Chapter 541

The wailing sirens pierced the tranquility of the night. The red and blue police lights illuminated the motel’s not-so-large building.

These police cars belonged to the Highway Patrol, not Golden Port City. They were too far away and had no jurisdiction here.

The scene had already been restricted. The police were collecting evidence, and the homicide detective had also rushed to the scene.

It’s interesting to note that the Highway Patrol also had a homicide office, because there were so damn many murders on the highways.

It was possible that someone, while getting out of their car to take a piss, could unearth a bone, and a new homicide case would appear.

In addition, the difficulty of solving homicide cases on the highway was very high, and various localities were unwilling to get involved casually, so the Highway Patrol had its own homicide office.

In this respect, they had more and were more complete than some police precinct departments.

“The killer has already left by car, but people are not sure which way he went. It’s too dark here.”

The detective lifted the police tape and entered the room. The room was not large and could be seen through at a glance. The bloodstains on the floor and the two bodies had not yet been moved.

He walked to the bedside, put on his gloves, and picked up one of the banknotes. “A twenty-dollar bill, and it’s a new one that hasn’t been used much.”

He put the money back. “Are there any other clues?”

An officer said, “Someone upstairs said they heard a woman proactively offer to serve the guest in this room, and then gunshots rang out not long after.”

“The two deceased are the restaurant’s cook and a waitress. A customer said they had seen the occupant of this guest room in the restaurant.”

The detective shook his head. “He was targeted in the restaurant, which is what led to this case. So our main job now is to find the person and then restore the true situation of the case.”

He walked out of the room. There were too many cases like this on the interstate highway, so many that you didn’t even need to use your brain to understand the whole process and context of the case.

The desolate wilderness and barren Gobi were always the best choices for murder and dumping bodies. It was just that this time they had picked a target that was not to be trifled with.

“Around sixty years old, well-dressed, suspected of wearing a gold watch, driving a… brand car, license plate number is…” The detective recorded this information. “After the incident, he didn’t stay but fled immediately. It looks like he’s someone from Golden Port City.”

He prompted his subordinate, “Give the Golden Port City Police Department a call. Check this car and this information. See if there are any useful clues.”

He then pointed to two other officers. “You guys go chase west and see. There’s a lot of blood on the ground. He might be injured.”

“He will definitely have to find a place to treat his wound. Even if he treats it himself, he will stop.”

“If you go after him now, you might still find him on the side of the road. Remember my words, the side of the road.”

“Turn on all the lights. Pay attention to whether there are vehicles parked under the road shoulder. Pay attention to the cars at the gas stations. Go now!”

The two officers immediately got into their car and chased westward. A young officer couldn’t help but ask, “Sir, why don’t we go east to look?”

He rolled his eyes. “Because I judge that he came from Golden Port City.”

“Rich people like this, with gold watches and wallets and briefcases full of money, if they are returning to Golden Port City from out of town, they will often choose to take a boat or a train, not drive themselves.”

“At the same time, as the occupant of this guest room, these two people obviously tricked him into opening his door and even brought a weapon like a kitchen knife.”

“Even if he killed these two people, the judge would most likely rule that he was innocent. He just needed to wait here for us to arrive.”

“He was injured…” The officer walked to the door. There was a lot of blood dripping on the floor, and it was all circled with chalk. “With such a serious injury, and when he was not at fault, he still insisted on leaving before we arrived.”

“What kind of situation do you think he’s in now?” he lit a cigarette and looked at the rookie.

The Highway Patrol wasn’t that good at recruiting rookies, so he was very patient with every rookie. He had actually hinted enough.

“This guy is very afraid to see us. He is obviously a rich man, carrying a large amount of cash, and doesn’t want people to know his situation.”

“He’s on the run!”

“Go on. We have his license plate number. We can have the Golden Port police help us investigate clearly. He will definitely have to go to a hospital or a similar place to treat his injuries.”

“As long as he goes, he won’t be able to escape.”

The officer nodded in a daze. In fact, he still didn’t quite understand, but the detective was unwilling to say more.

What he was actually considering now was why this fleeing guy was fleeing.

He couldn’t figure it out.

Soon, the officer contacted the Golden Port City Police Department by phone and requested their assistance in investigating some information.

This kind of assistance in investigation was very normal and happened often. Since this case involved a homicide with two deaths, the Golden Port City Police Department immediately arranged for officers to be dispatched.

They found the car’s owner based on the registration information.

But surprisingly, the car owner did not know when he had acquired such a mid-range car, and the police did not obtain any valuable clues from him.

It seemed that the investigation had hit a dead end here. The news was fed back to the Highway Patrol, and they did not continue to pay attention.

On the other hand, Charlie was driving while cursing. He kept looking at his forearm, which was constantly bleeding.

