Chapter 675: News and New Karl

Arthur was very listless all the way.

Actually, when Mayor Williams whipped him with a belt, it looked very scary, giving people the illusion that he was really going to whip him to death, but Lans knew that it was just for others to see.

Because of Arthur's own stupidity—

Mayor Williams had instructed him not to run around for no reason, as it was very chaotic recently, and at the same time, he had dumped Kolinda, so who knew who might find trouble with him.

Young girls are never lacking in suitors; Kolinda is in the Lans family, and her status is also very high, so there must be many people pursuing her.

Maybe some young person got hot-headed and did some impulsive things.

To put it lightly, they beat him up.

To put it heavily, maybe they would stab him a few times to vent their anger.

He never believed that his son was an "honest person"; during the dating period, they must have had relations more than once.

The so-called breakup was just that his freshness had disappeared; in the situation of having the cognition that "the two absolutely cannot get married," freshness is equal to "love."

Without freshness, love cannot be maintained, and they can only break up.

Being attracted by personality, tempted by the flesh, and finally getting rid of temptation to reach the other shore, this is the beginning and end of a relationship.

He did not want anything to happen to Arthur, so he kept urging him not to run around like a damn fool, but he still ran out while Mayor Williams and James were both away, and caused such huge trouble.

All the way, Arthur also gradually knew what had happened, so he was very listless; on one hand, he wanted to pretend to be pitiful to avoid a beating after going back, and on the other hand, he hadn't slept well these few days.

Glancing at this useless son, Mayor Williams sighed silently.

They didn't go to the scene of the incident; those who should be arrested had been arrested, and those who should be sent to the morgue had also been sent to the morgue.

They went directly to the City Hall, and then faced the terrible situation that followed.

The moment Mayor Williams entered the City Hall, the fatigue and helplessness on his body all disappeared the moment his feet stepped on the steps.

His eyes became sharp again, and his slightly bent spine straightened up again; on his body, one could no longer see the twilight of an old man, only the high spirits of a middle-aged man, walking with wind.

Some civil servants on the road heard the footsteps or saw him, and all took the initiative to step aside; the Williams family still had very high authority in this city.

The moment he pushed open the door and entered his office, the first thing he saw was James sitting in his position.

James also saw Mayor Williams, and even more saw Arthur behind him; he hurriedly stood up, and there were some smiles on his haggard face, and he let out a heavy sigh of relief, "You're finally back!"

Mayor Williams just glanced at him, then walked straight to his position and sat down; he glanced at some simple written documents on the table.

He picked up the phone and pressed the speed dial key to his secretary, "Let Police Chief Bulu come over."

He said this and looked at James again, "Tell me about what happened this afternoon, starting from when I left."

Arthur consciously stood in the corner; he didn't have the qualification to sit down now, at least not now.

James told everything that happened in detail; Mayor Williams listened very seriously until James finished speaking.

"It was done quite well, you could have been more decisive."

"When facing this kind of sudden group incident, the first thing you need to do is not to figure out who is right and who is wrong, and then treat them differently according to their right and wrong."

"The only thing you need to do is to stabilize the situation at the fastest speed."

James had an annoyed expression on his face, "But many people died, father."

"With so many people dead, will it affect your work and term?"

Mayor Williams nodded; he didn't deny it, "Inevitably, this is a trap; they dug a pit and watched us jump into it; below it definitely won't just have mud and bait; there must be hunting traps or sharp thorns."

He paused, "Gather the reporters, we...", he raised his wrist to look at the time, "hold a press conference at 7:45."

James immediately went to work; he himself, as a municipal councilor, usually had a lot of contact with these news media.

Although he wasn't sure what his father wanted to do, he knew that the current situation was indeed tricky.

When leaving the room, he also looked at Arthur; besides the smell of shit exuding from his body and looking somewhat listless, he didn't seem to have suffered any external injuries.

He squeezed out some smiles at Arthur, and then pulled the door and left.

During this period, Lans had already rushed to the police station; there were actually more than eighty corpses parked in the police station, and he had to come over to see these corpses himself.

It wasn't that he had any special hobbies, but that these corpses could be of great use.

On the way to the morgue, Police Chief Bulu had told Lans everything that happened this afternoon in detail, including that he got out of the car halfway and personally shot several rioters who were committing violence.

He was a bit uneasy; his attitude toward those refugees this afternoon was very tough; on one hand, it was influenced by James's request and influence, and on the other hand, he felt that in this issue, one shouldn't and couldn't use a gentle attitude.

The coroner very smartly stayed far away from them; in the corridor, there were only the sound of the three of them and the leather shoes of Lans's bodyguards kicking the ground.

