Chapter 442
DING BELL.
Luke had just gotten into his car when his cell phone rang.
It was the Lieutenant’s number, and Luke pressed the answer button.
“Hello.”
“I’ve got two new leads to inform you of, the first one is that Mary from the tech team is here.
They’ve collected hair and dander from the gear left behind by the shooter and managed to extract a DNA sample of the shooter. If you haven’t left Brown Bryant’s house yet, it would be a good idea to get a sample for comparison.”
“I see, what’s the other lead?”
“We found a white Volkswagen near the supermarket, but with a different license plate number, it’s a set car.
Looking through the road cameras the driver is none other than the suspect, Brown Bryant, and Matthew and I are tracking the car down.”
“Nice work, next time you have a similar message just send it to the chat group so everyone can see it.”
“I don’t really like making that stuff.” The lieutenant said and simply hung up his cell phone.
Luke shook his head, what an annoying old man.
Jackson asked, “Captain, did the vice squad come up with any new leads?”
“Yes, they tracked the suspect’s vehicle.
Also, the tech team has collected the suspected shooter’s DNA and needs us to find a comparison sample.”
Blackie said, “What a capable old man, we can’t be outdone by him, now where to?”
Luke said, “To the trucking association to find the trucker who had contact with Brown Bryant.”
Black frowned, “All we know is that he’s a white guy, in his late 30’s, with a relatively strong build.
Hell, I’ve known truckers who were big and strong, I can’t find them with that information alone.”
“You go ahead and get the head of the trucking association, I’ll stay and do a forensic sketch of the suspect, Brown Bryant’s parents, and when it’s done on my end I’ll send it to you, and you get the head of the trucking association to identify it.”
Luke added, “Be careful when you go to the trucking association to investigate.
Brown Bryant is not yet an adult, he has no financial resources, he doesn’t even have a cell phone, let alone a pistol, he can’t afford that outfit, it’s likely that it was provided by an accomplice.
And he was a bit of a loner, with few contacts.
This truck driver is probably his accomplice.”
Blackie got out of the car and rode in Porter’s car to the trucking association.
Luke got out of the car with Jackson, Ramon, and Jenny.
Luke said to Ramon, “In a moment, you’ll be in charge of taking a DNA sample from the suspect, Brown Bryant, and I’ll stay behind to do a forensic sketch of Brown Bryant’s parents.”
“Yes, sir.”
Seeing that Luke had brought someone back again, Ronnie Bryant put down the repair tools in his hand, stood up and asked, “Sir, do you have anything else?”
“Mr. Bryant, when did that truck driver come to your house?”
“I can’t remember exactly, it must have been a week or so.”
“Do you remember what the truck driver looked like? I’d like to make a forensic sketch of him.”
“I remember some of it, but I’m not sure.”
“Thank you for your assistance.” Luke didn’t give the other man a chance to refuse.
Ronnie Bryant nodded somewhat helplessly, “Come with me.”
Delisa Bryant was a little puzzled when she saw her husband return with the police again, “Is there anything else?”
“We’d like to do a forensic sketch of the truck driver, plus, need to search Brown Bryant’s room.”
Theresa Bryant was a little resistant, “Why do you need to search my son’s room?”
Jackson pulled out an ID, “This is a search warrant.”
Delissa Bryant slapped her forehead, “God, is this necessary?”
The little girl, Ollie, said, “Mommy, I told you, it’s him it’s him.”
“Shut up.” Delissa Bryant chided as she pointed a finger at her daughter, “Go back to your bedroom right now.”
Delissa Bryant took the warrant and scrutinized it, “You’ve got it absolutely wrong, there’s no way my son was the shooter.”
Luke said, “I hope I’m mistaken too, all the more reason to investigate.”
Though somewhat reluctant, Delissa Bryant led Ramon and Jenny to the door of the room, “Don’t mess up the house.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Bryant, we’re investigating the white man who came to see Brown Bryant and would like to ask you two to do a forensic sketch.”
Theresa Bryant refused outright, “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten what that man looked like.”
Ronnie Bryant said, “I remember.”
Delissa Bryant was a little angry and a little surprised at Ronnie, “How could you?”
“Honey, I have to, there’s no getting away from this, you know it in your own mind.”
Luke said, “Mr. Bryant is right, if you truly believe your son is innocent, all the more reason to assist us in our investigation.”
Raymond and Jenny searched Brown Bryant’s room, collected some hairs and dander on his bed, and sent it back to the police station for identification first thing.
