Los Angeles Legendary Sleuth

The next morning.

Robbery and Murder Department.

The deputy team leader hummed a little tune as he walked into the First Squad office, seeing two people sitting by his desk.

Luke and Chen Kelin.

"Good morning, captains." The deputy leader furrowed his white eyebrows, "What brings you two captains together so early in the morning?"

Luke said, "Nothing much, just wanted to check some information with you."

"Wait, that tone sounds familiar to me." The deputy leader waved his hand and pursed his lips, "Isn't this how I usually communicate with suspects?"

Luke smiled, "I'm not interested in suspects as old as you.

We're investigating a case related to a murder from forty years ago, wondering if you remember anything about it?"

"A case from forty years ago?" The deputy leader was slightly taken aback, as if lost in recollection.

Luke said, "That's right, the Silver Cross case."

"The Silver Cross case?" The deputy leader muttered, "Give me a hint."

"The victim was a seventeen-year-old white youth named Silmer Gauss, who was found with his hands and feet bound, kneeling on the ground, then strangled to death with a rope.

Behind his body, there was a silver cross..."

"Wait, I remember now..." The deputy leader interrupted Luke and continued, "The silver cross necklace was threaded with a black cord, and the cross was made of plastic, looked very cheap."

Luke nodded, "That's right."

The deputy leader asked, "After so many years, I might not remember other cases, but this one left a deep impression on me. However, is there a connection between these two cases?"

"The tech team found a fingerprint at the scene of Gallian Coffey's murder that matched the one found at the Silver Cross case scene forty years ago."

The deputy leader sighed, "We never identified a suspect that matched the fingerprint, and now, after decades, we've uncovered a new lead.

It's unbelievable."

Chen Kelin asked, "How much do you remember about the case?"

The deputy leader shook his head, "Don't get your hopes up, this case is too old, I'll need to review the files to know."

Luke handed over the Silver Cross case file to the deputy leader.

The deputy leader took the somewhat old file and muttered, "Forty years, I never thought I'd be a cop for so long."

The deputy leader took out his glasses from a drawer and began to review the file.

Luke wasn't in a hurry either. He brewed a cup of tea and quietly waited by the side. He had reviewed the file last night, but not all case clues were reflected in it, as the deputy leader, the original investigator, would have a deeper understanding of the case.

Team members gradually arrived at the office, each taking turns looking over the Silver Cross case file.

Jenny lamented, "The victim of the Silver Cross case was only seventeen, he should have had a bright future and youth, what a pity..."

Jackson agreed, "Seeing his body, his parents must have been heartbroken."

Little Black nodded, "It's indeed regrettable, he was so young..."

The deputy leader huffed, "You're feeling regret too soon.

Back then, we investigated Silmer Gauss's background. Even though he wasn't an adult yet, he was inherently a bad kid—street racing, drugs, bullying classmates..."

Jenny sighed, "Who hasn't made mistakes in their youth? Only after growing up and maturing can one understand what's right and wrong.

What I'm lamenting is that God never gave him a chance for redemption."

The deputy leader corrected, "It wasn't God, but the murderer who didn't give him a chance."

Jenny frowned, "Deputy leader, why do I feel like you have some views on the deceased..."

The deputy leader said, "That's because I know him better than you. Even if he grew up, he wouldn't have changed, most likely he would end up in jail."

Luke interrupted their conversation, "Deputy leader, introduce us to this case."

"No problem, but it's been a long time since then, I don't remember much."

Chen Kelin said, "That's still better than the content in the files."

"Of course." The deputy leader briefly flipped through the file again, then slowly said, "The victim of the Silver Cross case, Silmer Gauss, was murdered on August 12, 1983, at the backyard of his house.

No witnesses, no surveillance, no murder weapon found.

The clues about the suspect come from two aspects. On one hand, from interviews with nearby neighbors, shortly before the incident, they saw a suspicious figure appearing near Silmer Gauss's house, no one saw the face clearly, but from the build, it was likely a male.

Additionally, a suspicious fingerprint was found at the crime scene, unmatched with Silmer Gauss's family's fingerprints, most likely left by the murderer.

Based on these two points, we conducted extensive investigations, identified some suspicious people with motives, but all were ruled out. For a few years after the case, I never gave up on the investigation, but there were never any leads, and it ultimately became a cold case."

The deputy leader expressed again, "I really didn't expect, forty years later, to uncover a lead from that fingerprint."

Chen Kelin pursued, "Deputy leader, do you find any commonalities between these two cases?"

The deputy leader thought for a moment, "The victim in the Silver Cross case came from a white middle-class family, while the Coffey family is quite different, with no apparent connection. Other than both cases occurring in Los Angeles, I don't see a linkage at this time."

"Tell us about the suspects in the Silver Cross case." Luke wanted to know if there was any connection between those involved in the two cases.

