Part 1 THE JOKER Chapter 147 Late Night Visitors
Inside the private detective agency.
”Sir, your commission is complete.” Henry, the tobacco and alcohol-voiced private detective, looked at the gentleman in front of him wearing a black tuxedo, a half-height silk bowler hat and a dark face-concealing mask, and said as if he was relieved, “It was a thankless task; it wasn’t difficult, but it took too much of our energy, and frankly, I regret it very much, and I regret that I had previously offered a price that was too low.”
No, no matter what you say, I will not pay even one penny extra! Klein emphasized in his mind and pointed to the thick stack of documents on the coffee table, “This is the investigation report?”
”Yes.” Henry sighed as he pressed down on the investigation report, which was at least sixty pages long, “This is the most troublesome …… thing I’ve ever done.”
No sooner had he said that than he saw Klein handing over four one pound bills and attention was diverted to recognizing their authenticity.
”Here’s the full final payment.” Klein reached out and held the thick survey.
Henry coughed twice and said:
”You are such an honest and trustworthy gentleman, hey, I didn’t expect at all at the very beginning that the investigation report would use so much paper, it’s completely out of my budget.”
Just then, Klein picked up the very thick investigation report and brushed himself up.
He bowed slightly and immediately lifted his cane and walked to the front door.
Detective Henry’s follow-up words just got caught in his throat.
Hey, how could I possibly pay for the paper overhead for the investigation report? It’s included in the overall commission fee! Klein touched the remaining five pounds eight sous of his private money, muttered inwardly, and walked briskly down to Besieker Street.
He first looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to him before he smartly left the area and found a chance to unclasp his mask.
Instead of going home now, Klein was going to find a cafe nearby, and quickly organize his investigation report to find out which houses had a turnover of tenants after he had divined the “red chimney”, and then take advantage of the time before dinner to check out some of them.
There were quite a few cafes in the neighborhood, but almost none of them met Crane’s requirements – since steam and machinery had become the symbols of the times, more and more cafes had downgraded themselves into cheap restaurants serving tea, coffee, bread, toast, and lamb stew with young peas to the busy laborers. As a result, decent gentlemen and ladies no longer came to the café to talk things over, no longer using the act as a status symbol, and clubs of all sorts began to appear in place of the café’s original social function.
After walking for a while, Klein finally found a café with a decent environment.
After sitting in a hidden corner booth, he took a sip of his Southwell coffee, which only cost three and two-tenths of a penny, and discreetly flipped through the investigation report.
”…… In the North, East, West, South, Golden Sycamore, Docklands and University districts of Tingen, a total of 1,179 houses have dark red chimneys …… On the outskirts of Tingen, a total of 546 houses have the employer described the kind of red chimneys …… This does not include those towns and villages that are attributed to Tingen but are relatively far away.”
”Below are the addresses of each house with the corresponding landlord and tenant information, gathered in more detail over the last three months as requested by the employer.”
……
Klein scanned through the pages, constantly making notes with his pen on the paper he carried.
In the end, he found that there had been a total of twenty-five houses that had seen a turnover of tenants since he had divined the “red chimney”.
”It’s not too much, I’ll try to finish it within two days, well, I’ve seen the red chimney in my dream divination, and I’ve seen part of that house, so as long as I encounter it again in reality, it will definitely produce spiritual familiarity, so as to confirm the target, to put it simply, I’m a human investigator …… “Klein nodded wordlessly and planned out those fifteen places he would be traveling to today based on the location of the houses.
As for whether such an action was dangerous, he didn’t need divination to get the answer.
Since there was a turnover of tenants, it was a sign that the person behind the scenes who made his fate incongruous and always encountered coincidental events had left!
I wish I could find out from the landlord what the previous tenant looked like …… However, since that guy hiding behind the curtain can influence my fate unknowingly and make coincidences appear seemingly naturally, surely there must be a way to remove the traces of his own existence as well …… Ai, one can only Pray to the Goddess that there will be a certain amount of negligence on that guy’s part …… Klein exhaled, forced himself to pull himself together, put on his silk bowler hat, grabbed his cane and his report, and got up and walked out of the cafe.
Next, he hired a two-wheeled hired carriage at a cost of 2 Soule, and snatched up the fifteen houses with red chimneys and ran through them before dinner; unfortunately, none were the ones he had seen in his dream.
”If tomorrow’s exhumation still yields this result, things will be troublesome, and the fact that he is still living in the red chimney houses …… previously divined by me either shows that he has enough self-confidence not to be afraid of my tracing, or even of the capture of the Tingen City Nightwatchman’s Squad, or it shows that he does not realize that he has been was exposed, and that what later confronted my divination was a power that wasn’t entirely his ……” Crane stood in the doorway of 2 Daffodil Street, analyzing one possibility after another.
