Chapter 67

The dig site was in full swing.

With Ramon watching Dave, Luke was relieved and went over to watch the fun.

This place was too far from the city to use a backhoe, only the police officers took turns digging with shovels.

Little black Marcus also went down to dig for a while.

Digging to half a meter deep, the little black Marcus will shovel thrown to the side, jump up: “Tired me, I’m really not good at this. What do you guys think Tony buried down there?”

The lieutenant didn’t hesitate, “Bodies. Tony comes over every year, most likely to confess, to pay his respects, or of course to avoid exposing the corpses bodies and filling them with dirt at regular intervals.”

Luke laughed, “Or maybe it’s some treasure.”

Marcus became interested, “Wasn’t that Impressionist master painting never found? Could it be hidden by Tony, or maybe it’s down there.”

The vice squad was a bit speechless, “Marcus, think before you speak, can an oil painting be buried underground for preservation? Only a fool would do that.”

“Of course not in normal dirt, this is the Gobi, it’s dry enough that if it’s in an airtight box, it could probably be preserved well.” Marcus argued.

“Come on, there’s no such thing as if. Tony hasn’t had a very good life, and if there was that oil painting it would have been sold long ago. By my speculation the oil painting is still in Lawn’s possession.”

The two argued for a few moments, neither one convincing the other.

“Clank.” Two sounds of metal clashing came out.

An excavating police officer shouted, “Digging, there’s something down there.”

Immediately, it drew the eyes of the crowd.

To avoid damaging the object, the digging speed slowed down.

There was a hard object underneath, not small in size, with a flat surface, and as the surrounding dirt was dug out, the outline of the object gradually became visible.

It was a decayed old model sedan, vaguely recognizable as a red car from the patches of rust.

The license plate was so rotted that the number was unreadable.

Marcus was full of questions, “What the hell! I can’t believe I dug up a vintage car?”

The body of the car was already rotting and the excavation was progressing slowly, however, the overall style of the car could already be roughly seen.

The vice squad touched his chin and said, “This style …… should be the first generation Ford Focus.”

Susan also experienced that era, but she did not understand the car, “When was the car?”

“I can’t remember exactly what year it came out, but it’s at least twenty years old.”

Luke searched his phone and found the first generation Ford Focus, “It came out in 1998, same style as this car.”

Marcus muttered, “Twenty-four year old car, not a few years younger than me.”

The scene survey team had taken over the scene and Mary got out of the pit in her protective gear and peered in through the car glass, “Get Sheila the coroner over here, there are two bodies in the car.”

The vice squad looked at the red Ford Focus car and fell into deep thought, this case ……

had a sense of déjà vu.

It took more than an hour of backtracking to get the car out of the pit, Luke approached and observed the car, the interior was rotten, there were a large and a small set of white bones in the back, they should have been dead for many years.

Afterwards, the car was pulled back to the police station along with the bones for testing.

After returning to the police station, the vice squad got together with Matthew, not knowing what they were working on.

Luke and the others were also preparing for the investigation of the new case.

First, once again, Dave was given a statement and asked if he knew more about the red car and the bones.

A little after 2:00 p.m., the lieutenant called out, “Hey, everyone stop, come to the conference room, I have something to say.”

I don’t know what the old man was selling, but he had a few faces, and the crowd followed him in.

Susan asked, “Lieutenant, what clues have you found out?”

The Vice Squad looked a little exuberant, “We’re probably going to solve an unsolved case from twenty years ago!”

Marcus said, “Even if this car was released in ’98, that doesn’t mean it was buried in the ground 20 years ago, it could have been buried in recent years.”

“Kid, don’t interrupt me.” The lieutenant, somewhat disgruntled, continued.

“I’ve always felt that this case has some déjà vu, and then I asked Matthew to help me look up the information, and basically confirmed that this is a disappearance case from twenty years ago, ‘The disappearance of the Telson Manor’.

A mother and her two children disappeared without a trace overnight from a manor house in the city of Heim.

This case was first investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and for various reasons, they didn’t take the case seriously, thinking it was just a runaway and missing the best time to investigate.

Later, the person has not been found, the victim’s husband made a big deal, the case only attracted attention.

The FBI took over the case, and after their investigation, speculated that the victim might have traveled to the city of Los Angeles after leaving the estate.

The LAPD was also involved in the investigation.

But it was too late to find more clues and the victim’s body became an open case.

The bones we dug up today are most likely the mother and one of the children.”

Susan pressed, “Are there any other similarities between the two cases?”

“Of course, the similarities are many.” The lieutenant took a sip of his coffee, moistened his throat, and

“First of all, the victim in the ‘Telson Manor Disappearance case also had a red Ford Focus at his home, and that car has since disappeared as well.

The Telson Manor disappearance has a suspected subject at large named Cole Davis.”

The lieutenant pulled out a sketch and a photograph, “This sketch was drawn by Tim, and the man in the portrait is Cole Baker, Tony’s killer.

And this photo is of Cole Davis, the suspected subject of ‘Telson Manor’, from 20 years ago.

Taking away the years, don’t you think the sketch looks a lot like the man in the photo?”

Marcus picked up the photo and the sketch portrait and compared them carefully, “YEAH, it does look a lot alike, both are ugly.”

The vice squad ignored Marcus’ bullshit and continued, “Also, the most crucial point, the disappearance case of the Telson Manor is not only the disappearance of a family of three, but also the loss of a large amount of belongings, cash, jewelry, and oil paintings, including a piece of work by the Impressionist master, Schild Hasson, ‘Snowy Night’.

And Tony was killed and Lawn was attacked, again because of an Impressionist master Schilder-Hassan.”

The conference room was quiet as the lieutenant finished, and everyone was deep in thought.

Luke also made the connection between Tony, Lawn, and Cole and the excavated car.

Following the vice squad’s speculation, he continued to analyze.

The trio of Tony, Lawn, and Cole were most likely the suspects of the ‘Telson Manor Disappearance Case’ twenty years ago.

The three of them robbed the ‘Telson Manor’ and killed the mother and son, robbing the Telson Manor’s belongings.

Lawn used the money to make a fortune.

Tony often came to the burial site to pay his respects because of his guilt.

Cole became a suspect, but did not get the precious painting, felt unevenly divided and unbalanced, and turned to revenge on Tony and Lawn, wanting to take away the ten million dollar painting.

The vice squad laughed, “Although the test results are not out yet, but from all the clues above, Tony, Cole, and Lawn are definitely related to the ‘disappearance case of Telson Manor’.

In addition, there is one more thing to tell you all.

The reward for that painting is two hundred thousand dollars, and if the police find the painting, they can get that reward just as well.

Everyone, go for it!”