Chapter 20: Grenade!

"Nice work, Luo An."

Seeing Avila walk out of the room and start ordering the bar staff to look for someone, Reesi tossed the whip aside and patted Luo An's shoulder with satisfaction:

"I didn't expect you to be so good at lying."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?"

Looking around the room, Reesi casually picked up an egg-shaped toy still in its packaging, stuffed it into her pocket, and handed Luo An an unopened toy grenade, laughing:

"Of course, it's a compliment—you haven't lied to me."

Ignoring Reesi's actions, Luo An turned and left the pink room. The bar owner Avila gestured for him to hurry over and then led the two into a room with a purple door.

"These are our service staff."

Avila stuffed a dozen pink business cards into Luo An's hand, even scraping his palm while doing so, then pointed to the men and women entering the room and said:

"They're all here."

Luo An silently took a look at the business cards and saw that the number of men and women in the room was already over fifteen. He paused for a moment, then turned to ask:

"Have these people all served Sabina?"

"Who's Sabina?"

Reesi patted Luo An's shoulder and whispered:

"People out for fun never use their real names, they all use aliases."

With that said, Reesi showed the photo on her phone to everyone, who suddenly realized:

"So, it's Carista!"

"Our Punishment Queen!"

"She's our favorite client!"

"Yes, yes, I can't even get out of bed after servicing her!"

Hearing the men and women in the room commenting on Sabina, Luo An silently lamented that Mr. Darren was truly a cactus—his head must be green and blossoming.

Coughing to attract everyone's attention, Luo An asked seriously:

"Did any of you see Carista from last night at eight till this morning at six?"

The crowd exchanged glances, none answering. A wheat-skinned white girl with obvious lines on her vest and abs laughed:

"Agent sir, the time you're asking about is our busy work period. The boss is right here watching; none of us dare to skip work."

Avila fiercely patted the girl's butt, and she dodged with a giggle. Luo An frowned upon seeing this and grabbed Avila, asking sternly:

"Are you sure all these people were working yesterday? Did anyone slip out to deliver take-out? Think carefully; don't hide anything from me. Lying to a federal agent is a serious crime!"

Luo An could now say such things without a second thought.

Luo An's serious inquiry calmed Avila down. After carefully looking at the men and women in the room, he suddenly slapped his forehead and said:

"There's a black kid, Craig, who works part-time here. He's not in the room now; he seemed to have gone out with Carista last night."

"Where is he?"

"In the blue room."

Hearing this news, Luo An and Reesi exchanged a glance, weaving through the crowd to leave the room and head towards the blue room that Avila mentioned.

A black young man wearing only his underwear was just leaving the blue room when Reesi shouted:

"Craig, did you see Carista last night?"

"?"

Hearing his name called, Craig instinctively looked back, and seeing Luo An and Reesi in suits, his pupils shrank, and he threw down the toy in his hand and turned to run.

"Fu-k"

The moment Craig started to make a run for it with his long strides, Luo An rapidly charged towards him as well. The lighting in the hall was dim, and since Craig was black, if he were to hide in a dark corner, he would be difficult to find.

For Craig, a black man who grew up struggling on society's fringes, running was second nature.

Once chased by the New York Police, now pursued by the FBI, yet not at all panicked, Craig weaved through the lobby without blindly rushing and even chose the best possible direction to escape.

Seeing the gleaming entrance getting closer, Craig cracked a smile, showing his pearly white teeth. So what if it's the FBI? Still lagging behind me, huh? Did they really think my years of running were for nothing?

Huh? What's this?

Hearing the whooshing sound by his ear, Craig instinctively looked up, and his soul nearly fled his body:

A grenade!

"Shit!"

Seeing the grenade land right in front of him, Craig's legs instantly turned to jelly. He dropped to his knees, covered his head with his hands, and braced for the explosion.

But...nothing happened.

Well, not nothing, Reesi stepped forward to handcuff Craig, while Luo An, under Craig's astonished gaze, picked up the grenade, turned it over in his hands, and asked with a smile:

"Word is you're moonlighting here. Can you show me how to play with this toy?"

"...Fu-k! Shit! Son of a bitch! ****!"

Realizing he'd been duped by a toy, Craig exploded with expletives. Reesi frowned at the filth coming out of his mouth, swiftly took the grenade from Luo An's hand, and stuffed it in Craig's mouth:

"Cut the swearing. You'll have plenty of time to curse back at the FBI."

"Mmph—"

Hearing that Luo An and Reesi were taking him back to FBI headquarters, Craig immediately caved, shaking his head vigorously.

Seeing Craig stop swearing with a few muffled sounds, Luo An tried to pull the grenade out of his mouth to ask a few questions...only to discover it was stuck.

Reesi: "..."

...

Ten minutes later, in the purple room, using the lubricant that was available in every room, Reesi finally succeeded in removing the grenade from Craig's mouth.

"Ugh—"

Perhaps the taste of the lubricant wasn't too pleasant; once the grenade was removed, Craig clung to the trash can in the room and began to vomit profusely.

With a grim expression, Reesi went to wash her hands in the bathroom, while Luo An patted Craig's shoulder and asked gently:

"Tell me, how did you kill Carista?"

"What?"

Hearing Luo An's question, Craig nearly tossed the trash can aside in fright and quickly looked up to say:

"I haven't killed anyone! You can't do this! You can't frame me for this!"

The year was 2005, only four years after the plane hit the towers. Craig had often heard in recent years of the FBI framing minorities for cases they couldn't solve.

Many were Black, even more were Arab.

Luo An had only recently joined the FBI and wasn't aware of their dirty tricks. Seeing Craig deny being the killer, he spread his hands and said:

"Carista has disappeared, and your boss and coworkers all say you were the last person to see her yesterday. If not you, then who's the killer?"

"Fu-k!"

Hearing Luo An's words, Craig let loose a string of curses but was quick to explain:

"Bro, it really wasn't me. Yeah, I left this place with Carista yesterday, but we were only together for about ten minutes. As soon as we got to bed, she took a phone call and left. I felt terrible for a long time since I was left hanging!"

"Do you have any evidence of what you're saying?"

"Of course, I do!"

Concerned about his future, Craig dared not lie, and he said directly:

"After I left Carista's house, I went to see my girlfriend. She can vouch for me that I was with her from 8:30 last night until this morning!"

"...You have a girlfriend?"

"Of course. Work is work, life is life, I always keep them separate!"

Luo An: "..."