Chapter 643
Bogart Jay hurriedly lowered the tent curtain and said perfunctorily, “That’s my girlfriend’s.”
Blackie warned, “Man, don’t lie to the cops, you’ll get yourself in trouble that way.
You’re an adult, you should know this very well.”
“I ……,” Boga Jay looked a little frazzled.
Black guided, “How about this, let’s forget what we just said and answer again, whose lace pajamas were those?”
“Geez, I knew there was no such thing as pie in the sky.”
Boga Jay shook his head and explained, “Last night, no, I should say in the early hours of yesterday morning, I felt something hit the tent, and when I opened it, I saw a mass of white clothing with a faint scent sitting in the mouth of the tent.
I opened it to see a pair of delicate lace pajamas and a pair of pink panties, also lace.
I saw that no one was around so I took them into the tent and they were the ones you just saw.”
Luke pressed, “Are you sure there was no one around the tent at the time?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
“What time was it exactly?”
“Sorry, I’ve been drinking and I’m not in the habit of checking the time, I just probably know it was after midnight.”
“Did any vehicles pass by?”
“Uh ……,” Bogart Jay thought for a moment, “There seemed to be a sedan, yes, there was a car.”
“What kind of car?”
“A black sedan, I couldn’t make out the license plate.”
“Driving from which direction?”
“Driving from south to north, the car was going very fast, and by the time I got out of the tent, it had already driven a long way.”
“Were the windows of the car open at the time?”
“I didn’t look closely.”
“Did anyone else see it?”
“No, just me.”
“What were you doing in the tent at the time?”
“Drinking, a bottle of inexpensive but tasty whiskey, too bad I’ve finished it or I could let you try it.”
“Thank you for your kind words, but let’s talk about the two dresses.”
“Just two very ordinary pieces of clothing, nothing much to tell.”
Luke said, “You can’t use a lady’s clothing, so why keep it?”
Bogart Jay was a little embarrassed, “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Of course.”
“I haven’t had a female companion in a long time, and when I suddenly saw a woman’s nightgown, or the scented kind, I wanted to keep it.
It shouldn’t be against the law.”
Blackie said, “Indeed it’s not against the law, it’s just a bit perverted.”
Boga Jay defended, “Hey, I’m not a pervert, don’t look at me like that.
I just haven’t touched a woman for too long, a normal man would have similar needs, wouldn’t he?”
“It’s normal to want a woman, but I can’t understand why you’d want to hog clothing worn by a woman.” Black put on his gloves and reached out, “Give me the clothes.”
Boga Jay was a bit enamored, “Why do you want these clothes?”
Blacky explained, “We found a woman’s body this morning, and these clothes most likely belonged to the deceased.”
“What! The dead man’s clothes!” Boga Jay was startled and picked up the lace nightgown from the corner of the tent and handed it to Blackie, “It’s yours.”
“Where’s the other one?”
“Uh, that one ……” Boga Jay rummaged through the corner for a moment longer and pulled out a pair of crumpled pink panties, “Here it is.”
“Wait ……” Black shrunk back, “Why is this pink underwear like this?”
“I told you, I haven’t touched a woman in a while.
So I released it manually.”
“FUCK, you really are a pervert!” A look of disgust appeared on Blackie’s face, but he was still very dedicated to picking up the clothes and putting them into the evidence bag.
“Man, looks like you’re coming with us to the police station?”
Boga Jay was a little nervous, “Why? I told you, I had nothing to do with that body, and I never saw the body, I just picked up these two pieces of clothing.”
“You didn’t just pick them up, you are suspected of destroying physical evidence.
Therefore, we must take you back for detailed questioning.”
“NoNoNo, I’m innocent, I’m not usually like this.
I drank too much that night and my mind is all mixed up.”
Xiao Hei said in a cold voice, “The coffee in our police station is very good, it can help you refresh yourself, come on, don’t be shy.”
“Ringing ……,” Luke’s cell phone rang.
Luke stepped aside and pressed the answer button, “Mary, anything?”
“We got an I.D. on the deceased based on her fingerprints.
Her name is Ellie Bergman, she’s sixteen years old and attends Malaboia High School.
She was a single parent and lived with her mother.
A month ago, she had called the police claiming domestic violence.
The child welfare agency sent someone to investigate, and because of insufficient evidence, the domestic violence was not substantiated.”
“Her guardian is her mother?”
“Yes, her mother’s name is Sultana Bergman.”
“Send me her home address and her mother’s details.”
“Okay.”
Luke hung up his cell phone and said, “Mary was able to identify the deceased through the body’s fingerprints, and a short while ago, she called the police claiming domestic abuse.
Marcus, you and I will go to the deceased’s house to investigate.
Jackson, you take Bogart Jay and return to the station first to confirm his alibi.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best, but some of these drunks are so drunk that even he doesn’t know where he is.”
Luke cautioned, “If you can’t handle it alone, contact the lieutenant.
Trust me, he’ll have experience dealing with something similar.”
“Good idea, I will.”
The three of them then split up.
While driving, Blackie also complained, “That guy is disgusting, I shouldn’t have just picked up the underwear directly just now.
I should have used a clip or something, I’m still not resourceful enough.”
Luke reminded, “You were wearing gloves, you weren’t making direct contact.”
“I try not to think about him.” Black waved his hand as if to sweep away his worries and asked, “You think the first crime scene was at the victim’s house?”
“With the pajamas the victim was wearing before she died, there’s a good chance she was abducted at home.” Speaking of this, Luke picked up his cell phone and dialed the victim’s mother’s number.
When the phone connected, a man’s voice came out, “Hello.”
Luke asked back, “Is this Ms. Sultana Bergman’s cell phone?”
