Empire of Shadows

When Chief Bruce received the interrogation from Mayor Williams, a visible layer of sweat broke out on his forehead. He could no longer sit still, standing by his desk and clutching the receiver. “Should I… know something?”

After hearing him, Mayor Williams shook his head slightly. This was another fool. But on second thought, for Lance, and even for himself, a fool or a smart person really made no difference.

As a tool, whether it could achieve good results depended entirely on its user, not on itself.

It wasn’t to brag, but among users, he, or Lance, were among the best. So even if this was a stupid tool, it could still achieve the effect they wanted.

Thinking of this, his tone softened slightly. “Did you read today’s Golden Port Today?”

Chief Bruce quickly shook his head. “I was on duty very late last night…”

“It’s okay. Go find a copy later and read the news on it.”

“Mr. Hoff is an important member of Golden Port City. He has great influence. People cannot distinguish the authenticity of the news. As the law enforcement agency of Golden Port City, you must take up this responsibility.”

“Announce to the public that you will immediately form an investigation team to investigate the exposed cases and restore the facts as much as possible.”

“If someone tries to tarnish the reputation of a prestigious gentleman by creating fake news, we must find this person!”“Remember my tone just now. When facing the media, you have to show that kind of indignation of ‘not wanting people to be deceived,’ and your sense of justice. Do you understand?”

Chief Bruce’s mind gradually cleared from the mayor’s intimidation.

He sat back in his chair and said softly, “But the final result may…” his mind quickly flashed through many words. Sometimes, being at a loss for words in a conversation is just that inconvenient, “…not satisfy everyone?”

Although the expression was not so complete, Mayor Williams still praised him with considerable approval. “You have a lot of talent, Chief Bruce. This is what I want you to do, to create a contrast.”

After all, the few people whose scandals were exposed in the report were all famous celebrities in Golden Port City. If you came up and said without any evidence that they had really solicited prostitutes and trampled on the moral bottom line, the public would not necessarily believe it.

The best way to deal with these prestigious people is to hold them up high.

Holding them high is in line with the current attitude of the public. It will neither offend ordinary people nor leave a tail for your possible failure.

If a problem is really found, then the higher you hold them, the harder they will fall.

Whether it’s these ordinary people, or those with status, or anyone, they all hope to be deceived, and don’t want their goodwill to be taken advantage of.

This public opinion, which could have originally become an obstacle, will be used by them at this moment.

Subsequently, Lance will expose more evidence and scandals. Public opinion will be one-sidedly on their side, which will be very helpful for controlling the situation.

“Since we have started to investigate these matters, it is also appropriate to invite Mr. Hoff to the police station to cooperate with the investigation and have him cooperate with us to prove his innocence.”

“And the other two ‘victims’.”

“Now they may be slandering and framing. Maybe later they will use some violent means. Arrange for people to protect them from harm, understand?”

Before Chief Bruce could react, he had made a final summary. “I hope they are all under control before the matter is investigated clearly. You must give the people a truth and not let innocent people suffer the harm they shouldn’t have to!”

“But also don’t let those who have done illegal things escape the punishment of the law!”

After he finished speaking, he didn’t wait for Chief Bruce to say anything more and just hung up the phone.

In the laws of the Federation, both parties in a prostitution transaction have broken the law. The crime of sexual transaction is a charge that both parties need to bear.

If Mr. Hoff was charged with this crime, then he would have ways to deal with this person!

Since they had captured Arthur, then now he would use this plan to directly control these three people.

Since Lance had decided to start, and had thrown out these evidences, the contest between the two sides was about to become white-hot, and the possibility of escalation had to be considered.

He thought for a long while. On the one hand, he took the initiative to strengthen the security level of himself and his family, and on the other hand, he also had Lance arrange for some people to protect them.

Those people, if they were pushed to the edge, might directly flip the table. He had to be prepared for any eventuality.

After Chief Bruce hung up the phone, he immediately picked up this morning’s Golden Port Today and briefly read it. After reading it, his whole body was sweating!

As a local, he knew very well what this report was trying to express.

The two sides had already blown the horn of attack, and this was not the kind of mutual probing where there was still room for compromise and deals. They were going for real, with a “fatal blow” from the very beginning.

A politician being confirmed to be unfaithful, having an affair, soliciting prostitutes, and being abusive, although some of these might be personal moral and character issues, they were still destructive and could directly ruin Mr. Hoff’s career.

For a politician, you can hurt his family, you can take away the money in his account, but you absolutely cannot threaten his political life!

If the former things were lost, they were lost. It might even be a good thing for the politicians.

But the latter was a forbidden area that no one could touch!

He didn’t know who had exposed this news, but he knew that it was aimed at the other party’s vital weak point!

