Chapter 117: Chapter 116: Another Village Ahead
Although Norman Bennett accompanied her to get the marriage certificate early, he left again just after returning due to the backlog of company affairs.
So tonight, she’s definitely sleeping alone again.
The next morning.
Elliana Lyle was awakened by a phone call, or rather, the phone ringing mixed with a knocking sound.
"Are you up?" Luna’s voice came from outside the door.
She groggily got up, turned on the light, and then went to open the door.
"Morning~"
Luna stood at the door, looking at her very seriously: "John Shaw has fled."
"Oh, ...what?!" Elliana immediately lost all drowsiness, she naturally understood Luna’s meaning!
She was now already sure that John Shaw was the one involved in net lending, and as the saying goes, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you won’t be afraid when ghosts knock on the door at midnight.
As for the escape, it’s likely that John Shaw had some suspicions about the loss of his phone!
However, Luna didn’t seem anxious about this and continued, "His escape is enough to prove his guilty conscience, and there’s no trace of him leaving the hotel in any major surveillance."
Upon hearing this, Elliana raised her hand to pat her dizzy head, feeling a bit regretful and said, "I should’ve notified Galen to catch him yesterday, now he’s lost, and we have to find him again."
"That’s not important."
"How is it not important, we finally found a clue..."
Seeing Elliana’s nagging attitude, Luna was tired of hearing it, "Master, stop it."
Elliana: "..."
"I’m telling you the main business here."
Luna sighed and said, "Listen to me first, I added some little gadgets to his phone, I know where he’s gone, so just when Norman Bennett is away today, we can follow Galen Collins to find him, we might uncover something about Nancy."
At the mention of Nancy, Elliana didn’t hesitate any further and readily agreed.
Before setting off, John Shaw’s location had already stabilized, Luna drove her own car and naturally followed Galen Collins’ police unit.
According to the location data, John Shaw was in a rarely populated suburb, because it used to be entirely covered by heavily polluting chemical plants,
which led no one to be willing to live there.
"What kind of expression do you think John Shaw will have when he sees you?" Luna teased.
Elliana was in no mood for joking at the time; John Shaw was a bad guy, but he was also Sister Phoebe’s fiancé.
They just got engaged yesterday, and today they were going to arrest someone else’s fiancé, even if Sister Phoebe knew John Shaw was a bad person, it would still be a form of hurt.
Seeing Elliana uninterested, Luna pursed her lips, switched the subject and said, "By then I’ll copy their company’s file records, we might just find Nancy’s net lending company, so our efforts wouldn’t be in vain."
"And you don’t have to worry, putting that bastard John Shaw in jail just helps rid your sister of this ill-fated relationship."
"Let’s hope so."
They drove for four hours before reaching near the destination.
Upon getting out of the car, a glance revealed that the roads here were still quite accessible; after all, many workers used to live here and it was also a prosperous chemical industry site.
At this time, Galen Collins’ police team had dispersed and were gradually surrounding the target building.
To avoid interfering with Galen, she and Luna stayed faithfully behind at a distance.
Luna was carrying a laptop bag, she needed to copy the data before Galen collected evidence.
...
"Don’t move! Squat down! Hands on your heads!"
With the police warning, it was confirmed they successfully surrounded the net lending company.
This was set in a simply broad cement basement level one underground, with two or three computers, a must-have card reader POS machine, and live playing loan videos.
Those people, upon seeing the police, scattered like headless flies, but faced with the police’s weapons, each was knocked down and obediently squatted with hands on heads.
Yet, one woman did not follow the police’s instructions to squat down.
It wasn’t until Elliana followed Luna down that the woman reacted.
When Elliana saw the woman, her pupils shrank suddenly: "Sister Phoebe!"
She couldn’t imagine that Phoebe Lyle would actually be here!
...
――― South City Police Department.
Interrogation Room.
"She’s not, she just came to see me, she has nothing to do with our business, you can’t arrest her!"
At this moment, John Shaw was somewhat emotionally out of control, even though he was handcuffed, one or two police officers still couldn’t hold him down.
After a long time, probably from exhaustion, John Shaw quieted down, then the police said, "As long as you answer truthfully, everyone will stay calm!"
"Phoebe Lyle has nothing to do with us, she knows nothing, she just wanted to see me today, she really knows nothing!"
John Shaw desperately explained, he was scared, scared that because of him, he would drag the moon-like Phoebe Lyle into the mire too.
...
After questioning and with Elliana there, soon enough, Phoebe Lyle was released.
On leaving the police department together, both remained silent, neither taking the initiative to speak first.
Perhaps the atmosphere was too weird, Elliana couldn’t help but say, "Sister Phoebe... I’m sorry..."
I have no choice but to do this...
"There’s nothing to apologize for, you did well." This was Phoebe Lyle’s affirmation to her.
Phoebe stopped in her tracks, looked up at the sky, clear and crisp, the sunlight shone on her face, seeming to coat it with a layer of gentle light.
"I never thought...he was involved in illegal net lending, I always thought he worked in building materials."
If not for wanting to suddenly visit John Shaw’s work address today, she might never have imagined he was involved in crime.
And John’s work was to monitor loan videos, she was just about to have a quarrel with him when the police arrived.
"Sister Phoebe..."
"I’m fine, I just... it’s just a bit unexpected."
...
――― Inside the interrogation room.
John Shaw had begun to confess.
"I originally wanted to wash my hands of this after the last year..." He had thought of living a peaceful life with Phoebe Lyle...
The police continued to ask, "When did you start working in the illegal net lending industry?"
"Since graduating from high school..."
At that time, John Shaw’s family was dirt poor, too poor to afford university.
And Phoebe was always the girl he wanted to pursue, yet there was a huge gap between them, so at that moment, he strongly rejected Phoebe’s confession to him.
At that time, a few hoodlum friends found him, and with aligned interests, they decided to do something big.
Initially, they only had a smartphone, and the maximum loan was just a few hundred bucks.
They found out that lending a hundred bucks could result in collecting back a few thousand through threats...
From the initial few hundred bucks, to thousands, and then to the later loan videos...
Their profits just kept getting more and more.
Low costs, high income, after collecting enough money from victims, they could sell the debts to debt collector companies for cheap.
In merely five or six years, these young men who were dirt poor made quite a lot of black money through harmful loan videos...