America: The Gear-Up Detective

"Did you perform the autopsy?" Rhodes wasn't too surprised. The number of forensic pathologists in the Department of Forensic Science wasn't very large, and often one person had to handle the evidence analysis for several cases.

Leila nodded. "Unfortunately, the stains on the suitcase were too severe, and we couldn't extract any useful traces..."

Then he asked, "So, do you have any other leads?"

Rod shook his head, poking at the rice on his plate, and said helplessly, "Now it's the Walmart SKU number on that suitcase that we can hope will give us a new breakthrough."

What new discoveries have you made?

"Well, I just sent some of my findings to Connor, but you probably haven't received them yet, so I'll just tell you directly."

Based on our assessment, the two bodies were likely murdered more than two months ago.

"Two months?"

"Based on the current condition of the body, combined with the weather in Los Angeles and the temperature inside the container, two months is a reasonable conclusion."

Rhodes nodded. This time span was too long, which reduced the chances of catching the murderer.

Leila shoveled a couple more mouthfuls of rice, then abruptly changed the subject, asking casually, "Hank told me you've been spending a lot of time with an Asian girl lately?"

Rod was stunned. The topic had changed too suddenly. One second they were discussing the murder case, and the next second it had turned to him.

"Yes," Rod replied. "It's funny, we met while working on a case. She helped us a lot in catching the murderer."

We got to know each other quite well over time, and now we're very good friends.

"Just friends?" Lyra glanced at Rhodes, then asked, "Friends who're always hanging out together?"

Rhodes shrugged. "We're still friends."

Then, looking at Leila, he teased, "What's wrong? Are you jealous?"

Leila chuckled, put down her chopsticks, and said, "I've been studying Chinese culture lately and I've found its meaning to be very profound."

There's a line in it that I really like.

After a pause, Leila said in broken Chinese, "Old Ma doesn't go back to what he already knows."

After saying that, he got up and left, looking exceptionally dashing.

Rod paused, then thought, "That sounds a bit odd."

"Shouldn't it be that a good horse doesn't eat the grass it has already grazed?"

As Rhodes watched Lyra walk out of the restaurant, he sent her the meaning of those two sentences.

The next second, Lyra replied with a series of "blood-dripping cleaver" emojis.

Rod smiled.

Chatting does indeed soothe emotions, and after this interlude, Rod's appetite returned.

While I was eating, my cell phone, which was placed to the side, rang.

The caller ID shows Connor.

Rhodes answered the phone, "Hello? Captain, what's up?"

On the other end of the phone, Connor's voice sounded slightly excited, "Rhodes, where are you right now?"

Rod swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "I'll go outside and see if I can find any clues. Just sitting in the office isn't a solution."

"Okay, you don't need to come back yet. Walmart just sent a confirmation email."

That style of suitcase was only sold in four stores across all of Los Angeles.

While Rod was still thinking, Connor continued, "Two of them are near San Pedro Bay, and I've already arranged for Hank and Jose to handle them."

"For the remaining two companies, I'll need you to make a trip there. Check the surveillance footage, purchase records, and find any clues we can use."

"Okay, I understand, I'll go right away."

After hanging up the phone, Rod ate a couple more bites of rice and then walked out of the restaurant.

As soon as I got into the car, Connor sent me the addresses of both Walmarts.

"I have submitted a formal application through Walmart's internal enforcement request system. This is the contact information for the managers of the two stores."

Shortly thereafter, Connor sent an electronic search warrant with a judge's signature.

The two Walmart stores are quite far apart, and it would take Rod more than an hour to drive there, but at least he had some clues.

More than forty minutes later.

West of the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles.

In front of a Walmart store.

Rod parked his car in the parking lot, walked into Walmart, and then called the store manager. After explaining his purpose, Rod waited where he was.

A short while later, a Black woman dressed in business attire walked towards Rod.

"Detective Rhodes?"

"It's me. You should have received our application by now. This is the search warrant."

Rod showed the search warrant to the manager.

The Black manager glanced at it, then nodded and said, "Of course, I will do my best to cooperate with you."

"Let's go check out the monitoring room first. How long do you usually keep your surveillance footage?"

"About forty-five days."

Rod stopped in his tracks, somewhat taken aback. Lyra had just said that the two children had been murdered for two months, and now the surveillance video had been overwritten?

"So short?"

The Black manager said with a wry smile, "This was updated not long ago."

According to anti-terrorism factory audit standards, in order to pass a more stringent audit, the retention requirement for surveillance video has now been increased to 45 days. We just updated our surveillance equipment; previously, we only had 30 days of recordings.

"This is not good news." Rhodes stroked his chin. The lack of surveillance cameras undoubtedly made the case much more difficult.

"What about the product's inventory and purchase records?"

Without a second thought, the manager immediately replied to Rod, "The inventory record system saves records for ninety days by default."

The purchase records must be at least one year old.

Rod breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."

Because the suitcases containing the two bodies were the same model, and according to Walmart's platform records, this suitcase had only been on the shelves for about three months, the person who bought these two suitcases must have purchased them at most three months ago.

An average family wouldn't buy two large suitcases at once, so regardless of whether the buyer was the murderer of the two children, they must at least have some connection to the murderer.

Since the surveillance video was no longer useful, the two turned around and headed straight for the manager's office.

The Black manager accessed his back-end system.

"As long as we have our internal inventory management number, information such as the product's inventory, listing time, sales quantity, and time will be recorded."

Rod reported the series of numbers starting with the SKU that he found on the suitcase to the black manager.

The manager performed a series of operations on the computer backend.

A few seconds later, the page displayed several sets of sales data.

"This suitcase has been on the market for about three months. Because it is designed to be too big, it cannot be taken on some airlines' planes, so not many have been sold."

Looking at the few lines of data, Rhodes asked, "Does this data show the buyer's information?"

The manager replied, "If it was a credit card payment or a payment made through our member account, we can verify it."

However, if it's cash, only the time information is displayed; the buyer's identity is not shown.

There are many restrictions, but there are no other leads at the moment.

Rod said helplessly, "Pull up all this data."

Then, Rod, still unwilling to give up, asked, "Have you noticed in the past few months that someone bought two of these suitcases at once, along with a whole bunch of ice packs?"

The Black manager thought for a moment, then said slowly with a hint of hesitation, "Well... there is a lady... who is quite suitable."

But she only bought one suitcase, though she did ask for a lot of ice packs.

Rhodes looked surprised. "There really is?"