Chapter 295: The Gears of Fate Begin to Turn

After comforting Barry, Iris curiously glanced at the blond male police officer nearby; he looked very young, probably only in his twenties, not yet thirty, and was currently chatting and laughing with his colleagues, his smile on his face appearing sunny and cheerful.

"It was this one who helped us catch the little thief," Iris said. "It's all over now, Barry; let's go once we finish recording our statements."

"You mean him?" Barry also looked over at that blond male police officer. "Oh, I've seen him at the station; that's Officer Eddie, Eddie Swan, transferred from Wedge City a few weeks ago."

After saying this, Barry added in his heart: He became a detective at such a young age, and he is also very handsome. Although this wasn't enough to make him jealous, he felt somewhat envious—being able to personally go into the field to fight criminals was something he could not do.

In fact, the reason Barry became a crime scene investigator was to fight crime in his own way.

Iris, who was standing nearby, watched Eddie for a while, then turned to ask Barry, "Are we still going to Dr. Wales' press conference later?"

"I'm afraid the press conference will be over by then," Barry said with a bitter smile. "Forget it; we can just watch the recording later."

"Alright, it seems we had a bit of bad luck tonight," Iris said, patting Barry on the shoulder. "Let's head home early."

"Mm."

Boom—!

After a clap of thunder, lightning began to flash within the dark clouds in the sky; bean-sized water droplets fell from the heavens, slapping and scouring the earth, as moist water vapor covered the entire Central City.

"Looks like a thunderstorm has started, and it's coming down hard."

The Coffee Cup Detective was driving, watching the windshield get blurred by rain, so he turned on the wipers and said to Joe beside him, "We've already checked three places, and there's no Mustang car at any of them. Joe, I think Alan got it wrong."

Joe fell silent for a moment, then pointed to a farm not far away in the rain curtain and said to his partner, "This is the last farm Barry listed; let's check it out and then pull out."

"Joe, I know he's smart, but you've said yourself sometimes that he goes off chasing wild, unrealistic things; he isn't always reliable."

"Since we're already here," Joe replied, "let's check it out and see."

So the two of them braved the rain curtain and entered the farm.

The interior environment wasn't as dark as imagined; a few lights were on sporadically, allowing Joe and his companion to vaguely make out the general outlines of the surroundings, so their search speed was very fast.

"Hey, Joe, did you see that thing?"

When Joe turned his head following the Coffee Cup Detective's voice, he indeed discovered the outline of a vehicle covered by a rain tarp, which made him and his companion exchange a glance; their eyes lit up, and they thought to themselves that there was a lead.

Joe quickly stepped forward and ripped off the rain tarp covering the front of the car—the Mustang GT500 emblem appeared clearly under the flashlight beam.

At the same time, the Coffee Cup Detective also saw the damaged rear wheel of the car nearby.

Joe said, "It's the Maudong brothers."

The Coffee Cup Detective nodded. "Looks like they changed tires here."

At this moment, Clyde Maudong, who was hiding in the shadows, could finally hold back no longer.

Bang! Bang!

Two gunshots, two bullets—unfortunately, they missed completely, not hitting Joe or his companion at all; instead, the two immediately became alert, quickly taking cover behind the nearest shelter, and at the same time spotted Clyde's position.

"Damn, it's too dark inside the warehouse."

Although his aim had become terribly poor, Clyde immediately sensed an opportunity to escape; he instantly flipped out from behind cover, firing wildly to suppress fire while running toward the door.

Although his aim wasn't great, in this extremely poor lighting, the aim of Joe and the Coffee Cup Detective was equally affected; both sides exchanged fire, all shots missing, somewhat giving the feeling of stopping at a certain point and retreating.

"Clyde, stop struggling; you can't get away!" "Is that so? I still have a plane to catch, Detective!"

When Clyde ran out of the warehouse, the anxious Coffee Cup Detective immediately followed him out, so he instantly turned around, raised his pistol toward the warehouse, and pointed the muzzle directly at the Coffee Cup Detective's neck.

A bloodthirsty smile appeared on his face—the bright light from the headlights at the entrance was sufficient; the other man was dead meat.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out, but the detective did not fall.

A bullet shot out from the dark warehouse a split second earlier; the metal bullet head pierced through the white rain curtain and accurately struck Maudong's right arm, causing him to miss this shot.

"Damn it!"

Clyde ground his teeth and cursed viciously, but behind him, the engine of the agricultural aircraft was already roaring—his brother Mark had come to pick him up; the plane was about to take off, and if he didn't run quickly now, he truly wouldn't be able to escape.

Reluctantly, he picked up his pistol with his left hand, then turned and sprinted rapidly into the rain curtain.

When the two detectives chased out again, the small agricultural aircraft had already taken to the sky, carrying the Maudong brothers away.

Joe holstered his pistol, feeling quite helpless. "These two were too well prepared; they got away."

"It's fine; you're still sharp," the Coffee Cup Detective replied. "That cover shot you just made was truly beautiful; you hit that guy's arm directly. Joe, I saw Clyde's muzzle; without your shot, he would have definitely hit me."

"What?" Joe frowned. "The shot that hit his arm? Wasn't that you?"

The two locked eyes, both stunned for a moment.

"Wait, that's wrong," Joe suddenly exclaimed. "There's blood on your stomach!"

The Coffee Cup Detective looked down, lifted his trench coat, and indeed saw a large patch of dark red blood slowly spreading across his abdomen.

"Oh, my god," he felt dizzy and faint. "I still got hit."

"Sear, hold on!"

Joe supported the Coffee Cup Detective, quickly dragged him into the car, performed emergency first aid to stop the bleeding, then floored the accelerator, heading straight for the hospital.

Ma Ma Zhaodi finally walked out of the warehouse then, casually holstered his pistol, and looked in the direction of the city center.

"So, is this level of interference reasonable?" he asked. "Saving someone who was originally going to die won't get me deported?"

【For characters unimportant to the timeline, this world can accept minor alterations. For characters important to the timeline, you will be unable to change their fate in this world—but you can take them out of this world; this is the only way to let them survive.】

"Wow, you can even help people sneak across borders?"

The system stopped answering.

In the Central City Police Station, Barry saw the sudden gusts and rain outside the window and immediately ran toward the evidence analysis room upstairs—he remembered that he seemed to have forgotten to close the skylight window tightly.

He walked quickly into the room, and sure enough, under the pouring rain, water was already dripping and trickling into the room from the skylight.

"I should have closed the skylight tightly."

Barry shook his head and reached out to touch the iron chain on the control pulley for the window.

(End of Chapter)