I vaguely remember that we discussed the mid-life crisis at a certain stage in this story. Under normal circumstances, quitting your job, traveling, leaving... In the case of a middle-aged man named Martin, it turned into killing someone.
Two police detectives from Barton had already focused on this middle-aged man who was still working in a fish processing factory with their eyes on criminals.
"It's him!" James pulled Weiss. "After the death in the market, I saw him wandering behind the crime scene! I even questioned him!"
Wes glanced at James and said, "Then you let him go."
"How do I know it was him who commissioned the Phantom Man to commit the crime?!"
Wes waved his hand, "We can't find him directly. We can only use the case of his boss's death to ask all the employees here to find things related to his Martin!"
"I know!" James was conscious and understood that Wes was reminding him not to be impulsive.
After giving up, start taking action.
Let’s briefly introduce the factory where the two detectives are currently working. This is a cannery, making fish. In terms of modern technology, it is not a high-level factory. Manual work seems to be the main force, and the automated part is limited to can packaging. Compared with the factory on TV that promotes human achievements, the factory with dozens of automatic production lines is much worse, and is only a little higher than a local workshop like Barton.
The reason why we are paying attention here now actually has nothing to do with the two police detectives. But don’t worry, we’ll see familiar faces.
The owner of Patton's Big Q Supermarket, Mr. Quest is here. To be more precise, he was in the office of the director, the highest-ranking person in this processing plant, waiting impatiently for his master to come to work.
Impatient waiting is naturally accompanied by complaints.
But because no one was around Quest, Quest could only complain to the air: "Our contract has been signed, and the canned products specially seasoned for the Republic were to be delivered to Barton yesterday! But where is the goods?!" Quest threw a photo of empty shelves onto the factory director’s desk, “Look! My shelves are empty! Empty!!”
Yes, Quest was rehearsing his 'speech' after waiting for the factory director to appear.
Believe me, it works, let alone whether the effect is positive—Quist has run through several versions of it. Compared with the strong questioning version we see now, the first version is very cowardly, "Brother, where is the goods? Where is the promised goods??"
Quest vented for a while and took a deep breath, not very satisfied. Being strong is not what he wants. Quest's cooperation with this cannery is not only seasoned for the taste of the Republic. This is just a business experiment that benefits both parties. Barton's largest retail supermarket will have deeper cooperation with Newton's food processing factory. Quist is here because of this deeper collaboration ahead.
Let's put it this way, if one party to the contract violates the rules, Quest can just hire a lawyer to handle it. There is no need to do it himself.
Quest sorted out his impatience and began to plan his confrontation method again.
James stepped into the office and looked at each other with Quest.
"Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?"
exported at the same time.
James frowned, "I'm here to check the victim's belongings."
"Wait a minute? What victim?!"
James was stunned for a moment, "Mr. Quest, who are you here to see?"
Quest pointed to the private photo on the factory director's desk, "Him."
"He's dead." James replied calmly, and then began his work here, checking the things on the deceased's desk. Asking for prices, daily necessities, notes... anything that could connect the death of the factory owner to his employee, the middle-aged Martin.
"He's dead?!" Quest's voice was sharp.
James's eardrum was pricked, but because he knew exactly what kind of person Quest was from Zach, James didn't want to get entangled with this controlling guy, "Is there any news about Barton? I wonder if people have been dying in Newton lately.”
"News about Barton??" Quest, who was already irritable, seemed to be ignited, and actually pressed directly towards James, "The news about Barton every day is either you or Grande!! How the hell do I know that Newton is killing people! !”
James pursed his lips, Barton's news 'loved' him James, he could understand. Why Grande? But the doubt only lasted for a moment. Even though James did something disgusting to Grande that cannot be washed away. But we must admit that in Barton, there is no one else who knows the Grand humans best except James.
A reporter was seriously injured by a staff member of a halfway house project in Grande during a deliberately staged Newton funeral in West End. Isn’t this all news
"*!!" Quest kept swearing, "My brother was defrauded by a fraud group in the middle of the country (a wizarding family that used the name Assamat to defraud money), and my partner died!*!*!" To control For a very horny guy, this can be a bit of a shock.
James would not sympathize. While rummaging through the documents left behind by the deceased, he looked at Quest and said, "Why are you here?" James was not asking a broad question such as 'Why are you in Newton?', but Very specific indication of this office.
James came all the way without being hindered by anyone, which can explain something -
The administrative facilities of this food processing plant are even lower than its modern level. James had his own reasons: he didn’t want to ruin this investigation, which had no reasonable law enforcement power, because of his own personal emotions. James consciously chose to look sparse when investigating separately from Weiss. The place.
Unexpectedly, James decided to take the route based on the principle of fewer people, which led him directly to the victim's office.
Therefore, in general, James could guess that part of the reason why Quest was alone here was that no one picked up this Barton cooperative merchant. Specifically, it’s up to Quest himself to explain.
Quist did not answer James directly. Instead, after uttering a bunch of swear words, he began to look at James, and the question was also very targeted, "Newton is private, why are you here? Huh, have we already recaptured Newton?" This wording, No need to guess, just ridicule. Self-deprecating, after all, Quest is also a member of the West Enders. Don't forget, he inherited Zack's blessing, and Yuri gave him most of Liszt's former business properties.
Just like Quest's instinctive desire to protect his business practices and not answer James. James is also protective of his police work.
It was a draw, and no one answered.
The atmosphere in the office became awkward.
