Chapter 831 The Innocent Minotaur
Ah, Jack and Hannah looked at each other, what's going on? In the previous surveillance video, the intimate gestures between Katherine Sloan and Pete Hill were very obvious.
Although the atmosphere in the United States is indeed open, this is obviously beyond the scope of the relationship between colleagues. How can a male and female colleague hug each other and kiss like this? Not even him. Ahem. At least in other situations. In front of his colleagues, Jack is quite careful about his influence.
After asking Catherine's parents for the address of her real boyfriend Eli Dorflinger, Jack and Hannah left without any further delay.
Some things don’t need to be revealed in public, so as to leave a good impression of a well-behaved daughter to the sad parents. European and American cultures also avoid speaking ill of the dead, and eulogies at funerals usually only choose good things. .
Caldwell is equivalent to a suburb of Forrest City. It is less than 20 kilometers northwest of the city center and is still a matter of pedaling.
The time was a bit rushed, and Alice did not drive a command vehicle over. Fortunately, the billiard bar was not so remote that there was no network signal at all, so they rented it directly as a temporary office.
The rich man Aubrey wrote a check and sent away the bar owner who was in a hurry to go back to bed. Five hundred dollars was enough to cover a small bar like that for more than three days. He was originally worried about the impact of the murder. The red-necked old man in business smiled so hard that the corners of his mouth almost reached his ears.
Of course, the money can be reimbursed afterwards, but the person who is currently managing the funds of the team is this tycoon from Wall Street. Letting rich people manage the accounts usually does not require too much moral hazard consideration, because in theory They don't like this little bit of oil and water.
According to Alice's hasty investigation, Catherine's real boyfriend Eli Dorflinger is the son of a local farmer. He owns a small farm of his own in Caldwell, and he is not very wealthy. , but it is also a middle-class home.
Judging from the information alone, both Eli Dorflinger's age and family background are a good match for Katherine Sloane, of course, only in terms of her current career.
If, as Catherine's father said, she did not encounter tragedy and her dream of becoming a judge comes true in the future, even if she serves in such a small place, it will be a proper class jump. .
Although there is no saying in the United States that the first strike is to kill the person you like first, it seems to be quite understandable that Katherine hooked up with her colleagues after entering the District Attorney's Office, because Pete... Hill's father was a judge in Little Rock.
Katherine is tall, blond and blue-eyed. Although she is not a great beauty, she has a youthful and beautiful temperament, and she does have the capital to climb up.
Although it may be a bit too much to say that she is a Neptune because she only has two feet, but it also greatly increases the suspicion of her Tauren boyfriend.
For safety reasons, Clay and Aubrey were also called over. The four met outside the small farm and entered the farm together.
"There is blood." Sharp-eyed Aubrey was the first to notice the abnormality. He saw a long trail of blood following the ruts leading to the backyard of the farm villa.
“Be careful.”
Everyone pulled out their guns and followed the bloodstains to a cabin in the backyard. There was a Ford F150 parked at the door of the cabin, and in the pickup truck There was a blue plastic tarp spread out. There was nothing on it, but blood was still dripping down.
In the hut, an unusually tall figure was busy with his back to everyone. Standing at the door from a distance, you could smell the strong smell of blood and a strange fishy smell coming from inside.
"FBI! Eli Dorflinger, put down the knife in your hand." Aubrey shouted loudly, pointing the gun at the tall figure who still seemed to be unaware.
The boning knife in Eli Dorflinger's hand fell to the ground, and he turned around in a panic, revealing a simple and honest face and a leather apron stained with blood.
Although this scene looked quite horrifying, Jack was speechless and put away his gun, because he had clearly seen a disemboweled wild boar on the table in the cabin.
“I have a hunting license, and now is the breeding season of wild boars. Cleaning up these bad guys will help maintain the ecological balance.” Facing the muzzles of three other black holes, Eli Dorflinger hurriedly He raised his hands and explained in a stammering English with a southern accent.
"Yes, that's right. Besides, we at the FBI don't care about this kind of thing."
Jack held his nose and walked into the smelly wooden house and took a quick look. He didn't find any firearms. Judging from the wild boar carcass, it seemed that the big guy was caught in a trap. There was a bloody hole on the pig's head, but it was not a gunshot wound, but a large hole. Caused by a powerful crossbow.
It’s a pity that the processing method is a bit rough, and the blood was dragged back before draining away. The meat tastes not much better.