Lans didn't express his stance immediately, which made Police Chief Bulu feel a bit uneasy now.

Entering the morgue, the two stopped talking about these contents, and the coroner pulled out the corpses one by one from the freezer.

The freezers on both walls were almost all pulled out, and dozens of corpses were piled together like goods, inexplicably giving people a feeling that couldn't be described.

Perhaps it was sighing at the fragility of life, perhaps it was becoming more willing to enjoy life.

Police Chief Bulu explained to Lans, "We made a preliminary screening, and those who died from gunfire were all these rioters."

"Those who didn't die from gunfire were basically people from the demolition company."

He uncovered the white bed sheets one by one, revealing the cold corpses underneath.

Some had already undergone autopsies and looked cleaner and tidier; in order to figure out their specific cause of death, the coroner would dissect them, drain their blood, and clean their body surfaces.

As long as their wounds were not on their heads, they looked like they were just sleeping with bad complexions at this time.

There were also some that looked no different from when they were transported, bloody and blurry, with blood all over their bodies or faces, and even their clothes hadn't had time to be removed before being put into the freezer; these were autopsied later.

Autopsy was not such an easy thing; one had to determine the cause of death, drain the blood, do some pre-treatment, and finally write the report.

Processing a corpse might take twenty or thirty minutes, and the city police station had five coroners, which was not enough.

Looking at these corpses, Lans raised his hand and drew a circle, "framing" them all in.

"I need photos of those non-refugee deceased, preferably those that haven't been autopsied and look very bad."

"And their matching personal files, preferably, even if there are only two or three, three or five."

"Shoot them all, and then quickly enlarge and print them; we need these."

Police Chief Bulu nodded, "No problem...", he glanced at the coroner behind him, and the coroner made an "okay" gesture.

Seeing that Lans didn't seem to have anything else to explain, he glanced at Lans somewhat hesitantly; the two looked at each other, Lans walked toward the door, and he immediately followed.

The two came outside the morgue; this was the coldest and quietest place in the police station; usually only the coroner and family members claiming the bodies would come here.

If there were no family members claiming the bodies, then there wouldn't be a single person here all day.

Some people said there were ghosts here, and it was a disaster area, but the coroners working here and the police officers who occasionally came didn't find them.

"I heard that this matter might be a bit difficult to handle!", Police Chief Bulu took the initiative to take out a cigarette and handed it to Lans, then took out a lighter and lit it for Lans.

The smell brought by the cigarette dispersed some of the smell of preservatives in the morgue.

Some criminal case scenes were very clean, without any extra traces and clues, and solving the case often started with finding the source of the corpse.

But there was no machine comparison technology in this era; if one had to compare the photos on the files one by one to find the source of the corpse, it might take years to find them.

So they needed to ensure for a long time that the corpse would not rot or deform, but it couldn't be soaked in preservative liquid.

The coroner at the police station would use a relatively simpler method to deal with it, which was to inject preservative liquid into these corpses and then push them into the cold storage.

So even though this was a cold storage, there was still the smell of preservatives. Lans took a puff of the cigarette and nodded noncommittally, "Who did you hear that from?"

Police Chief Bulu was a bit embarrassed, "Some old police officers said so; I don't know where it came from; should we check it?"

Lans shook his head, "What they said is not entirely correct, but it is indeed not easy to handle."

"Later there will be a press conference at City Hall; you will very likely be called over."

"The mayor will ask you to speak to the reporters; before you meet the reporters, he will definitely tell you how to state the whole process to the reporters."

"You must remember one point."

"You only say what you know; you received the report and took the police toward that side; you saw many refugees indiscriminately attacking federal people, and after beating them down, searched them for money."

"You said someone looted the shop and hurt the shopkeeper?"

Police Chief Bulu nodded, "Yes, I personally stopped them."

"Very good, find that shopkeeper and his family; if he is not dead, he should be in the hospital now."

!

"If he can move, take him to City Hall and let him truthfully tell people what happened."

"After you arrived at the scene, you saw refugees still continuously committing violence; they burned those expensive equipment used for demolition, and killed federal citizens for fun."

"You asked them to put down their weapons and accept management, but they refused, and provoked and attacked you."

"In order to protect the safety of federal citizens' lives and property, and to preserve yourself, you had to open fire as a last resort."

"After opening fire, you rescued them at the first time, but it's a pity that most of them died."

"There will definitely be reporters looking for your trouble, for example, asking you stupid questions like 'why did you shoot at their vital parts', answer what you can answer"

"If you can't answer, answer them with 'you were highly nervous at the time and didn't have time to think too much'."

