Chapter 553

Luke whispered, “The coffee is hot.”

The three around them were also alert, Jenny guessed, “That means the suspect, Lydia Cooney, most likely hasn’t gotten far.”

Luke swept his gaze around, “It’s also possible that she’s still in the house.”

Blackie said, “But we’ve already searched the house.”

“Then search it again, this time more carefully.” Generally speaking, it was impossible for the police to search a suspect’s hiding place just once.

The first search was to confirm safety, the second was to look for evidence and clues, and would be followed by a more detailed site investigation.

Just now, Luke’s four men only searched the room in a general way to confirm that there were no armed persons or dangers in the room, and did not conduct a detailed search.

And then, Luke four people searched again, cabinets, under the bed, behind the curtains, and even the refrigerator were carefully checked.

The four finished their search and met again on the first floor.

Jenny shook her head, “Every place that can hide someone was searched, no sign of anyone was found.”

Black rubbed his chin, “Could someone have snuck in and reported her escape just before we entered the neighborhood.”

Luke did not say anything, he felt that the layout of the house was a little wrong, it seemed …… that the bedrooms on the first floor felt smaller than the actual area.

He had recently been purchasing furniture for his new home and was sensitive to the layout of the house.

Luke remeasured the length of the outside of the living room, and then entered the first floor bedroom to measure it, and found that the first floor bedroom was eighty centimeters shorter than the actual area.

“Bang bang.”

Luke knocked on the wall and felt that the sound was a little off, like it was empty.

Blackie’s trio also realized that something was wrong and were on guard with their guns around them.

Luke, on the other hand, scrutinized the wall, it looked like a decoration, but it was actually an invisible door, only the switch and lock were inside.

Luke determined the approximate location of the invisible door through observation, and then Blackie brought in the door slammer and directly slammed into the invisible door.

“Bang!” The sound of the invisible door was smashed open.

“LAPD!”

“Freeze!”

“Hands in the air!” Jenny and Ramon rushed in left and right.

“Don’t shoot, I’m unarmed.” A woman’s voice rang out from the house.

It was a white woman in her thirties, sitting crouched in the corner of the cubicle, with blonde hair, a tall figure, and blue-rimmed glasses that gave her an air of intellectualism.

Jenny asked, “What’s your name?”

“Lydia Cooney.”

Jenny exited the cubicle first and called out to Lydia Cooney, “Hands up and step out of there.”

Lydia Cooney took a deep breath and slowly got up and stepped out of the cubicle as Jenny had said, “I’m unarmed, you can put your guns down now.”

“Hands behind your head.” Jenny signaled the other woman to turn around while she was searched.

Lydia Cooney sounded disgruntled, “Why are you breaking into my house? If you don’t have reasonable grounds and procedures, I will definitely file a complaint against you.”

Luke flashed out the search warrant, “Based on the identification of witnesses, we suspect that you are related to the arson case that happened on the night of July 11th at Kalman Pharmaceuticals, and we hope that you will assist in the investigation.”

“Oh my god, you guys are just crazy, how can I be related to the arson case.

Who identified me?”

Luke stared at Lydia Cooney and said, “This is not the time for you to ask questions, answer mine first.”

Lydia Cooney’s tone was strong, “No, I don’t think I have a question.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you respond when we called the door, instead of hiding in this hidden compartment?

That’s not what normal people do.”

“You’re right, I did hear someone ringing the doorbell, and I turned on the visual doorbell to find a strange black man standing outside with a menacing, come-hither look.

I hid in the cubicle for fear that he was a bad man and would hurt me.” Lydia Cooney glanced at Blacky and added, “If I wasn’t afraid you guys would hear me, I would have already called the police.”

Blacky “……”

Me ……

You ……

fuck……

Luke said, “My colleague didn’t have any overly aggressive behavior or actions, your reason is a bit far-fetched.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.

It’s possible that the arson case made me a little nervous and that’s why I became overly sensitive.” Lydia Cooney looked at Black again, “Sir, I apologize.”

“No, I don’t accept.” Kuro did not give the other party a good look.

Lydia Cooney shrugged, “Anyway, I’ve apologized, so if there’s nothing else, please leave my house.”

Luke once again flashed his search warrant, “Ms. Cooney, we’re conducting a legal search, and we hope you’ll cooperate.”

Lydia Cooney scratched her hair and said somewhat helplessly, “I really don’t know, what is there to search in my house, you guys are simply doing nothing.”

