Cinephile hustle

He opened the door, and suddenly a smell of paint filled the air.A little dank and a little breathless.

Ian subconsciously frowned.

The apartments here are small, and Lancer's room is cluttered.Canvases and easels were piled up everywhere.The paint was scattered on the ground, colorful like a muddy swamp.There wasn't even a place for Ian to stand here.

There are messy clothes on the sofa, and there are even lunch boxes of supermarket special packages many days ago piled up on the floor.

Lancer became embarrassed. He packed his things in a mess and carried all the drawing boards on his back, as if he was very shy to be seen by Ian.

Just like a chick hiding in an eggshell, its shell is cracked, and it feels terrified of everything it suddenly faces.

Lancer turned around with the clothes in his arms, and just as he gestured "I'm sorry" to Ian, the clothes fell to the ground again, stained with paint.

"It's okay, Lancer! It's okay! Do you like drawing?" Ian came to him calmly and picked up the clothes on the ground.

Yes.

Lancer nodded.

"Are you a student at the Academy of Art?" Ian asked again.

A helpless smile played on Lancer's lips.

I dropped out of school.

Ian understood.The Academy of Art is expensive, plus Lancer's own flaws...

Lancer looked at Ian worriedly, he was uneasy, he was worried that Ian would leave.

"You go make tacos. I also bought some fruit for a salad. Leave it to me to clean up here. I promise there will be at least one place for us to have dinner. How about?"

Lancer took a breath and nodded vigorously.Ian felt as if he saw a stupid Labrador, and when he came back to his senses, he had already rubbed Lancer's head.

The opponent shrugged his shoulders and wrinkled his eyes, because Ian had great strength.

"I'm sorry." Ian withdrew his hand.

Lancer is no longer a child, and rubbing someone's head is considered rude.

Lancer pursed his lips and smiled, and went into the kitchen.

Ian was left to look around, and he felt that it would not be an easy task to move this place out.

Ian took Lancer's paintbrush out of the water glass, the bristles were already very old.He packed Lancer's paints in order of color, and some paints had dried up and could not be used.

Then organize the easel.

Ian has always been very restrained about what others don't want him to see.It's just that when the white cloth covering the easel fell off, he couldn't help being attracted by the colors on the painting.

At this time Lancer came out with a plate.Seeing Ian looking at the canvas in a daze, he changed his face instantly and stood in front of Ian.

"Lancer? I didn't mean to see your painting. It just happened that the canvas fell off!"

Ian quickly explained that Lancer was not angry. He put down the plate and gestured to Ian.

I can't draw well.No one ever wanted to buy it.

Only then did Ian understand why Lancer refused to let him see it.

"I don't know art, Lancer. But I like that painting very much. It reminds me of the red maple in my hometown, the sky without clouds, and when the wind blows, the red leaves seem to wrap the sky. It's really beautiful."

Ian lowered his body, picked up the white cloth, and covered the drawing board.

Do you really think it looks good?Lancer asked.

"It's not pretty, it's beautiful. Will you finish it?" Ian asked.

Lancer nodded vigorously, I will.

"Okay, let me try your enchiladas!" Ian said with a smile.

Lancer has no dining table, only a stool for drawing.Ian spread the newspaper beside the stool, sat cross-legged on the newspaper with Lancer, and ate the burrito.

"Well, the corn smells delicious! The bacon is also fried well!"

The first bite Ian took, he felt like he was home.Although he no longer has a family.

Lancer also happily took a big bite, and he told Ian that the taco was also his mother's favorite thing to make for him when she was alive.His mother died of cancer six months ago.It was also because of the large cost of treatment that Lancer had to drop out of the Art Academy.

After finishing the enchiladas, Lancer was about to get up to clear the dishes, but a gust of wind blew over the window sill and knocked over the white cloth.

The picture came out clearly.

Ian gently tugged Lancer.

"Don't be in such a hurry to pack everything. Why not stop and enjoy it."

Lancer froze for a moment, then sat down, hugged his knees, and stared at his painting.

