Chapter 671: Doing Exercises

In the evening, Wayne was at O'Sullivan's house, eating hamburgers that had been specially ordered in bulk from a restaurant, and passing the time by observing the activity outside the window.

After Lina arrived, she had been busy in the house with several Agents. Besides them, there were also several formidable middle-aged women, who seemed to be either maids or relatives, silently glaring at everyone—the kind with angry stares.

O'Sullivan could only be considered to be cooperating with the investigation at this point. Even if it came to the stage of collecting taxes and fees or even confiscating personal property, the decision-making power was not in the hands of the police or the investigators.

Therefore, the Detective Agency's current investigation was of a relatively civilized type, primarily focused on collecting evidence, and valuable assets could not be directly taken away without cause.

But conversely, since O'Sullivan had already stated his willingness to cooperate with the investigation,

Then even if those aunts were practically glaring like vengeful spirits, they had no right to obstruct the search. Everyone just needed to stay out of each other's way and maintain a normal state of "mutual dislike."

For property investigations in those days, there were only a few main types of evidence. Besides physical property, precious metal currency, or various banknotes and other "cash," the rest probably only included "negotiable securities," "certificates of ownership," and "contracts" such as collectible IOUs, commercial contracts, and redeemable receipts.

However, the most crucial type of item was the financial ledgers of organizations or individuals. If they were lucky, these could be used to "catch them all in one go."

Broadly speaking, even calculating how much money one had in a diary or writing about what the gang was earning recently could serve as indirect evidence.

It was unclear if O'Sullivan was deliberately trying to make things difficult for the Detective Agency. The safe in his office was double-layered, and the innermost layer even contained an unusually thick puzzle box, giving off a silent sense of provocation, like "go ahead and open it yourselves if you dare."

And after the puzzle box was opened, inside there was only a blank notebook, seemingly trying to mock everyone.

The Agent who was best at lock-picking was Willie, but because collecting taxes and fees might attract negative comments, and to maintain the purity of the Detective Agency's public image, Wayne did not let their group participate.

So the ones who actually suffered were Ruihua and the other Agents present. After Lina silently opened this stack of nesting dolls one by one, she inspected them and then put them back together, throwing them to them as an exam question. She would then make time to go back and give them some reminders or suggestions.

This made Ruihua and the others almost slap their thighs in regret for not paying close attention when Lina was opening the boxes earlier.

As for O'Sullivan's little trick, the Detective Agency didn't pay too much attention to it.

Anyway, in a hidden safe behind a picture frame in O'Sullivan's bedroom, they found a share certificate for a Caribbean Plantation and several rolls of banknotes. In the small courtyard behind the house, they also dug up some illegal firearms stored in a box.

These were certainly not all of his personal assets, but it felt like at least one of his trump cards for escaping had been extracted—or perhaps all of them. When Wayne had those resentful aunts in the house sign the impoundment form as witnesses, he felt even they were a bit surprised by these items.

Gangsters, they're always fighting and killing, so it's normal for them to not be professional at hiding things.

"There shouldn't be anything else here. His office safe was clearly partially empty. Even if there were ledgers, they were probably moved in advance."

After Lina finished her work, she picked a hamburger from those laid out on the large office desk, half-unwrapped the kraft paper, and started eating. Then she moved to the window, "It feels like there aren't many people secretly watching this place. Did their gang give up resisting?"

Wayne turned his head to glance at the few Agents still struggling with the puzzle box: "We now have authorization from the City Hall, and we are investigating them today. If something happens to us, their suspicion would be too great. They probably won't rush to act against the Detective Agency now; they'll likely choose to retaliate afterwards."

"Then why did you bring so many people today?" Lina mumbled, chewing her food.

"Although O'Sullivan might use his alibi to cause trouble, the most dangerous ones now are probably the Ireland Violent Group. If other gangs want to take advantage of the situation, the period when O'Sullivan is absent is a good time to secretly pressure his subordinates. We need to guard against those."

After Wayne finished speaking, he glanced at the sky. "Since we've finished searching here, we'll leave after we eat and meet up with Inessa and the others before dark."

"Oh." Lina responded, then turned to count down to Ruihua and the others, "Time is running out, eat first, you have ten minutes at most."

"Yes!"

Ruihua and the others each tucked their hamburgers into their pockets, their heads huddled together, and instead, they intensified their efforts to pick the lock.

...

Leaving the Ireland community and arriving at a facility borrowed by the police, this place was considered City Hall property, only used when public officials needed to spend the night in the Dock Area for operations.

This place had now become the temporary command center for the Detective Agency, with Inessa and Doug holding down the fort.

Most of the people dispatched by the Police Station today had already escorted the two gang bosses and their subordinates back, leaving Sheriff William still lingering, forcing several police officers to work overtime.

When Wayne and Lina arrived, Sheriff William and Mr. Paul from the Rabbit Gang were sitting at a table in the inner room chatting, also freeloading hamburgers and lemonade delivered from the restaurant. Their cronies and several police officers were resting in the outer room.

The main force of the Detective Agency had already been dispersed, each group carrying pigeons and fireworks, patrolling various areas. Since the Rabbit Gang offered to help, Wayne didn't stand on ceremony and had Doug arrange for their people to stake out various locations.

Considering they might be informants secretly leaking the Detective Agency's movements, some information would not be communicated to them. Doug could then send messages with specific combinations of fireworks, and the Agents would generally know what to do when they saw them.

"Mr. Wayne, are you all done? How were the search results today at the Sailor Gang and the Aierlan Gang?"

Mr. Paul seemed quite enthusiastic; someone who didn't know might think he was with the Detective Agency. After speaking, he pointed to the untouched hamburgers on the table, "These stuffed buns that were delivered are quite good. Have you had dinner yet?"

Wayne's answer was relatively concise, ignoring other pleasantries: "We found some hidden assets, but no ledgers were found."

Mr. Paul's enthusiasm did not wane: "I have already had someone record all the gang properties I know of, and the information has been handed over to Mr. Doug. I hope it can be of some help to your investigation. Our gang's income situation is also included. If Mr. Wayne wishes to conduct an on-site verification, we welcome you to visit at any time."

One does not hit a smiling face. Wayne also put on a formal smile, "Thank you for your understanding and cooperation."

For these business-oriented gangs, confirming their assets was actually more troublesome. Due to their normal or abnormal commercial dealings, hiding assets was much easier for them than for gangs whose funds only flowed in and not out in terms of business.

Take the Rabbit Gang's strip clubs as an example: some privately sold smuggled alcohol would be consumed and gone, and the actual selling price in the clubs was often higher than the market price. Or they might prepay suppliers to transfer funds, and then have them deliver goods on schedule later—who would dare to easily default on a gang's debt?

With inflows and outflows, and by altering ledgers, it's not difficult to make paper assets go into negative numbers. Just thinking about it is enough to cause a headache.

As for the share of profits they obtained from dancers and even prostitutes, that would require internal information to figure out clearly.

However, these less externally harmful matters can be put aside for now. Once Seth and Emma arrive, they can be given the task of solving these problems.

What Wayne really wanted to do now was not to help the City Hall collect more taxes, but to establish the Detective Agency's unofficial say and management rights in the Dock Area, and then set rules.

The investigations would still proceed, of course, to give the City Hall a satisfactory account.

But there's no rush; it's better to start with the "fighting and killing" aspects first.