Chapter 484
After the two of them finished talking, Luke glanced at his watch, it was already ten o’clock in the morning, “Vice team, you go and rest for a while, I’ll keep an eye on the scene.”
Having been tossed around by the kidnappers all night, not to mention the old man, Luke, a young man, was tired.
The vice squad waved his hand, “When I’m old, I can only sleep for a few hours at night, I can’t sleep at all during the day.
You go and rest.”
“OK, then the scene is yours.” Luke was not polite.
Vice team “……”
I ……
Luke greeted the crowd and returned to the police station office to catch up on his sleep.
This is also his many years of experience in the police, there is time to sleep between cases, just hurry up and sleep, really busy, the time to eat may not even be there.
He was relieved to have the vice squad on the scene.
Luke slept until one o’clock in the afternoon.
After getting up, he washed his face and ate a burger.
At two o’clock in the afternoon, Luke held a cup of coffee and called a meeting with the crowd.
“Guys, hard at work, tell us about the new developments in the case.”
Jackson took a sketch portrait and put it in front of Luke, “Captain, what do you think?”
It was a sketch portrait of a white middle-aged man, Luke nodded, “Not bad, this is a sketch portrait of the kidnapper Tom?”
The lieutenant replied, “That’s right, we had it identified by someone from Carter’s cleaning company, and it was him who went to book the cleaning service, so we can be sure that Jim wasn’t lying.
Once the sketch portrait was completed, I let Jim go.”
Luke could also complete criminal sketch portraits, however, it was usually when the case was urgent that he would do it himself, this time Reed provided ample logistics and sent a criminal sketch artist directly.
Luke also saved himself the trouble, he was not a person who liked to take work on himself in the first place.
Luke asked, “No luck finding a picture of Tom?”
The lieutenant shook his head, “Not yet.”
“What’s the status of the house where the kidnappers were?”
“We contacted the homeowner, who hasn’t been in LA for a while and hasn’t rented the house out.
The gang of kidnappers should be temporarily occupying the house.
In addition, I sent people to visit the neighbors in the community.
The gang lived deep in the house, and the surrounding neighbors didn’t even notice any trespassers in the community.”
Luke took a sip of his coffee, “It seems that these guys are quite careful.”
Jackson chimed in, “Very careful indeed.
The janitorial company actually had security cameras installed, but Tom was wearing a hat when he went and kept his back to the camera, making it impossible to get a good look at his front.”
Luke pressed, “Did the community surveillance catch any suspicious vehicles going in and out?”
Jenny spread her hands, “This neighborhood is quite chaotic, and the community surveillance cameras are often vandalized and are still under repair.”
Luke finished his cup of coffee in one gulp, “Can someone tell me some good news?”
“A little patience young man, I was just about to say.” The lieutenant smiled, “The tech team collected some biopsies and household trash from the house.
One set of fingerprints didn’t match the homeowner’s, and are most likely those of a suspect who just hasn’t been identified yet.
Also, some bio-detectors were taken from the household garbage, and the tech team is already running lab tests.”
“That’s good news, hopefully it will lead to the identity of the kidnapper.” Luke made a note in his book and scanned his eyes around, “Where’s Marcus? Why haven’t we seen him?”
The crowd looked to the lieutenant.
The latter said, “The kidnapper called Jim at ten o’clock this morning.
Asked Jim if he had received the gold and demanded that Jim pay six million dollars in cash as agreed.
The transaction time is March 17th.
Jim agreed.
Concerned that the kidnappers might contact Jim again, I had Blackie assist at Jim’s side, acting as a liaison.”
Luke raised one eyebrow, “Are you sure he can accomplish this?”
“Jim is black and Marcus won’t be suspected by anyone around him. And Marcus grew up in the ghetto and has a knack for improvising, no worse than anyone else in the room.”
The lieutenant was confident, “Trust me, he’ll complete the mission successfully.”
Although Luke was still a little worried, Marcus had already gone on his mission, so he couldn’t afford to dismiss the vice squad’s opinion, and his words changed, “That means that on December 17th, we have a chance to eliminate the kidnappers in one fell swoop.”
The vice squad said, “As long as Jim doesn’t mess up there, it should be fine.
There’s no way that gang of kidnappers is going to give up six million dollars, that’s their ultimate goal ……”
“Ringing ……”
Luke’s cell phone rang, he glanced at it and said, “Guys, let’s talk about this for now, remember to let me know first if there’s any news from the tech team or Marcus.”
“As you wish, Captain.”
Luke returned to the captain’s office and pressed the answer button, “Hello, this is Luke.”
Anthony’s voice came from the cell phone, “Man, how’s the kidnapping of Isla Redman coming along?”
“Some progress.” Luke asked back perfunctorily, “What about the case of the kidnapping of real estate tycoon Gary Sane’s son?”
Anthony sighed, “The kidnappers haven’t been in touch again, and it’s not going very well.”
