Chapter 257 - An Honest Lawyer

Officer Huang took a deep breath and quickly jumped in front of the two women.

The secretary looked at her father in surprise. "What are you doing, Dad?"

"You're still young, you shouldn't have to take responsibility for my mistakes," the man said.

Halia looked at the middle-aged man. His mistakes? She knew things weren't as simple as they appeared. Judging by Officer Huang's reaction, it seemed, she was right.

At that moment, Captain Tang walked in through the doorway and suddenly latched a pair of handcuffs on Officer Huang's wrists, "Clinton Huang, you are under arrest for corruption and facilitation of fraud."

Halia looked at the Captain in surprise.

"Dad!" Cindy Huang gasped. "Let my Dad go, he's innocent!"

The secretary tried to run over to her father, but Halia held onto her tightly.

"You did all this to catch me, didn't you?" Officer Huang asked as he glanced at Captain Tang.

Captain Tang looked at the middle-aged officer and nodded his head. He had suspected corruption for a long time, but he couldn't determine who it was, so he sent Halia undercover to catch the fraudsters at the law firm, while he kept a close eye on the officers in the fraud department. Sure enough, he caught Officer Huang staying up last night to investigate Halia.

A normal officer wouldn't question their superior's orders nor would they try so hard to uncover a potential undercover officer; it was too dangerous for their colleague and there was no benefit in knowing. So, as soon as he noticed the man was acting weird, Captain Tang started investigating him.

That was when he discovered that Officer Huang's daughter was Morton Meng's secretary.

He also discovered that the officer's daughter, Cindy Huang, had suffered from heart disease since she was a child and had to undergo a heart transplant the previous year. Although the salary of an SPU detective was decent, all the years of hospital visits and the exorbitant costs of a heart transplant, wasn't something that he could afford. His family even had enough money left over for a car and a house, and his daughter was sent to law school.

Of course, the man was smart; he had been working in the fraud department for years and found some loopholes to explain his family's wealth. His wife was an artist, not a very famous one, but for some reason, her paintings always sold for an unbelievable amount. And her buyers were all lawyers and businessmen. A couple of which had coincidentally been caught for fraud and/or embezzlement. There were too many coincidences for Captain Tang. As soon as he started investigating the man, he knew he had caught the right person and his plan had worked.

On the surface, everything made sense. But once someone focused on the officer and dug deeper, they would discover a lot of suspicious activity.

For example, a few of his wife's paintings sold around the time that suspects were brought into the fraud department and unexpectedly released. And, even weirder, the people that bought her paintings weren't even people that appreciated art. They had never been seen around the art community and it didn't seem like they bought any other paintings in the past. Why did they pay so much money for an unknown artist's painting?

"Let my daughter go, she's innocent. Roy Chen blackmailed her into helping him, so she had no choice. I, on the other hand, have intentionally worked with him for years..." Officer Huang revealed. "Not just him. I've worked with many others. I can reveal them all if you can guarantee my wife and daughter's safety."

Cindy Huang opened her eyes wide in shock, "Dad, why are you confessing? This is all my fault. If my heart wasn't bad, you wouldn't have had to do that. Captain, please let my father go. He only did it to save my life."

Captain Tang looked at the secretary with pity. As a father himself, he understood that a parent would do anything for their child. But, it didn't change the fact that Officer Huang had broken the law. Worst of all, he had broken it for years and worked with multiple criminals to hide their crimes.

"I have ten names I can give you and I have enough evidence for you to arrest them. I'll give you those names if you can relocate my wife and daughter overseas with a new identity and ensure their safety," Officer Huang offered.

He had been working with the SPU for long enough to know how it worked. The information he had was invaluable and he knew they wanted it. Since he was already caught, there was no point in denying anything. He might as well make a deal to ensure his wife and daughter's safety.

Captain Tang thought for a moment and nodded his head, "Sure, I can arrange that. Let's go into the room and chat." 

He then led Officer Huang into one of the interrogation rooms.

As soon as the two men disappeared into the room, Halia took Cindy Huang into another room to file a report. 

"Can you tell me what happened? How did you end up working for Roy?" Halia asked.

"About half a year ago, he approached me and told me he had evidence against my father. He said that if I didn't help him, he would get my father thrown into jail. At that time, he simply asked for a signature from Morton, so I agreed," Cindy began to explain, "But, he started to get more and more demanding and he eventually forced me to forge Morton's signature for him. I was frightened and didn't know how to refuse, so I did it."

"From what I know, you've been working at the law firm for 3 years now. Why did he suddenly approach you half a year ago?" Halia asked with doubt.

"Everything my father's done has been to keep me alive. After I received my heart transplant last year and I started to recover, he no longer had a reason to participate in corrupt activity, so he tried to pull out and break ties with the people he had been working with. He was also about to apply for retirement. But when Roy found out, he was furious. That's why he came to blackmail me," Cindy explained.

Halia wrote everything down and nodded her head, "So, was Morton Meng completely unaware?"

Cindy nodded, "He is probably the most honest lawyer I have ever met..."