shadow of britain

Chapter 59 The Study of Gases

The second floor of Wells Hotel.

The room at the scene of the crime was crowded with people, all of whom were tourists living here.

According to Arthur's orders, all passengers were detained in the hotel until the investigation of the crime scene was completed.

The police officers who arrived here in advance had already completed the interrogation of everyone. Seeing Arthur coming at this time, they happened to submit the investigation records in their hands to their superiors.

"Sir, this is the information collected so far, please go through it."

Arthur took the documents and did not check them immediately, but glanced at the layout of the room first.

This is a relatively narrow and irregular room with simple furnishings, a bed barely big enough for two people to lie down normally, a bedside table for storing sundries, and an extinguished gas lamp on the cabinet.

Directly opposite the door is a wooden sun window with black curtains, and under the window is an iron pot about two inches high.

The two deceased were lying on the bed, their faces were covered by white cloths, and some yellow and white vomit remained on the washed white sheets and pillowcases.

Arthur sniffed lightly with his nose, and there was indeed a faint smell of gas in the room.

Arthur flipped through the documents in his hand, and asked while flipping through, "Have you checked the body of the deceased?"

The patrolman nodded and said: "After inspection, the deceased did not have any wounds on his body, and there was no trace of fighting at the scene, so we preliminarily judged that he did not die of a violent crime.

And there is indeed a gas smell on site, you may not feel it so obvious now, but when we first came, the house was full of that smell, and it took a long time to open the windows to let the smell fade away.

Sir, I think it's almost time to close the case. There's nothing more to investigate about a gas leak accident. "

As soon as the patrolman finished speaking, the passengers standing outside the door also demanded: "That's right! Close the case quickly, we have been locked here for more than two hours, and the big guys still have their own things to do Woolen cloth!"

The burly middle-aged man standing next to the patrolman also said with a smile on his face: "Yes, the guests have something to do, and I have to open the door to do business too! Mr. Police Officer, you may not know that the rent on Central Avenue is very high." It’s cheap, and my monthly profit is only a few days’ rent, if I miss one day of business, I’ll have to pay for it this month.”

Arthur looked up at the middle-aged man: "So, you are the hotel owner, Mr. Wells?"

The middle-aged man took off his hat and put it on his chest, nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, Inspector Hastings."

Arthur closed the data book and asked, "How do you know I'm a police inspector, not a sheriff?"

"Uh..." Wells paused for a moment, then pointed to Arthur's epaulets and said, "You have a star on it. I remember that sheriffs all have triple V's. That's how I saw it."

"Oh, is that so?" Arthur returned the information book to the patrolman on the side: "I thought you heard about it from my colleagues, but I didn't expect you to know how to identify Scotland Yard's epaulettes. What's the matter? Have you worked at Scotland Yard before?"

"Uh..." Wells' smile froze, but he quickly waved his hands in denial: "No, no, no, I haven't worked in Scotland Yard, but I have a nephew who used to stay there, I learned from him Heard it there."

When Arthur heard this, he didn't continue to ask. He just stared at Wells, and then walked into the room and lifted the white cloth covering the face of the deceased.

The deceased's face was covered with pale makeup, and under the pale skin, it could be seen that her face was slightly purple and blue.

Arthur frowned and thought about it. He suddenly remembered some knowledge about chemical gases that they exchanged privately after Faraday's speech that day.

He stretched out two fingers to pry open the closed mouth of the dead man, put his nose up and sniffed, and there was a faint sweet smell in the dead man's mouth.

Seeing this situation, the onlookers couldn't help wondering, "What is this for?"

"Mr. Inspector, hurry up, we are all in a hurry."

But in a place where the passengers didn't notice, the hotel owner Wells slightly opened his frightened eyes.

But Arthur ignored them, and went straight to Wells, the hotel owner.

"Mr. Wells, you stated in your testimony that the deceased died from a gas leak?"

Arthur's body was blocked between the window and Wells, and the room was filled with sunlight, but when he came to Wells, all he saw was shadows.

Wells' Adam's apple twitched slightly, he swallowed, and nodded slowly: "Yes, I think they may have died from a gas leak."

"Why do you think so?"

When Wells heard this, his eyes slowly widened, and he suddenly said furiously: "Isn't this something on the table! The person died, and there was a smell of gas in the room. What else could it be because of the gas leak?
Police officer, do you know how to investigate cases? If you don't, then find someone who can!There are so many police officers in Scotland Yard, can't they find one who can handle it!
You can just call the old sheriff from the past, he did a good job, young people like you should learn more from him! "

"Old sheriff? You mean Willox?" Arthur suddenly smiled: "How did he handle the case?"

