Shadow Empire

Chapter 242: Silencing, Dirty Work, and Dealing
Federalists always like to keep public and private affairs separate.

While working, they don't like to be disturbed by personal matters.

Just like outside of working hours, they also refuse to be disturbed by work, although many times they cannot refuse.

It was obviously already night time, but the telephone lines were not idle at all, but were extremely busy.

Countless "Mr. Behind the Scenes" communicate or issue instructions across telephone lines.

Most of these calls were about red high heels and things related to red high heels.

It seems that sometimes people are not averse to doing some work 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 any dealings with him.

He is just the former manager and current deputy manager of Red High Heels. He is not the kind of person who appears in public. He didn't do it before and he doesn't do it now.

But he had heard of the officer's name, Hunter.

A very ordinary name, but behind this ordinary name are some rumors about him.

Rumor has it that Hunter is the Bay Area Hound's right-hand man. Although he is only a police officer in the criminal squad, his position in the Jingang City police system is actually not much worse than that of some branch chiefs.

Together with Charlie, he helped the masters in the Bay Area do a lot of dirty work and won their trust.

There are many rumors about him, and the more rumors there are, the more scared Booker becomes.

Because he knew that only when the masters attached great importance to the case would they send someone who was trustworthy and famous enough.

Like those marginalized people, the ordinary and lowest-level police officers in the command room who interrogate them.

"You seem to be hot." Hunter took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to him, "Wipe the sweat off your face."

"Thank you!" Booker took the handkerchief and wiped the soybean-sized sweat beads on his face. Soon the two outermost layers of the handkerchief were wet with sweat.

"I'm so sorry, I'll buy you a new one!", Booker clutched the handkerchief in his hand and apologized for getting it wet.

Hunter kept smiling and shook his head, not seeming to care. "It's just a handkerchief."

He then took out a pack of cigarettes, handed one to Booker, and sat not far from him, "Booker, you know, the big guys are fighting now, and small characters like us are implicated."

"I always feel that whether we can go further is not important at all, what matters is that we are still alive!"

Booker was smoking a cigarette and his hands were shaking 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 it slide down. He nodded, "Yes, life is the most important thing."

Hunter nodded noncommittally, "Look, I'm glad we can reach a consensus on this issue. So... Booker, I have some questions for you."

"You tell me what you know, and I'll deal with the people behind me, while you protect yourself."

"Don't let yourself suffer or even die just to keep someone else's secret. It's not worth it, right?"

Booker nodded, "Yeah, it's not worth it."

Hunter nodded with satisfaction, "Did you leave any evidence when you sent the girl to the Bay Area?"

"For example... recording the time and location of every delivery to the Bay Area, the list of girls, the names of customers, and even whether you kept the checks or cash they gave you?"

Some customers also pay in cash because cash is relatively difficult to use as evidence.

They could not convince the judge that the ten-dollar bill was given to him by these rich people. It was difficult to provide substantial evidence in this regard, and the court was unlikely to accept it.

Of course, if they are careful, they may be able to leave some fingerprints on the banknotes, which can serve as evidence.

However, it is not easy to extract the complete fingerprint on the banknote with current technology, but it is not completely impossible.

As for checks, they are relatively troublesome. There will be signatures, notes, and even fingerprints on them.

These will become important evidence to prove that those Bay Area masters are not just responding to requests!
Booker nodded. "I don't know about the money and the check, but I heard from Sam that he has a notebook to record his daily work..."

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 that you and Sam have been together. You must know where the notebook is."

Booker really didn't know, but he knew a rough estimate, which was that the notebook was still in the red high heels.

He just didn't know where it was. Sam never let him get in touch with these things, but he knew it must be a very secret place.

Based on his understanding of red high heels, he actually had several guesses.

Seeing Booker's somewhat interested expression, Hunter raised the stakes, "If you help me find the notebook, I promise that you will return to the state prison safely for a few years and then come out."

But in the end, Booker didn't say anything.

He didn't tell Hunter about this, not because he was loyal to Sam, but because he just wanted to see if these people could offer higher stakes.

