shadow of britain

Chapter 58 The Great Detective Hastings

Greenwich District Police Station, in the Superintendent's Office.

Arthur took off his civilian clothes and put on the familiar police uniform again.

Agares leaned on his seat and asked jokingly, "How are you going to save that little girl named Robin? With all due respect, she may have suffered from lung cancer due to working too long in a textile factory." internal disease. I am afraid that this disease is not so curable."

While fastening the buttons of his uniform, Arthur said, "Agares, stop making sarcastic remarks. If you have a way, just say it."

"Oh! Arthur, it's really not that I won't help you this time. Medicine is indeed not my field of expertise. Mathematics, astronomy, and linguistics are my expertise.

As for medical matters, you can ask Baldo better than me. At least Baal understands how to create a plague, and so does the Lord of the Flies. "

Arthur took from a drawer the Royal Society pass given to him by the Duke of Sussex.

"Agares, although I knew that your answer would probably be this way, I still can't help but want to say it.

You sell crutches to normal people all day long, hire cripples to push carts, let you form a band, and you find me a group of dumb people to sing.

It's really not my fault that you can't get the soul, but because you have done too many things that don't make sense. "

Hearing this, the Red Devil jumped up angrily, and cursed loudly.

"Arthur! Don't blame me for speaking harshly. Anyone who makes a deal with the devil has strict rules!
All contracts are carried out under the constraints of the laws of hell, and all standards are fair, just, and open.

If you didn't get what you wanted, you can only blame yourself for not making your request clear. It's not my fault! "

"The laws of hell?" Arthur caught the new vocabulary: "What are the laws of hell?"

Agares snorted: "I told you that you wouldn't understand, since you are a Scotland Yard policeman, then you can understand the laws of hell as the laws of the world.

In short, it is impossible for me to deceive you on the terms of the transaction, and no devil will dare to deceive you in this regard.

Anyone who dares to cheat on the laws of hell will be taken back by the power of the laws. "

Arthur raised his eyebrows when he heard the words: "So, all the devils in hell are law-abiding citizens? Shouldn't this kind of place be heaven? How could it be hell?"

"Oh! my dear Arthur."

The Red Devil rubbed his hands and laughed, "If you've been to hell, you'll know. If a living being just obeys the most basic laws, that's not a good thing.

Because that means, he'll do everything outside of the law, are you really sure that's a good thing?

For example, Barr, collecting feces is not against the laws of hell, and eating feces is certainly not against the law, but can you stand your neighbor doing this every day?

If you can bear it, I can sell you my villa in hell right now. Let's sign the contract now, ten souls, the price is fair and cheap.

You may not know, just because he built a manure dump restaurant next to my house, so that thousands of flies have a party there every night.

I have hung that house in hell for thousands of years, but no one cares about it. You know, my house was originally a high-end villa area! "

Arthur curled his lips: "I thought you and Barr had some personal grievances, but I didn't expect there to be economic disputes. Agares, it seems that I don't know you well enough."

Agares waved his hand generously: "It's okay. As you said to Adam before, let the past let it go. As time goes by, I believe we can definitely form a good partnership. Asia Ser, be less wary of me, I don't always try to trick you."

Arthur put the passport of the Royal Society in his pocket: "Your words are enough to make me worry. Forget it, let's talk here today, I have to go to the Royal Society to find Faraday."

"Why are you looking for him? Isn't he an expert in chemistry and physics? He doesn't understand medicine."

"But he should know, I heard that the medical community is very concerned about the progress of the field of chemistry, and many of them have a deep friendship with chemists.

Mr. Faraday should know some good doctors. Even if he doesn't, I can ask other scientists to help me find out. "

Arthur picked up the bowler hat on the table and walked out of the room, but before he reached the police station, he heard someone stop him.

"Sir, wait a moment, someone called the police just now, saying that two people died on Central Avenue!"

"dead?"

Arthur looked back, and it was a little policeman who was out of breath.

He quickly asked, "What's going on?"

The little police officer stood at attention and saluted, and then hurriedly said: "The Wells Hotel on Central Street reported that two passengers died in their room, and the hotel owner said that the cause of death may be a gas leak.

As soon as we received the police, we sent police officers to seal off the scene according to your instructions at the last working meeting.Look, do you want to go there yourself? "

Upon hearing this, Arthur immediately put on his hat and said, "Take me there immediately!"

……

Ten minutes later, Arthur took Tom and Tony to the Wells Hotel at 10 Central Avenue, Greenwich.

There was a crowd of people in front of the hotel, and Londoners with countless good deeds were looking inside on tiptoes, hoping to understand what happened here.