“Yes, who is this?”
“LAPD.”
“What do you want with Sultana?”
Without answering, Luke asked instead, “What is your relationship with Sultana Bergman? Why are you using her cell phone?”
“I’m her boyfriend, wait, she’s here.” The man’s voice came faintly over the phone, “Your call, dear, is LAPD.”
“Hello, this is Sultana Bergman, are you a police officer?”
“That’s right, Ms. Sultana Bergman, are you in Los Angeles?”
“No, I’m out of town.”
“Ma’am, when can you return to Los Angeles?”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, “Why are you calling me?
Did my darling daughter call the police for domestic abuse again? I’m sorry, I’ve been in Atlanta for the past few days on business and I haven’t even seen her.”
“Ma’am, your daughter did not report you for domestic abuse.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
“Something bad has happened to your daughter and you need to come back to LA to deal with it.” Luke spoke as politely as he could.
“That’s right, she only remembers me as her mother when she’s in trouble.
Tell me, what is it this time?”
“Ellie Bergman is dead.”
The person on the other side of the phone froze for a moment and asked again, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
“We found Ellie Bergman’s body this morning.”
“Liar, you must be a fucking liar, and yes, your Indian accent is super heavy, I can smell the curry across the Pacific.”
The person on the other end simply hung up his cell phone.
After ten minutes, Luke’s cell phone rang again.
Sultana Bergman’s anxious voice came from the phone, “Why isn’t my daughter answering her phone? What’s wrong with her?”
“Ma’am, I just told you that Ellie Bergman was killed.
After a preliminary investigation, I suspect that she may have been abducted from her home and we are on our way to your home to investigate.”
“No No No, you must be lying to me, my daughter is still so young, how could she be dead.
It must be a fake.”
“Ma’am, please don’t get excited.
When you return to Los Angeles, I will tell you the details.”
“You must be lying to me, I’m returning to Los Angeles right now, and I’m going to personally dismantle your lies.”
After the cell phone hung up, there was silence in the car for a while.
Black spoke slowly, “This must be hard for her.
I have a lovely daughter too, I can understand how she feels.
If someone dares to hurt my daughter, I will definitely not let the other party go.”
Luke said, “I can see that you may not be a good person, but you must be a good father.”
Blackie laughed, “Haha, I have to say, it’s still you who understands me.”
Twenty minutes later, the two Luke’s drove to Ellie Bergman’s house.
It was not far from Linda’s house, and speaking of which, Little Fatty and the deceased were still classmates.
Ellie Bergman’s house was a small two-story building with a gray roof and white walls, with a garage on the left side and a small open yard in front with a neatly tended green lawn.
Luke got out of the car and surveyed the surroundings, seeing no suspicious people out and about.
He then walked over to the house and observed the lock on the door, it was a newer electronic lock that showed no signs of being picked from the outside.
Luke walked over to the window again to check it out and found half a muddy footprint on the window frame, which was incomplete but could provide a lot of information.
In Luke’s experience, this muddy footprints can’t be trampled for too long, and from the traces of the other party’s climbing, it was trying to go to the bedroom on the second floor.
Only, because the footprints were not too complete, it was impossible to analyze too much valuable information.
Half a meter away from the window sill is the grass, Luke guessed that the other party should have stepped on the grass to get the soil, he touched it with his hand, the soil is a little wet, it should be watered soon.
He scrutinized the lawn around the window sill, and indeed found a similar shoe print.
This shoe print was more complete, Luke used an identification card and quickly obtained the information of the owner of the shoe print.
[Shoes, thick-soled mesh sneakers
Gender, male
Height, 175-180cm
Weight, 60-70 kilograms
Age, between 15 and 18 years old]
Blackie asked, “Captain, are we going to enter the house and search?”
“Of course, there’s no telling when we’ll wait for the deceased’s mother to return.”
Blacky stood in the doorway, “But this newer electronic lock is a bit complicated, I can’t get it to work.”
Luke walked over and entered the dead man’s mother’s birthday, the code was wrong.
Luke then entered the dead man’s birthday again.
“Ding dong ……” the door opened.
“Haha ……” Black laughed awkwardly, “That’s why I don’t use combination locks.”
The two of them entered the entrance hall, the living room was relatively neatly cleaned up, the furniture had no traces of destruction or messy rummaging.
Blackie said, “Could we have guessed wrong, this place is cleaner than even my house.”
Luke said, “Or maybe the murderer wasn’t looking for money.”
Blacky pointed to the right, “I’ll check the kitchen and the bathroom.”
Luke nodded and walked towards the bedroom on the left side, he opened the bedroom door and looked inside, the bedroom was cleanly tended and the quilt was neatly folded.
He entered the room to take a closer look, there was a picture of a white woman, presumably Sultana Bergman, sitting on the bed.
The clothes in the closet were also much more mature and sexy, not like what a teenage girl would wear.
Luke walked out of the room and followed the elevator up to the second floor.
There were two rooms on the second floor, one of which was a study and the door to the other was open, and there were some photos placed on the bed and dresser, all of which were pictures of Ellie Bergman with some teenage girls her age.
The clothes inside the cupboards also belonged to young girls, Luke guessed that this should be Ellie Bergman’s room.
Ellie Bergman’s bed was narrower, only about one meter five or so, and the bed was messy, with the quilt falling on the floor, crushing a pair of pink slippers.
There was also an Apple cell phone sitting at the head of the bed.
Nowadays, people will bring their cell phones whenever they go out, in addition, the slippers are still there, the person is gone, basically locking this bedroom should be the scene of the crime.
Luke carefully searched the room, hoping to obtain valuable clues.
“Ringing ……”
The cell phone at the bedside rang without warning.