Chapter 658: Locking and Responding

There were seven or eight young people standing in the room, all the same age as Arthur. Lans's gaze swept across their faces one by one, and then he turned to look at Mayor Williams. "You and your family might need to avoid it."

"Sometimes people will lose some memories in a certain period of time. We need to help them recall it. This process might be a little bit..."

He flipped his wrist, and his face also carried the regret that those people might not be willing to cooperate. The moment the word "pain" came out of his mouth, some were happy, some were fearful.

Mayor Williams shook his head. He sat there, pointing at his chin, and lit a cigarette. "No need. I want to know why it was him."

Lans didn't oppose Mayor Williams's decision, and then he looked at James.

James also shook his head. "Although I sometimes feel Arthur is a bit immature and a bit stupid, he is ultimately my brother, my family. I have to know the truth!"

This remark, whether it was his sincere thought or his performance, was indeed very meaningful.

Mayor Williams looked at his expression very softly, and even his wife's expression when looking at James became a bit moved.

Lans finally looked at Arthur's mother. Her mother was one of the few very beautiful women Lans had ever seen—

If she wasn't beautiful enough, even if she was very young at the time, it would be very difficult for Mayor Williams to be obsessed with her, and he would even marry her before she was an adult.

The Federation law didn't require complete adulthood to get married, and one could also have children.

Sometimes it wasn't a shocking thing to see student mothers who already had children in universities and even high schools.

A beautiful woman plus her sad expression at this time, she had more privileges.

"That's my son!", she said through gritted teeth. Lans nodded.

The room was large. He sat on the sofa, took off his gloves, and also took off his coat. "I need a few rooms, and waterproof cloth."

He looked at the butler. "I'm afraid of dirtying the carpet here."

James was just about to say "don't care if the carpet is dirty," but was stopped by Mayor Williams. "Don't talk."

He looked at Lans. "You can use all the rooms. I just want to know that result."

He could see that the "interrogation" had already begun from this moment.

This was just the first step of the interrogation, exerting psychological pressure.

The butler soon had large pieces of rainproof cloth brought over. The manor also needed these.

Sometimes some walls or roofs might be damaged, and temporary rain protection was needed.

Or places like their swimming pool needed to avoid rainwater and fallen leaves, and rainproof cloth was also needed.

When Lans had them lay out the rainproof cloth, the legs of the few young people were already shaking.

"My people will ask you some questions, all of which are very simple questions that you must know the answers to."

Lans stared into their eyes, observing their demeanor. "Think clearly before answering, let yourself calm down. If you are not that person, you don't need to be afraid."

"Nonsense, speaking randomly, you will be punished!"

"I know, it's impossible for everyone to participate, but among you, someone must have participated."

"Help us find him, not just to help us, but also to help yourselves, to help your families!"

After Lans finished saying these words, he took out a box of cigarettes, lit one himself, and then put the matches and cigarettes on the table.

Lans looked at Elvin. "Take them to be questioned separately, you arrange it."

After people were taken away separately, Lans looked at Mayor Williams. "I have already sent people out to look for Arthur. They must have left some traces in the city. As long as there are traces, we will definitely be able to find him."

Mayor Williams's emotions stabilized a lot. Lans's appearance began to push things to continue to develop, instead of standing still, and his emotions had an outlet for venting.

"It must be them."

The "them" in his mouth, of course, referred to those people in the Bay Area, and then he became angry. "These sons of bitches broke the rules!"

He looked at Lans, his eyes incomparably firm. "I want them to die!"

Lans nodded. "No problem."

"I don't think we need to worry so much. Before they achieve their goal, Arthur won't have an accident."

"So now, we just need to find him and bring him back."

Mayor Williams nodded. He also lit a cigarette and waited quietly for news.

After about ten minutes, Elvin brought a few transcripts over. During this period, Police Chief Bulu and Deputy Chief Du Ke also rushed over, along with their respective confidants.

The Mayor's youngest son was kidnapped. When they knew about this for the first time, cold sweat broke out all over their bodies.

But fortunately, Lans was already here, which made them breathe a sigh of relief.

At this time, they were standing in the corner. In the eyes of ordinary people, they were absolute big shots, but in this room, they were no different from the people outside.

Lans glanced at the documents in his hand, compared them for a while, handed them all to Mayor Williams, and then had Elvin bring one of them out.

That was a thin, tall guy, a college classmate of Arthur. Originally, he was just from a middle-class family background.

But since following Arthur as his dog-leg all these years, he had completed an amazing class promotion and had become a small capitalist.

