Empire of Shadows

The directors, clearly with something to hide, remained silent in front of the sheriff. He knew what they were waiting for.

They were waiting for their lawyers.

Liji Group had its own legal department, and soon a lawyer pushed open the door from outside, identifying himself.

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"I am the head of the legal department of the group company. You can consult me about any issues. My clients will not answer any of your questions at this time."

Subsequently, several lawyers who entered began demanding to inspect the police's credentials and inquired about the evidence collection process through the people around.

This was in line with the lawyers' practices. They needed to know whether the evidence collection process was reasonable and legal, and also what evidence the police had obtained.

The larger the group company, the more likely it is to have various kinds of dirty secrets, and the job of the legal department is to protect the interests of the group company and reduce the leakage of some scandals.

The sheriff seemed to know that he wouldn't be able to get any valuable information. He took back his notebook and pen. "Has this Mr. Steven Johnson offended anyone recently?"

Previously, he asked, "Have you offended any ruthless people?" But now, the object has become "Steven Johnson."

He was very confident in identifying the relationship behind this murder case, which was definitely not just Steven involved.

He died and was distributed to these directors, which meant that everyone participated.

Then the things that these people all participated in together are not private matters, but can only be public matters.

Liji Group's reputation has never been very good. If its profitability is not taken into account, then this is a morally corrupt company.

The sheriff himself had heard many rumors about it, such as... poisoning other people's fish ponds, setting fire to the farmland of farmers who were unwilling to sell agricultural products to them before the autumn harvest, or releasing poisonous snakes in other people's pastures.

Whether it is the most basic capital, or the capital that is above the highest point in this world, their means of obtaining profits have always been the same: seizing by trickery and force.

You are willing to give it, you have to give it; if you are unwilling to give it, I will force you to give it. This is capital.

What warmth, what responsibility, are just the ways and means they use to disguise themselves and deceive the public.

So the sheriff was very likely to confirm that this was a public matter, not a private matter.

The lawyer and the CEO stood in the corner and communicated briefly. After a while, the lawyer said, "As a listed company, we will definitely have many competitors, and who created all this is precisely your responsibility, not ours!"

"Liji Group has to pay huge taxes every year, and these taxes support a large number of civil servants, including you, the federal police."

"So now it is you, and your people, who need to tell us what exactly happened."

"Instead of you asking us what exactly happened."

"This is your job, not ours!"

"In addition, before the case is clarified, the company does not want to hear various rumors spreading in society. If your leaks or omissions lead to the leakage of the case, we will reserve the right to prosecute you!"

Being a police officer in the Federation is really not easy.

When dealing with criminals, you have to be careful, because you don't know whether there is a powerful gang crime group behind this criminal.

When dealing with victims, you also have to be careful, because victims often do not necessarily play the role of a "weak person"!

The sheriff took a deep breath and stretched out his entire body. He looked at the lawyer for a while, smiled and stood up, "Okay, if you remember anything, remember to contact me in time, this is my phone number."

"I can guarantee that we will not disclose this case to the outside world. We all hope to solve the case as soon as possible, so no matter what you think of, remember to contact me, this is very important for the detective work!"

He took out a business card and placed it on the table. His finger was pressed on the business card, and his body was slightly tilted. Finally, he emphasized, "Anything!"

With that, he turned and walked outside. The "evidence" that had been inspected was taken away by him. After all the police left, the office door was closed again.

"Was that Steven?" The lawyer lit a cigarette. This case also made him feel a sense of pressure, especially since he had seen Steven when he got off work yesterday.

Now, he has become like this.

The CEO nodded, "It's him, if nothing unexpected happens."

The lawyer curled his lips. He knew that Steven had been helping the company deal with some dirty work, and sometimes it was indeed necessary for some people to handle this kind of thing.

Many times, the legal lawsuits he handled were absolutely unwinnable cases, such as various unilateral breaches of agreements and contracts, such as direct breaches of contract. These cases cannot be solved by legal means at all.

Only by relying on people like Steven can it be solved well.

If you can't win legally, but you can win physically, it's still a victory!

"Who did it?"

The directors shook their heads one after another. They didn't know who did it, and at the same time, anyone could have done it.

Steven had done too many bad things, or rather, Liji Group had done too many bad things. Who knows if there was a farmer who had been forced into bankruptcy by them and suddenly awakened.

