If Kilian pressed for results, he planned to report that the tall suspect was likely a private soldier from McKinley Manor, and that the McKinley Family and the Black Market were currently in a struggle.
Anyway, there were many tall individuals among McKinley's private soldiers.
If Kilian didn't believe it, he could investigate himself or arrange for others to do so; Thomas felt he had investigated diligently, and this was the outcome.
If Kilian wanted to make an issue of it, he would first have to come up with a more convincing investigation report.
Thinking of this, Thomas couldn't help but inwardly complain—the Irish now controlled over half of America's police officer positions, collaborating with those low-level Irish thugs, making a mess of things.
'These Irish thugs not only lord it over the farmers' market but also run rampant among the miners. Look at those braided people from the East recently, how they've been bullied? They're truly the scum of the white race!'
Thomas had no good feelings towards the Irish, but he was helpless.
In fact, when he heard that McKinley Manor was almost destroyed and suffered heavy losses, his heart was filled with schadenfreude.
—
At this time, in a manor thousands of miles away in Chicago, a white-haired old man around sixty years old said to a middle-aged white man with a hooked nose: "Hunter, tomorrow you will take a team to Denver to find out what happened to the complete annihilation of the Black Market Center yesterday. First, go to Bowie, the person in charge of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, to understand the situation. If necessary, you can ask Pinkerton's patrol team for armed support. Bowie will receive a notification to cooperate on this matter."
Hunter nodded and asked, "Does Pinkerton have no clues at all right now?"
The white-haired old man handed him a document bag and simultaneously instructed, "Bowie's clue is that the Sinclair Family and a young sharpshooter named Henry Bruce are major suspects. The information is inside. Your main task this time is to investigate the truth, and try to avoid large-scale conflict with the Sinclair Family's private soldiers."
"Understood." Hunter reached out to take the document bag, opened it, and began to browse the files.
Inside McKinley Manor, Brendan and Rocky listened grimly to the butler Elent's report.
"In the afternoon, our dispatched men found Professor John of the Civil Engineering Department at Denver University. He agreed to help, but because of his age, he cannot climb up to the manor using a rope ladder."
"He has already telegraphed his two favorite students in Omaha, Nebraska, to return. Even if they can return to Denver tomorrow, it will be at night, so the earliest they can come for an inspection is the morning of the 23rd, the day after tomorrow."
"Additionally, Pinkerton has been consolidating its forces these past few days, agreeing at most to let us hire no more than 50 patrol members, and the hiring price has increased by 20%."
Brendan nodded and waved his hand, signaling Elent to withdraw. After Elent left the study, Brendan and Rocky began to discuss.
"Russell, the banker from New York, sent a telegram today. We must quickly restore order to the mines in Fresco and resume operations, otherwise, our mining company's stock will plummet once the news spreads."
"You will transfer half of the guards from Arizona back, and we will hire a few dozen more Pinkerton patrol teams."
"All of this will be handled by O'Shea. Tell him to be prepared. Tomorrow, he will first go to the mines with Pinkerton's patrol team to maintain order."
O'Shea was a direct family member of Rocky's lineage, and Arizona was also Rocky's area of responsibility, so Brendan had to consult with him.
Brendan was indeed having a headache now. He could directly command over 600 private soldiers, of whom over 300 were wiped out by Henry, and another 31 were ambushed and annihilated by the Dodge Gang. In addition, nearly 200 hired men were also eliminated by Henry.
These losses left him stretched thin in terms of military deployment, forcing him to concede interests from his own lineage and seek help from closely related elders.
Rocky asked, "What are you planning to do about the Sinclair Family and Henry?"
Brendan said, "I plan to visit the person in charge of Wells Fargo Bank after the road down the mountain from the manor is reopened, and ask him to arrange a meeting between Gavin Sinclair and me. As for Henry, we'll discuss him after we reach an agreement with the Sinclair Family. Regardless, we cannot let go of this devil who has stained his hands with the blood of our kin."
Rocky pondered for a while, then nodded in agreement, saying, "I'll notify Arizona tomorrow."
After dinner, Henry and Richard went to the study for cigar time.
Before transmigration, Zhang Tianyuan had a heavy smoking habit—there was no way around it, almost everyone involved in engineering back then had a cigarette in hand during meetings.
If a meeting lasted an hour, non-smokers who inhaled secondhand smoke suffered far more than the smokers.
