Federation people always like to separate public and private affairs.
At work, they don’t like to be disturbed by private matters.
Just as outside of work hours, they also refuse to be disturbed by public affairs, although many times they can’t refuse.
At this time, it was clearly night. The phone lines were not idle at all; on the contrary, they became exceptionally busy.
Countless “Mr. Behind-the-Scenes” communicated or issued instructions over the phone lines.
And most of these calls pointed to the Red High Heels and matters related to the Red High Heels.
It seems that at certain times, people are not opposed to doing some work-related things in their private time.
In the police station, Booker sat uneasily in the interrogation room. He had heard of the guy sitting in front of him but had never had much interaction.
He was just the former manager and current deputy manager of the Red High Heels. He was not the type to be in the forefront. It wasn’t him before, and it wasn’t him now.
But he had heard of this police officer’s name, Hunter.
A very common name, but behind this common name were some rumors about him.
Rumor had it that Hunter was the Bay Area Hound’s capable assistant. Although he was just a police officer in the homicide division, his status in the Golden Port police system was actually not much worse than some precinct chiefs.
Together with Charlie, he had done a lot of dirty work for the masters of the Bay Area and was deeply trusted by them.
There were many rumors about him. The more rumors there were, the more afraid Booker became.
Because he knew that only for cases that the masters paid enough attention to would they send someone like this whom they trusted and who had enough fame.
As for those on the fringes, the ones interrogating them were usually the most low-level police officers.
“You seem very hot.” Hunter took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it over, “Wipe the sweat on your face.”
“Thanks!” Booker took the handkerchief and wiped the soybean-sized beads of sweat on his face haphazardly. Soon the outermost two layers of the handkerchief were soaked with sweat.
“I’m very sorry, I’ll buy a new one to return to you!” Booker clutched the handkerchief in his hand, apologizing for getting it wet.
Hunter always smiled. He shook his head, seeming not to care, “It’s just a handkerchief.”
He then took out a pack of cigarettes, handed one to Booker, and then sat not far from him, “Booker, you know, the big shots are fighting now, and small characters like us are all implicated.”
“I always feel that whether we can go a little further is not important. What’s important is that we are still alive!”
Booker smoked, his hands trembling a little. He could only hold his hands together to stabilize his arms and palms.
There was no need to flick the ash; the shaking would make the ash slide off. He nodded, “Yes, life is the most important thing.”
Hunter nodded noncommittally, “See, I’m glad we can reach a consensus on this issue. So… Booker, I have some questions I want to ask you.”
“You tell me what you know, I’ll go deal with the people behind me, and you protect yourself.”
“Don’t suffer or even die just to keep someone else’s secret. It’s not worth it, right?”
Booker nodded, “Yes, it’s not worth it.”
Hunter nodded with satisfaction, “When you sent girls to the Bay Area, did you leave any evidence?”
“For example… records of the time, place, list of girls, client’s name for each delivery to the Bay Area, or even whether you kept the checks or cash they gave you?”
Some clients would also pay with cash because cash is relatively difficult to become evidence.
They couldn’t convince a judge that a ten-dollar bill was given to him by these rich people. It’s difficult to have substantial evidence in this regard, and the court is unlikely to accept it.
Of course, if they were careful, it might be possible to preserve some fingerprints on the banknotes, which could serve as evidence.
However, the current technology makes it not an easy task to extract complete fingerprints from banknotes, but it’s not entirely without a chance.
As for checks, it’s relatively more troublesome. There will be signatures, handwriting will be left behind, and even fingerprints.
These will all become important evidence, pointing to the fact that those masters of the Bay Area were not just involved in simple call services!
Booker nodded, “I don’t know about the money and checks, but I heard Sam say that he has a notebook to record the daily work situation…”
Hunter’s eyes lit up, “Where is the notebook now?”
Booker quickly said, “I don’t know, only Sam knows.”
Hunter looked at him and sat on the table next to him, “Booker, I know you are an honest man. I heard you and Sam have always been together. You must know where that notebook is.”
Booker indeed didn’t know, but he knew a general range, which was that the notebook was still in the Red High Heels.
He just didn’t know where. Sam never let him touch these things, but he knew it must be in a very secret place.
With his understanding of the Red High Heels, he actually had a few guesses.
Seeing the tempted look on Booker’s face, Hunter raised the stakes, “If you help me find the notebook, I guarantee you will safely return to the state prison for a few years and then get out.”
But in the end, Booker still said nothing.
He didn’t tell Hunter about this matter, not because he was very loyal to Sam, but because he just wanted to see if these people could offer a higher stake.
