CHAPTER 480: CHAPTER 287 IMPORTANT DISCOVERY_2

How vicious!

The words of the black police officer were even more vicious than torture!

Cheston En’s eyes were bloodshot, his teeth nearly ground to dust. He was itching to leap at the man, bite through his throat, and eat him alive!

He swore that if he made it out of this police station alive, he would take his own pistol, shove it into that black bastard’s mouth, and blow his brains out!

The black officer had seen that kind of look many times before.

He picked up the large bucket of lubricant beside him, chuckled, and said,

"Buddy, we don’t mean any harm. We just want to invite your partner over for a cup of coffee, slip you some cash, and then send you both safely on your way.

You don’t need to endure this whole bucket of ’maintenance’ for a measly few thousand a month. I’m going to step out for a smoke. When I get back, I hope Detective Cheston En here has made up his mind."

After saying this, he even gave Cheston En’s ’little bird,’ which he’d nurtured for many years, a squeeze before leaving the cramped cell, satisfied.

More friends meant more paths. And an extra detective? That meant two more paths for them!

Cheston En was fair-skinned and good-looking, with a fine physique. Crucially, he was also a detective, which satisfied certain people’s role-playing fetishes.

To be honest, the black officer rather hoped this naive kid would be a little more stubborn.

...

Dean, at this moment, had no idea that his partner, Cheston En, had already been defiled.

He sat in a battered, second-hand car on a remote road outside of town, waiting for news from Wade and his group.

Cheston En had run into trouble at the hotel in town; there were bound to be witnesses.

The most likely people to make a move were the town’s police officers.

As Cheston En’s partner, it was no longer advisable for him to show his face openly in town. That was precisely why Dean had enlisted Wade and the other two to help him.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, Dean finally received a call from Wade and his companions.

"Boss Dean, your partner was asking questions of the waitress, Murphy, when the town police took him to the station. They’ve also searched the room you two were staying in..."

Being locals, the three of them hadn’t disappointed Dean and had indeed gathered detailed information.

It turned out that Cheston En had aroused the suspicion of the hotel waitress when he inquired about the occupants of the room across from theirs.

As mentioned before, many local residents were not only aware of the frequent tourist disappearances but, to protect the town’s economy, had tacitly agreed to keep quiet about it.

If anyone came looking for missing persons or showed interest in the disappearances, the residents would report them to the police station.

Thus, while the waitress kept Cheston En occupied, she had a colleague call the police.

"Is this how your town usually treats people asking about disappearances?" Dean stroked his chin, a sense of unease creeping in.

Wade, his voice low from wherever he was, replied, "More or less. It’s an unspoken agreement. Whether there’s a problem or not, they hand it over to the police to deal with. Usually, it just means getting kicked out of town."

Dean didn’t respond.

Cheston En definitely had his detective badge on him. This wouldn’t be a simple matter of expulsion. However, Cheston En probably wasn’t in mortal danger. After all, the town deliberately concealed these things for economic reasons; they wouldn’t be foolish enough to commit murder just for a cover-up—that would be idiotic. Besides, the hotel knew Cheston En had a partner—me—so they’d be even more hesitant to do anything drastic. Considering this, there was no immediate rush to rescue Cheston En... Even in the worst-case scenario, Cheston En would just get beaten to force a confession. It was unlikely those small-town cops could come up with any novel forms of torment. This was actually a good chance to see how tough Cheston En really was.

So Dean thought.

He had no idea, however, that if he didn’t rescue Cheston En soon, it wouldn’t matter whether Cheston En was tough or not; he would definitely... burst.

...

"Alright, Wade. A guest has disappeared from the hotel, which gives you the perfect opportunity to ask some questions. They know you offer ’clean-up’ services, so they shouldn’t be suspicious."

"Got it, Boss Dean. Plenty of people saw them arrest him. Jenny, the others, and I will head to the police station now. We’ll pretend we’re looking for new business and check on your partner for you."

Erasing traces of missing persons and deceiving those who came looking for them—that was their line of work in town.

In fact, even if Dean hadn’t contacted Wade’s trio through the business card, they would have eventually reached out to him anyway. Since he had left his phone number on the missing person notices, they would have likely contacted him pretending to be informants.

It was purely a coincidence.

As for calling him ’Boss Dean,’ Dean had instructed them to do so to prevent Wade and his crew from accidentally exposing him during calls.

After ending the call, Dean lit a cigarette and reconsidered the information he had just obtained.

He had a feeling Cheston En’s exposure wasn’t as simple as it looked. A typical hotel waitress wasn’t a trained professional, after all, and Cheston En was no idiot. If it were merely a case of stalling, even if Cheston En were slow on the uptake, he should have sensed something was wrong and made his escape in time. He wouldn’t have been too frightened to even call, resorting instead to a text message for help. Something was definitely off.

Dean mentally reviewed the information he had gathered.

Suddenly, a thought struck him: Could it be that Cheston En stumbled upon a useful clue while asking questions? Is that why he didn’t try to escape immediately, leading to his capture?

Dean mentally snapped his fingers.

That had to be it! If this hypothesis was correct...

A look of delight spread across Dean’s face!

He felt he had found a breakthrough in the disappearance cases!

According to Wade and his companions, the tourists and even locals who had disappeared in several nearby towns had all vanished after entering the mountains. The local residents knew a little about this, more or less, but neither the authorities nor the general public knew why these people had disappeared.