Then, he brought weapons and decided to take revenge on them, killed Steven, who was mainly responsible for some dirty work, and mailed it to them.

The lawyer could see that these people might have some guesses in their hearts, but they were unwilling to say it.

Since they were unwilling to say it, the lawyer didn't bother to stick to it and deal with this matter.

Having handled many cases, sometimes "not knowing" is safer than "knowing."

"I have other work to do. If you remember anything, have someone record it."

"Don't accept questioning from the police when I or other lawyers are not present, and don't make any promises. You have to act like you are now, knowing nothing."

After he finished speaking, he got up and left, and only a few directors were left in the room again.

"Could it be the Lance family who did it?"

The vice president was a little surprised and uncertain, because the most ruthless character they had encountered recently might be Lance and his Lance family.

They didn't talk to the sheriff about this matter because they didn't want to expose some information for the time being.

Once they say who it might be, then the police will definitely investigate these possible, suspected objects.

For example, investigate whether they have a motive for committing the crime, and what the motive is.

In this process, the media will also follow up quickly, and it won't be long before people know that Liji Group tried every means to interfere with judicial justice in order to get rid of the liquidated damages.

This matter is actually not a problem if it is done "under the surface", almost all group companies are doing this.

Using money, using violence, using other means to constantly interfere with judicial justice.

But you can't take it out and say it on the table, I'm doing this, and because I'm doing this, I'm being retaliated against.

The loss of face is a small matter, and setbacks in the financial market will be a big matter.

Losing face is just that some people think they are shameless.

But if you lose the money of these big shots, they will only let you stay at the bottom of the sea!

So now the best thing is to not expose any troubles that may cause the stock price to fall, and then solve it, and finally give everyone a result, not a beginning, or a process.

The CEO nodded and said, "It's not impossible. From what I've learned about some of his deeds in the past few days, it's not impossible."

"But we also have several other suspects, such as..."

He talked about some actions before the Saint Nong Festival. They made some small farms that were unwilling to cooperate with their strategies lose everything and lose a lot of money.

Those country farmers don't have much education, and it's possible that they did it.

"The most important thing now is to find out who killed Steven, and then we can consider how to solve this matter."

He looked at the chairman of the board, who nodded slightly, agreeing with his view, and then he began to assign work.

The vice president's job is to find out whether this matter was done by the Lance family. If so, talk to Lance.

If not, then continue to keep an eye on the lawsuit.

And he himself and other directors will deal with other possibilities.

Besides a few directors and guards within the company, not many people actually know about this matter. The CEO has asked people to unify their statements.

If anyone asks, just say that some dead cats and dogs were mailed over to threaten the directors, and they have already called the police.

This kind of thing has also happened before. Those farmers who are dissatisfied with Liji Group will do this, and some people have even mailed them cow dung.

Steven's work has also been temporarily handed over to others, on the grounds that the company has sent Steven on a long trip and may not be able to return for a while.

Except for those who knew the inside story, no one inside or outside the company knew that a director had died, and had returned to the company in a special way and met with other people.

Back in the office, the vice president asked the secretary to send a pot of coffee and a pot of wine. He now needed this to soothe his emotions, and at the same time needed to cheer up.

Then alcohol and coffee are a good combination.

Caffeine and alcohol could help him find that energetic feeling for a while, although the price was feeling even more tired after the excitement ended.

He got the number of Wanli Office from the branch, but Lance was not there. The person who answered the phone was a young man named Elvin, who said he would pass the message to Lance.

A dozen minutes later, Lance hung up the phone.

"Their vice president is looking for me and wants to chat."

Everyone else looked at him.

The remaining corpses had been disposed of. They found a small factory that produced pet sausages and dumped the remains and raw materials together in the middle of the night. Now they have become pet sausages and are being sold in stores.

In a few days, unless those police officers can find evidence of key human tissue fragments from who knows how many dogs' feces, this case will be impossible to solve.

This is an era without DNA testing. Even if they suspect it is Steven, they cannot confirm it is Steven without obtaining more direct evidence.

Historical fracture marks, tooth marks, surgical records, etc., but these will soon be completely destroyed!

If we consider that they must have sufficient evidence to accuse them, as long as they do not admit their crimes, then the prosecutors of this city, or even the entire Golden State, cannot do anything!

The others had no other opinions, and Lance also planned to chat with him, but not on the phone.

