Preparing to Send Warmth

The court.

After parking the car, Lake led Joe straight inside. Once they entered the courthouse, they ran up the stairs toward the office of Judge Laura Birch on the second floor.

Ever since Lake had been promoted to detective, Judge Laura Birch had issued the search warrants for several of his cases.

They could be considered old friends.

After entering the office, Lake's reason for coming was relayed to Judge Laura Birch's assistant. The assistant told Lake to wait a moment, then stood and went to the inner office, knocked on the door, and announced him.

Soon.

The judge's assistant came out and smiled faintly at Lake. "Detective Edwin, you can go in now."

Lake thanked him, exchanged a glance with Joe beside him, and then walked inside.

"Good morning."

Lake smiled at Judge Laura Birch, who was handling some documents at her desk. "Laura."

They were old friends.

There was no need to be so formal when they met.

Laura, who was forty-five that year and had two children, a boy and a girl, removed her glasses and teased Lake, "I thought I'd see you in the defendant's seat. What, have you been reinstated?"

Lake laughed. "I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. Even if I had to stand in the defendant's seat, I'd be happy to stand in the same seat as Judge Martin."

Judge Martin had been exposed last year for accepting illicit money and had been removed from office.

Laura shook her head, her eyes full of amusement. "So, you're confessing?"

Lake burst out laughing, stepped closer, and handed Laura the search warrant concerning the Textile Factory that he had prepared before leaving the station.

Once Laura signed it, the search warrant would have legal effect.

Lake dared guarantee that once they went to the Textile Factory, he would bring back not only the people there, but even that textile machine that pretended to be God, and dump it in the station warehouse to gather dust.

He would tear it out by the roots!

Lake had always held grudges. He might forget to repay a favor, but when it came to enmity, he had always acted according to the principles of speed, severity, and totality.

Laura took the search warrant and glanced at it.

The next second.

Laura looked at the subject of the search, seeming somewhat surprised, and turned to Lake. "You're going to search the Textile Factory?"

Lake nodded. "Yes."

Lake then told Laura that the Textile Factory was the headquarters of the assassin organization, the Assistance, and handed her the attached contents of Carlos's assassin confession. "My informant also told me that this Carlos is one of the assassins who defected from the Assistance, so I plan to search the textile machine."

Laura looked troubled. "Aside from your informant's testimony and this confession of unknown origin, do you have any other evidence?"

It came down to the same issue.

Since this involved the Assistance, even Laura was hesitant. If the Assistance raised its banner and caused trouble, New York would be in for quite a spectacle.

Lake looked at Laura. "My guarantee."

Laura looked up at Lake.

Lake shrugged. "Laura, you know me. Without absolute certainty, I wouldn't have come to trouble you."

Laura hesitated.

After a while.

Laura was silent for a moment, then looked up at Lake. "Lake, you'd better not let me down this time."

With that.

Laura took out her fountain pen, signed her name on the search warrant, then called in her assistant and told him to take it to the archives for filing.

"Wait!"

"Ma'am?"

Laura stopped the assistant, who was holding the original search warrant, glanced at Lake, and instructed him, "Take it to the archives for filing in half an hour."

The assistant nodded.

Lake put away the copy of the search warrant, thanked Laura, and then left the office with Joe.

After leaving the courthouse.

They got into the car.

Joe, sitting in the passenger seat, asked in confusion, "Why file it half an hour later?"

A search warrant did not take effect immediately after being signed. It only became effective after being filed with the court. There had once been a case in which a lawyer discovered that the time a detective presented the search warrant differed by one minute from the time it was filed with the court, directly rendering all the evidence obtained invalid.

Of course.

Delaying the filing by half an hour this time was different from the case just mentioned.

As Lake drove toward the police station, he glanced at Joe from the corner of his eye. "Do you think a textile factory that can donate five million and has a board member on the mayoral campaign team could possibly avoid finding out immediately that I'm going to search them?"

Joe said, "Without a doubt."

Lake shrugged. "So Laura was helping us just now. Once I took the search warrant, mobilized the Special Operations Team, and waited for the Textile Factory to receive the news, I'd already have troops at their gates."

Joe nodded thoughtfully.

She had previously worked at the Thirteenth Precinct. The precinct mostly handled ordinary murder cases—passion killings, to put it simply. Whenever organized crime or major cases were involved, they were directly investigated by the three detectives from Police Headquarters.

That meant George from Major Crimes Division One, Kaitlyn from Division Two, and Lake from Division Three.

Police Headquarters!

Inspector Montgomery looked at the court search warrant Lake had obtained in less than half an hour. He looked up at Lake standing before his desk, somewhat dazed. "You didn't forge this signature too, did you?"

Otherwise, even Judge Laura Birch, who had practically become Lake's personal search-warrant-signing tool, should not have been willing to sign one based solely on a confession of unknown origin.

Was he crazy?

Even if this matter was guaranteed to succeed, one point of uncertainty was enough to turn it into a major disaster if something went wrong.

Lake merely shrugged without answering.

In reality, Laura might not have signed the document before, but this time was different. The chief judge of the court was going to retire soon, and Laura was clearly interested in that position.

So...

It was an unspoken, mutually beneficial agreement.

Seeing that Lake had no intention of explaining, Montgomery could not be bothered to ask. He shook his head, called the captain of the Special Operations Team, and spoke a few words. After hanging up, he said to Lake, "You'd better guarantee that this succeeds."

The implication was that if anything went wrong this time, Montgomery would have no choice but to sacrifice Lake for the greater good.

Lake's lips curled upward as he turned and walked away.

He had worked on this for so long that even if he did not act after reaching the Textile Factory, he would make them act. If one struck a snake, one had to kill it.

He would not only cut off the snake's head, but stomp it into a bloody mess.

Soon.

The NYPD Strategic SWAT Team.

Lake entered and waved at the SWAT officers, who had already received their orders and were fully armed. "Gentlemen, are you ready to go send some warmth to an assassin organization?"

The SWAT officers: "..."

Have a pleasant weekend!