Chapter 56

Half an hour later.

Susan arrived at the scene with the scene investigators.

Susan asked, “What’s the situation at the scene?”

David, not one to show off, signaled Luke to speak.

“We opened Lawn’s private warehouse, which stored quite a few oil paintings and a large box, and when we opened the box there was a corpse lying inside.

The body had been sitting there for at least half a month, completely decomposed, and could only be recognized as a male, holding an oil painting in his hands, unable to identify him for the moment.”

Susan pressed, “Talked to the person in charge of the storage center?”

Luke pointed aside to the big fat man, “Boret is the day shift manager, he checked the records for us, and there were two visits to Lawn’s warehouse in the last three months.

One was the night of February 26th and another the night before that.”

Susan pressed, “Can you identify the visitors?”

“There’s no surveillance inside the storage center, only 2 cameras installed in the reception room, and I don’t know if they can capture the visitor’s identity yet.

Also, I’ve contacted the night manager, he may know more.”

Susan entered the warehouse with the surveyors, the smell of decay had dissipated quite a bit, but it was still sickening.

There were a number of oil paintings scattered around the warehouse, some of them were damaged and showed obvious signs of a struggle.

Susan wore a mask and walked over to the crate, inside was a corpse crawling with maggots, his eyes collapsed into two holes, his clothes were no longer visible in their original color, and the oil painting he was holding in his hands was also damaged.

“Captain Susan, please move over, we need to move the body outside.” The person who spoke was Sheila, the forensic pathologist in charge of this autopsy, and was wearing tight protective gear that made it impossible to see her face.

Susan exited the warehouse to make more room for the medical examiner and investigators.

The police borrowed one of the vacant warehouses as a temporary office, from which investigative orders were issued one after another.

Marcus checks the surveillance in the reception room.

Ramon and Jenny look for witnesses, unlikely but still a try.

Luke and David are in charge of giving statements to the warehouse center personnel.

The night manager’s name is Romy, a Mexican-American in his mid-forties.

Luke got right to the point: “Romy, were you on the night shift the night before last?”

“Yes.” Romy nodded.

There was a big difference between the night shift manager and the day shift manager in terms of job content, salary, and authority.

A night shift manager was only responsible for being on duty, registering and recording attendance.

The day shift manager was responsible for more work, such as handling business, auctioning abandoned warehouses, and managing attendance.

In terms of specific work arrangements, the night shift manager also has to follow the day shift manager.

To put it bluntly, it was more like one positive and one negative.

Luke continued to ask, the night before last, was there someone who had opened Warehouse 53?”

Romy looked at the entry and exit records and recalled, “Yes, it was a white woman.”

“The tenant of Warehouse 53, Lawn, is obviously a man, why would he let a woman in?”

“According to the company’s rules, you can enter a warehouse with a warehouse key and the tenant’s identification.” Romy pointed to the log book and said, “As you can see there’s a record here, that lady presented Lawn’s driver’s license, I have no reason to deny her access.”

Luke tapped his phone and flashed a picture of Caroline, “Do you recognize this person?”

Romy looked at the photo carefully, “Yes, yes, that’s her, I remember, a very elegant lady.”

“Did she come alone, or did she have other company?”

“Came alone …… came quite well, but, left a little abnormal.”

“How abnormal?”

“She seems to have been frightened, especially panicked and ran away, I was still a bit puzzled, what did this run to the warehouse at night?”

“How long did she stay inside?”

Romy spread his hands, “I’m not sure about the specific time, it should be less than ten minutes.”

According to Luke’s speculation, the night before last Caroline came to the storage center, she should want to take something from the warehouse, the light of the warehouse is relatively dark, and there is no one around, it would have been a bit scary, Caroline opened the box with apprehension.

The result did not see the desired items, but saw a rotting corpse.

Anyone would have been shocked.

Luke said, “On the night of February 26th, someone also came to Warehouse 53, do you still have an impression?”

Romy shook his head, “After so long, I don’t have any memory. But looking at the information on the record sheet, the other person used Lawn’s social security card and should have driven into the storage center.”

After taking the statement, Luke returned to the temporary office and reported the situation to Susan.

Judging from the degree of decomposition of the dead body, it was likely that it was put into the warehouse on February 26th.

The progress of the investigation was summarized by all parties.

Mary entered the temporary office and removed her gloves, “Got any coffee?”

Susan shook her head, “No, when we get back to the station, it’s on me.”

“OK, we’ve completed a preliminary scene investigation, there was a struggle in the warehouse, there are obvious signs of dragging and pulling, this should be the first crime scene.

We also found some bloodstains and hairs.

However, no documents that can prove the identity of the deceased were found, and there is no cell phone.”

Susan asked, “What about the murder weapon?”

“None.”

“Tough.”

“I’ll let you know when the test reports come back.” Mary finished and left the temporary office.

The vice squad said, “According to Mary, the warehouse should be the scene of the crime. If it was a premeditated murder, they shouldn’t have chosen to hide the body in the warehouse.

The reason why this group came to the warehouse should be to rob Lawn, and I think it’s likely that there was a firefight between the accomplices who didn’t share the loot equally.” The lieutenant asked, “Know who I’m thinking of?”

Luke guessed, “Tim.”

“That’s right, Tim has refused to turn tainted witness, and at the time it was surmised that he probably had other convictions, and that the victim was probably killed by him, so he didn’t dare to give up his other accomplice.

Once the accomplice was caught, Tim’s murder was exposed.”

Susan asked, “Lieutenant, are you sure you can get him to confess?”

The vice squad thought for a moment, “No, Tim is highly suspected, but he’s very alert, and he definitely won’t confess if he doesn’t find solid evidence.”

That’s when Marcus walked in, “Hey guys, I found the big clue.”

The crowd had long since gotten used to his startling behavior, and Luke asked blandly, “What kind of clue?”

Marcus hemmed and hawed and instead of answering, he placed the tablet in his hand on the table and played a video.

In the video, a black Volvo drove to the entrance of the storage center, and the person driving the car in the cab was none other than Tony Weir, who submitted his documents, did the registration, and then drove the car into the storage center.

Marcus pointed to the video and said, “The deceased’s body is badly decomposed can’t see his face, but Tony’s clothes in the video are very similar to the deceased, Tony Weir is probably the deceased.”

Luke added, “It could also be the murderer.”

He had one more question in his mind, why would Tony Weir be involved in Lawn’s case?

Who the hell was he?