Chapter 101 - Dead, Swimming Naked, and Inspiration
Luke was speechless.”…The rich are truly willful.”
Elsa couldn’t agree more. “Few residents here are nice to talk to. Try not to say anything when we see her.”
Luke nodded. He knew that rookies were expected to say and do less, and watch and listen more.
As they talked, they reached a villa.
Luke observed the villa and compared it with the houses he had seen in the last few days. He knew that it couldn’t be too expensive.
The villa wasn’t located in the best neighborhood, nor was it big. It couldn’t be worth more than three million dollars. So, it was only a low-end residence in Beverly Hills.
Most of the truly luxurious houses in Beverly Hills cost more than ten million dollars. The best ones might even cost thirty to fifty million.
They pressed the buzzer, and a woman spoke to Elsa over the intercom for a while. Elsa also showed her badge to the security camera.
They then waited for several minutes, but nothing happened.
Luke found it odd. “What’s the meaning of this? It takes her this long to call Katie?”
Elsa wasn’t bothered. “Don’t be impatient. I waited forty minutes the first time I was here. When we finally met, she told me that she was putting on makeup.”
Luke was speechless. “…Is she ugly?” Many stars weren’t really pretty without makeup.
Elsa smiled. “No, she looked as pretty as if she was about to attend a news conference when she met me.”
Luke remarked, “It is in the nature of every woman to pursue beauty.”
Suddenly, a middle-aged woman ran over, shouting in panic. “Ah, come in, officers! Something terrible has happened!”
The front door was already open when they arrived. Luke and Elsa looked at the woman in confusion.
Elsa introduced her quickly. “This is Sally, a caretaker that Katie hired.”
Sally was still shouting.
Elsa could only yell, “Stop!”
Scared, Sally finally stopped screaming.
Elsa asked, “What happened?”
Sally panicked again. “Dead! Miss Katie is dead!”
Elsa exclaimed, “What?”
Luke was lost for words.
A moment later, Sally took them to the pool. Looking at the body floating in the water, Elsa and Luke then stared at each other in bewilderment.
Soon, Elsa called the police department for reinforcements.
It was unnecessary to call an ambulance. Looking at how she was floating in the pool, they knew that the star was as dead as a doornail.
Very soon, the forensics department arrived and began to collect evidence.
Luke asked Elsa in a low voice, “Is Katie in the habit of swimming naked?”
Elsa replied, “Not that I know of. At least, she wears a bikini when she’s out on Santa Monica beach.”
Luke nodded, deep in thought.
Yes, Miss Katie Winterster was floating naked and face down in the pool in her own backyard. Furthermore, this pool was only one meter deep.
However, two people had drowned one after another in this one-meter-deep pool.
Even weirder, both John Doe and Miss Katie had died naked, and had even been found in the same position.
The case was pretty odd in every aspect.
However, Luke wasn’t in any rush.
It was Elsa’s case. It was best that he didn’t speak unless he was absolutely confident, or Elsa would feel that he was being rash.
Elsa showed no intention of asking for his input, either. She was busy working on her own.
The police officers who had arrived as reinforcements interrogated the villa’s two caretakers and the security guard.
Luke simply quietly observed how Elsa communicated with them.
What he had learned back in Shackelford could only be called the basics at best; Elsa was obviously more skilled.
The forensic examiners here were more professional, too. They were as busy as bees in and outside the house.
They examined Katie’s bed, the floor, and the pool, and even collected a bottle of pool water.
However, the conversation which the two examiners had over Katie’s naked body was rather creepy.
“I actually quite liked her in Don’t Move. I remember that there’s a red dot on her chest.”
“Is she fatter now? Look here. It’s definitely cellulite.”
“That’s fine. It’s not like she has to worry about her weight any longer.”
“She claimed on her blog that she’s 1.7 meters tall, but she’s actually only 1.64 meters tall. She really lied about her height.”
“Everybody wants to be taller. Touch here.”
“Oh, needle punctures. She had fat implants. No wonder she changed from a 34B to 34D.”
Luke was lost for words.
They regarded the body of such a famous star purely as medical learning material. They claimed to be Katie’s fans, but their hands were cold and emotionless, as if she were a dead pig.
In the end, one of the forensic examiners gave Elsa the preliminary findings. “The estimated time of death is between three and four o’clock in the morning. This might not be accurate, however, given how long the body was in the water, and we’ll need to examine it further. There’s water in her lungs, so she may have drowned. There are no external injuries, except for a broken toenail.”
Elsa listened and asked a few more questions.
Luke seized the opportunity to go to Katie’s bedroom. He nodded at the examiner who was working and observed the bedroom.
The examiner was occupied, but her interest was piqued. She asked the young detective curiously, “What are you looking for?”
“Inspiration!” Luke closed his eyes and circled the room without bumping into any of the furniture, which astonished the examiner.
Then, Luke smiled at her and walked out.
The examiner was a young girl who was obviously new on the job. Dazed by Luke’s smile, she blushed a moment later. “Wow, he’s really handsome, isn’t he? No, I have to work. I’m definitely working late today.”
She was busy for a moment, before she stopped again. “But he’s really pretty, especially when he smiles. Why did he smile at me? Is he interested? No, he didn’t even ask for my name…”
Without the faintest idea that he had flirted with a girl with his face alone, Luke walked out of the bedroom and returned to the pool.