After parking the car, the police officer sat in the driver’s seat in a daze for a while before finally walking into the police station.
Someone greeted him, and he responded with a smile, just as he did every day.
He arrived at his desk, took out a rag, and carefully wiped everything on it.
During this time, he also chatted with a colleague for a while.
Because he had taken leave during the day, he would be here all night tonight.
During the first half of the night, everyone still had things to do. This was the good thing about the night shift together: when there were enough people, you wouldn’t get too sleepy.
If it were just one person, they would have fallen asleep long ago.
They could talk about many interesting things, and these things kept their eyelids from getting heavier and heavier.
In the second half of the night, even the number of people going to get coffee decreased. Many people were either leaning back in their chairs or lying on their desks, fast asleep.
According to the requirements in the police work manual, they had all clearly… violated the regulations.
But many times, the things in the work manual are written for non-staff to see. Which real staff member would read the work manual for no reason?
Those old employees would tell the rookies that if you take it seriously, then congratulations, you can’t even do the most basic work.
He looked at his colleagues around him, then picked up his cup and walked to the break room.
The break room had a coffee machine, coffee powder, a coffee pot, and hot water. He easily made a cup of coffee for himself, then used a public cup to make a second cup.
Sometimes there would be some people who reported a crime, lawyers, or others who were related to the case but were not criminals, who would be here to give a statement or handle other matters.
Some cases were relatively more complicated and obviously required more time.
They couldn’t just let those people sit there. They needed to get them some coffee or something.
The public coffee cups here were for these people.
He took the small box out of his pocket, took out one of the pills, and dropped it in.
He watched the pill wobble as it sank to the bottom of the cup, producing some small bubbles before there was no other movement.
He picked up a stirring spoon and stirred it, then left the break room with the coffee.
When Bandy was arrested, he had also gone to see him.
He was also curious. As an absolutely famous character in the city, Bandy’s arrest had too many meanings.
Many people wanted to see this legendary figure in the police station.
However, he didn’t see him. After Bandy arrived, he was locked in an interrogation room, with a dedicated person guarding the door.
He wasn’t sure if he could deliver the coffee, but in the process, he had already thought of many reasons.
For example, “so-and-so asked me to bring in a cup of coffee.” All he had to do was deliver the coffee and have Bandy drink it.
If other people tried to take the coffee, he would let them get it themselves. If they jokingly insisted on the cup in his hand, he would “accidentally” knock it over on the floor.
He had thought of many ways to complete this mission.
He actually didn’t care much anymore about whether he would be exposed, because once he went in, he would definitely be exposed.
Only one person delivered a cup of coffee all night, and then Bandy was poisoned to death. Then whoever delivered the coffee was the murderer. This was absolute.
He didn’t think that young man would spend 100,000 just to have Bandy take a vitamin pill. That was impossible and unrealistic. So this pill was a poison.
When he turned a corner, a look of impatience naturally appeared on his face. When he arrived here, he did not see the scene he had expected.
The interrogation room was unguarded, and there was no one watching in the entire corridor. Everything he had seen before seemed like an illusion.
He looked back, then looked in other directions. After confirming that this was the right place, he came to the outside of the interrogation room with a heart full of confusion.
The door was ajar.
These people were too careless. What if Bandy sneaked out?
He thought to himself and still pushed the door open. He saw Bandy sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette.
Two packs of cigarettes were on the table. At his feet were two crushed cigarette packs, the soft-shell kind, and a floor full of cigarette butts.
The room had a very strong smell of smoke. The moment he came in, the strong smell of smoke was like a punch to his head.
He waited for two seconds before entering the room.
“Your coffee,” he placed the coffee on the table.
Bandy, who was like a statue, gradually “came to life.” First, his eyeballs moved, turning to this police officer, then his face, his movements. Finally, he changed his sitting posture and looked at the cup of coffee.
“Do you have to watch me drink it?” he asked.
The police officer didn’t quite know what he meant and looked a little embarrassed. He took a step back. “No, I just…”
Bandy shook his head, picked up the coffee, and drank it in one gulp. “It has a bitter almond taste. My tongue is a little numb from the bitterness!”
He put down the coffee cup and looked at the police officer. “Did you put too much?”
He shook his head. A large amount of sweat could be seen being squeezed out of his pores. At the same time, his breathing began to become very rapid as he spoke, as if… he had just run in place for an hour and was about to run out of breath.
The second before, he looked as if nothing had changed, but the next second, his nose began to breathe heavily. Then he began to open his mouth and take deep breaths.
His eyelids began to twitch uncontrollably. One hand gripped the table tightly. His eyes, looking at the police officer, changed color slightly.