Chief Bruce’s heart was pounding. The situation in Golden Port City was about to undergo a huge change again!

He didn’t know how to position himself in this storm. He could only do his best to finish the things that his superiors had instructed him to do. This was also the only thing he could do.

He called Deputy Chief Duke into his office and roughly repeated the content of Mayor Williams’s phone call just now.

“I’m going to hold a press conference. You take your men and see if you can invite these three people over. It’s just a routine investigation.”

“Even if they find a way to refuse, you have to keep an eye on them!”

Deputy Chief Duke glanced at the three photos lined up on the newspaper. He felt a slight pain in his balls. They were all big shots, beings he couldn’t afford to provoke.

But he also knew very well that whether it was Mayor Williams or Lance, he could afford to provoke them even less.

This was the most tragic thing about being a small person. They could never do things according to their own ideas.

He nodded. “I’ll go now.”

The two discussed for a few more sentences and then went their separate ways. It wasn’t quite morning yet, just a little past. The chief of the Golden Port City Police Department publicly stated that he hoped the newspaper and the person who had exposed the story would take the initiative to contact the police department and cooperate.

At the same time, he requested that everyone try not to believe unconfirmed news. The police department would start an investigation as soon as possible to verify the authenticity of this news.

At the same time, Deputy Chief Duke also took police officers to the outside of Mr. Hoff’s villa. He walked to the side of the door and rang the doorbell. Not long after, Mr. Hoff’s butler appeared inside the main gate of the villa.

“What can I do for you?”

Deputy Chief Duke bit the bullet and said, “We are here because of the news in the Golden Port Today. Someone has reported that Mr. Hoff has solicited prostitutes. We have a few things we’d like to talk to Mr. Hoff about in person.”

The butler shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. Mr. Hoff went out early in the morning.”

Deputy Chief Duke looked directly at the other party. The butler also met his gaze without any avoidance or retreat. After the two had looked at each other for a moment, the butler finally smiled, lowered his head, and broke his gaze. “After Mr. Hoff returns, I will contact the police department at the first opportunity.”

These orders were just Mayor Williams’s intention. Deputy Chief Duke did not have a search warrant or an arrest warrant here. Just a single “he’s not in” had really stopped him.

His brain was spinning wildly. Even the police officer standing next to him looked at him with a surprised expression—they had also heard the sound of his brain working!

“I’ll have my men stay here. If Mr. Hoff comes back, we can also be contacted as soon as possible.”

The butler looked at him again for a few seconds and chose to compromise. “As you wish.”

Deputy Chief Duke left two police officers behind and then went to the residences of the other two “victims.”

The butler returned to the villa from the yard. Mr. Hoff was sitting there.

“…That’s what they said. They want to invite you to the police station to cooperate with the investigation.”

Mr. Hoff nodded with a grave expression. Could he go to the police station?

Of course, he couldn’t go to the police station. What was the difference between him going to the police station and being handed over to them directly?

He had originally planned to arrange some things properly before considering whether to leave.

Yes, he still had a sliver of hope that he could stay here, but now it seemed that Mr. Charles was right. He had to leave.

Once he was invited into the police station, there would most likely be huge trouble.

The trouble not only came from Mayor Williams’s side, but they might use some legal or illegal means to force him to reveal some secrets. It was even more likely to come from the Bay Area interest group’s side.

He was one of the more core members and knew a lot of specific things, things that were enough to ruin the reputation of more people and have them arrested.

In order to avoid this situation, there was a high probability that they would silence him.

Just as when they found someone who would affect them, they, he, would all suggest to activate the silencing procedure.

The longer he stayed here, the greater the danger. He didn’t want to leave, but he had to.

At this moment, his whole person was a little dejected. This one move meant that he had already lost in this game of wits.

He could only pin his hopes on Mr. Charles and the others being able to hold on for a little longer.

After sitting in a daze for a few minutes, he gave Richie a call. “A small accident has occurred. I may need to leave for a while.”

“After I leave, if you have any problems and don’t know what to do, call this number…”

He gave the other party Mr. Charles’s phone number. Logically, he shouldn’t have given it, but he didn’t care now.

He was out of the game. Giving Mr. Charles’s phone number was, to a certain extent, also his expression of his dissatisfaction with some of Mr. Charles’s previous decisions.

He shouldn’t have been discarded like a pawn. He should have shouldered more and more important responsibilities in this game of wits!

All losers are like this. They always feel that their failure has nothing to do with their own abilities.

The tone of Richie on the other end of the line was also filled with doubt. “Where are you going?”

“And when are you coming back?”

“After you’ve gone, how should we execute these plans of ours?”

Now they were not living with Mr. Hoff. From the time they had kidnapped Arthur, they had changed to another place to live.

These few days, it had been Mr. Hoff who had been in contact with them. Now that they had to change people suddenly, Richie was also a little uneasy.

