While Dustin was filling Jennifer in on the details, Luke had already gotten Osiris to start analyzing the teenager’s body.
To be able to scare Jennifer into transforming, the big-mouthed teenager must’ve been acting very strange back then.
But the D.A.’s kick was even more ruthless.
It kicked a hole five centimeters wide in the teenager’s chest and blew up his head.
Although most of the head had been smashed, Osiris noticed something unusual amidst the fragments — this person had no brain.
Many of the damaged parts of the head were more like muscles, and it was unlikely that a human head would have that many muscles.
For Luke, a head full of muscles was just a description and not a superpower.
Alfred’s investigation had also uncovered clues about the Asian teenager.
There weren’t many Asian teenagers of the right age in New York, and even fewer had come to Long Beach in the last two days.
Although this person no longer had a face, a possible suspect would always be found after searching outward from the crime scene.
The young Asian teenager was called Takuya Miura, and he was 16 years old. His father was a Japanese who was working in America, and the family of three had arrived in New York five days ago.
1
Luke found the Miura family’s number in the immigration department’s database, but nobody picked up.
Frowning, he used the name of a related company to call colleagues in Mr. Miura’s department. He said that he was unable to reach the couple, and asked if the other party had resigned.
In the end, he quickly received the reply that the company had been unable to contact Mr. Miura for the past few days. The company had also sent someone to the house, but nobody opened the door.
After getting an answer, Luke didn’t waste any time and went straight to the house.
A few years ago, Mr. Miura had successfully secured an opportunity to work in America. For the sake of this job, the family lived apart for a while.
A year ago, his wife had come to look after him and also to look for a suitable school for their son.
Not long ago, Mr. Miura was promoted as a mid-level manager at the company, and was finally able to bring his son to America.
The couple had asked for leave to return to Japan ten days ago so that they could complete the move in one go.
The Miura family now lived in Queens. Luke drove over for a look. Naturally, Selina and the dog head were with him.
In Selina’s words, this was much more fun than dealing with PDD matters.
There was no end to the work in the PDD, and Luke didn’t want her to turn into a work machine. It was good to go out and play.
When they arrived at the house, they did one round before entering through the back door.
The house looked no different from a regular house.
But that was what was unusual about it.
There were three sets of keys and a remote in the key bowl at the door. Some of the food ingredients in the kitchen had gone bad.
Also, there were no slippers at the door.
However, when Luke scanned the room with his lenses, he could see footprints belonging to three people.
When they arrived at the master bedroom, the bed was completely bare, and there was a strong smell of bleach.
Selina sighed. “This clean-up… How ruthless.”
Both of them were seasoned detectives and knew very well that bleach could destroy traces of blood.
The room had been empty for days, but the smell of bleach was so strong. There had to have been a lot of blood in the room; the missing bedsheet and blanket seemed to attest to it.
Someone had died in the master bedroom not long ago, and in a very messy way.
Luke nodded and picked up two phones from the nightstand. They belonged to the couple.
Both of them used old models with longer lasting batteries, and the phones hadn’t shut down yet.
However, the last call was made the night they arrived. What followed was a series of missed calls and unread messages.
Sure enough, the couple had ‘disappeared’ from this world after that night.
Luke put the two phones in his pocket and looked at the results of Alfred’s screening of the surveillance footage.
The surveillance cameras nearby only captured the family driving back that day, and the couple never appeared again after that.
Three days after the family’s arrival, the son appeared on a surveillance camera a few blocks away. He entered Brooklyn two days later and then went to Long Beach yesterday.
After doing one round of the house, Luke gestured, and two people and one dog left through the back door again. They followed a small path for 100 meters until they reached a manhole cover that had been hidden under a lot of junk.
At that moment, the stench which Luke’s Sharp Nose picked up was very obvious.
He kicked away the junk on the manhole cover and opened it to look inside. “This should be the couple.”
“Let me take a look.” Selina and the dog looked down as well, and saw a few big black plastic bags.
Luke said, “Let’s go. Someone else will take care of this.” He put the manhole cover back and piled the junk on top of it again.
The three of them left quietly.
Luke, however, had already put the Miura couple’s bodies away in his inventory.
These two bodies belonged to Takuya’s parents, and were probably firsthand crime evidence. Naturally, they had to be brought back for an autopsy.
A private investigator had to do a lot of dirty work. It absolutely wasn’t as classy as it looked in the movies.
Of course, it wasn’t like a private investigator couldn’t be classy.
As long as a certain master detective had connections and status, he just needed to open his mouth, and the forensic scientist would be willing to risk breaking the rules by letting the detective cut the queue and be the first to look at the autopsy report.
That sort of master detective had class.
Ultimately, however, no matter how amazing his deductions were, there had to be a chain of evidence.
Without a chain of evidence, it was very troublesome to convict someone simply based on logical deductions.
Thankfully, Luke and Selina weren’t expecting to make money as private investigators, nor did they need to negotiate the law.
Their goal was to uncover the truth and protect ordinary people.
Law? Justice? Progress? What did that have to do with private investigators?
When they got home, they went to the basement.
Luke turned on the virtual screen and analyzed the intelligence with Selina.
Gold Nugget? It was just an extra.
Apart from running some rounds in the beginning and helping them bring over some snacks and drinks, it spent the rest of the time lying comfortably on the floor and not getting in the way. It ate and drank, and put on its earphones to watch dramas.
As long as the fiend can see me, it can’t be considered slacking off! A certain dog head’s thinking was just that simple and clear-cut.
Luke and Selina kept flipping through the information, and the sequence of events gradually became clearer.
“A homeless man in Brooklyn told the patrol officers that he saw a monster eating people two days ago.”
“A day ago, a group of young people at Nickerson Beach Park reported two friends missing.”
“The investigators found nothing unusual at the Miura house in Japan.”
“At the same time, they discovered that a lot of bleach had been used in the house foyer.”
“Takuya’s aunt went missing 20 days ago. She had been entrusted by his father to check on him regularly.”
“In Tokyo, there have been cases of wild animals attacking people, which have been kept under wraps. However, someone said online that those people were eaten, and only parts of their bodies were left. The scenes were extremely bloody.”
As they discussed this, Selina looked at Luke and said eagerly, “This seems interesting. Do you want to take a look over there?”
Luke thought for a moment before he nodded. “We can check it out. But let’s wait another two days and see if we can discover anything else here.”
It wasn’t urgent to go to Japan to investigate the Miuras. He was just interested. There was no need to leave immediately.
The medical program, Osiris, could also finish summarizing the various autopsy reports.