Chapter 698
Morning, Robbery and Murder Division, Squadron One.
The office door pushed open from the outside and Blacky walked in with a yawn and a smile, “Good morning, guys.”
The lieutenant looked up at him and asked, “Marcus, how did the bust go last night?”
“It went very well.”
With the cooperation of the suspect, no, I should say the informant, Mario Branagh, we went ahead and ambushed them early, and just when those bad boys thought they had succeeded in stealing the car, I closed the net. Those bad boys were still trying to escape, but they couldn’t get away from me.” Marcus put his hands in the air.
Luke nodded, “Good job.”
Black continued, “I interrogated the theft gang overnight and they admitted to the theft on the night of March 23rd. After the successful burglary, they even drank and celebrated together until the next morning. Mario Branagh’s alibi is true, he did not kill Constable Ossie Perkins.”
Luke said, “Lieutenant, did the investigation at the victim’s house turn up anything?”
The Vice Squad said, “We met with the victim’s girlfriend, who had gone to San Francisco on business a week ago, and there had been contact between her and the victim, and according to her, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the victim.
We also visited the surrounding neighbors, and according to them, the deceased loved his Lexus car and put it in the garage every night. The night before the murder, no neighbors saw anything unusual in the garage.
Meanwhile, the tech team also searched the garage and found only the deceased’s fingerprints alone, so we can’t rule out that the killer erased his own fingerprints after he tampered with the car.”
Luke pressed, “Were there any signs of tampering with the locks on the garage doors?”
“No.” The lieutenant spread his hands and continued, “However, the garage window was open and the killer was able to get in through the garage window.”
Luke summarized, “That means the killer could have entered the garage by climbing through the window and later tampered with the accident vehicle. Is there surveillance at the victim’s house?”
The lieutenant replied, “No. We pulled community surveillance and are checking it out.”
Luke said thoughtfully, “Since the murderer was able to enter the garage of the deceased’s house, it shouldn’t be difficult to enter the deceased’s house, and the deceased should have been home alone that night.
Why didn’t the murderer just kill the deceased, but used this killing method?”
Blackie said, “This shows that the other party is a coward.”
Jackson shook his head slightly, “If the other party was really a coward, he wouldn’t have chosen to kill.”
I would think that the other party should be better at fixing cars, and it would be safer to kill someone in a familiar way. I guess the other party’s work might be related to cars.”
Xiao Hei said, “I have a suggestion, the group of car thieves I caught last night have connections with quite a few used car dealerships. Maybe they can find out clues about the murderer.”
Luke said, “That’s a good idea to try.”
Matthew’s voice rang out, “Guys, I’ve lined up recent traffic accidents and found a more similar case.”
After Matthew finished speaking, he put a piece of information on the projector, “The time of the accident was March 20th, the accident car was a white BMW sedan, the owner’s name was Grace Doyle, the cause of the accident was also the car losing control and the brakes failing.
The white BMW sedan crashed into the truck in front of it, causing the car to lose control and roll over, the owner was also injured and is being treated at the hospital.”
Luke asked, “Is there a detailed automobile accident report?”
“No.”
“Is there any connection between Grace Doyle and the deceased?”
“Not yet.”
Luke frowned slightly, these two traffic accidents were similar, at a similar time, and there was no detailed accident identification report, he felt the need to investigate.
Auburn Hospital, inside ward 402.
A white woman around thirty years old was lying on the hospital bed, her head and right leg were wrapped in bandages, and her face looked a little haggard.
Next to her sat a white woman around sixty years old, holding a knife in her hand as she peeled an apple, “Honey, do you want to cut the apple into small pieces.”
“Mom, I’m not very hungry right now.”
“You need to eat more so you can get better faster.”
OK, cut it in half for me, I’ll just eat half.” The young woman in the hospital bed took the apple, took a bite, and said, “Mom, actually you don’t need to come see me every day, it’s too hard.”
“Honey, I want to do that.” Doing what you want to do never feels like hard work. I can’t sleep well at night if I can’t see you.” The middle-aged woman patted her daughter’s cheek.
“I love you, mom.”
“Me too, honey.”
“Knock knock ……”
There was a knock on the door from outside.
“Come in.”
“Creak ……” came the door.
Two men pushed the door and walked in.
The middle-aged woman looked at the two men with some surprise: “Who are you?”
“I’m Detective Jackson Beech of the Robbery Murder Division, and this is our Captain Li.”
“Robbery Murder Division? What can I do for you guys?”
Luke looked over at the woman in the hospital bed, “Are you Ms. Grace Doyle?”
“That’s me.”
“We’re here to investigate the automobile accident case.”
Grace Doyle gave a puzzled look, “Haven’t we investigated this before?”
Luke said, “On March 24th, there was a car accident on Highway 105.”
The cause of the accident was that the car lost control and crashed into a rock on the side of the road, killing the driver on the spot.
After the accident, the police gave the car a detailed appraisal and found that someone had tampered with the car’s transmission and brakes.”
The white woman gave a nervous look, “That’s terrible.”
Grace Doyle took a deep breath, “You suspect that my car was tampered with as well.”
Luke asked smoothly, “Do you know Ossie Perkins?”
Grace Doyle thought for a moment, “No. What is he?”
“He was the victim of an automobile accident on March 24th.”
The white woman said, “Captain Lee, you think someone is trying to harm my daughter?”
Luke said, “It would require an appraisal of the accident vehicles to see if they were damaged in the same way and by the same means in both accidents.”
“Oh my God, this is horrible, why would someone harm my daughter?” The white woman involuntarily grabbed Grace Doyle’s hand.