Luke and Jackson stayed behind to do the forensic sketch identification.
An hour or so later, Luke completed the forensic sketch identification and sent it to Blackie at the Truck Motor Association.
Luke said goodbye to the Bryants and returned to the station.
Returning to his office Luke, realizing that the Vice Squad, Ramon, and Jenny were not there, turned to Matthew at the computer and asked, “Where did they go?”
Matthew replied, “We tracked the whereabouts of the suspect vehicle.
The car left the vicinity of the supermarket and headed down Montana Street all the way to Highway 1.
It disappeared between the stoplights at 7c28 and 7c29.
The lieutenant took them both to the field.
I thought he told you, didn’t he?”
Luke was a little speechless, the petty old man.
He took out his cell phone and dialed the lieutenant’s number.
The vice squad’s voice rang on the other side, “Hey Luke, I forgot to tell you. I’m out on a mission with Ramon and Jenny.”
Luke asked, “Where are you guys now?”
“We’ve arrived at the spot where the white Volkswagen disappeared. There is a cliff and the Pacific Ocean to my left and a desolate Gobi beach to my right.
I figure the suspect probably drove into the Gobi Desert.”
“Have you found any clues?”
“Not yet. I’m guessing that the suspect might have abandoned the car and fled, we’re going to enter the Gobi to walk and check to see if we can find the abandoned vehicle.”
“Be careful and keep in touch at all times.”
“I will.” The vice squad answered and hung up the cell phone.
Although the vice squad was bad-tempered, he was capable and experienced, so Luke wasn’t worried about him.
Luke contacted Blackie again, he had already found the head of the truck association, but hadn’t traced the suspected trucker yet.
The vice squad and Blacky split up to lead the investigation, Luke fell idle.
He walked over to Matthew and said, “Find the surveillance video of the suspect vehicle.”
Matthew’s hands crackled on the keyboard and pulled up a car surveillance video.
A white Volkswagen appeared in the video.
Matthew continued to operate and pulled up another high-definition screenshot, and one could see that the person driving the car was none other than the suspect, Brown Bryant.
Luke continued, “Pull up the surveillance of this car before it disappeared.”
With another operation, Matthew pulled up another video.
Luke personally operated the localized zoom video, and the one driving the car was still the suspect Brown Bryant.
If it was just a suspicion before, now that he saw this operation of Brown Bryant, it was basically certain that he had something to do with the shooting. Otherwise there was no need to play missing.
Luke said to Matthew again, “Search the map of that neighborhood for me.”
Soon, Matthew searched the map out, there was a cliff on one side of the highway and an endless Gobi beach on the other.
Luke frowned, once they entered the Gobi again it would be difficult to trace the suspect’s whereabouts.
And with two days having passed since the case, they would have fled by now.
Luke began to analyze Brown Bryant’s escape path, just by two legs certainly can not walk out of the Gobi, there is likely to be someone else in the vicinity of the Brown Bryant pick up.
The pick-up point should not be far from the abandoned car, but the vice squad has not yet found the suspect vehicle.
Luke said to Matthew, “Play the surveillance video of the 7c28 roadway and fast forward.”
Matthew’s skill in manipulating the video was very professional, and he pressed the pause button every time a car drove by.
In fact, there weren’t many cars on this road, only one car every two or three minutes, so it wasn’t too much effort to view the surveillance video.
Suddenly, a large truck driving under the camera caught Luke’s attention.
The big truck was large and containerized, reminding Luke of the trucker who had approached Brown Bryant.
Luke asked, “How long did it take for the car to pass through the two roadway surveillance?”
Matthew said, “I didn’t do the math.”
Luke said, “You do the math on the average time it takes for a vehicle, to go through both roadways, and also look at the time it takes for this big truck to go through the roadways.”
Matthew asked the captain, “You suspect something is wrong with this big truck?”
“Do as I say first, we have to have a good reason even if we suspect it.”
“OK, you’re the boss.”
Matthew began to count the average time for the cars to pass through the two intersections, he tracked and recorded a total of five cars, and then checked the passing time of the big truck.
Matthew was a bit surprised and said, “Captain, the average car passes through the two intersections in about five minutes of monitoring. This big truck, on the other hand, took a full ten minutes.
How do you know there is something wrong with this big truck just by looking at it?”
“Check the identity of the truck’s owner.” Luke was able to guess that there was something wrong with this truck mainly because he had enough clues to substitute the suspect’s identity for a different one.
