Los Angeles Legendary Sleuth

It was fake.

Although Maxine had not seen it, given the other party's profession, Luke tended to believe her words.

If the suspect really used a prop, Luke thought there were three possibilities.

The first possibility was that the suspect was mentally unstable, a pervert.

The second possibility, the suspect had physical issues, was incapacitated.

The third possibility, the suspect was a woman.

The first and second possibilities required screening male suspects for similar tendencies and investigating whether they had relevant criminal or medical records.

The third possibility involved scrutinizing the female suspects.

Considering everything, Luke felt that the third possibility was more likely.

First, let's analyze the car theft attack strong case on June 25. Besides the female victim Maxine, another male victim was Abal Flick's wife.

If Mrs. Flick knew her husband was seeing a prostitute, she might have used this method to retaliate against him.

But the fact that the suspect committed another crime on June 28 and also killed the second male victim, Baron Smith, was somewhat implausible.

At least for now, there appeared to be no obvious relationship between the parties, and the motive was insufficient.

Luke felt that her suspicion wasn't very large.

Regarding the car theft attack on June 28, among the people involved, the women included the female victim, Shirley. Based on eyewitnesses, Shirley's suspicion could be excluded, so that left the wife of the male deceased, Baron Smith.

Luke had taken a statement from Mrs. Smith, who was a female doctor at Main Hospital, full name Zoe Smith.

According to her, on the night of the crime, she was not in Los Angeles but on a business trip in Long Beach.

Main Hospital has a branch in Long Beach, where a patient needed surgery.

On the morning of June 28, she had arrived at Main's Long Beach branch to conduct a full medical examination on the patient, confirming the patient was fit for surgery.

That night, she stayed in Long Beach at the Long Milan Hotel, called the victim Baron at eight o'clock, and had been asleep from nine till midnight.

The next morning, she still had to rush to the hospital for pre-surgery preparations.

During the first statement, Luke did not detect any signs of lying from her.

However, Zoe Smith did have a motive for committing the crime, as her husband, Baron, was cheating on her with the female victim, Shirley. She had sufficient motive to retaliate against her husband.

The prerequisite was, she knew about her husband's infidelity.

The police did not consider her a key investigation subject at that time because the female victim, Shirley, had been assaulted by the attacker, whom she felt was a man, steering the investigation focus toward male suspects.

Now, with the new clue provided by another female victim, Maxine, suggesting that the attacker could very well be a woman, the suspicion towards Zoe Smith consequently elevated.

Firstly, Luke needed to verify Zoe Smith's alibi.

Long Beach is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County, not far from Los Angeles city. Luke checked online, and it only took a little over an hour to drive from the Long Milan Hotel in Long Beach to Kabool Mountain in Los Angeles.

The round trip time to commit the murder was sufficient, and it wouldn't delay the surgery the following day.

Afterward, Luke reported the situation to the captain, and the two discussed it, deciding to divide Squad One into three groups to investigate.

The first group consisted of Susan, the deputy captain, and Matthew, and they were responsible for checking whether male suspects had psychological or physical issues, along with those who had relevant criminal records.

The second group was Raymond, Jenny, and Jackson, who rushed to Long Beach City to investigate whether Zoe Smith had left the Long Milan Hotel the night the incident occurred and whether she had an alibi.

The third group was Luke and Xiao Hei, responsible for investigating the situation of Zoe Smith in Los Angeles.

...

First, Luke investigated the cars registered under the Smith couple, totaling two, one of which was a Mercedes S, the car driven by the victim, Baron Smith, at the time of the incident.

The second was a BMW X6.

Assuming Zoe Smith was the murderer, she definitely needed to return from Long Beach City to Los Angeles to commit the crime.

She definitely needed transportation, and the most likely option was a car.

Therefore, Luke and Xiao Hei began to check the surveillance near the crime scene on June 25th and June 28th.

On June 25th, they focused on checking the Mercedes and BMW X6, as Zoe Smith likely drove one of these cars to commit the crime.

On June 28th, only the BMW X6 was checked because the Mercedes was driven by the victim, Baron Smith.

Of course, the possibility that the suspect drove other vehicles was not ruled out.

Vehicles that appeared at both scenes were also key targets of the investigation.

Luke and Xiao Hei checked all afternoon but found no trace of suspicious vehicles.

Instead, there was progress in the investigation on Raymond's side.

According to the surveillance of the Long Milan Hotel, around seven o'clock in the evening, Zoe Smith was suspected of leaving the hotel and didn't return until after five o'clock in the morning.

The reason it was considered a suspicion was that there were no surveillance cameras at the door of Zoe Smith's hotel room, and Zoe Smith had disguised herself by intentionally wearing a dome-shaped sun hat, so the police could not recognize her face from the surveillance footage.

However, by estimating from the suspicious person's build and the floor they were on, it was likely Zoe Smith.

Whether this could be used as evidence for conviction was still uncertain, but it was enough for the police's investigation, sufficient to assume a problem with Zoe Smith's alibi.

Thus, the police's next focus in their investigation would also be on Zoe Smith.

Additionally, after examining the hotel surveillance, Raymond discovered that Zoe Smith did drive the BMW X6 when she entered the hotel, but did not drive that BMW X6 when she left midway through the night.

