Chapter 342 - Elsworth Again
“Wolf Elsworth, Henry’s biological brother. Also, what’s interesting is that this Wolf Elsworth has been working with a real estate company in the last few years to try and break into the real estate market in Los Angeles, and a big project was just launched recently. Does that ring any bells?” Selina blinked as she looked at Luke.
Luke smiled. “As I recall, Wade Davis is in the real estate business in Texas? And he has a pretty big company.” Selina gave him a thumbs-up. “That big project is managed by a newly-established construction company called 3M, which has two major shareholders. Wade Davis provides most of the capital and equipment, and has roughly 32% of the shares, while Wolf Elsworth has about 21% of the shares. The remaining shares are distributed among eight others, but even the biggest proportion among them is only 11%.”
“So, Wolf Elsworth is the second largest shareholder in 3M.” Luke was deep in thought.
With ridicule on her face, Selina said, “Regretfully, this new company is looking at possible bankruptcy in recent months.”
Luke had some tea and said casually, “Wade Davis is a professional real estate businessman, but has been accused of two first degree murders and will stand trial in Texas. Things don’t look good for him.”
Both he and Selina grew up in Texas, so they knew very well what the place was like.
Texas was famous for a lot of things, including its criminal justice system, which handed out more death sentences than anywhere else in America.
In comparison, California had the death sentence too, but it had already been decades since anyone had been executed.
The southern American states carried out far more executions than the eastern and western states, and Texas was a paragon southern state. No matter how many marches and protests there were, the death sentence had never been abolished.
The judges in Texas were ruthless and merciless when handing down the death sentence.
It was almost as if they were declaring to the whole country that they dared to do what other people didn’t.
This was exactly what the Lone Star Republic was like.
If Wade Davis stood trial elsewhere, he would be sentenced to life imprisonment at most.
After a few years and as long as he had the money, there would always be a way for him to return to the beautiful world out there.
Once he was extradited to Texas, however, even if it might be years before he was finally executed, there would be no way for him to get out of prison before then.
Wade Davis was the person supplying the project with money and equipment. If he was caught, the project would lose its true patron.
The banks certainly wouldn’t give the project anymore loans, even if the Ellsworth family was involved.
After all, business was business.
The Elsworth family’s enterprise wasn’t in real estate. They weren’t experts in the field, and the banks wouldn’t bend for them.
So, this big project was as doomed as the new 3M construction company. “How are things between Wolf and Henry?” asked Luke.
Selina said, “There’s no sign of a conflict between the two brothers, but they rarely see each other.”
Luke shrugged. “It seems that they don’t share a close brotherly bond.”
Selina finally asked, “What’s the situation with that baby?”
Luke thought for a moment, then shook his head. “There’s no progress for now. I’ll tell you later once things are sorted out. Go to sleep.”
Selina yawned and returned to her room. “Okay. Good night.”
Luke nodded and decided to sleep two and a half hours tonight; he would treat the additional half an hour like a holiday.
The next morning, they drove to the police department after breakfast.
Sonia greeted them at the police department. “What’s the arrangement for today?”
Luke nodded. “I’ll go see Elsa first.”
Sonia went back to her own desk after hearing that.
Luke and Selina entered Elsa’s office and shut the door.
Elsa raised her head. Seeing them, she dropped her pen and asked, “What’s up?” Luke got straight to the point. “Wolf Elsworth, Henry Elsworth’s brother, is involved in the Mark Owen case. I thought you should know.”
Elsa dropped her forehead into her hand. “What happened?”
She had just warned them to be careful on the case with the girl in pajamas, but the Elsworth family was also involved in the officer’s murder.
They were a big local family, and things wouldn’t be pretty if they were involved in the murder of an officer.
While the rich might boss the police around, the police wouldn’t let themselves be led around just like that, and couldn’t pretend that nothing had happened. If they had killed a Texas ranger this time, who was to say that they wouldn’t kill a Los Angeles officer next time?
This definitely wasn’t a precedent that could be set.
Elsa had already known that something was wrong with the county police, but she hadn’t expected the Elsworth family to be part of this too.
Luke told her the basic situation, and Elsa took a deep breath and frowned as she leaned back in her chair.
Wolf Elsworth was really a major suspect in this case.
The file showed that the real estate project he was on was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and tens of millions had already been invested into it.
While Wolf was mostly helping out on the project by making use of his social connections, some of the money invested was his as well.
If the project succeeded, Wolf wouldn’t need to worry about money for the rest of his life.
Killing a Texas ranger wasn’t a big deal when so much money was involved.
Elsa got up and said, “I’ll talk to the boss. You wait here for a bit.”
She didn’t return until almost half an hour later.
She closed the door, and even before she sat down, she said, “Keep investigating the case, but just focus on Lucas Barton. Do you understand?”
Pondering for a moment, Luke nodded. “Got it.”
Looking at him, Elsa sighed. “You’re really too…” She shook her head and waved her hand at them to go.
At their own desks, Selina asked in a very low voice, “What was that?”
Lucas said, “We’ll make it very clear that we’re only investigating Lucas Barton. As to who hired him, it’s none of our business.”
Selina frowned. “Is that possible? That Wolf Elsworth seems to be the mastermind.”