Part 1 The Joker Chapter 120 The House of the Poor
”There is a transcendental factor ……,” Klein’s eye color returned to normal, looking sideways at Leonard and Frye.
Leonard suddenly let out a laugh:
”Very professional, not bad for a soothsayer.”
As if you are implying something …… Klein muttered without making a sound.
Frye opened the leather case and took out the silver knife and other things, and paused for a few seconds:
”The body tells me that she did die of a sudden heart attack …… Do you have a way of divining more details?”
Klein nodded seriously:
”I can try a combination of the ‘psychic’ ritual and ‘dream divination’, and hopefully I can get something out of Mrs. Lauwers’ residual spirituality.”
Frye kept his icy introspection and took two steps backward and said:
”You try first.”
He inclined his head at Klein and suddenly sighed in a tone that had no rise or fall, “You’re getting used to occasions like this.”
I didn’t want to …… Klein had the urge to cry, and took out the pure dew, essential oils, and herbal powders to be used one by one, quickly completing the setup of the “psychic” ceremony.
In the center of the spiritual wall, he chanted the name of the goddess of the night and made a prayer in Hermetic.
Soon the wind swirled around him and the light dimmed.
Crane, whose eyes had gone all black, seized the opportunity and repeated a silent recitation of the divinatory statement:
”Mrs. Lovis’s death.”
”The cause of Mrs. Lauwers’ death.”
……
He stood and entered the dream world, “seeing” the transparent spirit that hovered in a blur around the body.
Then he stretched out his illusory right hand and touched it to the lingering spirit of Mrs. Lovis.
In an instant, light exploded before his eyes, and a single image flashed.
It was a woman with a yellow face and ragged clothes busily gluing matchboxes;
That was her suddenly pausing and covering her chest;
That is her talking to her two children;
That’s her body swaying slightly and gasping for air;
That she was suddenly tapped when she went to buy black bread;
That’s her showing signs of having heart problems over and over again;
That she felt so tired that she lay down on her bed and never woke up.
Klein scrutinized every detail, trying to find traces of the presence of the Transcendental Factor.
But by the time it was all over, he still hadn’t gotten a clear enough clue.
The blur and haze shattered, and Klein exited the dream and returned to reality.
He lifted off the wall of spirituality and said to the waiting Fry and the watching Leonard:
”There are no direct symbols, most of the images reveal that Mrs. Lauwers suffered from an early heart condition, only one is different from the others, Mrs. Lauwers is being slapped from behind, the hand is white and slender and appears to belong to a female.”
”It is not easy for such a family to go to the doctor until it is most serious, even if it is only to queue up at a free charitable medical organization, and time cannot be afforded to be lost; one day they do not work, and the next day they may have no food.” Leonard sighed in a poetically sentimental tone.
Fry glanced at the body on the bed with it and exhaled softly.
Without waiting for Klein to speak, Leonard quickly switched states and said as if he was thinking:
”Do you mean that the transcendental factor exists in the moment Mrs. Lauwers was slapped, originating from the young lady or lady with the slender hands?”
Klein nodded his head and replied:
”Yes, but that’s just my interpretation; divination is often vague.”
Without further discussion, he and Leonard each retreated to the other side of the floor, leaving Frye undisturbed to retrieve aids and materials from the leather case for further examination.
They waited a few moments while Frye gathered up the various things, cleaned and covered them up, and turned his head:
”There is no question that the cause of death was natural heart disease.”
Hearing this conclusion, Leonard paced back and forth a few times, even going as far as the door, before speaking:
”That’s enough for now, let’s go to the West End Home for the Poor and see if we can find any other clues to see if the two deaths can be connected.”
”Well, that’ll have to do.” Pressing back the doubts that filled his mind, Klein spoke up in agreement.
Frye lifted his suitcase and half-walked, half-hopped through the two floor bunks without stepping on anyone else’s covers.
Leonard opened the door to his room and took the lead, addressing Lovis and the tenant:
”You can go home now.”
Klein thought for a moment and added:
”Don’t rush the body to burial, wait another day and perhaps a thorough examination.”
”Yes, yes, Officer.” Laowis bowed his body slightly and replied busily, then said, half numb, half bewildered, “Actually, I actually can’t afford to bury her for the time being, I still have to save up for a few more days, save up for a few more days, luckily, luckily the weather has cooled down lately.”
Klein said offhandedly in surprise:
”You’re going to leave the body in the room for days?”
Laowes squeezed out a smile and said:
”Well, fortunately, fortunately it’s been cooler lately, so I can put the body on the table at night and carry her to bed when it’s time to eat ……”
Before he could finish his sentence, Fry suddenly interrupted:
”I left the burial expenses beside your wife.”
Then, dropping such a flat remark, he ignored Lovis’s startled expression and the thanks that followed, and walked briskly to the apartment door.
Crane followed close behind, keeping one question in mind:
If the weather had remained as hot as it had been in June and July, what would Rauwes have done with his wife’s body?
Find a very dark and windy night and sneak the body into the Tassock or Hoy River? Or dig a hole anywhere and bury it?
