Empire of Shadows

Seven or eight young people stood in the room, all about Arthur's age. Lance's gaze swept over their faces one by one, then he turned to Mayor Williams, "You and your family may need to step aside for a moment."

"Sometimes people lose some memories from a certain period of time. We need to help them remember. This process may be a little…"

He flexed his wrist, a look of regret on his face, as if those people might not cooperate. The moment the word "pain" came out of his mouth, some were happy, some were afraid.

Mayor Williams shook his head. He sat there, pointed to his chin, and lit a cigarette. "No need. I want to know, why him?"

Lance didn't object to Mayor Williams' decision, then he looked at James.

James also shook his head, "Although I sometimes think Arthur is a bit immature, a bit stupid, he is still my brother, my family. I have to know the truth!"

Regardless of whether these words were his true thoughts or just an act, they were indeed meaningful.

Mayor Williams' expression towards him was very gentle, and even his wife's expression towards James became somewhat moved.

Lance finally looked at Arthur's mother. She was one of the few very beautiful women Lance had ever seen—

If she hadn't been beautiful enough, even if she was very young at the time, it would have been difficult for Mayor Williams to be infatuated with her, even to marry her before she was of age.

Federal law stipulates that one does not need to be fully of age to marry and have children.

Sometimes seeing student mothers with children in college or even high school is not a shocking thing.

The beautiful woman, coupled with the sad expression she showed at this moment, gave her even more privileges.

"That's my son!" she said through gritted teeth. Lance nodded.

The room was large. He sat on the sofa, took off his gloves, and also took off his coat. "I need a few rooms, and some tarpaulin."

He looked at the butler, "I'm afraid of dirtying the carpet here."

James was about to say, "Don't worry about dirtying the carpet," but was stopped by Mayor Williams, "Don't talk."

He looked at Lance, "You can use all the rooms. I just want to know the result."

He could see that the "interrogation" had already begun from this moment.

This was just the first step of the interrogation, applying psychological pressure.

The butler quickly had people bring large pieces of tarpaulin. The manor also needed these.

Sometimes some walls or roofs might be damaged, requiring temporary rain protection.

Or places like their swimming pool needed to be protected from rain and fallen leaves, also requiring tarpaulin.

When Lance had them spread out the tarpaulin, the legs of several young people began to tremble.

"My people will ask you some questions, all very simple, questions you definitely know the answers to."

Lance stared into their eyes, observing their expressions, "Think carefully before answering, calm yourselves down. If you are not that person, you don't need to be afraid."

"Nonsense, lies, deserve punishment!"

"I know it's impossible for everyone to have participated, but among you, someone must have."

"Help us find him. It's not just helping us, it's also helping yourselves, helping your families!"

After Lance said these words, he took out a pack of cigarettes, lit one for himself, and then placed the matches and cigarettes on the table.

Lance looked at Alvin, "Take them away separately for questioning. Arrange it."

After the people were taken away separately, Lance looked at Mayor Williams, "I've already sent people out to look for Arthur. They must have left some traces in the city. As long as there are traces, we will definitely be able to find him."

Mayor Williams' emotions stabilized a lot. Lance's appearance began to push things forward, instead of stagnating. His emotions also had an outlet.

"It must be them who did it."

The "them" he was referring to was of course those people in the Bay Area. Immediately, he became angry, "Those sons of bitches broke the rules!"

He looked at Lance, his eyes extremely firm, "I want them dead!"

Lance nodded, "No problem."

"I don't think we need to worry that much. Arthur won't be in danger before they achieve their goals."

"So now, we just need to find him, and then bring him back."

Mayor Williams nodded. He also lit a cigarette, quietly waiting for news.

After about ten minutes, Alvin brought over several confessions. During this time, Chief Blue and Deputy Chief Duke also rushed over, along with their respective confidants.

The mayor's youngest son had been kidnapped. The moment they both learned of this, cold sweat broke out all over them.

Fortunately, Lance was already here, which relieved them somewhat.

At this time, they stood in the corner. In the eyes of ordinary people, they were absolute big shots, but in this room, they were no different from the people outside.

Lance glanced at the documents in his hand, compared them for a while, and then handed them all to Mayor Williams. Then, he had Alvin bring one of the people out.

That was a tall, thin guy, a college classmate of Arthur's. Originally, he only had a middle-class family background.

But since following Arthur as his lackey these years, he had completed an amazing class promotion and had become a small capitalist.

