CHAPTER 540: CHAPTER 540: A SPY? STOOD UP? ARREST SOMEONE!

"Impossible!"

In the small apartment, the wife, Margery, saw the photo in the screenshot of the surveillance video and threw it back on the table, shaking her head and loudly saying:

"Impossible! He is definitely not my husband Nockvic!"

Luo An glanced at Chenier without speaking, and Chenier moved her chair next to Margery and asked softly:

"Margery, have you had any contact with your husband in the past eight hours?"

"No, but Nockvic goes out to earn money by driving people around every so often.

Because we worry about being charged along the way, we almost never call each other. This has happened many times, and I’m used to it..."

As she spoke, Margery’s voice became smaller and her eyes redder, until she finally stopped talking, covered her face with her hands, and started sobbing quietly.

Luo An poured a glass of water and pushed it to her, and Chenier gently patted Margery’s back, comforting her softly:

"I know this is very difficult for you, sorry..."

As time ticked by, Margery gradually composed herself, and Chenier continued to ask:

"Does Nockvic have any enemies?"

"I don’t know, he’s just a taxi driver..."

Margery picked up the photo again, looking at the familiar face of the man in the picture, and kept repeating a few phrases to herself.

Luo An said softly:

"Ms. Margery, the best way to find out who killed your husband is for you to tell us everything you know."

Upon hearing this, Margery’s mouth moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something but then she stopped, and Luo An, seeing this, placed a tissue in front of her and added:

"Ms. Margery, we are on the same side as you in the search for the killer."

After a long silence, Margery picked up the tissue to wipe her tears, her voice choked as she said:

"I... I sometimes indeed suspect that Nockvic has secrets, but I didn’t plan to ask because I could tell his secrets had nothing to do with other women, he didn’t go looking for other women..."

Chenier continued to gently pat Margery’s back and asked:

"What secrets? Can you tell us?"

"...Sometimes Nockvic would hide money, right in the basement."

Margery revealed an unpleasant smile on her face and explained:

"There’s a safe that he’s hidden there. Nockvic always thought I didn’t know, but actually, I just couldn’t be bothered to confront him."

"OK."

Luo An nodded:

"Would it be possible for us to take a look at that safe? It might contain some clues."

Margery nodded:

"You can, but I don’t know the password."

Half an hour later, an agent from the forensic team, called over by Luo An, took out some professional equipment and quickly opened the safe hidden behind the wall in the basement.

"This is a high-end safe."

The forensic agent smiled at Luo An:

"But it seems a bit mismatched for a taxi driver."

"Thanks for your hard work."

Luo An patted the agent’s shoulder, as Chenier opened the door of the safe and started to take things out.

"What’s inside?"

"US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds...each bundle looks to be about ten thousand or so."

Chenier set aside stacks of money and commented:

"We didn’t just find a spy, did we?"

"If it were a spy, there would definitely be passports or weapons or something like that."

Luo An casually inspected the currency and asked:

"Is there anything else in the safe?"

"There’s a locked metal box."

Chenier handed the box to Luo An, bent down to check the state of the safe, then stood up and shook her head:

"That’s it."

"OK."

The metal box had a simple common lock hanging on the outside. Just as the forensic agent was about to use some tools, Luo An had already picked a piece of wire and unlocked it in no time.

The forensic agent stood frozen, looking at Luo An in amazement as he handed the lock to him with a smile and then opened the metal box.

Chenier craned her neck to look inside the box, only to find a mobile phone and a key, and nothing else.

"..."

Chenier picked up the key and examined it for a few seconds in silence, then said:

"Why does this feel like we’re playing a puzzle game? Is this key leading us to our next search for some kind of treasure chest?"

"Perhaps, and maybe inside that chest, there’s an even bigger reward to be found."

Luo An replied casually and picked up the mobile phone from the box to examine it. He pondered for a few seconds, had his team clean up the scene, and drove back to the Thirteenth Investigation Unit.

"Winslow, Reesi, you two go check out this key and see if you can find anything."

Back in the office area, Luo An handed over the key to Winslow and Reesi, then gave the mobile phone to Mona, saying:

"This is up to you now."

"No problem."

Mona took the phone, plugged in the data cable to connect it to the computer, and Luo An and Chenier sat down to rest. Just as they started to eat, Mona spoke up:

"Guys, there’s a lot of information in this phone."

Luo An bit into a burger and scooted his chair over to Mona:

"What do you mean?"

"First of all, the memo. The owner of this phone actually kept a ledger in the memo."

Mona displayed the computer screen for Luo An, which was filled with records of income and expenditures that seemed to scroll on endlessly.

"The most recent entry is from three days ago, income +10,000."

Luo An looked carefully at the ledger, which only recorded incomes and expenditures without any specific reasons, making it impossible to determine the sources and destinations of the money.

Chenier glanced at it briefly before looking away and then asked:

"Besides this ledger, are there any other clues?"

"This morning at 8:30, someone sent a text message to the owner of this phone."

Mona tapped a few keys on the keyboard, and a text message appeared before both of them:

"Are you ghosting me?"

Seeing the content of the message, Chenier’s spirits lifted and she said:

"The victim Nockvic’s time of death was early this morning, and the person who sent this text seems to not know about this!"

Luo An’s eyebrows raised as he asked:

"Mona, can you find out who sent this text?"

"Can’t trace it."

Mona shook her head and pointed to her laptop:

"The sender’s number isn’t registered, GPS is off, the only thing that can be confirmed is that when the text was sent, the signal tower that carried the signal was in the west of Washington D.C., the sender should be in Washington D.C."

Hearing this, Chenier furrowed her brows and looked at Luo An:

"What do we do?"

Luo An thought for a moment and spoke solemnly:

"Send a text message, respond to that person! Arrange a meeting place and time, we’re going to set up a sting!"

"No problem."

Chenier picked up her phone and asked:

"Where should we meet?"

"A place with little surveillance, not too many or too few people."

Luo An thought for a moment and then gave an address:

"Garfield Park."

Chenier thought about the texting habits she saw in Margery’s phone from her previous exchanges with Nockvic, disguised her typing style, and sent the time and place over.

As the seconds ticked by, the atmosphere in the office area became very tense.

Everyone stared intently at the phone, except for the sound of Mona tapping on the keyboard as she prepared for location tracking, Luo An sat silently with his arms crossed, and the breathing of Michelle and Chenier became noticeably quieter.

Ding-dong—

Suddenly, a text message alert sounded. Chenier quickly checked the phone to see a reply from the person on the other end:

[OK]

"Yes!"

Chenier and Michelle’s faces lit up with excitement as they high-fived and shouted. Luo An looked towards Mona, asking:

"Did you get a fix on that person?"

Mona shook her head:

"Not enough time."

"Then let’s prepare the weapons."

Luo An patted Chenier on the shoulder and said:

"Message Winslow and Reesi, we go to Garfield Park to catch the suspect in three hours!"

"Got it!"

————

Three hours flew by, Garfield Park.

Luo An, Chenier, Winslow, and Reesi, dressed like ordinary people and blending with passers-by, either strolling or chatting, while Mona and Michelle sat in a car with a computer, connecting to surveillance to monitor the situation.

Before long, a man wearing a brown jacket entered their sights. He paused in his steps, then turned and ran!