Chapter 551: Scoop
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After he was done putting away his things, Zhao Liangze went to his room to sleep. Even though Huo Shaoheng said that they should rest and rise early, due to jet lag, they did not manage to sleep much during the night and woke up at about four or five o’clock in the morning.
After having their showers in their respective hotel rooms, each was about to proceed downstairs to look for some food when they realized that the other party was also awake. Smiling, Zhao Liangze told Huo Shaoheng, “The biological clock is scary, indeed. Who would expect that we’d be sufferers of jet lag?”
“It’s okay. We used to get up early when we were back in Hua Xia Empire as well, anyway,” Huo Shaoheng replied calmly. He walked to Zhao Liangze and whispered, “Bring your things. We’ll be visiting the site with Little Zhao from the private investigation firm.”
They were in America with L-1 pa.s.ses, and their occupation was supposed to be IT engineers. However, their current occupation was staff from a private investigation firm in New York, owned by the Chinese.
Tan Guiren was Chinese. Even though the local police had opened her case, due to the fact that no one had reported seeing her, and she wasn’t an American citizen, plus, with the low efficiency of the American police, the case was progressing way too slowly. It was almost like no one really put in the effort to look for her.
It had been six days since she had gone missing. Normally, the first 24 hours the person was missing were the golden period to look for him or her. If no one could find the missing person within that time frame, most likely they’d be looking for a dead body, instead.
The Tan’s had used their special status to get the best person in the Special Forces to go and look for their daughter after the golden 24 hours had pa.s.sed. On top of that, Tan Guiren’s father, Tan Dongbang’s reputation as the hot favorite of this season’s prime minister election spread to America due to this.
…
It was six o’clock in the morning. The entrance of the police station in west Manhattan, New York, was filled with people from the media and pa.s.sers by. The officers who were reporting to work in their personal cars and the police officers who were driving police cars saw the scene and were shocked.
“What’s going on?”
“Did a celebrity get caught for drug abuse again?”
“Or did a celebrity steal again?”
The clueless policemen exited their vehicles and began exchanging suggestions with each other softly. Their station was located in the wealthiest area in New York. People who resided there were directors of multinational companies, and many Hollywood stars own property there as well.
Most of the cases there were either theft for adrenaline rush, or some businessmen or celebrities becoming unconscious due to a drug overdose. However, these things happened on an almost daily basis. Why would there be so much media today?
The policemen saw that there were even reporters from the three largest broadcast companies, ABC, NBC, and CBS, and also online television broadcast stations, including CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. There were even people from newspapers such as the Was.h.i.+ngton Post and New York Times. There were also people from social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook!
Seeing that the police officers had arrived for work, the media rushed towards them, aimed their recording devices or microphones at the officers, and began throwing questions at them.
“Good morning, officer. Did you know that the daughter of the favorite prime minister election candidate from Hua Xia Empire went missing in your state?” The reporter who asked this question came from the Was.h.i.+ngton Post. This newspaper had become famous because they revealed the Watergate scandal of then-president, President Nixon. The founder of this newspaper had ignored popular beliefs and supported its reporters as they followed up on that Watergate scandal. The paper went against the government when they tried to stop the investigation and eventually exposed the scandal, resulting in the president giving up his presidency. They were the only ones who were that politically sensitive.
They, too, had just received information that Tan Guiren, the daughter of the hot favorite prime minister election candidate of Hua Xia Empire, Tan Dongbang, mysteriously went missing while she was studying at Julliard. Even though it had already been six days, they had just received news that the girl who had gone missing was someone with a special social status.
They had thought that it was their exclusive, but when they arrived at the station in west Manhattan, they realized that the person who gave them the news had most likely spread it to all the major broadcasting companies in America.
“Madam, may I know if you have investigated at Julliard? We’ve heard that she went missing in the dormitory! Did you engage the people from the X Files to investigate such a mysterious case?!” The reporter who asked this question came from CNN. In order to exaggerate news, they did not mind coming up with false information to garner attention. There was a saying in Hua Xia Empire, “You shouldn’t be too much of a CNN.”
Even though the police officers from the west Manhattan police station were not of the highest caliber, they were mostly fans of the drama series. Seeing this amount of media in front of them, the cautiousness and sensitivity they learned from the drama series they watched was on full display.
“Sorry, we’re unable to reveal more.”
“Please excuse us. Don’t interrupt our usual operations.”
“Please move behind the yellow line. Those who cross the line will be arrested with the charge of hindering the police during a case.”