"Or conversely, question them why they ask this, why they turn a blind eye when those people are clearly hurting the lives and property of federal citizens."

Police Chief Bulu's brain turned fast, and he firmly remembered these in his mind; he nodded repeatedly, "I wrote it down."

"You don't have to be too nervous; most questions will go to embarrass Mayor Williams, not you; just do your own thing."

Police Chief Bulu was still a bit nervous; he asked softly, "This time... will it be very troublesome?"

Lans shook his head slightly, "A bit troublesome, but not that troublesome, and you have to understand one point."

"No matter who is the mayor, even if it's someone from the Bay Area, I have the final say here!"

He paused and patted Police Chief Bulu's arm, "Okay, don't be too nervous."

While speaking, a police officer ran over, "Chief, the City Hall phone..."

"Then I'll go over first?", Police Chief Bulu's mood stabilized a bit; he believed what Lans said.

Lans nodded, and he left quickly.

And Lans also left after waiting for a while and getting the coroner's negatives.

When he returned to the company, Karl was already here; he sat on the bench outside Lans's office door, crossed his legs, and chatted with the people beside him; when he saw Lans walking over, he stood up immediately.

"Mr. Lans!"

Lans nodded, and Ma Duoer pushed open the office door; he walked in the front and entered the office.

Returning here, even Lans would have a sense of security; he walked to the coat rack, took off his hat, and put it on the coat rack; Karl stood behind him waiting to help him take off his coat.

Lans was a bit surprised, but still cooperated by shaking his shoulders; Karl immediately helped Lans take off his windbreaker, patted it, and hung it on the coat rack.

He smiled and patted Karl's arm, carefully looking him over.

At this time, Karl had changed into decent formal wear; his oily hair and his leather shoes could reflect light, and he was even wearing a watch on his wrist, looking completely like... a successful person's style.

If he wasn't too thin now to support this set of formal wear, perhaps the effect would be better.

"You look much better than the last time I saw you."

Lans praised him, then walked to the sofa and sat down, pointing to the sofa opposite and letting him sit there.

"How is it, are you still adapting to your new job?"

Karl had a grateful smile on his face, "Thanks to you, Mr. Lans, I have never been better!"

He wasn't very rich when he was in his hometown; he was also a poor person, and the situation was even worse here.

But ever since he realized that he and Boni were not the same kind of people at all, and that he had always taken other people's ideals as his own dreams, this cruel reality, he found himself again, and also found the life he truly wanted.

Lans just handed the work he used to give to Boni to him, and by the way, let him be responsible for the solicitation and street-standing work outside the naval base.

This was only half a month, and he had already made a fortune.

Those naval soldiers had money and were willing to relax; hundreds of girls didn't have time to work every day.

Some young and beautiful ones were queuing outside; their pricing was not expensive, two dollars at a time.

One dollar of it was for those girls; don't think it's low; this is the price now; there were fifty cents on the port side, and one dollar here was already a high price.

Then one dollar was divided into three parts; about forty cents was the "kickback" Lans gave to General Myers.

Generally speaking, military bases don't allow soldiers to enter and exit at will, but if they just come out to vent, don't go far, and don't drink, then it's not impossible.

Not impossible doesn't mean it's okay, but with these forty cents, this matter was okay.

Then there were forty cents, which was Lans's; after all, this business was not so easy to do; without him watching, without his connections, it might not be done well or continue.

The remaining twenty cents were Karl's and theirs.

Don't look at them being the busiest, but they only got ten cents; it seemed like they put in the most effort but got the least return, which was very unfair.

In fact, in this world, the more technical-less work like putting in effort, the less valuable it is!

More than five hundred girls, an average daily income of four or five thousand dollars; he could get five percent from it, which was two hundred or three hundred dollars.

Those people under his hand could also take away dozens of dollars from his hand every month; although it was only half a month, he already had more than three thousand dollars in his hand.

Changing into a set of equipment for himself was still very easy for his current income.

His gratitude to Lans was sincere, from the heart.

After all, even his father and mother couldn't give him so much money every month!

In this world, father and mother are not as close as money!

So Lans made a phone call, and he ran over happily.

Lans nodded, "There is something that needs you to do; do you know what happened this afternoon?"

Karl's face changed somewhat; his face was full of hatred, gnashing his teeth, "Know, these people are too hateful!"

"Mr. Lans, you and the federal government gave us a place to live, and you also gave us food and winter supplies."

"It's fine that these people don't know how to be grateful to you, but they actually did such a terrible thing!"

"They are like those wolves that can't be raised; they should really be thrown into the wild and frozen to death!"

He said this and paused, "I know the situation of some of these people; no matter what you need, I'll do it!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 676 =====