Chapter 43: Chapter 41: No More Pretense, I’m Laying My Cards on the Table
 

The two of them went back and forth like that, one furious, one persuading, for quite a while, until the burly man finally dragged the Asian man to the side, exchanged a few whispers, and then returned to David.

But faced with David’s calm demeanor, as if he were merely a spectator, the burly man was taken aback.

Catching a cheater, huh? So you’re just going to act as if nothing’s happened?

“Ahem…”

The burly man decided to put aside his questions and began, “Buddy, how could you stoop to seducing someone’s wife? Now, what do you think we should do about this?”

Without offering an explanation, David responded with amusement, “Well, what do you think I should do?”

The burly man pretended to be troubled, “My friend here really loves his wife, and it took me quite some effort to calm him down. This is tough to handle…”

“Tough to handle? Then don’t handle it at all!”

“Bro, what do you mean by that!?”

The burly man’s face darkened instantly and the two others by his side also moved closer, all wearing unfriendly expressions.

Looking at David’s noncommittal stance, the burly man suggested, “Since you’re the one at fault here and you don’t seem like someone short of cash, how about you pay up a hundred thousand or eighty thousand dollars to soothe my buddy’s wounded heart, and we’ll call it even?”

“Sure thing!”

The three were taken aback, not expecting the scapegoat to agree so readily. But before they could rejoice, David’s next words stunned them.

“However, I believe it should be you paying us!”

“Fake Yau, what the hell do you mean, are you messing with us?”

David lost interest in playing their game and looked toward the side room, shouting, “Enough with the act, come out and do your job!”

Following that command, Nisen strode out confidently.

The group hadn’t anticipated that besides David, there was another accomplice present.

And when they saw the tax badge Nisen flaunted, they were shocked, thinking they had encountered the police!

“Everyone, no need to panic, we are inspectors from the Revenue Service!”

“The Revenue Service!?”

Upon hearing “Revenue Service,” their reaction was even greater than when they saw the badge; but soon, they settled down.

The IRS might be fearsome, but they primarily handled tax audits, not criminal matters like theirs—that was the police’s jurisdiction.

“Turns out you’re inspectors from the Revenue Service. We are blind to have not recognized you, sorry for the misunderstanding. We’ll be on our way…”

At this point, the scam artists had yet to realize that David and Nisen had come specifically for them and were still under the impression that it all was a coincidence.

But what could they do? They couldn’t afford to mess with the IRS, so they resigned themselves to their bad luck.

“Hold on a second, who told you that you could leave?”

The men halted their movements, looking anxiously towards David who had spoken.

The biggest of the men clenched his teeth and finally reached for his wallet, pulling out a bunch of US Dollar bills and placing them on the table, saying, “Mr. Inspector, please forgive our impertinence, let this serve as an apology…”

“Keep your money, we came to find you guys on purpose today!”

“On purpose?”

The men were a mix of shocked and scared, but mostly baffled.

“It’s quite simple. You see, on the 3rd of last month, the American Congress passed a bill that declares…”

A few minutes later, the five were standing there gobsmacked.

A Black Tax Bill?

From now on, robbery, drug trafficking, smuggling, including their current extortion practices, all had to be duly taxed by the Revenue Service?

Is this for real?

The IRS is a serious government agency; how is this any different from them extorting us?

After a moment, Yang Yezi was the first to come to her senses, glaring at David furiously and said, “You’re playing me!”

The words had reached this point.

Even a fool would have understood by now that David had deliberately set them up!

To think she had just been sweet-talking with David!

This bastard had really messed things up big time!

David looked at her with disdain and said, “Aren’t you also playing me?”

“You…”

Yang Yezi’s face flushed, at a loss for words to retort.

“Inspector, you’re conducting a sting operation!”

The big man had also realized what was going on.

David replied with disdain, “So what if I am, do you plan to call the police or sue us?”

The five of them looked extremely uncomfortable.

Call the police?

That would be like walking into a trap!

The big man, Costi, pulled out his wallet once again, extracted all the US Dollars from it, about 2,3000 or so, placed them on the table, and said, “Inspector, the market is not great for us right now, please show us some mercy and let us off the hook!”

David narrowed his eyes and rebuked, “Curtis, on December 5th last month at the Horseshoe Bay Hotel, you extorted a tourist from New York and obtained 30,000 US Dollars in cash, from which you made a profit of 6,000 US Dollars.”

“Then on December 9th in Bellagio Hotel Room 9111, you used the same method to extort a tourist from Los Angeles, securing 50,000 US Dollars in cash and ultimately pocketing 10,000 US Dollars.”

“And on December 19th…”

“Just in one month alone, you have netted 103,000 US Dollars, and now you tell me that the market is not good?”

As soon as these people barged in earlier, David had already checked their background through his golden finger.

Costi, the big man named after the Greek word for cost, was dumbfounded again upon hearing his secrets exposed one by one.

It was one thing for this Inspector to find out whom he had extorted, but to know the exact times, locations, and to have a clear count of his earnings for the month to the very last cent—this was outrageously detailed!

Just how long had they been investigating him?

“And you, Arnold…”

“…”

Ten minutes later, the other four, just like Costi earlier, each wore an expression as if they had seen a ghost.

Because in this time, David had likewise accurately accounted for their involvement in cases this month, as well as their profits.

What baffled them the most was that they virtually never tallied their earnings seriously and only had a rough idea.

Yet David had calculated even the hundreds and tens digits for them.

This proved that throughout the month, their every move had been under surveillance.

Forget about what cases they were involved in; they were afraid even the number of times they went to the toilet each day, and the boxes of condoms they bought, were known in striking detail!

“We’re just small fry in Las Vegas, does the IRS really need to keep such a close eye on us?”

Costi was somewhat helpless and speechless.

David smiled and replied, “You’re talking about a tax concern of over 200,000 dollars, that’s not a small matter!”

“Over 200,000 dollars?!”

The faces of the five changed instantly.

Immediately after, Costi asked, “Just how much does the IRS want to collect from us?”