“The news of the kidnapping of the real estate tycoon’s son is all over the TV right now, it can be said to be all over the city. As long as the robbers’ brains aren’t broken, they won’t contact the family at this time.” Luke changed his question.
“Actually, I’m more curious about how the news of the real estate tycoon’s son being kidnapped got out?”
Anthony said perfunctorily, “I’d like to know that too.”
“This isn’t like the Anthony I know, if you can’t even find out about this, your job as the deputy director of the FBI is considered a waste.”
Anthony was silent for a moment, “Where are you? If you have time, let’s meet and talk.”
“OK, I’m at the police station, come over directly.” There were some connections between the two cases, and Luke also wanted to clear up some things.
“See you in a minute.”
Anthony came quickly and arrived at Luke’s office in twenty minutes.
He saw Luke sitting at his desk making tea and squeezed out a smile, “You’re quite laid back.”
Luke made the gesture of invitation, “Knowing that you were coming, I specially made a pot of tea.”
Anthony sat across from Luke, “It seems that you are already sure of solving the case of the kidnapping of the rich merchant’s daughter, Isha Redman.”
Luke shook his head, “As long as the kidnapper hasn’t been caught yet, it’s too early to say anything about this.”
The police did not know the exact location of the kidnappers now, but they did have two important clues.
The first clue, biological samples were found in the house where the kidnapper had lived, if the identity of the kidnapper could be compared through the biological samples, the detection of the case would be half successful.
The second clue, according to the agreement on March 17th Jim to deliver to the kidnappers 6 million in cash, which is also a good opportunity to capture.
Luke is now most worried about the safety of the hostages.
He also hoped to rescue the hostages as soon as possible, but apart from these two clues, the police had no other clues related to the kidnappers for the time being.
This was also the reason why he had asked Anthony to come.
These two kidnapping cases were at a similar time, one left the letter V in blood at the scene of the crime, and the other kidnapper called himself Mr. V. The two cases might have some connection.
Anthony held his teacup and took a sip of tea, “Luke, I’m here to ask for your help.”
Luke asked rhetorically, “What kind of favor?”
“The case of the kidnapping of real estate tycoon Gary Sane’s son is stuck in a bottleneck, and there has been no progress in the investigation for the past few days, I want you to help analyze whether the two kidnappings are related in some way.”
Luke picked up the teapot and added some more tea to him, “I don’t know much about the kidnapping case of real estate tycoon Gary Sane’s son son.”
Anthony described, “The case took place on the night of March 10th, around 12:00 am, Gary Sane received a phone call from the kidnappers claiming that they had his son, Gary Sane Jr. and told him to prepare 10 million dollars in cash by tomorrow night.
Half-convinced, Gary Sane rushed to contact his son, but was no longer reachable.
Gary Sane only knew that his son had gone out with friends on a yacht, but did not know the exact location.
Gary Sane then called the police and the FBI took over the case.”
Anthony handed Luke a cigarette, lit one himself, took a drag, and continued, “Around 2:00 a.m., we found the yacht, which was a mess, with a lot of bottles of alcohol and leftover food left behind.
We also found bloodstains on the yacht, including a bloodied v-letter.
Afterward, it was identified as blood belonging to three people, including Gary Sane Jr.
Afterward, after some investigation, we learned that on that day, Gary Sane Jr. had a party on the yacht, which was attended by a total of a dozen people, and was dispersed only after 10:00 pm.
Among them, two other partygoers also disappeared.
Afterward, we identified two other bloodstains on the yacht left by these two people.
These two were a couple, the man’s name was Mohan Wald, a friend of Gary Sane, Jr.
We’re guessing that not one, but three people may have been abducted.”
Anthony flicked the ashes of his cigarette, took a drag, and sighed, “You know what happened after that, the media found out about the kidnapping of the real estate mogul’s son and it was on the morning news the next day.
The case was also completely screwed up, and we haven’t received any calls from the kidnappers since.”
Luke got a general idea of the case and said, “This kidnapping is a little rough, not like a professional would do.
One more kidnapping is one more risk of exposure.”
Anthony said, “I guess the kidnapper’s target is Gary Sane Jr. The reason why he kidnapped Mohan Wald and his girlfriend should be an accident.
Let’s say they were present during the kidnapping, and even saw the kidnapping.
If the two of them were killed outright, the police would have investigated the kidnapping of Gary Sane Jr. just the same.
That’s why all three were taken together.”
Luke asked, “Is it possible that Mohan Wald and his girlfriend kidnapped Gary Sane Jr.?”
Anthony shook his head, “That’s highly unlikely, they were at the yacht party and it would be easy to track them down afterward.”
Luke nodded, “Any idea who leaked the news of Gary Sanay Jr.’s kidnapping?”
“We found the reporter who first broadcast the news, and someone called him anonymously, from a disposable prepaid cell phone, and couldn’t find out the owner’s information.
Then, after more than a few lines of inquiry, I suspected that there might be a mole in the FBI.”