He took out some intelligence Steven confessed before his death and found the place where the vice president lived.

Nothing is more sincere than visiting in person, is it?

The vice president has not yet realized that Lance did this, although he has some guesses.

He suspected that Lance might have arranged for someone else to do it, but he wasn't 100% sure. There are always unexpected things.

Steven's death made him truly feel fear. A colleague saying goodbye to them in this way was something no one had expected!

Steven died today, so who's next?

Could it be himself?

In a sense, Steven was much harder to kill than him, but now that Steven is dead, how long can he last and can he stop these lunatics from attacking?

He doesn't know!

He has hired four senior bodyguards from Golden Shield Company to protect him closely. These people will arrive soon, but he still doesn't have much sense of security!

He has been expecting Lance to call him, but Lance has not called him, which makes him very uneasy.

He hoped that Lance could directly tell him that he did all this, and also hoped that Lance would tell him that he actually didn't know anything.

This is a very contradictory mentality. When you offend someone, you will definitely hope that this person is a coward, not a hero.

When he got off work in the evening, the private security team of Golden Shield Company had arrived in his office. The people in the company couldn't help but talk about these people who were obviously bodyguards.

Because they knew that not only the vice president was suddenly assigned bodyguards, but also the president, the chairman of the board, and some other directors were also equipped with bodyguards.

So some reliable and unreliable rumors spread in the company, but he no longer cared about it.

The bodyguards drove over in an armored car. The daily rental for this armored car is fifty yuan, and the four of them together cost one hundred and twenty yuan, an average of thirty yuan per person.

This is not a small expense. Not everyone who is really rich can afford these people.

Sitting in the armored car, surrounded by elites, the vice president's mood calmed down a little.

The car moved steadily on the road. At this time, he was thinking about how to ensure his own safety and interests, not the company's.

The company will not collapse because of such a small setback, but people will.

He already had some feelings. Steven's death was used to shock them.

These people used Steven's death to tell them that they were no different from ordinary people. Once killed, they would definitely die!

The car quickly arrived at the villa area. After the car stopped, he got out of the car. The four bodyguards would continue to protect him until the end of the contract.

The vice president, with a heavy heart, walked towards the house after getting out of the car. The moment he was about to open the door, the door suddenly opened.

He looked at the smiling young man standing at the door, feeling a little confused.

He lived with his family, his wife and children.

The children are in college and not here. Usually only his wife is at home.

Like ordinary couples, they have no communication after middle age, except for sleeping in different rooms at night. Most of the time, there is no communication.

He knew that his wife had found a lover outside, but as long as it didn't bother him and allowed him to maintain his dignity, he didn't really care.

Just like he would play along and also have his own mistress, this is a problem that all upper-class families have to face.

Not everyone can maintain harmonious family relationships.

They gained money, status, prestige, everything, but they also lost something.

However, these losses are insignificant compared to what they gained.

The expression on his face was a little angry at this time. He thought that this young man was his wife's lover and actually came to his house.

With an unsightly face, he entered the door and walked towards the living room.

But as he went deeper, he saw more young people.

These young people couldn't all be his wife's lovers. His wife couldn't handle so many!

Just as he suspected that these were his son's classmates, he suddenly noticed that most of these people's clothes were the same.

A sense of unease churned in his body.

He glanced back and saw that the four bodyguards behind him had silently raised their hands, looking at him with innocent expressions.

He turned his head again and looked at the person sitting in the middle of the sofa, reading a newspaper, and swallowed.

The young man who opened the door for him signaled him to go over, so he had to bite the bullet and walk into the living room.

"I've never seen you before."

He said truthfully, "If I, or my family, have offended you, I apologize to you!"

Lance put down the newspaper and looked at him with a smile, "Mr. Vice President, my people told me that you wanted to talk to me?"

"A phone call cannot solve our problem, so I came here. Perhaps face-to-face communication will be more helpful in solving the problem, what do you think?"

Lance asked him to sit on another sofa, "You must have a lot to say to me. Now you have the opportunity and honor!"

Hearing this, if the vice president still didn't know who the person in front of him was, then he was not qualified to be the vice president of the group company at all.

The thing he was most worried about still happened.

His body visibly began to tremble slightly, his breathing became rapid, and the sweat on his forehead began to secrete quickly. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his face haphazardly, "Mr. White…"

There's one more chapter later. I was late watching the game today.