Brian Sullivan could feel the intense distrust Henry Parker had toward him. Everyone’s eyes turned to him, making his face burn with embarrassment. But before leaving the room, he noticed a small, not-so-obvious puddle of water in the corner seam of the shower room wall, and the floor was a bit damp as well. His mind stirred: Could it be that Mark Brooks had a heart attack while taking a shower?

Mark Brooks had heart disease and a bad habit of taking cold showers. The doctor had warned him that cold showers in winter could easily trigger his heart, but he never paid attention. If there were no other suspicious points, this would undoubtedly be the best explanation for why Mark Brooks died naked in his room.

Come to think of it, it was also Brian Sullivan, the secretary, who hadn’t done his job well enough before.

He hadn’t constantly reminded Mark Brooks to quit the habit of cold showers in winter, nor had he reported Mark Brooks’s heart condition to the city, and he hadn’t made sure that Nanyuan always prepared hot water for Building Six...

However, as Brian Sullivan walked out of the bedroom, he glanced at the washroom, which was quite tidy, and felt puzzled again: Could it really be that he died in the arms of a woman?

Impossible. He’d been with Mark Brooks in Donghua for over half a year and never saw Mark Brooks get involved with any woman! Could it be that Mark Brooks thought he was unreliable and kept some things from him?

“Since you were injured at the city steel plant a few days ago, just focus on recovering. Don’t get involved in Mayor Chen’s aftermath anymore. The city will assign someone to handle it.”

Mark Brooks was a provincial-level official, and since he died suddenly of illness under suspicious circumstances, handling his aftermath would naturally not be simple. The province would also send people to Donghua immediately.

As Mark Brooks’s secretary, Brian Sullivan should have been involved, but Henry Parker had heard about his conduct both in the province and later in Donghua, and didn’t trust him at all. He immediately decided to kick him out.

After all the shocks and upheavals of the past two days, Brian Sullivan’s nerves had toughened. He listened to Henry Parker’s words and left without a word.

As he was about to go downstairs, William Harris glanced at him, her bright eyes carrying a hint of schadenfreude.

That damned woman! Brian Sullivan cursed inwardly, and deliberately slowed his steps as he went downstairs.

After a while, he heard William Harris’s voice: “Maybe Mayor Chen had a heart attack while showering, tried to get his medicine from the room, but didn’t make it in time…”

“There’s no hot water in Building Six at noon, and Mayor Chen knew that. He even complained to the reception office about it twice—there are records of that. I was planning to install a separate solar water heater for Building Six in a few days, but didn’t expect…” Paul Morgan deliberately lowered his voice, but Brian Sullivan, intentionally lingering in the stairwell, heard every word clearly.

Brian Sullivan was startled; Paul Morgan’s words made him suddenly suspicious.

If Mark Brooks really died of a heart attack, then having an attack while showering and dying naked would be the most convenient explanation for everyone.

Paul Morgan was the first to enter the room. Even if he hadn’t seen the puddle of water by the shower room wall, he shouldn’t have been so quick to deny the possibility that Mark Brooks had an attack while showering, should he?

Only William Harris and Paul Morgan were talking in the room, and after just a couple of sentences, the conversation stopped. Henry Parker, 葛永秋, and the others remained silent, as if it were the dead calm before a storm…

If it were the old Brian Sullivan, he would never have picked up on anything from William Harris and Paul Morgan’s brief exchange. But now, after hearing just a few words since coming upstairs, he could already sense plenty of suspicious points.

Mark Brooks dying naked of a heart attack in his room could be explained in several ways.

The two most likely: one, he had an attack while showering and didn’t have time to get his medicine, dying suddenly; the other was much more ambiguous and sordid…

Even if there was no strong evidence for either possibility, from the perspective of making things easier to handle, everyone should try to steer things toward the first explanation.

If Mark Brooks died of a heart attack while showering, then his family and the provincial officials could just follow procedure for the funeral and memorial service. For Donghua, even if the outcome wasn’t good, at least there wouldn’t be any lingering problems.

William Harris hadn’t entered the bedroom or the washroom, but standing outside, she directly guessed that Mark Brooks might have died suddenly of a heart attack while showering. You could say that, even as a woman, she understood the officialdom rule of “minimize big problems, resolve small ones, and avoid trouble whenever possible.”

Paul Morgan’s intentions in saying what he did were all too obvious—he was basically trying to directly deny the possibility that Mark Brooks had a heart attack while showering.

If it wasn’t a heart attack during a shower, why would Mark Brooks die naked in his bedroom?

That would really set people’s imaginations running wild.

Brian Sullivan would never believe that Paul Morgan was just being objective and factual.

The city steel plant, as a large state-owned enterprise, was a microcosm of contemporary officialdom, with all the open and hidden struggles, all the scheming and backstabbing—none of it lacking. Brian Sullivan had learned enough about the darkness of human nature from it—he almost instinctively concluded: Paul Morgan was deliberately muddying the waters.

Why did Paul Morgan want to muddy the waters?

Why was Henry Parker keeping silent?

There wasn’t even any evidence linking Mark Brooks’s death to a scandal, and even if he really had died in such a scandal, as the Party Secretary of Donghua, it should be covered up as much as possible.