Chapter 466: The Cosplay Game
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
He decided not to argue with her. Otherwise, he would die of annoyance. He said, “I’m giving you the chance to claim credit for arresting some fraudsters. How about it? Do you want to thank me for it?”
Luo Qun said immediately, “There’s something not right about those people you brought home in the afternoon, right?”
Li Du sighed, “Don’t spout nonsense…” This lass is indeed sharp!
“You dare say it’s not them?” Luo Qun retorted.
Resigned, Li Du said, “Don’t come over with your partner yet. They should be easy to handle. Just come over and arrest them when I call you.”
After hanging up, he leaned against the railing and continued looking at the crowd below.
Everyone was in high spirits from the party—most people were drinking. Frank and York were studying the knives while Ma Cheng and the other two men were looking at the artwork they had brought back from the Hopi Reservation.
As Li Du surveyed them, mixed feelings flooded his heart.
Flagstaff did not have a large population; there were few Chinese people. Only a handful of students in the university were Chinese. Li Du did not even live near the university, however, and usually did not see any of his fellow countrymen.
Honestly, he had felt good speaking Mandarin with the three of them that day—although their Mandarin had Hong Kong and Taiwanese accents.
The three of them had given him a good impression: being forthright, honest, thrifty and cultured. He had been hoping to meet up with more such fellow countrymen.
But all this was fake—they were fraudsters who had ganged up with Ma Zhi-an to cheat him.
So, all he could do was to call the police and get Rose to arrest them.
He felt terrible doing this; he did not want to treat other people from China way. But they were really despicable, making use of the trust between compatriots to cheat him!
If he had not discovered their identity, he would have shown them the bejeweled dagger, the papyrus, and even the Patek Philippe watch on his wrist. Based on the good initial impression he had of them, if they had volunteered to help him manage these valuable items, he would have agreed.
But if he had lost these items, then he would have lost everything. Combined, these things were worth millions of dollars—never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined owning anything worth this much!
“Sorry, I’m a good guy.” Li Du took another can of beer and raised it toward the trio as a sign of apology.
Hans walked over and said, “Everything’s in place. I got ourselves a few buddies from Bones Community; they are waiting for my call.”
“Reliable?” Li Du asked.
“Of course,” Hans said. “It’s Robert and Lewton—you know them, right? You enjoyed a lot of attention there when the hospital and the community had an event.”
Li Du nodded. “Not a lot of attention,” he said with a smile, “being held captive.”
He called Lu Guan again, and asked, “How is it? The car has not left Flagstaff, right?”
“No,” Lu Guan replied, “they are repainting it. They probably can’t leave until the week’s up.”
Li Du had arranged for Lu Guan to follow the trio; so when they had brought Frank and York to the bank, he had followed to keep an eye on them. He had reported the happenings to Li Du via the phone the entire time. When Li Du learned that Ma Cheng had convinced Frank to move his item from First Financial Bank to Chase Bank, he knew that his plan had succeeded.
There was never any partnership between JP Morgan Chase Bank and Christie’s—all of this had merely been a scam created by the three of them.
After speaking with Lu Guan, Li Du told Hans, “Keep the people here. I’m going out to do something. Try not to let them make any calls in the meantime.”
Hans gladly said, “No problem.”
Li Du contacted Robert and Lewton to meet up at the entrance to Flagstaff’s First Street.
When he got to the road entrance, he saw two police cars parked there. A few black and Native American people wearing police uniforms were squatting by the roadside, smoking away.
Under close scrutiny, one would notice that they were not police cars. There was a siren on each, and the paint job looked like a police car’s, but there was no “POLICE” written on the bodies of the cars—instead, they had the jumbled letters “PCLIOE.”
Also, these people looked like they were wearing police uniforms, but these actually were only the uniforms of security officers modeled after police uniforms.
Li Du stopped the car and asked, “Hey, how’s your evening going guys?”
On seeing him, the leader Robert grinned. “Hey, Li, what business have we got going this time?”
“Some fraudsters have cheated my friend,” Li Du explained. “We’re gonna give them a scare by pretending to be the police, just to get them to return the stuff.”
Lewton frowned. “It ain’t legal to pretend to be a cop, y’know.”
“No, trust me,” Li Du assured him. “I’ll make sure we’re covered. I won’t do anything illegal, and you guys won’t either.”
Robert chucked his cigarette, and looked around at their getup. ‘He’s right, Lewton. We’re not pretending to be cops—we’re just cosplay lovers out for some fun.”
Li Du took out a stack of cash from his pocket.”Five grand. Just say something threatening to them and this money is yours!”
The eyes of Robert and his gang lit up all of a sudden, looking excited in the night.
The three cars drove off and Li Du asked for Lu Guan’s location. He was in a workshop at the outskirts of the city. The armored truck that had driven off from the JP Morgan Chase Bank earlier that evening was there.
In the parking lot of the workshop, Robert said, “Eh, this is Billy’s place. He specializes in modifying cars—we’re making a move at his place?”
“Does he have strong backing?” Li Du asked.
Robert shook his head. “No, we’re buddies. It will be a piece of cake if we make our move here. But let me call him first.”
Li Du’s heart fluttered. “In that case, tell him to open the back door.”
“Then won’t the guys we are scaring escape from the back door?” Lewton asked immediately.
Li Du laughed. “If they leave because of their guilt, that will be good. You can’t possibly arrest them. Like I said, we’re not breaking the law.”
With everything in place, Lu Guan, who had been hiding in a small broken car, came out to meet them.
Li Du handed him a video recorder for him to start the recording. “Police and Thieves Cosplay game, scene six. We’re at a car workshop. It is said that this is a place where stolen cars get a makeover. We’re going to perform spot check…”
Robert and his gang pulled up to the workshop in the “police” cars. The siren suddenly sounded and howled away with the weeoo sound; the lights flashed, washing everything with the red glow.
Lights were turned on in the workshop. Two burly men dashed out to ask, “What’s going on?”
Robert hollered, “We received a call that three fraudsters brought their loot to your place here. Move aside, we are doing a check!”
“According to the tip-off, the fraudsters were two white guys and one Chinese guy. They drove a Ford van-like truck. There was a huge JP Morgan Chase Bank logo spray-painted onto the truck.”
Robert had a loud voice—one could hear him shouting throughout the whole workshop.
As he said this, there was the sound of an engine being ignited—a small truck then drove over from the back door.
