Carlo kneaded his aching palms and asked curiously, "Dean, is there a result on the case?"

"Yes, the night George died, he was bullied by both Li Meimei and Aisha. After that, Moress had a crew member take George to the leech bathtub room to play with him, which led to his sudden death."

Carlo's face showed envy.

He was pleasured to death.

"Dean, why didn't you send a message directly to Moress, but had Daisy invite her instead? Can't the existing evidence bring a criminal suit against her?"

Dean shook his head. "It would just be a waste of time. According to the testimony, Moress didn't physically do anything herself; she had a male crew member do it. Even if we sue her, there's a high probability that the male crew member would take the blame himself. In that case, George's family wouldn't even get any compensation. Plus, I must tell you something!"

Carlo stopped in his tracks. "What?"

Dean also stopped walking and said earnestly, "Carlo, you must remember, our duty may seem to uphold the rights of all citizens of the United States, but many times, those wealthy individuals who provide us with significant fiscal revenue are the true citizens! Rich people committing crimes, we can indeed prosecute them. But they have the money to pay for expensive lawyer fees, to make eloquent defenses, to turn serious cases into minor ones, and minor ones into misunderstandings. They can even be released on bail. Even if they end up in prison..."

Dean lit a cigarette, took a deep inhale, and after exhaling a mouthful of smoke, continued with a smile, "They can get themselves into private prisons. Spending just tens of dollars a day, they can enjoy a private, spacious single room. With a few hundred dollars more, they can avoid labor altogether, and even get whatever they want to eat prepared by top chefs. If they wanted, they could even have different female prison guards sleep with them every day... Besides the temporary loss of freedom, their lives won't be worse off than outside. But we're different. We have families, so when we deal with cases involving these rich people, we ought to handle them a little more gently."

"Private prisons are flourishing. Besides government subsidies for running them and income from inmate labor, the largest source of revenue is actually from those wealthy criminals. One wealthy criminal is worth as much as hundreds of other inmates combined."

Carlo nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, I get it. I've actually bought quite a few shares in prisons, but still, thanks for the lesson, Dean."

"You know shit!"

Dean flicked away his cigarette butt, grinning. "Actually, I just want to tell you, if one day you offend such a tycoon, don't be naive enough to think about sending them to a 'fair' trial. For those people, bullets are more useful than laws!"

Carlo: "..."

He admitted he had been naïve.

「Morgue.」

Elden was sitting outside the office, leisurely reading a newspaper and drinking coffee. Upon seeing Dean, he put down the paper and asked in confusion, "Detective Dean, you're here. Is there a new discovery?"

Dean repeated what Li Meimei had done to George.

Having been let down once, Dean no longer held such blind faith in his Mind Reading Technique. It was better to be cautious.

After listening, Elden gasped. "These rich people really don't care about their lives when it comes to having fun!"

He went on to explain, "Normal aphrodisiacs come in two types. One lowers the sensitivity of 'little brother' to increase endurance. The other enhances blood flow to the 'little brother' so that the spongy tissue can swell to its maximum and firmest. These all have some impact on the body, but with proper rest, drug residues are quickly metabolized and eliminated. They don't have a significant long-term effect and can be used over time. But there's another method: hormonal drugs. Although these are also easily metabolized and eliminated by the body, the dosage is hard to control. It can also cause hormonal imbalances, increasing the body's burden and making sudden death very likely. So, such aphrodisiacs only appeared when hormonal drugs were first introduced, and then they were banned."

"You're saying these drugs are also easily metabolized?"

"Yes, that's probably why I didn't find anything unusual in the victim's blood," Elden said, a relieved expression of having solved the puzzle on his face.

"Alright, thank you. I guess this case can be closed now."

Having confirmed that Li Meimei probably hadn't lied, Dean returned to his office.

...

Daisy brought over a cup of coffee, hesitating as she spoke, "Moress doesn't want to come over, and..."

"And what?"

"She said that the perpetrator of this case will turn themselves in and provide financial compensation to George's family. Miss Moress hopes that, for Beck's sake, you won't pursue this matter any further."

"For Beck's sake?"

I've already shown goodwill. And yet, Moress is not only unwilling to go through the motions, but she has even brought up my big brother Beck... This indicates she did some snooping into my family background afterward. For a case of little consequence, why has she reacted so strongly in secret? The key point is, if they didn't want to be connected to this case, they could have simply thrown the body into the sea after George's death, destroying all traces. On the cruise ship, aside from my foolish big brother, no one would care about these things. In that case, we wouldn't even have received a call to the police! Interesting, very interesting.

Dean downed his coffee in one gulp.

What else is hidden in this case?

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