A small patch also appeared on his forehead… the police officer didn’t know how to describe it. It was as if the capillaries had suddenly surfaced.
Bandy’s other hand also clenched into a fist, resting on his thigh, supporting himself so that he wouldn’t fall.
But from his increasingly pained expression, it could be seen that his situation was very bad now.
The police officer was terrified. He didn’t know what was happening. He turned around and quickly left.
That bastard hadn’t told him that this drug would take effect so quickly!
Watching the police officer leave, Bandy could only lower his head and use his willpower to fight against the strong near-death feelings, more than one!
He felt his mouth and tongue begin to go numb, then his scalp, and even all the skin on his body began to lose sensation.
He wanted to move, but it was very difficult. At the same time, his breathing began to be suppressed.
He would breathe two or three times, and then it would inexplicably stop until he subjectively realized this and then breathed hard again. Only then would his lungs start to reluctantly expand and contract again.
He knew he was about to die.
At this moment, he was surprised to find that the fear of death was not so strong anymore. All his attention was focused on dealing with his body’s reaction.
After an unknown amount of time, his vision went black, and he completely lost consciousness…
The police officer returned to the break room, took his coffee, and returned to his desk. He deliberately pushed the chair with his leg, causing it to move. The harsh scraping sound made his colleague who was also on the night shift raise his head, look at him, and then lie back down on the desk.
He let out a heavy sigh of relief, sat there in a daze for a while, maybe a dozen minutes. After confirming that no one was coming to trouble him, he finally relaxed.
In fact, what he didn’t know was that someone had already seen all of this and recorded it.
They weren’t making a move on him now because this was part of the script.
Yes, part of the script. If they made a move on him now, some of the script would not be so easy to act out.
Amidst gains and losses and apprehension, he also fell into a hazy sleep, until he was woken up by someone.
He saw Duke. Duke was striding with some people, including a medical examiner, towards the interrogation room. His face was very grim.
His colleague whispered to him, “Did you know?”
“Bandy is dead!”
“The guard on duty last night had an upset stomach. While he was in the bathroom, someone delivered a cup of coffee, and then Bandy was poisoned!”
He showed a shocked expression. “My God, they actually dare to kill someone in the police station?”
“Do you know who did it?”
His colleague shook his head. “I don’t know, but it’s definitely not some minor character. The brother who was on the night shift has been sent to the interrogation room. They think he’s also involved.”
“If you ask me, I was just lucky enough to have fallen somewhere else at the same time—”
“If he hadn’t had an upset stomach, he might be a corpse now.”
“But just because he had an upset stomach, although Bandy died, he luckily survived.”
“The killer wouldn’t have let him go if he hadn’t left at that time!”
The police officer did not agree with these speculations. He would not easily make a move on his own people. He still had his own bottom line.
Soon, the medical examiner found the cause of death: an overdose of cyanide poisoning. And in the remaining coffee in the coffee cup, they detected cyanide substances.
The police officer on duty at the entrance of the police station last night claimed that no one had entered through the main gate, and at the same time, the several back doors were all completely closed at night as required.
The coffee cup on the table was a public coffee cup from the break room. There were only two places to get it—
The police station’s spare supplies warehouse.
And the break room.
The break room was in the middle of the police station’s officers’ offices. If someone from outside the police station came in, and also ran to the break room to make a cup of coffee, and then delivered it to the interrogation room, then someone would definitely have noticed.
But the people who were not asleep last night did not find anyone doing that. At least they did not find any outsiders, so there was only one possibility.
The killer who killed Bandy came from within the police station.
The police officers who heard this conclusion all showed incredulous expressions, but some people’s faces showed a look of “so that’s how it is.”
For them to take such a huge risk to silence someone in the police station, there could only be one possibility: either they were threatened or they were tempted.
Not long after, Chief Bruce also came down. He stated that this was a very serious case, and he would thoroughly investigate the entire police station. He hoped that that person could stand up, for the sake of everyone being colleagues.
The police officer didn’t know what to do. He was a little lost.
But as long as a person can live, they will do everything they can to live.
He did not turn himself in and continued to pretend that he did not know who did it.
“Has the investigation been completed?”
“His wife was taken away by the hospital, and he paid more than 50,000 in medical expenses at once to treat his wife’s cancer.”
“According to some of our investigations, he had been raising funds early on to prepare for his wife’s cancer.”
“It’s just that he was still short of about 20,000.”
“I’ve checked some information. He didn’t sell his house or car, and there is no other loan information. And the money he raised is still in the bank.”