Luke asked, “Where were you between eleven and twelve o’clock on the night of July 11th?”

“Are you guys going to interrogate me now?”

“Just normal questioning.”

“I was at home.”

Luke stared at the other woman, seeing the signs of a lie on her face.

“Can anyone else attest to that?”

“No, just me.”

“Ms. Cooney, where is your daughter?”

“Uh …… she went to my mother’s house.”

“When did you go?”

“July 10th.”

Luke saw the lie in her face again.

“Did the arson on July 11th have anything to do with you?”

“Jesus, I’ve had enough of this baseless accusation from you, I’m a researcher and I’ve put in a lot of hard work into researching new antihypertensive drugs.

How could I be willing to sabotage my own research.”

“Please answer positively.”

Lydia Cooney’s eyes flickered, her nostrils flickered slightly, and she choked out, “The arson case on July 11th has nothing to do with me.”

Luke had been watching Lydia Cooney’s micro-expressions; her emotions were complex, ranging from hurt, to helplessness, and finally showing signs of lying.

From the current situation, it was likely that Lydia Cooney was involved in the arson case, as for the reason why she was involved in the arson case, there were roughly four possibilities, for the sake of profit, under the spell of someone, because of hatred, and being threatened.

Previously, Luke gave a statement to Kem Smith, Kem Smith said that Lydia Cooney also put a lot of effort into the development of a new type of antihypertensive drug, Luke also saw the sadness and reluctance from her expression just now, which showed that she was not subjectively wanting to commit arson.

Cam Smith also said that he and Lydia Cooney broke up because Lydia Cooney’s daughter didn’t like him, which showed that Lydia Cooney cared about her daughter.

Plus, Lydia Cooney had just lied about her daughter’s whereabouts, Luke speculated that something had probably happened to her daughter.

Luke said, “Contact your daughter, I need to speak to her.”

Lydia Cooney gave a nervous look, “Why? My daughter doesn’t know anything, what do you have to talk to her about?”

“Is your daughter really at your mother’s house?”

Lydia Cooney glared at Luke, “I have no reason to lie to you.”

Luke nodded, “You know what? I’ve been involved in investigating a number of kidnappings, many of which involved young girls being abducted.

Some of the girls were rescued in time, but some of them were torn apart, and it was heartbreaking.”

“What are you doing telling me this? I don’t want to hear it.”

“No, I think you should know.

Do you know when most of those girls who were ripped off were killed?” Luke stared at the other party and asked himself, “After the victim’s family delivers the ransom.

Because by this time the hostage no longer has any use value, and there is no reason to live ……”

Lydia Cooney’s eyes were red and swollen as she cried out, “Please, stop talking, I don’t want to hear it ……”

“Hey, if, and I mean if, your daughter has been kidnapped and you’re being threatened, you should be brave enough to speak up so we can rescue your daughter in time.

Every extra minute of delay now puts your daughter in more danger.” Luke glanced at his watch and continued, “It’s now been 36 hours since the fire, and I don’t want to discourage you, but I also have to be honest, your daughter has missed the best time to rescue her ……”

“No, don’t say it again, my daughter will be fine, it won’t be ……” Lydia Cooney finally couldn’t carry it anymore and crouched down to sit on the ground and cry.

Xiao Hei said, “I’ve seen your daughter’s picture, it’s very cute.

I have a daughter too, even cuter.

I can understand how you feel.

If I were you, I would never take my daughter’s life to gamble on the mercy of the robbers.”

Luke said, “If you’re worried about yourself, it’s all the more reason to assist the police in their investigation, and as long as you can assist them in catching the other arsonists, we’ll give you a favorable plea deal.”

Jenny also advised, “Ms. Cooney, don’t hesitate any longer, your daughter is most likely already in danger.

Only we can rescue her.”

Lydia Cooney looked at Jenny, “Can you guarantee to get my daughter out?”

“No, no one can guarantee that, but we will do our best.” Luke’s tone was sincere.

Lydia Cooney pondered for a long time and sighed, “Yes, you guessed it.

My daughter was kidnapped, and they threatened me with arson at the company building before they would let my daughter go.”

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“I didn’t dare, they said they would keep an eye on me and if I dared to call the police, they would just kill my daughter.” Lydia Cooney’s tears slid down her cheeks, “When my husband died, I promised him I would take care of my daughter.

