My chat group members are all legendary criminals.

Chapter 40 Account Book

"We saw gold bars in the safe, so we just took a few!" the burly man cried.

Then he seemed to remember something.

"Oh right! There was a torn piece of paper in the box; we used it to wrap the gold bars! We had no idea it was a drawing! We threw it in the trash as soon as we got back!"

Lu Yiming's heart sank.

Mia pointed her gun at the burly man. He walked over and kicked over the stinking garbage can.

The trash was spilled all over the floor, covered in greasy lunch boxes, with a crumpled canvas peeking out from the bottom.

Lu Yiming carefully pulled out the roll of canvas.

The canvas was crumpled beyond recognition, torn in many places, and its surface was soaked in oil.

The originally delicate charcoal lines became blurred due to rough folding and oil stains.

Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished sketch now looks like a tattered rag.

"These idiots!"

Lu Yiming felt like he was about to have a heart attack.

This painting is worth a hundred times more than those three gold bricks. It's an absolute waste.

He tidied up the tattered canvas and waited for the Rockefeller family to come and deal with it.

Then he turned and walked up to the burly man, demanding sharply, "Speak! Who hired you?! Where is what you stole?!"

"I...I don't know. We contacted each other on the dark web. He said he would contact us after he stole something, but it's been a week and he hasn't contacted us..."

The burly man pointed to a bed: "It's under the mattress. Brother, spare us! We're just doing this for money..."

Lu Yiming walked to the bedside and lifted the dirty mattress.

There was a dark black notebook underneath.

He picked up the notebook and randomly flipped to a page.

He glanced at it, and his pupils contracted sharply, his hand trembling involuntarily.

This contains...

A detailed record of each bribe transaction.

The exact date, amount, details of income and expenditure accounts, and the name and official position of the trading partner.

The amount is shockingly large.

This is different from legitimate political donations; this is outright bribery.

The list of trading partners is shocking:

Richard Cox, Governor of California.

Antonio Garcia, California Senate Majority Leader.

Lisa Chan, Chair of the Auckland City Council.

……

And finally, a name that made Lu Yiming's eyelids twitch:

Gu Qiu, Chief of the Fremont Police Department. (Followed by several zeros.)

You cunning fellow with thick eyebrows and big eyes, I never would have guessed! You've embezzled so much!

Lu Yiming gasped.

It wasn't just Fremont; high-ranking officials throughout California were involved.

No wonder Belloc Rockefeller was so worried he couldn't sleep.

If this had fallen into the hands of a journalist, especially during election season, the entire state of California would have been shaken.

So Bellock faked it himself to show the outside world that this hobby wasn't lost?

But who hired someone to steal this thing?

Is it an opponent of a rival party? Or an official on the list who is afraid of being exposed?

Just then, a series of hurried footsteps came from the corridor.

Several heavily armed private security guards rushed in with guns drawn.

Immediately afterwards, Belloc Rockefeller and the British detective Webber walked in one after the other.

Lu Yiming's heart tightened, and he immediately stuffed the laptop back under the mattress, pretending he hadn't noticed anything.

Belloc first walked to the tattered canvas, looked at it, and shook his head regretfully: "Ah, I wonder if it can be repaired."

His tone was calm, revealing little emotion.

Then he turned around, walked straight up to Lu Yiming, and patted him on the shoulder:

"Officer Lu, thank you so much for your hard work this time."

Just as Lu Yiming was about to exchange pleasantries, Bellock naturally reached under the mattress and pulled out the black notebook.

Lu Yiming's heart skipped a beat! He found out?! He knows I saw it?!

Cold sweat instantly poured down my back.

This old guy... he's not going to kill me to silence me, is he?!

Belloc didn't even glance at the notebook's contents; he simply held it in his hand, gently patted the cover, and sighed.

"Officer Lu, I understand your needs. You want to buy that villa in the city, right?"

"To be honest, one million is a bit too much..." Bellok paused.

Lu Yiming's heart sank. Was this old bastard going to back out?! Did he want to raise the price?

Belloc looked unconcerned and continued:

"You've done me such a big favor, why don't you just give that villa to Officer Lu? Consider it a gesture of friendship."

As she spoke, she reached out and took Lu Yiming's hand.

Lu Yiming: o(ﾟДﾟ)っ!

Holy crap?! This is Rockefeller's doing?! A detached villa, just given away like that?!

If you do not mind, I am willing to become your father-in-law!

In an instant, he had forgotten most of the names of high-ranking officials and astronomical figures on the notebook!

What do I care about bribery and corruption? Nothing's as important as my buddy's big villa!

Mia then walked over as well.

Belloc patted her head with a beaming smile: "My Mia looks so beautiful today."

At the same time, he subtly waved his hand towards Weber from behind his back.

Weber nodded.

Lu Yiming was still immersed in the ecstasy of owning a big house and did not notice this little action.

Just then, something unexpected happened!

The burly man who had been subdued suddenly broke free of his restraints and rushed toward the door with his head down!

"Stop him!" Mia exclaimed.

But she didn't need to shout at all.

The moment the burly man broke free, two private security guards beside him simultaneously raised their guns.

boom!boom!boom!boom!

Several gunshots rang out in succession, bullets pierced the burly man's back, and a few drops of blood splattered on Lu Yiming's face.

The burly man's body twitched twice on the spot before he collapsed to the ground, blood gushing out from beneath him.

Lu Yiming stared blankly at the burly man on the ground, who was already lifeless. His Adam's apple bobbed, but he couldn't say a word.

The air was thick with the smell of blood.

Mia was also stunned: "What are you doing?! This is a suspect! He needs to be taken back to the station for questioning!"

The security guard who fired the shot lowered his weapon and bowed slightly to Belloc and Mia: "I'm very sorry, miss. We were concerned for your safety, sir. The situation was urgent, and we had no choice but to fire."

Lu Yiming's mind went blank. Worried about safety?

The burly man had no gun and was clearly trying to break out through the door. What was the threat?

Moreover, wouldn't it be easy for you group of people to subdue him again?

He looked up at Bebe Rockefeller.

It was because the strong man had seen the account book, and someone didn't want him to live.

Belloc was patting his daughter's back reassuringly, as if nothing had happened.

He didn't even glance at the corpse on the ground, but simply gave the security guard an order:

"Okay, handle it according to the rules. You accompany the young lady to the police station, and that's it."

Go to the police station? Lu Yiming sneered inwardly.

Police Chief Gu Qiu is one of your men, isn't he?

I've taken so much money from you, how could I not handle this little thing perfectly?

He suddenly recalled the case of the dismembered corpses, and he suspected that Director Gu Qiu had a faction.

Now, to add to this list are high-ranking Democratic Party officials...

Sure enough.

Wait! Lu Yiming suddenly felt a jolt.

I saw that ledger too! Will Belloc silence me too?

He swallowed hard and stiffly turned to look at Belloc.

Belloc was looking at him, still wearing that grateful smile, and nodded at him.

He didn't say anything.

……

At the same time, it seems everyone has forgotten one thing.

There were three thieves.

At that moment, ten meters away from the motel, in a dilapidated van, two men were staring intently at the window of a second-floor room.

They witnessed everything that just happened.

"Damn it! Big brother, is third brother... dead?"

"Rockefeller... those beasts..."

"Big brother, what do we do now? The buyer who placed the order hasn't contacted us for a week, and the third brother is also gone..."

The man called "Big Brother" picked up his phone and glanced at the photos inside.

"If you push us too far, I'll just... post this thing online!"