New Gods of North America

After dealing with the little interlude, the sky darkened, and Wayne pulled Sanders and Ineisha along to continue their investigation at the bar.

They had already been through several of the bars the suspect frequented, and this one was considered the best among them.

Judging from their inquiries, the suspect had visited this bar the least number of times, which is why it was ranked last on their list.

Compared to the more common public bars, this place seemed more like a dating spot for middle-class or upper-class men and women.

The overall environment was clean and quiet, with a touch of style, somewhat like a "high-end restaurant."

In one corner of the bar, there was a sizable performance stage, suggesting that drunken brawls were unlikely here.

Otherwise, no normal bar would dare to display a grand piano, something so far removed from being sturdy and inexpensive.

However, the performer sitting at the piano at the moment wasn't quite professional.

She was beautiful and intelligent, but clearly hadn't studied seriously before.

Her playing sounded a bit bumpy, and the soft and gentle melody was constantly interrupted by discordant notes, like a ghost suddenly jumping out to scare you in a horror movie.

Yet, people still applauded her.

After she finished playing, a man quickly presented her with a rose, and the other guests gave her face, cheering and offering scattered applause.

Linna accepted the rose, lowered her head shyly, and smiled before returning to her seat with the man, as the real performer took the stage again.

Why did we run into her here?

Hasn't she taken care of that guy yet?

Wayne didn't want to interfere with Linna's work, so he went to the bar and ordered two drinks.

Following their usual routine, he started inquiring about information.

The bartender seemed to be a victim of Puritanical conservative ideas as well.

After accepting the label of "unconventional" that Wayne had attached to the suspect, his expression was one of shock, giving off a feeling of "I'm an experienced driver, but I've never seen this episode before."

But soon, the bartender seemed to remember something, and his eyes quickly turned to Linna's direction:

"If that's the case, then that beauty isn't as lucky as the one next to you.

The person you described and that gentleman over there used to come here for dates... uh, private conversations."

Oh?!

There's such a thing?

With the known information interlocking, Wayne quickly completed a portion of the "fact puzzle" in his mind.

This Mr. Morier seemed to have indeed been a target of the suspect's group's actions before.

He continued to get the bartender to recall more details.

A female server in the bar, who seemed quite straightforward—the type who would slap you if you dared to touch her after drinking—was also a witness at the time.

After unintentionally hearing a few sentences, she also volunteered to add some information.

With the double corroboration of the bartender and the female server, and while both were shocked by the "homosexual love" that hadn't yet become popular in America, more details began to emerge.

The suspect seemed to have only come here twice before, once as if by "chance encounter," but in reality, he had been waiting in the bar for a long time.

The other time, he seemed to have come together with this Mr. Morier.

After hearing this, Wayne's certainty soared to 99.9%.

So, in order to extract more information from the bartender and the female server, he conveniently attached a new label to them, saying that he actually suspected they were a close "couple," and the reason they didn't seem like it at first was probably because they had quarreled.

When you're in love,

"Fighting and killing" aren't strange, and "breaking up and getting back together" is normal.

The bartender, after all, was in a profession that had seen a lot.

After the initial shock, he quickly calmed down and seemed to be thinking about continuing to collect "information fees."

On the contrary, the female server, who was constantly busy going back and forth between the bar and different customers, and occasionally came back to add a few words, seemed to gradually become a little angry.

When the female server ordered another whiskey and suddenly splashed it on Mr. Morier's face, not only was Mr. Morier caught off guard, his face a mixture of surprise and anger, but even Wayne was stunned by this sudden accident.

Then, the female server dragged Linna's wrist without explanation, bringing her to the bar.

Linna's belief was quite strong, and she was still able to maintain her "weak rich daughter" persona, looking soft as if she would fall over with a push.

After arriving here, the female server, with an expression of "strong disapproval," briefly explained to Linna:

"That man is a con artist! Don't believe his nonsense.

This gentleman and this lady can prove that what I'm saying is true."

Leaving aside the chivalrous female server, the angrily chasing Mr. Morier, and the bartender holding his forehead and sighing to the female server, "Catherine, you're going to work for free again this week,"

the three partners of the detective agency were inexplicably pulled together by outsiders for another meeting.

After seeing the two sitting at the bar, Linna tilted her head and looked over, her eyes slightly narrowed, her expression a half-smile, as if to say, "You better explain to me what's going on."

Ineisha blinked her eyes, and after observing this strange and complex environment, she chose to hold her cup with both hands, lowered her head, and sipped, leaving the task of explanation to Wayne.

Wayne looked around, quickly weighed his options, and could only try to have an encrypted conversation:

"Sorry, we were just having a normal conversation, and we didn't expect Ms. Catherine to be so emotional..."

"But Ms. Linna, Ms. Catherine is right.

This gentleman did seem to come here with another same-sex partner before, more than once.

It is said that the man's name was Carl."

Linna's eyeballs turned slightly, and the micro-expressions on her face changed rapidly, with "anger" and "refusal to believe."

But after turning around, she looked at Mr. Morier, who was using a handkerchief to wipe the wine stains from his face, and the expression on her face was already "the grievance of being deceived":

"Is what they're saying true? Morier, you already have a partner? Or a... gentleman?"

The anger on Mr. Morier's face, which had been sparked by the strong liquor, was instantly extinguished.

"Hysteria, don't listen to their nonsense, I don't know any Carl at all."

Isn't that Miss Greenspan's name from our Black Stone Town...

Linna, your pseudonym is enough to fool anyone.

Wayne was fine, but the bartender and the female server switched their expressions to opposite states after hearing Mr. Morier's denial.

The female server immediately argued with Mr. Morier, "I saw you here before, and he can testify."

The bartender, pointed at by the female server, seemed a little helpless, forced into the conflicts of the world:

"Alas... Mr. Morier, you can recall again.

That gentleman was about thirty or forty years old, wearing glasses, looking relatively refined, but actually quite strong.

You and he came here twice, and I heard these two guests say that he used to be a clerk in a trading company?"

Mr. Morier originally instinctively snorted coldly in the midst of the argument, then he thought for a moment, and his eyes couldn't help but widen a bit, "I don't have that kind of relationship with him at all!"

Linna naturally wouldn't give him time to calm down, and cut into the battle in a timely manner, so the scene at the bar looked like a very regular "couple quarrel," and a "male defense" that wouldn't be too surprising in a bar.

More and more customers were attracted to watch the commotion, while Wayne and Ineisha sat neatly in their original seats, propping their chins with their hands, watching the four-person three-way melee up close.

Wayne also occasionally said a few "fair words" as a pure passerby, silently helping Linna "highlight the key points," so that she could ask Mr. Morier to explain in more detail.

Um...

How did a good information gathering turn into this?