Chapter 543

Robbery-Murder Division, Squadron One.

Nine o’clock in the morning.

Luke walked into the office and saw the crowd all gathered around, excitedly discussing something.

“Hey guys, what did I miss?”

“No, you’re just in time.” Black waved, “Come on over here, our customized revolver is back, it’s super cool.”

Luke walked over and asked, “Got one for me?”

“Sure, everyone has one.” Blackie shook the revolver in his hand and blew on the muzzle.

The revolvers were handsome, with silver barrels, wooden grips, and matching holsters.

There were eight delicate wooden boxes sitting on the table, some opened, some unopened, and the lieutenant pushed an unopened wooden box to Luke, “Captain, this is yours.”

“Thanks.” Luke opened the wooden box, inside was a silver revolver, holster, it was heavy in his hand, well made and had a good grip, “This is a good revolver, I like it.”

When Luke was preparing to change his gun, he also considered whether to change to a large caliber revolver, but after considering it again and again, he finally chose the Nighthawk 1911.

The revolver’s advantages were obvious, and the disadvantages were also prominent, not only was the ammunition capacity small, replacing bullets was more cumbersome, unlike a pistol where the magazine could be directly replaced.

The second point is that the gas tightness is poor, there is a certain gap between the barrel and the revolver, and there will be smoke and gas leakage when shooting.

However, as a souvenir collection, the revolver is still very good.

Luke played with it for a while and put it back in the wooden box, ready to put it in his new home’s arsenal collection.

The lieutenant gazed over at Luke and pointed at the sidearm he was carrying, “Speaking of customization …… is that gun you’re carrying a customized Nighthawk 1911?”

“Yay, finally someone noticed I switched guns.” Luke smiled, after retrieving the 1911 from the Nighthawk Gun Shop, Luke familiarized himself with it for a while longer before officially switching it out a few days ago, making the gun his main combat weapon.

The lieutenant gave an envious look, “I’ve always wanted a customized 1911 as well, but I never got the chance to go to Arkansas, you went custom a while back?”

Luke explained, “No No, Nighthawk also has a branch in Los Angeles, you can go there to customize it, and after it’s made in Arkansas, it’ll be mailed to Los Angeles.

If there are no special requests, it’s only a week or so, it’s very convenient.”

The lieutenant became more interested and rubbed his hands together, “Can I see it?”

“Normally no, but …… today is the exception.” Luke took the Nighthawk 1911 out of its holster and handed it to the Lieutenant.

Ramon chimed in, “I’ll take a look too.”

“Sure, everyone can look at it if they’re interested, but today only, No……” Luke glanced at his watch, “Twenty minutes only.”

This is not that Luke is petty, the gun is the police officer’s food and life preservation, unless it is the closest relationship, otherwise do not say touch it, do not even want to look at it.

This Nighthawk 1911 was too classic, a dream in many men’s hearts, that’s why the vice squad and Ramon offered to look at Luke’s pistol, otherwise, they wouldn’t have made such a request.

As for why they didn’t buy one for themselves, it was mainly because the customized Nighthawk 1911 was more expensive.

At some point, Reed walked into the office and asked the crowd, “Guys, are you still happy with the customized revolvers?”

The lieutenant shrugged, “The workmanship is okay, but I still prefer this Nighthawk 1911.”

Reed was a bit taken aback, “Lieutenant, is this your new gun?”

“I wish.” The Lieutenant sighed and somewhat fondly handed the Nighthawk 1911 back to Luke.

Reed patted Luke on the shoulder, “It’s a nice gun, it suits you.”

Luke wiped the pistol with a khaki colored cloth as if no one else was there, and put it in his holster, “Chief, I don’t think you’re running over here early in the morning for the gun, are you?”

“That’s right, got a new case.

Guys, got some work to do.”

Talip Community.

A cordon was set up around the outside of a gray two-story villa, four police cars were parked around it, and several patrolmen were maintaining order.

A black SUV slowly pulled over to the side of the road, and Luke got out of the passenger side, his eyes habitually scanning the surrounding area, pinning his badge to his chest, and walking over towards the gray villa.

He had just walked near the police line when a young white police officer took the initiative to greet him, “Sir, I heard that the Robbery and Murder Division was going to take over the case, I didn’t think it was really you.”

Luke looked at the young white police officer, “Do we know each other?”

The white police officer was a bit shy, “No, I’ve only seen you on TV, I know about the big cases you solved, it’s super impressive, you’re my idol.”

“Thanks.” Luke smiled politely, “What’s your name, man?”

“My name is Jamie Regan, I’m a police officer with the Central Precinct.”

“Nice to meet you Jamie, can you tell me about the scene?”

“My pleasure.” Jamie Regan organized his words, “At eight-thirty in the morning, my partner and I were patrolling the neighborhood when we received an assignment from the main desk that a deceased person had been found in a nearby resident’s home, and then, we came over to check it out first thing.

A male deceased was indeed found in the first floor bedroom of the house, then, we reported it to the main desk.”

“Who was the person who reported it?”

“Clint Mann, he owns the house and was in the yard.” Jamie Regan pointed to a middle-aged man sitting in the yard.

“OK, I’ll go talk to him, see you in a minute, Jimmy.”