Hunter was disappointed when he saw that he couldn't get any answers. "You can think about it carefully."

Booker smoked a cigarette and calmed down a little from his anxiety and fear. He shook his head and said, "I need to think about this carefully."

This was obviously an excuse, and when Hunter was about to try to convince him, someone knocked on the door.

He glanced back, then looked at Booker again, "You must know something, but don't forget that Sam knows it too. Don't let your valuable information become useless."

"I might be out for two minutes, and in two minutes, I want you to be smart."

Hunter said, gave Booker another cigarette, and walked out the door.

Booker looked at Hunter's departing back, and he actually had his own thoughts.

He felt that Sam would not reveal this matter to anyone, because Sam did it privately, the mayor didn't know, and the rich people in the Bay Area didn't know either. This was something Sam used to save his life.

As long as Sam doesn't say anything, he can take the initiative and he hopes to gain more benefits from it.

It's not that he wants to get himself off the hook, he just wants 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 called to inquire about the situation here. Sidney is putting pressure on us."

"What the Bay Area means is..." The sheriff who spoke made a gesture to silence him.

Hunter frowned, "So urgent?"

The sheriff nodded. "It seems that the Liberal Party has also begun to pay attention to this matter. The Bay Area does not want more inside information to be dug up, so..." He glanced at the room behind Hunter. "You have to deal with him as soon as possible."

Hunter nodded. "I know what to do."

The sheriff left after saying that, and Hunter asked the police officer for Booker's tie that was taken away, and put it in his pocket.

He returned to the room and looked at Booker, who still didn't want to talk, with a helpless expression.

"Since you don't want to say it, then go back first. One day you will want to say it." 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 waist has been feeling unwell lately, can you help me pick it up?" he said.

Booker was not suspicious. One of his hands was handcuffed to the chair, but the other hand could move. This was done to facilitate reading documents or signing. He bent down, and his hand was about to touch the key. Suddenly, something flashed in front of his eyes, and then he felt his neck was tightly strangled.

He almost subconsciously kicked his legs to stand up, but Hunter's entire weight was already on his back, firmly controlling his movements.

He kept slapping Hunter who was pressing on him, slapping his body, and wanted to say something, but something tightly strangled his neck made him unable to utter even a syllable!

The more you struggle and the more panic you get, the more your body consumes oxygen.

Just forty or fifty seconds later, after two violent struggles, Hunter felt that all of Booker's resistance collapsed in an instant.

He continued to tighten his grip for a while before loosening his tie.

"You're such an idiot!" He pulled his collar with both hands to make his messy clothes look neater, then dragged Booker's body to the window, and considerately helped him tie a knot on the window with his tie, and then hung him up.

He rolled up his sleeves, picked up the mop and cleaned up the urine stains on the floor. Finally, he looked around the room, nodded with satisfaction, put his sleeves down again, put on his clothes, and walked out of the room with his head held high.

After the criminals are arrested and are about to receive the trial they deserve, they are afraid of facing trial and choose to commit suicide out of fear of punishment. This is normal, isn't it?
Perhaps the only thing that can be blamed is that they did not confiscate the suspect's tie, but who could have thought that someone would hang himself with a tie?
After leaving here, Hunter went to the place where the girls were imprisoned. There were only seventeen or eighteen girls in total, and he did not count them carefully.

About half of these girls were deceived, kidnapped, and trafficked to Red High Heels from local areas of the federation.

After enduring both physical and mental torture and abuse, they finally chose to submit and serve Sam.

What Hunter and his team have to do now is to select from these girls those who have served a very few local bigwigs.

In fact, the interrogation of these girls was much simpler than dealing with other people. They thought they were rescued, and they would tell the police officers everything they asked without reservation.

Some girls even had several emotional breakdowns, which made them almost openly hide what they had experienced in Red High Heels.

One transcript after another was sent to Hunter. He looked through each file carefully and then selected five girls.

Looking at these young faces, Hunter's heart is not as calm as he appears.

He had heard that sometimes if you do dirty work too much, you will become numb, but he always felt that he was still a little bit away from becoming numb.

