New Gods of North America.

Chapter 717 Invitation

As the saying goes, the best time to start something was ten years ago, and the second best time is now.

After the three partners finished their pizza and chatted, Wayne came out of the innermost empty office of the temporary base and then walked towards the outermost empty office.

Recently, Mr. Paul, the leader of the Rabbit Gang, and Sheriff William have been spending time at the temporary base almost every day. Even if they only show their faces briefly, it's still considered "checking in every day."
Although their actions were somewhat opportunistic and suspected of "infiltrating to gather information," having figures from both the legitimate and criminal worlds backing them up was ultimately more beneficial than harmful.

Therefore, the detective agency treated them with as much courtesy as possible.
This empty office has recently become almost their private lounge or meeting room.

Sheriff William was a typical office worker; for the first day or two, he was willing to stay overnight to "work overtime," but gradually he only came during the day.
Mr. Paul usually lives in the dock area, so he is more sincere in helping out and usually stays longer, generally arriving in the afternoon and staying until at least the first half of the night.

Taking advantage of the fact that Sheriff William got off work earlier than sunset today, Wayne came specifically to talk to Mr. Paul first.
After knocking twice and hearing a "come in," Wayne pushed the door open and saw that the mob boss had already eaten the same dinner as his detective agency partners. He was leaning back on the sofa with a "V" sign, and a henchman was lighting his cigar.

The temporary outpost was originally a backup facility that the police would occasionally use. The few empty offices lacked specific items such as paper and pens, but they had all the basic necessities like tables, chairs, and sofas.

Mr. Paul specially had them replaced with two brand new sets. One set was placed in the room where the detective agency partners usually stayed, and the other set was placed here, ostensibly as a donation to the police, but in reality, he enjoyed it himself first.

After declining the offer of "one more," Wayne sat down, and Mr. Paul waved his hand, at which point the henchman closed the door and left.

Wayne naturally wanted to discuss the gangster convention. With the venue secured, the next step was to invite the "guests" one by one.
However, he started with something unrelated to the main topic, and also inquired about some information: "Mr. Paul, do you currently have business dealings with Mr. Andrew Pryor?"

These days, there's really no such thing as "avoiding others when smoking," especially among men.
But Mr. Paul was clearly a man who paid attention to details. Seeing that Wayne didn't smoke, he didn't start puffing away either. He simply placed his cigar on the ashtray, but a hint of doubt appeared on his face: "Which Mr. Andrew Pryor are you referring to?"

...Damn it.

Wayne wasn't swearing; he was just almost stumped by the question himself.

People in this world have a penchant for sharing the same name. It's not just strangers with the same surname; even within the same family, there are instances of fathers and sons sharing the same name, or even generations of people having the same name repeatedly.
Family members can use nicknames or middle names to distinguish them in daily life, while outsiders will add a suffix such as "Little" or "Old" when formally introducing them. When writing letters and making written registrations, they will also use "Sr. (Old)" or "Jr. (Little)" after their names to indicate their special status. If there are more options, they will be marked with Roman numerals III, IV, V, VI, etc.

The Pryor family holds a special position in Richmond, and Mr. Paul should be able to guess that Wayne is asking about their family.

But Wayne really didn't know whether the person he wanted to ask was "Andrew Pryor Jr." or "Andrew Pryor Sr.", or something more extreme like "Andrew Pryor X."

So Wayne could only put it more bluntly: "It's our current Secretary of State."

“Yes,” Mr. Paul said candidly. “He’s now handling most of the Pryor family’s affairs on a daily basis. Mr. Andrew the Elder was unwilling to get involved before, but Mr. Andrew the Younger accepted our gang. We’ve been distributing dividends to them annually through a specific account, and their share is about 10% of it.”

"What's your impression of him?" Wayne then asked.

Mr. Paul's assessment was the kind that leaves no room for criticism: "Very pragmatic."

Upon hearing this, Wayne knew he wouldn't get any inside information about the Secretary of State from Mr. Paul, so he changed the subject: "Recently, the gentlemen in Richmond seem to have a different attitude towards the dockside gangs. Mr. Paul, what are your thoughts on the Rabbit Gang's future business development?"

Mr. Paul then sat up slightly and asked, "Mr. Wayne, do you have any suggestions?"

"In my personal opinion, I think the future trend of the dock area should be to become more and more civilized. Although some businesses on the bed boards are both illegal and morally condemned, it would be difficult to completely ban them. My own view is that some voluntary practitioners are impossible to stop in the United States, but we also need to regulate ourselves and must completely eliminate the use of violence, coercion, or restrictions on freedom to force others to work."

While it's not difficult to find women working in the sex industry, both on the West and East Coast, it's surprising that actual sexual intercourse is generally illegal in all states of the United States.

Some prostitutes might be able to circumvent this by using a combination of "love at first sight" and "voluntary donation," but those operators with fixed business locations are basically unable to escape premeditated crackdowns—which may be one of the reasons why Mr. Paul needs to maintain good relationships with all parties, after all, city police in the United States can "fish" for illegal activities.

Wayne didn't have high hopes for the Rabbit Gang's red-light district; they had connections everywhere and their backing was incredibly strong.

Moreover, from a human nature perspective, this kind of thing is basically impossible to stop, so we will continue to follow the consistent practice that the detective agency has already touted, and prohibit them from using violence or coercion against ordinary people.

Some of the questions are not hard to think of – with so many illegal immigrants in the port area, some men are forced to do heavy manual labor after they come here, so how can young or beautiful women be treated so well?
Mr. Paul seemed slightly surprised, as if both relieved and testing the waters:
“I originally thought that Mr. Wayne, you’ve been so active in the docks lately, cooperating with the police to arrest so many people and almost taking over the territory of the Airland Gang, that you were planning to develop in the docks. I’m actually prepared for that. If you’re interested, I estimate I can give you 3%, but it won’t be more than 5% at most.”

Wayne shook his head: "Our detective agency's intentions have been clear from the beginning. We don't get involved in gang fights, nor do we intend to disrupt the existing order in the dock area. Currently, apart from assisting the city hall in collecting taxes, we only plan to do one thing—make the dock area more civilized."

The gentlemen in Richmond no longer object to the detective agency's practices, and Wayne believes a major reason for this is that the agency doesn't directly profit from the profits; it appears more like a charitable organization.
If this point is lost, the corresponding backlash will likely follow. Mr. Schwartz, the banker, is a ready example. At that time, the detective agency may be inexplicably swallowed up by a group of people.

Besides, if Wayne wanted to get involved in something, he probably would have already done so. Why would he need to run a detective agency?

Wayne steered the conversation back on track: "So what do you think of my suggestion?"

Mr. Paul pondered for a moment: "I'll do my best. But at most I can ensure that I can discipline my subordinates, but I can't necessarily completely prevent similar incidents from happening."

"It's alright. Our detective agency specializes in assisting the police in solving cases. I'm sure Mr. Paul wouldn't refuse my help in getting rid of those disobedient henchmen, would he?"

"...I heard that you went to the city center today, Mr. Wayne. Was that at the behest of some gentleman?"

"No. Like I said, this is just my personal suggestion."

"...Alright. As long as Mr. Wayne and your gang are still in the docklands, we'll try to keep that in mind—the things that happened in the past shouldn't be investigated, right?"

Wayne sighed. Some questions inherently imply bad answers: "That depends on the situation. If there are indeed bad examples, then we need to present some negative examples to show everyone that the situation in the dock area is indeed improving. As for some things that shouldn't continue, then let's stop them."

There was a moment of silence in the room before Mr. Paul finally gave a simple reply: "Okay."

(End of this chapter)