“YES, Sir.”

Luke walked into the yard and looked Clint Mann up and down.

He was a white man, about mid-thirties, and looked a little tired, “Mr. Clint Mann.”

The man stood up and looked over at Luke, “Yea, it’s me.”

“My name is Luke Lee, Captain of the Robbery and Murder Division, I’m in charge of the investigation in this case.”

Clint Mann asked, “Sir, when can we move that body? It’s really hard for me to accept ……

the presence of a stranger’s body in our house.”

“There’s no need to rush, the coroner is already on the scene and will be done with the body soon.” Luke soothed and asked rhetorically, “Did you know the deceased?”

“No, not at all.”

“Then why was the body in your house?”

“I don’t know, I was out traveling with my family and took a flight back to Los Angeles last night and only returned home early this morning …… and found the body.”

“What was the exact time the body was found?”

“I think it was 8:20 or so, and then I called the police.”

“Who was all present at the time?”

“There was my family.

We came home and found that the things in the living room had been moved, I thought it was a burglar who had entered, so I checked the other rooms, but I found a man lying on the bed in the bedroom on the first floor, his face was very abnormal, and when I called him, he didn’t move, and I didn’t dare to get too close to …… me, so I rushed to call the police.”

“Who are your family members? Where did they go?”

“My wife, son and daughter.

I was worried about scaring them and sent them to the next door neighbor’s house to rest.” Clint Mann pointed to a cottage diagonally across the street.

Luke called Jenny and asked her to take a statement from Clint Mann’s family, and afterward, Luke continued to question Clint Mann: “Where did you travel to and for how many days?”

“We were on a week-long Guam tour program with West Travel, and we left on July 3rd, and today is the 10th.”

“Who all knew your family was traveling?”

“Many people know, our relatives, friends, neighbors, our dog was also sent to the pet boarding center, originally planned to drop off our luggage and go pick it up, now …… we can only wait a little longer.

Sir, I want you to move that body as soon as possible.”

“We will.” Luke made a brief note in his notebook and followed up with, “Did your family know the deceased?”

Clint Mann shook his head, “No.”

Luke pressed, “Was it a lack of recognition? Or no identification?”

“My son is ten years old and my daughter is eight, there’s no way I’d let them see the body, that would be horrible.”

“I can understand you, but this person died in your home, your family probably knew him, according to the procedure of the case, we need to ask your family to identify it.” Seeing no indication from the other party, Luke continued, “We won’t let the children identify the body directly, but rather look at the deceased’s life photos.”

Clint Mann nodded, “OK, I …… will talk to them.”

“By the way, did your family lose any valuables?”

“No.”

“Has there been any break-ins before?”

“No.”

“Before traveling, did you notice anything unusual or see anyone suspicious?”

“No recollection.”

Luke nodded his head and said to the lieutenant at the side, “Lieutenant, take someone to visit the surrounding neighborhoods and see if any strangers have come to the homeowner’s house during the time of the tour?”

“Potter, follow me.” The vice squad greeted and called for a few more patrolmen to visit the surrounding area.

Luke, on the other hand, entered the house to survey it, upon entering the doorway, there was a pair of men’s leather shoes next to the cupboard, the living room was relatively tidy, and there was a used coffee cup and a carton of cigarettes on the coffee table in the living room.

Subsequently, Luke entered the bedroom on the first floor, the bedroom is not large, directly opposite the door is a one meter and a half wide bed, the bed lying a white man, wearing suit pants and shirt, pale face, foaming at the corners of the mouth, a pair of eyes staring blankly.

No visible blood was found, no signs of a struggle.

On the side, Blackie wore gloves and held a black Apple cell phone in his hand as he flipped through it: ”Captain, I found a cell phone next to the bed, most likely belonging to the victim. The phone didn’t have a password set, and it took a lot of pictures from this house.”

Jackson also came over to check it out, “It does have a lot of pictures of the house, why would he do that? Could he be using the house as a shipment to send to other people to look at?”

Black shook his head, “Don’t be silly, the owner of the house just went on a trip, it’s not like he’s dead, the house isn’t ownerless.”

Jackson asked rhetorically, “Then tell me why the deceased took pictures of the house.”

Xiao Hei carefully examined the photos and said, “These photos were taken without any focus, and I didn’t see anything important, I feel ……

The deceased should be recording the location of the room’s items, and when he leaves the place he will return the items to their place, so that the homeowner won’t know that someone has been here.”

Jackson was a little surprised, “That sounds reasonable, how do you know that?”

Xiao Hei shrugged, “I grew up in the slums, people there would try all sorts of ways to survive, some of them have no money and no place to live, so they would move to those unoccupied houses for a while.

It was sort of a means of survival for them.”

Luke pursued, “How do they know if the house is unoccupied? Aren’t they worried about being caught by the homeowner?”

Blackie said, “It’s very simple, for example, some people have been ordering milk or newspapers, and if they have to travel or go on a business trip, they will usually cancel the order temporarily.

They’ll pack up the house and leave early before the homeowner leaves.”

Jackson bristled, “What is this, a polite hermit crab?”

“Ringing ……”

Suddenly, the dead man’s cell phone rang, and Black was so startled that he nearly dropped it.