Chapter 383 Sunbathing and the Shabby Pickup
Selina took out her phone and called the forensics department.
Luke stepped forward but didn’t board the boat. He only checked the surroundings.
“There’s no obvious blood on the boat, but look here.” He jerked his jaw in one direction.
Selina looked at the hull of the boat, only to see a huge dent on one side.
“Something crashed hard into the boat?” Selina asked.
Luke nodded. “There’s no blood or traces of a struggle on the boat. Let’s just wait; it’ll be a miracle if the forensic staff can get here within an hour.”
Selina looked at the sky, and then at her watch. “Oh, no. Our seafood lunch.”
Luke remembered that too. He said helplessly, “We can only cancel our reservation now.”
Selina nodded and called the restaurant.
Luke ran all the way back to Swick’s villa and drove the car to the boat.
After driving the car over, Luke said with a smile, “Though there’s no seafood lunch, we can still get some sunbathing in. Also, do you want this?”
As he spoke, he took out a Dr. Pepper from the fridge in the car and tossed it to Selina.
Selina caught it and had a mouthful before burping in satisfaction. “Darling, you’re really smart.”
Luke chuckled and didn’t say anything.
Together, they took out foldable chairs, a beach umbrella and towels from the trunk of the car, and set them up on a flat area nearby.
Selina changed into a bikini in the car and came running back with a food box. She lay down and sighed comfortably. “It’s nice to relax for a moment when we’re busy.”
Luke opened the food box and took out a piece of spiced beef. “Kill two birds with one stone; there’s nothing else to do while we wait, anyway.”
Since they were the ones who found the boat, they couldn’t just walk away before the forensic scientists took over.
If it was in the city, they could find a place to rest before the forensic scientists arrived.
In this desolate area, they had to find their own way to kill time.
Fortunately, Luke and Selina were always prepared when they went out. There was always food and water in their car.
While it would be too much to call this a country outing, it still made the long wait less boring.
Eyes closed, Selina listened to her learning materials via her earphones while she enjoyed the sun.
Luke had put together a lot of professional knowledge for her in various areas, from fighting to wilderness survival.
With nothing else to do now, she listened to some of it; this method was a lot more comfortable than reading.
Luke didn’t like sunbathing that much. He simply had tea and read his files after applying sunblock on Selina’s back.
The files he was reading were a little more shady, and basically contained relevant intelligence on the underground forces in Los Angeles.
He had been exercising restraint in the frequency of his clean-up operations, and did a purge only every five to seven days or so in order to prevent his “diligence” from affecting his state of mind.
Even then, Luke had cleaned up almost ten gang nests in over a month.
For the gangsters of Los Angeles, this was a trivial number, but these mid-level gangs which Luke wiped out commanded hundreds of lackeys.
After he got rid of these mid-level leaders, the hundreds of bottom-level lackeys lost their bosses.
With their bosses gone, these lackeys had other plans.
Some wanted to become the boss, some planned to join other forces, and some tried to fish in muddy waters for themselves
Thus, the gangs of Los Angeles had been in turmoil recently.
Luke was contemplating getting rid of the bottom-level hoodlums who were especially active.
These guys were even more unbridled than their dead bosses; they hadn’t been beaten down by cruel reality yet, and thought that they could make waves as big shots themselves.
Luke wondered if killing more of these enthusiastic fellows would make the rest come back down to earth.
When the brainless guys were all dead, the smart ones would naturally step in.
He didn’t think he was creating more crime in Los Angeles with this; it was organized crime that was more dangerous.
A lot of gang cases had to do with large-scale, ongoing operations such as human trafficking or drug smuggling.
A small hoodlum could at most only mug someone on the street; they weren’t nearly as dangerous as organized gangs.
While Luke was thinking this, he put a red “V” next to certain names in his notebook.
If everything went smoothly, the ticks would become red “x’s soon.
Suddenly, there was the sound of an engine in the distance.
Luke turned to see a shabby pickup drive past them to an even more remote location.
He was lost for words. Was there someone else like them, on an outing in the wild?
After a while, the guys from the forensics department finally arrived.
Looking at Selina, who continued sunbathing after she waved at them, the two forensic scientists couldn’t be any more envious. “Wow, you’re so smart to actually prepare all this in advance.”
The forensic guys weren’t prudish enough to tell them what to do while on the clock; their work was usually very dry and dull as they faced cadavers and blood every day, and only an idiot would mouth off at a gorgeous girl.
Luke chuckled and pointed at the boat. “If you want to relax a bit after you’re done with work, I can lend you two yoga mats and sunblock. Of course, you have to prepare your own clothes and towels.”
The two forensic scientists were white guys who weren’t more than thirty years old and had lively natures.
They looked at each other and smiled bitterly. “You think we have time to catch some rays? We’ve got tons of a.n.a.lyses and reports to do.”
Luke shrugged. “I can’t help with that. I’m not your supervisor; I can’t give you leave.”After bantering for a moment, they began to do their job.
There wasn’t much that the forensic scientists needed to do.
Apart from the dent in the boat and the dry blood. there wasn’t much else on the boat that was suspicious.
When the guys from the forensics division were done and about to leave, the shabby pickup which had driven by earlier returned.
Luke glanced casually at the pickup and saw that it was towing a boat.
He was stunned for a moment.
The white boat with green edges was the same as the one they were investigating, and it had the name of the restaurant, Greer, on it.
Observing the boat from a distance, Luke noticed that something seemed to be missing from the bow.