Los Angeles Legendary Sleuth

Jenny flashed her badge, "LAPD."

"Are you guys with the same LAPD I saw last time?"

Luke walked over and said, "If we were, you would be dead already, not caught by us."

"There are four of you? I don't accept this."

Luke said, "We're here to arrest people, not to impress you."

"On what grounds are you arresting me?"

"For using a large amount of counterfeit money." Luke took out a banknote, tore it in half, and threw it at him.

Derek sighed, "How did you find me? Were the counterfeit bills discovered?"

"Do you admit you used counterfeit money?"

"I admit it." Derek spread his hands. He had even more counterfeit money in his room; there was no point in denying it.

"Where did the counterfeit money come from?"

"I found it."

"Where did you find it?"

"I don't remember clearly."

"Besides you, who else has counterfeit money?"

"I found it alone."

"Have you passed the counterfeit money to anyone else?"

"No."

"Do you know Kunniel Bolt?"

Derek hesitated, "Yes, he's my friend."

"Does he have counterfeit money?"

"I don't know, probably not."

Luke could tell that the other party was still holding onto hope, seemingly unaware that Kunniel was already dead.

Luke took out a photo of Kunniel's crime scene, "It might be cruel, but I think you should know."

"What happened to Kunniel? Oh my god, he's dead!

Who killed him?

Was it the LAPD?"

"According to our investigation, it was very likely the two men who chased you that night."

"Weren't they the LAPD?"

"No, they were impersonators."

"They not only killed Kunniel but also wanted to kill you.

You should be grateful we found you first. If those two had found you before us,

you might have already been dead."

"Damn it, I told him not to go there again, but he wouldn't listen, the idiot. He got himself killed over those fake bills," Derek burst out emotionally.

"What exactly happened? If you explain the situation clearly, we can help you, understand?

Otherwise, you might be targeted again."

Seeing Derek waver, Luke and Little Black took him to interrogate in a hotel room, while Raymond and Jenny were responsible for searching his hotel accommodation.

After all, Derek was just a teenager. The news of his friend's murder had left him mentally strained and emotionally collapsed.

Little Black poured him a glass of water, "Buddy, relax. As long as you make things clear, we've got your back.

Once we catch the bad guys, you'll be safe."

"Some time ago, Kunniel and I went to an abandoned warehouse to play. We found lots of machinery there and were curious.

At first, we thought they were printing machines and wondered if we could sell them for some money.

Latter, we discovered a partitioned area of the warehouse with lots of shelves, and on one of the shelves, there were stacks of banknotes, all in twenty US dollar denominations.

One stack had ten bundles, each bundle had one hundred notes, each with a denomination of twenty dollars, totaling 20 thousand dollars per stack.

That shelf had at least a dozen stacks of banknotes. We were both stunned, never having seen so much money before.

We were both frightened too, knowing that this money was likely ill-gotten. Thinking about the printers outside, we guessed these were probably counterfeit bills.

Once we knew they were counterfeit, we lost most of our interest and only took one stack each.

Use what we could, and if we couldn't, just treat it as a game.

Later, we tried to spend it a few times, and no one noticed it was fake. Our confidence grew, and we somewhat regretted not taking more."

"A few days later, Kunniel contacted me, wanting to go back to the warehouse again and take more money this time, so everyone could get rich.

When I heard his words, I felt conflicted—tempted, but mostly scared.

I knew clearly that this kind of thing should not be repeated. Counterfeit money is still money, and this business is life-threatening. If the counterfeiters caught us, it would be a dead end."

"I advised him not to be foolish and not to go back to the warehouse again, but he said he had run out of money and needed more," Derek said with a look of helplessness and guilt,

"I should have persuaded him. If I hadn't let it go, he wouldn't have died.

It's all my fault."

Luke pressed on, "You two obtained 20 thousand dollars each, that's no small sum. How could it possibly be spent in a few days?"

"I asked him the same thing. At first, he wouldn't say, but when I pushed him, he finally told the truth," Derek sighed, "He only spent a few thousand dollars himself. The rest he gave to his mom."

Little Black said, "Wasn't Kunniel abandoned by his mom? Why would he give the money to her?"

"Kunniel didn't believe he was abandoned. He thought the foster center had taken away her custody and believed his mother loved him.

He missed his mother and wanted to live with her, which is why he couldn't settle into any foster home.

He kept in contact with his mother, hoping she would take him away to care for him, but she always had various excuses for refusing.

Sometimes she claimed to be incapable, sometimes that the foster center objected, sometimes that she was too busy with work, and at some point, she would move to Los Angeles to live with Kunniel once she had enough money.

It was always similar excuses. One or two times might be believable, but after too many, even a fool wouldn't buy it.

But Kunniel did believe.

When he realized he could spend this money, the first person he thought of was his mother. He even sent her some money, asking her to visit Los Angeles, stay in the best hotels, dine out, and buy various gifts.

And, his mom even brought her boyfriend along. He spent several thousand dollars on her boyfriend, too.

When I found out, I thought he was a huge fool.

Sure enough, once he was out of money, his mom left with her boyfriend.

She is a bitch.

Kunniel was disappointed, not in his mother, but in the fact that he didn't have enough money."

In his words, if he had enough money, he could keep his mother with him and live together forever.

Never to be parted again.

At that moment, I realized—he had gone mad!"