Right now, it was a race against time to interrogate them and gather as much useful information as possible before their bosses could react.

The detective led Bennett and Gordon to a door and knocked.

Instead of a "come in," the door swung open. Bruce stood inside, dressed in his police uniform.

"Bennett, you're here. Come in," Bruce said, his stern face softening slightly at the sight of him.

"Mr. Jones," Bennett greeted him politely.

"We owe your men a lot for tonight. I didn't realize the scale of their operation was this large. We were understaffed. If your men hadn't stepped in, the ringleaders would have escaped. We would have wasted our efforts and tipped them off."

"Riverbend is Thompson family territory, after all. I had my men keeping an eye on things to make sure Eden didn't cause any trouble. I'm just glad we could be of assistance to the team."

Bennett said modestly.

Bruce nodded and led Bennett over to the surveillance monitors.

Bennett focused on the screens, which showed feeds from several interrogation

rooms.

His eyes were sharp and intense. After watching for a moment, he spoke. "Number Two and Number Eleven... they look strange."

Bruce smiled. "You've got a sharp eye. It's a shame you didn't become a detective."

Bruce had been watching the suspects all night and had also noticed something off about Two and Eleven.

But Bruce was a veteran detective with decades of experience. He'd spent a lifetime reading criminals; he could tell what they were thinking just from the way they blinked.

Bennett, on the other hand, had been a musician before joining the military a few years ago, yet his powers of observation were just as keen.

"We caught fifteen people tonight. So far, only three have confessed But they clearly don't know much. They were just and lowing orders, they thought they were smuggling* regular goods, not contraband."

"All three who confessed identified Number Eleven as their leader," Bruce continued.

"Number Eleven looks completely unfazed," Bennett remarked, frowning at the monitor.

Bruce nodded. "That's Drew Lee. He used to be a department manager at the Gonzalez Group's shipping

company. When customstone

illegal goods in one of their shipments, Drew took the falt Confess ssed to everything and made sure Colin wasn't implicated. He was sentenced to eighteen years but was out in just seven-not even half his sentence. Now he's back to his old tricks, acting like a big shot."

"With someone powerful pulling strings for him, even a prison sentence is just a temporary setback. No wonder he's so arrogant," Bennett sneered.

"As for Number Two, he's refused to answer any questions since we brought him in. But he looks incredibly nervous, clearly terrified of something," Bruce added.

"Could he be involved in another case?" Bennett suggested.

Bruce's eyes lit up. If only the detectives under his command were this sharp.

"I've already brought in some villagers from near Riverbend to identify him. Two of them said they saw this man loitering around the village right before and after the murder."

To pull off a perfect crime, you have to scout the location beforehand, get familiar with the surroundings to ensure there are no surprises.

Scouting has to be done during the day when you can see clearly, not at night. But during the day, there are people around, so someone in the

village was bound to have seen him.

If the village hadn't had a power and water outage, and if there had been security

cameras, the police would have identified the suspect long ago.