Mark Lee wasn’t related to Bruce Lee though from Chinese heritage he did share the same birth place, San Francisco. However, instead of being raised in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, and becoming a US citizen at eighteen, his parents had emigrated to the USA before his birth, and consequently he had lived all his life in the suburb of San Jose, CA.
Mark was a shrewd elderly investigator who went beyond beck and call. He’d put himself out through thick and thin to solve crimes. The mysterious man case was like none other he had come across, and he was fully into resolving it ASAP. Lee had a knack for digging deep into enigmas, but on this occasion, he was baffled to say the least. He realized he would need to concentrate his forces to discover what in fact was behind such a mystery.
He tried to trace Mariano’s footsteps the day before his murder by first contacting Natalie, and then a few other leads he had become aware of leading up to the assumed time of bloodthirstiness. There wasn’t much to go on, so he asked forensics if they could intervene with something solid.
Fortunately, time would tell, as the same afternoon a department analyst named Peter, called to advise Lee of his observations. He said, Mariano must have been sniffing cocaine, as he still had significant deposits in the lining of his nasal passages. It was enough to visit the seedy local supplier, an Albanian Greek called Guzim whose name derived from the Albanian word meaning ‘courage’. He was a tough nut who had ties with the Russian mob.
Policemen accompanied Lee to his last known address. No one answered the door, so they smashed it down with a battering ram. As they entered the premises the detective yelled that Guzim should give himself up, or else he and any others would face the consequences.
Take care!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Beck and call (idiom) = If you are at people's beck and call, you respond immediately whether they beckon or call. It implies complete subservience. That is always ready to do whatever someone asks. “He expects his employees to be at his beck and call day and night.”
Through thick and thin (idiom) = under all circumstances, no matter how difficult. "They stuck together through thick and thin."
ASAP (abbreviation) = AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Knack (n) = ability, skill, talent, flair, aptitude, capability, capacity, gift
Baffled (adj) = puzzled, perplexed, mystified, lost, stumped, confused, bewildered, befuddled
Bloodthirstiness (n) = ferociousness, viciousness, cruelty, barbarism, brutality, barbarity, savagery
Forensics (n) = Scientific tests or techniques via a laboratory or department responsible for tests used in detection of crimes.
Seedy (adj) = dodgy, sleazy, sleezy, squalid, shabby, sordid
Tough nut (n) = hard/tough nut (to crack): a person or thing that is difficult to deal with, understand, or influence. “The team's defense is a tough nut to crack. The problem is a hard nut to crack. He's a tough nut, but I think I can get him to agree to the contract.”
Battering ram (n) a heavy beam, originally with an end in the form of a carved ram's head, formerly used in breaching fortifications. A heavy object swung or rammed against a door to break it down.
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