America: The Gear-Up Detective

Inside the interrogation room, Kim Chong-gwang had already recounted most of the details of Kim Jong-eun's death.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Evan, who had been silent all along, slid another photo toward Jin Chongguang.

The photo shows the body of Park Yoon-chan, who was sunk to the bottom of Pyramid Lake.

In an instant, Jin Chongguang's face turned visibly pale.

"It seems you understand perfectly well. Tell me about it," Evan said calmly.

......

Inside the observation room, Connor lowered his arm, turned to Rhodes and the others, and said, "Let's go, this is all taken care of. It's time to meet our 'tough guy'."

It was in another interrogation room across the street.

The central air conditioning unit above the ceiling was blowing out cool air.

The weather in Los Angeles has been getting hot lately, and Luke, who only wears short sleeves and a thin shirt during the day, is now shivering from the cold. His originally calm mood is becoming increasingly irritable.

But upon closer examination, Luke realized that the police raid was likely aimed at Kim Jong-eun's death and the failed kidnapping attempt on Yoo Cheong-hee.

As for Park Yoon-chan, whose body was dumped, Luke didn't care at all.

It's not that the method of sinking the body into the lake was particularly clever, but rather that no one would have discovered that there was a corpse there; how could it be such a coincidence?

As for Park Yoon-chan's parents, they don't need to care at all. When their son's fingers were cut off, they only dared to call the police and disappear. What threat could they possibly pose?

In the United States, there are many reasons why an adult can go missing, and most of them will not attract the attention of the police.

Thinking about it this way, Luke calmed down a little. "I just need to figure out how Kim Jong-eun died. Hmm, I can pin that on that bastard Kim Chong-kwang. As for Liu Qingxi, that's even simpler."

"Hey, officer, could you turn this damn air conditioning up a bit?" Luke shouted toward the door, his voice sounding quite energetic.

Shortly after, the door to the interrogation room was pushed open.

This time, Rod and Captain Connor walked in.

The same noise was created by pulling the seat, and the same slide of the photos in the document toward Luke.

However, unlike Kim Chong-kwang, Rod gave him a photo of Park Yoon-chan's corpse.

Almost exactly like Jin Chongguang's reaction, Luke's face also turned visibly pale.

He muttered in Korean, "This isn't right..."

Rod pulled out a chair, slowly sat down, and rested his elbows on the edge of the table. "It seems you understand perfectly well. Tell me."

"That felt so good. I've wanted to say that for a long time!"

[Learned Skill: Interrogation Lv1]

The United States does not have the concept of leniency for confession and severity for resistance, but it does have a similar plea agreement.

A plea agreement, also known as a "plea bargain," is a settlement reached between the U.S. Department of Justice and a defendant (natural person or legal entity) in a criminal case. The core content is that the defendant admits guilt in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor regarding the charges, sentencing, or number of charges.

Plea agreements can save time and public resources in the judicial process, upholding "justice" more efficiently and at a lower cost.

Knowing he couldn't escape punishment, Luke offered a plea agreement to the police, admitting to some of the crimes.

Why are you targeting Park Yoon-chan?

On the monitor screen in the observation room, Luke's pale face was reflected. "Because of that bastard Chongguang, he saw Park Yoonchan bragging about his stock profits online. I happened to be preparing to leave the United States and wanted to make one last killing before I left. So the kidnapping plan came about."

Jin Chongguang's job was to build rapport with him and get close to him. Once he lowered his guard, we'd lure him out and then make our move.

Rod pressed on, "Then why did you kill him?"

Luke yanked his hair hard with his handcuffed hands, which were still bound to the chair, then sighed, "It's all that bastard Kim Jung-eun's fault! He and Park Yoon-chan got into a fight for some reason. The two of them started wrestling."

Park Yoon-chan seized the opportunity to break free of his bonds and ran out. In his panic, Kim Jung-eun grabbed him and slammed him against the wall.

Luke said that Kim Jong-un is dead. In fact, the police don't have direct evidence, but Luke can't escape the charge of murdering Kim Jong-un. It's just a matter of whether he murdered one or two people.

"You think he's dead?"

"There was blood everywhere, I was terrified!"

Seeing Luke's feigned pitiful expression, Rhodes ignored it. American courts use a jury system, and jury members are ordinary people who can easily be deceived by a murderer's deliberate show of weakness or pitiful performance, thus influencing the judge's sentencing.

Of course, signing a plea agreement means giving up the right to a jury trial, which is like throwing a wink at a blind man.

Of course, this had little to do with Rhodes. He was only responsible for recording the events of the case as they happened. Connor, sitting to the side, remained silent, letting Rhodes do as he pleased.

"And then? Why seal him in the barrel?"

"I was terrified. That's when Jin Chongguang came up with this idea."

He cut off four of Park Yoon-chan's fingers, threatened his parents, and then had Kim Jung-eun buy cement and plastic buckets.

The two of them drove off to find a place to dispose of the body, and I wasn't involved in anything after that.

This matches the two fingerprints on the plastic bucket, and is also very similar to Kim Chong-gwang's confession. Of course, the main people who came up with the idea in Kim Chong-gwang's confession were Luke and Kim Jong-eun.

"And what about you? What were you doing after they disposed of the body?"

"I was responsible for monitoring Park Yoon-chan's parents to prevent them from calling the police."

......

Three hours later, at the Yellow Rose bar.

This is a bar run by retired police officers, catering specifically to police station staff. It's not far from the detective agency, and many officers like to come here to relax after get off work.

Cheers!

Cheers!

"..."

The members of Team Six raised their glasses and sat together to celebrate.

Rod also downed a bottle of beer in one gulp.

Although Rhodes intended to recuperate and abstain from alcohol and women during this period, occasional indulgence was still acceptable; after all, guidance is worse than suppression. Occasional relaxation is even beneficial to physical and mental health, so after the case was closed, he joined everyone at the bar to celebrate.

At this point, Connor put down his glass, smiled, and said to everyone, "You all did a great job this time, especially Rhodes, who was very quick-witted. This time we didn't fire a single shot, and it took us less than two days from discovering the body to closing the case."

"I've already applied for the promised bonus, so everyone can rest assured."

"Yay! Long live the captain!"

Jackson was the mood-maker, loudly responding to Connor, and everyone else was happy too, since no one would complain about having too high a salary.

Rod was also very happy.

However, his gaze was suddenly fixed on the sunglasses hanging from the captain's collar, which were emitting a faint golden light that only he could see, as if they were tempting Rhodes.

Rod touched the sunglasses in his pocket that were exactly the same as Connor's, and pondered how to quietly switch them out.