Empire of Shadows

The sudden “arrest” and the cold muzzle of the gun pressed against his forehead left the chief of the Creek Valley precinct drenched in sweat.

His two subordinates had just stood up before they were disarmed.

The clerk did not scream.

In this era, if you hadn’t experienced a few armed robberies—whether it was a gang robbing you or a patrol officer passing by looking for some pocket money—it would be abnormal.

Being robbed, watching others being robbed—this was something everyone at the bottom of society had to experience in this era.

Previously, a reporter had interviewed some members of the public, especially those living in poorer neighborhoods, asking them what they thought the world would be like in a hundred years.

They smiled as they described their aspirations. Everyone had a different definition of the future, but they were the same on one point.

There would be no robberies in the future!

Alright, skipping over this amusing issue, the clerk’s behavior now was very normal. She had even opened the cash register, preparing for the armed officers to ask her for some pocket money on their way out. She could quickly take it out without having a gun pointed at her.

Both groups were police officers. There was no point in calling the police.The Creek Valley precinct chief slowly raised his hands. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

The police officer holding the gun to his head grinned, revealing a set of yellowish teeth, then raised his pistol and viciously smashed the butt against his temple. “Motherfucker!”

“Shut up!”

He took out handcuffs and cuffed the precinct chief’s hands behind his back. The chief didn’t struggle, because he knew very well that if he resisted at this time and the other party really killed him, he would have died in vain.

He could only defend himself loudly, “Do you have an arrest warrant?”

“Who gave you the order to arrest me?”

“Holy shit, do you know what kind of price you’ll pay for your actions!”

The officer smashed the precinct chief on the forehead with the pistol butt again. With a dull thud, the chief’s head throbbed.

Something wet and hot flowed down from where he had been hit, making him feel an itch. He tilted his head, his eyes hurt and fierce as he looked at the police officer in front of him.

He wanted this police officer to know what the price of doing this was!

“You’re a dead man!”

“Whether it’s you or Bruce, you, all of you, are dead!”

A police officer standing behind him pursed his lips. “If I were you, I’d shut up now. My brother has a bad temper…”

The precinct chief obediently shut his mouth, but his eyes were still filled with anger.

The three were pushed into a police car. Of course, no one paid for their lunch. The clerk just shrugged.

The other customers looked at her. She didn’t look沮丧 at all. “At least they just didn’t pay!”

A smile appeared on the faces of the other customers, and someone even echoed, “Yes, they just didn’t pay. You’re lucky!”

A roughly similar scene was happening in many places. Precinct chiefs, office chiefs, were arrested in familiar places by another group of police officers and taken away. For a time, people didn’t know what was happening.

Some thought it was an “internal strife” within the police force. Soon, some rumors began to spread in the city.

The Creek Valley precinct chief was taken to a room. He was tied to a chair, and then everyone left.

He sat there for a while, as if he had been forgotten.

From outside the door, faint, almost inaudible screams would sometimes come, which made his heart beat faster and faster. He broke out in a sweat, filled with unease and fear.

When the fear in his heart had accumulated to a certain point, he couldn’t help but shout:

“Is anyone here?”

“Hi?”

“Hey!”

Just when he thought that no one would pay attention to him now, or that there was no one here, footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

The door was opened. Duke pushed open the door and stood by the side. Then two young men and two young adults walked in.

From these four people, he sensed a completely different temperament and style!

As an old police officer, he had solved many cases in his life.

Although Charlie was the “head,” he didn’t just take in any trash. What he needed were subordinates who were both loyal and capable.

His old subordinates were all outstanding in their professional abilities. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been chosen by Charlie.

There was one person he couldn’t see through. The other three gave him a very strange feeling, as if… a student had met a teacher!

There was a sense of unease, not the unease of life and death, but an unease caused by other reasons, but he didn’t know what it was.

“This is Wally,” Duke’s attitude was very humble.

The gazes of the others were all focused on precinct chief Wally’s face. He felt a wave of inexplicable panic and placed his gaze on Duke.

“Did Bruce order you to arrest me?”

“Do you have an arrest warrant?” he could tell from Duke’s appearance that they didn’t have a warrant. His tone became a bit colder. “Do you know what the consequences of doing this are?”

Duke didn’t answer, and didn’t even look at him, but just stood against the wall with a very respectful attitude.

He definitely knew the identities of these people.

Lance, and the prosecutor from the State Prosecutor’s Office in Manteno, here to investigate the corruption of the Golden Port police force.

He didn’t know that Lance actually had this kind of connection, and his awe for Lance grew even more!

At this moment, Wally finally focused his gaze on the young man. He sized him up with some suspicion.