Luke frowned slightly, if there was a mole in the FBI that caused the hostage to be torn apart, that would be a big problem.
“For the identity of the mole, do you have anyone you suspect?”
“For the time being, I haven’t found evidence that the FBI has a mole, just after ruling out all kinds of possibilities, this possibility is the biggest ……”
Anthony was also a bit helpless, “Can you give me some advice? Don’t forget, you’re also the FBI’s criminal investigation consultant.”
Luke didn’t answer directly and asked rhetorically, “Do you know why I took over the investigation of this case?”
“It wasn’t clear before, and then Reed told me that it was requested by the father of the victim, Isha Redman.
I think it may have been because the news of Gary Sane Jr.’s abduction leaked and made him skeptical of the FBI’s capabilities.”
Luke continued, “I was on vacation with my family in Hawaii at the time, and I thought about it for a while after I got the call from Director Reed, and was deciding that I wanted to return to Los Angeles when I realized that my papers had been stolen.
I caught the thief and she confessed that she had been instructed by someone else to sneak into the hotel and intentionally steal my credentials.”
Anthony immediately understood, “Someone was trying to prevent you from returning to Los Angeles to investigate the kidnapping?”
Luke said, “Although there is no definitive proof, that’s what I guessed.
When I returned, I asked the hostage’s father, and only four people knew about his desire to hire me to investigate the kidnapping.
Himself, his wife, Chief Reed, and Gary Sane.”
Anthony asked rhetorically, “You suspect Gary Sane of something?”
“I don’t know, I’ve had no contact with him, what do you think?”
Anthony replied, “We’ve checked his company’s finances and it’s in good operating condition.
And he’s also the one who called the police and shows no signs of lying, I don’t think he’s a big problem.”
Luke speculated, “So could it be someone close to him that’s the problem. Just because Rich only told him the news to one person doesn’t mean he won’t talk about it outside the family.”
Anthony nodded, “I understand what you mean, I will communicate with him privately.
By the way, the man who hired the thief to burglarize, do you have any clues about him?”
“There is a forensic sketch portrait of him.”
“Very well, send me the sketch-portrait of that fellow, and when the case is solved I will buy you a drink.” Anthony stood up, seemingly impatient to investigate this new lead.
Luke waved his hand, “Don’t rush, I have something else for you to do.”
“What is it?”
“Ten years ago, there was also a kidnapping in Los Angeles, the victim of the kidnapping was a ten year old girl whose father was a diamond merchant.
This kidnapping was investigated by the FBI at the time.”
Anthony was silent for a moment and recalled, “Yes, I remember this case, the kidnapper wasn’t caught, there was no news of the little girl, and afterward, the media made a big deal out of it, and a lot of citizens accused our FBI of incompetence.
Why do you remember this case?”
“I’ll explain it to you later, I want the file on this case.”
“No problem, this case is a stain on the FBI, if you, the FBI’s criminal investigation consultant, can solve the case, you may be able to take over my position.”
Luke laughed, “Shouldn’t that be Supervisor Negan’s position?”
“You’re an ambitious kid, I’ll have to keep Negan on his toes.”
“Come on, by the time I make it to Negan’s position, he’ll probably already be in charge of the FBI.” Luke snickered, “I’ll look out for you then, Deputy Chief Anthony.”
“I won’t be Deputy Supervisor forever, you nasty boy.” Anthony made a move to leave.
Luke cautioned, “Hey, be careful not to get caught by that mole you were talking about. I wouldn’t want the Issa Redman case to be on the news tomorrow too.”
Anthony waved his hand, “Don’t worry, I’ll look in the file room myself.”
Luke a thumbs up, “Waiting to hear from you.”
The next morning.
Mary pushed open the door to the 1st Squadron office, “Good morning guys.
Wow, I smell donuts.”
The lieutenant enthusiastically approached with a donut, “This donut store is having an event, try it, it’s not bad.”
“Thanks, I was starving after a busy night yesterday.” Mary took a bite of the donut with a satisfied look on her face.
When she had eaten her next donut, the lieutenant asked, “Have the results of the kidnapper’s biopsy identification come back yet?”
“Yes, one good news, one bad news.” Mary said, picking up another donut and taking a bite.
Jackson poured her a cup of coffee, “I’ll go with the good news.”
“Thanks, that’s sweet of you.” Mary took a sip of her coffee and continued
“The good news is that the DNA match from the household garbage in the house was successful and we got an ID on one of the people. Her name is Sofia De La Rosa and she is twenty years old.”
Jackson pressed, “And the bad news.”
“According to her file, she was kidnapped ten years ago, has not been heard from, and has been ruled dead.
In other words, we’re looking into someone who was officially ‘ruled dead’.
Her life history for the last ten years is blank.”
“Sofia De La Rosa ……,” the lieutenant muttered under his breath, looking slightly excited.
“That’s right, that’s her.
Jesus Christ, it’s been a whole decade and she’s still alive!”