Intersecting Lines Book 2

08 Another home invasion

Brenda's viewpoint

The house was upscale in a nice neighbourhood, the gardens and pool well tended, the Audi sedan and the BMW SUV in the drive attesting to a level of comfortable living most would aspire to.

Unfortunately the site in front of me was anything but comforting, a middle-aged Asian man dead in a wide pool of blood, his throat slashed almost clear though, left in the hall of his own home.

I'd arrived late; I'd been stuck in Pope's weekly senior officers meeting, stewing a bit over Taylor's petty bigotry while the rest of the squad had rolled out, David having waited around to drive me here when I escaped the meeting; Natalie and Maura had left right behind me and were due any moment. I turned to Sanchez who was filling me in, as I realised he'd stopped while I looked around.

"Sorry Detective, please continue"

"Well Chief, the assailants broke down the security screen door pretty quickly, but the reinforced front door took a bit longer, it seems that gave Mister Lin's wife and son time to get into their safety room" he indicated a closet door that stood open, revealing a solid steel door leading to a panic room behind it. I nodded; the victim was lying in front of the open closet door. Taking in the bloody tableux in front of me it seemed obvious.

"It seems he was unable to make it inside before they caught him" I saw both Sanchez and Tao shake their heads before Tao spoke.

"He stayed behind to distract them Chief, buy his family enough time to get inside and set off the alarm" Sanchez squatted next to the body to point out the injuries.

"It appears they tortured him to give up the cypher lock combination, based on the injuries to his hand" I nodded, taking in the crushed fingers and the missing little finger as he continued. "He obviously refused and they slit his throat before leaving" I looked up and nodded as I took in the corridor.

"Did they try and get through the door here?" Provenza shook his head.

"Bank's have less secure vaults than this place" He waved at Jane who pulled the steel door back, not without some effort, it had to be three inches thick, you could see where rods came out of it and slotted into the thick concrete wall. Looking in you could see a filing cabinet, some furniture, a table with a phone and a television set with an old VCR machine mounted on the wall. I frowned and looked around, but Jane held her hand up.

"If you're looking for a camera Chief, we have two, an obvious one here…" She pointed to a black dome that projected down from the hall ceiling outside the safe room entrance. "And another one back here" Jane pointed up into a chandelier further down the hall where another camera was visible if you knew what to look for. "Buzz has the tape already" I nodded, grateful that having a squad so sharp meant things happened without me having to ride everyone constantly.

"What about the family Detective Sanchez, a wife and child I believe you said?" Sanchez grimaced.

"Yeah, both pretty traumatised" He gestured towards the camera. "They saw it all on camera" I nodded, trying to not show how I felt about that, to watch someone you love killed because they were protecting you… I had a new perspective on that situation since falling for Sharon.

"Are they able to talk yet?" Flynn shrugged.

"The mother not yet; the son's taking it a lot better, he's only four and I suppose he's used to violence on television and stuff and doesn't realise it was really his dad being killed on TV" Provenza snorted.

"Another, previously unknown benefit of all those violent computer games" I ignored his editorialising and looked around.

"Do we know why they wanted into this room so badly, rather than just stripping the place of the valuables they've been stealing in previous attacks?"

"It seems that our vic here didn't believe in banks. Apparently didn't trust them" Flynn shrugged again. "Who knows, upshot is though that the family kept their jewellery and cash in there, probably figured it was safer and more convenient than a bank"

"Exactly how much are we talking about Lieutenant?" He shook his head.

"Not sure Chief, but based on the contents of the drawers we pulled open, probably fifty or sixty thousand dollars, plus however much all the jewellery's worth" I felt my eyebrows rise in surprise. In response he held his hands out. "There's a lot of jewellery"

"Sixty thousand dollars, in cash?" I looked around. "Exactly what business was our victim operating here anyway?" Tao looked around from where he was examining the inner workings of the vault door.

