In the study

Matthew phoned Owen, and his assistant reported everything he'd learned to his boss.

“Orange, a member of the FC group, suffered from heart disease. He died three years ago. His PR guy announced that he died of a heart attack at home, but in fact, he died in jail. Before this, he was a good friend of Erica. He and his associates took good care of your wife in Kuflya when she was pregnant. Orange was closer to her than any of the others. To protect her, he let himself be framed and arrested. He never lived to serve his full sentence."

It began to drizzle outside. Matthew stood in front of the window listening to both the raindrops and the report.

“The person who framed

Erica and Orange was Kirk. You defeated him in Tow Village. His gang is quite powerful, and have a bad reputation. After that group of people were put behind bars, Erica also sent someone to secretly investigate who Kirk's boss might be. He's a mysterious man, and even Kirk doesn't know who he is."

Owen paused, and then continued, "Oh, one more thing. In the past few years, Chantel, Erica and Tessie have been creating their own power base."

Matthew was stunned for a second and asked in a quiet voice, "Are you kidding me?"

“Never, sir. Their gang is called the Violet Eagles. At first, it was a small group led by a man named Latham Ballard. Later, Chantel took over, and the three women began to increase the size and scope of the group. According to reports, the group is several thousand strong. Half of them came to Alorith with Erica, and the remaining half are spread out in Kuflya and Askor."

Owen's report on the Violet Eagles was quite detailed.

From the investigation, Matthew could see that Erica rooted out Kirk's group and continued to figure out the mastermind behind him in order to avenge Orange.

He remembered she went to the bar last night. After getting off the phone with Owen, he called Sheffield immediately afterwards.

Fortunately, Sheffield was quite busy with work of his own, so he hadn't gone to bed yet. It was already three in the morning. When he saw the caller ID, he answered it and said in a playful voice, "Hey,

Matthew. It's pretty late. You miss me?"

Without further ado, Matthew go straight to the point.

"Who did you see in the bar?"

After thinking for a bit, Sheffield got serious and answered truthfully, “Michel, Noreen, and three others I didn't know. What happened to Rika?"

“After doing some digging, I figured out the one she's looking for is probably Michel..." Matthew didn't think Noreen had anything to do with it. She would never hang around with gangsters.

If it turned out that Michel was indeed the mastermind behind Kirk and his gangsters, then there was more to him than everyone had anticipated. Even before Hilton Group started to cooperate with

Wilkinson Group, Matthew had asked someone to make a thorough investigation on Michel's background, but they couldn't didn't find anything suspicious about him.

“You mean Michel is manipulating the contraband trade in secret?"

Sheffield asked. Matthew had told Sheffield about what Erica had been doing in Tow Village to some extent, and as such, he had a rough idea about who she was looking for.

“If I'm not mistaken, that's it," Matthew replied with some certainty.

The information from Gifford was flawless and accurate. Moreover,

Sheffield and Erica did bump into Michel when they were coming out of the bar.