Empire of Shadows

Officer Feren had been working at the harbor precinct for seven or eight years, and his house had also moved from the remote northwest corner of the city to a community closer to the city center.

Many people think that the harbor is not a lucrative place, and the best precincts should be the two in the city center and the bay area precinct.

But in reality, there is no shortage of opportunities here.

Because there are many people here, and many operators revolve around these workers.

In other places, they might charge merchants thirty or forty dollars for security fees, but in the port area, it's only a dozen or twenty dollars at most.

Although the fee is reduced by half, the number of operators here is amazing, and everyone still has plenty of opportunities.

And the port is also the place with the most concentrated gray industries.

Those precincts in the city center or bay area, they dare not collect various regulations from nightclubs with big figures behind them.

But in the bay area, those bars, streetwalkers, etc., must honestly pay the money, otherwise they simply cannot stay here!

Even if a woman only gives them one dollar a day, according to incomplete statistics, at least two thousand people are engaged in this industry in the port area.

This does not include those who have not been counted and are also paying!

And sometimes they will also use some other methods to blackmail those merchants, of course, it is a bit too much to directly use the word blackmail, it should be "negotiation".

Just five minutes ago, he was planning to extort dozens of dollars from the boss of this Wanli Labor Affairs Office, but now, he only hopes that he can leave safely.

Now is the most crazy time for gangs. Not long ago, Polly used a submachine gun a few streets away to strafe in the street in broad daylight, and until now he has not been punished. He is still sitting in his office smoking good cigarettes and drinking expensive wine.

This is the Federation.

Fortunately, the young man sitting opposite him is not a lunatic like Big Polly, which makes him relieved.

Lance didn't quite understand why Officer Feren was so nervous, but he still politely opened the cigarette case on the table, signaling that he could smoke.

Looking at the cigarettes in the cigarette case, Officer Feren hesitated for a moment, but still took one, and then took out the lighter, looking at Lance.

Lance was stunned again, and then smiled even more happily. He took a cigarette on his own initiative, held it in his mouth, and his hand looked like he was摸口袋寻, but actually he was waiting.

"I have a fire here.", Officer Feren stood up, leaned forward proactively, and lit the lighter.

Almost all lighters in this period were kerosene lighters, and there would be a smell after opening, and some people didn't like the smell of kerosene very much.

Lance didn't like it. He would rather carry matches on his body than let himself smell of kerosene.

But some people think that this smell will make them more like a man, so they are very fond of kerosene lighters.

Lance stood up, leaned a little closer across the table, let the flame linger under the cigarette butt, he took two puffs, patted Officer Feren's hand, "Thank you."

Officer Feren also lit the cigarette in his mouth, and the two sat back, which didn't look like an interrogation at all, but more like a connection.

Taking a puff of cigarette seemed to relax Officer Feren's emotions to a certain extent. He pondered and said, "Mr. Lance, do you know Hammer?"

"A dock worker, someone said last night that your people were looking for him everywhere."

Lance nodded, "Yes, I know this person, but I haven't found him either."

"You can ask. Last night, he inexplicably beat my friend outside the dock, causing him to have to go to the hospital for surgery."

"All the expenses add up to more than five thousand dollars. I want to find him and get the money back."

Officer Feren didn't expect such a thing to happen. They didn't know about it, so he quickly took out his notebook and roughly recorded the matter, as well as Alvin's situation.

"So you are looking for him because he beat your friend first and then injured your friend, right?"

Lance nodded in agreement, "After all, it's several thousand dollars, my friend... you know, there's something wrong with his identity, so this money can't go through social security."

"Even if he can't give it all, he has to give us at least half, don't you think?"

"Many people saw this scene, you can just ask around and you will know."

Officer Feren nodded, he would verify it, "Mr. Lance, Hammer is missing, some people think this may be related to you."

Lance showed a disdainful expression, "This is a typical slander. I am more eager to find him than you are, after all, that's five thousand dollars!"

"I think it is very likely that he ran away to avoid this matter. I heard that he doesn't have much money either."

Officer Feren wrote a few more strokes in his notebook, "So you haven't seen him."

Lance nodded, "If anyone can provide me with clues and let me catch him, I will give him two hundred dollars."

"If you can send him to me, I will give him a thousand dollars."

"Whether it's you, your colleagues...", Lance raised his hand and glanced at the police officer standing by the door, "or your friends and family, they can all take this reward from me."

Feren was not sure if Lance had really never seen him, but he didn't care. So what if he died?

Aren't there few headless cases in King's Gold City every year?

"Can you tell me where you were last night?"

Lance briefly said, "At first I was working here, then I heard that my friend was seriously injured, so I went to the hospital."

