Chapter 596: Changes

Many plans often cannot keep up with changes.

When Connal went to the West, besides recruiting people for the Detective Agency, his more important task was to deliver a message from Wayne to the mayor.

With the mayor's help, it wasn't difficult to arrange for some pigs, cattle, and wheat to be sent over by steam train, but the slightly troublesome part was that these Western goods could not directly enter the market for the time being; they could only be “internally consumed” by the workshop first.

This was like relatives and friends from back home sending him a bunch of local specialties; if Wayne merely “ate them himself” or “gave them to friends,” then no matter how large the quantity, no outsider would interfere.

But if he were to sell those things, it would involve matters like taxation and business licenses, and Virginia itself also had industries like livestock farming and wheat cultivation, with sales channels that had been stable for many years. If he were to steal others' livelihoods, it would truly be like “killing their parents,” and he would likely face a joint encirclement from both the local political and business circles.

Some agricultural products from the West are currently facing such a situation:

If they choose to cooperate with some merchants and wealthy individuals in the prosperous states on the East Coast and transport them for sale elsewhere, then a considerable proportion of the profits must be given up. Sales might increase directly, but the increase in revenue would not be proportional, with the majority likely still going to others.

But if they don't sell externally, the production capacity of some towns in the West has already begun to be oversupplied. No matter how happily landlords and merchants feast in the West, it certainly isn't as satisfying as seeing actual American dollars.

In recent years, due to the Old Continent being in a state of war, America's agricultural products had no shortage of sales channels, and this “export-oriented” situation was generally a win-win.

However, with the secret transmission of Wayne's message that Connal carried, stating that “the Old Continent is about to cease hostilities,” the mayor's pressure in this regard clearly increased sharply—once the Old Continent no longer imported large quantities of America's agricultural products, the profits Westerners could obtain from it would likely plummet.

One of the reasons Wayne wanted to indirectly establish workshops and restaurants was to bypass the existing stable market, avoiding “intra-industry competition” with local wealthy individuals and estate owners, and instead opening up new avenues like luncheon meat or hamburgers.

The reason is probably similar to how “steel mills mostly reject steel produced elsewhere from entering the local market, but welcome downstream industries like car factories to set up locally.”

Thus, with the source of goods initially settled, what Wayne needed to solve now was the issue of the workshop's “digestive capacity.”

Unlike directly purchasing “meat” on the market now, the livestock coming from the West were “whole.” Slaughtering was easy, but the leftover scraps after butchering were also “money,” and he also had to find a way to make use of them.

Therefore, recently, besides focusing on the Dock Area, Wayne's remaining energy was mainly concentrated on the workshop.

Two days later, Wayne was still discussing with the chef how to use cheap pig hides and beef bones bought from the slaughterhouse to boil gelatin and continue improving and upgrading the regenerated cheese product line, when the police sent someone to summon him again.

Americans truly love cheese. It wasn't very obvious when the restaurant first opened, but after repeat customers gradually increased, the momentum was simply unstoppable.

The regenerated cheese produced in the workshop actually has differences in taste and flavor from natural cheese, but its cost-effectiveness is indeed high. Moreover, after being heated in the restaurant, the regenerated cheese, with added edible pigments and thickening agents, looks even more appealing, much like the dark humor that “imitation fruit often looks more delicious than natural fruit.”

Anyway, if this momentum can be maintained, the workshop doesn't even need to produce anything else; just by purchasing cheese and other raw materials from the market for “reprocessing,” the profit from regenerated cheese alone seems enough to keep the business going indefinitely...

One of the police officers who came to summon him had clearly been to the restaurant.

Upon hearing that he could accompany Wayne to finish the lunch personally prepared by the chef before returning, his reaction was very typical: “Please put double, no, triple the cheese in my burger. And please double the ketchup for the fries too.”

Upon arriving at the Police Station, the interrogation process was similar to his last visit, but this time, when Wayne wanted to leave, he needed to pay bail.

This meant that the case had entered the “preparation for prosecution” stage, and the next thing Wayne might receive would be a court summons—in other words, someone had found evidence or witnesses that could point to Wayne.

Whoever can provide fabricated evidence is naturally the culprit of the false accusation, or at least an accomplice.

Lina, with Soften and their team, operated at full capacity, asking informants, posing as reporters, and even frequenting bars at night. By the morning of the next day, although the exact details were not yet available, preliminary information had already emerged:

“The police have currently found two witnesses who claim to have seen you near the scene at the time of the incident. Their specific names are still to be investigated, but their identities have been clarified. One of them is a member of the Sailor Gang, and the other is a relative of that guy, seemingly a younger brother or cousin, anyway, a young child.”

James Damody had already revealed in advance, when instigating Wayne, that the Sailor Gang was behind the false accusation against Wayne.

It wasn't too surprising that the Sailor Gang would now additionally provide two witnesses; one could only say that their after-sales service was indeed thorough.

However, to actually use a child for false testimony, those guys were truly something else.

It wasn't that doing so would affect the child's future healthy development, but rather, according to America's jury system, children's testimonies are actually very likely to be accepted.

To be able to employ such a tactic, it felt like the opponent's malice was almost overflowing—and frankly, this doesn't fit the gangster temperament; it's more like the work of “civilized people.”

Now that the situation has started to move towards a “bayonet to the bone” direction, the Detective Agency also had to respond.

Wayne had Doug call over several new members. After hearing the ins and outs of the matter, one of them immediately raised his hand, “Boss, we're good at dealing with bad guys. Tell us their appearance and address, and I guarantee they won't see tomorrow's sun.”

You guys learn to call nicknames really fast...

The Detective Agency currently has a precedent in this regard, so Wayne didn't complain about it. Instead, he patiently taught these pure Americans what true “American-style policing” means:

“Gangsters are not wanted criminals; you can't treat them like bounty hunters or use the Western approach. And even if you want to silence them, it should usually be done before the witness gives a statement or after the buzz of the case has died down. Otherwise, if the news leaks, it can easily provoke the jury's disgust. It's not recommended unless absolutely necessary...”

At this point, Wayne spat, “No, that's not what I wanted to say. Our Detective Agency is a law-abiding organization, and this time it's entirely the other party's slander. We don't do things like murder to silence. I've called you here to do legal things.”

The faces opposite him showed some confusion, “Legal things?”

“Yes.” Wayne nodded, “I need you to set up stalls near the Dock Area to promote luncheon meat, and incidentally, voluntarily maintain public order around the stalls. During this period, the Detective Agency will calculate a guaranteed salary for you, plus additional sales commissions. But before that, you need to receive some simple sales training.”