Luke said, “Tell me the problems with this case.” He then picked up Elizabeth’s case file and browsed through it.
Billy, Elizabeth’s partner, was standing nearby. He was a quiet man, but Luke was very satisfied with him as he was calm and patient. Elizabeth had worked hard. Although she had helped with the Jennifer Perry case yesterday, she had still managed to gather a lot of new information for this case as well.
Elizabeth said, “The biggest problem is that the female body has been identified to be Vivian Violent, who was buried a year ago.”
Luke nodded. “Okay. What about the missing little girl?”
Elizabeth said, “We’ll have to start with the Remus family who recently moved to Wever…”
After listening to her explanation, Luke and Selina had a rough overview of the case.
The Remus family, which was made up of a couple and their son Gary, bought a house in Wever.
The night they moved in, however, they ran out of the house, crying for help.
When the police arrived, the family claimed that there were ghosts in the house that wanted to kill them.
The police officers searched the house but didn’t find anything. The Remus family was freaked out. They decided to leave the place. They asked the police officers to take out some of their belongings for them, so that they could leave.
However, when they questioned the family, the police officers noticed that all of them mentioned two people.
One of them was Harry Violet, a father who used to live here until he killed himself after his daughter went missing, and the other was Tessa Violet, the missing daughter.
They were the ghosts that the new family encountered.
As to why the new family knew the identities of the ghosts, the photos of the father and daughter had still been in the house when the new family moved in.
The police officers would’ve laughed and let them leave if the new family had only seen Harry, but since the girl Tessa was a registered missing person, the family was asked to stay at a motel for the time being until Luke could ask them more questions.
Luke thought for a moment and said, “Let’s go and question the Remus family first, then check Vivian Violet’s body.”
The four of them left and soon reached a motel.
They found the Remus family at the motel. The family seemed tired and scared.
Despite the warm L.A. sunshine, they shivered now and then as if they were cold.
Luke showed them his badge and talked to the family.
Half an hour later, Luke and his group left for the morgue.
On their way to the morgue, Elizabeth asked, “Luke, did you notice anything?”
Luke replied, “Although many people are good liars, I don’t think this family is lying. Many critical parts of their statements are identical, like their descriptions of the father and daughter’s appearances. Also, they used different phrasing in their descriptions, so I don’t think they memorized anything beforehand.”
Selina asked, “You don’t really think that the house is haunted, do you?”
Luke didn’t say anything, but murmured inwardly, I can’t say anything for sure yet.
When they checked the body at the morgue and listened to the coroner, even Selina fell silent.
Vivian had been dead for a year, but the body was as fresh as if she had passed away just two days ago Her fingerprints, her DNA and her dental records all proved that she was Vivian Violet.
Elizabeth had investigated the lady’s grave and found no signs of excavation, but to open her coffin required her family’s permission as well as court approval. Since Vivian’s family was all dead and it was hard to reach out to any other relatives, her coffin couldn’t be opened yet.
Three days later, the FBI would take over, and whether the coffin could be opened or not would no longer be the police officers’ business.
Luke even examined Vivian’s body personally to confirm that she wasn’t a fake.
Selina didn’t really dare touch it.
She wasn’t scared of bodies, which she had seen a lot of, but this case was still too creepy for her.
After they left, Luke simply said, “Let’s take a look at their house.”
Half an hour later, they arrived at No. 1120 on Westchester Road.
Looking at the house, Selina was again amazed. “Another mansion?”
Luke chuckled. “This house covers around a thousand square meters and has three floors, which include six bedrooms and four bathrooms. Our salaries are barely enough for us to pay for the upkeep, much less to rent the house.”
The gate wasn’t locked, and the four of them smoothly entered the front yard.
Luke said, “Elizabeth, Billy, take a look around the place.”
The two naturally had no objections.
Although the case had happened inside the house, there might still be leads outside.
Luke and Selina wandered up to the front door, which wasn’t locked either.
Luke shook his head. “How scared they must’ve been! They didn’t lock any of the doors?” He stepped inside.
The moment he did, his face changed, and he retreated so quickly that he bumped hard into Selina, who had been about to enter behind him.
Rubbing her chest, Selina exclaimed, “Ouch! You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” She wasn’t being unreasonable. Luke’s movement had been so violent that even her breasts hurt.
Luke pulled her along as he walked away. He then took out his phone. “Elizabeth, is Billy with you? The both of you come back. Don’t enter any part of the house, including the basement, garage, and tool shed.”
Elizabeth and her partner returned a couple of minutes later. They were both puzzled. “What’s wrong, Luke?”
Luke simply told everybody to get into the car. He didn’t speak until they returned to the police department. “We’ll drop this case. I’ll talk to the boss later.”
After a brief hesitation, Elizabeth asked, “Luke, can I ask why we’re dropping it?”
Pondering for a moment, Luke said in a low voice, “A psychic will be able to do more than we can on this case.” Elizabeth and Billy looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what to say. They didn’t really believe that Luke was a coward, because everybody said that Luke was the detective most capable of fighting in their department. Then… was he scared of ghosts?
Looking at them, Luke asked, “Let me put it this way. If this case is a supernatural one, how are you going to resolve it?”.
Elizabeth and Billy looked at each other and shook their heads silently. They certainly didn’t have an answer. They were detectives, not exorcists.