Luke dragged Little Black outside, "Marcus, why did you hit him?"

Luke was somewhat surprised by Marcus's actions just now.

If it had been David, he might not have been too surprised.

But Marcus was different, though unreliable, he seldom showed a violent side.

Marcus sat down on the steps with a thump, "That bastard deserved it."

"Tell me your reasons."

"Laura came to ask for money, and that bastard refused, even hit Laura. Jaden saw his mom getting hit and came over to help, and that bastard hit Jaden too. Doesn't that kind of person deserve a beating?"

"Deserves it, but there are many ways to teach him a lesson, and you chose the dumbest one."

"I couldn't stand it, you didn't see the look on his face just now, it was disgusting."

Luke nodded, "I don't like him either, but I wouldn't risk getting sued to beat him up. I never saw that you had such a sense of justice."

"I know what you're trying to say... I admit I'm a bastard, unreliable... But I really wanted to help Jaden and his mother." Little Black rubbed his face, his voice choking up,

"I saw my younger self in Jaden, I've been through the same thing. Watching my mom getting beaten up, and feeling powerless, no one helped me then.

I swore, once I grew up, I wouldn't let anyone bully my mom again."

"Sorry, David and I misunderstood you."

Little Black shook his head, "It's not on you. I will report this to the captain, whatever the punishment, I'll accept it."

"Creak..."

The door opened, and David came out, tossing the backpack to Luke, "Bring the money, let's go."

"What about that guy?"

"I talked to him, the money was stashed here by Badman Pole, he didn't know there was a problem with it.

Also, the fight with Laura Pohl left him pretty badly injured, so he won't be seeing us out."

Luke laughed, "Seems like you had a good talk."

David shrugged, "Of course, I've always been very personable."

$300,000 is not a small amount, Rob Keller was unable to provide a legitimate source for the funds.

Thinking that his sister Laura Pohl had called the police, he became very apprehensive.

David made a deal with Rob Keller, as long as he didn't press charges against Little Black, the police wouldn't pursue the matter of him hoarding the illicit money.

Rob Keller's case wasn't serious, he wasn't involved in the case himself, as long as he insisted he didn't know the money was illegal, it was hard to convict him.

However, Rob Keller was unaware of the severity of the situation, and ultimately agreed to the deal after David's intimidation and enticement.

It was a win-win situation, no loss for either side.

David had done this sort of thing often, so he was very good at negotiating.

Little Black realized, "He's not pressing charges against me?"

David patted his shoulder, "Don't be foolish in the future, you can't always have someone to help you."

"Thanks." Little Black breathed a sigh of relief.

...

The three returned to the detective agency to hand over the illicit funds.

The police would certainly want to talk with Laura Pohl.

The problem with the money was complicated, and its ownership could not yet be determined.

It seemed that only after the case was concluded could a reasonable allocation be made.

When he got home from work, it was almost 8 PM.

Luke filled the bath with hot water, brought a bottle of red wine, and a fruit plate.

Lying in the bath, he soaked while drinking red wine and eating fruit.

Comfortable.

A familiar voice rang out, "Congratulations to the host for successfully solving the 'Huge Blackmail Case', capturing two suspects, killing one, and rewarding twenty lottery chances."

The case wasn't complicated, but the process was quite thrilling, and the reward was decent.

An option menu appeared in his mind, with a warehouse interface on the left.

To the right, there was a new lottery interface.

Lottery!

The pointer spun.

It randomly stopped, the selected area lit up, a thousand US dollars.

Continuing the lottery...

After 20 consecutive draws, he had won 18,000 US dollars and 2 cards.

An Identification Card and an Accuracy Card.

The system warehouse now had 8 Reserve Cards and 18,000 US dollars.

Adventure Cards, 3.

Accuracy Cards, 2.

Bullet-Proof Card, 1.

Detection Card, 1.

Identification Card, 1.

Last time, after cashing $71,000, Luke paid off his car loan and David's money and rented an apartment.

He still has $57,000 on hand.

He won't be short of money for now and doesn't plan to cash anything in the near future.

He'll wait until there's more reserve fund in the warehouse and cash everything at once.

He has always been researching long-term cashing channels, and he has come up with several methods, but it still needs time to try them out.

