Luke smoothed over his thoughts and now has 4 questions.

The first question is, was Albus Stone the buyer of the ten robbed paintings?

The second question is, did Albus Stone die of natural causes or was he committed suicide?

If it was homicide, is it related to the ten oil paintings that were robbed from the wall?

The third question is, if Albus Stone died of natural causes and was terminally ill, what would he be doing with his oil paintings?

The fourth question, where are the oil paintings?

If Albus Stone was still alive, Luke would just ask.

Albus Stone is now dead, but Luke needs to investigate on his own, which makes it exponentially more difficult.

These doubts forced Luke to leave Albus Stone's house.

He needs more evidence and clues to prove his judgment or overturn his hypothesis.

Albus Stone had just died, and Luke could not rashly search the funeral hall without sufficient evidence.

This kind of thing is taboo and can easily cause dissatisfaction among family members.

…

After learning from detective Michelle Harold that Albus Stone was the client, Luke had reason to launch an investigation into Albus Stone.

Before he went to Albus Stone's house, he had assigned tasks to the team members and asked them to investigate separately.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the team members returned to the police station one after another, and Luke called everyone for a meeting.

Luke got straight to the point, "Guys, I went to Albus Stone's house. He is dead and a wake ceremony is being held at home."

The deputy said, "Dead? Can you be sure it's Albus Stone himself?"

"His body was placed in the freezer. It looked like Albus Stone himself." Luke's tone was not too sure. After all, he only briefly met Albus Stone at the door of the ward.

The deputy ran his hair with the fingers of his right hand and asked, "Is it too coincidental? Was it a natural death?"

"According to Mrs. Stone, her husband's condition is very serious and there is no hope of cure. It just keeps dragging on.

Two days ago, Mr. Stone figured it out and took the initiative to remove the medical equipment, and the doctors and nurses also left.

Mr. Stone passed away peacefully at 11:30 last night, and Mrs. Stone was the first to find out."

The deputy snorted, "Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Stone said everything."

If she wanted to kill her husband, it couldn't be easier.

A dead man will not stand up and refute."

Jenny was a little speechless, "Vice team, not all couples have conflicts, there are also some who rely on each other and love each other."

The deputy said, "They are not an ordinary couple. This Mr. Stone is called California's 'Buffett.' Similar to this kind of wealthy family, the family bond is like a piece of paper that can be pierced with one finger."

Jenny shook her head, "You are too extreme."

"I know that Mr. Stone is old and has a high chance of dying of natural causes.

But old men also have human rights, and the possibility of homicide cannot be ruled out subjectively just because of their age.

Moreover, for a rich man, eighty years old is not very old, and it is far from reaching the average life span of rich people." The deputy team has his own concept of the relationship between husband and wife, which is based on decades of personal practice.

Come to think of it, it's hard to shake.

Jenny said, "If you follow your words, Mr. Stone's death is related to his wife, but Mr. Stone has been in poor health and won't live long.

What reason did Mrs. Stone have for killing him?"

"If the motive for the murder is so obvious and can be guessed in just a few words, then everyone knows who the murderer is, so what else does the Robbery and Murder Department do?" The deputy team member spread his hands, "I didn't say Mrs. Stone was the murderer, I just thought that

The possibility of homicide should be ruled out first."

The words of the deputy team reminded Luke that he and Jackson went to Stone's house that day. Albus Stone fell ill. There were monitoring instruments at the time and medical staff rescued him in time, so Albus Stone saved his life.

In fact, there was no need for anyone to deliberately harm him. As long as the monitoring equipment and medical staff were removed, Albus Stone would not survive for more than a few days.

Therefore, it is difficult to determine the evidence of homicide.

If it is true, as Mrs. Stone said, that her husband stopped struggling, did not want to suffer any more, wanted to leave in peace and took the initiative to remove the medical equipment, then it would be a natural death.

If it was Mrs. Stone who requested the removal of medical equipment and medical care, then the issue would be more complicated, but equally difficult to determine.

Since the deputy team was more concerned about this kind of thing, Luke simply let him handle it.

