NOVPUBThe sudden knock on the door interrupted Luo An's thoughts. Horst stood up, walked to the door of the interrogation room, whispered a few words with the newcomer, took a piece of paper, and walked back to Luo An.
"This is a search warrant issued by the court."
Horst placed the paper with its black and red font in front of Luo An and said sternly:
"Deputy Group Leader Greenwood, if you truly are not the murderer of Pearson, then please accept the search warrant and do not make this difficult for us."
Seeing the thin paper he usually handed over to others placed in front of him, Luo An's mind raced, quickly clarifying the logic behind the whole incident.
"Hahaha..."
Luo An laughed loudly while clapping his hands:
"Impressive, very impressive!"
Horst silently watched the laughing Luo An and did not speak, but Yurik, who was next to him, couldn't sit still and said sharply:
"Deputy Group Leader Greenwood! If you still consider yourself an FBI agent, please cooperate with us!"
"Don't pressure me with those words!"
Hearing Yurik's statement, the smile on Luo An's face disappeared instantly, and his eyes filled coldly as he said:
"Listen, as the Deputy Group Leader of the Special Investigation Team of the FBI Los Angeles Branch, I will not refuse a search warrant issued by the court.
But I have one condition: before the Monitoring Department agents enter my house to search, my subordinates must inspect their clothes and pockets!
I do not want to find things in my own house that I've never seen before!"
Horst's expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, but Yurik's face turned red instantly:
"Deputy Group Leader Greenwood, you…"
"Michelle!"
Luo An didn't give the other person a chance to speak and shouted directly:
"I remember the FBI regulations allow management personnel to make such requests! If I am not mistaken, knock on the glass three times."
The air in the interrogation room quieted for a few seconds, then there was a knocking sound from the side glass.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Exactly three times.
"According to article seven of the fourteenth regulation, management personnel may request the investigation team to temporarily select third-party team agents to search their own spaces.
Deputy Group Leader Greenwood's request is not unreasonable."
Horst nodded with a matter-of-fact expression, then glanced at Yurik:
"Go back and copy the FBI internal rules ten times. Bring it to me when you're done."
"...Yes, sir."
Luo An grinned and snatched the search warrant from the table:
"Let's go, everyone, where first?
My rented house, or my Special Investigation Team?"
Horst chose to ignore Luo An's sarcastic tone and even opened the door for him:
"Let's start with the Special Investigation Team, since it's in the building."
———— 𝔫𝖔𝖛𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Outside the Special Investigation Team's office area on the corridor, Luo An held the search warrant, arms crossed, standing by as Mona searched the pockets of the female Monitoring Department agents, and Michelle searched the other male agents.
Luo An originally planned to ask the group supervisor, Potante Byrne, to help search the male agents, but seeing Potante Byrne's wide eyes, ultimately he did not dare to ask him for help.
Soon, the search of the eight Monitoring Department agents, five men and three women, was complete. Luo An signaled with his mouth, and Horst waved a large hand, sending them into the Special Investigation Team's office area.
Luo An and his colleagues had not been in Los Angeles for a very long time, and had not handled many cases, so the office area was quickly checked.
The group leader's office was even simpler; Luo An rarely worked there, spending more time sitting in the outer office area with Mona, so it was very clean with hardly anything inside.
In less than half an hour, the eight agents walked out of the Special Investigation Team's office area empty-handed.
Seeing the leading agent shake his head at Horst, and Mona's unfriendly gaze, Luo An coldly said:
"When we go to search my rented house next, be careful and try to put everything back in its place, otherwise..."
"Watch your attitude, Deputy Group Leader Greenwood."
Horst glanced at Luo An:
"Threatening my agent, I'll remember this."
Luo An grinned:
"After today, I'll make sure you will remember me for the rest of your life."
"..."
Outside the apartment rented by Luo An and Mona.
Since Mona also lived here, the women agents from the Monitoring Department were inspected by Michelle, while the inspection of men agents was handled by team supervisor Potante-Byrne.
Potante-Byrne: "..."
Seeing the other person glaring at him, Luo An innocently shook the search warrant in his hands:
Don't blame me, the Special Investigation Team has only one male agent; blame Horst instead!
Seeing Potante-Byrne start to glare at him, Horst remained silent.
The three women and five men were quickly inspected by the two, who then opened the door and entered the apartment rented by Luo An and Mona.
One of the male agents quickly found a pair of sports shoes identical to those worn by the person in black; Horst waved his hand to signal his staff to pack them, seeing this, Luo An patted Mona's arm and added:
"Mona, you should go with them to the trace examination department later, and make sure no one swaps the dirt under my sports shoes."
Horst glanced at Luo An and remained silent, while some agents from the Monitoring Department were nearly enraged by Luo An's sarcastic remarks.
Time passed minute by minute. The apartment rented by Luo An and Mona was not small, it had several rooms, and Mona's bedroom was somewhat cluttered, so it took the eight agents almost three hours to complete their search.
A male agent came out:
"Chief, we did not find any weapons suspected of killing agent Pearson."
After a few minutes, a female agent also came out:
"Reporting to the chief, we also haven't found anything unusual."
Horst, hearing this, frowned slightly in silence, and Ukulele, who was behind him, stepped forward and asked in a focused tone:
"Didn't you find any clues at all?"
Before the eight agents could answer, Luo An standing nearby yawned and joked:
"It seems that Mr. Ukulele is quite skeptical of your colleagues' work capabilities. How about you go in and search again?"
As Luo An's words fell, the eight agents who searched the rooms stared at Ukulele unfriendlily. Seeing this, Ukulele turned pale:
"That's not what I meant! You..."
"Enough!"
Horst suddenly spoke up, loudly interrupting Ukulele, and looked at Luo An sternly:
"Sorry about today, Deputy Group Leader Greenwood. If there are any developments later, I will contact you."
After saying that, Horst waved his hand, ready to leave with his agents, but was suddenly blocked by Luo An who leaped forward:
"Chief Horst, after hassling me for so long today, it's not appropriate to leave just like that."
"What do you want?"
"This is a case of the Special Investigation Team, the murder of Pearson."
Luo An sneered, "Hand over the previous video to us!"
Horst did not refuse, but he had his conditions:
"We need to keep the original, we can only give you a copy."
"OK."
Seeing Luo An agreed, Horst barely breathed a sigh of relief, just as he was about to move forward, he found that Luo An was still blocking the way.
"Deputy Group Leader Greenwood, what else do you want?"
Luo An raised his arm, grinning:
"I want him!"
Following his pointing, everyone saw that Luo An's target was Ukulele, standing behind Horst.
Seeing Ukulele's panicked and clueless face, Luo An couldn't help but sneer continuously.
Just like he had said while laughing earlier, Luo An had finally figured out the logic behind this incident.