"You can find the doctor at the hospital at that time. By the way, we also invited doctors from the bay area to perform the surgery. They can testify for me."

"Later, we couldn't find Hammer, so we went back. My friends can testify for me."

"Until you came to me now."

"By the way, if we can't find him, I will sue him directly."

Officer Feren recorded the entire itinerary. In fact, these testimonies cannot be verified, because all the people he mentioned who can prove these words are more or less related to him.

Seeing this, he also knew that he couldn't get anything out of Lance, and at the same time, he didn't want to stay here any longer, so he said goodbye.

Lance seemed to have remembered something at this time, "Sorry, I thought you would stay a little longer, and even forgot to ask them to bring two cups of coffee."

Just as Officer Feren was about to explain something, Lance opened the drawer, took out four five-dollar bills from it, and put them on the table, "My problem, please have a cup with your partner, it's too hot!"

Officer Feren essentially wanted to refuse, but before he had time to say it, Lance said first, "Don't rush to refuse, I know you are working hard in the hot sun. The police is not an easy job."

"Those who sit in the office will not understand you, but I know this."

"The coffee in the coffee shop next door is good, you can try it."

Officer Feren looked back at his partner. The two looked at each other for a moment, and then he raised his eyebrows and made a look of "I can't do anything with you", "This... okay, thank you for your generosity, Mr. Lance!"

Lance stretched out his hand, "You protect our safety, I'll buy you a cup of coffee, who can say this is inappropriate?"

Officer Feren put the money in his pocket, with a smile on his face, "Yes, yes, no one can say anything."

Lance shook his hand, "If you have any further news, contact me at any time.", he took a business card from the table and handed it over, "I am very familiar with many police officers, we are all very good friends, I think we can also become good friends."

Officer Feren had completely understood what Lance meant, and responded enthusiastically, "Definitely!"

"Then..."

"We'll go and continue the investigation, Mr. Lance, goodbye."

"Goodbye!"

The two left the office, and Officer Feren's partner whistled, "He's a good person.", in view of the twenty dollars.

In fact, Lance didn't need to give them money. Just the same people as those gang members before made them understand that this was not the kind of small shop that they could extort at will.

And the fact that Lance expressed that he was friends with many police officers could ensure that he also had someone in the police system who could speak for him.

This kind of person who is not easy to mess with still gave them twenty dollars, which is not just about money, it's about decency!

Mr. Lance is a decent person, so they have to be decent too.

Officer Feren raised his eyebrows, grabbing the notebook in his hand, "So we have to make sure that the things he said are true, I don't want the port area to lose a good person and gain a bad person."

As for those people who don't look easy to mess with, the weapons on the table, they don't care at all.

This is the fucking Federation, the Constitution allows people to own weapons. If owning weapons is a crime, seventy percent of the Federation people should be hanged!

The investigation went much smoother than they expected. Many people saw Hammer beat Alvin, and some people saw Lance and the others take Alvin to the hospital.

Officer Feren went to many places to inquire, and in the end everyone said that they had not seen Hammer, and Lance's people also went to Hammer's house to look for Hammer. It seemed that he did not have direct contact with Hammer.

Officer Feren took some evidence and testimonies he had obtained back to the police station, and then handed these things along with his conclusions to his superiors.

The case was being handled by a sheriff, who, after reviewing the materials Ferren had collected, asked, "So, your theory is that Hammer ran?"

Ferren nodded. "I inquired at the hospital and learned that Lance's friend doesn't have medical insurance. The surgery and follow-up costs will be around five thousand two hundred dollars. He probably realized he was in big trouble, so he's hiding."

The sheriff placed the file back in front of him and glanced through it again. "A typical brainless, impulsive guy. Now the consequences are beyond what he can handle."

He shook his head, placed the file along with other documents related to Hammer, and tossed them into the filing basket. "Go talk to his wife. If the victim sues and they can't afford to pay, they might have to auction off their house."

"It's best to have her find a way to contact Hammer. Some things can't be avoided; you have to face them eventually."

Regardless of what happened to Hammer, whether he ran or was already dead, the sheriff was clear on one point.

That is, without substantial evidence proving Hammer was dead, like finding his body, the case wouldn't meet the standards for criminal prosecution.

If the criminal investigation team didn't get involved, the follow-up on the case would continue to be done by ordinary police officers. With so many things happening in the port area every day, they couldn't possibly assign someone to keep an eye on this matter all the time.

So, in all likelihood, this case would become like other cold cases, dragged on for a while, and then no one would pay attention to it anymore.

As for going to Angel Lake to open a blind box for a lowlife?

Forget it!

Isn't it good to be alive?