It wasn't until Ian turned his face to the side that he realized that this guy had fallen asleep.Ian had to clear away the dinner plate.

He opened Lancer's refrigerator and found that the milk and some vegetarian frozen food in it had expired.Sighing, he tossed them all into the trash can.Ian didn't wake up Lancer until everything was packed.

Back in his room, Ian lay on the bed, habitually turned on his phone and flipped through the files stored in it.

The murderer this time is different from the one in W town.His modus operandi was simpler and more direct, while leaving fewer traces.

No fingerprints of any other than the victim, no DNA of any other than the victim.

Is it really going to be as Haley expected, until the second murder occurs?

Early the next morning, Ian received a text message.The victim has been identified as an insurance salesman.According to the information provided by the insurance company, the victim had not come to work for a whole month.He is a very good employee in the insurance company, and his performance ranks first in the department. The company's senior management has decided to promote him as a department manager in one month.But he just disappeared.

The victim had an apartment and a car in his name.New York police have begun searching the apartment, but the garage is empty, suggesting the victim was driving out after the accident.

As soon as Ian got dressed, he walked downstairs to the apartment and saw Hailey sitting on his hood, greeting him.

"...How do you know I'm here?" Ian frowned, with displeasure on his face.

Hailey shook his phone.

"Get off my front hood." Ian stepped into the car and locked the door.

Before Hailey could recover, Ian started the engine and drove away.

Hailey turned his head and looked up at Ian's apartment floor, only to see a young man in a gray sweater poking his head out of the window, looking in the direction Ian was leaving.

When his eyes met Haili, he retreated into the window as if frightened.

Haley looked down, smiled and sighed.He walked outside the apartment, flagged a taxi and rushed to the victim's business.

It was a big insurance company, and Ian was already sitting there when Haley entered the office of the head of the victims department.

Haili slightly opened his suit jacket, revealing the badge pinned to his waist, and sat beside Ian with a smile.

The victim's name was Adam.

"To be honest, the month when Adam disappeared gave me a headache. Because the sales performance of our department has plummeted! Our department's dividends this year will also be greatly affected! So no matter what, I hope you can catch and kill Adam as soon as possible. bastard!"

The supervisor looked righteously indignant.Of course, marketing elites like them always know how to talk to people and talk to people.

"That depends on your cooperation. Adam has been missing for a month, and he was not reported missing by his bank wealth manager until last week. As colleagues, you are completely indifferent. It seems that Adam is not as inevitable as you said No." Ian said lightly.

The director's smile didn't change at all, he just nodded and said: "Adam put all his energy into his work. He naturally does better than others, so it is inevitable that others will be jealous. Here's Colleagues want him to give up the position of selling No.1, so they don’t care whether he is missing or not. This is normal. His wife divorced because her husband was too obsessed with this job, and moved to Canada with her children, so no one reported to the police It is also normal to report the crime. As the supervisor of this department, I think that employees like Adam are very important in terms of sales performance and driving the competitive atmosphere, which is also true.”

When Ian was about to question the employees of this department, Haley said, "I want to know who Adam's clients are. Which ones are already his clients, and which ones are potential clients who are being followed up."

"These are commercial secrets, and we must protect the privacy of our customers. Unless you can provide a search warrant from a judge."

This is Ian's expected answer.A judge's search warrant is easier said than done.It would be fine if it was just to search Adam's personal belongings, but if it involved the client list of a well-known insurance company in the United States, no judge would sign it easily.

But Haley's consideration is reasonable, except for colleagues in the insurance company, who knows if Adam offended a certain client?

Hailey smiled slightly, leaned back in his chair, turned around slightly, and squinted at the supervisor.

His voice was slow, drawn out, and grating.

"Well, although I don't know who Adam's clients are, I know who your insurance company's corporate clients are. For example, Jushi Group, Fengxiang Investment, Leiden Real Estate and Minor Investment Bank."

"Because we are the largest insurance company in the United States." The executive smiled, seeming very proud.