"Apparently our vic owned a couple of luxury car franchises here in LA, hence the Audi and BMW out front" I nodded.

Sergeant Gabriel, would you be so kind as to run Mister Lin's financials, let's confirm that all the money came from his legitimate businesses, I want to make sure selling cars was the only business Mister Lin was conducting here in LA" Sanchez scowled.

"You thinking maybe drug money Chief?" I shook my head.

"Let's rule things out before we rule them in shall we Detective"? He nodded as Sergeant Gabriel turned to regard the vault-like door.

"Makes sense, this room sure isn't something that comes standard in your average house, maybe he was expecting trouble" Provenza shook his head slowly, looking down at the body.

"If he was expecting it, well he wasn't disappointed"

I looked up as Maura and her team arrived, nodding to her as she bent down to pull on the blue disposable booties over her heels.

"And good morning to you Doctor Isles" Maura looked up and flashed me a warm smile, she really was quite lovely and her calming presence usually helped cheer me up.

"Good morning again Chief Johnson" Standing she walked over as she finished pulling on her medical gloves.

"Single victim, throat slashed plus various other injuries" Maura's eyes narrowed, as she became all business.

"If you will excuse me then?" I stepped aside as Maura nodded and moved towards the body, nodding to Jane as she passed, before squatting down next to the victim, as usual making sure to not disturb the scene. She leaned backwards and forwards, seeing the body from different angles before looking up at me.

"If you have the crime scene imagery, may I move the victim?" Flynn nodded at my silent question and I looked back at Maura.

"Of course Doctor" As two of her team lifted the body into a nearby body bag I saw her lean in to more closely examine the slit throat. Taking in the area around the body she examined the finger lying there, before slowly standing and turning.

"The knife used was obviously very sharp, however the blades used were different. The one used to sever the finger was apparently a straightedge, while the one used on the throat appears to have been curved. I should be able to give you a more conclusive result once I get the body back to the morgue" I nodded, that was Maura, observations but no conclusions until she had scientific proof, not that I minded at all.

When Maura came to a conclusion you could take it to the bank, or court in our case; her results would be iron clad and incontestable. Lord knows she'd helped tie up enough major cases since she had arrived, all thanks to her skill and dedication, every now and then I gave thanks that Boston's loss was our gain. She turned to oversee her team's work as they carefully moved a gurney into the corridor.

Stepping back I started assigning tasks to the team; canvas of the neighbours, searching out any possible cameras covering the area or the streets leading in and out, checking in with the major parcel delivery companies to see if any vehicles had been stolen in the last 24 hours, in line with the M.O. of our home invasion crew, the check of the family's financial's, the history behind what was a remarkably secure panic room and monitoring the wife to see when she'd be in a position to give a statement and ensuring the surveillance tape got back to headquarters safely.

I'd just finished when I looked up to see Natalie at the door, reminding me that the media were demanding answers. She looked at me and nodded, giving me space to do my job but letting me know she was here. Normally she was a welcome sight but her arrival reminded me of my as yet-unfulfilled promise to conduct interviews with some of the media. I could imagine that conversation getting another airing and wasn't looking forward to it, at all. I wearily rubbed my eyes, feeling a migrane coming on, 'oh great'.

Several hours later the entire team less Sanchez, who was down in the morgue watching Maura's autopsy on the unfortunate Mister Lin, had gathered in the electronics room to watch the footage from the VCR, Buzz had managed to convert it from poor quality VCR tape to something much clearer, the video was in black and white and there was no audio but what I saw was bad enough.

The father was hustled into the camera's field of view; he'd obviously already been roughed up, blood streaming down his face from a scalp wound. There were at least four men in the frame, all wearing ski masks, forcing the victim to his knees in front of the door. I frowned.

"Can you stop the tape please Buzz" The images froze. "Interesting, the suspects obviously already knew about the safe room, they came here pretty much immediately" There were nods around the team. "When was the room installed?" Mike Tao flipped open his notebook.

