“Is there anything I can help with?”
Director Bruce’s attitude was now very humble. He knew very well that if Lance was fine, then he would be fine too.
If something happened to Lance, he would likely be immediately purged after Lance’s fall.
The fact that Charlie and Hunter weren’t making a move on him now didn’t mean he was safe. It just meant they hadn’t gotten around to it yet, or perhaps that the “tall man Lance” was still shielding him from the pressure.
Charlie and Hunter had long viewed the police force as their ladder to climb higher. Director Bruce’s actions were equivalent to breaking this ladder and trying to give it to someone else. How could they possibly forgive him?
It was just that as long as Lance didn’t fall, it wasn’t easy for them to make a move on Director Bruce. At the same time, leaving him in place now also served as a warning to others who might have other ideas.
Whether in the past, present, or future, no matter what kind of Golden Port and what forces Charlie and Hunter faced, at least when it came to the police force, they were the ones who called the shots.
So what if Bruce had sided with Lance?
Didn’t he still end up being sent to the Forest Police Department to keep company with small animals?
The changes outside couldn’t affect their control over the police force. This was the message they wanted to convey.
So, no matter what, Lance could not have an accident. From Director Bruce’s perspective, this was the case.
“You don’t have to be so nervous. The situation is not as bad as you imagine!” Lance first comforted him. “Everything is under our control.”
“Now I need some help. Because the police force is relatively independent, I need to know the situation of my men at the police station.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust them, but I believe that human beings always have flaws.”
“Some people can’t resist certain temptations, some can’t withstand pain, some are afraid of fear. People have all sorts of defects and problems.”
“We can’t guarantee that everyone can withstand their torture. We need some insurance.”
Director Bruce knew what he meant. His mind also began to turn. After a while, he said, “I have a few friends in the main headquarters. They might be able to help.”
Today’s police station was very lively, and the Bureau of Hazardous Materials was also very lively, because they had arrested a large number of suspects, totaling more than a hundred people.
These hundred or so people were divided into two parts. One part was handed over to the Bureau of Hazardous Materials for them to handle.
The other part was in the police station. Charlie had told Hunter to also get some confessions and even evidence about Lance and the Lance Family, instead of handing everything over to the Bureau of Hazardous Materials.
Of course, Hunter knew what Charlie meant. A knife is always most reliable when held in one’s own hand. It’s not safe at all in someone else’s.
Either the person holding the knife won’t listen to you, or he might stab you with it.
So as soon as these people were sent back, the entire headquarters went into high-speed operation. They began to interrogate these suspects.
There were people in every interrogation room, and even some officers’ offices had people being interrogated. This was an unprecedentedly large operation, a big move, and a big harvest for the headquarters.
Hunter also participated in the interrogation work. He had taken off his coat, leaving only a brown vest. His rolled-up sleeves and unbuttoned collar showed that he had been busy just now.
He lit a cigarette and looked at the young man sitting in the chair opposite him. The young man’s head was drooping, and a thick stream of blood was slowly dripping from his mouth.
Stomach acid, plus blood, and saliva, made up all of this.
He was as still as if he were dead, but from the slight rise and fall of his chest, it was clear that he was still alive.
Hunter was panting slightly, smoking, and glaring at the young man. He was already tired.
Tired from hitting him.
Hitting people can also be tiring, and it’s more tiring than working.
After taking several drags, he walked up to the young man, grabbed his hair, and forced him to face him.
The young man’s face was bruised and swollen. One of his eyes was so swollen that his eyeball was almost invisible, and the slit of his eye was also a bright red, like blood.
He pressed the lit cigarette butt in his hand against the young man’s swollen cheek. The young man’s body twitched slightly, but that was all.
There was no scream. This level of pain, compared to what he had just endured, had no deterrent effect at all.
“We have all night,” Hunter let go of his hand. The extinguished cigarette butt fell to the floor. His voice seemed to be squeezed out of his throat, carrying a cruel taste.
A smile suddenly appeared on the young man’s face. Because his face was somewhat deformed, the smile looked a bit savage, but Hunter could tell it was a smile.
“What the fuck are you smiling at?” he punched the young man hard in the stomach.
The young man let out a muffled grunt, then gagged and spat out a mouthful of thick, bloody water.
Blood, stomach acid, and saliva formed a sticky, stringy mess.
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, he felt a little better.
“Kill me if you have the guts,” he said.
This sentence made Hunter furious. He had never met such a difficult person. He raised his fist, about to give this young man another lesson, but his new assistant grabbed his arm.
“If you hit him again, he’ll die.”
Interrogation, interrogation that leaves injuries, and interrogation that leads to death are three completely different issues.
Federal law mentions that interrogation cannot be used, but almost all police departments, or rather, all law enforcement agencies, use interrogation.
It wasn’t like what foreigners imagined, where the police would bring you a cup of coffee and then finish the interrogation work by chatting with you like friends.