These few days, they had more or less learned more in-depth about the news of the Lance Family from the side. This understanding was far from the unreliable information they had gathered in the western region of Likalai State.

A large amount of news related to the Lance Family had come in, which also made them realize that this was not an easy opponent to deal with.

“Call the number I gave you and ask Mr. Charles what to do.”

“As for me… we’ll see each other again if we have the chance.”

He did not say it definitively. After he finished speaking, he directly hung up the phone and then went back to briefly pack.

Not long after, a car suddenly drove out of the garage of the villa’s yard, looking as if it were about to leave.

The two police officers immediately noticed that something was wrong. They tried to intercept the vehicle, but were stopped by the butler and the people around him.

The reason was also very simple—

“You don’t have a search warrant. you have no right to inspect this vehicle.”

The judicial process of the Federation is hard to say whether it is good or wrong. Similar things have happened more than once. Because there is no legal authorization, the law enforcement agencies and law enforcement personnel have, more than once, watched helplessly as criminals swaggered away and could not arrest them.

These two police officers were also quick-witted. One immediately returned to the police car and drove the police car to follow the car in front, while the other ran towards the outside of the community.

He needed to contact the police station and have them send more reinforcements.

But what he didn’t know was that as he was leaving the villa, a second car drove out of the villa’s garage and quickly entered the internal road, heading out of the city.

The scandal exposed by the Golden Port Today was still spreading. The police department’s timely statement also made the people of the entire city pay attention.

Except for a few people who realized that the conflict between the two interest groups had suddenly begun to escalate and would most likely be decided in a short period of time, the others were completely in the mood of watching a show.

Mr. Charles heard from his subordinate that Mr. Hoff had already left the city. He breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Mr. Hoff had not fallen into the hands of Mayor Williams, it was fine.

“…Wade, we’ve been friends for many years. Our friendship has always been very good, hasn’t it?” After he had the person who had brought the message leave, he picked up the phone again and said into the mouthpiece.

This call was to Mayor Wade, because the ledger found at the Red High Heels had fallen into the hands of the then Councilman Wade.

Everyone trusted him. He was equivalent to a “big brother” figure and had always been a pioneer of factionalism in Golden Port City.

He had also destroyed that ledger in front of everyone, so people had not paid any attention to this matter.

But now, another “notebook” had suddenly appeared. It was hard not to suspect whether the ledger that Councilman Wade had destroyed back then was real.

Had he secretly kept it, or what?

Mayor Wade did not know what was happening in his old hometown. He was doing quite well in his work there. His ability was outstanding.

He had been wrangling with Mayor Williams and these celebrities of Golden Port City, as well as the state government, for half his life and had not been at a disadvantage. He even had the appearance of the “first person in Golden Port.”

In a new environment, he quickly controlled the situation and began to try to infiltrate the surrounding cities.

Mr. Charles’s phone call had originally made him very happy. If he could win over Mr. Charles to invest over there and provide some of the assistance he would need for his later campaign for governor, then his chances of winning the governorship would be even greater!

Once he became the governor, then a “Wade family” that only the locals of Golden Port knew would rise to the level of being known by the people of the whole country.

After the pleasantries, the sudden question made him a little baffled. “We’ve always been friends. What happened on your side?”

Mr. Charles did not answer his question directly. “The notebook found at the Red High Heels back then, are you sure you’ve destroyed it?”

After hearing this, Mayor Wade’s tone became a little heavier, but also a little confused and curious. “I swear to God, I destroyed that thing in front of your men. You should understand that that thing is a trouble, not something good!”

Mr. Charles did not immediately choose to believe him, but asked again, “But why, now, are some of the things from the notebook appearing here?”

“Someone has exposed a part of the content. Hoff has just left Golden Port City. I don’t know how many more people will leave in the future, and I don’t know how much of the content of the notebook that person has. I am very passive now.”

Mayor Wade was also at a loss for words for a moment after listening. This was like having something warm in your pocket. You say it’s not shit, but someone has to believe you.

“I don’t know how to explain this, but you have to believe me. It has absolutely nothing to do with me!”

He was also curious and asked, “It seems that something incredible has happened in Golden Port City. After I left, what happened?”

Mr. Charles had no time to chat with him here. He simply said some of the changes here and then hung up the phone.

Although it was just a few sentences, it made Mayor Wade very curious about all the changes that had taken place here.

Little brother Williams’s development, the Lance Family that had promoted the demise of the Five Families, he was very curious about all of them!

Now was not a good time for him to call and get in touch with Mayor Williams, but he would definitely call back. He felt that he and Mayor Williams, and Lance, had common topics to talk about!

If they can withstand this round of attacks and defeat Charles and those people!

(End of a Chapter)