Chapter 55
Luke slowly walked over and whispered, “Hey Caroline, it’s Detective Luke, how are you?”
Caroline waved her hands, “Don’t come over, don’t kill me, PLEASE……”
“Don’t be afraid, I’m a cop, I’ll protect you.”
“You’re a cop?”
“Yea, tell me, what happened?”
Caroline’s body trembled slightly, her hands gripped her hair hard: “There’s a devil, the devil wants to kill me! I ran as hard as I could ……”
Luke pursued, “What kind of devil?”
“NoNoNo……” Caroline kept shaking her head.
“Where did you see the devil?”
“Lots and lots of houses, I opened a house …… the devil was inside …… ah!” As if she had thought of something terrible, Caroline roared out, waving her hands and feet about wildly.
Brooke came over and grabbed Caroline’s arm, “Mom, I’m Brooke, the devil has been driven away, I’ll protect you ……”
“Brooke, you are my son ……,” Caroline calmed down, a pair of bloodshot eyes staring at Brooke, looking a little oozy.
“It’s me, don’t be afraid, I’m right here with you ……”
Caroline shook her head and pushed the other person away forcefully, “No, you go, I don’t want to see you ……”
Emma came over, squatted beside Caroline, said with a crying voice: “Mom, don’t scare me, I’m Emma ……”
“Emma, my daughter Emma.”
“Mom, what’s wrong with you?” Emma grabbed Caroline’s right hand.
“There’s a devil, the devil is trying to kill me! I’m so cold, don’t leave me, you’re all I have now.” Caroline wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter.
Brooke sighed softly and walked over to Luke, “Officer Luke, my mom is in a very unstable condition and is easily stimulated, can you stop asking questions for now?”
Luke looked at Caroline and then at Brooke, “Did you find her?”
“Yes.”
“Can I talk to you?”
“Can.”
The three of them exited the hospital room and Luke pulled out a box of cigarettes and handed one to Brooke, “You’re the one who brought Caroline to the hospital?”
“Yes.” Brooke took the cigarette and lit it three times with her lighter before lighting it.
“When I got out of the police station last night, I called Caroline, but there was no answer.
In the morning I went to the house to look for her and found her cowering in the corner of the yard shivering and a little out of sorts, like she was terrified, so I rushed her to the hospital.”
“Why did you call her last night.”
“That thing …… I only told her, I want to ask if she told you guys.”
“Is Caroline abnormal other than mentally?”
Brooke thought for a moment, “She has a few cuts, but they look like fall injuries, nothing major.”
David interjected, “Like a fall injury like your father had?”
Brooke defended, “No, I explained very clearly yesterday that it wasn’t me or Sophia’s fault that it happened, it was Laun herself who tried to hide the attack.”
David said, “Lawn is still in a coma, you guys can say whatever you want once Lawn wakes up ……”
Brooke spread her hands, “I have a clear conscience.”
Luke continued, “Do you know what happened to Caroline?”
“I asked, but it was as if she was scared of something and her mind was a little off.”
“Do you know what she did last night?”
“No.”
“Does Sophia know about it?”
“I haven’t told her yet.”
Luke didn’t really trust Brooke and found Caroline’s primary care doctor to ask about it.
After examining her, the attending doctor agreed that Caroline had suffered a shock resulting in a mental abnormality and recommended that she not be stimulated any further and that she be treated as soon as possible.
Luke and David could only return to the Detective Bureau first and report the situation to Susan.
At six thirty in the evening, Luke left the Detective Bureau on time.
After working a lot of overtime in the last few days and hitting a bottleneck in today’s investigation, Luke wanted to relax.
He and Daisy arranged to meet at the Fly Bar.
Luke went to the Flying Bar first and ordered a lamb curry over rice and a couple of small drinks.
It was just after eight o’clock in the evening when Daisy arrived late.
“SORRY for keeping you waiting.” Daisy kissed Luke on the cheek.
Luke glanced at his watch, “Yea, it did take a bit long, a couple of hot chicks just came over to hit on me.”
Daisy smiled, “That proves I have a pretty good eye.”
Daisy ordered a glass of red wine and clinked glasses with Luke, “How’s the case going?”
Luke took a sip of vodka, “Not great, Lawn is in a coma and no one is sure what really happened then.
Caroline went crazy.”
“WHAT?” asked Daisy thinking she had heard wrong, “What did you say happened to Caroline?”
“Caroline is in shock and is now delirious and mentally ill.”
Daisy had a hard time believing it, “How could she do that to someone so arrogant?”
“It’s still unclear, she hasn’t been able to communicate properly, and we’ve tried to track her whereabouts last night, but we haven’t found any clues yet.” Luke didn’t go into details.
In fact, back at the police station this afternoon, the case was discussed at the case wrap-up meeting.
The team also had different opinions.
Marcus felt that Caroline might have been robbed.
Luke felt that she might have known something she shouldn’t have and been retaliated against.
The vice team thinks that Caroline is faking her insanity.
