North American Detective: I am Proficient in All Kinds of Gun Quick Draws-Chapter 613 - 2

A sudden knock sounded from outside the room.

Daisy turned her head, only to find the office door had already been pushed open.

Two expressionless men in suits strode into the office. They swept their gaze around the room and then focused on Daisy, who still hadn't figured out what was going on.

Daisy watched these two men swagger into their team's office and felt a vague sense of unease. "You..."

"We're here."

Lawrence pointed to a dilapidated building outside the window. "This is the new office location for Eden Consulting Company. The area was entirely built from alumni donations. It used to provide subsidized housing for teachers, but now it's rented out to students as low-cost startup office space. It's considered quite a perk."

"No wonder you got the new address so easily," Dean said, nodding as he stepped out of the car.

Compared to the previous neighborhood, this place was much more normal. Many young people could be seen laughing and chatting as they passed by. There were also quite a few cars parked along the road—none particularly expensive, just basic transportation.

Following the address provided by the school, the two climbed to the third floor and finally saw the signboard for Eden Consulting Company at the end of the hallway.

To their surprise, the door beneath the signboard was open.

They hurriedly walked over.

Inside, a young man with a ghastly pale profile was hunched over, writing and drawing on a board.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Lawrence rapped on the open door. "Excuse us, is this Eden Consulting Company?"

Hearing the noise, the young man with the pale profile turned his head. He reacted slowly, staring at Dean and Lawrence for a few seconds before his eyes blankly registered them and he nodded. "Yes, but the boss isn't in. He hasn't been here for two or three days."

Dean waved Lawrence in and entered, looking down at the youth who had heavy bags under his eyes and seemed not to have rested well for a long time. "Are you an employee of this company?" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The youth shook his head. "No, I'm the owner of the software company next door. I've run out of money to pay the school's rent, so I have to borrow this space to work."

When he mentioned being a boss, he gave a slightly embarrassed smile.

"Do you know anything about Eden Consulting Company?" Dean continued to ask.

The youth nodded, then, just as he was about to speak, he suddenly stopped. His tone changed, and he looked warily at Lawrence, who stood behind Dean. "By the way, who are you two?"

Dean looked ordinary enough, but Lawrence, with his coarse, fleshy face, didn't look like a good person at all.

Rolling his eyes, Lawrence took out his detective badge. "We're detectives from the Police Department. We have some questions for the owner of Eden Consulting Company."

Though the youth couldn't tell if the badge was real or fake, considering this was a campus area, he didn't think anyone would cause trouble here.

So he let out a sigh of relief and said, "Alright, I do know a bit about Eden Consulting Company. It's a private company started by one of my seniors. Like mine, it's a one-man operation. He mainly provides various consulting services to help new students, especially international ones, adapt quickly to campus life."

"Can you contact him?"

The youth hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "I can't get through. His phone isn't being answered, and I couldn't find him at his residence either. But this senior of mine often disappears for days at a time. If it's urgent, you could try contacting his family. The school should have their contact information."

But his subtle hesitation didn't escape Dean's sharp eyes.

Dean gave Lawrence a meaningful glance.

Lawrence immediately understood. He shot the youth a sinister, ambiguous smile and walked to the door. Under the youth's anxious gaze, he slammed the door shut with a BANG.

"What are you doing?" The youth's expression changed, and he tried to rise from the couch.

But whether he was too weak or had been sitting for too long, as soon as he moved, his body slumped back down, limp.

The youth could only watch Dean and Lawrence, two hulking figures, with terror in his eyes. He subconsciously held the writing board in front of his chest, his young face filled with helplessness.

Seeing the door was shut, Dean cracked his knuckles and smiled at the frightened youth. "Do you know what kind of people we hate the most?"

The youth, seemingly encountering such a situation for the first time, curled up into a ball and said tremulously, "Detective, I'm not a bad person. I've never done anything wrong."

Dean shook his head. "We don't dislike bad people, only those who lie to us. You're a top student; you should know that deliberately concealing information about a criminal suspect during a police interview is also a crime. You don't want a criminal record before you even graduate, do you?"

The youth immediately realized his hesitation had exposed him to the handsome detective. He sighed inwardly with a strange sense of relief, then put down the useless writing board, his expression pained as he said, "Sorry. This senior of mine knows some gang members. I was worried about retaliation, so I held back some information."

He had originally thought these detectives would be constrained by the law, unlike his ruthless senior. That was why he had hidden some information. Now it seemed these detectives weren't much better; he could only accept his fate.

Lawrence, impatient, saw the youth hemming and hawing. A muscle in his coarse cheek twitched, and he snarled, "Cut the crap! Speak!"

The youth flinched, shrinking his neck, and said resignedly, "I wasn't lying to you just now. That senior does indeed disappear for days at a time, but I know what he's doing. The company's official business is helping new students adapt to campus life, but their real targets are international students. Many international students don't understand much when they first arrive here, especially the wealthy ones. In their own countries, they were supervised by elders. But here, they encounter all sorts of new things with no one to control them, so they easily let loose.

"So, the senior takes these people out to all sorts of entertainment. Once they get hooked, there are plenty of other tricks waiting for those... those international student 'fat pigs'—I mean, international students."

Possibly having let something slip, the already pale youth's lips turned ashen, losing all color.

"TSK." Lawrence smirked. "You seem to know a lot about this."

The youth lowered his head. "Alright. I made some money before, so I patronized my senior's 'business.' I got addicted, and now I owe him a lot of money. I have no choice but to do things for him."

"What kind of business?"

"Women. Those foreign beauties who come here to study. The cost of living here isn't low. Female international students who aren't well-off get squeezed dry of their money and are often tricked into 'part-time jobs.' They often get hooked on drugs. When these 'fat pigs,' as he calls them, can't get any more money from home, the senior makes them earn it for him. This isn't really a secret among people like us; it's just that most ordinary students don't know."

Disgust flashed in Lawrence's eyes. "A bunch of scum."

Dean patted Lawrence's shoulder, signaling him to step back. Then he continued questioning the youth, "Buddy, what was the information you were holding back?"

The youth, startled, looked strangely at the seemingly affable young detective. "That... that was all of it."

Dean smiled, and then his hand shot out.

SLAP! A crisp sound echoed.

The right side of the youth's sallow face swelled visibly.

He stared at Dean in horror.

Dean grabbed his hair. "You still have one good side of your face. You can keep trying to bluff your way through."