Chapter 479
Three o’clock in the afternoon.
The plane arrived at LAX and Luke and Orty parted ways at the airport.
Luke drove straight to the detective bureau.
Up to now, there had been two kidnapping cases in Los Angeles, the first kidnapping case happened on the night of March 10th, the son of real estate tycoon Gary Sane was kidnapped from his yacht, Luke saw the news on the morning of March 11th, and had limited knowledge about the case from what he had read on the news.
The second kidnapping happened on the night of March 11th, the daughter of tycoon Bruce Redman was kidnapped, and he was also the one who approached the police department about wanting Luke to be involved in the investigation of the case, but Luke was on vacation in Hawaii at the time, and the other party found the Pinkerton Detective Agency to pay the lobbying fee of one million dollars, which led to the fact that Ortie personally asked Luke to come back to Los Angeles.
As of today, it’s March 14th, which is the perfect time to miss for a kidnapping case, and that’s why Luke rushed to the police station first thing when he got off the plane.
One more minute of delay puts the hostages in more danger.
The office of the Robbery and Murder Division.
Reed sat at his desk, closed the folder in his hand, picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip, and said, “Matthew, bring me the list of car owners who drove through the vicinity of the kidnapping site between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.”
“I have it here.” The lieutenant tossed a folder over and smiled, “Red, it’s so good working with you, it’s like going back twenty years.”
Reed laughed, “If I could really go back twenty years, I think I could get over working with you, haha.”
The lieutenant was disgruntled, “Difficulties, what difficulties could there be working with me? Also, why did you come to our office?
Is it because you think we can’t solve the case without Luke?”
“No, that’s not what I mean, I just don’t want to betray the trust of the victim’s family and do my part.
After all, this case was originally investigated by the FBI, but they chose the Detective Bureau.
But the investigation of the case never went anywhere.” Reed spread his hands.
The lieutenant’s aura weakened and he stiffened his mouth, “The case will progress soon, trust me.”
Reed looked at his watch, “There’s not much time left for you ……”
The lieutenant frowned and asked back, “What the hell is that you’re talking about?”
Reed didn’t answer.
A few minutes later the office door was pushed open and Luke walked into the 1st Squadron office.
“Hey guys, good afternoon.”
“Captain, you’re back!” Jackson said in surprise.
Black opened his arms, “Hey, welcome home. Did you have fun in Hawaii? I’m going to take my family on a trip to Hawaii this year too.”
“It wasn’t bad, I just haven’t had enough fun yet.”
The lieutenant let out a dark sigh, having missed another opportunity to perform.
He also understood Reed’s remark earlier.
Luke turned to Reed and said, “Chief, you’re here too? I was going to look for you in your office.”
“To be honest, I kind of miss my office too.” Reed glanced at the lieutenant, stood up, and asked, “Now that the case of Bruce Redman’s daughter’s kidnapping is under our investigation, are you ready to take over the case?”
“Of course.” Luke nodded and said, “However, before that I would like to know why the FBI is not involved in the investigation of this case?
That doesn’t fit their style.”
Reed nodded, “Good question, before Bruce Redman’s daughter was kidnapped, another real estate mogul, Gary Sane’s son was kidnapped.
It was the FBI that was in charge of the investigation in that case, but as you should have seen the results, Gary Sane’s son was kidnapped on the night of March 10th, and it was on the news reports on the morning of the 11th.
The whole of Los Angeles knew that Gary Sane’s son had been kidnapped.
Regardless of which source leaked the news, the blame has to go to the FBI.
This was also the reason why Bruce Redman didn’t want the FBI to take over the case; if the news of Bruce Redman’s daughter’s kidnapping was also leaked, there was a high probability that the kidnappers would tear the ticket.
Therefore, Bruce Redman wants the LAPD to investigate the case of his daughter’s kidnapping.”
Luke said, “So Anthony is in trouble?”
“Depends on whether he can save the son of real estate mogul Gary Sane.” Reed sighed softly, in his opinion this possibility was extremely small, now that the whole of Los Angeles knew that Gary Sane’s son had been kidnapped, how could the kidnappers not know that the FBI or the police had intervened in the investigation of the case, and it was extremely unlikely that the deal would continue.
The biggest possibility is to directly kill Gary Sane’s son.
Luke pursued, “Are the two cases related in any way?”
Reed said, “The two cases were committed close to each other, one on the night of March 10th and the other on the night of March 11th.
