Chapter 982: Be Friends?

Luke seemed to be pondering something. After a long while, he nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Actually, it didn’t matter what she was able to find out.

What he really needed to hide had never had to do with his identity as a detective.

Aurora was relieved, but Luke said solemnly, “I can understand your worries, but I can’t agree to your request.”

Looking at her expression, he continued, “Lindsay and I are strangers who have only met once. If there’s a chance, I’ll talk to your daughter, but I can’t guarantee when it will be or that our conversation will have any effect.”

Aurora said, “It’s fine just to keep this in mind. Just consider it a private request from a mother.”

Luke said helplessly, “Aurora, from what you said just now, I have a rough idea of how much boys like Lindsay. If I run over to talk to her, will she think I’m just interested in a chat?”

“Then just be friends.”

The moment she said that, she noticed Luke’s strange expression, and subconsciously covered her mouth. “Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Luke was amused.

Why was Aurora, who looked like a rich lady at first, acting a little like a kid now?

Though she wasn’t that old.

Luke sighed. “Aurora, I’m just a detective; I’m not a teacher or a psychiatrist. I’m not good at counseling, but I’m very good at shooting.”

Aurora was confused. “Huh?”

Luke said, “So, I’ve killed a lot of armed criminals myself. This is probably very different from what you were thinking.”

Stunned for a moment, Aurora didn’t know how to respond.

Luke said, “I’ll help if I have the chance, but don’t get your hopes up. Also, I’ve only met Lindsay once. This case might be our only connection, so don’t investigate me anymore, okay?”

Stunned for a long while, Aurora suddenly asked suspiciously, “Are you afraid that I’ll investigate you?”

“Yes,” Luke admitted frankly. “If I told you that I wanted to make friends with Lindsay, so I had people investigate everything about the Soderbergs, including any suspicious things about your past, would you accept it?”

Aurora opened her mouth, but couldn’t say anything.

If Luke and Lindsay really became “good friends,” she would investigate him thoroughly, even if she had just promised Luke that she wouldn’t continue doing so.

It was natural for a mother to go back on her word for her daughter. She had no choice.

But Luke investigating her family like that? She really couldn’t stand it.

In this world, who didn’t have private things they didn’t want others to know?

Luke knew what she was thinking, even if she didn’t say it out loud. He simply stood up and said, “Okay, that’s it. I still have work to do, so I won’t bother you. Goodbye, Mrs. Soderberg.”

He used the polite and distant address again.

Aurora knew what he meant.

He didn’t want to have anything to do with her family, or rather, didn’t want any trouble with them.

Aurora understood that Luke was clearly saying that he didn’t want to get too involved in this matter.

She stood up helplessly. “Um, wait, I didn’t…”

She couldn’t help but be stumped.

Luke’s words were so direct that she was a little stunned.

Lie? She felt that she couldn’t lie now, and lying wouldn’t change the young man’s mind.

Luke nodded politely. “You’re not in the best frame of mind. You should rest more. You don’t have to see me off. I’ll see myself out.”

Saying that, he waved at the maid who was standing far away. “Please take me to the garage.”

The maid looked at her mistress and saw that she had no intention of objecting, so she immediately said respectfully, “Please follow me.”

There weren’t many young men who could cause this woman to act amiably, so he was definitely a unique person.

Driving out, Luke looked at the manor in the rearview mirror and shook his head.

Every family had its own difficulties. Having money didn’t mean there weren’t any problems.

Family, love, and friendship weren’t things that could be solved with money alone. In fact, money could have a negative impact.

Thanks to his experiences in his previous life, Luke had spent thirty years becoming a middle-aged “Buddha.”

Other than family, he didn’t value much else.

That was because family was nurtured over decades. As long as one wasn’t an orphan, it was hard to ignore family.

Everything else was a choice.

If he couldn’t find a woman he liked, then he didn’t want love.

If he couldn’t find a friend to take photos with, then he didn’t need friendship.

Money made life easier, and having a lot of money only made his life even easier.

Now that he was a billionaire, he could do whatever he wanted. That was because he already knew from his previous life what money meant to him.

Money was a way for him to live freely.

Money could change the amount of freedom he had in life, but he couldn’t lose himself in it and forget himself.

Now that he had money, it was only for further protecting his family. It wasn’t for showing off or hooking up with girls.

Hm, in any case, he could make a living with his face now.

Money was just a means, not his master.

Thinking about Aurora’s request, he casually asked Little Snail to look up some information. At the same time, he called Connie.

The Soderberg family drama was something that had started before they joined the department.

It was hard for Elsa and Elizabeth to find out anything from too far back, so it was better to talk to an old-timer like Connie.

After talking for a while, he hung up.

Connie didn’t look up the information at all, and didn’t even need to think much about it when she gave him the start of the “family drama,” which was last fall.

The information which Little Snail had found also came out. The earliest record of the Soderberg family’s dispute with Monroe was last November.

The time frames matched what Aurora had just said.

Last fall, they had intervened in the matter between Lindsay and Monroe. After a while, they couldn’t take it anymore, and went to the police department.

Over the past year, the two parties had dragged the police department in more and more, and the conflict had escalated.

Before this, the Soderbergs indeed didn’t have the nickname “troublemaker”, and were even NYPD’s favorite donor.

Alright, they probably still were.

It was nothing for the officers and detectives on the bottom rung to be picked on; if it got too big, Dustin would come in as the police supervisor to clean things up.

The police took paychecks, and getting shot in their line of work was to be expected; taking the brunt of the anger was a minor thing.

Luke drove to a villa in New Jersey.

After he got out of the car, he took out a bunch of bibs and bobs and tools, and changed the door locks himself, without looking for a locksmith.

It had been snowing on and off recently, and it was also Christmas Eve. Money wasn’t the issue if he called in a locksmith, but the problem was that they might be in a poor mood and slow, and Luke would have to wait at the villa for them.

If he had the time to wait for the locksmith, he might as well buy new locks and change them himself. It only took him five minutes.

After changing the lock on the front door and the electronic lock on the garage, he checked the house again. The broken windows, the leaking pipes, and the water leak in the attic had all been taken care of.