Clearly, Zoe Smith had other means of transportation.

Luke guessed that to avoid being captured by surveillance cameras near the crime scene, Zoe Smith likely chose another vehicle for the crime.

Two possibilities, the first was borrowing a car from someone else, such as friends or relatives.

The second possibility was renting a car for the crime.

Luke leaned more towards the second option.

Afterwards, Luke went to check with car rental companies.

The car rental industry in America has a certain market, with many major rental companies operating globally.

Very convenient, as orders can be completed just by booking on the website.

Luke and Xiao Hei went to the largest car rental company in Los Angeles, named Herez, which is headquartered in Los Angeles and has some tax exemption policies locally, making it more competitive than other rental companies with mid-to-high-end cars available.

Upon arriving at the Herez company, Luke and Xiao Hei showed their badges and search warrant and looked up Zoe Smith's driving license in the company's customer list, finding two car rental records.

The first car rental.

Rental time, June 25th from 8 am to June 26th at 8 am

Pick-up location, Downtown Los Angeles.

Vehicle type, a black Audi A6

Second car rental.

Rental time, June 28th from 8 am to June 29th at 8 am

Pick-up location, Long Beach.

Vehicle type, a grey BMW 5 Series.

The two car rental records matched the times of the incidents, and Zoe Smith was cunning—Kabool Mountain had multiple access routes, and traffic was not sparse. The vehicles rented each time were different, making it difficult for the police to identify the person by the cars, even with the surveillance near the crime scenes.

Having found the car rental records, it was basically confirmed that Zoe Smith was a suspect in the cases.

Subsequently, Susan was responsible for applying for the arrest warrant, and Luke took charge of the setup and arrest.

...

Main Hospital, outside the operating room.

The indicator light on the operating room was on.

Outside the operating room, several people were waiting, either standing or sitting, all wearing anxious expressions—presumably, they were family members of the patient.

Only two men appeared calm; it was Luke and Officer Black, who were there to arrest the suspect.

After about fifteen minutes, the indicator light on the operating room turned off.

The family members quickly crowded around the operating room door.

"Creak..." The door of the operating room opened.

A doctor, clad in surgical attire, came out and removed her mask. Before she could speak, the relatives around her bombarded her with questions,

"Doctor Smith, how is my father now?"

"Dr. Smith, was my father-in-law's surgery successful?"

"Doctor Smith, how's my grandfather?"

...

Zoe Smith said, "The surgery was very successful, the patient's condition is basically stable, but he still needs to be observed in the operating room for another half hour.

You don't need to worry too much."

"Thank you."

"Thank you so much."

"Thank you very much."

Zoe Smith nodded in acknowledgment, and her gaze unintentionally swept across Luke and Officer Black, leaving her stunned.

After a moment, Zoe Smith collected herself and approached proactively, "Deputy Chief Luke, are you here for me?"

"Mrs. Smith, we need to have a talk with you."

"All right, let me just change my clothes first."

At Luke's signal, a policewoman came over from around the corridor corner and followed Zoe Smith to change clothes.

Zoe Smith just glanced and did not say much.

On the way to the police station, Zoe Smith remained calm and did not ask why she was being taken away.

Half an hour later, Zoe Smith was brought into the interrogation room at the detective agency.

Luke got straight to the point, "Ms. Smith, do you know why we brought you here?"

"It must be related to my husband's affair, did you find his killer?"

"That's right, we found her."

Zoe noticed something different in Luke's words, "You think a woman killed my husband."

"Yes," Luke countered, "What do you think about that?"

"I'm a doctor, not a police officer, this is not my field. I only hope that the perpetrator is found soon so that my husband can be laid to rest.

Life has been hard since he left; I think about him every day, remembering all the moments we shared together.

Fortunately, I have my job to keep me busy, otherwise, I don't know if I'd be able to cope."

Luke continued to watch her expressions, which were very calm, and he could not discern any signs of lying.

"Last time I recorded your statement, I asked about your whereabouts on the day of the incident, which was on June 28th. You said you were on a business trip in Long Beach to perform a surgery.

You returned to the hotel at eight p.m. and stayed there until the next morning, correct?"

"Yes, is there a problem?"

"I'll ask you again, did you leave the Long Milan Hotel that night?"

"No."

Luke brought out a snapshot from the hotel's surveillance video, "Is this woman wearing a rounded sun hat leaving the hotel you?"

Zoe glanced at it, her expression slightly changed, "That's not me."

Lying.

Luke had been observing her micro-expressions; she previously stated that she did not leave the hotel and showed no signs of lying then.

However, when asked if the person in the photo leaving was her, and she denied it, Luke observed clear signs of lying.

This made no sense.

If she hadn't left the hotel, then how could the woman with the hat leaving the hotel be her?

The only possibility was that the micro-expression analysis was mistaken.

But that was not a major issue; micro-expression analysis is not a scientific experiment and does not need to be 100% accurate.

It only needs to detect abnormalities, and further investigation is necessary. This tool is like finding a flaw, no matter how well other aspects are concealed, if there is one issue, that indicates a problem.

Luke pressed down his doubts and decided to investigate further before exploring the reasons.