Also, the location of the kidnapping of Gary Sane’s son was located on a yacht where we found a bloody letter V.
And the robber who kidnapped Bruce Redman’s daughter identified himself as Mr. V when he made the ransom call.
So, we’re guessing that the two cases may be connected in some way.”
The Vice Squad continued, “Actually, the biggest possibility is that after kidnapping Gary Sane’s son, Mr. V found out that Gary Sane had called the police and was on the news, and he felt that the deal was too risky. So then he chose to take a second hostage, Bruce Redman’s daughter.”
Luke nodded, “The timing is right and the v-markers make sense.”
Since the case of the kidnapping of real estate tycoon Gary Sane’s son was handled by the FBI, let Anthony have his headache, and he himself only had to investigate the case of Bruce Redman’s daughter’s kidnapping.
Luke asked, “What leads have you gotten on the case of Bruce Redman’s daughter’s kidnapping?”
The vice squad said, “On March 12th, Bruce Redman received a blackmail call from the kidnappers, claiming that her daughter was kidnapped and asked him to prepare 5000 ounces of gold to redeem his daughter, because it takes time to redeem the gold, so the transaction time and the transaction place were not said for the time being.
After that, Bruce Redman called the police.
We took over the case and started an investigation into the situation of Bruce Redman’s daughter.
Bruce Redman’s daughter, named Isha Redman, is still a college student and went to a party at a classmate’s house on the night of March 11th.
Afterward, she texted her parents that she would not be coming home, but would be staying back at the school dormitory instead.
At the time, Isha Redman’s parents didn’t think much of it until they received the blackmail call the next day.
Afterward, we went to the school to verify that Issa Redman did not return to school at all that night.”
The lieutenant scanned his notes and continued, “And, according to Issa Redman’s father, he called his daughter at 11:30 p.m. on the 11th, but she didn’t answer and just returned a text message, ‘Dad, I’ve returned to my dorm, I went to take a shower just now, it’s very late, so I won’t be returning any calls, good night. Love you.’
So my guess is that Issa Redman was abducted just before 11:30 p.m. on the 11th.”
Luke said, “Which means that Issa Redman was probably kidnapped after attending a party at a classmate’s house.”
“Exactly.” The vice squad continued, “We have questioned the people who attended the party that night, and according to them, the end time of the party was at eleven-thirty, but according to the surveillance Isha Redman left her classmate’s house at eleven o’clock, and after that, no one has seen her again.
We also questioned and investigated some of the people who attended the party, but no one knows where she went.”
Luke thought for a moment and said, “What about community road surveillance?”
The lieutenant spread his hands, “We investigated cars that fit the crime profile from the night of March 11th through the early morning hours of March 12th, but there are no suspicious vehicles at this time.
Also, Issa Redman was riding in a classmate’s car to the party, she didn’t drive her own car.”
Blackie said, “Real estate mogul’s son Gary Sane was kidnapped from his yacht when they were supposedly partying as well.
Issa Redman was also kidnapped at a party, which means these two cases have one more thing in common.”
The lieutenant shook his head, “What kind of common ground is that, I’m not surprised those rich kids were either partying or on their way to a party.”
Luke asked, “Has everyone at the party been questioned?”
Reed said, “At first we were worried that it would leak out, so we just selectively contacted the people who attended the party, but the investigation of the case has not been progressing, so we had to expand the scope of questioning, and the dozen or so people who attended the party that night have been questioned, and all of them claimed that they did not see Isa Redman again after eleven o’clock, and no one has ever taken Isa Redman away. ”
Luke said, “Get the statements from the people who attended the party, and also the video of her appearance on the surveillance.”
Matthew said, “I’ll take care of the surveillance video.”
Jackson said, “Captain, I’ll have all the transcripts on your desk in ten minutes.”
“Thanks for the hard work.” Luke stood up, ready to start working with a cup of coffee.
Then, the transcripts of each party attendee were reviewed in detail, but no valuable clues were found.
He started to look at the surveillance related to Isha Redman again, the surveillance atmosphere was in two parts, one in the common area of the hall, and the other was the doorway surveillance.
The doorway surveillance showed that Issa Redman had attended the party around 8:00 p.m., when there were a number of other classmates.
One left the house at eleven p.m. However, the limited scope of the surveillance at the entrance to the room made it impossible to see where she went, only that she left and did not return to the house.
