Chapter 24

SEBASTIAN & ZUMA:

The teen and pup drove along the neighborhood, in search of any other clues the murderer may have abandoned. They both knew that the suspect escaped by car but that didn't mean that there wasn't anything nearby. After an hour, Sebastian decided to break the silence with a suggestion. "We should start asking around the houses nearby the crime scene if their cameras caught anything suspicious."

"Yeah. We awe like 3 blocks away fwom the whole thing anyway," the pup agreed. With a nod, they drove back to the crime scene and hopped off, moving to the house across the street that had a visible security camera on their drain pipe. Sebastian knocked on the door and waited, soon it was opened by a young lady. "Hello."

"Hello, I'm Sebastian and this is Zuma. We're here to investigate the murder that happened last night across the street. I noticed that you had some security cameras on your drainpipe, may I see it please," he requested while showing his very own police card. The woman looked at it then nodded her head then motioned her hand to follow her.

"Do you know who it was?" She asked.

"Yes, his name was Pedwo Gonzalez," Zuma replied.

"Oh my. Pedro was an old friend of mine. Oh dear," she sobbed and covered her mouth.

"We're sorry for your loss but do you know if he had any enemies? Debt? Rivals?" Sebastian questioned.

"W-Well, I remember that he said that he was apart of a drug operation. He and this dealer had been going back and forth for years. The dealer supplied as long Pedro paid. What he told me the last time I talked to him that he was running out of cash, but he didn't say anything else after that."

"Do you know the name of the dealew?" Zuma asked.

"No. He never told me...the only thing he said that there were three of them and that was it," she explained. The teen and pup nodded. Once they arrived at a small office, she connected to her computer and showed them last night's surveillance video. Fortunately, it showed the entire scene of the night before. It looked like Pedro was seen walking, then something hit his leg making him fall to the ground. He gradually picked himself up and limped away, trying to get to cover. He didn't make it as a figure came out behind a bush and shot the man down, then ran to a black SUV that drove off.

"Why didn't you report this to the police?" Sebastian questioned after the video was over.

"I check it at the end of the week. I didn't know that there was a murder in the first place, my house has pretty thick walls and soundproof glass."

"Okay. Thank you, mam we should be going now." With that, they left the house. The two figures made their way to their respected vehicles, but then the aqua pup paused. "What do we do now?"

"Well now we know what this guy looks like and it's obvious that there were accomplices by whoever drove that car. Do you think that they left something behind that bush?" Sebastian shrugged.

"Maybe. Hold on." Zuma ran over to the same bush they saw on the security footage and took out his camera. He took a picture of the bit of clothing that belongs to the shooter. After he was finished, he went back to his partner and showed him what he found.

"Can you take a whiff at it and see if they're nearby?"

"I could twy but my nose isn't as compawed to Chase's." Zuma walked back to the bush and took a whiff. He looked up and waved his nose around, trying to pinpoint the smell. The labrador noticed that there were burnt tire marks on the road a good distance away, so he followed the tracks by his vehicle and gave a signal for the former gang member to follow. After a couple of minutes, they finally arrived at an empty parking lot that was unknowingly the same parking lot Chase had arrived at earlier. Zuma hopped out of his car and smelled the ground, then looked back at the awaiting teen. "I think he went this way."

"Then let's go. It would be better if we go on foot, giving you a better chance to locate the suspect," Sebastian suggested. The pup nodded and stuck his nose to the floor, constantly moving to keep up with the scent. Eventually, they met up to an unknown neighborhood that looked pretty peaceful and has...not-where-a-murderer-should-live type of houses.

"This is going to be hawdew than I thought. I lost the scent and thewe awe a lot of houses hewe," Zuma pointed out.

"Yeah. We should split up and see if anyone heard or seen anything last night," Sebastian decided. With that, the two split up. As they went to each and every residence that belongs to the neighborhood, they noticed that there weren't any kind of security which proved their thought of such an innocent area. Although the place could be clean of crimes, the people that live in it could be seen differently.

But even then some people seem nice.

"Hello, I'm helping out in an investigation of a muwdew that happened neaw hewe. I need to know if you have seen or heawd anything last night," Zuma began. He had already checked a couple of houses beforehand but found nothing out of the ordinary. He even got some pup treats from a nice elderly woman. He had now reached a more older house but still kept their clean painted look. A young African woman had opened the door and greeted the pup.