The deputy team took off his glasses and said, "As I mentioned before, the deceased Silmer Gauss was a downright bad boy. His relationships were quite complicated, and even at a young age, he made many enemies, adding a lot of difficulty to our investigation back then.

After an initial screening, we identified two key suspects.

Sorry, it's been too long, and I can't remember the names..." the deputy team flipped open the dossier again, searching,

"Joan Morrison, he's a black father whose son attended the same school as Silmer Gauss. Shortly before the incident, Silmer Gauss and a few classmates cornered Joan Morrison's son in the bathroom, beat him up, and urinated on him, causing Joan Morrison's son to fear going to school.

This infuriated Joan Morrison, who approached the school for an explanation, but back then, unlike now, the school did not give Joan Morrison a satisfactory response.

Joan Morrison also went to Silmer Gauss's home more than once and had conflicts with Silmer Gauss's parents.

According to neighbors, on the day Silmer Gauss was killed, Joan Morrison was seen in the community where Silmer Gauss lived. He had both the opportunity and the motive to commit the crime.

He admitted to being near Silmer Gauss's community but denied entering Silmer Gauss's home.

We couldn't find evidence that he committed the crime, and his fingerprints did not match those found at the scene, which were suspected to be left by the murderer."

Jackson said, "School violence."

Black added, "It's clearly about racial discrimination too."

The deputy team said, "You're right, such matters were difficult to handle in those days."

Black complained, "It's not much different now either."

Luke continued to ask, "What about the other suspect?"

The deputy team looked down at the dossier and replied, "Wang Shaokang, yes, a very unique young Chinese man, he should have been under twenty at the time.

Wang Shaokang's mother worked at a restaurant, coming home at around ten every night. One day, Wang Shaokang waited past ten, but his mother did not return.

He was worried about her safety, called to inquire, but got no answer from the restaurant's phone, so he went to look for her at her workplace.

On his way there, he found an injured person on the roadside, covered in blood and gravely injured—it was his mother.

Before he could get her to a hospital, she passed away.

Later, police identified that his mother died in a car accident, and the driver of the car was Silmer Gauss."

"Wait a minute." Black spread his hands, "If Silmer Gauss ran over Wang Shaokang's mother, shouldn't he be in prison? Why did he die at home?"

"That's the problem, Silmer Gauss was prosecuted for causing death by driving, but for various reasons, the sentence was very short, with a probation of three years, and the actual punishment was only a hundred hours of community service and a compensation of seven thousand US dollars.

Understandably, Wang Shaokang's family was furious.

We investigated Wang Shaokang's background, and he repeatedly stated that he would avenge his mother, and if the law couldn't provide him justice, he would take matters into his own hands.

He had plenty of motive for murder." Though the deputy team spoke vaguely, everyone could hear that the underlying reason was still racial.

Black sighed, "It was indeed a damned era.

I suddenly feel like the guy getting killed isn't all that unacceptable."

"This case is already forty years old, we never found the real culprit back then, and now many clues and pieces of evidence have vanished with time, solving this case…" the deputy team shook his head, clearly not hopeful.

Matthew shrugged, "Technology is also advancing…"

"What?" The deputy didn't catch it.

Matthew cleared his throat, "I said, although the older a case is, the harder it is to solve, technology has been advancing over these past forty years, and forensic science and investigative techniques are incomparable to forty years ago.

With modern technology, perhaps new leads to the case might be discovered."

The deputy observed him for a while, "Let's hope so."

Luke concluded, "You all make valid points, the case is forty years old, making it difficult to solve.

But technological advancements might uncover new clues.

So, we might as well change our approach; we're re-investigating the Silver Cross case, not to find the killer of the Silver Cross case nor to gather evidence for a conviction.

But by understanding the Silver Cross case, we aim to find commonalities with the murders of Gallian Coffey and Blanchie Coluk.

The case from forty years ago may be tough to prosecute, but we can try to convict the killers of Gallian Coffey and Blanchie Coluk." Luke finished and looked at the others, "Captain Chen, what do you think?"

"Worth a try."

Luke assigned tasks, "OK, then we'll split the investigation.

You lead the investigation on Joan Morrison, a suspect in the Silver Cross case.

I will lead the investigation on Wang Shaokang, the other suspect in the Silver Cross case.

Deputy team, as you were part of the Silver Cross case investigation back then, I'd like you to contact the victim's family, see if they can provide any valuable leads."

"Back then, the victim's parents were already in their forties." The deputy pointed to his head with his fingers, "So, I advise you not to hold too much hope for the two octogenarians.

Besides, are you sure you want to break this news to two people in their eighties?

I don't know if they can handle it?"

Luke didn't want to cause trouble either, "Then you should first talk to other relatives of the deceased, and decide based on the situation."

The deputy shrugged, "Thank you for your trust."