After that, Luke began to check the surveillance of the common area of the hall, which was also the main place where the party was held, in total, there were a dozen people attending the party, all young men and women in their early twenties, gathering in twos and threes to chat and drink.
Luke watched Isha Redman’s figure in the surveillance video, while noting the others’ reactions to Isha Redman.
Luke noticed that there was a young Asian man who had been secretly watching Issa Redman; there was not much communication between the two, but the young Asian man’s eyes kept moving with Issa Redman.
Luke called Blackie and Jackson over and pointed to the Asian man on the screen, “Who is he?”
Blacky said, “His name is Park Jae-young, he’s a Korean student, Porter and I were the ones who took his statement, he claims to have last seen Isha Redman around eleven o’clock and hasn’t seen her since.”
Luke made a mental note of the other man’s name and then proceeded to check the surveillance.
On the surveillance, Luke saw Isha Redman chatting with another white girl with short hair.
Luke played the video on repeat, using his lips to read what the two were talking about.
The short-haired white girl held a glass of wine and asked, “Isha, you’re all dressed up today, did you get ready specially for the party tonight?”
Issa Redman laughed, “I’m pretty every day.”
“No, I’m not going back tonight.” Issa Redman pursed her red lips and revealed a playful look, “I have more important things to do.”
“Do what?”
Issa Redman squeezed her eyebrows and gave a you-know-what expression.
“With your new boyfriend?”
“Yeah, he asked me out, tonight.”
The short-haired girl snickered, “Wow, another crazy night, is he good?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean, I know you guys did it last time, did he get to the passing line?”
Issa Redman smiled, “Yea, he was superb, I feel like going …… to heaven.”
“Wow …… look at your flamboyant face …… I wish I could take a picture of it and post it on Facebook ……” The two women jostled together.
Luke pointed to the short haired girl, “Who is she?”
Jackson looked at the screen and replied, “Sandy Pope, I took her statement with the vice squad, she’s a classmate of Issa Redman’s and Issa Redman went to the party in her car.
The two of them were close.”
Luke found Sandy Pope’s transcript and re-read it; the interrogation notes were relatively simple.
For example, she was asked when she last saw Isha Redman. Sandy Pope replied she couldn’t remember.
Was it known where Issa Redman left the party to go? Sandy Pope answered not knowing.
Asked if she had seen anyone suspicious before or after the party, she said no.
However, Luke interpreted the conversation between the two based on their lips, and Issa Redman would have told Sandy Pope that she was going to meet her boyfriend.
Jackson stared at the screen and didn’t see anything wrong, “Captain, what did you find out?”
Luke asked without answering, “You didn’t give a statement to Issa Redman’s boyfriend?”
Jackson replied, “According to Issa Redman’s parents, Issa Redman broke up with her boyfriend three months ago and hasn’t dated anyone since.”
Luke asked rhetorically, “Will you tell your parents everything?”
“Absolutely not.” Jackson shook his head vigorously without even thinking about it, how could he?
The lieutenant gave a curious look, “How did you know that Issa Redman has a new boyfriend?
You don’t think that Park Jae-young guy is her boyfriend, do you?
Come on, that guy doesn’t even dare to lock eyes with Issa Redman.
In my experience, he’s definitely not Issa Redman’s boyfriend, he’s just a suitor at best.
No, I doubt he even has the courage to confess, he’s just a pathetic crush.”
Luke said, “I didn’t say that Park Jae-young is Issa Redman’s boyfriend.
But through the conversation between Isha Redman and Sandy Pop, Isha Redman does have a new boyfriend.
Moreover, she left the party early that night, most likely to meet her new boyfriend as well.”
Black reacted, lip-synching, Luke could lip-synch!
Blackie rubbed his chin and stared at the screen with a serious look on his face and said, “Luke and I have both studied lip-syncing, and the two of them did mention boyfriends in their conversation.”
Jackson didn’t realize that Luke could lip-sync, and although he was a little surprised, he had faith in Luke’s abilities and said, “So Sandy Pope lied!
She knew Issa Redman went to see her new boyfriend last night, so why didn’t she say anything?”
“OK, now we have two new directions to investigate.
First, why did Sandy Pope lie?
Second, who is Issa Redman’s new boyfriend?” Reed smiles, walks over, and taps Luke on the shoulder.
“Man, welcome back to the team!”