He looked at this young man, and this young man also looked at him. The calm and gentle gaze gave him great pressure.

He struggled to turn his head and move his gaze away. He was at a disadvantage.

He wanted to glare back in frustration, but the moment this thought arose, it automatically vanished.

Lance motioned for them to begin the questioning. Dean nodded slightly, and his assistants began to get into work mode.

“Mr. Wally, there are a few questions that I hope you can answer truthfully.”

Wally didn’t speak, but he was clearly listening.

“First question, is there any transfer of interests between you and Charlie? Have you ever gained a promotion in the police force by paying him bribes?”

“Second question, have you ever helped Charlie handle some cases in violation of regulations or laws, such as shielding suspects, using intimidation, threats, and other means to demand that victims agree to mediation?”

“Third question, have you, with Charlie and the accidentally deceased Hunter as the axis of an interest group, manipulated the police force to seek benefits for yourselves?”

“Fourth question, have you ever accepted bribes to help some suspects escape punishment? Have you ever bribed others for work-related convenience?”

“Please answer the four questions.”

Wally turned his head to look at the wall, silent.

At this moment, he had a faint understanding in his heart. These people were not coming for him, but for Charlie!

His heart was in a mess. He had not expected things to change so quickly. They were actually… going to deal with Charlie?

His gaze fell on those few faces again. He had never seen three of them before.

The prosecutor’s office, the justice department, the police department, they were all very familiar with each other and cooperated with each other.

If there was anyone in Golden Port who was qualified to investigate Charlie now, it would only be the prosecutor’s office and the justice department. But the prosecutor’s office and the justice department… were all their own people. It was impossible for them to do this.

Then there was only one possibility.

His heart sank continuously. Although he had vaguely heard last year that the state government was very dissatisfied with the police force because of the successive negative news in Golden Port and wanted to investigate the police force for corruption, dereliction of duty, and other issues.

But half a year had passed, and there had been no news. They all thought it was just to deal with the media and Congress at the time.

Even Charlie had gradually relaxed his vigilance. Unexpectedly, they had really come.

Large beads of sweat trickled down Wally’s temples. He really wanted to wipe them away, but his hands were cuffed to the back of the chair, and he couldn’t move.

Lance stood to the side, continuing to apply pressure. “Mr. Wally, as far as I know, your and your wife’s income is not enough to support you buying a detached house with a yard in full. Not to mention your usual living expenses.”

“These things don’t even need to be specifically investigated. Just by checking your financial transactions through the bank, you can’t escape a charge of bribery by a public official and official misconduct.”

“You should be very clear about the consequences of being accused, right?”

Wally was already on the verge of collapse. Once he was sentenced, he was also highly likely to not be able to leave prison alive.

He looked at Lance. “Who are you?”

“I think I’ve seen you before.”

Lance replied with a smile, “Some people call me Mr. White, and some people call me Mr. Lance. As for you, what you want to call me is your business.”

Wally’s eyes gradually widened, and he also experienced tinnitus.

The whole world became a buzzing sound.

After a long while, his eyeballs finally started to move. He had heard many things related to Lance, including things that had just happened recently.

Hunter was dead, blown into dozens of pieces. It was said that Lance did it.

What was even more unsettling was that Hunter’s wife and child were also missing.

In fact, the state highway patrol in other city sections had already issued a reward for information on the source of the bodies, but no one recognized the person in the portrait, so until now, the highway patrol over there didn’t know who the dead man and woman were.

This case was highly likely to be placed at the very bottom of the archives, just like other highway murder cases.

Until a certain year, a certain month, a certain killer felt that the police were too incompetent, called in a large number of media in advance, and under the attention of the media, proactively surrendered and confessed to the crimes he had committed. Only then might the identities of these “John and Jane Does,” and their encounters, truly surface.

Otherwise, they would probably never be known or understood by people.

Wally was not Hunter, nor did he want to become Hunter. The expression on his face could no longer be held. It was like fear, yet also like grievance, with some anger and a little helplessness.

“I want to turn into a witness for the prosecution and testify against Charlie in court, but I need a guarantee. I’m willing to confess everything!”

A few minutes later, Wally inside the door was seriously confessing the problems. Outside the door, Dean had a somewhat playful smile. “It seems your name is very useful, Mr. Lance, in this part of Golden Port.”

“Does it have some kind of magic?”

“I noticed that after this Mr. Wally heard your name, his attitude immediately changed!”

He took out a cigarette and handed it to Lance. Lance, holding the cigarette in his mouth, took out a match and shrugged. “Maybe because they know I’m a good person?”

The two looked at each other and burst out laughing…

(End of a Chapter)