Volume 1: First Arrival Chapter 84: Reality Hits a Wall
Since the day when he accidentally discovered the yellow ribbon clue, Kirk's daily life has returned to normal.
After all , the life of a private detective is not always full of storms. New York is a big city, and the competition in the private detective industry is very fierce. It is normal to have no clients and no new cases. It is for this reason that Kirk needs to build good relationships with the branch and expand sources of clients.
However, it is a good thing that there are no other commissions for the time being, because Kirk can devote himself to the investigation of the "homeless case".
However, things did not go as smoothly as expected.
The good news is that Richard Curtis's connections finally came in handy.
After the New York Times report came out, the entire city's attention was focused on the homeless. Not only the case itself, but also the situation of the homeless and the plight of black people gradually became the focus. Richard, as a family member of the victim, also came into the public eye. People seemed to be finally ready to listen to the voices of the victims' families.
Following Kirk's instructions, Richard accepted media interviews in a planned and step-by-step manner, focusing on different topics in each interview, firmly grasping the media's attention, and creating traffic step by step.
They need to keep the topic hot, and the public opinion frenzy is an important means to ensure the high-speed operation of the NYPD.
At the same time, Kirk and Adrian split up to investigate.
On the one hand, Kirk continued to dig along the clues of "Panda Express" and found nothing.
Neither the Williamsburg and Flushing branches were able to provide any useful information. The unimaginable flow of homeless people made it difficult for them to leave traces in daily life. The store clerks couldn't remember whether they had seen those faces before. Kirk's intuition was unable to find evidence to support further development.
This is not surprising.
Although everything was as expected, investigating a case was like investigating a journalist. Sometimes you had to look for a needle in a haystack, and sometimes you had to find a thread in a tangled ball of wool. The only thing that was certain was that it was not easy. Kirk had foreseen such an outcome, but he still couldn't avoid being disappointed.
On the other hand, Adrian followed the clues of the yellow ribbon and encountered difficulties.
It's not like there was nothing gained.
Following the itinerary of New York State Senator Joseph Graham, Adrian successfully opened up a shelter in Queens.
The head of the shelter accurately identified and named three victims from a pile of photos:
Isaiah Robinson, Chris Adams and Clark Pierce.
He testified that all three victims were present on the day Senator Graham came to the soup kitchen to distribute relief.
Adrian then found a clue at a relief center in Brooklyn, where a volunteer recalled that Clark Pierce and Seth Johnson had attended an event where Senator Graham distributed relief supplies.
Seth Johnson, in particular, was discovered when he tried to collect two relief supplies, and had some conflicts with the volunteers, which was an embarrassing situation for a while.
Finally, Senator Graham's assistant was alarmed, and he stepped in to meet Seth Johnson's demands and stopped the riot in time.
In this way, all four victims can be linked together—
Of course, it is still far from enough.
So, Adrian and Kirk conducted further in-depth investigation. After all, this was the clearest and most reliable clue in the current dilemma.
Unfortunately, the shelter was unable to provide more information.
Every event site is packed with people, and the number of homeless people is difficult to count accurately, but there are at least three or four hundred people; the volunteers and the persons in charge are all dizzy and it is difficult to leave a deep impression in their minds in a short period of time.
For those four names, either some unexpected events occurred on the day of the event and formed special memories, or they became familiar faces after going to the soup kitchen more than once or twice to collect food, so the soup kitchen was able to recognize them. They have done their best.
then.
Adrian set his sights on Senator Graham.
On the day of the event, the senator's team and media reporters took countless photos and recorded videos. Adrian hoped to get these materials and examine them one by one to see if he could find the other three victims.
Once found, the victim's connection will be established and the case will make an important breakthrough.
However, the Senators team was not so easy to talk to.
The "homeless man case" not only involves the sensitive topic of black people, but if they are not careful, it may once again bring up the topics of employment and financial crisis . The senator's team naturally cannot treat it lightly. After learning about Adrian's investigation direction, they immediately became alert.
On the surface, Senator Graham met with Adrian in person and expressed his 100% cooperation with all police investigations. They will share all information and do their best to assist the police in solving the case.
"Just tell us whatever your needs are, and we will do our best to meet them." These are Senator Graham's exact words.
Turning around, the senator's assistant used the tactic of "dragging" and refused to hand over the photo and video evidence. He made excuses by saying "we need to organize the documents and information".
When Adrian asked to speak to Senator Graham again, he was only given the excuse that "the Senator is busy" and "the Senator is in a meeting."
hehe.
It doesn't take a keen eye to guess that the senator's team realized that the case might be related to them, so they needed to review it first.
If there are any problems or tricks, they can take the initiative, perhaps intercepting the evidence and refusing to show it. Even if they don't intercept it, they need to prepare countermeasures in advance.
For example, expelling potential criminal suspects from the team.
For example, public relations should prepare in advance to deal with the media.
For example, seize the opportunity to turn disadvantages into public opinion offensive, cleverly use topics such as race and unemployment to divert targets, etc.
It is true that the senator's team is willing to cooperate with the police investigation, but when, how and to what extent they will cooperate are all question marks.
Procrastinate and dilly-dally.
Anyway, Adrian encountering pressure or even losing his job was never something they needed to worry about.
later--
The media stirred up trouble again, this time it was the Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report that Senator Graham's team might be involved in the homeless serial killer case.
The entire public opinion exploded.
This time, it was neither Kirk nor Adrian who leaked the news. Don't forget that New York is one of the cities with the most media and the most lively in the world, with countless media outlets of all sizes. Now the case of the homeless man is attracting everyone's attention, and millions of eyes are all paying close attention to it.
Richard used his connections to speak out again and again, and finally got rewarded, with public opinion completely on the side of justice.
At the same time, Senator Graham's competitors also seized the opportunity and dug out the families of other homeless victims, persuading them to come forward for interviews. As victims, they issued strong condemnations and tearfully protested that the deaths of black people did not receive enough attention from the NYPD.
Step by step, things really developed in the direction Kirk expected.
Public opinion exploded across the board.