Haili took out his mobile phone and leaned towards the other party, "But as long as I make a call, they will immediately terminate the cooperation with you. The largest insurance company in the United States will lose hundreds of millions... no, it should be more than a billion dollars Client. I'd love to know, can you still sit in this seat?"

"Sir? I don't think anyone can do this with just one phone call." The supervisor took Haley's words as nonsense, and he looked at Ian helplessly, "Agent Connor, I think your partner should Go see a therapist. Maybe he's a little paranoid?"

"I have persuaded him to see a psychiatrist many times, but he has never accepted my advice." Ian replied.

Haili smiled and dialed the first call, which was the chairman of Jushi Group.

"Hello, is this the office of the chairman of Jushi Group?"

"Yes."

"I'm Hayley Russell."

"...Mr. Russell? Please wait a moment!"

The supervisor's face froze when he heard Haili's surname.

"Russell... the Russell family of the uncrowned kings of Wall Street?"

"Oh, I'm the only one left now, I don't know if I can still be called a 'family'." Haili said nonchalantly.

"Wait! No matter what happens, we must not divulge the customer's information... Please don't make it difficult for us!" The supervisor's smile disappeared, and his attitude of hypocrisy and deceitfulness also made a 180-degree turn.

"Today is the Jushi Group's board meeting. I can already hear the chatter at the end of the meeting. Give me a reason to put down the phone."

Haley's smile didn't fade.

The supervisor was visibly panicked.

"Reason... reason... Ah yes! Adam has a notebook, and if I'm not mistaken, this notebook should be kept in his car or at home. It records the preferences of all his clients and the clients he is planning to dig! This notebook is not an official document of our company, neither his apartment nor his car is our property... you can search whatever you want, right?"

At this time, the chairman of Jushi Group had already connected the phone.

"Hey, is that Haley dear? What can I do for you?"

"It's nothing, I haven't seen you, Uncle Stone, for a long time. When are you free, let's have dinner and chat together?"

"Oh, no problem! It's a pleasure to watch you eat."

When Hailey hung up the phone, the supervisor finally let out a sigh of relief.

Ian made a call, and the New York police found Adam's car at a used car market and found the notebook in the car.

But Ian still asked Adam's employees in the same department one by one.

When they left the insurance company, Hailey got in when Ian pressed the car door, put on his seat belt, and said to Ian very seriously: "If you drop me again, don't blame me You're welcome to your little pet."

"Little pet? What kind of pet?"

Ian really doesn't understand what Hailey is thinking sometimes.

"The young man who lives on the same floor as you." Haili's face was a little gloomy.

Ian paused, and he looked at Haili with the eyes of a monster, "He just lives on the same floor as me. How could he suddenly become my 'pet'?"

Hailey raised the corners of his lips, as if he had seen through Ian a long time ago.

"My dear Uncle Ian, do you know what kind of type you tend to be soft-hearted about?"

"I don't know." Ian started the car.

"I am like this."

"Your narcissism has reached a certain level." Ian's expression was indifferent.

He had already guessed that what Haili said would make people speechless.

"Ask your heart. When you saw that young man, did you feel that you saw me eight years ago?"

Ian's heart was hit hard, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I don't know you, Haley. How can I be attracted to someone I don't know?"

"Ian, I'm not that complicated. It's just that you're afraid to know me."

There was silence in the car, and it wasn't until they were about to arrive at the headquarters that Haili asked, "Do you think it is more likely that the employees of the insurance company murdered Adam, or that Adam's clients are more likely?"

"If it's a comparison between the two, of course it's Adam's client."

"why?"

"Insurance salesmen are a certain group. If they were going to murder Adam, the most likely reason would be performance. They would be very angry, and the method of killing Adam would not be so sophisticated, but more impulsive. Adam's body would be abandoned Or ruin instead of being shown." Ian's voice was rational and even.

"Yeah." Haili smiled, "I don't know if Adam's car has a driving recorder. If there is, we can find out where his car went before he died."