He wished he could be numb so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable, especially when doing something like this.

He looked at the five files. They were all poor girls who originally had their own happy lives, but were noticed by some psychologically twisted big shots.

So they were kidnapped and sent here, where they were trained and became toys of the big guys.

Now the bigwigs are afraid that these toys will become the fuse that leads to their downfall, so they want to destroy them.

There is no doubt that the toys are innocent, but their fate is also doomed.

From the cause, development, and process of the whole incident to now, all the participants know that they are innocent, but this cannot change their ending.

Just as he was sitting at the table with his head down, his hands pushed back along his hairline, revealing a tired look, someone pressed his shoulders.

"you are tired?"

It was Chief Charlie's voice.

Hunter quickly stood up and forced a smile, "No... a little bit."

Director Charlie saw the five files that were blocked by his body just now, and flipped through them casually. "Life is always like this. We have to do many things we don't want to do."

"When we were young, our parents asked us to do homework, but we were reluctant to do it, even though we knew that doing homework was responsible for our own lives."

"When we are teenagers, our parents and teachers ask us to do things we don't like, and we are still unwilling to do them, even if we know what they say is right."

"Just like now, we clearly know that we should do this, but perhaps due to other reasons we will hesitate or even question the next step."

"At this time, you have to ask yourself whether it is necessary to do this and whether it is good for you!"

Seeing Hunter lost in thought, Director Charlie chuckled and said, "I probably won't be able to retire in this position."

"This time our mayor doesn't intend to let an old man like me retire gracefully, so... Hunter, I will nominate you to take over my job, but I'm not sure if they will agree."

He squeezed Hunter's shoulder, "No one can make the choice for you. Choose what you want. I support you no matter what."

Hunter glanced at the five files on the table and grabbed them in his hands. "I know what to do."

Soon the five girls were brought out individually, and Hunter stood in front of them with a smile, "Your problem has been solved, and Sam is also very cooperative. You can go home!"

The girls, who had suffered inhuman abuse for several months, 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 that you need to complete. Get in this car, and then our police officers will take you to complete the final process. Then you can embrace freedom and go home."

The girls got into a police car without hesitation. It was obviously a car used to transport prisoners. Hunter locked the rear door from the outside and then entered the driver's cab.

It was dark at this time, and everything around was pitch black. Even the car lights couldn't illuminate places that far away...

The car quickly disappeared into the night. Chief Charlie withdrew his gaze from afar and returned to the unfinished work in the police station.

Sam wanted to find someone with enough weight to do a deal with him, and he mentioned someone.

Senator Wade.

Councillor Wade represents the local stubborn forces, is very representative, and his status and reputation are convincing.

Congressman Williams is actually a good choice, but Congressman Williams is too old and has too many things to think about. He may not be able to take care of Sam in a real sense.

So Sam hopes to talk to the younger Congressman Wade to gain his promise and protection.

Congressman Wade is also very interested in the deal proposed by Sam. Everyone hopes to get more leverage over their friends or political enemies, so he is on his way.

Everyone is paying attention to this deal, and everyone has a feeling that this matter will not end so easily.

Forty minutes later, Chief Charlie saw the police car returning, but it was not the one Hunter drove out, but the one that came to pick him up.

They returned to the police station, and the moment Chief Charlie saw Hunter, he smiled with admiration.

He even took the initiative to walk over and gave Hunter a hug regardless of the fact that he was a little dirty.

"everything will get better!"

He didn't ask how Hunter dealt with girls who knew secrets they shouldn't have, nor did he ask him if he had 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 it all with pleasure, which made him feel better.

Perhaps this is the price of growing up.

The police released some girls one after another. After all, they had dealt with five people at once, and it would have been difficult to deal with if only five people were missing.

They let the girls go so they could explain away what happened to them after they left.

As for others, such as Sam, they are still in custody.

Director Charlie, the mayor, and even the wealthy people in the Bay Area were all interested in his notebook, but at the same time they were terrified!

Sam himself knew very well that no matter who he gave the notebook to, he would offend the other party.

This seemed to have become a dead end for him!

(End of this chapter)