She was everything to me and I had to protect her.”

Luke said, “Tell us about the robbers so we can find them and save your daughter.”

“The robbers are two men, one of them wears a hood, I can’t see his face, the other one is a white man, he has a beard on his mouth, a hawkish nose, and a medium build ……,” Lydia Cooney pressed her forehead in thought.

Luke pulled out a picture of Walda Baker, “Isn’t that him?”

“Yes, that’s him.

He coerced me into leading the way and assisting him in burning down the research labs and data on the new antihypertensive drug.

I really didn’t want to do that, but for the sake of my daughter, I had no choice.”

“Do you know where he is now?”

“No idea.

The two of us were separated after the arson at the Kalman Company building.

She told me to wait at home, not to call the police, and to return my daughter to me when the wind died down.”

“Describe the arson that night?”

Lydia Cooney sighed and lowered her head as if she didn’t want to remember and as if she felt a little guilty, “Around eleven o’clock, we went to Kalman Pharmaceuticals.

We both went in over the wall, and the security guard didn’t notice us.

He was also carrying two barrels of accelerant ……

We first went to the switch room and broke the circuit so that the camera surveillance would not work.

We then entered the building through the west door and went to the sixth floor laboratory, where he sprinkled the accelerant and then ignited it ……

I was dumbfounded.

Then later, I was dragged by him through the east door and ran out of Kalman Pharmaceuticals.” Lydia Cooney kept her head down, seemingly unwilling to remember.

Luke compared her confession with Cam Smith’s and noticed something: “You entered through the west door of the building and left through the east door?”

“Yes.”

“Sure?”

“Certain.”

Luke frowned slightly, this was different from Cam Smith’s story, according to Cam Smith he saw Lydia Cooney and Walda Baker run out of the west door of the building, and then realized that the upstairs was on fire, and Lydia Cooney took advantage of the fire to run away.

“Did you see Cam Smith that night?”

“No.”

“Why did you enter through the west door and leave through the east?”

Lydia Cooney replied, “The power distribution room is near the west door, and we had to cut the power before entering the west door.

We were worried that the security guards would go to the power distribution room to check and repair it, so we didn’t dare to run through the west door, but escaped through the east door.”

Luke found Lydia Cooney’s statement to be common sense and saw no obvious signs of lying, could it be that Cam Smith had lied?

And why would he lie about it?

Luke thought briefly and asked, “As far as I know, Kalman Pharmaceuticals also had power outages in May and June, did you do that?”

Lydia Cooney shook her head, “No, if they hadn’t kidnapped my daughter on July 10th, I would never have done such a thing.”

Luke didn’t see any signs of lying on Lydia Cooney’s face, which meant that it was more likely that Kem Smith had lied.

But Cam Smith could fool Luke, surely he wasn’t lying completely, there should be truth and falsehood, Luke combined with Lydia Cooney’s confession and reasoned.

On the night of July 11th, Cam Smith saw Lydia Cooney at the west door of the building should be true, but it should not be from the west door of the building, but from the power distribution room, and then entered the building from the west door, at this time Lydia Cooney and Walda Baker had not yet set the fire.

In other words, Cam Smith had every opportunity to stop Lydia Cooney and Walda Baker from committing arson at that time, but he did not do so.

Why?

Luke was reminded again of the two power outages at Kalman Pharmaceuticals in May and June.

Cam Smith became more and more suspicious.

First of all, it would have been somewhat out of character for Cam Smith to stay up past eleven at night and hang around underneath the office building.

Secondly, Kem Smith walking around should be open and aboveboard, while Lydia Cooney and Walda Baker sneaking into the Kalman Company should be sneaky, and logically it should have been Lydia Cooney who discovered Kem Smith first, but it turned out to be the other way around.

This suggests that Cam Smith was most likely not walking and was also sneaking around the building.

Thinking differently, the west side of the building is close to the power distribution room, could Kem Smith be rushing towards the power distribution room, and along this line of reasoning, could the two power outages that occurred in May and June have anything to do with Kem Smith.

Precisely because Kem Smith himself is not clean, see Lydia Cooney and Walda Baker sneak into the company building, he did not dare to stop, just wait and see what happens, until the laboratory lit a fire, he realized the seriousness of the problem, ran to put out the fire.

From the existing situation, Kem Smith and is Lydia Cooney, Walda Baker should not be a gang.

And what is his purpose?