After several minutes, he patted some dust from his black tuxedo, pressed the half-height silk bowler hat on top of his head, pulled out his brass key, and opened the door to go home with a smile on his face.
He was going to prepare a lamb casserole and honey roast for Benson and Melissa tonight.
……
At eleven o’clock at night, the three siblings, who had bid each other good night, went into their separate bedrooms.
Klein closed the door to his room, stood up at his desk, and looked out the convex belly window by the light of the gas lamp; at that moment, the neighborhood was dark, with only a few street lamps to guide the way, and the stars high in the sky set in a black curtain, little by little, not quite clear.
”I wonder what Beckland, known as the ‘Land of Hope’ and the ‘Capital of All Capitals’, will be like ……” Klein whispered wordlessly, reaching out to grip the curtain, ready to pull.
Whoops!
Just then, a cold wind blew through without warning, and the glow of the gas lamp suddenly turned an eerie green.
Subconsciously, Klein took a few steps back, and quite professionally instinctively allowed his left tooth to tap twice, while at the same time he leaned violently against the bed in an attempt to reach for the pistol pressed under his pillow.
In his line of vision a face protruded haughtily from the wall below the gas lamp and above the desk, a translucent face with no eyes and no nose but a mouth!
”Don’t shoot.” The face opened and closed its mouth and said.
It could communicate? Klein already had his gun in hand, aiming at his target.
”What do you want?” He asked in a deep voice.
The face let out a soft chuckle and said:
”I’m Daley.”
Daley? “Daley the Psychic? The “psychic” Daley who was transferred to the parish of Birkeland? Klein frowned in confusion:
”Ms. Daley?”
”I know that such a visit is too rude, and I should have informed you in advance so that you could be fully prepared, however, it is not convenient for me to meet you directly right now, so I can only communicate with you through this little one.” The translucent, eyeless, nose-less face gave a laugh.
Although the voice is not right, ethereal and harsh, it is indeed Ms. Daley’s style of speaking …… The ability of the “psychic” is really cool ah …… Klein secretly sighed with emotion, and did not hang down the muzzle of the gun and asked. Down the muzzle of the gun asked:
”Ma’am, what do you want to communicate with me?”
”If I were you, I’d start by sealing the bedroom with spirituality, or else your family will think you’re mentally ill.” The translucent creepy face snickered, “Oh, you don’t need to be so guarded, I returned to Tingen in secret because of a letter from Dunn, you know, the night watchman can’t leave his precinct at will.”
”A letter from the captain?” Crane didn’t go near the desk, but fumbled for the “Holy Night Powder” from a concealed pocket on the inside of his black trench coat on the coat rack.
”Dunn and I were both extraordinary men who grew up in the Nightwatchman’s Squad in Tingen and have always maintained a good relationship with each other, and he sent me a letter last Thursday, yes, Thursday, mentioning you, saying that you’d mimicked the Secret Snooper’s motto and summarized your own ‘Diviner’s Code’ from the act of divination ‘ and claimed that it had effectively helped you master the potion so that there were no more instances of hearing voices you shouldn’t have heard and seeing images you shouldn’t have seen, which, Dunn said, was a lot like me.”
”Oh, you’re really not going to seal the room? Personally, I wouldn’t mind being misunderstood by your brother and sister or something.” The translucent face spoke not too fast or slow to explain.
I see… …… It was indeed Ms. Daley… …… Klein sighed in relief and tucked the “Holy Night Powder” back into his inside pocket, then took a few steps over to his desk and pulled out the ceremonial silver knife from the drawer. silver knife.
Quickly constructing the wall of spirituality, he turned to look at the eerie faces protruding from the wall and said:
”Ms. Daley, what else did the captain say in his letter?”
”He just expressed his doubts, feeling that he grasped something but couldn’t clearly recognize it, and hoped that he could get my opinion.” Daly said, with the aid of an eyeless, nose-less, eerie face, “And as soon as I read that letter this morning, I knew that you were definitely not as clueless as you yourself expressed yourself, huh, Mr. Moretti, and I thought you’d have summed up the playing method!”
”Is that what you came to me for?” Klein asked rhetorically with neither affirmation nor denial.
Daley has clearly known the “playing method”…… he judged calmly in his heart.
Daley let the translucent face show a slightly smiling expression and said:
”Yes.”
”I think we should be honest with each other in this matter, I know that you have summarized the playing method, and you surely know that I have mastered the playing method, hey, what makes it unpleasant is that it took me close to two years before I clearly recognized it, and you, who has only been an extraordinary person for a month and a half.”
Hearing Daley’s words, Klein deliberated for a moment, then smiled frankly and said:
”It’s because I have you as my role model.”
He was about to say, “I’m just standing on the shoulders of giants,” but ultimately decided not to give the Great Rossel the chance to appear in his ears once more.