Hunter looked a little disappointed when he saw he couldn’t get anything out of him, “You can think about it seriously.”
Booker smoked a cigarette and had emerged a little from his unease and fear. He shook his head, “I do need to think about it carefully.”
This was obviously an excuse. Just as Hunter was about to try to persuade him, someone knocked on the door outside.
He looked back, then looked at Booker again, “You must know something, but don’t forget, Sam also knows these things. Don’t let your valuable information become useless.”
“I might have to go out for two minutes. In two minutes, I hope you can become smarter.”
After Hunter finished speaking, he gave Booker another cigarette, then walked out the door.
Booker looked at Hunter’s retreating back. He actually had his own thoughts.
He felt that Sam was unlikely to reveal this matter because Sam did this in private. The mayor didn’t know, and the rich people in the Bay Area didn’t know either. This was Sam’s life-saving tool.
As long as Sam didn’t say, he could take the initiative. He hoped to get more benefits from this.
It wasn’t that he wanted to absolve himself of guilt; he just wanted a shorter sentence and to keep the funds in his account.
But he didn’t know what Hunter was doing outside the door at this moment.
“Sam wants a deal, and the state government has also called to inquire about the situation here. Sidney is putting pressure on us.”
“The meaning from the Bay Area side is…” The speaking sergeant made a silencing gesture.
Hunter frowned, “So urgent?”
The sergeant nodded, “The Liberal Party seems to have started paying attention to this matter too. The Bay Area side doesn’t want more inside stories to be dug up, so…” He glanced at the room behind Hunter, “You have to take care of him as soon as possible.”
Hunter nodded, “I know what to do.”
The sergeant left after finishing his business, while Hunter asked a police officer for the tie that had been confiscated from Booker and put it in his pocket.
He returned to the room and looked at Booker, who still didn’t want to talk, showing a helpless expression.
“Since you don’t want to talk, then go back first. One day you will want to talk.” He said as he walked to the table, as if preparing to take him away. Just as he was taking something out, the key to the handcuffs fell to the ground.
“My back hasn’t been good lately. Help me pick it up,” he said.
Booker was not suspicious. One of his hands was cuffed to the chair, but the other hand could move. This was deliberately done to make it convenient for him to read documents or sign things.
He bent down, his hand almost touching the string of keys. Suddenly, something seemed to flash before his eyes, and then he felt his neck being tightly strangled.
His whole body almost instinctively kicked his legs, wanting to stand up, but Hunter’s entire weight was already on his back, firmly controlling his movements.
He kept hitting Hunter who was on top of him, hitting his body, wanting to say something, but the thing tightly strangling his neck prevented him from even making a single syllable!
The more he struggled, the more panicked he became, and the more violently his body consumed oxygen.
After only forty or fifty seconds, after two violent struggles, Hunter felt all of Booker’s resistance collapse in an instant.
He continued to strangle with force for a while before releasing the tie.
“You’re such a f—king idiot!” He tugged at his collar with both hands to straighten his messy clothes. Then he dragged Booker’s body to the window and thoughtfully used the tie to tie a dead knot on the window, then hung him up.
He rolled up his sleeves, took a mop, and cleaned the urine stains left on the floor from the dragging. Finally, he observed the entire room, then nodded with satisfaction, rolled down his sleeves again, put on his clothes, and walked out of the room with his head held high and chest out.
The criminal, after being arrested, was about to receive the trial he deserved. They feared accepting the trial and chose to commit suicide out of guilt. This is normal, isn’t it?
Perhaps the only thing people could criticize was that they didn’t confiscate the suspect’s tie, but who would have thought that someone would hang themselves with a tie?
After leaving here, Hunter went to the place where those girls were being held. There were only seventeen or eighteen girls in total; he hadn’t counted carefully.
About half of these girls were locals from the Federation who had been deceived, kidnapped, and trafficked to the Red High Heels.
After suffering both physical and mental torture and abuse, they finally chose to submit and serve clients for Sam.
Now what Hunter and the others had to do was to pick out the girls who had served a very few specific local big shots from among these girls.
In fact, the interrogation work for these girls was much simpler than dealing with other people. They thought they had been rescued. Whatever the police officers asked, they would say it without reservation.
Some girls even broke down emotionally several times, and this also made them reveal almost everything they had suffered in the Red High Heels without concealment.
Statements were sent to Hunter one by one. He looked at each file carefully, then selected five girls from them.
Looking at these young faces, Hunter’s heart was actually not as calm as it appeared on the surface.
Sometimes, when you do too much dirty work, you become numb. He had heard people say that, but he always felt that he was still a little bit away from being numb.
