shadow of britain

Chapter 66 Special Authorization
In the office of the Ministry of the Interior, Arthur sat in a chair, his police uniform was covered with rain, and the water dripped from his hair.

His lips looked blue, and his hands clenched into fists on his knees trembled slightly.

From Arthur's solemn expression, Sir Peel could see something was wrong.

Sir Peel made eye contact with the Duke of Wellington, who was leaning on the sofa and sipping sherry, and then asked with a gentle smile, "Officer Arthur, what's wrong with you?"

Arthur took a deep breath, and he said bluntly: "I hope you can authorize me and my subordinate Greenwich Police District to fully investigate the disappearance of St. Giles Parish."

"The St. Giles parish disappearance?"

Sir Peel thought about it for a while, and it took him a long time to remember that Scotland Yard seemed to have reported such a thing to him.

Although he, the Minister of the Interior, is in charge of Scotland Yard, he has been busy with the struggle between the two parties during this period, so he has never taken this matter to heart.

Now that he remembered, he hurriedly rummaged through the thick file boxes on the desktop.

He searched for about two or three minutes before he pulled out a page of the report from a thick stack of materials.

Sir Peel glanced through it quickly, and immediately put the page of the report in front of Arthur.

"Is that what you're talking about? Reports from two months ago that St. Giles Parish has lost a few whores and beggars."

Arthur lowered his head and glanced at the report, and his mind, which had calmed down after being drenched in the rain for a long time, suddenly became hot again.

He seemed to be slowly beginning to understand why Agares hadn't let him pursue the case before.

The words of the Red Devil echoed in his ears.

—Arthur, why do you think Scotland Yard didn't investigate the case?
——Listen to me, don't touch it, or if you are not careful, you may fall to pieces!

——Some things are better if you don’t know than to know!
—You don't have the ability to know.

These bastards!
Arthur took a deep breath, his current mood was like an ancient well without waves, except for drowning a few people, nothing could cause waves in his heart.

"Sir, I am compelled to inform you that the St Giles disappearance is not just a matter of a few prostitutes and beggars, it involves at least 45 people.

The scope of its involvement is not only the West End of London. The day before yesterday, there was also a murder related to the disappearance in my jurisdiction.

According to the confession of an accomplice, these missing persons are all related to "killing and selling corpses", and their modus operandi is also highly similar to the Edinburgh "Burke gang" that shocked the whole of Great Britain two years ago.

Londoners are still under death threat, with the body of a new victim found at St Thomas' Hospital at King's College this morning.

If we cannot bring these villains to justice as soon as possible, I am worried that as the number of missing people increases, the relevant information will soon be exposed by the media, and the subsequent adverse effects will be immeasurable. "

Sir Peel couldn't help frowning when he heard this. He glanced at the report in his hand, then at Arthur, and asked.

"Are you sure everything is true?"

Arthur took off his hat, touched the police badge of Scotland Yard and swore: "I swear on my honor and conscience that everything I said is true."

Upon hearing this, Sir Peel slammed the report in his hand on the desk, and cursed at the door.

"Send someone to No. 4 Whitehall Street immediately, and those superintendents called Scotland Yard who are lazy than Belphegor come to see me immediately!

I have to ask them carefully why the report from two months ago is still on my desk after such a big case! "

Just when Sir Peel was angry, the Duke of Wellington stood up suddenly. He took out the bottle of Andalusian sherry from the cupboard, added some for himself, poured another glass and put it away. In front of Arthur.

Arthur was taken aback by the goblet that suddenly appeared in front of him. He turned his head to look at the old gentleman with brown hair and asked, "Who is this?"

The Duke of Wellington pointed to the goblet at him: "Come on, young man. You look like you just came off the battlefield."

Arthur was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then forced a smile.

"I really seem to have just come off the battlefield. Perhaps only on the battlefield can I see such a tragic scene."

Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington couldn't help asking, "What did you see?"

"I……"

Arthur was silent for a while: "I saw a very good friend die beside me, but I couldn't do anything about her death, I could just stand there and watch, but I couldn't do anything.

I'm a cop and I thought the cops existed to stop these things from happening, but it just happened one after the other.This is my dereliction of duty, I feel very ashamed, and... also very sorry..."

When Sir Peel heard this, he suddenly thought of what Arthur said before.

"You just said that a victim was found at St. Thomas' Hospital this morning... Could it be that..."

When the Duke of Wellington heard this, he suddenly asked.

"Young man, as a policeman, you should be ashamed of your inability to stop crime.

And you just said that you want to be in charge of the entire investigation of this case.

But I remember that the Diocese of St. Giles belongs to the West End of London, so it shouldn't belong to your jurisdiction?
If you leapfrog like this, if you are placed in the army, it will be counted as disobeying orders. "

When Sir Peel heard this, his open mouth slowly closed, and he just smiled and looked at everything in front of him.

Arthur took a deep breath and stood up, knowing that the final test was coming.

"I don't think that counts as disobedience."

The Duke of Wellington swung his wine glass: "Give me a reason."

Arthur said: "Mr. Duke, because time is tight, I don't want to lose half of the war before it starts!"

Wellington was taken aback when he heard this, because what Arthur said just now was the famous saying he left behind when he disobeyed the order of the Ministry of War during the Peninsula War.

He was surprised: "How do you know who I am?"

Arthur said calmly: "Being able to sit comfortably in Sir Peel's office shows that your status is not low.

Being able to pick up wine here at will shows that you have a very close relationship with him.

You mentioned the military, indicating that you were in the military.

According to your age, this curly hair and blue eyes, and your tailored casual clothes.

I can only guess that you are Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, nicknamed 'The Playboy' as a young man who won the Battle of Waterloo. "

When Sir Peel heard this, he couldn't help standing up and applauding Arthur: "Officer Arthur, what a beautiful reasoning."

The Duke of Wellington also nodded rarely. He raised his glass and clinked it with Arthur's: "Young man, it seems that entrusting you to investigate does not really count as violating orders. You just have the ability."

"So..." Sir Peel glanced at the Duke of Wellington with a smile: "Mr. Duke?"

The Duke of Wellington nodded and said: "Mr. Hastings, you have won this opportunity, and we have specially authorized you."

Arthur asked: "Is this a special authorization from the Ministry of the Interior?"

"No no no."

The Duke of Wellington took out a pen from his coat pocket, and a piece of paper from Sir Peel's desk. He wrote a few strokes on it, and then folded the paper in half and stuffed it into Arthur's breast pocket.

"Go to Scotland Yard and tell them that the special mandate comes from Arthur Wellesley, former Lord Chief of the British Army, now Prime Minister and First Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."

The Duke of Wellington watched Arthur leave the office, and still couldn't help but relish Arthur's reasoning just now.

"Robert, don't tell me. This young man named Arthur seems to be quite capable. He guessed my identity in a few clicks. It seems that if the case is entrusted to him for investigation, there will be no problems."

Sir Peel couldn't help laughing when he heard the words, he said: "I have always trusted Officer Arthur's ability, but not because of his reasoning this time, but because of his speech level that can turn decay into magic."

The Duke of Wellington was puzzled: "Speaking level?"

Sir Peel nodded, then pointed to his chest and said: "Mr. Duke, if you want to ask someone's identity next time, you should put the pocket watch with your name engraved on it in your pocket first. "

(End of this chapter)