Chapter 939: Leads on an Old Comrade
Karen sent him off at the stairs, and Luke didn’t make her continue downstairs with him.
When he went downstairs, the young African-American girl snuck over and asked in a low voice, “Karen, who’s that? He looks quite handsome.”
Karen turned around with a smile. “His name is Luke. He just moved here, and he lives in the building across the street. Charlie didn’t mention him to you? Claudia, it seems that Charlie is keeping a lot of secrets from you.”
Claudia was stumped for a moment, before she suddenly made the connection.
Her mouth dropped open. “He’s the Luke who caused me and Charlie to be roped into the volunteer work?”
Karen made a zipping motion across her mouth. “It’s good that you know. Of course, you can share it with Charlie.”
She then went back into the office.
This girl was Charlie’s girlfriend, and she was only fifteen.
Charlie had been thrown into this reformation camp – ah, no, this reconstruction team – by his mother, while Claudia’s father had pushed her into it.
Since the law firm had been too busy recently, Foggy had called two girls over to work as Karen’s “apprentices,” including Claudia.
This couple could be considered to be going through “for better or worse” together.
After staring blankly for a long time, Claudia was finally roused by Karen calling for her. She ran into the office, mumbling to herself. This was part of the a.s.sa.s.sin couple whom Charlie had mentioned? Did the guy watch too many movies? Was he crazy? The young man just now looked more like a high school student.
He did look more mature than an ordinary high school student, but… an a.s.sa.s.sin? Claudia snorted and confirmed again that her boyfriend’s “mysterious premonition” was just a mental delusion.
If Luke was a killer, wouldn’t Charlie be the king of killers?
…
For the next three days, Luke and Selina slacked off even more. They didn’t even report in at the police department in the morning.
Of course, while Luke was adapting to his mental boost, he didn’t waste his time, and made arrangements for the operation they would be carrying out.
In addition to her own training, Selina also had to sort out the information on the hitmen, which included the information from Weasel, the bartender, and alerts about the suspicious people whom Luke’s intelligence system had been monitoring in the city recently.
In this regard, the system could only come to rough conclusions. Selina would still have to do the final screening.
At the same time, there finally were some leads on the old comrade whom Robert had asked Luke to look for.
But this person wasn’t among the thousand names which Luke had put together previously.
After comparing Little Snail’s sketch with the thousand or so people, Luke compared it with all the targets in the police department’s database. A few days later, he found a match from a case.
It was a shooting that happened more than a year ago. The man was shot in the head and sent to the hospital.
That was all the information said. There were no other leads on this old comrade. The information only said that he was discharged not long after.
There was no follow-up on the shooting, only a simple explanation that it was a gang fight.
Following some clues in the files led Luke to the Metropolitan General Hospital which the old comrade had been sent to.
In fact, many of the victims from the shooting back then had been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Unfortunately, doctors were as busy as lawyers and detectives.
Even using his ident.i.ty as a detective didn’t help Luke. The doctors he questioned simply said a few words about what happened that night, and said that they couldn’t remember much, before they left in a hurry.
Luke had no choice.
It was unrealistic to ask the E.R. doctors to stop and slowly recall everything.
If Luke had the mental faculties of an ordinary person, he, too, might not have much of an impression if someone asked him about a particular case from over a year ago. He had also confirmed with Mental Communication that the doctors weren’t lying.
Since he couldn’t find anything, Luke could only leave. He thought it would be better to check the files at the police department.
When he rounded a corner, he almost collided with a person who was in a hurry.
Luke dodged, then smiled at the person. “You’re busy, Temple.”
It was Charlie’s cousin, Temple. She was a nurse, but had been resting at home for a while previously.
Seeing that it was Luke, she smiled. “Hey, Luke. Are you… here on the job?”
Of course, she knew Luke’s ident.i.ty as a detective.
Luke’s heart thumped. “It’s a small matter. Can I take a bit of your time?”
Temple said bluntly, “I just got out of the O.R.. Let me use the bathroom first.”
A few minutes later, they talked in a corner.
Hearing Luke ask about the victim from the shooting more than a year ago, Temple nodded and said, “I partic.i.p.ated in the rescue as well. The victim you mentioned left a deep impression on me.”
Luke asked, “Why?”
Temple said, “Because the papers for his surgery weren’t signed by a family member, and his ident.i.ty wasn’t verified. In the end, two men in suits signed an agreement to cancel the operation. If it wasn’t for how tenacious he was, he would’ve died that night.”
Luke frowned. “Who are they?”
Temple shook his head. “I was too busy saving people back then to pay much attention, but they’re most likely from some agency. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have the right to sign an agreement to cancel the surgery.”
“Who was the chief surgeon?” he asked.
Temple said, “Dr. Albert Carter, but he just left for a medical conference in Europe and will only be back in a week. It isn’t rare that it’s not the family members who sign the doc.u.ments, so he might not remember much.”
Luke said, “Thank you for your help, Temple. I won’t waste your time.”
Temple shook his head with a smile. “You recruited Charlie into the renovation team again. I really don’t know how to thank you. You and Selina must come over for dinner when you have the time.”
He nodded with a smile. “Sure. Call me when you’re free.”
After saying goodbye, Luke drove to Robert’s old friend’s home in Queens.
A moment later, he frowned.
It had been a long time since anyone had entered the house.
Thinking for a moment, he went around to the back of the house and easily opened the back door before he entered.
There were still a lot of things in the kitchen that hadn’t been put away, such as cutlery, kitchenware, chairs, and towels.
He entered the living room through the kitchen. It wasn’t in a mess, but it wasn’t tidied up either.
It was as if the house had entered a frozen state after the owner left, and no one had ever returned since then.
Frowning, Luke walked over to the photos in the living room.
This was a habit for many people.
If they were young, it would be couple photos. If there were kids, it would be family photos.
Of course, there might be photos of grandparents and close friends.
The photos in this house weren’t that complicated. There were four people: a man and a woman, and two children.