It lasted for a short while, and the change occurred when James dug out a stack of dismissal notices...
James frowned and quickly flipped through part of it. I finally understood why I didn’t see anyone in the administrative office area of this project along the way. From market research to sales managers, most of the factory's overseas shipping personnel have passively lost their jobs!
James found a box and put these dismissal notices in a box. Although it has nothing to do with Martin, who James has confirmed seems to be the real culprit in the death case, these things are information that can establish an independent case project for the death case at the Newton Police Department - at least, compared with other unnatural death cases, In this case, there is a motive for death.
James continued to rummage, not in a good mood. Two aspects.
One is the professional ethics of being a police officer. James was not happy that he discovered this information here. These things can be used by the Newton Police Department to open a case and advance the investigation. Logically speaking, it is impossible for James, the Barton detective, to be discovered here until the third day after the case occurred. The work attitude of the Newton Police Department made James despise him.
The second is that it is James' own problem. The Newton Police Department refused the 'assistance' of the two Barton detectives. This has been made clear in the Newton University construction site dumping case and will not be repeated. Because of this, James knew he needed more information! Unless an ironclad case is thrown in front of the Newton Police Department, the Newton Police Department will probably not pay attention to the fruits of his and Weiss' labor.
Objectively analyzing these two points of James' psychology, regarding the first point, James' disdain is meaningless. He and Wes only had the opportunity to focus on one case and take action because of the exclusion from the Newton Police Department. The Newton Police Department has more than one case. Remember the word we used earlier, it was a pile-up, a pile-up of unsolvable, unnatural death cases.
Newton's police force is unable to take care of the city government's renovation project of Newton University, right
Regarding the second point, although we can say that James deserves it, we must also admit that James's thoughts are essentially the same as those of Hughes Revero. There is no longer a convection process, and the final result of the case is directly presented in front of the Newton Police Department.
While James continued to review and search for information, Quest was deep in thought.
Quest can leave. Obviously the person he is looking for has died. He has no meaning here. It is enough to change the lawyer to handle the subsequent matters. But he's still here.
As unknown thoughts reacted to each other, James dug out some more things—export food inspection reports, information on new production line technology...
All the evidence that showed James that a Newton factory was going through a major stage of change was put into the box just now.
"It's a worker." Quest suddenly said.
"What?" James looked up at Quest.
"If someone killed the factory director, it was the workers on the processing line here!" Quist said with a decision that was obviously not within his expertise.
"Why." James suppressed his emotions and continued to ask.
"Those dismissal notices you just found." Quest did not move. "Those people did not lose their jobs, but went to Barton, and most of them worked under me." Quest's cooperation with this factory , to be revealed here? Alas, no, "After Barton's pension policy became like this, Barton became very attractive to Newton people. Especially those who had relatives in Barton." It was just social manipulation by people from the West End.
James frowned, and what he said was in line with the professionalism of a police detective, "Can you provide the alibi of these people the day before yesterday?"
The reason why Quest suddenly spoke became clear at this time, "I can, I can call Barton now and ask my human resources department to sort out the information you need to prove that the people under my Quest Group have the right relationship with New York." The death case that happened here has nothing to do with it!"
He is worthy of being a businessman and a controlling guy. His way of thinking is not that someone died, but that someone died. How can I quickly distance myself from this kind of thing! This kind of person is quite admirable.
"Okay." James pursed his lips, not wanting to comment on Quest's acting style. To be honest, it was the cooperation that James needed. Everyone needs to know how much work this kind of cooperation saves James and Weiss! James gestured to the office phone, meaning 'hurry up'.
Quest also took action, picked up the deceased's phone and started dialing.
While waiting for the call to be connected, "If there is anyone who has hatred for this factory director, it must be those workers!" Quist continued to promote his policy of getting rid of the relationship, "The factory will introduce new automatic production technology, and when the time comes, these workers Everyone will be unemployed!" Quist's explanation is clear, "Those who have mastered administrative majors or external sales skills have already found new job opportunities! And these people who have only adapted to one way of working in their lives, once their jobs If they are replaced by machines, they will have nothing!”
The phone was connected, and Quest began to explain things to the people on Barton's side, but James fell into thinking.
Even if James had not known who the murderer was in advance, he would have agreed with Quest's statement. Naturally there will be no objection now. James' rummaging became purposeful, and he began to look for documents about the factory's future arrangements for workers—new training plans, agreement compensation documents, pension arrangements...
The box James found first began to overflow...
After all, this plot begins with a middle-aged man. Let's return to this middle-aged man... No, to be precise, he looks at the same place as this young man named Martin.
Wes was talking to a guy, "So you've signed a training contract? You're going to Central in a week to learn new production line procedures?"
"Yes!" The person who was talking to Weiss was a little excited, explaining himself, "I don't even have time to thank the factory director for this opportunity. How could I want him... him... to die..." The choking behind him was sincere. , Wes can see it.
Wes's question continued, "Who else signed this training contract besides you?"
"I, and..." The person being questioned was pointing Weiss in the direction of the person. Obviously there is no special meaning, but the direction of this man's pointing will skip every time he passes by Martin, who has been locked in Wes's peripheral vision for a long time.
"Okay." Wes nodded, "I understand." The surface was calm, but in reality, Wes's heart was burning. Wes wanted to remind the person he was talking to that he was the murderer from the time we started talking. Just looking at you. You may be the target of his next entrustment. '(To be continued)