Shadow Empire

Chapter 537: Disposal Methods and People Disappeared and Expansion
The evidence of police corruption was collected very quickly, much faster than Prosecutors Lance and Dean had imagined.

Under Charlie's management, the judicial system of Jingang City had long been clumped together like wet flour, sticking tightly together.

You have me I have you.

Maybe someone has tried to report it or do something similar to seek justice in the past period of time.

But the final result may not be a good one. They tried to let Charlie and others examine themselves to solve their problems, which is simply an institutional joke!
Over time, Charlie's men discovered that no matter how excessive their actions were, it would not become a problem for them, so they became even more unscrupulous!
The more unscrupulous they are, the more difficult it will be for them to hide during the interrogation.

For example, the simplest one is that the source of large amounts of funds is unknown. They don’t hide these things at all, they just leave them there.

Almost all of these branch directors live in large single-family houses or villas, and drive luxury cars worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

No one tried to hide the fact that "I shouldn't be so rich". They generously displayed their wealth, which also became one of the reasons why their psychological defenses quickly collapsed!

In addition, there is the deterrent effect of Lance here. Under the threat of the family playing Candy Crush at any time and under the tremendous pressure, people simply cannot hold on for too long.

When one person speaks up, more people will speak up.

They had used these tricks to deal with suspects and criminals before, but now they were particularly effective against them!

Soon a series of cases were revealed. Prosecutor Dean originally thought that this was just a low-level "bullying".

What he has to do is to provide ammunition for this "oppression".

Someone wanted to get rid of Charlie, so he was assigned to investigate Charlie.

He was even considering whether he should help Lance fabricate some evidence and cases if these people did not confess enough to directly put Charlie to death.

Prosecutor Dean also excels in this area.

After all, this job was assigned to him by Attorney General Terry. Whether for his own work performance or to satisfy Attorney General Terry's instructions, he must do a good job.

But the things they confessed were becoming more and more horrifying, and he no longer needed to do anything extra. Instead, he became nervous and unbelievable because of what they confessed.

As a prosecutor in the State Prosecutor's Office, the cases he usually comes into contact with are definitely of a higher level. Such cases may have a great impact and may cause great losses, but they are not too horrific.

These cases...

"I don't know what to say..." Prosecutor Dean looked at the transcript in his hand, his expression was unexpectedly complicated. "I thought it would take three to five days to sort it out, but now it seems that it may take longer."

He held the receiver of the phone in one hand and flipped through the organized file with the other.

For example, the one he was reading was a branch chief confessing to the investigation team that Charlie had asked him to cause trouble for a small businessman.

For these small vendors who have little ability to resist risks, the police are one of their most lethal enemies.

He just used a very simple method, temporarily sampling the goods of this small vendor, saying that someone reported that he was selling maple kite grass, and then put a small bag of maple kite grass into his goods when checking his goods.

This is a little trick that almost all police officers know!
There's a not-so-funny joke that goes, if you're driving a nice car on the interstate.

You are not speeding, not overloading, and have not done anything illegal, but a police car still follows you and signals you to stop.

Then you better keep an eye on the highway police because you never know what they might find in your trunk.

It could be a small bag of maple kites that is enough to put you in jail, or it could be a bloody pistol that is directly related to a murder case, or even more likely a kitchen knife that is stained with someone's blood!

The branch chief simply put a small bag of maple kite grass into the vendor's goods, then refused to listen to the other party's explanation and arrested the vendor.

The small businessman was then arrested for "transporting and selling contraband" and was quickly sentenced.

Less than three months after this small vendor was imprisoned, he had a conflict with gangsters in the prison. During one of his days out, he was stabbed in the heart with a homemade spike by the gangsters and eventually died in prison.

There were many such incidents, and some people even confessed that Charlie or Hunter sometimes asked them to deal with some corpses - putting them in gasoline barrels and sinking them into Angel Lake.

The descriptions of these cases alone are enough to make people feel horrible. As the chief of the Jingang City Police Department, Charlie should have been upholding justice and fairness for the people.

But now, he has become the executioner hiding in the shadows, which is terrifying.

To know more details about these cases, including whether they really exist, requires time to investigate, a lot of time.

They are different from cases such as accepting bribes to provide conveniences for others, which are simple in nature.

Just by checking the bank's fund flow, we can restore the true circumstances of these cases to a large extent.

