Chapter 669

Velen Apartment, room 305.

“Raise your head.” Luke stared at the other man and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Theo Holder.”

Luke pulled out a picture of Henrik Laurie, “Have you seen him?”

Theo Holder glanced at the picture and looked away, “Never seen him.”

“Where were you between two and three o’clock yesterday morning?”

Theo Holder raised an eyebrow, “I can’t recall.”

“Then think harder.”

“I think I was at home, yes, I was.”

“Lying is not a good habit.” Luke pulled out the video surveillance outside the bar, “Is this man you?”

Theo Holder showed a nervous look, stared at the video for a while, and let out a secret sigh of relief, “Come on, this surveillance can’t even take a picture of the front face, so you want to use this to frame me.”

Luke walked behind Theo Holder and said, “Although the video didn’t capture your front, however, the tattoo on the back of your neck was captured clearly.”

Theo Holder’s tone drew up, “This tattoo is shared by many people, you can’t convict me on the basis of just one tattoo. I still say you have the wrong man.”

Luke walked over to the bedside cabinet, opened it, and took out a fine watch from it, with a dark green dial and a black strap, it was worth a lot of money at first glance.

Theo Holder’s eyes widened, “Hey, put down my watch and don’t go through my drawers.”

“Your watch?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you rent this apartment?”

Theo Holder froze for a moment, seemingly unsure why Luke was asking, “What’s it to you.”

“This watch could have purchased this apartment.”

“So what? I just like the freedom to rent an apartment and live everywhere instead of being confined to a certain place, that’s my freedom, do you police even have to regulate that.”

Luke ignored him and continued, “If I remember correctly, this should be a limited edition Patek Philippe, each watch has a special number on the back case, which can be easily traced back to the purchasing customer’s information.”

Hearing this, Theo Holder was obviously a little weak.

Luke continued, “Where exactly did this watch come from?”

“Picked it up.”

“Where did you pick it up?”

“Near the Nassim Bar.”

“Picked it up from Henrik Laurie, to be exact. Tell me, where is Henrik Laurie?”

“I don’t know ……”

“Then why do you have his watch?”

“I ……”

I saw him in the alley behind the bar, and I told him I was a little short-handed and in need of money. He was a kind man and offered to give me this watch.”

Luke didn’t believe his bullshit, but didn’t tear him down right away and continued, “What else did he give you?”

“He knew I needed money and gave me his wallet.”

“Where was it?”

“In a drawer in the closet.”

Xiao Hei walked to the closet, opened the drawer, found a black wallet, pinched it with his hand, “The leather is good, or name brand, no wonder your kid can’t throw it away.”

Blackie opened the wallet, there was only a credit card and a key inside.

Luke took the wallet and asked, “Whose credit card is it?”

“Henrik Lawrie’s.”

“And the key?”

“I found it in the wallet and it should be his as well.”

Luke took the key and looked at it closely, it looked like a key to a door lock, Luke handed it back to Blackie, “Keep these.”

“Where did Henrik Laurie go after he gave these to you?”

“I don’t know, I left first. I left him twenty dollars for the cab ride, though.”

Luke cried a little and waved his hand, “Take him back to the station.”

December 13th, morning.

Robbery-Murder Division Office.

Luke walked over to the office area with a cup of coffee and leaned against his desk, calling a meeting.

“Guys, tell us about the progress of the investigation yesterday.”

The Lieutenant said, “Last night, I interrogated Theo Holder, who you guys recaptured, and the kid was supposedly just robbing, and didn’t know the whereabouts of Henrik Lawrie.

I’ve seen this kind of bad boy a lot, and when he sees a fat sheep like Henrik Lawley, he definitely wants to pull the wool over his eyes. But it’s not so bad as to kill each other.”

Xiao Hei said, “Before, we carefully investigated the alley near the bar, that alley is connected to many streets in all directions, and many places are not monitored, so it is very difficult to line up.”

Jackson said, “In fact, I think the odds are that Henrik Laurie would not have run deeper into the alley after he was robbed, because it is likely to be more dangerous there.

Common sense would dictate that he would have run down the street to get help or take a cab away.”

Blackie countered, “But the bar surveillance didn’t see him return to the curb to get a cab.”

Jackson said, “I’ve looked closely at the bar surveillance and it doesn’t capture much. Henrik Laurie was robbed near the bar, and he may have instinctively thought the bar was dangerous. I think it’s possible that he stayed away from the neighborhood of the bar and went a little farther away to get a cab. That’s why we should carefully line up vehicles near the bar at that time of day.”

Luke nodded, “That could be a direction to line up.”

Raymond said, “Yesterday we were investigating the identity of the man who drank at the same table as Henrik Laurie at the Nasim Bar, and one of the guests in the bar recognized him.

According to the guest at the bar, his name is Will Stott, and he is also a regular at the bar and lives in the Okaji neighborhood near the bar.

Also, we looked into Will Stott’s profile and he has previous convictions for burglary and violent crimes.”

Luke said, “Ramon, Jenny, and Porter, you’ll come with me to visit this friend who drinks at the same table as Henrik Lawley. The rest of you continue to track down Henrik Laurie.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The Okaji neighborhood.