His parents and uncles had opened companies to do some supporting work for the industries controlled by Arthur.

Don't underestimate these seemingly peripheral things. Every year, they could bring at least two to three hundred thousand in income to him and his family!

And as he and those industries in Arthur's hands cooperated better and better, and his relationship with Arthur became better and better, their income would also become higher and higher.

Judging from the background investigation, it seemed that he had no reason to harm Arthur, but nothing could be judged by appearances.

"They all said it was you who suggested getting together tonight."

The hair on the head of the young man standing in the room was already soaked with sweat. Although there was heating in the room, it was winter after all.

He wiped the sweat from his face and said softly, "It was me who said it…"

Mayor Williams clenched his fists tightly, his emotions somewhat agitated, but Lance seemed very calm, "Who told you to do this?"

The young man immediately said, "It was…" He said the name of another person among them, a short guy, "He called me at noon, saying that we hadn't gotten together in a while, saying that we should get together."

"He also talked about a lot of things from the past, like how we would be with Arthur all day long, and so on."

"I thought… if my suggestion could make Arthur leave with a better impression, then I would suggest getting together tonight."

"Is he here too?"

"Yes, he is."

Lance had already seen that this second person had a problem when the two of them stood there.

When people face fear, they will show some underlying things, pure fear, or anxiety, panic, and guilt caused by doing something.

Some things can be hidden through training, but this person has not undergone professional training, and it is difficult for him to hide his heart.

Just standing here, the uneasy emotions he showed already made it obvious that something was wrong with him.

The police need evidence.

Lance is not a policeman, he doesn't need evidence.

"Who told you to lure Arthur out?" Lance asked directly.

The short guy who was dragged out was still pretending to be stupid, "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Lance. It wasn't me who called Arthur out…"

Lance glanced at Devon, who directly pulled out a dagger from his waist and, while the shorty wanted to struggle but didn't dare, cut off a section of his finger.

The intense pain and fear almost effortlessly pierced through his defenses, and he immediately confessed a name. Mayor Williams' expression suddenly became quite ugly.

"It's our mutual friend." Here, "mutual friend" certainly doesn't mean Arthur and that person, but him and those people in the Bay Area.

This "friend" also lives in the Bay Area, and their relationship can even be said to be okay, not bad.

Subsequently, Mayor Williams glanced at the short guy, the hatred in his eyes undisguised.

He turned to look at Lance, who received his "signal" and nodded slightly. He turned to look at the short guy, "Do you know who kidnapped Arthur?"

"Was it a gang member, or someone's bodyguard, their friend or something?"

The short guy stammered and kept shaking his head, saying he didn't know, "He just said he wanted to chat with Arthur privately, without disturbing others. I thought he would be back soon!"

In his confession, the reason he accepted this invitation was that the other party had a hold on him, and also promised to give him and his family a large order.

Under the dual pressure of coercion and enticement, and in the belief that the other party would not harm Arthur, he facilitated this matter.

After some means failed to extract any new information, Lance had Alvin take these people down.

Those wounds and the severed limbs lying on the ground made the faces of the three "big shots" in the room look not so good. Arthur's mother's face was terribly pale, but there was also a sense of satisfaction!

James's face was also a little pale, but better than Arthur's mother's, while Mayor Williams' expression was the most stable.

He must have witnessed many grand occasions in his life. Even if he hadn't seen them personally, he should have been mentally prepared.

James lit a cigarette to calm down from the intense and shocking scene he had just witnessed. He asked, "How much of what he said is true?"

Lance hadn't had time to answer when Mayor Williams replied for him, "Most likely, it's all true. He was scared out of his wits."

Although he was just one of Arthur's lackeys, he was still a middle-to-upper-class individual, living a pampered life with no worries about food or clothing.

Such a person had never seen such a scene. The sharp knife sliced off parts of his body, the pain and fear stimulating him to hope that it would all end as soon as possible.

And telling the truth was undoubtedly the only way to achieve that.

At the same time, he had to consider the consequences of being caught in a lie. Therefore, Mayor Williams believed that what he said was mostly the truth.

James nodded. "So, what do we do next?"

Lance didn't make a decision himself. He looked at Mayor Williams, who remained silent for a moment. "I'll make a phone call."

He didn't make the call in the living room but went to his study. He returned after about seven or eight minutes, much sooner than Lance had expected.

"No one answered. They must be planning something."