Wild boars are not a native species in North America. Today’s wild populations are formed by the rewilding of escaped domestic pigs. After being treated properly, the taste is not as bad as some people say. You can also find "delicacies" such as wild boar burgers on the menu in a few restaurants.
As for the so-called wild animals carrying germs easily, I'm sorry, but the rednecks in the south don't care about this. The overpopulation of wild boars in the United States is simply due to the lack of natural enemies, the vast land and sparse population, and the cost of hunting is too high. People who have money and leisure really can't afford to mess with these rough-skinned and thick-meat animals because of their stuttering. Is industrially produced beef? Doesn’t it smell good?
"So, what is going on?" Seeing everyone put away their guns, the big and honest-looking man asked angrily.
After checking his whole body, Jack found that there were no weapons. He patted his shoulder to indicate that he could put his hands down, "We need to know where you were at three o'clock this morning."
Eli Dorflinger took off his bloody leather apron and threw it aside, still looking confused, "Of course we went hunting."
"Going hunting in the middle of the night?" Aubrey frowned He frowned.
“Of course, it used to take at least three hours along the way. I had to get up at 1 o’clock to get ready so that I could arrive before sunrise.”
Just because Eli Dorflinger looks honest, it doesn't mean that he is really heartless. When he contacted the four FBIs in front of him, who looked like they were facing a formidable enemy, he suddenly had an ominous premonition.
“Please, can you tell me what happened?”
Hannah, a Texas girl, is naturally familiar with the southern accent here, and she can’t help but bring her into her voice when she speaks. That cute Texas accent, "Sorry man, but we have to tell you that Katherine Sloan was murdered last night."
"What happened to her?" Eli Dorflinger Subconscious Half a step forward, he saw Aubrey, who looked nervous, with his right hand on his gun again, and had to stop.
"Don't be impulsive, big guy, we know you two are in love, that's why we came to our door." Clay also stepped forward to block him, raising his hand to signal him not to act rashly.
Eli Dorflinger's eyes flashed with tears, "Yes, we have been together for four years. What is going on? I don't understand. How could she do it? Kate is a good girl, how can anyone bear it? "
"Why do you think we came to the door? Maybe you found out about her and Pete Hill and got angry and came to them with a gun."
"Wait a minute." Aubrey was interrupted by Eli Dorflinger before he could finish his words. "You mean Kate cheated on me behind my back?"
——
"I'll leave this to you." Jack glared at Aubrey, who looked innocent, and then turned to look helplessly at Eli Dorflinger, who was squatting on the ground and crying. The big man was crying at the moment. You have to be like a child who weighs over 200 pounds and no amount of persuasion will work.
In any case, the suspicion of Katherine Sloan's Tauren boyfriend has been ruled out for the time being. Although it is not clear whether he is crying sadly because of his girlfriend's death or because he was more NRT, judging from his first reaction It really doesn't look like it's just pretending.
And he did not go hunting wild boar alone. There were several hunters accompanying him. A little investigation can confirm his alibi.
It was already sunset when everyone returned to the billiards bar. Jubal and Jiejie also returned here, and the bar was full of files.
Jack placed the dinner he bought along the way on the small table, took a file and flipped through it, and found that it was a case about the illegal sale of moonshine spirits.
The United States has very strict regulations on alcohol. Let’s not talk about drinking until you are 21 years old. Taxes are also levied directly from the production process.
So although nearly a hundred years had passed since "Prohibition", moonshine was still a very profitable business, especially in these remote central and southern states. He flipped through a few more books and found that almost all of them were about this. aspects of the case.
“I’m going to vomit when I see these cases of illegal alcohol sales.” Jubal, who is already allergic to alcohol, said that he really couldn’t bear it.
“When we went to the prosecutor’s office, prosecutor Skip Hardy was sorting out all the felony records in the past five years, and he believed that the murderer of his three assistants must be among them. . ”
Jiejie also looked hopeless. The number of vicious cases in such a small place a year does not mean that the crime rate is low because of the simple folk customs, but that the crime reporting rate is too low.
The biggest advantage of the vast land and sparse population is that even if you accidentally kill someone, if you drive a pickup truck or off-road vehicle and throw the body into the wilderness, the family of the deceased will at most report it missing.
Disappearance cases are usually the lowest priority. It's a thankless effort and a waste of time. The Sheriff has no time to deal with this. Wouldn't it be nice to catch a few moonshine brewers? Usually that means a lot of cash. .
So in this large pile of files, more than 90% of them are so-called "felonies", occasionally mixed with a few arson and sexual assault lawsuits, which is really confusing.
(End of this chapter)