It was an old-fashioned neighborhood of mostly dilapidated bungalows with modest yards filled with debris.

The car was parked outside a gray bungalow with a small yard in front of it, listening to a black Toyota of unknown number of hands on the left side, and some broken furniture and overgrown weeds on the right side, leaving only a one-person wide path.

Jenny lamented, “I didn’t realize the future governor would have friends who lived such ‘frugal’ lives.”

Potter spread his hands, “Maybe the future governor didn’t think he’d have an extra ‘friend’ either.”

Luke ignored the two men’s play on words and walked over to the old Toyota to check it out; the front of the car was room temperature and there was nothing unusual to be found inside.

And then he walked over to the gray bungalow, stepping on the steps of the house with a “creak”.

“Knock, knock ……” Porter knocked on the door.

There was no response.

“Hey, is there anyone in the house?”

Still no response.

Luke looked around the house and realized that all four windows around the house were open and could see into the house, he looked closely through the windows, the house was a mess and there were no figures to be seen.

Luke wrinkled his nose, “Do you guys smell anything unusual in the house?”

Jenny walked over and sniffed into the window and shrugged, “It kind of stinks, the homeowner must not have cleaned up his room in a long time.”

Potter walked over and sniffed as well, “The smell of a single man.”

Ramon, on the other hand, frowned tightly, “Sterilizing water.”

“Yep, that’s the smell.” Luke nodded and turned to Potter, “Jump in through the window and unlock the door.”

Jenny whispered a reminder, “Captain, we don’t have a warrant.”

“From the looks of things, Will Stout is likely in danger, the incident is urgent, and for Will Stout’s personal safety, we need to go in and search first.”

“Yes, Sir.”

At Luke’s command, Porter jumped into the house through the window and opened the door from the inside, letting Luke’s trio in as well.

Luke felt the smell of disinfectant a little heavier as he entered the room and thought about the fact that the windows in the house were carried out, most likely to dissipate the smell.

Luke was even more certain that something should have happened in this house.

“Everyone split up and search, don’t leave any clues out.”

Ramon went to search the bedrooms.

Porter searched the bathroom.

Jenny went to the kitchen.

Luke stayed in the living room.

The living room was a mess, with all sorts of clutter and unwashed clothes, and there was some food waste in the kitchen.

The cabinets in the living room also showed signs of having been rummaged through, like someone was looking for something.

This reinforced Luke’s suspicion that something should have happened here.

“FUCK!”

Suddenly, there was a shriek from the kitchen.

Luke pulled out his pistol and headed in the direction of the kitchen, “Jenny, what’s wrong?”

Ramon and Potter also walked over, holding their guns.

“I’m sorry, there’s no danger. I shouldn’t have made a fuss.” Jenny waved her hand, signaling the three to put away their pistols.

Luke, however, didn’t relax; Jenny wasn’t just any woman, but a female agent, and unusual things wouldn’t scare her.

Luke walked into the kitchen and saw Jenny standing by the freezer, he approached the freezer to see a frosty, bloodless face.

Jenny shrugged, “I opened the freezer and suddenly saw a face right in front of me. Sorry guys, I overreacted.”

Potter came over and soothed, “That did look pretty scary, I’d have been just as shocked if I’d been in your place, you’ve been doing great.”

Ramon came over as well and patted Jenny on the shoulder.

Luke looked at the icy face and said, “It’s Will Stout.”

Jenny asked, “Isn’t it a bit of a coincidence that he’s dead just as we found out where he was.”

Potter replied, “That means we were on the right track, he should be connected to the disappearance of Henrik Lawrie, someone didn’t want us to find out where Henrik Lawrie was, so they silenced him.”

Luke thought about it and felt that Porter’s idea had some truth to it.

If, indeed, Will Stott had something to do with Henrik Lawley’s disappearance, then his appearance at the bar that day was not a coincidence, but a deliberate attempt to meet or step with Henrik Lawley.

Henrik Laurie left the bar and was accidentally robbed by Theo Holder.

Afterward, Will Stout’s gang kidnapped Henrik Laurie.

For the first two days, Raymond had been leading an investigation into Will Stott at the bar, and it was likely that word had leaked out and Will Stott had been silenced by his accomplices.

This reasoning made sense, only the relevant evidence was still lacking.

Luke instructed, “Search the room carefully and see if you can find any clues about Henrik Laurie ……”

Before Luke could finish his sentence, the door to the room was pushed open from outside: “Will, are you home? I’m coming in.”

Luke held his right hand down on the grab and stepped out of the kitchen to see a white woman in her thirties walk in the doorway, wearing a light blue dress and makeup that looked like she was well groomed.

“Wow, a guest in the house. Are you guys friends of Will’s?” Without waiting for Luke to answer, the white woman asked herself, “No, you guys don’t look like his friends. Who are you guys?”

Luke flashed his badge, “LAPD!”

The white woman bristled with disappointment, “What did Will do this time? I figured this would happen.”

Luke asked back, “What’s your relationship with him?”

“I’m his girlfriend, no, ex-girlfriend to be exact.”

“If you’re an ex-girlfriend, why are you at his house?”

The white woman shrugged, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Luke pointed to the kitchen, “I wish I could ask him myself, but he’s out of chances to talk.”

“What do you mean?”