Chapter 509: Tucson Brotherhood
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After Li Du took a look, he immediately called Hans and the others over. Hans bent over to look at the hole and wasted no time in calling the police.
Inside the pit contained pieces of bones. Deeper into the pit, yellow and brown radius and ulna bones of the forearm could be seen. It was evident that these were bones from a human hand.
Ah Ow struggled vigorously; her little paws stretched out as she attempted to get a bone from the pit.
Li Du smacked the puppy's butt and the little wolf cub stopped her struggles. She looked pitiful but at the same time greedily stared at the bones.
Earlier on Li had not known what she was busy digging for. Now he had come to the conclusion that Ah Ow must have smelled the rotten odor that the bones gave out, and hence, the cub had gone ahead to dig them up.
This matter had alerted the hotel management as well. Security guards and managers rushed over to the garden rather swiftly. The security guards sealed off the garden while the hotel manager talked to Li Du to find out more about what had happened.
What could Li Du say about this? He could only tell the truth: his pet loved to sniff around and dig for stuff. He noticed there were bones inside the pit after the pet had dug it up.
As for the bracelet that was there earlier, he had to keep quiet about it. Although he had no idea how long the owner of the bones had been dead, there was no way the bracelet had been old enough to break into powder the moment someone touched it.
About ten minutes later, the city's police officers arrived and immediately sealed the whole place off.
A forensic pathologist also arrived; they began excavating in the area and dug up every bone.
"Who discovered the skeleton?" asked a slim Mexican police chief with a hooked nose.
Li Du pointed to Ah Ow in his arms. "My dog."
The police chief glanced at Ah Ow then at Li Du. "For your information, this is not a dog, this is a Mexican wolf. Mexican wolves are now protected animals—can you keep it?"
Li Du was irritated. Ah Ow had stayed in Flagstaff for almost two months but hardly anyone knew about her real identity as a wolf. But the moment they set foot in Tucson, her real identity was exposed at just one glance.
Hans looked shocked. "What? A wolf? How can it be? Isn't this a Czech Wolfdog?"
"If you've been told that this is a Czech wolfdog," said the police chief, "then you've been scammed. But nevertheless, you're still in luck. You've been given a more precious animal: the Mexican wolf. But they are not suitable pets. Once they grow up, they could eat someone alive."
"Actually, we didn't buy the cub; a friend of ours found it. Look, she is so tiny. When she was brought to me, she was even tinier than this—"
The police chief waved to stop Li from talking further. "This is not my area of concern. You don't have to explain it to me. I'm here to investigate the case. Let me ask in another way. Who was the first witness?"
Li Du answered, "Me."
"Alright," the police chief said. "I need your help. Tell me what you know. I'm the Sheriff of the historic district's police department, Blake Michaelson. You can call me Sheriff Blake or Sheriff Michaelson."
Li Du shook hands with him. "Nice to meet you, Sheriff."
Blake Michaelson was a gentleman. As he talked to Li Du about the case, he even brought him over a cup of coffee.
There was nothing else Li Du knew. Besides the bracelet that he needed to keep a secret, Li did not know, nor had he touched, anything else.
Due to the discovery of the human bones, his plan for a relaxing afternoon was ruined. He was preoccupied with the pets at first, then the bones had suddenly appeared, and it was highly possible that this was a murder case.
That evening on the hotel's television, Li Du's guess was confirmed: this was a homicide that had happened many years ago.
The murderer was suspected to be John Dillinger, an American gangster during the Depression-era of the United States. America was then plagued with social unrest and poor public order. He and his gang members had robbed banks everywhere and became infamous.
There were many different opinions of this man. Some people thought of him as a murderer and a criminal bank robber. Others thought him a hero or a benevolent thief because, during an economic crisis, he robbed the rich capitalists instead of the poor.
John Dillinger was arrested in Tucson after 13 months of evading the police. Before his arrest, he robbed a private bank and kidnapped a bank shareholder who was also a female manager.
The police had evidence of his robbery but none of the abduction. They had failed to locate the whereabouts of the female manager to indict him.
In 1933, John Dillinger was released from prison but he died a year later in 1934. The police had not enough time to investigate the case, which remained unsolved and became a cold case.
The place where John Dillinger was arrested in Tucson was a hotel called Congress. It was not the one Li Du and his friends were staying in.
The police thought that the female manager might have been locked up somewhere in hotel Congress. They did all sorts of investigations, checks, and thorough searches, but to no avail.
It had turned out that John Dillinger did kidnap and kill the female manager, but her corpse was hidden elsewhere instead.
After she had discovered the bones, Ah Ow became rather popular in social media.
Someone had taken pictures and recorded Li Du holding Ah Ow and being questioned by the police. The chubby Ah Ow had a mischievous look and she was very photogenic. On the television and computer, Ah Ow looked lively and adorable.
But the episode did not end there. Maybe it was a stroke of luck, the netizens had even found pictures of Li Du and his two other pets, Ah Meow and Crispy Noodles. These had been taken two days ago when they were selling cookies for fundraising purposes. The pictures of the three lively pets went viral on the internet.
In Flagstaff, many treasure hunters called Li Du or messaged him asking if he had gone to Tucson for an auction. They expressed their regret that they didn't know Li had gone ahead to Tucson and so on.
Li Du tried to minimize the impact of all this as he needed to concentrate and participate in the upcoming auction.
He made sure that he ate a lot to replenish his energy and rested well in the hotel.
The next day, the group of them went to Red Mount Storage Co. feeling refreshed and energetic.
Before the auction started, a few trucks entered the parking lot. Li Du smiled and shook his head. It was Turis and some other treasure hunters—they were all treasure hunters from Flagstaff.
If an auction was like a pot of stew, these treasure hunters knew very well that Li Du and his team would get the meat. Olly went up to him and, in a rather embarrassed tone, said, "We are here to see if we can get a sip of the soup. Hope we're not in the way, Big Li."
Li Du waved his hand and replied, "No, none of you are in the way. I was in a hurry this time and didn't contact any of you. Next time there's a large auction, I'll inform everyone."
A few treasure hunters clapped excitedly hearing Li's words. The mindset that following Li Du would make them rich had obviously deeply rooted itself in their minds.
There were a lot of units on auction, but not as many treasure hunters had come to the auction. There were slightly more than 50 people. Almost everyone could get a storage unit.
This surprised Li Du. "This is such a big auction but there are so few people attending?"
Hans replied, "Because this is the Tucson Brotherhood's turf."