And the police officers have also followed Arthur's order to pull up a cordon with a rope to prevent unrelated people from approaching.

The police officers patrolling nearby were also urgently transferred here to maintain public order.

"Gentlemen and ladies, please step aside!"

Tom and Tony yelled at the top of their voices as they rushed into the crowd hoping to make a way for Arthur to enter the hotel.

Seeing Arthur's arrival, the patrolling police officers hurriedly stood at attention and saluted: "Inspector Hastings!"

The citizens who were still bustling with each other couldn't help but turn their heads to look at Arthur when they heard the voice.

"He is Arthur Hastings? The young police officer who saved the little boy in court!"

"No mistake! It's written in the papers that Arthur Hastings has been promoted to Superintendent of Greenwich, and that's him!"

"My God! He is so young, tall and handsome, and he is very capable."

They automatically moved out of the way for Arthur, perhaps because they backed away so quickly that they swept Tom and Tony into the crowd.

They howled in horror: "Damn it, let us out!"

Arthur didn't care about the two of them at this time, but walked straight towards the front desk of the hotel on his riding boots.

This is a very narrow aisle. As soon as you enter the front desk, you can see the price list hanging on the wall.

It was written in crooked handwriting——daily evening specials, from 21:5 to [-]:[-] the next day, and only two pennies for overnight rentals.

The waiter at the front desk was a young man in his 20s. When he saw Arthur, he just smiled reluctantly, perhaps because he was frightened by the sudden large number of policemen.

"Mr. Police Officer, please come inside. The deceased is in the room on the second floor, and the rest of the hotel guests have been gathered there as ordered by the police."

Arthur didn't care about this issue first, but kept looking at the price list on the wall, and asked for no reason: "Is your rent so cheap here? I just came back from St. Giles in the West End, and even the hotels there are expensive." To receive threepence a day."

The waiter replied: "It's not always so cheap, don't you see? Only the overnight room in the evening is two pennies.

At that time, the guests who should be staying have basically already moved in. The boss said that the remaining rooms are vacant, so it is better to rent them out at a low price, and at least they can get back their money. "

Arthur asked: "Since all the people who should live in have moved in, who rented these daily rental houses for overnight?"

The waiter shrugged and said: "There will always be someone to live in. After all, such a cheap room is hard to find. Like those beggars who got lucky and got some money, prostitutes looking for a place to pick up customers, or those who just came to London to ask for a living Rural farmers who don’t know the land well and don’t have much money in their pockets.”

When Arthur heard this, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he remembered the missing list of St. Giles parish that he had seen earlier.

He didn't seem to be in a hurry to go in, but asked instead: "I remember that many hotel owners don't seem to welcome these people, right? They think that bringing these people in will affect the reputation of the hotel, and normal guests are also reluctant." Choose to live in their hotel. Why is your boss's way of doing business different from theirs?"

Seeing that the inspector was very amiable, the waiter relaxed his nervousness.

He said, "Who knows? I've persuaded him many times. After all, I have to be responsible for cleaning those daily rented houses after they have been lived in. I've had enough of doing those jobs.

You may not know that the quality of those poor residents is really too low. The sheets and bedding are dirty for them, and some wine bottles and other things are often scattered on the floor.

I have complained to the boss many times, and I told him that sooner or later there will be accidents if this goes on, and even if there is no accident, it is not good for other guests to see.

But he just didn't listen to me. He said he had his own ideas, and I was just a part-time worker, so I shouldn't meddle in so many other things.

He thinks that the overnight room is from 21 o'clock to 5 o'clock in the morning of the next day, and other guests are sleeping at this time.

As long as the beggars and prostitutes come after the guests go to sleep and leave before the guests get up, there will be no problem.

But lo and behold, what happened?
There were no problems in the first two months, and our boss, Mr. Wells, was also hardworking. He insisted on throwing them out before five o'clock in the morning every day.

But what about today?As soon as I opened the door today, I found two overnight hookers dead in the room.

Mr. Wells is just too arrogant. He has only been a hotel owner for a few months, but I have been a waiter for five years.

In my opinion, it is definitely not possible to do business like him. "

Upon hearing this, Arthur took out a penny from his pocket and put it on the desk at the front desk: "Thank you for your information, good citizen."

The waiter was taken aback by Arthur's sudden appearance. He picked up the coins on the table, looked at the back of Arthur going up the stairs, pondered for a long time, and then spoke.

"Mr. Constable, don't worry, I can talk about two pennies!"

(End of this chapter)