Chapter 244 - Billy’s Acquittal
Polk was enlightened.
Like most police officers who saw Luke for the first time, he had been wondering why the Major Crimes Division had taken in such a young guy.
It made perfect sense after Luke’s explanation.
An administrator at the forensics center in Las Vegas would definitely be one of the greatest technicians nationwide.
It definitely wasn’t a problem for a professional like that to use his social connections to get his nephew into a police department as a detective.
Without further ado, Polk led Luke to the police department.
A lot of officers were still on the clock.
There were tens of thousands of people in this town, and naturally, there were a lot more officers in the police department here than in small towns like Shackelford.
Some greeted Polk when they saw him come in with a stranger, while some were too busy to pay attention to them.
Polk casually drove everybody away and took Luke to the evidence locker. He opened a few boxes that contained the evidence sealed in bags.
Luke asked, “Do you have gloves here?”
Polk shook his head. “I can get you a pair from outside.”
Luke declined. “Forget it. That’ll draw too much attention.” As he talked, he opened the evidence bags with a pen that he had on him.
He didn’t touch the evidence with his hand, but only raised and turned the items with the pen.
Polk sweated as he watched, impressed by Luke’s attention to detail and fully convinced that the boy had an uncle who worked at the Las Vega forensics center.
Luke put most of the evidence back shortly after examining them, but he spent five minutes scrutinizing the clothes of Cathy Becker and Steven Earls, the victims.
Then, it was a mask, found outside Sandra’s house and supposedly dropped by the criminal. Luke observed it for about a minute.
During his observation, he closed his eyes now and then, as if he were contemplating something
Polk grew curious. Why do you keep your eyes closed when you’re examining the evidence?
But Luke didn’t explain, and Polk was too shy to ask.
After fifteen minutes or so, Luke nodded. “This is enough.” He quickly sealed the bags and put them back into the boxes.
Polk then placed the boxes back on the shelves.
When they left the evidence locker and stepped out into the hall, someone called out to Polk.
Polk took a look and asked, “Dewey, what’s
up?”
Dewey was a young officer with a mustache, who was around 25 years old.
He looked at Luke and hesitated, a discomfited expression on his face.
Polk turned around and signaled subtly to Luke, who took the hint. “Uncle Polk, I’ll wait for you outside.”
Polk nodded. “Okay. I’ll take you home in a bit.”
After ten minutes, Polk came out with a dark face.
They talked in the police car parked outside the entrance, and Polk whispered, “The killer just made a threatening call to Sandra, who’s staying at Dewey’s place for the time being.”
Luke was stunned. “What?”
Then, he realized what that meant. “Does that mean Billy is innocent?”
Polk nodded and fumed.
The biggest suspect was innocent. They had to start all over again with this case.
That certainly wasn’t great news.
Thinking quickly, Luke nodded and said, “Polk, you go do what you need to do. I’ll go back myself, and Selina and I will leave after we’re done reading the files.”
Polk waved his hand impatiently. “Since we’re pretending that you’re family, it wouldn’t make sense for you to live outside. I have a couple of empty rooms at my place; Beverly can get them ready for the both of you.”
Luke didn’t turn him down. “Okay, thanks, Polk.”
Polk nodded and drove him to his house. After speaking to Beverly, his wife, for a moment, he left again in his car.
Beverly was the typical housewife, slightly plump and naggy, but overall a nice person.
She greeted Luke with a smile and left to get the rooms ready for them.
After Luke closed the door, Selina put the case files down and asked lazily, “Did you find anything?”
Luke said, “Polk just received word: the killer made a threatening call to Sandra.”
Selina was surprised. “Huh? Billy isn’t the killer?”
Luke chuckled. “Don’t jump to any conclusions yet. Many serial killers have accomplices.”
Selina nodded, deep in thought.
Luke continued, “So, it’s a good thing if Billy is turned loose.”
Selina considered for a moment and ventured, “Are you saying that he’ll commit another crime?”
Luke said, “Why else would he have his accomplice make the call to justify his innocence so quickly?”
Selina was shocked. “It’s really him?”
Recalling his findings in the evidence locker, Luke nodded. “Very likely, but he probably has a partner who helped him.”
Selina asked, “Who is it?”
Luke said with a smile, “You’ve already met him.”
Frowning, Selina thought for a long while, but shook her head. “I can’t think of anyone. We met a lot of people today.”
Luke said, “Hint: we had a minor conflict with him today.”
Selina immediately recalled the incident. “You mean that number 10 girl’s boyfriend?”.
Luke nodded. “Yes, but I don’t have any proof yet. We’ll have to watch out for their next performance.”
Other people might’ve asked Luke why he suspected it was the number 10 girl’s boyfriend, but Selina knew that Luke had his personal reasons for keeping things close to his chest. Naturally, she didn’t dig, and just continued with the investigation from that point.
She frowned. “I don’t have Stu’s files, but Billy’s from a rich family and has never been mistreated. Why would they kill people in such a horrible way when they’re only high school students?”
Luke said, “Do you remember what Polk said?”
Selina asked, “What are you talking about?”
“I would’ve sworn up and down that he wasn’t the killer if this was twenty years ago, but kids nowadays… who knows?” Luke casually repeated Polk’s words.
Selina fell silent.
It was already a well-acknowledged fact that kids were maturing faster and faster in an age of information technology.
So, it wasn’t unusual at all for Billy and the number 10 girl’s boyfriend to do something as insane as this.