After becoming a mercenary, he had even tried cigars with his companions.
The biggest difference between cigars and cigarettes is that cigar smoke cannot be inhaled into the lungs; the smoke must be rolled in the mouth and then exhaled.
The original Henry in this world had no smoking habit and didn't smoke.
The current Henry decided not to smoke cigarettes in the future but to smoke cigars, so he, like Richard, skillfully clipped the punch cigar cap, lit it with a match, then took a light puff, savoring the taste and aroma of the cigar, and then exhaled through his mouth and nose.
Richard saw Henry smoking a cigar so expertly but was not surprised at all, assuming it was something his grandfather had taught him, just like table etiquette.
"Henry, have you heard about the Black Market Center and the McKinley Family Manor?" Richard exhaled a thick puff of punch cigar smoke.
Henry leaned back in his chair and leisurely said, "They actually put a ten-thousand us dollar bounty on me, so—you know!"
Richard's cigar almost fell to the floor—he really didn't expect Henry to admit it directly in front of him.
For a moment, he didn't know how to react appropriately.
Henry said faintly, "An elder once told me a saying—treat friends like a warm spring breeze, and treat enemies like a merciless winter. I strongly agree, Richard, what do you think?"
Richard immediately responded loudly, "I agree very much, Henry. Your elder is a remarkable sage."
After chatting for over an hour, when the cigars were finished, they each returned to their rooms.
After Henry returned to his room, he locked the door, took out the small safe he had acquired from the Denver Black Market from his storage space, and began to unlock it with his lock-picking tools.
After more than half an hour, Henry finally opened the safe and found 2,000 us dollars in 10 us dollar and 5 us dollar banknotes, 100 one-ounce gold bars, 5 rubies and sapphires, three property deeds, and some intelligence files inside.
Of the three property deeds, one was in Danfu City, one in San Francisco, and one in Chicago.
In America, people do not buy the house itself, but the land beneath the house.
The land has permanent ownership and is complete and absolute ownership, with rights covering the surface, underground (including minerals), and overhead space. The government cannot directly expropriate it or indirectly infringe upon its interests without proper procedures.
Therefore, these three deeds are more appropriately called land deeds.
Henry put all of these into his space. He planned to inspect these three houses when he had time.
If suitable, he would then consult a lawyer to see if there was any way to transfer these houses into his name.
Not bad, at the current price of 20.67 us dollars per ounce of gold, this was equivalent to 4,067 us dollars in cash.
Henry felt that the Black Market leader had prepared these things for easy escape at any time.
It was understandable, after all, he was engaged in high-risk, shady work.
Since it was not yet ten o'clock, Henry reviewed his conversation with Richard and his interaction with Edith that afternoon.
He was not afraid to let Richard know that the Black Market and McKinley incident were his doing—he needed to give potential future partners a deep and clear understanding of his combat power and style, so that future cooperation would be more stable and smooth, reducing unnecessary consumption.
As for future troubles, Richard had no real evidence, and even if he did, he wouldn't be foolish enough to leak it, so it wasn't a big problem.
In fact, if someone else had said this, Richard might not have believed that anyone could achieve such a feat.
As for Edith, Henry admitted he was attracted by her beauty.
Any man who had seen the movie "The Mask of Zorro" would be attracted by the female lead's beauty, wouldn't they?
The beauty of top European and American women in their youthful prime was still very striking.
However, in this era, Victorian moral standards still dominated society.
The upper-middle class generally believed that women should be gentle, submissive, and chaste; if they were Christians, the requirements were even stricter.
The social status of upper-middle-class women primarily depended on their family background, wealth, and status, and marriage was the most important means for upper-middle-class women to improve their social status.
Marrying into a wealthy family or marrying a member of the aristocracy could elevate a woman's social standing and gain her greater respect and status in society.
Therefore, for upper-middle-class women, marrying into a prominent family and choosing a suitable spouse was an important task in their lives.
So, it was highly probable that girls from upper-class society like Edith could maintain their chastity before marriage, but if Henry wanted to have multiple relationships with this type of girl, it wouldn't be so simple.
Of course, if Henry had no sense of responsibility and just played around and ran, he was confident that with his current conditions, it was possible to create a few romantic or passionate love legends that might be praised by future generations.
However, this way, the girls would likely be deeply harmed, as this was not the enlightened era before his transmigration, and they would face immense family and social pressure.
So Henry was currently only trying to mark suitable targets and act when the time was right.
