The officers lazily slacking off in the Eastern District Precinct lobby had never seen Chief Bob McGinnis look so livid. His anger seemed ready to burst through the top of his head as he hurried across the lobby, went upstairs, and entered his office. Sheriff Li Jie followed him in.
Shortly afterward, they heard heavy thumps against the desk, the crash of a slammed door, and a roaring curse.
"Son of a bitch!"
Bob pointed at Li Jie with the fingers holding his cigarette. "I never should've told you to calm down. I should've let you keep tearing into that bastard until he had a brain hemorrhage. Fucking hell, he had the nerve to come after me!"
In the conference room, the air had frozen solid after Li Jie's explosive question.
His words were like an invisible slap across Chief Barnes's stern face, and every officer present felt the sting. Everyone held their breath, staring in disbelief at the calm-faced East End sheriff standing at the back.
How dared he?
Barnes's face went from livid to flushed with humiliation in an instant. The fury shooting from his eyes almost seemed capable of setting the conference room ablaze. He opened his mouth, apparently ready to tear Li Jie apart with greater volume and harsher words.
Just then, Chief Bob's bulky body sprang from his seat, his face plastered with an exuberant smile.
"A misunderstanding! Nathaniel, this is just a misunderstanding!"
He raised his hands and pressed them downward toward both sides. "Everyone, calm down. This little punk... what he meant was... the fighting was so intense that he might've seen things wrong. You know, when young people experience something this big for the first time and see so many colleagues killed or wounded, the emotional distress often leaves them with