"He is an insurance salesman, and he is a very successful insurance salesman. He is used to being prepared for everything, so his car must have a driving record function. If he loses his car or has a traffic accident , he needs corroboration to get an insurance claim.”

Ian and Haley returned to the New York branch and got a scanned copy of the notebook from the New York Police Department.

When they saw the scan, Haley rubbed the back of his head, "I have to say that Adam is very smart. He used some kind of code to record the names of these people. Unless you know his code rules, there is no No idea who he was referring to."

Ian looked very calm. He looked at the picture on the screen indifferently, pointed to the first line and said, "This line should refer to the client's occupation."

"how do you know?"

"D15/3 stands for Doctor. D is the first letter of the word, O is No.15 in the alphabetical order, C is the third. C5/15 is the CEO, and E is the fifth in the alphabetical order. C6/ 15 is CFO, chief financial officer." Ian squinted at Haili, "Actually, you can understand the code rules at the first glance, you just want to test me. Maybe I don't have you Smart, but I'm not an idiot."

"The idiot is Adam. He used such a simple code that he thought no one else could figure it out."

"The question is, are we really going to visit these elite figures one by one?" Ian could imagine that these big men might not cooperate with the investigation.

"Don't worry, make a list of them first. Adam is dead, and he has plenty to wait patiently."

Hailey sat leaning on Ian's desk, looking down at him.

That posture gave Ian a feeling of being captured by the opponent, as if he was trapped in Hailey's domain.

His chair moved back a little, and the back of it hit the wall.

Haley let out a pleasant chuckle.

"Are you all right, Uncle Ian?"

"I'm going to start sorting out the list, are you going to help? Or get out?"

"Such delicate work is not for me." Hailey deliberately blew into Ian's eyes and left his desk.

It's a job that requires patience, not to mention Adam's client list is really long.From senior executives of large companies to leaders in various fields.

After finally finishing the job, Ian raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was already seven o'clock in the evening.

He puts on his suit and walks out.

The car drove across a street, and when Ian saw a shop sign passing by, he narrowed his eyes and pulled the car over.

It was an oil painting supply store, and the store sold drawing boards, canvases, paints, brushes, and so on.

Opposite the store is the University of the Arts in New York.

Ian walked in, and the bell at the door of the store made a crisp sound, very retro.The decoration in the store is also very artistic, and several students carrying drawing boards are choosing paints.

Ian didn't understand these things, he just watched aimlessly until a clerk came to him.

"Sir, is there anything I can do for you?"

"...Oh, a friend of mine likes to paint very much, but the paint he uses has a strong smell. I wonder if it has any effect on his health?"

"He is a beginner, right? So the pigments used are relatively cheap? The smell after oxidation is a bit unpleasant? Most art students now use this kind of environmentally friendly pigments to paint, and no one wants to be a connoisseur or critic close to them When I was painting, I smelled a bad smell."

"I want to buy a complete set of paints, brushes and canvases."

"Please wait a moment, I'll prepare it for you."

When Ian checked out, he had to understand that art is a waste of money.

Ian returned to the apartment with these things.In his mind, he imagined Lancer's expression when he saw these painting tools.When his paintings have no strong smell, he should be more confident in the face of those collectors and art dealers.

Just as Ian was walking in the corridor carrying his things, he heard a crackling sound coming from Lanser's room.

"Brat! Quiet me! Or I'll break your arm!"

"Hey! Hey! Calm down! You can break his legs, but his arms are fine!"

Ian put the painting tools by the wall, took out a gun from his waist, and walked to the door.

The door is closed.On the other side of the door was the sound of something wooden being knocked hard on the wall, followed by the sound of crying.

It was Lancer, Ian could make out his whimpering.

"Boy! We took you away to save face! Damn! Look at what you've done to our clothes!"

"Don't worry so much! Push him in!"

Ian's expression turned cold, he took two steps back and pressed against the wall by the door.

Not long after, I heard the sound of the suitcase being dragged.

"Did this kid not eat? Why is he so light?"

"That's why I told you not to strike too hard. What if you beat him to death?"