Chapter 382
Chapter 382 Visit, and Discovering the First Crime Scene
They would be able to determine through a field investigation whether Wendy’s body had drifted here on the water current, or if it had simply been dumped here.
The direction of the follow-up investigation would depend on whether the body had been dumped on the beach before it was swallowed by the tide, or had been dumped directly into the ocean from a boat.
Luke and Selina went over to the yellow cordon, which was where the body had been retrieved.
Taking out the file photo of the crime scene, Luke looked at the ocean and said, “The water current comes from there.” He pointed in one direction.
They walked several hundred meters along the beach and climbed a slope, only to be rendered speechless by what they saw
Hundreds of meters away on the other side of the slope was a row of villas along the shoreline.
Selina checked the map and said, “It’s a villa district. Dozens of families live here.”
Luke covered his forehead. “Does this mean that we have to investigate them one by one?”
Looking at the map, Selina suddenly said, “Why don’t we have lunch at a seafood restaurant first?”
Luke was confused. “Huh?” It was just after ten in the morning, and was a little early for lunch.
Selina zoomed in on the map on the tablet and showed it to Luke. “See this?”
Luke looked at the map, and saw several restaurants along the beach back in the direction which they had come.
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that they specialize in seafood?”
Selina said, “Maybe they have big lobsters.” Luke smiled. “Let’s go. If they do, we know what we’re having for lunch.”
They drove back a kilometer, and then slowed down to check the restaurants next to the road.
They soon picked Greer out of a few fairly high-end restaurants.
Selina asked with a smile, “What do you think?”
Luke nodded. “This is it.”
A signboard outside Greer specifically said, “Today’s Special: Boston Lobster.”
But actually, these were Maine lobsters and not Boston lobsters.
“Boston Lobsters are best steamed or cooked with cheese,” said Luke.
Selina immediately started drooling. “Ah, don’t talk about that yet, we’re here on a case.”
Luke didn’t torture the glutton any longer. They went in and found a waitress.
After showing her their badges, they gave her a photo of the victim and asked, “Have you seen this lady before?”
The waitress looked at the photo and smiled. “Of course; Ms. Wendy comes here every week or two.”
Luke asked, “Alone?”
The waitress hesitated for a moment, but she still replied, “No, she comes with Mr. Swick. He’s a decent gentleman.”
Luke and Selina looked at each other and asked, “They come together every time?”
The waitress said, “More or less, but Mr. Swick sometimes comes alone.”
Luke thought for a moment and asked, “Do you remember if they had dinner here the day before yesterday?”
The waitress nodded. “Yes. They were at my table.”
Luke asked, “Was there anything unusual about them? For example, did they fight?”
The waitress shook her head. “No, they’ve always had a close relationship, from what I can see.”
Luke hummed a response and asked, “Did they leave together after dinner?” The waitress shook her head. “No, Ms. Wendy left on our boat, but Mr. Swick drove his car. However, Ms. Wendy never returned our boat after she left.”
Luke and Selina looked at each other. “What boat?”
The waitress pointed at a small pier by the sea. “We provide our customers boats for them to go out and have fun on the ocean for a bit.”
Luke and Selina looked at the boats, and saw that they were white with green edges. Each boat could only accommodate two to three people.
Luke thought for a moment, then asked again, “What do you know about Mr. Swick?”.
A moment later, Luke acquired the address of this Mr. Swick. He smiled at the waitress and said, “Please reserve a table for us. We’ll have lunch here later, and we’d like you to be our server.”
The waitress smiled brilliantly; she knew she would be getting a hefty tip later.
The man who had been meeting Wendy for meals was called Phillis Swick. He lived precisely in the villa district that Luke and Selina had just seen.
Luke looked at Selina and asked, “Thought of anything?”
In the passenger seat, Selina drew a few lines on the tablet. “Is it like this?”
On the map on the tablet, the restaurant was connected to Swick’s house, and Wendy’s name was written on a simple drawing of a boat on the ocean, with a question mark behind it.
Luke looked at the map and nodded. “That’s pretty much it. Now we have to find out where Wendy died.”
An hour later, they walked out of the villa district. After a brief silence, Selina asked, “Do you think he was telling the truth?”
Luke said, “I don’t know, but we’ve seen a lot of criminals who are good actors. Just because he was grieving like that doesn’t mean that he’s innocent.”
Selina clicked her tongue. “My intuition tells me that he didn’t kill Wendy.”
Luke didn’t argue with her. After all, it was just her intuition, not a foregone conclusion. Phillis Swick was reasonably handsome and quite a good talker; indeed, it was easy for him to win a lady’s favor.
But Wendy’s husband… was a little pitiful!
From the conversation just now, this Mr. Swick told them that he and Wendy were a couple and estranged from their spouses; they were going to divorce their spouses so that they could be together.
He had indeed been with Wendy that night. Wendy had sailed the boat to his place, and then left the same way after their tryst.
Selina found that odd. “Why didn’t you drive back together?”
Swick said miserably, “She didn’t want anyone to see her coming to my house. She sailed the boat to my place every time. She wasn’t divorced yet, you know.”
Luke and Selina looked at each other. Recalling that Wendy’s husband didn’t make a police report until his wife had been missing for three days, they knew that this couple didn’t have the best relationship. Luke said, “Let’s go and see if we can find the boat; that might be the first crime scene.”
Instead of driving the car, they simply searched the shoreline on foot.
Forty minutes later, Luke and Selina stood on shore as they looked at the boat that was hidden in a thick growth of weeds. “Okay, at least there’s something we can investigate.”
It was a white boat with green edges. There was also dry blood on one edge of the boat.
It was the smell of blood that had led Luke to the boat.
The wind here was pretty strong, but the boat was giving off the scent incessantly like a signal, and Luke had been able to detect it from fifty meters away.
It was Wendy’s scent.