Usually when a car went missing on a road in the middle of two surveillance, people usually guessed that the car had entered the Gobi to avoid police tracking.
Luke thought the same thing at first, but the presence of the large truck in a similar time frame gave Luke a new idea.
The truck was big enough to fit a Volkswagen perfectly, and by driving the crowd of cars inside the truck, the same illusion of disappearance could be created.
Even if the Vice Squad sifted through the Gobi, it would be impossible to find the missing suspect vehicle.
As soon as the suspect changed the license plate back, the clues would be completely broken.
Matthew said, “Captain, I found out about this truck.”
Owner’s name, Carl Smith
Gender, male
Height, 185cm
Weight, 170 pounds
Eye color, blue.
Hair color, brown.
Date of birth, March 26, 1991.
Cell phone number, 626 836 1533.
License plate number, 8lea390.
Address, 309 Kapodah neighborhood.
There was also a picture of the owner in the upper right corner.
Jackson said with some excitement, “The owner’s photo is very similar to that sketch portrait, this person should be the one we are looking for.”
Matthew spread his hands, “Then what are we waiting for, just arrest him!”
Jackson thought about it and shook his head, “It’s not that easy. Those were just the captain’s speculations just now, and although the accuracy is high, there is no tangible evidence.
Strictly speaking, this truck just happened to pass through this road, and the owner of the truck just happened to know the suspect, Brown Bryant, and we can’t be sure that the suspect, Brown Bryant, is the shooter right now, not to mention that there’s no reason to carry out an arrest on the truck driver.”
Luke nodded, you’re right, we need to find a proper reason.
The next morning, the office of the Robbery and Murder Division.
After going to work, Luke directly called for a meeting.
Luke got right to the point, “Lieutenant, did you find the suspect’s car in Gobi?”
The vice squad waved their hands, “Let alone a car, we didn’t even find a hair. I guess this asshole, either drove the car to a far away place or dug a big hole and buried it.”
Luke looked at Blackie again, “How’s it looking on your end?”
Blacky said, “I checked his information after I received the information you sent and he’s not a member of the trucking association.”
Luke then asked about Jackson, “How’s the checking going on your end?”
Jackson replied, “I found the Bryant couple again last night and asked them to identify Carl Smith’s photo, and they confirmed that Carl Smith was the man who came to their son that day.”
The lieutenant listened with some confusion, “Wait what photo? Am I missing something?”
Jackson was about to explain something when the office door slammed.
Mary from the tech team pushed the door open and walked in, “Captain Lee, the results of the identification of the equipment left behind by the shooter are in.
First is the ballistic trace test, the gun found in the locker is indeed the murder weapon left behind by the killer.
We extracted the shooter’s DNA from the equipment, and it was identified as an exact match to the DNA sample of the suspect, Brown Bryant.
Congratulations, you guys, on the identity of the robber.”
Luke corrected, “It should be us.”
Mary smiled, “You’re right, I was wrong.”
“We can now confirm that Brown Bryant was the shooter in the supermarket robbery.
The suspect, Carl Smith, had been in contact with him. According to suspect Brown Bryant’s parents, the two of them were very close. Another very coincidental presence at the location of Brown Bryant’s disappearance. We have reason to suspect that Carl Smith is also involved in this issue of the supermarket shooting.”
Luke finished and clapped his hands loudly, “Guys, get ready, we’re about to make our move.”
The vice squad got a little anxious, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, who’s the suspect Carl Smith? What are you guys hiding from me?”
Luke said, “Yesterday I found a big truck at the place where the suspect vehicle disappeared, the truck was big enough to load the missing vehicle down, I associated the shooter Brown Bryant also contacted the truck driver, and had Matthew check the identity of the big truck driver.
Turns out he’s exactly who we’re looking for.”
The lieutenant understood, “So that suspect vehicle. Didn’t drive into the Gobi, it drove into the truck and was trucked away.”
Luke nodded his head yes, “As soon as we find the driver of the truck, we’ll be able to find out what happened to the shooter.”
The lieutenant was a little disgruntled, “Why didn’t you tell me about such an important clue?”
“Sorry, I forgot.” Luke smiled, the vice squad was investigating another clue, it didn’t matter if they knew about this news.
And it could also indirectly verify Luke’s speculation, if the vice squad found the car, it proved that Luke’s speculation was wrong though, if the vice squad didn’t find the car, it proved that Luke’s speculation was correct.
The vice squad bristled, “Childish bastard.”