Your annual income is only 1,000 yuan, and after working for 40 years, you only make 40,000 yuan at most. But you now have 400,000 yuan, and you can't explain where the remaining 360,000 yuan came from. This is evidence of bribery.

But these cases are different. They are very complicated. They are not simply cases of duty crimes. They involve many people, many things, and many mysteries.

If they want to bring these cases to court, they must investigate them thoroughly, at least find out the causes and consequences as well as the motives before using them in court.

It will certainly take more than three to five days to investigate these old cases.

Lance frowned when he heard this, "How long will it take?"

Prosecutor Dean flipped through the files on his desk and said, "It may take two to three months, or even longer, maybe even one to two years."

"The cases they confessed to span about thirty years. We can ignore those that happened too long ago, but we must deal with the cases that happened five to ten years ago."

"So we are unlikely to be able to use these people's confessions in the short term."

For example, in the case of the small vendor, if we want to investigate thoroughly, we have to find out what the motive is and what benefit Charlie ultimately gained from this incident.

They need to investigate a lot of things, and some of the investigations cannot be done openly.

In short, this matter does take a long time and requires a lot of manpower.

However, Prosecutor Dean actually doesn't want to investigate these cases because these cases have such a bad impact!

If it was a group of vicious gangsters who killed them or did those outrageous things, then investigate these cases thoroughly, arrest those who should be arrested, and sentence those who should be sentenced.

This is a victory for justice and righteousness!

But now the perpetrators of these cases are law enforcers themselves, people who uphold law and justice. Solving these cases will not only not make people feel comfortable, but will make people feel uneasy.

All he could do now was to make the problem clear and let Lance make the decision.

Lance thought for a while and changed his words, "What if we only consider some simpler and more straightforward cases and try to send him in first?"

Prosecutor Dean is not a novice who knows nothing. He has been a prosecutor for a long time and is very familiar with some of the unspoken rules of federal politics.

He understood the meaning behind what Lance said -

Destroy his "politician identity" and then deal with him in other ways!
Prosecutor Dean thought for a while and then asked, "I think there is nothing wrong with your idea."

"The bribery issue alone is enough to make him lose his politician status, but you have to tell me what you plan to do with him in the end."

Prosecutor Dean lowered his voice. "If you just want to cause trouble for him, but he is still alive, or if you want to make him disappear through legal means, then we will continue to investigate."

"But if you're going to... you know, shut him up in your way, then some of our investigations won't have to go on."

"You should understand what I mean?"

Lance then said, "Yes, I know what you mean."

"You just need to prepare and go through the procedures. As for the other cases..." He paused for about four or five seconds, "...you don't need to worry about them."

Prosecutor Dean understood what he meant and said, "Okay, I'll have someone arrange it right away."

If Charlie died unexpectedly for various reasons, then they would not waste time investigating a meaningless case. Without even a defendant, the investigation would only be a waste of time.

Prosecutor Dean has encountered this kind of thing many times. For example, the suspect under investigation could not bear the huge psychological pressure and committed suicide. Some suspects were also silenced by certain forces while in custody?

Or when he was playing basketball with gangsters, he was shot eighteen times on the basketball court.

As long as these suspects die, all investigations will be terminated and legal proceedings will be initiated.

After it is determined that the prosecutor is not at fault, the file will be sealed. Whether the case will be further investigated and advanced requires a comprehensive assessment, but it is highly likely that it will not be moved on.

After all, some people have sacrificed their lives to stop the investigation of the case. If the investigation continues, who knows what will happen.

The two reached an agreement, and Lance smiled and said, "Okay, thank you for your attention on this matter."

"You're welcome, this is what I should do."

After Prosecutor Dean hung up the phone, he looked at the more than a dozen thick file bags on the desk for a while.

He called Attorney General Terry, and after the two chatted for a while, he breathed a sigh of relief and dropped some of it into the file box.

This also means that these files and archives will most likely never be activated again.

Prosecutor Dean and his men quickly took action. The easiest way to investigate whether Charlie accepted bribes was to find out his financial situation.

This requires cooperation from banks.

Prosecutor Dean called Attorney General Terry about this matter. When they arrived at the bank, the bank staff were ready to cooperate.

It won't take long to investigate these matters.

But no matter what, this case will definitely have a huge impact, even if they try their best not to let it escalate.

Charlie's bank balance was healthy, but he must have used other accounts, which required a little tracing.

Prosecutor Dean personally led people to search for clues in countless accounts.

The villa that Charlie bought was a clue. They found the account used to pay for the villa, and then tracked the flow of every sum of funds based on this account, and finally they were able to lock in something they wanted.

