She could ask Luke later whether her purchase of weed would be exposed during the investigation.
Thinking that, Jenny carefully put Luke’s card in her purse.
She was slightly reassured by Luke’s promise. At least, she felt that she could pay the young officer for inside information from the police department.
Luke, however, had other plans.
Jenny had bought weed from drug dealers. For Luke, she was a gold mine.
As long as he kept an eye on her and even pretended to befriend her, Luke might be able to catch a big fish with her help.
Luke had never realized the importance of money until he came to Los Angeles.
He would need a tremendous amount of money to establish the network of informants that he had in mind.
After solving Katie’s case, he could cripple the dealers who had provided Jenny with the illegal drugs and shake them down for the money he needed.
He returned to the police department with Elsa. They began to watch the footage which they had just acquired.
Based on the timestamp from David’s videotape, they soon found the shadow again.
On the videotape from Jenny’s camera, the person appeared twice, at 3:35 and 3:57 respectively. Altogether, there was almost thirty seconds’ worth of footage of him on video.
It was a pity that the man’s face was blocked by a cloak. He was also intentionally keeping his head down, so it was impossible to tell what he looked like.
The footage gave them a clear idea of his height and physique, however, which was important progress.
Elsa wasn’t in a hurry, and continued watching the videotape with Luke.
They rewound it clip by clip.
It was a week’s worth of surveillance footage on the videotape, and few people appeared on this back road. Thus, they were able to skim through it quickly.
When the videotape was rewound to the evening of the day before yesterday, Luke suddenly called out, “Stop!”
Elsa instinctively hit the pause button.
Luke said, “Play it back a little. Right there! Elsa, do you see him?”
Elsa squinted at the man who was walking toward the camera, his back to the setting sun. His face happened to be turned to the side, allowing the sun to illuminate it.
She said, “Call a technician. Ask them to compare the man with the suspect.”
A technician soon arrived to process the image of the man on the videotape, before he generated a model on the computer.
Comparing the model with the person on David’s videotape, the technician said decisively, “It’s a 92% match; most likely, they’re the same person.”
Elsa said excitedly, “Run his profile through the facial recognition system and see if we get any hits.”
The technician was immediately on it.
Elsa and Luke went to Dustin’s office with the photo.
Elsa had barely presented the photo to the commanding officer of the Major Crimes Division when he frowned. “Sergei Mazanov?”
Elsa was stunned. “Boss, do you know him?”.
Dustin said, “He’s not active in our territory, but he’s the leader of a Eastern European gang in New York. I’ve seen his file before. He’s brutal and vindictive. Why are you investigating him?”
Elsa said, “He could be our suspect in Katie’s murder.”
Dustin exclaimed, “What?”
His head throbbed fiercely when he heard the answer.
Things were tricky now!
If his guess was correct, this man would’ve returned to New York after the crime.
That meant that in order to investigate the case, they would have to work with NYPD, which could be complicated.
More importantly, the man was a gang leader.
NYPD might not be interested in challenging a notorious gangster over a Los Angeles case.
The gangs from Eastern Europe were famous for their insanity and brutality.
They wouldn’t hesitate to use bombs or RPGs in downtown city areas if they were cornered.
Would NYPD risk that over a case in Los Angeles?
Dustin waved his hand and said, “Work on the case and verify that he’s the criminal first. As to when the criminal can be arrested, that will be another matter.”
It wasn’t exactly the best solution.
After all, a case was never really closed until the culprit was caught.
The public didn’t consider the practical problems that the police department faced in law enforcement, and would only curse the police’s ineptness.
The rich upper-class would know better, however, so the pressure from them wouldn’t be as bad.
Interstate law enforcement had always been a problem in America. Most of the time, it required FBI intervention.
Few local police departments, however, would be glad to invite the FBI to share the credit; they would never ask for the FBI’s help unless it was absolutely necessary.
Elsa and Luke looked at each other and shook their heads with bitter smiles. This case was truly depressing.
Now that they had a suspect, the investigation became a lot easier.
Soon, they got word from the forensics department that the John Doe and Sergei were a 99.99% DNA match.
John Doe was actually Sergei’s biological son.
At that point of the investigation, Elsa and Dustin basically figured out what had happened.
It was still unknown how Sergei’s 200-pound son had died in Katie’s pool, but Sergei obviously blamed Katie for it.
He even took action personally and drowned Katie in the exact same pool.
Katie’s autopsy report wasn’t out yet, but Elsa learned that there had been a sedative in Katie’s system.
Sergei had obviously drugged Katie before throwing her into the pool
Thus, she didn’t cry for help, and there were no signs of a struggle. Katie had simply drowned in the pool without a sound.
The case was basically solved.
Elsa and Dustin weren’t exactly happy, but they were in much better moods than before.
They now knew who the criminal was, although he had yet to be apprehended. The police department finally had something to tell the public now.
Luke wasn’t interested in staying any longer with the two old detectives. He simply said that he had things to do at home because he had just moved here, and left.
He left without hesitation because the system had already rewarded him for solving the case.
Mission: Solve Katie’s murder.
Total experience: 50. Total credit: 50.
Contribution rate: 80%. EXP +40. Credit +40.