“This sum of 50,000 came very strangely and very suddenly. It should be someone who sent him poison and paid for his trouble.”
“The feedback I got from the hospital is that last night, he suddenly requested to treat his wife according to the planned scheme, so the person who contacted him should have been after he got off work last night.”
Duke was sitting opposite Chief Bruce. He was not talking to Chief Bruce, but to Lance.
The phone on the desk was on speaker. Lance could hear every word he said.
If they hadn’t deliberately moved the guards, that guy would never have been able to deliver the coffee.
Both Lance and Bandy knew that it was time for him to leave, but he could not be killed by Lance or anyone else, like Councilman Williams.
He needed to be “silenced.” Only when he was silenced could he leave… like a square and very smooth box. If you don’t have a place to apply force, it’s hard to lift it.
Bandy’s death was equivalent to leaving two places on this smooth box where force could be applied, making it easy to be lifted.
This was also a “fulcrum.”
Lance was a little emotional after listening. “A touching love!”
“But this is not a reason for us to forgive him. After the matter has fermented for a period of time, arrest him.”
Chief Bruce asked, “Do we need to have him confess who instigated him?”
This was a very clever response. He very clearly proposed to have this police officer point out “who” instigated him.
But in fact, there was a high probability that they all knew that that person would not really appear in front of him. There was also an intermediary in between, so it was basically impossible for him to know who was behind all of this.
But why did Chief Bruce still say that?
Because sometimes, people don’t really care what the truth is. What they care about is only what they see.
When this police officer testifies that a certain big shot in the Bay Area instigated him, regardless of whether he has evidence or whether this is the truth, the police station will have a reason to investigate and collect evidence against the person he accused.
And they will be able to get a summons and a search warrant from the justice department through “key witness testimony”!
These things are very important.
Because their next batch of opponents are those gentlemen of the Bay Area, so the justice department will be more cautious than before in issuing legal documents and will not easily give them what they want.
Everything must abide by and conform to the provisions of the judicial process, and there must not be the slightest transgression.
Lance did not deny it. “Wait for my news.”
As he spoke, he paused for a moment. “This matter has made me realize a problem. In fact, after we have raised the income of the police, they still cannot afford some terrible, sudden, and large-scale economic expenditures.”
“This will make them vulnerable, and it is possible that they will be taken advantage of by others.”
“Do you remember what I told you before?”
Chief Bruce was stunned for a moment. Lance had told him too many things, and he couldn’t remember them all.
He didn’t speak. Lance knew he couldn’t remember, but he didn’t mind. He just reminded him, “I plan to set up a foundation to specifically deal with the sudden financial expenditures of police officers’ families.”
“Like the problem this… police officer encountered. After the foundation is established, he can completely get help through the foundation.”
“In terms of funds, in terms of medical care, including we can help him find better medical institutions and better experts!”
“And we are not limited to medical problems, the cost of children going to college, loans for buying a house.”
“Some money we can donate to them for free, for example, medical problems. Someone needs a large sum of money for medical treatment, but they can’t afford it. We can give them this money directly.”
“As for buying a house, going to college, and the like, it will be in the form of low-interest or interest-free loans.”
“This can maximize the possibility that there will not be a crack that shouldn’t appear in our interior, like in this matter!”
“To be honest, I initially thought the most likely situation was that a killer would break in, and then be caught by us when he was leaving after killing him.”
“But when you told me that it was one of our own who did it, I found it very ridiculous!”
They actually had someone watching all the time. They knew everything, but they just didn’t know that the person who appeared was a police officer, not some mysterious killer.
Chief Bruce and Deputy Chief Duke’s attention was obviously not here. Their attention was on the foundation that Lance had mentioned!
What this foundation was going to do made them all feel their scalps go numb!
They knew very well how much of a temptation such a foundation would be to the police officers. They would, in order to maintain the operation of the foundation, stand on the side of the foundation, not on the side of them, the chiefs, or the mayor!
As Lance had raised the income of the police officers, they would have more ideas than before.
To get a detached house instead of squeezing into an apartment where you can see people urinating and defecating everywhere, or would they consider sending their children to college?
But no matter which one, they couldn’t complete it on their own.
When people can’t do something, there is a high probability that they won’t care about these things they can’t do.
But once they have the opportunity to do it, they will care very much!
Lance was building a police welfare system that was independent of the municipal system, and it was a system that people could not refuse.
The two looked at each other, and both saw a kind of horror in each other’s eyes, and also a sense of helplessness.
They didn’t know how much money Lance had made these past few years to be able to squander it like this!
But they also definitely knew that it was definitely a large sum of money, so large that they couldn’t even imagine it!
(End of a Chapter)