That bastard had swung at him in front of him. At that time, he felt nothing, just some slight pain, and then he bled a little.

Now, the pain of the wound had become obvious, and the problem of blood loss had not yet been solved.

He even felt a little dizzy.

He had to stop the car on the side of the road and then turn off the engine.

“Fuck!” he slammed the steering wheel. The knife in the kitchen was very sharp.

Because it was used almost every day, it meant that its condition would become very bad at the end of each day.

If it was not handled, the person who used it the next morning would definitely curse loudly.

So after work at night, these kitchen knives would be simply sharpened.

Even if it was just a simple sharpening, it was enough to cut a person’s arm.

Fortunately, he was old, and his skin had loosened. Otherwise, these wounds would definitely have opened up.

But even in his current state, he still felt that it was a bit tricky.

He took off his shirt, tore the sleeves into strips, then brought the two sides of the wound together and wrapped it tightly with the cloth strips.

The intense pain almost made him faint. He endured the astonishing pain and wrapped his arm circle by circle. The rate of blood loss was significantly reduced, but it was still slowly oozing blood, just more acceptable now.

His entire arm was trembling, and he was constantly cursing under his breath. After a simple cleanup, he got back on the road…

All night, Charlie was very lucky to have avoided the police’s pursuit. At a fork in the road, he couldn’t take it anymore and directly got off the interstate highway, heading towards a small town on the side of the road.

He needed a doctor, he needed to treat his wound, and he needed to rest.

On the other hand, the morning sun unveiled a busy day of life.

Prosecutor Dean, who had woken up from his sleep, checked some of the evidence in his hand and then made a call to Attorney General Terry.

This evidence was enough to prove that Charlie had committed a large number of illegal and criminal acts during his tenure as police chief.

Attorney General Terry also quickly gave him his opinion: arrest Charlie immediately.

At the same time, the State Prosecutor’s Office also sent the case to Golden Port later, with Prosecutor Dean as the lead for the subsequent work.

Charlie had already run away. This was a fact that everyone knew. So while they were seizing Charlie’s assets—those houses, vehicles, or other things that had been identified—they also issued a state-wide wanted notice, and were also applying for a federal wanted notice, and began to go through the process.

In this period, once you were on the wanted list, it would be very troublesome.

There were specialized “hunters” who would go after criminals based on the reward amount on the wanted notice, and made a living from it.

They had their own ways to collect information. As long as someone accidentally leaked their information to the outside world, these hunters would soon follow the scent and come after them.

The police department, as the main body of the wanted notice, had already printed a batch of wanted notices with Charlie’s frontal portrait, which would then be sent to various places to be posted.

At the same time, the officers who were handling the assistance in investigation last night also started to work. When they got the document recording the assistance information, the officer said with some uncertainty, “Why does this person look a bit like he’s talking about Charlie?”

The other people in the office gathered around, looked at the document that had been sent over last night, and all showed surprised expressions.

Charlie was very recognizable, plus he also loved to wear his gold watch. So when these keywords were gathered together, Charlie’s image quickly emerged in people’s minds.

They reported this matter to Deputy Chief Duke. After Duke looked at it, he also felt that this person was talking about Charlie, so he immediately had someone fax the wanted notice over.

Soon, there was a phone call feedback from that side. It was this person.

“Found him?”

Lance was a little surprised. He took the case file of what happened on the interstate highway yesterday from Bruce and looked at it seriously.

These were all sent over by fax. Inside was a detailed account of the whole incident and the result, including the situation where Charlie was injured and had fled the scene, and his whereabouts were unknown.

This was very consistent with the guess that this person was Charlie. And there were many eyewitnesses who all claimed that the guy on the wanted notice was 70-80% similar to the guy who had fled.

Some people even directly insisted that that person was the wanted Charlie.

“So we still don’t know where he is,” Lance closed the file and placed it on the table.

Chief Bruce felt some pressure. “He’s seriously injured. He can’t have run too far. He must treat his injuries.”

“We have already coordinated with the surrounding town security bureaus to have them dispatch more patrol vehicles to check places like hospitals and clinics for this type of injury.”

“In addition, the highway patrol over there has also agreed to dispatch full-road patrol vehicles and set up roadblocks on several highways leaving the state.”

“As long as he leaves by highway, he will definitely run into them.”

Lance listened to him talk about the handling methods in detail and kept nodding. “Very good. This is all your job. I won’t interfere. I only have one request, and that is to find Charlie as soon as possible.”

“If he can’t fall into our hands, then don’t let him fall into the hands of others, understand?”

Chief Bruce lowered his head. “Understood.”

After ending this topic, Lance talked about another matter. “The State Prosecutor’s Office has already begun to expand its investigation. Everyone related to Charlie will be investigated. Give me a list.”