Grace Doyle comforted, “Mom, don’t worry, I’m not fine now.”
“You are like this and still say that you are fine …… And, if someone really wants to harm you, the other party may still do it again, this is too scary.” The more the white woman said, the more nervous she was, looking at Luke, she said, “Captain Li, you must catch the person who harmed my daughter as soon as possible.”
I have long felt that this traffic accident is not normal, my daughter’s car has only been bought for a year, how can it suddenly have an accident.”
Luke pursued, “Ms. Doyle, did you buy a new car?”
Grace Doyle shook her head, “NO, it’s a used car. However, the car is in pretty good condition and has never had any problems.
The car suddenly lost control …… I also feel surprised.”
“Did you offend anyone before the automobile accident?”
Grace Doyle thought for a moment, “No.”
“Did you see any suspicious people around?”
“Didn’t notice.”
Luke asked, “Have you been around anyone involved in the automobile industry?”
Grace Doyle frowned and pursed her lips.
The white woman froze, blushed slightly, and said slowly, “I …… my daughter’s husband is a car mechanic.”
“How is your relationship as a couple?”
Grace Doyle snapped, “Pretty good, he treats me well. He certainly had nothing to do with the accident, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have harmed me.”
“My God …… that personal accident insurance!” The white woman’s eyes widened as she looked at her daughter in the hospital bed, “Honey, didn’t he buy you a personal accident insurance policy last month?”
Grace Doyle blushed slightly, gulped, and retorted, “So what, Mom? It doesn’t mean anything.”
Luke pressed, “Why does he have insurance?”
Grace Doyle looked over at Luke and said, “My husband said it would give the family extra security.”
“Who is the beneficiary?”
“My husband.”
“Mrs. Doyle, we’d like to talk to your husband.”
Grace Doyle looked at Luke, opened her mouth, and finally just let out a sigh.
Robbery-Murder Division Lounge.
An hour later, Luke met Grace Doyle’s husband in the lounge.
Luke invited the other party to sit down and introduced himself, “I’m the captain of Squadron One of the Robbery Murder Division, Luke Lee.”
A medium-sized, somewhat gangly white man stood up and shook Luke’s hand, “My name is Marico Marquez, I’m Grace Doyle’s husband.”
“Mr. Marico Marquez, I asked you to come here today mainly to find out more about your wife’s car accident.”
Marico Marquez replied, “I heard from my wife.”
If it’s true that someone had a hand in the automobile to harm my wife, that’s terrible. I rushed over here to ask the same thing.”
Luke asked, “Supposedly, you bought that accident car at a used car dealership?”
“Yes, I myself work at that dealership and the automobile was a birthday present for my wife.”
“Why didn’t you apply to give an automobile accident appraisal after the automobile was involved in the accident?”
“Because there was an additional fee to be paid and I didn’t feel it was necessary.”
Jackson frowned, “Your wife was in a car accident and is still in the hospital, you didn’t feel it was necessary?”
“Hey, that’s not what I meant, maybe I didn’t express myself clearly.”
Not only did I buy that car at the dealership where I work, but I was the one who inspected the car when I took it in at the time, and it hadn’t been in an accident or had any major problems, so that’s why I bought it for my wife.”
“Since you are familiar with that car, what do you think about the car going out of control?”
“It’s likely that some part of the brakes or transmission went bad, but the problem is that the car was so badly damaged from the crash that it’s hard to identify what went wrong.
And that car was out of warranty at the dealership.” Marico Marquez said with some chagrin, “It’s not that I don’t care about my wife, it’s just that the automobile accident has already happened, so what can I do even if I get an automobile appraisal? I was more concerned about her personally and have been taking care of her in the hospital.
I didn’t think anyone would tamper with the car at all. She is very nice and I can’t think of anyone who would harm her. That wasn’t even on my mind before.”
Luke flipped through the information and asked, “I’m told you took out a personal accident insurance policy on your wife last month?”
Marico Marquez froze and sighed, “Geez, you guys aren’t doubting me, are you?”
Luke said, “Talk about not being suspicious, just trying to get things straight.”
“Yes, I did buy her a personal accident insurance policy with me written as the beneficiary.”
“Why did you suddenly buy her insurance?”
Marico Marquez shrugged, “A good friend of mine has been unemployed for a long time and just got a job selling insurance a while ago. So he found me …… and I was convinced by him.
On the one hand, I want to help him, and on the other, I also want to add a protection for my family. I don’t think I did anything wrong.”
“What’s the name of your friend who sells insurance?”
“Orhan Rafati.”
“Give me his contact information.”
Marico Marquez looked through his cell phone contacts, “Cell phone number, 212-8362-897.”
Luke took notes.
Marico Marquez spread his hands and said somewhat helplessly, “I’ve said what I need to say, if you still suspect me, then please show me the evidence.”
“I don’t suspect you, it’s just a normal routine inquiry.” Luke kept staring at the other party and didn’t find any obvious traces of lying, but then again, Marico Marquez’s various circumstances did seem a bit suspicious.
He knew about cars, could fix them, he had given the accident vehicle away, and had bought a personal accident insurance policy for his wife some time ago.
It was too much of a coincidence.
He turned his words around, “In fact, my main purpose of inviting you here today is to ask if you have offended anyone. This person should be familiar with you as a couple and may have something to do with the automobile industry.”
Marico Marquez rubbed his hands and said with a complicated face, “The other day …… I did have some conflicts with my colleagues in the car dealership, but it wasn’t a big deal. I don’t think the other party would do such a thing.”