Luke nodded inwardly.
He had already felt that the barrage of bullets were unlikely to be from two guns.
Martin’s detailed analysis confirmed his assumption, and he grew more interested in the shooters. “So, Agent Palmer, what intelligence do you have for us?”
Palmer wasn’t from LAPD, but was an agent with the DEA.
She was here because one of the victims was her partner Jimmy Watson, who was also a DEA agent.
Palmer said, “To put it simply, Jimmy was here to negotiate with Femira, the other victim. The man had some critical information that we needed.”
Noticing the look on Luke’s face, she added, “I can’t tell you exactly what it is, but the information was very sensitive, so Jimmy was here to talk to him. I was supposed to come too, but I was delayed by something else and didn’t make it.”
Luke suddenly asked, “You suspect that someone leaked details of the meeting?”
Palmer remained silent, but her expression indicated that was her suspicion.
Luke understood why the case was difficult.
DEA had more information, but they were unwilling to disclose it on grounds of confidentiality, so Martin had no leads to work with.
It would be very difficult if they wanted Palmer to spill anything.
Since there was a possible traitor lurking in the DEA, the agency certainly wouldn’t want the scandal exposed to LAPD.
Luke thought for a moment, then asked, “What about the survivor? Who is he?”
Roger said, “He’s a lawyer. Femira brought him along for negotiations. He’s just a regular guy. We tracked him down last night, but he said that he didn’t know anything, and that he was only there to help his client with the negotiation.”
Luke found that odd. “Wasn’t he afraid that he could be killed?”
Roger said, “The man said that he didn’t really know everything about his client, or he wouldn’t have taken the case at all.”
Luke could only shake his head. It didn’t seem like there were any leads for now.
The lawyer might know more than he was letting on, but it was tricky trying to keep a lawyer in custody.
Those people made a living by playing with the law, and they could easily demand compensation if the police made any sort of mistake.
They could be utterly shameless when it came to making money.
After some discussion, it was eventually decided that Roger and his partner would follow up on the lawyer, since he might be the next person to be killed.
As for Luke, however, he had already mentally dropped the case.
The trickiest cases were the ones without leads or where an internal conflict was involved, such as with this case.
If he discovered the traitor in the DEA, would the DEA really feel grateful to him?
Obviously, the DEA might pretend to be happy, but they certainly wouldn’t be.
Luke simply reminded Martin, “You can investigate that shooter. Such a skilled shooter can’t be a Mr. Nobody. You might uncover some leads if you look for remarkable shooters in previous cases.”
He said that to Martin because Martin was a navy veteran who was a great shooter himself.
There was only a limited number of people in the circle of top shooters, and they definitely knew a thing or two about each other.
Martin nodded, and they bade each other farewell.
When Luke said goodbye to Roger, he noticed that Martin and Palmer were talking and laughing. He asked in a low voice, “What’s that about?”
Roger said, “They’re seeing eye to eye.”
“When it happens, it happens, right?” Luke smiled and waved goodbye at Roger.
He got in his car and glanced at Selina, who was next to him. “Why are you staring at me?”
Selina said, “You rarely look me in the eye.”
Luke rolled his eyes at her. “You mean this?”
Selina did exactly the same back to him. “Yes, thank you very much. I feel a lot better now.”
That was the end of the topic.
They knew very well that their relationship was different from what Luke and his female friends had.
As long as he was willing, he could invite his female colleagues out for a drink when they got off work, and it wouldn’t be hard for certain things to happen naturally after that.
Female officers were as busy as male officers, but they also had to scratch the itch sometimes, and wouldn’t demand more when the night was over.
It would be all too easy for Luke, so he never wasted his time on that.
A partner that he could completely trust, on the other hand, was hard to come by.
Back in Nakatomi Plaza, Detective John fought hard for his wife and daughter.
But the truth was that he and his wife were already separated, and were going through a divorce.
To make things worse, it wasn’t over money, but a difference in attitude toward life.
A detective’s partner might be even more important to them than a spouse.
Marrying the wrong wife might be a waste of time and money, but having the wrong partner could get them killed or sent to the Internal Affairs Division for investigation.
Luke and Selina went to a special shooting range. Selina practiced regular shooting in one corner while Luke practiced his quick draw.
Luke had read a lot of files on quick draw. Many of the opponents he defeated used it too, but it was included under the Basic Firearms ability and wasn’t listed independently.
Luke speculated that it was because their quick draw wasn’t good enough to be listed as an independent ability yet, just like how the system wouldn’t acknowledge that bilingual speakers boasted Basic Language Proficiency if they weren’t fluent enough.
Should he find Bob Munden, the god of quick draw, and obtain the ability from him?
Luke dropped the idea.
His physical stats were good enough; all he needed was more practice with quick draw.