Chapter 54 Birthday (Part 2)
Shortly after lunch, the service team hired by Bobby arrived and began to decorate the house to create the birthday atmosphere as much as possible. Tables, chairs and dining tables were arranged on the large lawn in the front yard, and some snacks, desserts, iced drinks were placed on the table, and a chef prepared barbecue marinade. Such a grand event attracted idle acquaintances in the community, and everyone soon regarded this place as a lively social place. Some people played poker, and others set up chess games. For a time, Mary's home and the neighbor's lawn were extremely lively.
Mary is cheerful by nature and never refuses anyone. Because of Bobby, the sucker, the service company sent more staff and food to the scene to provide services according to the number of guests. Mary's only worry is that this is not a good thing, and Bobby will spend a lot of money, and she has not met Bobby yet. Liang Xi comforted Mary, saying that this guy is poor but has money. In fact, Liang Xi knew that Bobby gave face to him and himself. Bobby wanted to create a pomp like an emperor's tour, and he would shake the earth wherever he went. After all, compared to showing off one's intelligence and kindness, the effect of money is more obvious and will not deceive people.
The big cake was presented in the lively atmosphere. The seven-layered huge cake was delivered to the living room. Liang Xi silently glanced at the refrigerator he made in the kitchen. He wanted to beat someone up now. The damn golden retriever took over all the topics of today's birthday with a single penny. Even Mary became a supporting role, and he himself became a minor role, with no more than three lines.
Mark arrived after the cake. He gave Mary a bouquet of flowers and hugged Mary. It was obvious that he was familiar with Mary. Mary asked Liang Xi, who was reading in the study on the second floor, to greet Mark. It was not for other reasons, because Mark was the only friend of John who had arrived.
Mark did not hide his identity. When Liang Xi explained that he had inherited the Rose Detective Agency and asked about his job, he said frankly: "Head of Operations of the Fifth Department." In fact, he still concealed it. To be precise, he was the Head of Special Operations of the Fifth Department.
John once talked to Liang Xi about the Fifth Division. The Fifth Division has six directors, each responsible for a field of affairs, such as anti-national terrorism, anti-Northern Ireland and domestic terrorism. The operations director has his own team, which is directly under the jurisdiction of each director. The special operations director is different. At the beginning of this century, the Fifth Division underwent a major reform and became a domestic intelligence agency similar to the FBI, but without the power of criminal investigation and arrest. The Special Operations Office continues the traditional style of the Fifth Division. In simple terms, it is a secret operation office that is not under the leadership of the government.
For example, if a terrorist is planning to do something bad in London, normally, the Fifth Agency is responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence and handing it over to the police and other relevant agencies for processing. The Special Operations Office can take direct action to crack down on terrorists without approval, consent or assistance from other judicial agencies.
Mark and Liang Xi talked about John's case, which sounded very real, but was actually indirect. Mark said, "Not long ago, the police arrested a kidnapper in Villa Village. It was confirmed that he was an active French police officer. We suspect that he is directly related to a criminal gang with a changing name. We call this criminal gang Chameleon because they change the code names of all participants every time they act."
Liang Xi asked: "Do you think they are related to John?"
Mark did not deny it: "From our intelligence, we found that John seemed to be investigating something before he died. Combining the intelligence before and after, we found that only the Chameleon criminal gang was the most eye-catching during this period."
Mark already knew that it was Bobby's bodyguard who raided the villa, rescued the hostages and caught the criminals. After contacting Liang Xi to investigate the distribution warehouse incident, there was reason to suspect that Liang Xi was taking advantage of Bobby who had nothing to do. But to Mark's surprise, Bobby's father rejected Mark's proposal to stop Bobby. He told Mark that he had no right to interfere with Bobby's friendships, and if Bobby broke the law, he could arrest him directly.
Without evidence, and with Clement's lawyers, Mark certainly didn't want to cause trouble. It happened that one of Bobby's bodyguards was a comrade of Mark's subordinates. Through his subordinates, he learned that it was Liang Xi who asked Bobby to lead people to raid the villa. As for the warehouse, he didn't know, he was only responsible for executing the orders of the head bodyguard. When Mark's subordinates questioned him, the bodyguard told Mark's subordinates that even if he knew something, he would not tell Mark's subordinates because he didn't want to lose this very well-paid job.
The bodyguard spoke skillfully, and he had already pushed the blame of what Bobby had done onto Liang Xi. Liang Xi could be finished, and he had to protect his financial sponsor, Bobby. In the end, Mark came to a conclusion that deviated from the facts: Liang Xi deceived Bobby and used Bobby's resources and money to do bad things for himself.
To Mark's surprise, Liang Xi showed little interest in the Chameleon criminal gang, and it seemed that Liang Xi had already determined that Chameleon had nothing to do with John's murder. Mark asked tentatively, "Do you think Chameleon had nothing to do with John's murder?"
Liang Xi replied: "From what I know, a criminal gang would not allow John to secretly investigate without telling Mary and me. John is no longer old enough to be interested in criminal gangs. The person who can get John, who has already retired, to take action must be an old friend . From the information obtained from the scene where John was murdered, I think the murderer is most likely a big shot, a big shot who has thugs under his control."
Mark asked, “Who could that be?”
Liang Xi explained: "The first possibility is a big shot in the judicial system, who has the resources in this area. The second possibility is a rich person. For example, I have a friend whose bodyguards are well paid, so his bodyguards don't mind helping him do something bad. The third possibility is a powerful person. No matter what kind of power, those who hold power are big shots. The so-called Matthew who met with John should not be the mastermind, but a staff member or lackey around the big shot."
Liang Xi said, "From the level of secrecy they keep, we can tell that the big shot is definitely doing something bad. If John wants to help someone do something bad, the relationship must be very close, or even a close friend. I know very well who John's close friends are, and I have ruled them out. There is only one other possibility, the relationship is very good, but not close enough for John to help him do something bad."
Liang Xi said: "Why would John help him? Because what the big shot did might not be a bad thing. No, let's put it this way, as a commoner, it's nothing if I do this. But if a big shot does this, it's a big deal. So I guess it has something to do with morality or women. If my guess is right, the big shot must be a prominent dignitary." For example, what Clinton did would be nothing if it happened to a commoner, but because he was the president, it was a scandal that shocked the world. John would help his friends investigate this kind of bad thing that was not a bad thing.
After Liang Xi finished speaking, Mark's palms were sweating. This little guy is a monster. He deduced step by step from his understanding of John and guessed the general information of the mastermind behind the scenes. Liang Xi not only guessed the big shot, but also probably guessed the big shot's scandal.
Mark was faced with a judgment: did Liang Xi really have this ability? Or was it because Liang Xi was employed by a big shot and had extra information, so he could come to this inference? Mark was more willing to believe the former, that Liang Xi might really have this ability, because John had this ability. Compared with John's cunning, Liang Xi's desire to attack was stronger, his analysis was bolder, and his edge was outward, like a sharp blade out of its sheath, and he was a very dangerous person.
A very dangerous person must first have the qualifications to be dangerous. An incompetent person cannot become a dangerous person no matter how much courage and ideas he has.
"Yeah!" Mark answered the phone, and after listening for a while, he replied in a nonchalant tone, "I'll be right there."
