Shakira was not ready to concede, but she had to admit that Luke made sense.
A living taxpayer is indeed more valuable than a dead one.
"OK, let's talk about the kidnapping case; I also want to know the current situation of Amy Ma."
Luke naturally wouldn't tell her everything but provided a brief introduction, "This morning, we received a report of a robbery in the Kaylea Community.
Upon arrival at the scene, we found that the case might involve more than just robbery; it appeared to be a kidnapping.
Amy Ma was working as a nanny in that household and is likely one of the victims."
Little Black added, "The family's twelve-year-old daughter was kidnapped alongside her."
After some thought, Shakira said, "I can share the clues we've found with you to help in the swift rescue of the victims, but if you come across any evidence of Amy Ma evading taxes, I hope you'll inform me, too."
"Deal," Luke said, seeing no downside to this arrangement.
His job was to rescue the kidnap victims; if they were evading taxes, they would naturally face the appropriate consequences.
Shakira organized her thoughts and continued, "Recently, we noticed a huge disparity between Amy Ma's spending and her declared income, leading us to suspect she might be evading taxes.
We launched a detailed investigation into her and discovered she spends up to a hundred thousand US dollars a year on luxury goods, while her declared income is just over sixty thousand US dollars.
This suggests she must have other illegal income to evade taxes.
That's also why we came here to investigate."
This confirmed Luke's previous suspicion that Amy Ma's income couldn't support her spending habits, indicating she had additional sources of income.
Becoming a target of the IRS meant her additional source of income was likely not lawful.
And illicit income often leads to conflict and retribution.
Luke pressed for more information, "Where do you think her illegal income comes from?"
Shakira explained, "We examined her tax records for the past three years and noticed that until September 2020, her taxable income was well into the hundreds of thousands of US dollars, which matched her spending capability.
At that time, her other source of income, besides her nanny job, came from a postpartum center—the Meicong Postpartum Center.
After the center went bankrupt, her declared income sharply decreased.
But her expenditure didn't decrease, indicating there must be an issue.
However, that postpartum center is no longer in operation, making it difficult to find out the specific details."
Sitting the month is a custom only practiced by Chinese people, so postpartum centers are mostly geared toward the Chinese population.
In 1868, America passed a constitutional amendment stating that anyone born or naturalized in America would be a citizen of the United States and the state wherein they reside, leading moms from different countries to give birth in the US.
Of course, the savvy Chinese citizens also took part, with many pregnant women secretly traveling to America to give birth, frequently staying in postpartum centers, and thus creating a large industry.
Postpartum centers in America aren't illegal per se, but rather exist in a 'gray area.'
All businesses in America need to apply for licenses, but since Americans don't have a tradition or culture of 'sitting the month,' there's no channel through which to apply for a corresponding business license.
America is relatively lax in managing childbirth tourism, often turning a blind eye, but many postpartum center owners commit tax evasion, defraud welfare and benefits, and accrue unpaid hospital debts.
Once reported, the immigration bureau, IRS, and fire department would join forces for surprise inspections, and there were even times when the Department of Homeland Security was alerted.
Luke received all the information about Meicong Postpartum Center from Shakira, but the actual content wasn't much.
Postpartum centers operated without real-name registration, were quick to change locations, and often moved, so except for surprise raids, few clues could be found afterward.
After exchanging contact information, they left Amy Ma's home together.
Little Black watched Shakira get into her car, standing there stupidly with a silly grin and waving.
Only when the IRS car had driven far away did he get back into the driver's seat, blurting out, "What do you think about her?"
"What are you referring to?"
"Do you think we're a good match?"
Luke laughed, "She didn't even look at you properly just now."
"So what? It doesn't mean she's not interested in me. Some people are too shy to interact with someone they like."
"Good, then let's assume she likes you," said Luke, stifling a yawn. "Drive, take me home, I'm dying of sleep."
As Little Black drove, he muttered, "Buddy, this is fate; I feel like my new fate has arrived."
The following morning.
Upon arriving at the detective bureau, Luke began investigating the Meicong Postpartum Center.
The owner of the center was named Chen Haiming, who immigrated to America in 2012.
The mobile number was already disconnected.
Finding him was going to take some effort.
From Luke's experience, this clue was quite important.
Luke planned to have Matthew search for leads online.
However, just at that moment, Susan walked in, "Everyone, good news.
The threat letter sent to Deputy Mayor Lee Mei was encrypted using hacker technology to mask the real IP address.
After processing by the tech department, the true IP has been located.
And the person who sent the threat letter is very likely the same group involved in the kidnapping of Betty and Amy Ma.
Prepare yourselves; we leave in five minutes."
Half an hour later, Bikla Community.