New Gods of North America.

Chapter 461 Investment
When he arrived at Mr. Russell's manor, Wayne felt that Mr. Russell's emphasis on the "First Office" seemed to have reached a new level.

Because Wayne had been here several times before, he had been treated relatively "courtesy" by Mr. Russell. So when the butler was preparing to report to Wayne, he gave Wayne a "vaccination" in advance.

While leading Wayne directly to the reception room where they were waiting for the meeting, he said that Mr. Russell was currently discussing something important with someone and might have to wait for a while before he could meet Wayne.

As a result, Wayne didn't even have two sips of hot tea when Mr. Russell came down.
It was almost as if Mr. Russell had just finished listening to the butler's report and temporarily left others behind to come and meet Wayne first.

Mr. Russell was obviously quite satisfied with the work results of the "First Office".

He said that he had received information from the steam train operating company that the detective agency's office had arrested a number of robbers during this period, and there were records of repelling gangsters on the spot. The loss rate of steam trains encountering robberies on the corresponding sections of the road had dropped significantly, and the effect was beyond expectations. Driven by the publicity, even the stock price had risen a bit.

Wayne felt somewhat proud, but at the same time he felt that what Mr. Russell said seemed a bit exaggerated.

His overall attitude was still humble. After talking about the latest situation brought back by Ryan, he talked about the personnel transfer plan of the First Office, and did not forget to ask how to contact the bounty hunters that Mr. Russell had found before.

Mr. Russell quickly called the butler and asked him to go back and give Wayne the corresponding contact information.

Then he started chatting with Wayne, "I heard that Wayne was recently assigned by the bishop to Richmond to investigate the assassination of Tom Hagen?"

Wayne spoke truthfully, "Indeed. We just searched the murderer's residence yesterday, and we will probably have to investigate his past in the next few days."

"Have you found out who instructed him?" Mr. Russell asked.

How come even you suspect there’s a real culprit behind this?
Wayne thought for a moment and chose to "step back to advance". "Mr. Russell, what do you think of this case?"

Mr. Russell did not seem to hide:
"Tom Hagen is the treasurer of the cathedral, and has a special status. He is also a clergyman of common origin, which is relatively unique in the South. After the incident, many people speculated whether this was a conspiracy against the church."

Then Mr. Russell changed the subject and asked, "What does the Bishop think of this matter?"

Wayne thought about it for a moment and filtered out the parts that seemed inappropriate:
"The bishop did not express a specific attitude, but before he left, he instructed Reverend Tyrell and our detective agency to investigate the case."

The investigation of the case is likely to involve a lot of people. It is probably no longer a secret in the local area. Some things should be easy to ask and you will know who is investigating.

As for Bishop Corleone's schedule, for such a large ship, interested people should have known about it long ago, but it is better not to tell the specific destination. Unfortunately, Mr. Russell did not seem to be among the so-called "interested people". After listening, he raised his eyebrows and said, "The Bishop has left Richmond? Reverend Tyrell is also in charge of the investigation?"

Well……

Wayne was a little doubtful whether he had said something wrong, and nodded with slight hesitation.

Fortunately, Mr. Russell seemed to be in doubt at the same time, with his eyes slightly narrowed, as if he was judging the truthfulness of what Wayne said, and as if he was thinking deeply.
After a while, Mr. Russell spoke again, "Wayne, your detective agency seems to be quite large now. What are your plans for the future?"

Speaking of this, Wayne is not sleepy anymore.
Logically, the detective agency should have mentioned the matter of setting up a "second office" to Mr. Russell. However, considering that the new sponsor might be Mr. Russell's business competitor, Wayne was still looking for a relatively "calm" opportunity. This was a good time to mention it.
In addition, there is the matter of opening a fast food restaurant. Although there is no follow-up on the cheese-making work with the church monastery, the detective agency now has idle funds to start working on its own. Even if the cost cannot reach the ideal level for a while, at least in theory it will not suffer a loss.

Mr. Russell obviously didn't expect Wayne to have such a messed up plan. The fast food restaurant even considered purchasing goods from Kansas to reduce costs, and also planned to have further in-depth cooperation with the church.
He listened to Wayne's business vision in astonishment, and then he suddenly became quite interested, not knowing what he was thinking about:

"Wayne, your idea sounds good and has great prospects. I don't know if you have enough funds on hand. I am always looking for some high-quality projects to invest in. If you need it, I can consider buying a portion of the shares. Of course, I may not have the energy to participate in its daily management, and the operation may still depend on you."

This was a proposal that Wayne had not expected. The advantage of going it alone was that the dominant power would not be lost to others, while the advantage of a joint venture was lower costs and more controllable risks. Thinking about the current situation in America, when outsiders wanted to run a business locally, the participation of "local tyrants" or "middlemen" was often indispensable.

Wayne didn't know whether this was Mr. Russell's intention as a local to "get involved", but since there was a local tycoon willing to pay and share the cost of Wayne's sudden idea, Wayne proposed a plan that could be used for both offense and defense:
"I don't have any far-reaching plans for now. If Mr. Russell is interested, how about the investment be limited to opening a new store in Richmond? If we can make a profit, we will divide the profits according to the actual investment ratio of both parties. If we go bankrupt at that time, we will also liquidate according to the ratio."

Mr. Russell seemed to be just talking casually, but after Wayne mentioned it, his business instinct reacted:

"If we limit ourselves to Richmond, wouldn't the scale be too small? Your plan sounds like the type where the larger the scale, the higher the profit. Otherwise, the transportation cost of purchasing meat from Kansas won't be reduced much.

"But your concerns are reasonable. Such a store may not necessarily last long. It's fine to open a new store in Richmond at the beginning, but if there are new stores that need investment in Virginia in the future, I want to have priority participation under the same conditions."

Wayne was still hesitating whether to agree or not, but Mr. Russell had asked the butler to call his lawyer from the study. From what he said, in addition to the actual investment, Mr. Russell also planned to pick out a vacant property in Richmond and give it to Wayne for free as the address of the new store.

This could save a lot of costs. If done this way, even if the fast food restaurant ended up losing a lot of money, Wayne would at most have to spend some more time and manpower costs. So Wayne quickly chose to kneel down in the face of the corruption of money. The intention was initially reached, and the rest was just to negotiate with the lawyers.

(End of this chapter)