This is a meticulous and boring job. When you look down, it is still broad daylight, but when you look up, it is already getting dark.

One of his men walked up to Dean with a strange expression, bent over, and whispered a few words. Prosecutor Dean turned around and looked at him for a while with an unusual expression.

The subordinate nodded again and again to confirm, and Prosecutor Dean picked up the phone and called Lance.

"How can I help you?" Lance asked.

Prosecutor Dean lit a cigarette and licked his lips. "I'm at the bank and have made some gains, but we've run into a problem."

"What's the problem?" Lance raised his hand and motioned for the others to go out first.

There were a lot of people in his office, all of whom were hired by Morris to run private casinos.

The first moment they heard that Lance wanted to charge them money, their minds went blank and they wanted to curse, but soon smiles appeared on their faces!
Collecting money means that Lance has to take good care of them, and they don't have to hide everywhere like rats like in the past!
So the operators who know about this are here and they are talking about these things.

Prosecutor Dean didn't know how to start, but he definitely needed Lance's help in this matter. "Charlie and his family are missing."

"Missing?" Lance didn't react at first. "You mean, he and his people are no longer in Jingang City?"

Prosecutor Dean nodded and said, "I have arranged for someone to monitor them, because our work here has reached the stage of actual evidence collection."

"And we also hope to see if we can find any additional supplementary evidence through his family's consumption and actual situation."

“But the people we sent did not find him and his family in the places where they frequented.”

"They may have absconded."

"Escaped?" Lance couldn't help but laugh a few times, "I see, I'll arrange for someone to look for him."

He laughed twice as he spoke, "I'll let you know if there's any news."

He thought of many possibilities, such as Charlie taking the initiative to seek peace with Congressman Williams.

Now that Lance and Congressman Williams are in the same group, it is not easy for him to ask for peace with Lance, but it is much easier to ask for peace with Congressman Williams.

As a qualified politician, Congressman Williams considers more than just simple likes or dislikes. He has to consider many other things, and he might accept Charlie's surrender.

He also considered the possibility that Charlie might be able to persuade some people in the Bay Area to avoid the investigation from a higher level, such as finding Mr. Hof, who had a certain influence in the state government, to stop the investigation.

This possibility is more likely, and this is also what politicians do most often, exchanging interests.

He also considered that Charlie might burst out with unprecedented courage when facing a desperate situation. For example, he... came to him alone with a weapon, seemingly wanting to say something to him, and then shot him when he was not paying attention!
Lance had many guesses, but the only thing he didn't guess was that he would run!
He has too many interests in Jingang City. Is he really willing to give them up?

He worked hard all his life and worked as a dog for nearly forty years before he had everything he has now. Could he really give it up so easily?

Lance felt that he was not that kind of person and he couldn't do that!
But unfortunately, now I can’t find the person.

He shook his head.

Then I called Chief Blue.

"Lance?"

"Yes, it's me. I have something for you to do."

"What's the matter?" Although Chief Blue had become the police chief, he did not show off.

At least he didn't get cocky in front of Lance, and looked like he could be ordered around by Lance anytime and anywhere.

"Charlie is missing. Get your people moving. When you find him, don't alarm him. Send the news back."

"You should know how to find him, right?"

Chief Blue said quickly, "Find his car..."

Jingang City is a big city. It would be very troublesome if you don’t drive in such a big city. Charlie has his own car, and the license plate number is known to the entire police force.

Wherever he went, if we could find his car, he must be nearby.

After hanging up the phone, Lance asked Bolton and Morris to look for it, and then he called everyone outside back in.

"Where were we just now?" he asked.

One of the gentlemen, who was a little fat with a protruding belly, smiled flatteringly and said, "You said we can expand our business..."

Lance recalled, then nodded and said, "Yes, expand the business."

"This is the main reason why I asked you to come here today."

"You may have heard that I recently had a fight with the Kodak family..."

The small casino owners in the room all nodded, and many of them even praised and flattered, "Mr. Lance, the Kodak family is no match for you at all. It is only a matter of time before they perish."

Lance smiled and raised his hand to silence them. "This is how fighting between gangs works. As long as we can weaken their strength a little, it will be the best option for me."

"If your business expands, their business will be affected, and their influence will be weakened."

"I can ensure that their tentacles cannot reach into my territory and that your business will not be affected."

"And you only need to pay 30% of your income..."

(End of this chapter)