"I'm sorry but I don't know anything," she replied quickly, she started to shut the door but the pup barked out on of his water cannons and stuck it into the remaining space.

"Mam, thewe has been a muwdew not to faw fwom hewe and I feel as though you might be hiding something. If you do know something about the possible suspect, you shouldn't be dwagged into it. It's best if you just tell me whewe he is," Zuma insisted.

"Please, I don't know anything so don't come back until you have a warrant," she said sternly. The pup noticed before she closed the door was that her voice wavered when she emphasized that she didn't know anything AND her eyes shifted to the unseen part of the house. He knows that if someone were to try and hide something, the first thing they would do is check if the thing was still there so this allowed him to get the idea that the possible suspect is in that house. The labrador walked off the porch and dialed Sebastian via pup tag. "Hey Sebastian, I got something."

"Shoot," he came through.

"I questioned a lady that lives at the end of the stweet if she knew anything, wight? She said that she didn't know anything but the thing is she seemed pwetty newvous about the whole topic and when I asked hew again, she said I needed a wawwant and gave a quick side-eye to somewhewe in the house," he retold.

"So what's your point pup?"

"The point is that whoevew was involved with that homicide, is in THAT house." The pup walked back to their vehicles where Sebastian already was, so he hung up the call.

"According to some of the neighbors, that house you mentioned, is where Briana Winston and her husband Cesear Winston live. Now they say that her husband had been seen buying and selling drugs on a couple of occasions but they were unsure of who it might be, the buyer or seller I mean. I think we should call Ryder and tell him what we found." Zuma nodded and dialed his pup tag but to the ten-year-olds number. "Ryder? We found something that could give us a bweak."

"What did you find?" The pup retold what he and the teen found for the past hours. After he was finished, the boy immediately started planning.

"Okay. So we know that one of them is most likely in that house, but we can't search it before we get a warrant but the next best thing is get the mayor's approval to get one. We need to find Chase and see if he has anything useful," the boy explained.

"Okay," the pup agreed. "What should we do fow the meantime?"

"Go ahead and get mayor Humndinger to lend us a warrant. You need to check that house before the suspect escapes."

"Let's dive in!" the pup exclaimed. He hooped into his vehicle and drove off to the secret lair. The teen decided to stay as a lookout, in case the suspect tries any funny business. Not really questioning about why they needed it, mayor Humndiger grumpily gave it to them, because they interrupted one of his schemes for Adventure Bay. Zuma would have told him something but that was least important. Rushing at full speed, the pup rased down to the neighborhood where he bet up with the Latino, all ready to barge in. Zuma gave the warrant to the teen and walked back up to the porch, water cannons ready. Sebastian knocked on the door and received the answer from the same woman, Briana Winston. "Mam, we are here search your house-"

"Didn't I told you that you need a warrant?!" She directed it to the pup. Sebastian handed her the paper and pushed her out of the way, then pulled out his pistol (he didn't want to explain how he got it) and searched the area along with the pup. There were four rooms in total: a living room that connected with the kitchen, one master bedroom, one bathroom, and one office. The search didn't last long as they both found the husband under the bed of the master bedroom. He didn't put much of a fight so putting on handcuffs was pretty easy. Ignoring the wails of the wife, Sebastian dragged the man away while Zuma told him as he was suspected for and where he was taken, though the man didn't respond or care for that matter.

But then they ran into a problem.

"How awe we going to take him to the police?" Zuma questioned. They both didn't have a police carrier like Chase did so now they were unsure of how to take him in, but then Ryder appeared out of nowhere, his expression was a mix of worry and disgust. Quickly, the boy took out his remote as he hopped off his ride and converted the two bikes into one car. Pressing another button, the back seat was removed from door handles from the inside and added bars to separate the two rows.

"Put him in there," he ordered, to which they did. Once he shut the door, he started explaining quickly. "Chase is in trouble. I think he may have inhaled drugs by accident when he found the second suspect. We need to take him to the hospital quickly after we pick him up. I've already found his signal when he called. We'll drop off the suspect to the police along the way."

They nodded and hopped in their vehicles. Sebastian was the one that called the hospital and police station, notifying them that they needed to treat their friend and bring in a suspect for murder. After he was finished, he started asking questions. "What did Chase say when he found the suspect?"

"That he was dead," was the boy's short answer.

"Did you arrest who you were looking for?"

"Yeah. Here's how it went…"

To be continued...