The transmigrated Henry's first crush was Edith, but the original Henry also deeply loved his childhood sweetheart, Alice.
After receiving the original Henry's memories, the current Henry also had a good impression of Alice, at least the original Henry's aesthetic was online.
Missing them was impossible, but it required method, and Henry had a secret weapon, but it needed time.
And now there was still enough time; both Alice and Edith still had several years of schooling ahead of them.
Furthermore, Henry, who had experienced heartbreak before his transmigration, deeply understood that women needed companionship, so Henry was not yet ready and truly did not need to rush.
Henry only needed to leave a deep impression on them, and ideally, even leave his mark.
Before his transmigration, Henry didn't understand the art of wooing women, because he was always the one being pursued.
So he believed that a man only needed to display his strengths—if you bloom, the breeze will come naturally.
Having thought it through, Henry sat in his chair, took out the intelligence files he had acquired from the Black Market, and began to read them carefully.
He planned to read all these intelligence files thoroughly during this trip, believing that after reading them all, he would have a clearer idea of what to do next.
At 11 PM, Henry went downstairs to the garden outside the house, gathered all the police officers, and began distributing money.
Charles and Owen each received 20 us dollars, and the other 8 people, including Pete, each received 10 us dollars.
"Pete and I will continue to escort Linda and the others back to New York tomorrow. Charles and Owen, after you see us off tomorrow morning, you two will lead the team back to Fresco Town."
"Upon returning to the town, follow Luke's arrangements. For major incidents, follow Old White's instructions."
Everyone happily agreed, thrilled to earn 2-4 weeks of extra income in about four days from this trip. Sheriff Henry was truly generous.
Henry then walked to a corner of the garden and said to Bick, "Bick, if you want to work for me, you must follow my rules. The rules are simple—first, you cannot actively rob; second, you cannot violently treat women and children. Can you do that?"
Bick immediately replied loudly, "Yes, Sheriff Henry, I can."
Henry said expressionlessly, "Think carefully before you answer. If you violate this rule of mine, you will pay with your life."
"I've thought it through very clearly, Sheriff Henry, I can." Bick patted his chest.
Henry handed him 20 us dollars and began to explain one by one.
"In that case, after tomorrow, you will stay at the Aston Hotel, and 10 us dollars of this money is for your activity expenses."
"These next few days, find out who the leaders of the Denver Security Maintenance Association are, what properties they own, and what their relationships are like."
"Also, find out how many gangs there are in Denver, their leaders, numbers, addresses, and industries they are involved in. It would be even better if you can find out their relationship with the Security Maintenance Association."
"And who is responsible for the agricultural products, warehousing companies, and transportation companies in the farmers' market."
"Try your best to investigate these. If you really can't figure it out, just leave it. Your own safety comes first. I'll come to the hotel to find you when I return. Did you write that down?"
Bick felt a bit dizzy listening and said, "I don't remember it very clearly, Sheriff Henry. Could you please repeat it?"
Henry then repeated it to him.
This time, Bick remembered clearly and began to mumble the instructions to himself.
Henry nodded in satisfaction and returned to his room to continue reading the documents.
He felt that Bick was quite clever, came from a thief background, and most importantly, was literate, which is why he let him try to gather intelligence to see if there would be any surprises.
Although the Black Market's intelligence files likely contained much of what Henry wanted to know.
But if Bick could find out three or four tenths of it himself, he would be a promising talent.
If he was completely useless, then he could only be a gunman in the future.
At least he didn't pretend to understand, and he seemed quite serious and engaged now.
The next morning, when Henry came downstairs for breakfast, he made several women, Pete, and Richard's eyes light up.
Today he wore a gray tailcoat evening suit with a butterfly bow tie, a black bowler hat, and black deerskin shoes. He looked tall and straight, elegant and steady, handsome and dashing, as if he were a charming young nobleman going to a noble banquet.
This outfit was a 20th birthday gift from Mayor William two months ago, and it was the only one he currently owned.
He was about to take the Pullman sleeper train, which was the most expensive VIP travel method in that era.
Henry didn't want other travelers to look at him with prejudice because of his attire.
He couldn't just shoot all the other travelers in the head because of this, could he?
Out of compassion, Henry still wore formal attire.
Pete stared dumbfounded, his bread falling from his mouth onto his plate.
Henry smiled and greeted everyone one by one before sitting down to eat breakfast.
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