Life in North America, you call this an autopsy officer?!
Chapter 542 - 292: The Cause_2

Chapter 542: Chapter 292: The Cause_2

Through Little Arthur’s narration, Brian and his crew learned of an important clue.

Sorin was the boss of Daddy Construction.

Of course, it was a kind of construction bag company similar to a contractor, with many temporary workers who actually didn’t have any building qualifications. Therefore, most of the projects were unattainable, and they could only do some temporary work, attracting customers with low labor costs.

The reason they could offer low labor costs was that most of the people under him were ex-convicts.

There was actually job discrimination here.

Many jobs would require job seekers to present a "certificate of good conduct," which was essentially a criminal record clearance. These varied by Federation, state, and county, but the most common was one from the current city of residence.

So, if someone who had been imprisoned wanted to find a decent job, they either had to go to some chaotic places that didn’t care about these things, work at some small workshop companies, or directly move to another state.

In short, if you didn’t start a business, it would be tough to have stable job offerings for them in a local area rife with crime.

Sorin’s dad, a hippie in his early years, served time more than once for petty thefts. It wasn’t until after Sorin was born that he straightened up and got into renovation work. To cut labor costs, he even brought in old prison mates to work.

In movies, companies mostly made up of criminals are often portrayed as having strong brotherhood ties.

But that’s just bullshit.

Drinking, gambling, visiting prostitutes without paying for the night - that was their true lifestyle.

The prisons here don’t continuously work on you mentally, brainwashing you so that you can become a better person after release.

On the contrary, many otherwise normal people who had only accidentally ended up in prison for a while were left with a lot of bad habits after their "prison baptism." Only a few who knew what they wanted managed to truly reform and improved their lives after being released.

When such a group of people gathered together, they naturally didn’t work honestly.

They took advantage of their connections from their criminal pasts to collaborate with various service, leasing, and other intermediary companies. For example, when renting out a property, they’d do some ’minor renovations’ for the client first, then swindle them during the signing of the documents, swindle them again when moving out, swindle them with maintenance fees...

The same went for exploiting undocumented workers.

These workers were generally timid yet eager to make money.

They would team up with some unethical service agencies, telling them about construction work qualification exams, promising high incomes once they passed, and then they’d collect fees for training, uniforms, food, and accommodation. After all that, they’d just hand over the workers to Leaf Farm to toil away, making another profit.

After pulling off too many schemes like this, it was easy for things to go wrong.

Sorin’s dad was actually shot "BIUBIUBIU" by an undocumented worker who had escaped from Leaf Farm.

After taking over the company, Sorin didn’t think his dad had done anything wrong; instead, he believed his dad had been too lenient.

How could a moral old hippie make any money?

With no money, one could only live in a trashy community.

Otherwise, how could he be shot by an undocumented worker with a black market gun?

After deeply reflecting on his pain, Sorin decided to expand upon the existing business by collaborating with loan companies after brainstorming with a bunch of social scum.

This collaboration wasn’t with real loan companies but with certain employees of other companies.

Like with Seed Company.

They monopolized special seeds.

Farmers, especially small-scale farmers, needed to spend money every year on seeds, and some would opt to take out loans for seeds or livestock, fertilizers, etc., and repay the loans after harvest to ensure their livelihoods and keep the farm running.

Every year, some unlucky farmers couldn’t repay their loans due to various reasons, affecting the operation of their farms.

Normally, the situation called for lawsuits, asset liquidation, and the like.

In reality, none of this had anything to do with Sorin and his company.

But when they colluded with the employees in charge of this Seed Company division, the story completely changed.

They would get advanced notice through the employees, show up at the farmers’ doorsteps, and tell them that, given the current situation, you’ll be insolvent, your family ruined and eventually die miserably on the streets.

But don’t be afraid.

You can cooperate with them.

Modify the farm a bit; plant some leaves on one part, turn another into an ’entertainment venue,’ and grow some regular crops on the outer perimeter. The farmer could then receive a licensing fee to get through tough times.

Just like that.

The undocumented workers, after being drained of their money, could be sent over here to toil in planting the leaves, with no wages paid, directly exploiting even more human labor costs, avoiding the agency fees that used to cut into profits.

As for the children of the undocumented workers, like the mother and daughter that Little Arthur had locked in his office, they could be sent to the entertainment venues.

In the end, if there were problems at the farm, they even had cooperative lawyers to shift all responsibility onto the farmer’s shoulders, so they could extricate themselves.

What if the farmer doesn’t agree?

It doesn’t matter.

At this time, Sorin and his group would come into play.

They would mix the land around the farm with quicklime, and then an employee in charge of this business at Seed Company would come with people to assess the value of the farm.

A farm tainted with quicklime would certainly not be worth much.

Meaning, they could buy the farm at a very low price and continue the previous step’s operation.

As for the farmer’s loan...

That was no concern of theirs.

After hearing little Arthur’s story, Brian and Green exchanged a glance, guessing what had happened.

It all fits!

Everything fits!

...

Green said excitedly, "Big Brian, I bet the farmer’s death wasn’t a suicide, and that group of victims is probably the missing Sorin and his men. This case looks like a revenge murder!"

The deceased farmer’s family still had relatives in Texas.

Texas... Those rednecks were called lower-class whites, crude barbarians, filled with white supremacist views, treating black people as plantation labour, and it also was the domain with the most abundant arms—gun ownership per capita was among the highest in the entire Federation.

If they knew their kin died by accident, they certainly had the motive for revenge!

Brian nodded, "It’s possible, but we still need the investigative data from old Hardenn. He’s got decent tech, his own compiled search system. Considering the time, we should..."

Just then.

The male officer who had been in contact with Shara came in with a grim look, "Mr. Brian, I always have a bad feeling, so I contacted University City. They helped get in touch with those people’s roommates. According to the information they provided, those four college students still haven’t returned to their rented apartments, and there’s been no contact with Shara either. Something’s not right!"

Upon hearing this, Brian checked the time.

More than two hours had passed since Shara followed those college students.

Such a long time without any news was indeed concerning.

He looked at the male officer, "Where was Shara’s last transmitted location?"

The officer reported a set of coordinates.

Brian nodded, turned to Ivan who was watching the drama unfold, and said, "Buddy, do me a favor and take this scum on the floor to the Umbrella Company’s research institute; they’ll know what to do with him."

"Research institute?"

Ivan knew Brian had a research institute, but didn’t expect him to do this, "Shouldn’t we arrest this guy first, follow the usual process?"

Brian shook his head, "No need, let’s not waste the taxpayers’ money on this scum."

Hearing the unscrupulous name like ’research institute’, little Arthur shivered, "No, I want to go to prison, I want to be tried in court, I’m guilty, I..."

Smack~

With an elbow strike, Ivan knocked him down, then wrapped him up in a blanket again, "Got it, Brian. I’ll have Glenn take those scum over as well..."

Brian nodded.

Trial first, then purchase, is pretty expensive.

He was the Law Enforcer, might as well be direct.

...

He left Green to stay put and wait for news from old Hardenn.

Brian drove toward the coordinates provided by the male officer.

Shara was sent out by him.

If something happened, he bore some responsibility.