"It came with the house, the original owner had it installed when he built it. The Lin's only bought the house two years ago" I nodded, that checked with what we'd already learned, on first examination it looked like the Lin's were a upper-middle class family running a successful, legitimate business, successful enough to attract the attention of our home invasion crew.

"Lieutenant, please chase up the original owner, find out who knew about that room. Lieutenant Flynn, could you please follow up with the wife when she's able to talk, ask who they may have told about the room" I nodded. "Please continue Buzz"

As the tape rolled on we watched as two of the men held the victim by his arms while a third obviously demanded he open the door. When the father shook his head the third man stepped back and yet another, much larger ski-masked assailant savagely kicked Lin in the chest, watching as he fell to the floor before crushing the father's fingers under his boot heel. We watched the two men holding him drag him upright again where the person asking the questions pointed towards the door, getting another shake of the head. At a nod from the first man the big man who had done the abuse stepped forward and pulled out a knife, straight-edged I noted, brandishing it in front of the victim.

Despite the obvious threat the father still shook his head, while we watched he was forced to his knees and the man with the knife stamped down on the victim's forearm, forcing it flat and likely breaking it in the process, then knelt down on it and did something that the camera was at the wrong angle to catch, however the victim's writhing and screaming told its own story, when the attacker stepped back there was a pool of blood on the floor and something small lying there on the floor, as most of the people watching the tape winced.

The man asking the questions looked up at the camera and gestured to the father who was sobbing and clutching his hand, blood dripping and pooling on the floor.

"Tortured the poor bastard right there on camera" It was Flynn. Jane nodded.

"Hacked off the little finger, that's apparently an old Yakuza tradition" Provenza looked across at her, surprise evident.

"Hey Rizzoli, didn't realise you had a lot of Yakuza back in Boston" He got a head shake and rolled eyes from Jane in return.

"Maura was the one who worked out it was Yakuza in the first place, so she's been telling me about them" She shrugged. "When Maura does a case-related info dump, I listen" I nodded. Maura was a certified genius, when she told you something important, it was always well worth paying attention. Mike Tao nodded and gestured at the screen.

"Message's pretty clear, open the door or we'll do more. Trying to get the family inside to open up, if he won't do it from the outside" I nodded as we watched, the father shaking his head. I was about to say something when the heads of all the attackers lifted. Provenza grimaced.

"Figure they heard the first sirens right about then" I watched with pursed lips as the man asking the questions turned to the man with the knife and said something. The two men holding the arms stepped back as the shaken victim dropped to his knees, the big man changing knives before stepping up behind him, grabbing Lin's hair and yanking it back, then in a single savage move reached round and slashed the victim's throat wide open, stepping back to leave the victim thrashing on the floor before leaving the camera's field of view. As he did I noted the knife in his hand had a reversed curve blade with the edge on the inside of the curve, it looked like something a butcher would use, in this case it might as well have been made for what it had been used for. As the tape stopped I sighed.

"Well, Doctor Isles will be able to tell us if the victim suffocated or bled out first but it's pretty academic at this point. It's obvious that the gang has escalated their attacks to the point that killing their victims seems to be the default response" Gabriel nodded.

"Yeah, there was no way the victim would have been able to identify his attackers, so why kill him, he was no threat" Flynn shrugged.

"Sending a message to their future victims, don't do exactly what we say or try and stop us, we'll kill you" Jane grimaced.

"These guys are stone cold, especially the one with the knife" She looked round the room. "Anyone else think that throat-cutting move looked pretty well practiced?" There were nods all round, it looked very smooth indeed. At my request Buzz ran that section of the tape again. Several people commented on how smoothly the job had been done, smooth enough that none of the blood spatter had hit the knife weilder. I sighed.

"Detective Rizzoli, can you please run a search through the database for similar knife killings" I looked back at the image frozen on the screen and sighed again. "As you say, it surely looks like something he's done before"