that takes the initiative to ask the police to investigate and find their daughter’s body.

I felt something was wrong.

After that, I lined up some more clues and found that the mother had been in contact with a mysterious person.

We followed the trail and found this mystery man, and guess who it is?”

Luke guessed, “The female victim didn’t die?”

“Yes, although I had already made that guess, it was still a surprise to see her in person, I couldn’t figure out why she did it?” The lieutenant spread his hands and continued, “It was only through later conversations that we learned.

That night, when the man came home from drinking, they got into a verbal altercation, and he assaulted her, riding her and choking her, and for a moment she thought she was going to die.

Then her adopted son showed up just in time to save her life, and she made up her mind to leave the suspect.

She hadn’t tried to fake her death at first, she just wanted to make sure the suspect couldn’t find her, but then things went beyond her imagination.

At this time, she was even more afraid to go back, she knew that the suspect was very vindictive, and if she showed up at this time, even if she proved that he hadn’t killed anyone, it was a fact that he had committed domestic violence.

The suspect will still have to go to jail for this, and when he comes out, he will definitely intensify his revenge on her.”

Luke said, “In her case, it shouldn’t be the first time she’s been domestically abused.”

“Yes. It’s rumored that she was pregnant before, also because of the suspect’s drunken beating, causing her to have an accidental miscarriage and unable to have children anymore.”

“Why didn’t she call the police at that time?”

“The suspect threatened to kill her if she dared to call the police and would take revenge on her family. She got scared.”

“So she stayed in hiding?”

The lieutenant nodded, “Even now, when she mentions the suspect, she has a scowl on her face, and I’m guessing she probably wants to get back at the suspect that way.”

Luke had a hard time understanding this kind of behavior, staying incognito for so many years just to get back at her husband and put him in jail?

With that kind of determination, why wasn’t it used to solve the problem of being domestically abused in the first place?

Things like domestic abuse are of a very bad nature.

Once it happens, don’t think about hiding it, and don’t be afraid of losing face. It must be resolved completely, and the more things get out of hand, the better.

There must never be a second time.

Indulgence and compassion for the abuser will only hurt oneself as well.

This couple is a typical example of the opposite.

Luke roughly understood the case, but didn’t know the details, so the report was still for the vice squad to write, and he was happy to take it easy.

Vice team this old man is no complaints, seems to be full of vigor, Luke estimated that he can still work for another three to five years.

If he was promoted again, should he promote him?

Thinking about the age difference between the two, Luke felt a little funny.

In the evening, Luke invited everyone to the bar for a drink, and called up Reed and Marcus.

Luke originally thought that Marcus would be more annoyed with accompanying pregnant women every day, and would take this opportunity to have a few good drinks.

Who would have thought that halfway through the drink the bastard ran away.

Luke was a bit surprised, this bastard really changed his nature?

The next morning.

Luke got up early and drove to the Palisades neighborhood around six.

This is a high-grade rich community, the community road is very wide, the spacing of each villa is very large, the greening rate is extremely high, planted with a lot of tall trees, the facilities are complete and the environment is beautiful.

Luke’s Mercedes-Benz G500 drove on the community highway, not at all eye-catching, along the way he also saw several peacocks, also not afraid of people, living a very nourishing.

Luke looked up the information on the Internet, strictly speaking, this is also a Chinese community, the community of Chinese residents up to 50%, Haidilao, Din Tai Fung, Meizhou Dongpo and other well-known chain stores have opened a luxury flagship store here.

Drive a little further, Luke found the auction villa, covers an area of 40,000 square feet, in the entire community is also considered relatively large, the villa is planted with a row of trees on the outside is like a natural fence, the green lawn is very beautifully manicured, Luke guessed that there may be a property company in the care.

Luke got off the car, entered the spacious yard, only to see the appearance of the house, this house is much older than the other houses, or wooden structure, not only the building of a long time, but also a long time no renovation and repair, which should also be the reason for the lower prices.

Luke stepped on the wooden steps, creaking and a little wobbly, he was worried that it would collapse.

Luke walked to the door, found that the lock has broken, push open the door into the eyes of the high picking empty, decoration style is a bit old, the house is very old, has not been cleaned for a long time.

But the house was not small, it was 12,000 square feet, he looked around the house and found that the bedroom on the second floor had signs of habitation, and he could also see some leftover food bags.

Perhaps in a professional instinct, Luke developed a sense of caution.

Luke began to carefully search the house, a total of two floors, a total of five bedrooms, a study, a recreation room, seven bathrooms, seven bathrooms, two kitchens, more bathrooms and bathrooms is understandable, but he could not figure out why to get two kitchens.

Luke circled around the house again, consciously looking for a secret compartment or basement, since Zhou Tiancheng had bought this house, he certainly wouldn’t leave it like this for nothing.

Luke knocked around the house, carefully searched for almost an hour before finding the secret compartment from behind a bookcase, the secret compartment was not large, only the size of a book bag, there was a lock hanging on the outside, which was directly knocked off by Luke.

Open the door of the cabinet, there is a pistol, a box of bullets, a full set of identity documents, the photo of the document is Zhou Tiancheng’s, the name is Zheng Bazhong, this is to bully the other races can not distinguish between Chinese and Thai?

The bottom of the hidden compartment also put a bag, Luke opened a look is ten piles of green bills, a total of 100,000 U.S. dollars in cash.

This is the right thing to do, at least is a party big brother, cunning rabbit three holes is normal.

Luke took the money and left the villa with satisfaction, sitting in the car looking to the right side of the compound, the villa covers an area of not small, the location is also quite good, the reason why the market price is lower than the average price of the community should be because the house is too worn out.

If Luke were to buy the house, the cost of repairing or rebuilding it would cost quite a bit of money.

Of course, as soon as the house is repaired, the price of the house will definitely go up as well.

Luke sat in the car for ten minutes thinking about it and called Negan directly, “Hey Boss, I’ll take that villa in LA.”