Klein knew that “must be buried in the cemetery” is more than a thousand years ago, in the last era of the last era, the seven churches and the royal family of each country in order to reduce and eliminate the water ghosts, zombies and ghosts.
The specific implementation method is that each country provides free land, and each church is responsible for guarding or inspecting the land, and only charges a small fee for the cremation and burial process to pay for the necessary labor.
But even then, it was still somewhat unaffordable to the truly poor.
After leaving 134 Lower Iron Cross Street, the three night watchmen separated from Beech Mountbatten and turned in silence toward the West End Home for the Poor, located on a nearby street.
Just as they neared there, Klein saw a long line of people lined up, the same condition as the people of the great eating countries on Earth lining up for the Netflix store, with people crowding each other.
”That’s over a hundred, no, close to two hundred people.” He whispered in surprise, seeing the queue of people all with tattered clothing and numb expressions, only occasionally peering anxiously at the entrance to the House of the Poor.
Fry slowed his pace, his air cold and somber:
”The number of homeless and poor people that each poorhouse can accept each day is limited, and can only be selected in the order of the queue, of course, the poorhouse will do the identification and not allow those who do not meet the conditions to enter.”
”This also has the factor of the recession in recent months ……,” Leonard sighed.
”Those who don’t get a place in line will have to find their own way in?” Klein asked subconsciously.
”They can also take their chances at other Jejunums, different Jejunums open at different times, however, they will all have the same long lines, some of them, waiting at two in the afternoon.” Frye paused and said, “The rest will mostly starve for a day, so that they will also lose the ability to find work, and fall into a vicious cycle that leads straight to death, and those who can’t afford it will give up their adherence to goodness ……”
Klein was silent for a few seconds and exhaled:
”Newspapers never print that …… Mr. Frye, it’s rare to hear you talk so much.”
”I used to be a priest at the Goddess’s House of the Poor.” Fry remained in that icy state.
The scantily clad trio arrived at the entrance of the West End House of the Poor without incident, showed their papers to the gatekeeper who arrogantly surveyed the queue of people, and were ushered inside the House of the Poor.
The home was converted from an outdated church, and inside the mass hall there were mats, hammocks, and the smell of sweat mixed with the stench of feet filled every corner.
Inside and outside the hall there were a lot of homeless poor people, partly wielding hammers and breaking stones, partly picking wadding from old ropes, and there was not a single one of them free.
”In order to prevent the poor from relying on relief and turning into scoundrels, the Law of Relief of the Poor of 1336 stipulates that each poor person can only stay in the poorhouse for a maximum of five days, beyond which they will be thrown out, and during these five days, they have to labor as well, hammering stones or picking wadding from the ropes, which is the inevitable project of those criminals in the prison.” Frye introduced Klein and Leonard without the slightest emotion.
Leonard opened his mouth, and finally said, not knowing whether it was a sneer or a statement, “If you leave this poorhouse, you can still go to another, of course, you may not be able to live in it again …… Heh, maybe in the eyes of some people, the poor are equal to criminals.”
”…… picking rope floss?” Klein asked in a moment of silence, not knowing what to ask.
”The fibers in old rope are excellent for filling in the seams of ships.” Frye paused to find the blackened ground.
They waited a few minutes and the headmaster and the priest of the Poorhouse arrived, both men in their forties.
”Is this where Sauls set the fire and only ended up burning himself?” Leonard said, pointing to the mass of marks on the ground.
The Dean of the House of the Poor, a man with a broad, slightly convex forehead, swept his blue eyes in the direction Inspector Mitchell was pointing and nodded affirmatively:
”Yes.”
”Prior to that, what unusual behavior did Soles exhibit?” Klein asked, adding.
The head of the Relief House thought for a moment and said:
”According to the people who slept next to him, Soles had been chanting words such as ‘The Lord has forsaken me’, ‘This world is too filthy and dirty’, ‘I have nothing left ‘ and other words full of resentment and despair, but no one thought that he intended to break all the kerosene lamps and set the place on fire while everyone was asleep, and thank the Lord that someone caught him in time and put a stop to his wickedness.”
Klein and Leonard successively sought out a few more of the paupers who had slept next to Soles last night, and sought out the guards who had prevented the tragedy, but only received answers that were not much different from the information.
Of course, they secretly used psychic vision and divination to confirm whether the other party was lying.
”It looks like Soles has long had revenge and self-destruction on his mind, a case that seems to be quite normal.” Leonard let the dean and the priest leave and commented first.
Klein weighed in:
”My divination also tells me that there are no transcendental factors at play in this case.”
”Rule out the Soles arson case for now.” Leonard concluded.
Just then, Fry suddenly spoke up:
”No, perhaps there is another possibility, for example, Soles was abetted by someone else, that person was an Extraordinary, but didn’t use Transcendent means.”
Klein’s eyes lit up as he listened, and immediately agreed:
”It’s possible, for example, that instigator from before!”
”The instigator,” Tris!
But that can’t be linked to the death of Mrs. Lauwers …… he thought with a slight frown.