Wells spat furiously: "What to do! You are a policeman, and you still want to ask me how to handle the case? Damn it! Efficient, fast, and not delaying business, this kind of police officer is what we poor citizens want needs!"

After finishing speaking, he still didn't forget to clamor to the passengers behind him: "Do you guys think what I said is right?"

Agares, who had been riding on the window to watch the show, couldn't help laughing when he saw this scene, his tongue almost fell to the ground.

The Red Devil taunted: "This idiot! He almost wrote the words 'I killed people' on his face, and got angry when his tricks were exposed. I can't think of anything other than 'incompetent'." an adjective to describe him."

The onlookers were also baffled by Wells' unreasonable rage.

Someone smoothed things over and said, "Mr. Police Officer, it's almost enough. You see, Mr. Wells lost his temper."

"It was just an ordinary accident, nothing to investigate."

When Arthur saw this situation, he didn't say much, but calmly said to the police officer beside him: "Bring the hotel owner Wells back to the police station."

Several police officers were taken aback for a moment, but Tom and Tony reacted quickly at the critical moment. They rushed up one by one, and pushed Wells to the ground from left to right.

Wells was waving his arms angrily on the ground. He stuck his foot three inches below Tony's navel, struggling to get up and run away.

Tony was in pain for a moment, clutching his stomach and rolling to the side on the floor, he scolded as he rolled, "Damn it! What are you doing in a daze, push him down quickly. Fuck! I'm not married yet..."

The other police officers also reacted at this time, and four or five people swarmed up, suppressing Wells like a pile of Arhats.

Wells roared with red eyes: "Why do you arrest me? I didn't kill anyone!"

Arthur knelt down and asked, "Did I say you killed someone?"

"I..." As soon as Arthur uttered these words, Wells' swear words were immediately blocked in his throat.

The passengers were shocked by the sudden scene in front of them. They didn't know why the peaceful situation last second suddenly became like this.

"Mr. Police Officer, can you explain to us what happened?"

Arthur pointed to the two dead men lying on the bed and said.

"As far as I know, if the deceased died of gas poisoning, there should be a strong foul smell in her mouth.

But just now, not only did I not smell the bad smell from the mouth of the deceased, but I smelled a slightly sweet breath.

Moreover, the face of the deceased did not leave any fuchsia-red spots consistent with gas poisoning, but turned slightly blue and purple.

That's why I plan to ask Mr. Wells back to the police station for further investigation.But I don't know why Mr. Wells suddenly became angry, and I wonder about it. "

Having said that, Arthur turned his head to Wells: "I have explained everything I should explain, can you explain to me now the reason for your anger?"

When the passengers heard this, they all fell silent. They looked at Wells suspiciously, and whispered voices one after another.

"My God! So it might be a murder?"

"The hotel owner killed two whores?"

"I..." Wells' lips were trembling, his mind was in a mess, and his whole body was trembling: "I, I thought you wanted to arrest me, Mr. Police Officer, this is all a misunderstanding."

Arthur shrugged: "I also hope that this is all a misunderstanding. Before everything comes to light, I also tend to think that you are innocent. So, in order to find out the truth, please cooperate as much as possible."

He held out his hand to Wells.

Wells forced an ugly smile, and before he could hold Arthur's hand, he heard Arthur's voice sound again.

"Send at once to the London Gas Lamp and Coke Company in Westminster, that cylinder by the window bears their label, and find out when it was delivered.

In addition, immediately send someone to the nearby store to inquire and ask if they are selling nitrous oxide.If they sell it, get their ledger and see if anyone has bought a lot of it recently.

By the way, it also has another name called 'laughing gas'. The taste of this thing is slightly sweet. If it is taken too much, it will have a strong anesthetic effect, which is the same as the symptoms of the victim.

I deduce that the victim must have taken too much of this stuff, causing him to lose consciousness, and was finally smothered to death with a pillow on the bed.

When you investigated the scene, you were too careless. Two people lived in one room, but there was only one pillow in the room. Why didn't this kind of thing be written in the investigation record?
and also……"

The more Wells listened, the more he felt chills all over his body. His lips and teeth were trembling, and he lost all strength, and his whole body collapsed to the ground like mud.

Arthur glanced at him, and asked with a smile: "Mr. Wells, don't worry, I don't know why criminals want to kill people. Do you know anything about this? Nitrous oxide is not cheap. Lost a can of gas.

By the way, you mentioned Willox just now, and you said that he came to investigate before. Did similar cases happen in this hotel before? "

(End of this chapter)