Another helping hand
After getting the statement from the store clerk, Ryan contacted the Municipal Waste Management to confirm that the garbage truck that day was not sent by them.
Now that Allen was still hospitalized, he was the only one left to continue their 'secret' investigation. He decided to first investigate about the garbage truck before following Moretti Cartel as this lead was more certain. And the moles of Anios were already looking out for their relations with the three gangs.
He found that most of the factories in the city had their own waste management systems and that most of their garbage trucks had the factories' logos. However, the girl was sure that she did not see any logo on the truck that day. Of course, who would use a vehicle imprinted with their logo to carry a corpse?
There were numerous drug factories in this city and it was not easy to snoop around any of them as their security was quite tight. He wasted two weeks just like that without any breakthrough. Even Lieutenant Parker did not follow him anymore after finding that he was only loitering around the industrial zone.
However, the club dropped him a clue at that time.
One of their moles followed his higher-ups to a place where they went to pick up the new drug and Ryan went to the described location that night. He wore a set of black training suit and used a black cap to cover his blond hair before venturing into the shadows.
He cautiously approached the seemingly abandoned compound with a burnt down building. Judging from the huge compound and the remains of the building, it might have been a grand one. After making sure that there were no guards and no surveillance cameras, Ryan nimbly climbed up the fence. Then he jumped down quietly from the top of the fence like a cat and walked towards the building with a small torch light. As most part of the building was already gone, there was actually nothing much to see. After he finished studying the building, he walked around the compound.
After roaming around for about 20 minutes, he finally found something that could be related to the case. He found three garbage trucks in the garage and all of them seemed to have been used recently. Even though there was nothing in the trucks and they were thoroughly cleaned, he still decided to investigate thoroughly. He sprayed the inner walls of the truck with the luminol[1] he brought. Seeing that some areas glowed with a blue light, meaning there used to be some blood in those areas, Ryan took some photos as well as some samples.
After that, he got out of the truck and studied the outer bodies. There was neither a logo nor any distinct mark in the first two trucks. However, he found a different colored mark in the last truck. Although it was quite small, it still did not escape Ryan's observant eyes. Ryan touched it and found that it seemed to be the original color of the body exposed after the new paint was scratched. He scraped off the new paint around that area with his dagger. He had to be very careful with it as he did not want to damage the original paint hence it took a lot of concentration.
Eventually, he could see that there was indeed a logo under the new paint. It was a logo he was quite familiar with, too. Ryan took a picture of the photo the logo belonging to 'Cellox Pharmaceutical Ltd.' and retreated from that compound. He did not forget to restore the conditions of the trucks as he found them. He also bought a bucket of paint to repaint the truck as soon as the hardware store opened its door.
After he had arranged everything, he went back to his apartment, took a shower and went to the coroner's office before going to the station.
In this city, David was the only one he trusted enough for the investigation of his newly found evidences.
"I know that you are a busy person but can you help me out for a bit? This is only for my personal interest," Ryan said with a smile.
"Sure," David did not dislike this captain either.
"Thanks a lot. Contact me if you have time. I'll treat you a meal"
"You don't really need to," David chuckled.
Ryan spent the rest of the day like any other normal day. But just as the working hours finished, he walked towards Shelly's desk.
"If you don't have anything special to do tonight, come with me for a bit. There's something I have to discuss with you"
"Ok, cap," she followed Ryan without any question.
Ryan took her to his apartment. He could not think of any other safe place.
Ryan took out his phone and showed the photo of the truck's logo to Shelly.
Shelly's expression turned serious as soon as she saw the photo.
"Where did you see that?" she asked.
"Let me ask you a question first. Depending on your answer, I'll decide if I should answer your questions. What do you think, Mrs. Conwell?" Ryan asked with a smile.
Yes. Shelly was the wife of Derek Conwell, the chairman of the Conwell Corps and the richest man in this country. Ryan was the only person in their department who knew about that as Shelly was still using her maiden name so that she won't attract unnecessary attention. And Cellox Pharmaceutical Ltd. happened to be a branch company of the Conwell Corps.
"I think you already know the answer," Shelly replied.
If he had not guessed that she was here to investigate about Cellox, he would not have showed her the picture.
"That means I guessed right," Ryan said.
He told Shelly every step of their investigation. If it was really connected to Cellox, Shelly could be of great help and their purposes have aligned anyway. And she was not someone inflexible like Lieutenant Parker either. And as expected, Shelly took it all in without any resistance.
"I should have thought that much. You are not the type who likes to easily give up," Shelly remarked.
"Derek took over Conwell Corps from his father 13 years ago and he shut down all the illegal operations under the Corps' name including the ones in city X. I know the place you described. It was one of the research facilities of Cellox."
"Did it suffer from a fire? Did you know anything about that?" Ryan asked.
"Yes. An explosion occurred before it was officially closed down," Shelly replied.
Then, she continued, "Anyway, five years ago, Derek got some intel that there were some illegal drugs circulating under the brand name of Cellox. So, I volunteered to look into this matter. I was hoping to get into Narcotics and yet they put me in Robbery and Homicide, talking about my fighting prowess and what not."
Shelly scrunched up every muscle on her face, obviously showing her displeasure. Ryan might have laughed at her words and expression if they were not having a serious conversation.
"So, it's already been five years? Did you have any headway with your investigations?" Ryan asked.
"I found that the factories under Cellox are still operating under different names. At first, I just thought that someone bought those buildings but later found out that the drugs they produced still use the Cellox brand. And their main distributor was the Moretti Cartel."
Ryan frowned, "So, it was really Moretti Cartel. Allen's hunch was spot on."
Shelly nodded.
"Well, with that, we can work together," Ryan took out his right hand and Shelly shook it without hesitation.
After talking about their next plan, Shelly prepared to leave.
However, she turned back and asked him a question.
"Wait. Not many people know that Cellox used to be under Conwell Corps since it was shut down 13 years ago. How did you know about that?"
"It's because my parents used to work for Cellox," Ryan answered.
Cellox also had many branches in other cities and not all of them were involved with illegal drugs although the name 'Cellox' had been discarded altogether 13 years ago. There were enough reasons behind Derek wanting to erase that name from the new Conwell Corps in his hand.
Luminol[1] - Luminol is a chemicalused by crime scene investigators to detect blood at crime scenes where no blood is visible.