Chapter 9
Luke moved quickly as he made himself a sandwich with a thick layer of peanut b.u.t.ter.
Today was going to be a busy day. Thus, if he didn't eat more for breakfast, he was worried he would run out of energy by noon.
He still bickered with Robert out of habit. "So, do you mean that after today, I can start arriving late?"
Robert nearly spat out the sandwich that was in his mouth. Those words caused him to choke on it, and after coughing and drinking a large mouthful of milk, he was finally able to swallow the stuck sandwich.
He rarely emerged victorious when bickering with Luke as his line of thinking was never faster than Luke's.
That was the extent of their bickering as they still had a lot to do today.
After Robert finished his sandwich and milk, he stood up and started rus.h.i.+ng Luke. Luke poured the gla.s.s of milk down his throat and stood up with an unfinished sandwich, ready to leave.
Catherine quickly walked out and asked, "Are you returning for lunch?"
Robert answered, "No. We'll grab something to eat outside."
As for Luke, he grinned and quickly took the paper bag from Catherine before planting a kiss on her forehead, his mouth covered in breadcrumbs, and said, "Oh, good to hear that. Thank you, Catherine, for preparing lunch for me alone."
Robert's face immediately fell when he heard that.
So it turned out Catherine had made more food just now and wanted them to bring the food along so that they could have a quick bite when they got hungry.
Looking at the two men, one with an ugly face and one with a wide grin, enter the car, a smile surfaced on Catherine's face.
With the two going to work together, she felt much more at ease.
She cared deeply for the both of them. And with the two of them watching each other's back, their work would most likely be less dangerous as well.
Of course, for now, it was still Robert who was taking care of Luke. But based on the intelligence Luke had displayed since young, he would be on the same level as Robert before long, and the two could start watching each other's back then.
Catherine was confident of that.
The police car sped off toward Knox City.
Their small town didn't have a forensics department. Thus, they had to visit the one in Knox City for the autopsy results.
However, even Knox City wasn't particularly advanced in forensics. If they couldn't figure anything out, they would need to enlist the help of a better forensics department, such as the one at Houston.
The United States was different from China.
Their administrative divisions were arranged in descending order: state, county, towns.h.i.+p, and smaller population centers.
As for their law enforcement system, it worked differently.
Cases not within the jurisdiction of the local town or city police force
Moreover, their local town police department wasn't under the city police department, nor was it under the county-level police department. Rather, their police department, or to be apt, their sheriff department, answered directly to the local citizens, while the salaries of members of the sheriff department were paid from the town's administrative budget.
Thus, situations where different law enforcement agencies would s.n.a.t.c.h each other's cases were quite commonplace here.
After all, the various law enforcement agencies nationwide were independent ent.i.ties that weren't subordinate to one another. Even when FBI agents carried out their investigations, the local police force would frequently be prejudiced against them, feeling as if the FBI was trying to interfere in their cases.
Since the local police department was responsible for the town, they preferred to solve their own cases.
Unless they were unable to solve a case or if the case was too big to handle, they would never hand a case over to a different law enforcement agency, no matter if it was the FBI or some other police department.
The reason Robert was in a rush to see the autopsy report in Knox City was so that he could quickly determine the nature of this case.
If the girl had drowned, the police department would no longer have anything much to do with it.
And if it was an actual homicide, he would have to solve the case as quickly as possible.
It had been many years since a murder had happened in their town. This time, the dead was the daughter of a local resident. As such, they had to treat this case seriously.
Only by solving the case as quickly as possible would they be able to prove that their department wasn't receiving their pay for nothing.
They sped along, and in less than an hour, they arrived at Knox City's police department.
The forensics department wasn't inside the department. Rather, it was located in a four-story building next to the department.
As for whether that was because the police force didn't want corpses in their building, no one knew.
After getting out of the car, Robert didn't enter right away. Rather, he looked at Luke. "Do you know what you need to pay attention to as a new officer?"
Luke sank into thought for a short while before saying, "Listen more, speak less, and don't touch anything?"
Robert replied, "…Where in the world did you hear that from? Yes! That's right! Simple and accurate! Remember, don't repeat those words to anyone. I'll use them to train my subordinates in the future."
Luke: …Can I tell you that that's the most common saying in the TV series I watched in my past life?
After signing in with his name and position on the force, Robert brought Luke along and followed the receptionist to room number three.
The so-called room number three was the third morgue.
Robert didn't seem to have any misgivings as he directly knocked on the door before entering.
A middle-aged man of about 40 years old nodded when he saw Robert enter. "You're here. Please wait a moment. Let me finish my freshly ground cup of coffee."
Robert: -_-!
Luke: (0_0?)
Was something wrong with the script? Luke was completely confused. Had he arrived at a coffee shop instead?
On the other hand, Robert had an unsightly expression. But he didn't flare up. Rather, he lowered his voice and said, "This is how he is. Every morning before work, he must have a cup of so-called freshly ground coffee. He claims that without this cup of coffee, he'll feel weak for the entire day."
Luke replied in an even softer voice, "Are you sure he's talking about coffee?"
Robert's face twitched as he replied, "He doesn't do drugs, not even weed. I think coffee is his version of weed. He's completely addicted to caffeine."
That left Luke speechless.
But that wasn't the only surprise that morning.
While waiting to finish his freshly ground coffee, the middle-aged man turned on the speakers in the room. It wasn't too loud, but it was still extremely clear in this completely silent morgue.
It was the sound of a violin playing, but Luke couldn't figure out what the song was. He had never been too interested in music.
But the music was still quite nice.
After 30 minutes, the middle-aged man finally slowly finished his cup of freshly ground coffee. He didn't even show any intention of offering them some.
Robert was perfectly calm. He knew this person well; this was a person who would take his own sweet time in everything.
And n.o.body could do anything about him. He was just too good of a forensic doctor. Or to be precise, he was the only forensic doctor in all of Knox City.
After the middle-aged man put his coffee equipment away, he sized up Luke and asked, "New guy?"
Robert replied, "My kid, Luke. He's also an officer. Today is his first day on the job. Mars, can you hurry up?"
The middle-aged man clicked his tongue and said, "Hehe, you brought him here on his first day? Are you sure he's your biological son?"
Luke smiled but didn't say anything, adhering closely to the command to speak less. In any case, Robert was there to do all the talking.
Sure enough, Robert's face fell as he said, "Mars, don't joke about my family."
The middle-aged man called Mars blanked out slightly before he smiled apologetically and said, "Sorry, I'm used to trash talking with the people from the department. You should know about Hanks… oh, let's not talk about that."