His parents and uncles all opened companies, doing some supporting work for the industries controlled by Arthur.

Don't look at it as if it was just some side-dish things, but every year it could bring at least two or three hundred thousand in income to him and his family!

And as he and the industries in Arthur's hands cooperated better and better, and his relationship with Arthur became better and better, their income would also become higher and higher.

From the background investigation, it seemed he had no reason to hurt Arthur, but one couldn't look at the surface of anything.

"They all say it was you who proposed to get together at night."

The young man standing in the room had his hair soaked with sweat. Although there was heating in the room, it was winter after all.

He wiped the sweat from his face and said softly, "It was me who proposed it..."

Mayor Williams clenched his fists tightly, his emotions a bit agitated, but Lans appeared very calm. "Who told you to do this?"

The young man immediately said, "It was...", he said the name of another person among them, a guy who wasn't tall. "He called me at noon, saying that we hadn't gotten together for a while, saying that we should get together."

"He also said a lot of things from the past, like how we would be with Arthur all day long."

"I thought... if I proposed it, I could leave a better impression on Arthur, so I proposed to get together at night."

"Is he here too?"

"Yes, he is."

Lans had Elvin bring the person out. When the two stood there, Lans actually already saw it—the latter person had a problem.

When people face fear, they will show some underlying things, pure fear, or uneasiness, panic, and guilty conscience because of what they did.

Some things can be hidden through training, but this person, he hadn't received professional training, and it was very difficult for him to hide his inner heart.

Just standing here, the uneasy emotion he showed already made him look clearly wrong.

The one who needs evidence is the police.

Lans is not a policeman, he doesn't want evidence.

"Who told you to ask Arthur out?", Lans asked directly.

The short guy who was dragged out was still playing dumb. "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Lans, it wasn't me who called Arthur out..."

Lans glanced at Dai Wen, who pulled out a dagger from his waist directly, and in the situation where the little short guy wanted to struggle but didn't dare to struggle, he cut off a section of his finger.

The intense pain and fear broke through his defense line almost without any obstruction. He immediately confessed a name. Mayor Williams's expression suddenly became a bit ugly. "It was our common friend." Here "common friend" certainly didn't mean Arthur's and that person's, but his and those people's in the Bay Area.

This "friend" also lived in the Bay Area. Their relationship could even be said to be okay, not bad.

Then Mayor Williams glanced at the little short guy, and the hatred in his eyes was revealed without any concealment.

He turned to look at Lans. Lans received his "signal" and nodded slightly. He turned to look at the little short guy. "Do you know who kidnapped Arthur?"

"Is it a gang member, or whose bodyguard, their friends or something?"

The little short guy stammered and shook his head, saying he didn't know. "He just said he wanted to talk to Arthur privately, talk without alarming anyone. I thought he would come back soon!"

In his confession, the reason he accepted this invitation was that the other party held his handle, and at the same time promised to give him and his family a big order.

Under the double coercion and inducement, and he didn't think the other party would hurt Arthur, he facilitated this matter.

After using some means to really not be able to ask any new content, Lans had Elvin take these people down.

Those wounds and the limb ends that fell on the ground made the faces of the three "big shots" in the room not look very good. Arthur's mother's face was terribly pale, but she had a sense of relief!

James's face was also a bit pale, but it was better than Arthur's mother's. On the contrary, Mayor Williams's expression was the most stable.

He had lived his whole life, and should have seen quite a few big scenes, even if he hadn't seen them with his own eyes, he was at least prepared in his heart.

!

James lit a cigarette to calm down the shock brought by the intense, impactful scene just now. He asked, "How much of what he said is true?"

Lans hadn't had time to answer, and Mayor Williams answered for him. "Very likely all true, he was scared out of his wits."

Although he was just a dog-leg around Arthur, he was ultimately middle-high class, and could be considered to have been pampered and well-fed.

This kind of person had never seen this kind of scene. Sharp knives cut off a part of the tissue from his body, pain, fear, everything stimulated him to hope that everything could end as soon as possible.

And telling the truth was undoubtedly the only thing that could do this.

At the same time, he had to consider the consequences that might arise if he lied and was discovered, so Mayor Williams believed that what he said was basically the truth.

James nodded. "Then what should we do next?"

Lans didn't make a decision himself. He looked at Mayor Williams, who was silent for a while. "I'm going to make a phone call."

He didn't make the phone call in the living room, but went to his study. He came back after about seven or eight minutes, much earlier than Lans had expected.

"No one answered, they should be planning something."

