American forensics, but the gourmet system

Chapter 72 Drones VS Beagles (Fourth update, please subscribe!)

Let's go back half an hour.

"The last time Fabian's Ford Transit van was seen on a street camera was right here."

Thea stretched her hand out of the window and pointed to the surveillance cameras standing on the street.

"Okay." Marty parked the car on the side of the road, opened the door and jumped out. He stood there looking around. "There are surveillance cameras at both ends of this street, which means his car didn't leave this street at least—maybe we should search along this street. Transit vans are quite conspicuous."

"There's a pretty big parking lot up ahead," Thea said to Marty through the car window. "Maybe he parked there."

"How did you know, Thea?" Marty was slightly surprised. "Have you been here before?"

"Google Maps," Thea shrugged. "Just search for nearby parking lots and you'll see."

"Alright—high-tech." Marty climbed back into the car. "Let's go check out the parking lot then—"

Amidst the vast expanse of white hills, the airflow from the drone's rotors whipped up a cloud of snow mist, which then hummed as it rose into the air.

Russell was holding Jesse's phone in his hand, while on the other end of FaceTime, Marty was pressing his phone's camera close to the window of a Ford Transit.

"Can you see it, Russell?" Marty muttered. "This guy has privacy film on the back window—"

I could vaguely see the equipment inside the car by looking through the window, but my phone couldn't seem to capture it clearly.

"I can't see clearly, Marty. Try shining the light through the windshield."

"The cab and the cargo area are separated," Marty said, frowning. "We don't have the keys to this vehicle—or we can wait, I'll contact emergency services now and have them come and pick the lock—"

"Alright—" Russell nodded. "Then Marty, describe to me what you saw in the car, and what those instruments looked like."

"Just some—hey, Thea, what are you doing?"

Marty's phone shook for a few seconds, then Marty's face reappeared on the screen: "Hey, Russell. You wouldn't believe what our newbie is doing—she's picking locks! She can pick car locks!"

Russell blinked, unsure of what expression to make.

"It's just a regular car door lock," a female voice came from beside the camera. "If you get the hang of it, you'll learn quickly—we have a search warrant anyway, right?"

"Yes, we have a search warrant—" Marty frowned as he looked at Thea, who was busy at work. She was holding a thin wire that she didn't know where she got it from, and she was carefully fiddling with it as she approached the keyhole on the tailgate of the truck.

"Hey, Thea, you didn't go to Cincinnati for training before, did you? I heard there are a lot of guys there who can pick locks with their bare hands faster than with a key—"

You guessed half right.

With two soft clicks, the latch popped open, and Thea pulled open the tailgate.

Marty stood behind the truck and took pictures of the cargo hold to show Russell.

"Look, Russell. I don't really recognize these devices, but I think I've seen them in TV shows. They're all medical equipment, right? All this mess of tubing, screens, oxygen cylinders, and a whole bunch of other things I don't even know what they're for—"

Russell peered through the screen, trying to decipher the letters on the label.

"What's this?" Marty asked cautiously. "Type A blood perfusion fluid—is it for blood transfusions? Does that guy Fabian sell blood?"

"No." Russell shook his head, his expression turning serious. "This is a portable extracorporeal ambient temperature perfusion system—"

I was just speculating at first, but I never imagined they were actually doing this kind of business—Marty, don't get in the car, immediately call the crime scene investigation technician from the Criminal Investigation Center to the scene to collect biological traces.

"Okay," Marty readily agreed, "but—what exactly is this system you're talking about?"

"It's used for long-distance organ transport," Russell said in a deep voice. "We're dealing with an organ trafficking ring, Marty. This vehicle in front of you is evidence of their organ trafficking activities. Captain Hansen needs to know about this immediately; he knows how to handle it."

"No problem," Marty said readily. "Hey, Thea. Did you hear that? Call the captain right now, we have another big job!"

The drone was still buzzing in the sky. Aina held her iPad, watching the live feed transmitted back by the drone while marking the terrain map.

"Here, here, and here."

With the help of a drone providing aerial views, Aina quickly marked several places where the body might be hidden.

"Could you land the drone and take a look at the details of these locations?" Russell asked curiously, leaning closer to Jesse, who was operating the drone.

"It's possible," Jesse said, scratching his head. "But the snow on the ground is too thick—we probably won't be able to see anything."

Russell agreed with Jesse.

At least with the help of drones, they no longer have to search inch by inch on the snow-covered hills.

"Then let's go take a look at this place first." Russell pointed to one of the marks Aina had made on the map. "It's a bit closer here, everyone be careful, the road here is really difficult to walk on."

"I'll go back to the car and wait for you then," Mr. Clarkson said apologetically. "I thought Little Car would be of some help, but it seems it's malfunctioning today—"

"It's alright, Mr. Clarkson," Aina quickly said. "Little Clarkson is just an untrained beagle, and he's already helped us a lot—"

"Well—maybe that'll comfort me. I don't particularly like Kay's talent for finding corpses, but at least it has one thing it's good at, something that allows it to fulfill its life's purpose—well, its canine purpose." Mr. Clarkson shrugged. "Let's go, Kay."

Just as he was about to walk toward the old Chevrolet sedan parked by the roadside, Little Truck suddenly turned its head to the other side, twitched its nose a few times, and began to trot slowly on the snow in that direction.

"Little Ka!" Aina exclaimed in surprise, "Did you find something?"

She immediately followed.

Russell also walked in that direction without hesitation.

"Hey! You're going the wrong way!" Jesse said helplessly. "Weren't we supposed to search in the other direction?!"

"This is ridiculous—" Jesse muttered as he packed up the drone, "Trusting an untrained dog? That's just too much—"

He looked up and saw Mr. Clarkson, who hadn't gone far.

"Oh, sorry—" Jesse looked a little embarrassed. "Actually, I didn't mean any harm—um—I was just venting. I didn't mean anything by it, Mr. Clarkson."

"It's okay." Clarkson shook his head helplessly. "Actually, sometimes I have the same complaints as you—"