Once he gets through this busy period, he will schedule it.

…

The following morning.

At the police detective headquarters' meeting room.

Everyone sat around the conference table, starting their usual morning meeting.

Luke took a sip of his coffee, already accustomed to this routine.

For a police officer, besides investigating cases outside, meetings are also a daily routine.

Solving cases relies on team collaboration. No matter how capable one is, they need others' support since there's always something that can be overlooked.

Meetings are essential to timely summarize clues and intelligence and to share the investigation progress of cases.

Sometimes, meetings can also spark a collision of thoughts.

Once everyone was present, Susan put on her glasses and sorted through some documents, "Let's start our meeting."

The deputy captain asked, "Captain, has the identification report for the male corpse found yesterday come out yet?"

"I went to the technical division this morning, and the identification report wasn't out yet, but I expect it will be soon."

"OK, then let's proceed with the meeting and wait." The deputy stood up and walked to the whiteboard on the side,

"The victim Layli Harry was killed in the early morning of April 1st. Today is April 5th. Last night, I summarized the clues of the case and roughly analyzed the suspect's motive.

The biggest progress in the case is that we've cleared up the relationship between the victim Layli Harry and the driver Badman Pole.

Badman Pole was not only the congresswoman's driver but also her assistant and lover, which means they had a very close relationship, introducing many uncertainties into the case.

I suspect the cause of the case is likely due to their affair being discovered, which then led to extortion and a series of dire consequences..."

"Creak..." The door to the meeting room opened.

Deputy Chief Reid came in and quietly sat at the end of the conference table.

Despite his attempts to be unobtrusive, his presence couldn't help but draw attention, "Sorry for disrupting your meeting."

The deputy complained, "You should've come earlier."

"I wanted to, but I just finished a call with the Chief of Police. I've extended the investigation period for the case to half a month," Reid said with an expression as if expecting praise.

"Good." The deputy gave a thumbs up, ready to continue, but then paused for a moment, "Damn it... where was I?

Right, extortion.

This is exactly what I wanted to talk about.

According to the victim's brother, Maquire Harry, the victim asked him for a sum of money the day before she was killed, an amount as high as 400,000 US dollars.

The reason for the request, Maquire Harry wasn't clear.

But based on the clues we have, it's very likely that the victim was being extorted.

And the reason for extortion is probably the same as yesterday, related to that video."

The deputy projected the video on to the projector and played a segment, "This video was clearly taken stealthily, and the location should be outside Layli Harry's window.

The stalker used the video to extort 400,000 in cash from the victim.

The victim's status made it impossible for her to pay the ransom personally, and the best candidate for the role was her poker-playing driver, Badman Pole.

This guy is also quite cunning.

Before, he helped the victim stage a fake shooting incident, which gained her quite a bit of sympathy and helped her win higher fame and support.

As per my analysis, it was the victim's brother, Maquire Harry, who paid for the contract gunman last time, shelling out 300,000 US dollars.

But the hitman, Bowen Cano, only took 200,000 US dollars.

The remaining 100,000 US dollars were likely to have been pocketed by the middleman, the driver, Badman Pole.

Of course, there's also a possibility that the 100,000 US dollars were hush money from the victim to him.

Whichever possibility it is, Badman Pole profited from the incident.

Once there is a first time, there will be a second time.

In this transaction for the ransom, Badman Pole likely held back a portion of the money again.

Meaning, he didn't pay the full ransom, which infuriated the extortionist, who then killed Badman Pole.

To prevent Layli Harry from calling the police, the killer broke into her home and murdered her as well.

It also explains why the murderer was rummaging through Layli Harry's house; he wasn't trying to fake a robbery scene, but was actually looking for the ransom."

Afterward, the killer dumped the Mercedes used for the crime and left the video in the car.

The likely aim was to distract the police investigation."

"Clap clap..." Reid clapped his hands, "Deputy Captain, your reasoning is as brilliant as ever.

But I found a small flaw, which is the three fingers in the mouth of the victim.

One was proven to belong to Badman Pole, which is fine.

But what about the other two fingers?

No other bodies were found at the scene of the crime, indicating that the murderer had chopped off fingers from two other individuals before killing Layli Harry."