Knowing his son's whereabouts, and the little short guy's pain made his mood begin to calm down. Calmness and rationality returned to the high ground.

He was no longer thinking about these things as a "father," but with the thinking of a Mayor, a politician.

"They want me to make concessions, compromise, and use Arthur to threaten me."

"I still need your help next, Lans.", he glanced at Police Chief Bulu and Deputy Chief Du Ke again. "Of course, I also need yours."

Some things were easy for gangs to do, but there were also some things that were easy for the police to do.

The two small police officers didn't dare to be big either, and immediately nodded and agreed. "No matter what, Mayor, anytime, anywhere!"

Mayor Williams nodded, and then rubbed his forehead. "Delayed you a lot of time, very sorry, I will contact you again if there is news."

His wife looked at her husband in disbelief. She could hear that Mayor Williams meant that they could all go back.

Arthur still didn't have any actual news until now, how could he let these people go back?!

She looked at the angry expression on this man's face as if she were questioning him "why do you want to give up Arthur," but she didn't say it. She knew her wisdom was not as good as her husband's, she was waiting, waiting for an explanation.

The two police chiefs left first, said goodbye to everyone, and went directly to the police station. Before Arthur was found, they wouldn't go home.

Lans left a little later. He needed to handle some things cleanly. When he left, he took the little short guy with him.

Obviously, Mayor Williams had hinted to him that he should let this person and his family pay the price!

Then, only a heavy price awaited the little short guy and his family!

"Why don't you let Lans go find Arthur back?", everyone was gone, Arthur's mother couldn't help but shout.

The butler dispersed everyone, and he also left the room. Only the three of them were in the room.

Mayor Williams rubbed his temples. "Where to find?"

The woman raised her hands helplessly, but soon put them down again. "Find it anywhere, he must still be in the city. We look for those possible places, maybe we will find him!"

Mayor Williams continued to stare at her and asked, "Which possible places?"

"List a few!"

The woman was silent for a while again. "Fuck, how the hell do I know?!"

"This is your business, you have to do it, not me!"

Mayor Williams sighed. "We can't find him, he must have been hidden. Don't worry, his value now is more important than his life, he is very safe."

"Now we are looking for him all over the street, it will only trigger some unknown changes. Those wavering people might turn to neutrality at this time, or even turn to them again!"

"This is a game. Whoever gets chaotic first will lose this game and lose everything!"

Mayor Williams pursed his lips. "I love Arthur, no less than you. I promise, I will definitely bring him back!"

The woman could only choose to trust her husband in the end, just like more than twenty years ago, the sixteen-year-old girl married Mayor Williams, who was older than her father, without looking back.

"Don't make me sad, okay?"

Mayor Williams nodded. He hugged her. "I swear!"

"You go to rest, I'll talk to James again."

After watching his wife leave, Mayor Williams leaned on the sofa and sighed heavily. "We pushed them into a corner."

James nodded. "So they can't withstand the pressure."

"This shows that our current strategy is correct!"

Mayor Williams nodded and said, "We substitute ourselves into their current position, what should they do next?"

"Just an Arthur is not safe, and it doesn't necessarily force us to compromise completely. After all, everyone knows that besides him, I have you."

As a father, this sentence was obviously very cruel, because at this moment, Mayor Williams was thinking about subsequent possible problems, and in the countermeasures against these problems.

There was already a factor of "Arthur has been killed." He added this possibility, which also meant that he might choose this option when he needed to choose!

But as a politician, this was undoubtedly qualified. One couldn't avoid some things that might happen just because of some emotional problems of one's own.

The father and son both fell into thought. When and where would the next "attack" be?

After coming out of the Williams manor, in the car, Lans was also thinking.

Suddenly kidnapping Arthur didn't look like a smart means. This would only completely anger Mayor Williams.

Unless they had a whole set of plans, and after completing these plans, Mayor Williams's end would be worse than Sydney's, so bad that he might not even be the Mayor anymore!

They wanted to force Mayor Williams to resign!

The retreat on the road suddenly began to accelerate. In less than twenty minutes, they returned to the company from the suburbs.

All the cadres were here. Lans looked at Burton. "Let your people move as soon as possible. I want to know if there is anything different in the city than in the past."

"For example, some houses that no one lived in suddenly had people, and some strange cars suddenly parked on some streets."

"In short, you go think, think about what characteristics these people have, and then go do it."

"Don't be afraid of wasting time and resources. We will verify and check all suspicious targets."

"In addition, I need someone to watch the rich people in the Bay Area closely. When I have a need, I can immediately know where they are, or who they have met."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 659 =====