A powerful blast nearly knocked Luke off his feet.
He was stationed with his team at the backyard gate, fortunately at a distance from the villa, otherwise, they would have been caught in the explosion.
Even so, his ears were ringing, and he was temporarily deafened.
To avoid a secondary explosion, Luke quickly motioned everyone to hide behind the police car.
After a while, as no secondary explosion occurred, Little Black, hiding nearby, was gesturing and mouthing something to him, but due to the explosion, Luke's ears were buzzing, making it impossible to hear anything.
Luke checked his watch, a whole minute had passed before he peeked out to inspect the scene.
The villa was on fire, the surrounding area was in chaos, and shattered wood was everywhere.
The area around the villa was in disarray, too. Luke rubbed his ears and felt his hearing gradually returning, faintly hearing cries from inside the villa.
The injured were all officers from the Southern District, and Luke couldn't just stand by.
He took charge of the explosion scene, leaving some people to secure the perimeter, and led the uninjured and newly-arrived patrol officers into the villa to rescue the wounded.
The scene of the explosion was gruesome, with flames, thick smoke, broken walls, furniture, flesh, and corpses...
There were eight officers in total who went in at the time, three were killed instantly, three severely injured, and two lightly injured.
Generally, injured people shouldn't be moved easily.
But given the specifics, the villa was on fire. If left unchecked, even if not burned, they would suffocate from the smoke;
Luke ordered the officers to move the injured out to stop the bleeding, especially the three with serious injuries, as they would not survive the wait for the ambulance without immediate bleeding control.
Detective Chief Davo Gali, who was relatively familiar with Luke, was also seriously injured, covered in blood, with broken arms and legs, and fractured ribs, exhaling more than inhaling.
Luke looked at him with dread; if it weren't for Davo coming a step earlier, he would have been the one leading the search party, making Davo, in a way, Luke's savior.
Luke also didn't expect the robbers to be so vicious, planting a bomb in the villa—a blatant provocation.
Things had gotten serious.
The nature of the situation had changed.
Luke couldn't understand why they would put a bomb in the villa?
What benefit could it serve besides inciting police hatred?
Could it be meant to injure the investigating officers, thus affecting the progress of the investigation?
Or was it simply an act of pure revenge?
A police siren blared.
Several cars with FBI markings pulled up at the gate.
Luke was a bit surprised, expecting the FBI to take longer to arrive.
Leading them was an old acquaintance, Agent Anthony.
"Luke, what are you doing here?"
"I'm investigating a murder case, and tracked it to this villa which might be a suspect hideout, but Southern District officers got here first, entered to search, and the explosion happened.
"I'm investigating the stolen paintings case, here to see Detective Chief Davo Gali. How is he?"
"He was seriously injured, just got taken by ambulance."
"What a pity, I wanted to discuss some case leads with him." Anthony's expression changed slightly, shaking his head in regret.
Luke suggested, "The case I'm investigating has some connection to the painting theft case, we could share some information."
Anthony questioned, "What have you found?"
Luke pointed to the wrecked villa, "This should be one of their hideouts, they pre-arranged the bomb."
Anthony looked at the destroyed villa, "It might also be a trap."
Luke nodded, agreeing with Anthony's speculation, "Have you found anything?"
"These robbers are very professional, I suspect they might be serial offenders, possibly striking in other cities or states.
I'm having people search for similar cases across the U.S., hopefully, we'll get leads soon."
"So, you're saying the FBI's current investigation hasn't made any progress?" Luke was a bit skeptical.
Anthony showed a non-committal expression, "What about you? What case are you investigating, and why is it related to the painting theft?"
"I'm investigating the murder of a Southern District officer, he previously worked as a security guard at the Getty Museum." This wasn't a secret, so Luke couldn't hide it even if he wanted to.
"Just because he used to work at the Getty Museum, you think he's related to the painting theft there, isn't that a bit arbitrary?"
Luke said, "He was murdered, it's fair to suspect anything."
Several police cars arrived and parked a short distance away, and senior officers from the Southern District also rushed to the scene.
Luke and Anthony went over to exchange a few words, and after learning that Luke organized the rescue, the Southern District's senior officers thanked him.
Luke handed the scene over to the Southern District's higher-ups and bid farewell to Anthony.
Anthony patted him on the shoulder, "Buddy, stay in touch."
It was already one in the afternoon by then.
After a hectic morning, neither Luke nor his team had eaten.
Luke led a few team members to a nearby restaurant to eat.
Due to the explosion, everyone was in a somewhat low mood.
Luke picked up a cola, took a big gulp. Cola isn't great, but if you're feeling unhappy, drink it—hence its nickname, "happy water for couch potatoes".
Little Black couldn't help but bring up the explosion earlier, "I thought these robbers were after money, but it turns out they're a bunch of deranged lunatics."