He hoped he was numb, so that he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable, especially when doing this kind of thing.
He looked at these five files. They were all pitiful girls who originally had their own happy lives, but because they were targeted by some big shots with twisted minds.
So they were kidnapped and sent here, and after being domesticated, they became the toys of the big shots.
Now the big shots were afraid that these toys would become the fuse that would ruin their reputations, so they wanted to destroy these toys.
The toys are innocent, there is no doubt about this, but their end is also destined.
The cause, development, and process of the whole thing, up to now, all participants know that they are innocent, but this cannot change their outcome.
Just as he was sitting at the desk with his head down, hands pushing back through his hairline, showing a trace of fatigue, someone pressed on his shoulder.
“Are you tired?”
It was Chief Charlie’s voice.
Hunter quickly stood up and squeezed out a smile, “No… a little.”
Chief Charlie saw the five files that had been blocked by his body just now and flipped through them casually, “Life is always like this. We have to do many things we are unwilling to do.”
“When we were young, our parents made us do homework. We didn’t want to do it, even though we knew that doing homework was being responsible for our own lives.”
“When we were teenagers, our parents and teachers made us do things we didn’t like. We were also unwilling to do them, even though we knew they were right.”
“Just like now, we clearly know we should do this, but perhaps because of other reasons, we hesitate, or even question the upcoming work.”
“At this time, you have to ask yourself, is it necessary to do this, is it good for you!”
Seeing Hunter lost in thought, Chief Charlie said with a light laugh, “I probably can’t retire from this position.”
“This time, our mayor does not plan to let this old man retire with dignity, so… Hunter, I will nominate you to take over my job, but whether they will approve, I am not sure.”
He squeezed Hunter’s shoulder with his hand, “No one can make a choice for you. Choose what you want. No matter what, I will support you.”
Hunter glanced at the five files on the table. He grabbed them in his hand, “I know what to do.”
Soon these five girls were singled out. Hunter stood in front of them with a smile, “Your problems have been solved. Sam’s side has also been very cooperative. You can go home!”
The girls, who had been subjected to months of inhuman abuse, cried with joy. They hugged each other, encouraged each other, and congratulated each other on regaining their freedom and embracing life.
Hunter did not disturb them. After they had vented their emotions, he continued, “But there are still some procedures you need to complete. You get on this car, and then our police officers will take you through the final process. After that, you can embrace freedom and go home.”
The girls got into a police car with almost no hesitation. It was obviously a car used to transport prisoners. Hunter locked the back door from the outside and then got into the driver’s cabin.
At this time, it was the middle of the night, and it was pitch black all around. Even the car’s headlights couldn’t illuminate very far…
The car soon disappeared into the night. Chief Charlie’s gaze withdrew from the distance and returned to the unfinished work in the police station.
Sam wanted to find someone of sufficient weight to make a deal with him. He mentioned one person.
Councilman Wade.
Councilman Wade represented the local die-hard forces and was very typical. And his status and reputation were also convincing.
Councilman Williams was actually a good choice too, but Councilman Williams was too old. He had too many things to think about. He might not be able to truly take care of Sam.
So Sam hoped to talk to the younger Councilman Wade to get his promise and protection.
And Councilman Wade was also very interested in the deal proposed by Sam. Everyone hoped to get a handle on more friends or political enemies. He was on his way.
Everyone was paying attention to this transaction, and everyone had a premonition that this matter would not end so simply.
Forty minutes later, Chief Charlie saw the returning police car, but it was not the one Hunter had driven out, but the one that had picked him up later.
They returned to the police station. The moment Chief Charlie saw Hunter, he showed a very appreciative smile.
He even took the initiative to walk over, and regardless of the fact that Hunter was a bit dirty now, he gave him a hug directly.
“Everything will be fine!”
He didn’t ask Hunter how he had dealt with those girls who had mastered secrets they shouldn’t have, nor did he ask him about any psychological changes. He just gave him a hug.
For a moment, Hunter had an illusion that he was clearly a perpetrator, but now, he seemed to have become a victim.
But he accepted all of this with pleasure. It could make him feel a little better.
Perhaps this was the price of growth.
The police released some more girls one after another. After all, they had dealt with five people at once. If it was just five people missing, it would be difficult to explain.
They released all these girls, so they could explain that they didn’t know what happened to them after they left.
As for the others, like Sam, they were still in custody.
Chief Charlie, the mayor, including the rich in the Bay Area, were all interested in his notebook, and at the same time, felt fear!
Sam himself also knew very well that no matter who he gave the notebook to, he would offend the other party.
For him, this seemed to have become a dead end!