The deputy team member agreed happily, "I will have a good talk with Mr. Stone's doctor."

Luke asked, "How is the investigation going with Mr. Stone's immediate family members?"

Matthew replied, "Mr. Stone has a wife and a son and a daughter. The son works in Mr. Stone's company and is now the general manager and executive director of the company; the daughter has lived in New York for a long time and bought a flight to Los Angeles early this morning.

Air tickets."

Luke said, "What about the financial situation?"

Raymond said, "We went to the banking system to investigate and Mr. Stone's financial situation is good.

Ten million dollars in cash was withdrawn from the account two months ago."

Jackson said, "Could the ten million dollars be used to buy the ten oil paintings that were robbed?"

Xiaohei said, "The purchase price of stolen goods is usually between 5% and 20%. The market price of the ten oil paintings is 20 million US dollars. If purchased on the black market, it would only cost 1 million to 4 million US dollars."

In between, you can’t use that much money at all.

This amount does not match the stolen money."

The deputy team member said, “Nothing in this world is static and is full of surprises.

I have interrogated many prisoners. Their crime plans are very careful, but accidents happen every time they commit crimes. There is no perfect case in this world.

The same is true for this oil painting robbery." The deputy team seemed to feel a little hot, took off his jacket, and continued, "The suspect originally planned to steal from the Getty Museum, and he was more proactive and would definitely select some precious oil paintings.

.

Even the price of one oil painting can exceed the total price of these ten oil paintings.

But because the Getty Museum's security measures were too tight, they chose to rob the transported paintings.

In this case, the autonomy will be much less. The museum has the final say on how many oil paintings are transported and which oil paintings are transported.

Therefore, it is completely understandable that the cash Albus Stone prepared to purchase the oil painting was not equal to the value of the oil painting."

Xiaohei said, "If Albus Stone is really the buyer, why would he buy the robbed oil painting when he is already dying?"

Jackson said, "It's possible that Albus Stone was simply pushed to the front and the real buyer was someone else.

After all, he is just an old man who cannot take care of himself, so it is not difficult."

The deputy team member said, “This is what I want to say.

Albus Stone was exploited, and once he was done with it, he was silenced, and the clues to the oil painting were lost.

And this is the situation we are facing now.”

Xiao Hei suggested, "According to the time, Albus Stone's body should have been moved to the church for the memorial ceremony, so we have no worries.

Can we directly apply for a search warrant to search his villa?"

Without waiting for Luke to answer, the deputy said, "It is difficult to apply for a search warrant with the existing evidence.

Although we have found out that Albus Stone hired detectives to investigate the painting robbery, this is not illegal.

As for the two detectives pretending to be police detectives, it has nothing to do with him.

There is no clear evidence that he is related to the oil painting robbery, let alone that he is the buyer.

Speculation is just speculation and cannot be used as evidence."

Xiao Hei frowned and said, "Albus Stone is dead now, so we can't investigate him directly.

And now we don't have enough evidence to apply for a search warrant, and we won't find more evidence without a search.

It will be difficult for the case to make progress if this continues."

The deputy team leader shrugged, "Although what you said makes sense, it is the fact."

In fact, given the relationship between Luke and Judge Walker, it is not difficult to apply for a search warrant.

However, unless there are special circumstances or when he is absolutely sure, Luke does not want to use personal relationships.

If no valuable clues or evidence are found, Walker's trust in him will be overdrawn.

As the captain, Luke also thinks more comprehensively. Even if Albus Stone is really the buyer, he may not necessarily hide the oil painting in the villa.

If the police conduct a rash search without knowing the location of the oil painting, they may fail, and he, the captain, will have to bear the responsibility.

After thinking about it, Luke said to everyone, "I will find a way to get the search warrant, but before that, I need to meet with the other family members of Albus Stone."

…

The memorial service had already ended when Luke arrived at the church, and Albus Stone's body had been transported to the cemetery, where a funeral would be held tomorrow morning.

Luke drove to Walter Cemetery.
To be continued...