They would give you a few punches to let you know first that they would use force, and then they would use some “small tricks” to make you talk as soon as possible.
If you didn’t cooperate, then there would be a big meal waiting for you.
So the problem of interrogation was very common. After all, criminals were not like elementary school students who had made a mistake in the classroom, who would say whatever the teacher asked.
Even elementary school students in the classroom lie sometimes.
So interrogation was necessary, but you couldn’t just casually leave injuries.
Once injuries were left, the possibility of the confession being invalidated was very high, especially for those who had hired more professional lawyers. Their lawyers would question the legality of the confession.
Words spoken by a person under torture were obviously for self-protection and were not sufficient to be used as effective evidence in court.
As for interrogation leading to death, that was an even more serious problem. The person mainly responsible could even lose their job because of it.
Hunter looked back at his new assistant, then lowered his fist.
But the young man laughed again twice. “The Boss will avenge me.”
Hunter’s eyes were filled with fire. “Who is the Boss?”
The young man used all his strength to raise his head and look at Hunter, then spat a mouthful of bloody saliva on his pants, and then laughed out loud.
A weak, tired laugh.
Hunter’s assistant quickly moved closer, worried that Hunter would lose control. But to his surprise, Hunter not only did not become enraged, but seemed to have lost interest in the interrogation.
He looked at the young man for about ten seconds, then walked towards the outside. “I’m going to check the other rooms. You clean this up.”
His assistant nodded and began to clean up the mess. This was his job. The status, power, and benefits he had obtained were all due to his efforts now.
As he cleaned the room, he said, “You shouldn’t have done that. You could have just said something to fool him.”
The young man glanced up at him slightly but didn’t speak.
The assistant continued, “That would at least be better than you being beaten like this.”
After waiting for a few seconds, the young man spoke. “What he did to me today, the Boss will do to him tomorrow.”
The young man’s eyes glinted as he looked at him. “He’s a dead man!”
In that instant, the assistant shivered. He had a strong intuition telling him that what this young man said was true.
This made him feel afraid, uneasy, and silent.
He stopped talking, sighed, and after cleaning up, helped the young man up. “I’ll take you to the place where you’ll be spending the night.”
He was taken to a separate office and then handcuffed to a radiator.
Fortunately, this assistant was not a black-hearted person. If that had been a radiator turned up to maximum power, it would have been enough to make this young man suffer all night.
As soon as he relaxed a little, he would be burned, and by morning, he would be covered in blisters.
But the radiator was only on a very low temperature. It wouldn’t burn him, but would instead warm his body.
The young man was not completely ungrateful. He had heard from the “seniors” about the treatment he might receive in the police station. He asked, “Can I have a pack of cigarettes and a lighter?”
He had a little bit of strength now. “I definitely won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
The assistant thought for a moment, then took out the half-full pack of cigarettes and lighter from his pocket and placed them on the floor. He also took out two small candies and handed them to him. “I’ll get you a cup of water later.”
The young man nodded slightly. “Thanks.”
Because there were too many people, to avoid collusion, almost all the rooms were being used.
So far, no one had confessed. Hunter had also made up his mind. Since he had completely offended Lance, he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he had sent Lance to prison and then quietly eliminated him.
He did not rest, but instead kept an eye on those who had been arrested, and even occasionally had to personally interrogate them.
But not everyone was like him. Many officers had gone home to rest. After working late into the night, they were also tired.
At 2:30, Nate drove home.
Nate was one of the chiefs of the city police department’s crime division, responsible for almost all types of cases except for criminal cases.
The department had a total of eight offices, with eight chiefs. They all had their own team members. Usually, they were not very busy.
Most cases were investigated and concluded at the precinct level. Criminal cases were handled by the criminal investigation department. Their crime division often played the role of “headquarters’ thugs.”
For example, a while ago, a big shot’s child had a traffic accident. His car had a fender bender with another car, and then he beat the other person with a golf club.
This case was originally handled by the precinct, but the child’s father found Charlie, so the headquarters’ crime division got involved.
They transferred the case from the precinct to the headquarters, and then, through a series of technical means, including but not limited to intimidation and threats, they made the victim accept a “settlement” and drop the charges.
This was their main job. They could be thugs, or they could clean up messes for the big shots.
But today, their role was a bit more incisive. They had to interrogate those stubborn young men.
Nate was in his forties, getting a little old. Staying up all night was like being punched twice for him.
He wasn’t God; two punches could knock him down. So after his work was done for the time being, he took the initiative to come back.
The car stopped steadily on the driveway outside the house. His house had a garage, but he had to go to the station again tomorrow morning, so he was too lazy to park it inside.
And opening the garage door would make a noise. His family should be resting. So he just parked on the side of the road.
After getting out of the car, he took out his keys. As he had done countless times in the past, he aimed for the keyhole from a dozen steps away and walked towards the main door.