Knowing his son's whereabouts and the little dwarf's suffering allowed his emotions to calm down. Calmness and reason returned to his mind.

He was no longer thinking about these things as a 'father' but as a mayor, a politician.

"They want me to concede, to compromise, using Arthur to threaten me."

"I'll need your help next, Lance," he said, glancing at Chief Blue and Deputy Chief Duke. "And yours, of course."

Some things are easy for the gang to do, but some things are easy for the police to do.

The two junior officers didn't dare to act important and immediately nodded in agreement. "Whatever you need, Your Honor, anytime!"

Mayor Williams nodded and rubbed his forehead. "I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time. I'll contact you again if there's any news."

His wife looked at her husband in disbelief. She could tell that Mayor Williams meant they could all go back.

There was still no real news about Arthur. How could he let these people go back?!

The angry expression on her face was as if she were questioning him, "Why are you giving up on Arthur?" But she didn't say it out loud. She knew her wisdom was not as good as her husband's. She was waiting, waiting for an explanation.

The two chiefs left first. After saying goodbye to everyone, they went straight to the police station. They wouldn't go home until Arthur was found.

Lance left a little later, needing to clean up some things. He took the little dwarf with him when he left.

Clearly, Mayor Williams had hinted that he should make this person and his family pay the price!

Therefore, a heavy price awaited the little dwarf and his family!

"Why not let Lance go and bring Arthur back?" After everyone had left, Arthur's mother couldn't help but say loudly.

The butler dismissed everyone else and left the room himself, standing outside the door. Only the three of them were left in the room.

Mayor Williams rubbed his temples. "Where do we look?"

The woman raised her hands in confusion but quickly put them down. "Anywhere! He must still be in the city. We can search those possible places and maybe find him!"

Mayor Williams continued to stare at her and asked, "Which possible places?"

"List a few!"

The woman was silent again for a moment. "F*ck, how the hell would I know?!"

"This is your job, you have to do it, not me!"

Mayor Williams sighed. "We can't find him. He must be hidden. Don't worry, his value is more important than his life right now. He's safe."

"Now, if we search for him all over the streets, it will only cause some unknown changes. Those who are wavering may lean towards neutrality again, or even back to them!"

"This is a game. Whoever panics first will lose this game, lose everything!"

Mayor Williams pursed his lips. "I love Arthur no less than you do. I promise, I will bring him back!"

The woman could only choose to trust her husband, just like more than twenty years ago, when the sixteen-year-old girl resolutely married the Councilor Williams, who was older than her father.

"Don't break my heart, okay?"

Councilor Williams nodded, hugging her. "I swear!"

"Go and rest. James and I will talk some more."

After watching his wife leave, Mayor Williams leaned back on the sofa and sighed heavily. "We've pushed them too hard."

James nodded. "So they can't handle the pressure anymore."

"This shows that our current strategy is correct!"

Mayor Williams nodded and said, "Let's put ourselves in their position. What should they do next?"

"Just Arthur alone isn't safe enough. It might not be enough to force us to compromise completely. After all, everyone knows that besides him, I still have you."

As a father, this sentence was obviously very cruel because, at this moment, Mayor Williams was thinking about the possible problems and the countermeasures to deal with them.

He had already factored in the possibility of "Arthur being killed." He added this possibility in, which meant that he might choose this option when he needed to choose!

But as a politician, this was undoubtedly qualified. He couldn't avoid some things that might happen just because of his own emotional problems.

The father and son both fell into thought, wondering when and where the next "attack" would be.

After leaving Williams Manor, Lance was also thinking in the car.

Suddenly kidnapping Arthur didn't seem like a smart move. It would only completely anger Mayor Williams.

Unless they had a complete plan, after completing these plans, Mayor Williams' end would be worse than Sidney's, so bad that he might not even be the mayor anymore!

They want to force Mayor Williams to resign!

The retreat on the road suddenly began to accelerate. In less than twenty minutes, they returned to the company from the suburbs.

All the executives were already here. Lance looked at Bolton. "Get your people moving as soon as possible. I need to know if there are any unusual situations in the city."

"For example, some uninhabited houses suddenly have people living in them, or some unfamiliar cars suddenly parked on some streets."

"In short, you think about it, think about what characteristics these people have, and then do it."

"Don't be afraid to waste time and resources. We will verify all suspicious targets, we will check them all."

"In addition, I need someone to keep a close eye on those wealthy people in the Bay Area, so that when I need them, I can immediately know where they are or who they have met."