Over the next few days, Liang En diligently remained at his booth, helping the Emerald Gem Antique Shop sell a variety of items, while also forming cooperation agreements with some fellow merchants.
The latter was significantly more important than the former, as antiques, unless mass-produced as forgeries, are rarely available in complete assortments.
In such cases, an antique shop primarily dealing in antiques naturally needs many partners to swap goods when their own stock is depleted, in order to meet customer demands as much as possible.
However, convincing other shops to engage in goods exchange is not an easy or straightforward matter, as it requires a certain level of trust between parties, something the Emerald Gem Antique Shop was slightly lacking in the past.
This was not to say that the Emerald Gem Antique Shop had committed any breaches of trust before, but rather that the shop's small scale made other merchants somewhat hesitant.
Liang En's recent inclusion significantly bolstered others' confidence in the Emerald Gem Antique Shop, allowing Pierce to secure over a dozen new partners in one go.
This meant that in the coming days, the Emerald Gem Antique Shop would enter a period of rapid development, beneficial to the growth and expansion of the entire shop.
On the last afternoon of the trade fair, as Liang En and Pierce were packing up their booth to leave, Officer Burke approached them with an embarrassed expression on his face.
"Sorry, Mr. Liang, but I find myself in need of your assistance," Officer Burke said somewhat awkwardly as he rubbed his hands together. "We are currently facing some professional challenges."
"Of course, this job won't leave you uncompensated; we have already ensured that anything you find during the process that complies with the law, you can take with you. Moreover, we'll handle any tax or customs issues."
"And the help I'm referring to means just that—you help us, regardless of whether you actually manage to find what we're looking for."
Once Liang En stepped out from the booth and followed Officer Burke to a secluded corner, Burke handed over the agreed-upon reward.
Truth be told, a significant reason for Liang En's good relationship with Officer Burke was that Burke never assumed assistance was a given; he always tried to offer something in return.
For instance, the compensation now was quite valuable, primarily because Liang En was not an illegal excavator or someone who operated in the gray areas of the law, making these customs procedures very meaningful to him.
"No problem, I have some time now," Liang En nodded slightly, resolute in his decision. "I'm more than willing to help you, though I can't promise that my efforts will perfectly align with your expectations."
"Ah, that's no issue. Even a little help from you would be greatly appreciated," Officer Burke nodded and responded, "since we really can't find any reliable and skilled historians on short notice."
"So, this task is quite time-sensitive then?" Liang En quickly picked up on some details from Burke's words.
"Yes, because the killer surely knows the police are investigating, and they will try to destroy all evidence and flee as quickly as possible. Our job is to find them before they can completely obliterate the evidence."
"Can you share more details then?" It seemed normal for Officer Burke to confide in Liang En at this moment, especially since he had agreed to join the operation, so some information was essential for him to know.
"Alright, you're right, you should know more," Burke nodded after hearing Liang's request, and then the two walked to an open park nearby to discuss further.
According to the police's investigations over the past few days, the recently murdered president of the Golden Society was ostensibly a somewhat renowned antique dealer, but in reality, he had been controlling the criminal organization for the last 20 years.
This information only came to light yesterday when some core members of the Golden Society, driven by a clear sense of panic following their president's assassination, turned themselves in to the police and brought this news.
The sudden assassination had put their lives in dire jeopardy, and given Western laws, these individuals chose imprisonment over death, providing substantial information for plea bargains to reduce their sentences.
Previously, the police had indeed suspected the president of the Golden Society, but lacking sufficient evidence, they could do nothing beyond simple surveillance.
"If the president were still alive, we could have obtained a wealth of valuable information, but facing a corpse, I suppose we can hardly retrieve anything now," Liang En said somewhat helplessly.
"No, it's not entirely as you think. We've obtained some very crucial information," Burke replied with a wry smile, clearly also resentful of the Greek police's nominal surveillance.
Indeed, if not for the Greek police's negligence, they wouldn't be facing so many problems now, such that even finding a scholar like Liang En couldn't guarantee extracting the necessary details from the information available.
"What we can confirm now is that the person who killed the president of
the Golden Society was one of his collaborators in recent years, with whom he had several dealings," Burke sighed before revealing this key piece of intelligence.
"However, those who have surrendered claim that this mysterious collaborator only had direct interactions with their president, and usually through intermediaries, so they can't be sure if they've actually seen this collaborator themselves."
"Have you managed to create a composite sketch of the killer then?" Liang En inquired.
While it's true that Europe doesn't have as many surveillance cameras, places like hotels certainly do. So, theoretically, they should at least be able to identify the murderer by now.
And if they know who the murderer is, they could use that individual as a breakthrough to capture the rest of the collaborators of the Golden Society.
"We only have a simple reconstruction image because the storage devices in the surveillance room have been malfunctioning for almost a week, and the suspect has certain anti-surveillance skills. Everyone who has encountered him on the way hasn't seen his face clearly."
Burke appeared resigned, the overall situation being much worse than imagined, which was why they were now reluctantly involving an outsider like Liang En.
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