Chapter 872: Who Should Be the Chief?

Dustin swallowed two pieces of char siu. After considering things for a moment, he wiped his mouth and hands with a napkin. He turned around and said, “Given my years of friends.h.i.+p with Brad, I’m sure that it wasn’t his idea, but it was definitely a request from someone he couldn’t refuse.”

Luke and Selina exchanged glances and realized what was going on.

Brad was NYPD’s First Deputy Commissioner, on par with NYPD’s Police Chief.

His only direct superior was the commissioner.

If it was above that, the only people who could give him orders were the city councilors and the mayor.

Had Kingpin’s power already expanded to this extent? Luke and Selina were a little surprised.

An underground power stepping into the light was truly a huge difference.

It was no wonder Kingpin had remained as steady as a mountain in the face of multiple investigations by federal and local law enforcement.

His circle of collaborators didn’t include just gangs, but also government allies.

No matter how big the L.A. gangs were, none of them operated on this large a scale; Kingpin was indeed a formidable leader.

Dustin poured himself a cup of coffee and sat back down.

Looking at Luke, he said, “It’s good that you know.”

He sighed. “This is New York.”

The three of them fell silent as they lamented inwardly: It really was hard to survive in the center of the world.

Director Brad, who had been able to protect his subordinates in Los Angeles in the past, had become someone else’s mouthpiece in less than a month.

But thinking about how this First Deputy Commissioner had sworn to return to New York, Luke didn’t feel sorry for him; maybe this was the life he had always dreamed of.

After a brief silence, he asked, “Walter doesn’t know about this?”

Dustin said, “He should have heard rumors, but he’s John McClane’s boss.”

Luke nodded.

“With someone like that for a subordinate, do you think he’s a slick character?” Dustin smiled. “Walter really thought that I nicked this position from him through connections; what he doesn’t know is that he never had the chance. Neither his boss nor his rivals want him to be promoted, but he doesn’t know that.”

Dustin paused for a moment before he continued, “Some people know that I don’t like trouble as much as he does. That’s why I’m sitting here. If you can become the chief by cracking cases, the person sitting here right now should be John McClane.”

Luke sweated.

There really was nothing wrong with this logic.

Based on cracking cases alone, John McClane would be more than qualified to be an NYPD boss, but he had only just become sergeant with much difficulty, and his first promotion had been eight years ago.

“Make sure you stay safe and do your best to protect Walter,” said Dustin. “I don’t want to have to give your family a medal after just arriving in New York.”

Luke nodded and left.

On the way home, Luke’s phone rang. Christine simply said, “Molly’s parents just arrived. They’re talking to her.”

Luke said, “We’ll be right there.”

The car turned around and sped toward Metro General Hospital.

Twenty minutes later, they knocked on the door of the ward.

A moment later, the door was opened by a short, fat middle-aged man.

Seeing Luke and Selina, he looked at them in confusion. “Can I help you?”

Luke and Selina showed him their badges. “Can we talk on the side?”

The middle-aged man looked back into the ward before he walked out. He closed the door and followed Luke. “Detectives, are you here about Molly?”

Luke nodded. “Mr. Richard Johnson, my name’s Luke. This is my partner, Selina. We spoke on the phone this morning.”

Richard immediately stretched out his hand excitedly. “Thank you. Thank you for saving Molly.”

Luke didn’t interrupt his expression of grat.i.tude. Although he wanted to ask about Molly’s situation at home, he understood the other man’s excitement at finding his missing daughter.

A moment later, he said, “Mr. Johnson, let’s talk business.”

Richard said, “Just call me Richard, Detective Luke.”

Luke nodded. “It’s like this: Molly’s disappearance is suspicious, so I want to ask you about what happened before she went missing.”

Richard was agitated. “She’s been active since she was little. She loves sports and is kindhearted. She’s a member of the student union and she does volunteer work during her school breaks. She’s a little angel. I can’t think of anyone who would hurt her.”

Luke nodded. “Richard, sometimes bad people catch us unaware. We can’t stop what’s already happened, but I want to find this man and stop him from hurting more innocent girls, alright?”

Richard breathed heavily like a bull. “If I find out who the b*stard is, I’ll blow his head off with a gun.”

After a brief silence, Luke said, “Richard, you need to focus. Before Molly went missing, do you know if she met anyone strange or ran into anything unusual?”

Looking at Luke’s calm face, Richard finally controlled his rage and tried to remember.

However, after more than twenty minutes, he couldn’t give them many leads.

Of course, the conversation wasn’t entirely pointless. At least, it gave Luke and Selina a clear understanding of Molly’s past.

From this, they could eliminate many possibilities.

For example, it was very unlikely that “he” was an acquaintance, or had attacked Molly through someone she knew.

Given how much Richard loved his daughter, Molly’s friends of the opposite s.e.x would have more or less heard the talk.

However, nothing happened to Molly before she came to New York.

Richard had confirmed this with her cla.s.smates and teammates.

As for how Molly sustained herself during this time, she had taken out a huge sum of money from the ATM herself.

The card was under Molly’s name, and contained her scholars.h.i.+p money, prize money from compet.i.tions and so on. There was roughly 12,000 dollars on it.

Richard ran a seafood business in Ma.s.sachusetts, which included best-selling items like Maine lobsters.

That was why Molly, an underaged high school student, had so much money.

Molly had a good family background, and she didn’t have the habit of squandering money.

In the beginning, Richard had called NYPD precisely because it was unusual for Molly, who had suddenly disappeared, to take out such a large sum of money. He suspected that his daughter had been kidnapped and had been coerced to withdraw the money.

However, the bank’s surveillance showed that Molly had gone to withdraw the money herself during the day, and no one nearby had been threatening her.