CHAPTER 516: CHAPTER 516: FLORIDA, NEW DISCOVERY

Before heading to Chicago, Luo An and others had carefully investigated Ms. Kayla’s identity information.

According to the records, Ms. Kayla and Ivan’s parents were neighbors, and the two grew up together, attending the same school from elementary through high school. For college, they went to different institutions but both were still in the same city.

Ms. Kayla’s parents are devout Christians, and influenced by her parents, she is naturally a believer too. After marrying Ivan, she would normally work at the veterinary clinic during weekdays and volunteer at church on weekends. Ivan loved Ms. Kayla deeply, and after their marriage, they almost never fought.

On the sofa, Chenier displayed the search warrant to Ms. Kayla, and while softly comforting her, began to simply inquire about her reasons for wanting to leave the federation.

At the same time, just as Mona entered the room, she picked up a mobile phone from the coffee table to investigate its communication records and other information.

There was a text message that had been deleted not long ago, but Mona restored it. Its content caught her attention. She showed it to Luo An. The message was very short, containing only one number: 1

Luo An’s gaze shifted away from the travel magazines on the coffee table, and his eyebrows slightly furrowed:

"Can we find out who sent this message?"

"No."

Mona shook her head:

"The sender used a disposable phone, the kind you throw away after using. "

"OK."

Luo An nodded, and Winslow came down from the stairs, shaking his head:

"There are no clues in the study."

Luo An turned his gaze towards Ms. Kayla on the sofa. She, who didn’t have much say from the start, was now greatly swayed by Michelle’s words.

"Ivan told me before his business trip that if I receive a text message containing ’1’, I should buy a plane ticket and leave the federation."

After a moment of silence, Ms. Kayla took a deep breath and said:

"Besides this, I really don’t know what else has happened."

Hearing this, Chenier’s brow furrowed slightly:

"Ms. Kayla, you..."

Luo An waved his hand to interrupt Chenier. "Emotional recognition" confirmed that what she said was true, which means Ms. Kayla truly didn’t understand the events surrounding her husband.

After thinking for a moment, Mona asked:

"Ms. Kayla, did your husband do anything unusual before this business trip?"

"No, or rather, I didn’t notice."

Mona and Chenier asked several more questions in succession, but Ms. Kayla shook her head to indicate her cluelessness.

With no other finds besides that text message, Mona, Chenier, and Winslow exchanged helpless looks and turned towards Luo An. Luo An pondered for a few seconds before asking:

"Ms. Kayla, did Ivan mention where he was going on his business trip?"

"He never shares those things with me, and I never ask."

"Who bought these travel magazines on the coffee table?"

"I did. Is there a problem?"

"No, thank you for your cooperation."

Luo An waved his hand, casually picked up a travel magazine, and turned to leave the apartment. Winslow and the others felt somewhat helpless but had no choice but to follow.

The four of them left the apartment, and the moment the door closed, Ms. Kayla’s eyes on the sofa instantly reddened, and she covered her face with her hands, weeping silently.

At the car, Mona’s brow was tightly knit, and she asked:

"We can’t follow up on the clue from that text message. What do we do next?"

Luo An handed the magazine to Winslow, pulled out his phone, and walked to the side while saying:

"Mona, Chenier, get in the car. Check for flight, train, and highway information in Florida, see if there’s anything related to the Chicago Special Investigation Team."

"Florida?"

Mona and Chenier exchanged a puzzled look:

"Why that state?"

"Let’s check it out first."

Luo An waved his hand and walked aside to make a phone call.

Mona and Chenier had no choice but to get into the car and start searching on their laptops, while Winslow glanced at the magazine in his hand and his eyes lit up as if he had thought of something.

He pulled out a flip phone, which had only two numbers in the contacts.

Luo An first called Trick Kennedy, and after dialing for a long time, the ringing finally sounded from the phone. By the time the call was answered, nearly ten minutes had passed, and Luo An’s face was full of speechlessness.

Hearing Luo An’s complaint, Trick Kennedy on the other end chuckled and said that the flip phone was a special communication device — the signal might sometimes be poor, but the confidentiality was absolutely guaranteed.

Luo An didn’t waste time on this topic and directly stated that he was short-handed and needed Kennedy to arrange for someone to come to Kayla’s place.

"No problem."

Trick Kennedy readily agreed, and before he even asked about the progress of the case, Luo An already hung up the call because Mona was calling him out loudly inside the car.

"Luo An! Come over here!"

A look of shock flashed in Chenier’s eyes; indeed, in the surveillance footage of a highway in Florida, they found traces of the Chicago Special Investigation Team driving by.

Mona looked at the information she found on her computer, suppressing the shock in her heart, and questioned:

"Luo An, how did you know Ivan and the others went to Florida?"

Luo An’s mouth curved slightly as he pointed to the travel magazine in Winslow’s hand and said with a smile:

"When I entered the room earlier, I noticed several new travel magazines bought a few days ago on the coffee table.

Kayla has always been moving between the pet hospital and the church for years, so it’s more likely she’d buy animal magazines or Christian books.

I asked who bought the travel magazines, and Kayla said she did, but her eyes involuntarily darted to the side, indicating that she was lying.

This couple has no children, and it’s unlikely that guests would give travel magazines as gifts. Hence the real purchaser of those magazines can only be her husband, Ivan.

Before we came here, the information indicated that Ivan had no short-term travel plans, and he’s not one to spend money without good reason, so I deduced that those magazines are most likely related to the destination of Ivan’s upcoming mission."

Besides this analysis, Luo An was also ready to stake out Kayla’s place for an extended period before he had called Trick Kennedy.

But upon hearing Mona’s shout, Luo An abandoned that Plan-B.

Winslow took the travel magazine for a look, admiration flashing in his eyes:

"The main content of these magazines is all about Florida. I noticed them earlier too, but indeed, I hadn’t thought of this."

Chenier patted Winslow on the shoulder; she had been trying to coax clues out of Kayla the whole time and likewise overlooked the significance of the magazines.

"Hold on a moment, everyone, I’ve found something new."

Suddenly, Mona, who was tapping on the keyboard, changed her expression, stopped her actions, and showed her computer screen to Luo An, saying:

"I found out from some online posts that there was a fierce gunfight at an abandoned port by the sea in the southern part of Florida.

But apart from these posts, I can’t find any information about the cause of the gun battle or the identities of the deceased; it seems like this information has been deliberately erased."

Winslow and Chenier frowned upon hearing this, while Luo An’s expression remained unchanged as he asked:

"When exactly did the gunfight occur?"

After a moment of typing, Mona looked up sharply and said somberly:

"Just a few hours before Minister Alexander’s fatal car accident!"

Without any fuss, Luo An immediately pulled open the car door, got in, and said:

"Mona, buy tickets! We’re off to Florida!"

"No problem!"

———

Florida, located on a peninsula protruding from the southeastern coast, enjoys a warm climate and beautiful scenery and is one of the world’s renowned travel destinations.

Additionally, due to the Florida State Government’s regulations that require the publication of crimes and judges’ sentences to be made public, a plethora of bizarre cases have come to light.

For example, sneaking into a neighbor’s house to shave a pet’s head in the middle of the night or climbing over a jail wall to visit a friend has led to the internet meme "Florida Man Keeps Busy."

Luo An and his team arrived in Florida at midnight, and as they were taking a taxi to the pre-booked hotel, Mona, who was tapping on her laptop, suddenly changed her expression, tapped Luo An’s arm, and whispered:

"Luo An, I think I may have found some people from the Chicago Special Investigation Team!"