He looked at Bruce, a deep meaning in his eyes. “Tell everyone to believe in the fairness and justice of the law. Accepting an investigation is just a process.”

“As long as they haven’t made a mistake, they will definitely be fine.”

“The prosecutor’s office over there will not wrong any of them, but they will also not let go of any criminal.”

“You are more familiar with Charlie and his group. You write this list. I am very at ease.”

Chief Bruce knew what Lance meant. He wanted to completely purge Charlie’s faction from the police force.

He thought for a moment. “Some people are worth winning over. Should we win them over?”

Like the precinct chiefs, or people like Nate. They were all “academy faction.” At a time when alumni social networking was prevalent, they often connected more people.

If they were brought into their own small circle, they could play a certain role and help Chief Bruce quickly control the entire police force.

But Lance shook his head. “My personal opinion is that it’s completely unnecessary. There are capable people all over the streets in this world.”

“Every year, so many people from the police academy can’t find a suitable job after graduation. Aren’t they more suitable than those you think are valuable?”

“What we want is a force that is completely ours, not a force that leans towards us after weighing gains and losses.”

“You are already the chief in the true sense. Sometimes, use your brain more. We have nothing but time!”

He wrote an invisible “10” on the table with his finger. From now until Councilman Williams steps down, there are at least ten years that belong to them. They have enough time to cultivate their own people.

Instead of winning over other people’s people.

Chief Bruce nodded and agreed.

After he went back, he did not hesitate for long. Although many of them were also his alumni, and even his classmates, under the dual drive of Lance and power, he wrote down everyone he knew who belonged to Charlie on the list.

Of course, it was limited to the management. Those small police officers, small patrolmen, did not need to be on the list to be fired by him. They were not even qualified to be on the list.

Just a day later, a large number of mid-level cadres in the police force were suspended from their duties during work, and then taken away in a car to the prosecutor’s office to be investigated and interrogated.

Undoubtedly, they already knew their end.

In fact, most police officers, as long as they were investigated, were highly unlikely to be okay.

The salary of the police was too low. If they didn’t get some extra income, this job was not worth doing at all!

And everyone was taking bribes.

As long as you took bribes, and then encountered someone who wanted to find a problem with you, then you would definitely have a problem.

Everyone was very frustrated. Some people even secretly cursed Bruce for being a real bastard, not only driving away Charlie and his trusted men, but now also wanting to kill everyone else.

It was just that what they said could not shake Charlie’s determination, or rather, he could not change, and did not dare to change Lance’s determination to clean up the police force.

After all, after this was over, the entire police force would be receiving money from him. He was not used to giving money to hostile forces.

While the police force was undergoing a major purge, the Bay Area also got the news. They knew that Charlie had run away, and they also knew roughly where he was.

In order not to let Lance and Councilman Williams find Charlie first and hide him, the Bay Area also sent out a lot of manpower to find Charlie.

Compared to the idea of Lance and his people wanting to bring Charlie back, the people they sent out simply wanted to kill Charlie!

…

Charlie had just finished surgery on his arm. Under the influence of money, the doctor at the small clinic did not make him wait a few days, but directly let him into the operating room.

He rested in the small clinic’s ward for a night. After changing his dressing the next day, he planned to continue to leave this place.

Before leaving, he needed to buy some supplies.

What happened at the motel this time also served as a reminder to him. He needed to carry some medicine on the road.

In case of any emergency, it would not disrupt his plan.

When he was walking back with two large bags of medicine, just as he was about to reach the small clinic, he suddenly stopped.

He saw two security officers circling his car, and at the same time, two security officers were talking to the doctor at the entrance of the small clinic.

These past few days, the swear words he had cursed were equivalent to all the swear words he had cursed in his life. He looked at those security officers and turned around and walked in the opposite direction!

He had been discovered, in one night.

He had never felt so “stimulated” before. Inexplicably, after the fear and unease, he now actually had an indescribable sense of excitement.

He found that he was more focused and better at thinking than ever before.

He had to leave this place, but not now.

He walked around the street with the medicine. His situation was not good now, because the money was all in the car. He didn’t have that much money in his wallet.

After what happened at the hotel, he only kept less than a hundred dollars in his wallet.

He had to use this hundred dollars to find a way to get rid of the police’s encirclement and pursuit, and then run out.

“What should I do now?”

He asked himself.

As an old police officer, he knew very well that when the police discovered the whereabouts of a criminal, they would immediately dispatch more police to seal off the scene and the surrounding area.

In other words, now was not the best time for him to escape. He needed to find a way to lie low first and integrate into this town.

When the high-pressure situation disappeared, he would find a way to leave.

He looked at the recruitment information of a farm on the side of the road…

(End of a Chapter)