Chapter 65: Relocation, Criticism, and Cooling

Then, this was the key part.

Luke and Selina were the officers who had accepted the case.

Later, they were the ones who fought the gangsters and saved an FBI agent, which gave the Westside Police Department an excuse to lock down the warehouse and search it.

In all respects, Luke and Selina were the greatest contributors in this smuggling case, even though they had both been sound asleep at home when the smuggled military weapons were discovered.

This was also the excuse used to issue the promotion papers.

Cracking a case plus saving a colleague meant a promotion; it was utterly justified.

Thomas observed their faces, and thought even more highly of Luke.

As for Selina, she was obviously the support, but she had done a great job cooperating with Luke.

Thomas finally said, “You can’t discuss what happened yesterday with anyone, not even your commanding officer.”

Luke nodded, but secretly wondered if Brock would be pissed again when he couldn’t ask about the details of a case that his subordinate had cracked.

After some more warm encouragement, Thomas sent them back to work.

They had never entered the Major Crimes Division office until today. The detectives inside all looked at them.

Three of them approached Luke and Selina and greeted them, and another two said good morning, too.

Luke and Selina responded with smiles, before they went to Brock’s office.

With a weird look on his face, Brock asked, “What’s up?”

Luke said, “The smuggling case is closed. I’m wondering if there are any more cases for us.”

The weird look remained on Brock’s face for a while. He then asked, “How did you get involved with the FBI?”

Luke said, “Actually, we were just having food in a Mexican restaurant when we happened upon a shootout between FBI agents and gangsters.”

Brock was lost for words. They had cracked a case through sheer luck?

For a moment, he didn’t know how he should deal with them.

Give them another big case? But that would violate his rule of teaching newcomers a lesson.

Give them small cases? But that way, everybody would know that he was purposefully holding back capable subordinates. Also, Thomas had their backs. Brock couldn’t play any tricks on them at all.

After a long pause, Brock rolled his eyes and told them to sit down.

He then searched in his cabinet for a long time and finally found a file. He opened it to confirm what he had found.

He blew off the dust on the file and gave it to Luke without blinking an eye. “Try this case. It’s a little bit tricky. I’ll give you a month. Give up if you don’t find anything in a month.”

Brock had come up with a sound plan.

On the surface, he had given Luke and Selina a challenging case and had considerately given them a month to carry out their investigation.

Even Thomas couldn’t say that he had done anything wrong.

This way, Luke and Selina would waste a month of their time.

Luke read the file briefly and narrowed his eyes. He rose and said, “Alright, boss. We’re on it.”

Brock nodded and watched them leave with complicated thoughts.

After they left the office, Luke left right away.

Selina asked, “Huh? Where are we going?”

Luke replied, “Home.”

Selina was confused. “We’re not working?”

Luke patted the file in his hand and said, “Did you not hear Brock? The next month belongs to us, and we can’t bother him.”

Selina said, “Did he say ‘don’t bother me’?”

Luke chuckled. “Do you think the other detectives in the Major Crimes Division would be allowed to take a month to investigate a case?”

Selina shook her head quickly.

She was well aware of what the situation was like. The Major Crimes Division in every major city wanted more detectives, whose attention tended to be pulled away from a case after a few days of investigation.

Unless everybody was gathered for a major, significant case, the detectives in the Major Crimes Division each had a couple of cases that they would be working on as well as countless infinite old cases buried under the newer ones.

One month for a single case? If Brock’s subordinates were all as ineffective as this, they would’ve been fired in the second month of work.

Luke said amusedly, “So, he’s belittling us.”

Selina was even more confused. “Why?”

Luke said, “There’s an ancient saying in China: Those who are too outstanding tend to be hated by mediocre people. We cracked a major case and got promoted on our first day of work. What would Brock think? He isn’t Robert.”

Selina was still confused. “Isn’t it good to have capable subordinates like us?”

Luke chuckled. “Do you think it’s good to have a subordinate who gets promoted fast and who doesn’t need to listen to you?”

After a brief daze, Selina was enlightened. “I get it now. People in the big city are so complicated.”

Luke said, “It’s only natural. More boring stuff will be waiting for us when we become the most distinguished partners in the Major Crimes Division.”

Selina asked, “What kind of stuff?”

Luke didn’t answer the question. He knew that Brock was the trusted subordinate of the department head, and that Thomas was hoping to be the new head of the department. Thus, they were at loggerheads.

Hence, Thomas might have had another reason for placing them in the Major Crimes Division.

Luke kept this from Selina because she was too innocent to understand that; it would only make her feel awful.

The two of them drove back home.

Selina complained, “I’m not used to this place. There aren’t any training rooms in the police station. Do we have to find a gym?”

Pondering for a moment, Luke nodded. “Let’s wait and see. It would be best if we can find a martial arts club that has individual rooms.”

Selina said bitterly, “But we’ll have to spend more money.”

Luke was amused. “Don’t forget that we were promoted today. Our salary will be enough to cover the membership fee.”

Selina thought for a moment and realized that it did make sense, and started to happily watch TV.

Back home, she would have a bunch of chores to do, like washing clothes, doing dishes, or looking after her younger siblings.

Although she didn’t have to do them every day, she never got any peace.

Coming here and sharing a place with Luke, he didn’t care what she did. She could watch soap operas and read gossip all day long.

Luke sat down on the other side of the sofa and continued reading the case file.

Half an hour later, Luke put down the file. Selina simply asked, “So?”