Chapter 668 The Investigation Begins, and Money Opens Doors
For example, Luke couldn’t employ the best used, three-step cla.s.sic, “flash badge → LAPD → CCTV.”
Even though he was confident in his own abilities, the mission this time really depended on luck.
He first found a hiding place and completely disguised himself as a downtrodden man.
He then went to a secondhand car dealer, bought a Polonez car that was in relatively good condition, and drove to a three-star motel.
After checking with the hotel receptionist for a moment, he booked room 1026 and paid for three days in one go.
After a while, he went up to the tenth floor and swiped his room card. In actual fact, he opened the door with his fake phone, before he walked in.
When he entered, he saw two men in white s.h.i.+rts looking at him in surprise. Luke asked in surprise, “Who are you?” The two men frowned. “How did you get in?”
Luke looked at the card in astonishment. “This is my room. Why is there someone here?”
The two men in white were stumped, and their expressions were suspicious. “This is room 1024. How did you get in?”
Luke was stunned. “Isn’t this room 1026?”
As he spoke, he turned to look at the room number on the door and smiled awkwardly. “Sorry, I’m in the wrong room.”
The man frowned. “Then how did you get in?” Luke looked at the room card in his hand. “The door opened when I swiped it.”
The two men in white s.h.i.+rts stood up. One of them walked over and stretched out his hand. “Can I see your room card?”
Luke gave an “oh” and immediately gave the room card to the man.
The man tried the room card, and the door opened the moment he swiped it.
Frowning, he took Luke’s room card to 1026 next door, and the door opened. However, it couldn’t open the door for 1025 opposite.
After he was done, Luke asked, “Can you give me back my room card?”
The man hesitated for a moment, but still returned the room card to him. “Take a good look at the room number next time.”
Luke nodded apologetically. “Okay, I’ll be careful. Sorry to bother you.”
As he spoke, he opened the door to room 1026 and entered.
Lying on the big bed in the room, he pulled the blanket aside and rolled over the bed a few times before he got up. “The bed isn’t bad.”
He went to the balcony, opened the window, and took out a lollipop.
He could vaguely hear the sounds of a conversation between a woman and the man in the white s.h.i.+rt in the hallway. “What’s going on with your doors? Why does it open with someone else’s card?”
The woman said, “Sir, let me check first… I’m sorry, the door card system did malfunction. I’ll call the maintenance staff to take care of it…”
Luke smiled and observed the environment below as he pondered.
1024 was Miss Beth’s room.
1025 was her two college cla.s.smates’ room.
Perhaps Miss Beth didn’t want to reveal the fact that she was super rich in front of her cla.s.smates.
The two men in white s.h.i.+rts weren’t bad guys, but Beth’s personal bodyguards.
They were now occupying Beth’s room after she went missing in order to preserve the scene and make it easier for the personnel who would come later to look for possible leads.
They had done a good job of keeping intact the scene where Beth was last seen.
Luke deliberately went to the wrong room and talked a lot of nonsense in order to verify the scents in 1024.
The male scents could be excluded for the time being, which left the scents of six women.
The most obvious scent was of Miss Beth herself, which meant that she had indeed stayed in room 1024 for a while.
Two of the other five women’s scents were also in room 1025; they were probably Miss Beth’s college cla.s.smates.
In the mix was the smell of cleaning agents, probably from the cleaning staff.
There were also traces of a scent in the room and the hallway which belonged to the woman talking to the man in the white s.h.i.+rt from next door; she was one of the hotel staff.
The final scent was interesting.
Unexpectedly, the place where this woman’s scent lingered the most was in Luke’s room, 1026.
In addition, this “temporary neighbor” had been to Beth’s room as well as her two cla.s.smates’ room, though she had stayed for longer in 1025; there were only signs of her briefly entering and exiting Beth’s room.
Thinking about these clues, Luke narrowed his eyes.
After finis.h.i.+ng his lollipop, he turned around and left. He also hung the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door. After leaving the hotel, Luke looked around the entrance and walked toward a homeless man not far away. After talking for a while, he gave the homeless man a few bucks before he drove off.
After wandering around several of the rental car companies which the homeless man had directed him to, Luke finally found some leads in one of them.
Outside a rental car, a young male employee handed him a stack of doc.u.ments.
As Luke browsed through the files as he listened to the young employee. “They were here yesterday morning, but it was this woman listed who rented the car. She rented a blue Mercedes convertible from our company. The license plate is x.x.xx.x.x.”
Luke took the files and handed over a roll of cash as he asked, “Do you remember anything else? For example, did they mention where they were headed or what direction they were going in? Guess if you have to.”
The young employee frowned and thought for a moment, before he shook his head. “No, no… thing?”
He saw Luke take out another roll of cash, and he suddenly paused.
The young employee looked around before he said in a low voice, “That’s a high-end Benz. It has a GPS system, and our company can extract the data from the car system…”
Luke smiled and casually tossed him the cash.
The young employee was both nervous and surprised. He caught it, only to see Luke take out another roll of cash. “Can I check the car’s location?”
The young employee frowned. “You’ll need to use the computer in the manager’s office. You can’t access the system without a pa.s.sword.” Luke smiled. “Then take me to your manager. If you can get him to leave for five minutes, the money is yours.”
The young employee gritted his teeth and waved his hand. “Let’s go. I’ll say that you’re looking to rent a luxury car, and I’ll get the manager to leave halfway…”
Luke nodded in satisfaction and followed him.
Half an hour later, the manager was beaming as he walked Luke out.
The manager even said, “Mr. Sam, have a good trip! Call me if you need anything.”
Luke hummed in response and said, “Have this young fellow accompany me to pick up the car. He has a good att.i.tude.”
Of course, the manager had no objections, and decisively handed over the responsibility with delight.
When he returned to his office, he mumbled, “Do these rich youngsters have nowhere else to spend their money? He’s renting such a luxurious car when he’s only going to be here for a few days; wouldn’t that mean he still needs to hire a driver?”