All three ideas were possible, but none of them had any relevant evidence.
Luke looked at the beautiful person on his side and laughed, “Why did you remember to ask me out for a drink today, you’re not afraid to go home alone, are you?”
“Cough ……” Daisy coughed lightly and took out a document from her bag, “This is a will of Laun two years ago, I think it may be helpful to the investigation of the case, and it took a lot of effort to get it, and then the first thing I did was to give it to you to send it over.
What about you? I can’t believe you’re making fun of me.”
Luke took the papers, “A will from two years ago? That means the current written will was changed by Lawn later.”
“Lawn was originally a client of an ex-client, and then, when that ex-client later went to New York for development, he introduced Lawn to me.
The will in this document was also accepted by that predecessor, but it was voided, and that predecessor wasted a lot of effort to find the electronic copy from the cloud.”
Luke flipped through it, this will was pretty much the same as the written one, with most of the property going to Sophia, except this one had a few more legacies.
Sophia was given a private warehouse in addition to real estate and cash.
The fact that this warehouse could be listed with the real estate and cash meant that the things stored inside were more valuable, but the written will made no mention of this warehouse.
This warehouse aroused Luke’s interest.
The following morning.
Luke and David arrived at the Munn Warehouse Center to investigate.
This is a private warehouse center, located in the suburbs of Los Angeles, covering a large area with thousands of private warehouses.
The warehouse manager’s name was Boret, a middle-aged fat white man with a waistline that was almost as big as his height.
Luke flashed his badge, “I’m Detective Luke, we’re investigating a major criminal case, and we’d like to ask you a favor.”
Borrett was a little confused and stood up with his big belly, “What’s the matter?”
“We’re looking into a man named Lawn Bull, who may have rented a warehouse in your area.”
“Do you have a search warrant?”
“As soon as we confirm that he has a warehouse here, we’ll apply for a search warrant.”
“OK, I’ll check for you guys.” Borrett operated on the computer for a while, “Found Lawn Bull, he did rent a warehouse from us, and there’s still half a year left to expire.”
Boret showed a difficult look again, “However, private warehouses require a key, only the tenant can open it, and our company can’t do anything about it.”
David made a phone call to report the situation to Susan and at the same time asked her to apply for a search warrant.
It took a while to apply for a search warrant, and Luke suggested, “Manager Borrett, can you show us around the storage center?”
“OK, no problem.” Borrett looked a little reluctant.
The storage center was large, and there were three different sizes of warehouses based on the size of the area, which could be rented monthly, quarterly, or annually.
If each warehouse wasn’t labeled with a number, it would be easy to get confused.
Luke turned most of the way around the storage center, “Why is there no surveillance here?”
Boret explained, “We are a private warehouse here, and we tried to install surveillance before, but the customers decreased instead. Then it was simply removed.
If there are valuable things, they are directly deposited in the bank safe, and there is no need to put them here.
A lot of people rent warehouses for miscellaneous things.”
Luke noticed a number of people gathered in groups not far away, “What are they doing?”
“Today is the abandoned warehouse auction day, those are treasure hunters who participate in the bidding.” Boret said with a smile, “Last time, a lucky guy bought a warehouse with three hundred dollars and found a bunch of gold coins in the warehouse, which could be worth at least a hundred thousand dollars.
If you guys are interested, you can try it too.”
Luke really wanted to go over there and take a look ……
“Ringing ……” David’s cell phone rang.
After chatting for a few moments, David hung up his cell phone, “Marcus is here with the warrant and technicians, so we can get started.”
After picking up Marcus and the others, the group went straight to Warehouse 53.
Boret had read the warrant and pointed to the silver roll-up door, “It’s yours.
However, it’s a door constructed of specialty steel and there’s no key, so how do you plan to get in?”
The technician opened his accompanying toolbox and removed a chainsaw, “How about this?”
“Even buy the hell out of it.” Boret slapped his forehead, but there was nothing he could do.
“Zip ……”
Under the cutting of the chainsaw, the wire was quickly severed.
David directly yanked open the roll-up door, and a faint stench wafted out from the warehouse.
David wrinkled his nose and pulled out his pistol out of habit, “It’s the smell of decay.”
The warehouse was a bit messy, there were many oil paintings scattered on the floor, and there was a huge gray box placed against the wall, about seventy to eighty centimeters wide and more than a meter long.
Marcus walked up to check it out, “What kind of person would put a holding box in a warehouse …… wow …… There seems to be a pool of blood here.”
Luke pulled out his gun as well, wary, “Marcus, open the box.”
“Why me?”
David said, “You were closest.”
“FUCK!” a little disgruntled, Marcus took a deep breath, rubbed his hands together, and pulled the lid of the crate open with all his might.
A strong odor of decay wafted out.
“Ahem ……” Marcus was almost smoked out.
Luke covered his mouth and nose and went over to check it out, there was a corpse lying inside, holding an oil painting in his hand, his eyes holes staring straight at him ……