When he approached the main door, the overhead light would automatically turn on—
In front of the main door was a mat that extended from the door, down the steps, to the ground, and then forward for about a meter.
This mat was specially made. When the pressure inside it changed due to being stepped on, it would trigger a switch, causing the light at the door to turn on.
This ingenious design was common in many middle-class communities. Some communities even had voice-activated lights, but the effect was not as good as this one.
Although voice control was a cutting-edge technology, it was best not to make noise late at night, otherwise the neighbors would have opinions.
If nothing unexpected happened, he would insert the key into the keyhole in one go, as he had practiced a million times. But today, there was a small accident.
The moment the light came on, he saw a person standing by the door. He was so scared he shivered, reaching for the holster under his arm and cursing.
“Be careful, don’t let it go off,” the person said, and then took off his hat. The moment he saw Director Bruce, Nate let out a heavy sigh of relief.
“You fucking almost scared me to death!” he complained rudely.
The two were classmates at the police academy and even in the same dormitory. Their relationship was good.
Nate did not open the door, but stood under the light looking at Director Bruce. He actually already had a feeling in his heart.
Many people knew that Director Bruce was now with Lance, so his appearance here meant that trouble was approaching.
Nate didn’t like trouble.
“Is there something?”
“It’s fucking almost three o’clock now. I won’t invite you in.”
Director Bruce knew what he meant and his caution, and he wasn’t surprised. “Let’s talk in your car, unless you want others to know what we talked about here.”
“You’re like a piece of shit, you know?” Nate walked impatiently to his car. Although he was cursing, he did not refuse.
Soon they were in the car. Director Bruce handed him a cigarette.
Neither of them spoke. After smoking together for a while, Nate finally said, “You can actually turn back.”
He meant that if Director Bruce expressed his support for Hunter’s position as chief, and for his work, then he could come back from the Forest Police Department.
Even if he couldn’t be a precinct chief, there would be no problem being a deputy, or a chief of an office at the headquarters.
Director Bruce shook his head. “There’s no need, because Hunter doesn’t represent all the police in Golden Port, and he doesn’t even represent the police department.”
Nate frowned. “But he is the police chief.”
Director Bruce said in a very subtle tone, “John once was too.”
This sentence made Nate realize that this old classmate was really deeply tied to the Lance Family, and at the same time, he realized the meaning behind his words.
John once was, but he died, so he wasn’t anymore!
“You’re implying that Hunter will die.”
Director Bruce did not answer this question directly. “How long has it been since Hunter left the police station?”
When he first heard these words, Nate didn’t immediately get it. But as he started to think about the answer while pondering this question, he suddenly realized Director Bruce’s underlying meaning.
Hunter hadn’t left the police station because he was afraid of dying.
Seeing that his old classmate understood his meaning, he continued, “He’s just gambling now, gambling that he can dismantle the Lance Family and send Lance to prison before he himself dies.”
“You see, he’s actually very scared, more scared than anyone.”
“I know Lance and the Lance Family better than all of you. He won’t fall, at least not be tripped up by such a small pebble.”
“So what will happen next, do I need to say it?”
Nate took two big drags on his cigarette. “I can arrest you right now, for what you just said.”
Director Bruce didn’t care at all. “If you want to arrest me, you have to be determined to stay in the police station like him and hide your family.”
“He can send his family to the state capital. He has earned a lot of money over the years as Charlie’s enforcer. He can afford a house, a villa in the state capital, and his family can live well without working.”
“What about you?”
Nate was also an old police officer. The drowsiness in his mind had been washed away by this news. He realized that Lance’s men might have already tracked down Hunter’s family’s information.
When he heard this, his first reaction was to remind Hunter, but then, a chilling feeling arose!
The tail that had disappeared during evolution for possibly hundreds of millions of years seemed to have reappeared, and it was trembling, making his whole body shiver along with it!
“Is it necessary?” he asked with a bitter smile, and lit another cigarette for himself.
Director Bruce asked in return, “If someone wanted to kill you, would you spare the other party and their family?”
He shook his head. “No, I would be like him. Whoever wants to kill me, I’ll kill their whole family!”
He patted Nate’s shoulder. “And you have to understand, Lance and his people can still run if they can’t hold on, and then hide in the shadows and look for a chance for revenge.”
“Can Hunter run?”
“He can’t escape. No matter what, he’s a dead man!”
“I told Lance that you are my good friend. In the future, if I become the chief, you will be the deputy chief.”
“You consider it. I came to you first, but you are not the only one I am going to contact. Give me a chance, and give yourself a chance.”
The car fell into a dead silence. This was indeed not an easy choice. Director Bruce did not rush him.
After waiting for about five minutes, he still had not come to a conclusion. Director Bruce’s patience also ran out. He directly pushed open the car door and stepped out with one foot.
Just as he was about to leave, Nate asked, “What can I do for you?”