CHAPTER 408: CHAPTER 408: POISONED TO DEATH?

Special Investigation Team, meeting room.

Hearing Leona’s request, Chenier was a bit puzzled and speechless, but she didn’t have the authority, so she turned her gaze to Luo An.

Luo An thought for a moment, nodded, and said:

"Okay, once we confirm there are no issues with the clues you provided, you can meet with Kelly, but we will be supervising the meeting."

"Don’t worry, I’m not trying to pass on any messages to Kelly, I just genuinely want to slap him."

Leona knew what Luo An was worried about. She snorted lightly and took another sip of her milk, then continued:

"Kelly has a friend named Alex, who was in the same military unit as him in the past. The two of them had a good relationship. They have always been working for the same boss."

Leona didn’t know who that boss was. Every time Kelly was contacted, it would be through Alex. Once Alex called, Kelly would go off the grid for several days before returning with some money.

"I’ve got a photo of Alex on my phone."

Leona handed her phone over to Luo An, indicating that she had previously, out of concern for Kelly, secretly hired someone to investigate Alex.

Unfortunately, the private detective she found was incompetent. Apart from finding a photo and a temporary address of Alex, no other information was found, and her money was wasted.

"Okay."

Taking the phone from Leona, Luo An motioned for Chenier to continue the questioning while he quickly left the meeting room and handed the phone to Mona to investigate this Alex.

A rapid clacking of keyboard keys followed, and Mona quickly found information about the man:

"Alex Crow, 38 years old this year, served in the same team as Kelly Hunter for a while, and retired from the military before Kelly did to return to the federation.

FBI internal database shows that shortly after returning to the federation, he was jailed for a while for theft, robbery, and aggravated robbery.

After his release from prison, Alex is suspected of joining an illegal arms trafficking criminal organization called ’Purple Castanea.’

This criminal organization is small, with just a few people, operates covertly, and key evidence to prosecute them has always been lacking."

"Now we have evidence."

Luo An looked at Alex’s current address on the computer, gave Mona a satisfied pat on the shoulder, then turned to the others, ordered:

"Reesi, Winslow, you two go with the SWAT team and bring back Mr. Alex. It’s highly likely that they are behind this case."

"No problem!"

"We’ll leave right away."

Reesi and Winslow nodded, immediately entered the equipment room, armed up, and left the Special Investigation Team.

Luo An signaled Michelle and Mona to provide remote support for the two of them, then returned to the meeting room to continue interrogating Leona with Chenier.

Leona didn’t know that much, but it wasn’t insignificant either. She claimed to have grown up with Kelly Hunter since childhood, and as his older sister, she could see through Kelly’s little tricks all too easily. Often, she simply pretended to be oblivious and didn’t bother to expose Kelly.

As for the relationship between siblings + spouses of Kelly Hunter and Leona, Luo An, who was outdated in his thinking, gave it a brief thought before dismissing it from his mind.

In the federation, where one-seventh of the population is infected with syphilis and one-third has tried meth, such matters are nothing to take note of, not even worth a glance from the reporters.

After Leona finished narrating all the information she knew, Chenier stayed in the meeting room to accompany her, while Luo An walked to the office area to check on how Winslow’s operation was progressing.

Then Luo An heard Reesi’s voice on the phone asking:

"Luo An, I’ve got a piece of good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?"

Luo An thought for a moment and replied:

"Working overtime tonight, or not working overtime tonight, which one do you choose?"

"..."

Reesi was slightly taken aback at the end of the line, muttered softly for a few seconds, and then said:

"The good news is, Winslow and I found not only Alex himself at Alex’s house, but three other people as well.

One of them had a problem with his right knuckle, it was slightly depressed, probably the guy who tortured Petduo Osan for interrogation.

Adding Kelly Hunter who was captured last night, we can basically confirm that Alex and these three individuals were the ones who robbed the temporary warehouse and kidnapped the naval officer, Petduo Osan."

Luo An didn’t feel any joy upon hearing this, because Reesi had mentioned earlier that there was also bad news.

Sure enough, Reesi continued:

"Unfortunately, all four of these people are now dead in the living room of Alex’s house."

"Fu-k."

Luo An cursed softly under his breath, rubbing his temples and asking with eyes closed:

"What was the cause of death?"

"There’s no evidence that the four of Alex were shot dead, nor are there any other signs of injury."

As Luo An’s question hung in the air, Reesi’s voice went silent on the line, replaced by Winslow who analyzed:

"But the four of Alex have stiff limbs and twisted faces, and there are a few unfinished drinks on the table. I suspect they were poisoned."

Winslow stood in the house where Alex lived, looking at the four corpses in front of him, guessing that there must have been another person in the room when the incident occurred. This person clinked glasses and shared a drink with Alex’s four, exchanged a few simple words and then left before the others.

This person either didn’t drink, took an antidote in advance, or immediately had his stomach pumped after drinking the wine. In any case, this person didn’t die, he deceived and killed Alex’s four, then left the scene with ease.

Winslow said a lot and finally concluded:

"This person is likely the one who paid for the three anti-tank missiles from Alex and his crew.

By doing this, the reason could either be to avoid payment by a sting operation, or to silence Alex and others by killing them, erasing their own tracks."

"Both possibilities you’ve mentioned are probably exactly what this mastermind behind the scenes had in mind."

Luo An took a seat in Reesi’s spot, rubbing his temples and said:

"Alex and his crew have always been very covert in their actions, handling only regular arms, not something like anti-tank missiles.

It must have been the big payout from the mastermind this time that sparked their greed, leading them to attack the warehouse and take a risky shot."

Winslow fell silent upon hearing this, Luo An’s analysis made a lot of sense. If one were to put themselves in the shoes of the mastermind, killing Alex and the rest had too many benefits, after all, only the dead can keep secrets.

"Call Forensics to the scene later."

After thinking a bit, Luo An added:

"You two go now to check if there’s any surveillance in the area where Alex lived, perhaps it will reveal some clues."

"OK."

Winslow agreed, and after the call was disconnected, Luo An turned to Mona who was beside him and said:

"Mona, now look into the surveillance from last night when we went to arrest Kelly Hunter, encompassing the time period before and after in that area."

Mona, who had been listening in on the conversation all along, quickly grasped the implication, and said with sudden realization:

"You mean, the mastermind behind killing Alex’s four, also went last night to kill Kelly Hunter in order to silence him.

But they didn’t succeed because we arrested Kelly Hunter beforehand."

"That’s a possibility."

Luo An nodded and, after pondering for a moment, stood up to head back to the interrogation room with Michelle, with the news of Alex’s four being silenced by the person behind the scenes, he believed that Kelly Hunter would start talking.