The next day, Luke went to a body shop that he had made an appointment with earlier, and bought a secondhand Ford Focus.
The vehicle had only been used for a year and was in good shape. Luke paid ten thousand dollars for it.
He then drove the secondhand Ford to the police station.
Elsa was at her desk and looked exhausted. She greeted Luke when she saw him. “Let’s go. Dustin’s asking for you.”
Following Elsa, Luke asked, “You didn’t get any sleep last night?”
Elsa yawned and said, “No, I was busy looking into Sergei’s files.”
Luke’s interest was piqued. Why was she busy investigating Sergei?
The commanding officer of the Major Crimes Division looked just as exhausted in his office.
Dustin nodded at both of them and indicated that Luke should close the door.
After the door was closed, he said, “Katie’s case is basically solved now, but there’s still the problem of Sergei. Luke, Elsa believes that you can try catching him in New York. Are you willing to go?”
After a brief daze, Luke asked in confusion, “Is the police department in New York okay with that?”
Dustin sighed and said, “You’ll have to negotiate with them and work out a solution.”
Luke was rendered speechless.
He was just a rookie detective. How could he negotiate with NYPD, the biggest police department in America, and which had twice as many officers as LAPD did?
Looking at his face, Dustin explained, “You’ll check the situation in New York and see if you can apprehend Sergei in a remote place. NYPD should be fine with that. The director has talked to the rest of the department; as long as you don’t arrest him in public, they’ll allow you to assist them with this case.”
Luke felt his head throb fiercely.
It looked like a nice gesture on NYPD’s part, but they had full control over the case.
Luke and Elsa would only be acting as support when they were in New York.
He looked at Elsa, who nodded slightly.
Luke knew that it meant that she wanted to go.
What choice did he have? Could he refuse a work trip when he had just started his job?
He could only say, “I’m yours to command, boss.”
Relieved, Dustin said, “That’s great. Get ready while we finalize negotiations with NYPD in the next two days. It’s going to be tricky. Keep it up!”
Elsa and Luke nodded and left.
After they returned to their desks, Elsa asked, “Are you alright?”
Elsa knew that she should’ve talked to Luke in advance, but for whatever reason, she hadn’t.
Luke shook his head. “I’m fine. However, should we investigate the drowning of Sergei’s son, while we still have the time?”
Elsa was stumped for a moment, as she hadn’t expected Luke to bring it up.
However, Luke’s performance yesterday made it impossible for her to overlook his opinion. She asked, “Do you have any leads?”
“Sergei is Russian. Selev, Katie’s security guard, is also Russian, isn’t he?” said Luke.
Elsa was stunned. She had been too focused on Katie’s case yesterday to think of that.
At Luke’s reminder, she immediately thought it through. “Do you think that Selev let Sergei’s fat son into the villa? Or did he kill the son? Wait, no, if Selev had killed Sergei’s son, he would be dead.”
Luke said, “I asked Sally yesterday. She said that Seley has a remote that can open the front and back gates; letting in guests would be too easy for him.”
Elsa slapped her forehead and said, “That’s right! Let’s go and investigate Selev.”
Luke naturally didn’t take his car. He was on the clock, so he got into Elsa’s car and they drove off.
In the car, Elsa asked, “Are you sure there’s something fishy about Selev? Do you have any proof?”
Luke shrugged and said, “Sergei may have jumped over the wall to enter the villa, but his fat son weighed two hundred pounds. I don’t think there’s any other way that he could have entered the villa other than through the front or back entrance.”
He wasn’t telling the truth.
Yesterday, his Sharp Nose had played an important role.
He had smelled Selev in Katie’s room; the mix of gun oil, gunpowder and body odor had been all too obvious.
He had learned that while Selev was the security guard, he couldn’t enter Katie’s room without permission.
Considering how strong the smell was, he must’ve entered the room before dawn.
A security guard entering his employer’s room in the middle of the night, and his employer drowning in the pool after that.
There was nothing right about that.
Secondly, Seley’s smell had also appeared on the trail to the back gate. He had obviously walked that trail many times.
The same smell had been by the pool, too.
On top of that, there had been another smell that was similar to Selev’s, except that it also carried the scent of chloroform.
The autopsy report showed traces of chloroform in Katie’s body.
A man with the scent of chloroform had entered Katie’s bedroom, while Selev had carried the faint smell of chloroform as well.
Luke had closed his eyes in Katie’s room before because he had been trying to discern the smells with Sharp Nose.
So, the only explanation was that Selev had been in on it.
He had secretly let Sergei into the villa. He might have even worked with Sergei to drug Katie and throw her into the pool.
In the end, he saw Sergei off at the back entrance.
That was the only explanation for the suspicious points in the case as well as for the scents that Luke had picked up.
Luke had left via the back entrance because he had been tracking the smell, which had lingered up to the main road.
That was why he was certain that Jenny’s surveillance camera had definitely caught Sergei on tape.
Luke had found the criminals in this supposedly tricky case thanks to his newly acquired ability.
Luke and Elsa reached Katie’s villa. They pressed the doorbell, and Sally answered the door.
When they entered, Elsa asked, “Where’s Selev? There’s something that we need to ask him.”
Sally said, “Oh, I saw him in the backyard just now. Should I bring him here?”
Elsa and Luke looked at each other. Elsa said, “Let’s go together. We don’t have many questions.”
They didn’t want to alarm him and give him a chance to escape.
However, there was no sign of Selev in the backyard; only the small gate there was wide open.