New Gods of North America.

Chapter 665 Frankness
"Mr. Wayne, why don't you just say it outright this time?"

After the main group left, O'Sullivan, sitting behind his desk, clearly lost patience and hoped Wayne would get straight to the point.

Wayne thought for a moment and decided to discuss the outcome first, and deal with the remaining side stories later.

“My demands have never changed: those who instigated and participated in the attacks must pay the price. The Sailors Gang framed me first, and it is said that they contacted you first during the last attack, so they are my top priority to eliminate.”

"As for you and your gang, you are at least accomplices and accessories in this. Those who knew about it beforehand and contributed to it will be punished by law. The rest may have other ways out, but that will have to wait until the tax collection is over—there is no reason to let the rest continue to enjoy those illegal gains. So my actions against your gang will not stop."

O'Sullivan was so angry he almost laughed. "Then what's the point of us talking? Let's find another time and place to meet again."

“If we were following the rules of the mafia, I could have made you die in your sleep after the last attack. Our detective agency has caused so many explosions in the dock area recently. You may not know exactly what we are doing, but you should know that we have the tacit approval of the authorities. At least there are no technical difficulties.”

Wayne didn't pay much attention to his provocation and continued speaking as he thought, "After the news of the tax collection came out, many gangs in the dock area have been making moves and are all eyeing your gang. If they all come at you at once, you might be able to retaliate against a few of them, but in the end, you will probably lose all your power. Judging from my intuition, there are probably quite a few of them who have old grudges against you, and in that case, not many of you will be able to survive."

"So we should raise our hands and surrender, making it easier for you to put a knife to our throats?" O'Sullivan seemed to have lost the will to communicate at this point, and his words began to become sarcastic.

Wayne nodded seriously, trying to pull him back: "I can understand how you feel. Because you previously revealed to me the warehouses actually controlled by the Sailors Gang and their involvement in smuggling, so no matter how you plan to retaliate or respond later, I am at least willing to give you an outcome that won't be too bad in comparison."

Noticing that O'Sullivan looked at him attentively, Wayne paused slightly before continuing:
"I'm a private investigator, not a gangster. If you read the newspapers regularly, you've probably seen the news about our detective agency working with prosecutors."

"Based on existing precedents, gang members who are not convicted of directly participating in murders are usually not sentenced to hanging in Virginia. Therefore, the result I can give you is that if you are ultimately driven to desperation, you can choose to surrender to me or to our people. We will put you in court, and the sentences may not be short, but at least more people will be able to live."

O'Sullivan clearly didn't think that was a good outcome. "So, when I had someone join the Sailors' Gang in attacking you, I didn't give you the option of 'survival'?"

Wayne wasn't interested in arguing with him. Feeling his mouth was getting dry, he stood up from the sofa, went to the small cabinet by the window, picked up two upside-down wine glasses, and started pouring wine into them.
There's no need to ask if someone else's wine suits their taste. Wayne pushed one of the glasses over and sipped the other one himself.
"In short, I have no additional hostility toward you, Mr. O'Sullivan, nor toward other ordinary people in your community."

"However, since some things have happened, some people have to pay the price. Our detective agency's operations will not stop, and you obviously won't sit idly by and wait to die. After that, we can only wish each other good luck."

At this point, the conversation has essentially devolved into a public falling out.

However, communication between men can be quite strange at times. After deciding to fight tooth and nail, some men can actually share a drink together.

O'Sullivan pondered for a moment, then picked up his glass, stood up, and walked to the window to look out alongside Wayne. "You just said that some gangs in the dock area are plotting against us again?"

"I know of several right now, but I can't tell you directly. You can probably guess."

Wayne was now regretting that he had poured too much. The wine tasted strange. He raised his glass slightly and asked, "What kind of wine is this?"

“Distilled tequila. And if you don’t like it, there’s whiskey in the cabinet.” O’Sullivan’s composure seemed to be slowly calming down. “From what you just said, our situation doesn’t seem optimistic?”

"It's mainly because you guys offended me, otherwise it probably wouldn't have been a big deal."

Wayne started with a boastful remark, then became serious. "The overall structure of the dock area cannot be easily changed. I guess the fact that this proposal to levy taxes was approved means that among the influential gentlemen in Richmond, the majority are still dissatisfied with the status quo. Otherwise, dissenting voices would have already emerged."

“I only truly realized the uniqueness of your community today. I imagine the situation is similar with the Rabbit Gang; their nighttime business is so successful, they probably have quite a few shareholders. But compared to them, your community is a bit too xenophobic, so it's not surprising that it makes people envious. Therefore, given the right circumstances, they certainly won't miss the opportunity.” O'Sullivan's face remained expressionless: “How exactly do you plan to deal with our gang?”

Wayne spoke frankly: "There's nothing particularly special about it. Just like dealing with the Sailors Gang, we gather clues, investigate the assets you actually control, and if there's an opportunity, arrest people on the spot at the smuggling site. Once the amount is sufficient, we mobilize manpower to formally arrest all members of your gang."

"Then those involved in other murders will be convicted, those who report them can get reduced sentences, and those who are relatively clean can be released. Even if you choose to pay the full amount of taxes and fines, the gang will probably be severely damaged, and new gangs may emerge later, but the faces inside will probably be completely changed."

“It sounds more like the police are investigating a case.” O’Sullivan finally managed a smile. “My men will cooperate with the tax collectors in carrying out their duties. As for whether they can find anything, that depends on your abilities. It’s not like I haven’t been to the police station before, but there are some things that even if you were allowed to investigate, you might not dare to make them public, and in the end, you’d still have to watch me get bailed out.”

"You mean Mr. Pryor? I know who I'm talking about." Wayne stopped there, making sure he really couldn't stand the drink, and then took a big gulp.

O'Sullivan's eyelids twitched slightly, but his expression remained unchanged. "Considering your honesty today, if things get really bad between us in the future, I might give you a chance to save face."

Pshaw, do you think you're that fat Peter Clemens Matthews?
If they dare to do it again, it's hard to say who will save face then.

"Last time it was because I was alone. If it were a real fight, your men probably wouldn't stand a chance."

Wayne changed the subject, "By the way, here's a heads-up: to create opportunities for other gangs, I'll be back with police within three days at the latest. The reason they'll use this time will probably be to ask some members of your gang and the Sailors' Gang to cooperate with the investigation. There's not enough evidence yet, so they'll probably only be able to detain you for 24 hours at most."

"But that's not the point. The point is that other gangs don't seem very interested in the Sailors Gang, and if your people are openly arrested or taken away, some people might not be able to resist taking action. I suggest you have your men go with you to 'cooperate with the investigation' to avoid too much loss."

O'Sullivan then downed his drink in one gulp: "I regret it, and I won't let you off easily. But until then, those troublemakers are the most annoying."

Wayne brought his empty glass closer. "Cheers?"

O'Sullivan seemed to remember what Wayne had just said, and lightly clinked glasses with him, saying, "Good luck."

OK, that's the end of stirring things up.

The detective agency shouldn't be this guy's priority target for now.

A world of great harmony is certainly a beautiful vision.

However, since we're going to adopt a feudal system, how can we allow everyone to be too "harmonious"?

That would be incredibly difficult to manage.

More importantly, the reason Wayne wanted to appear as "open" as possible was because there were witnesses present.
What O'Sullivan thinks doesn't really matter. What's important is to prevent the other Erlans in the community from thinking that the detective agency is targeting "all" of them, and to avoid them turning against the detective agency.

Sometimes, rumors that are secretly passed around are more believable than official announcements.
For example, those people who just went out will probably start asking around later.

(End of this chapter)