A series of commands came from the station chief, and all the media had no choice but to leave. The officers could finally make their way into the station. Only then did they begin to gossip about what had happened outside.
The only person who was upset with all this was the station chief. He returned to his office and picked up the internal line, requesting that a number of officers and PR personnel come to his office for further questioning.
“What the h.e.l.l happened?! Why are there so many reporters?! Even the X Files came up. Did they grow up eating sh*t?!” the station chief, Officer Carmo, yelled. He was a Latin man who was almost 50 years old. Stout with a round tummy, his belt looked like it was about to burst.
The officers and PR personnel exchanged glances and produced a set of prepared doc.u.ments and began reporting to Officer Carmo. After listening to their report, no one could decipher Officer Carmo’s expression.
He took out a small book from the cupboard beside his desk and patted it with his plump hands. With his brows furrowed, he said, “Mr. Zhao told me that the girl who was reported missing from Julliard a few days ago was the daughter of Hua Xia Empire’s prime minister?!”
“He’s not the prime minister yet. He’s a candidate in the prime minister election. However, we heard that he’s the favorite candidate this season and has the most supporting votes.” The PR personnel corrected Officer Carmo carefully and continued, “I only got to know about this online as well.”
Boom!
Officer Carmo punched the desk, and his coffee cup jumped due to his strength, spilling the coffee. However, he didn’t mind at all. Instead, he shouted, one word at a time, “What happened to that case?! I remember someone telling me that the girl left home of her own accord! Why did it escalate to going missing from her dormitory?!”
“Sir, leaving home of her own accord was one of the guesses when she went missing from the dormitory. There was no disagreement about that.” Officer A was slightly unhappy now. He was the main officer on this case, and he had not expected an international student to have such a family background. In the past, if foreigners with a political background wanted to stay in the United States, they’d make themselves known, and they’d offer extra protection to those people around the places they stayed. However, this girl had been staying there for three years, and no one had told them that she was the daughter of some important politician!
“How would we know if they had not come clean with us?” Officer B pouted and said. “Her father was only a Minister of Justice before this, so she wasn’t at the level where we would offer her extra protection, anyway.”
“Yes, it’s true that her father had just announced that he would be joining the election.” Officer C loved watching “House of Cards” and was extremely intrigued by the complications among the higher authorities in the political world. He continued enthusiastically, “Would it be due to an internal battle for the election, and we are just unlucky to be involved?”
“Yes, yes! Things like this are extremely common. When it was the presidential election in our country, didn’t the two final candidates continuously attempt to harm each other? Kidnap and murder are not new, either…” Officer A began getting excited. He did not want to admit that this had happened due to his negligence in security. This concerned his year-end bonus, and he would never allow this to ruin his bonus.
If they could escalate a crime to the status of political incident, then they would not have to bear any form of responsibility. Of course, the American government would never punish their own police officers due to the child of a foreigner election candidate going missing in their country, and the people of Hua Xia Empire would never punish the American police due to their internal conflicts.
Officer Carmo listened, and his already small eyes narrowed. He sat on his office chair and turned around with it. The poor chair squeaked in protest due to his weight, and it almost seemed like it was about to collapse. Officer Carmo contemplated for a while before posting the question, “The girl went missing due to their internal conflicts. Do you guys have evidence to support that?”
“Evidence?” Officer A shut up. If his imagination could be used as a valid source of evidence, he could go on for three days and three nights. Sadly, it couldn’t be used.
“How can you come to that conclusion without evidence?! You think they’re as stupid as you?!” Officer Carmo threw everything onto Officer A out of anger. “You idiot! Get out! Go to Julliard and get evidence for the case! Isolate the dormitory! At the same time, inform the media that we will be holding a press conference tomorrow to brief them about updates on the case!”
The PR officer smiled when she heard this. Yes! If they had to have a press conference, this case would be known across America, no, it’d be known worldwide! She would just focus on being on screen and become someone famous so that she wouldn’t have to return to the station and work with a bunch of brutes! She was only 30 years old. She could still make a name for herself in the industry!
Officers B and C couldn’t make themselves smile, even if they wanted to. They didn’t care about such “exposure.” Only Officer A bent to pick up the doc.u.ments on the ground and cleaned the table before saluting. “Yes, sir!”
After coming out from the office, Officer A took some policemen and exited by the back door, got into a police car, and headed towards Juilliard. At this time, though, Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze were already at the doors of Tan Guiren’s dormitory.