New Gods of North America.

Chapter 559: Putting blame on someone?

After thinking about it for a moment, Wayne quickly realized what was going on.

There are bad people in the city.

The logic from the cathedral side isn't hard to understand—currently, the only publicly "legal" Extraordinary organization monitoring the dockside gangs is Wayne's detective agency, and they're using tactics like threats or intimidation—"playing it close to the edge"—rather than "directly taking action." The more you look at it, the more it seems like they're on the receiving end.

The problem is, this isn't like the detective agency at all...

Having grasped some of the details and seen off the cathedral monks who had "kindly come to offer advice," Wayne turned and instructed Doug to call the relevant personnel into separate rooms.

Just to be on the safe side, it's best to do a self-check first.

Willie is a good kid and shouldn't resort to such tactics on his own initiative. However, two of those investigating with him are newly joined "outer circle members," while the remaining one is the seasoned veteran, Liam.

If we think about it from the perspective of "letting loose"... the local intelligence organization is actually a bit "unrestrained" in its operations. After switching jobs, they might continue the style of their "original unit," and Liam is no exception, prone to "playing around."
The scare tactic of "pretending to be a ghost" might actually be something they come up with.

Willie and his team have been busy with their investigation these past few days and haven't seen much of anyone, though they usually come back for a while before dinner.
On the one hand, if there are any new developments, they can be reported in a timely manner before the partners go out to attend the ball.
On the other hand, it's also because the food at the restaurant is prepared by a chef and doesn't cost any money, so it's definitely more reliable than eating out.

Willie arrived quickly; Doug was tight-lipped and probably hadn't warned him.

So Willie's first reaction after hearing this was also a bit bewildered: "We've been investigating another murder case involving that gang these past few days, and we haven't contacted the gang leader. We certainly haven't intimidated other gang members—they're not directly involved in this series of cases."

After saying that, he continued, "Actually, sir, your previous investigation has already clarified the general outline of this series of cases. What we are doing now is trying to find clues from the old evidence that can directly point to the mastermind behind it, in order to prepare for persuading the judge and jury to overturn the verdict."

"Given that the gang leader's willingness to take responsibility, there's no point in us contacting him privately now; in fact, we might be misled by the false information he provides."

Well……

Willie's investigative approach is sound, and his logic is correct.

Out of caution, Wayne also checked, "Could it be that Liam and the others acted on their own?"

Willie shook his head: "We often act as a group. Based on the details given by the cathedral, they shouldn't have had the time to commit the crime. Besides, Liam has recently taken the time to ask Ryan a lot of questions and copied down many of your quotes. He's studying how to become an excellent office manager, so I doubt he would do something like this."

What the hell is this "quotation excerpt"...?

He better not have made up any nonsense for me!

Having initially ruled out Willie's involvement, Wayne then called in "Softener":
"As a local, what's your opinion on this? Does it resemble the style of local organizations?"

Wayne was actually subtly asking whether the local intelligence agencies had a history of such activities, with the recent "Cathedral Assassination" being an example—could this be their doing as well?

After roughly understanding what had happened, "Soften" was slightly amused and exasperated. "Boss, I'm not trying to excuse those powerful local forces, but if this is a frame-up, it seems a bit too lenient... Given your relationship with the two bishops, even the Church probably wouldn't directly handle this kind of thing, right?"

My relationship with them wasn't actually that close...

It's best not to mention Priest Tyrell. What exactly happened on the night of Bishop Corleone's death is something the Detective Agency is now somewhat curious about, yet still dares not ask in detail. Although Wayne is also puzzled as to why Bishop Corleone suddenly passed away, based on the various signs that followed, Wayne can at least be certain of one thing: Bishop Corleone had made preparations for "something going wrong." Until the morning of the second day after the incident, when everything had settled down, he should not have lost control of the situation—but the Detective Agency remained completely unaware of this, as it was not part of Bishop Corleone's "contingency plan."

This shows that even though they are both supposedly "descendants of the April Grass," for Bishop Corleone, Wayne is still "a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative."

However, the "softening" argument isn't entirely wrong. The cathedral assassination was, at the very least, a bloody "murder by proxy." Tom Hagen survived because of his quick thinking and sheer luck.
Using the story of a "gangster boss being scared by a ghost" to frame the detective agency—even the priest Tyrell doesn't bother with it. For a major power, it's practically insignificant...

After a moment's thought, Wayne assigned "Softening" a new task: "Take a helper and go find that 'Jimmy' and the other gangsters tonight to ask them about the situation. See if anything else might get involved with us."

"Yes!"

……

That evening, the Beaton family estate was filled with singing and dancing.

This time, Wayne finally met the leading figures of the Beaton family from three generations at once.
The "old" one is, of course, the still vigorous Mr. Basque; the "middle" one is Pastor Beaton, who suffered a setback in politics; and the "young" one, whom Wayne had met before at a small meeting in the cathedral, is named Victor Beaton, who is said to have served in the army and now seems to be involved in the state's militia.

According to Miss Olivia, the cathedral is holding the bishop's funeral, followed by a nominal election ceremony for the new bishop. There should be quite a few celebrities gathered in Richmond recently.

However, the balls seemed to be tiered. According to Wayne's own observation, the closer the date was to the funeral, the more important the person hosting the ball seemed to be—they might have been waiting for important figures from all over the world to arrive in the days leading up to it.

The Basque gentleman and the mayor switched places as guests of honor tonight, but the mayor of Richmond was clearly not a "heavyweight" among the guests; his presence there seemed more like an attempt to "leech off" the attention.

If we take people in the political arena and compare them, politicians are not introduced as "a certain congressman," but rather as "chairmen or members of a federal/state committee." The titles of civil servants also vary in level; some are prefixed with "federal," while most are at least prefixed with "state."

It's a pity I didn't see the governor; only the deputy came. Neither of the two Virginia senators were there, but there were representatives.

Compared to these important figures who exuded a somewhat aloof aura and were always surrounded by people trying to get close, Wayne had only met Victor Beeton, the grandson of the old Basque gentleman, once, and they were about the same age, so he felt quite comfortable striking up a conversation with him.
They even dared to casually chat about gossip to liven things up—after all, they couldn't very well bring up the fact that everyone had held "small meetings" in the cathedral.

This guy clearly had military experience; he possessed the "toughness" and "sharp edges" of a professional soldier, quite different from Wayne's stereotypical image of a greasy, oily "American soldier."
Fortunately, he seemed to acknowledge Wayne's "identity," or perhaps he was willing to be friendly in a social setting, so he was willing to correct the errors in the gossip Wayne mentioned, and his reaction was quite positive.

"Actually, the person who was rumored to be competing with the Secretary of State was not the state militia commander, but his deputy. The actual situation is also different from the rumors; I didn't have that kind of relationship with that lady."

Oh wow.

The random gossip had somehow landed on the person in question, so Wayne quickly changed the subject. "I see. But I'm also curious about your positions. What kind of work does the militia commander usually do?"

Victor Beaton still talks more when it comes to work:

"The main responsibility is to manage the state's militia. Unlike the relatively small federal army, by law, eligible free men residing in the state are obligated to carry their own weapons and participate in regular training, some for short-term training each year and others for relatively stable positions."

"Although the specific implementation is not as strict as it used to be, and urban residents are generally not required to participate now, the basic procedures will still be carried out as usual, and the slave patrol teams in each county will still be required to take turns on duty..."

(End of this chapter)