Part 2 The Faceless Man Chapter 57 Reporters
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Klein held the revolver he rented from the Krager Club in one hand and continuously pulled the trigger, hitting the target accurately, with the worst being more than eight rings.
After being fed with many rounds of bullets, and with the control over his body that he had after becoming a “clown”, his marksmanship was already quite good.
Continue practicing like this for a few months, I can be called a sharpshooter …… Klein satisfactorily opened the rotating wheel, shook out the shells, looked sideways at Talim Dumont in the sound of clinking landing, and asked with a smile:
”Still satisfied?”
”Very well.” Talim, the Equestrian Teacher, had removed his black tweed jacket and light gray sweater and assumed a boxing stance, “Come on, let me know your fighting standard, I can honestly tell you that I was trained as a trainee knight since I was a child, and haven’t deserted it since then.”
As an extraordinary person, if I can’t even beat an ordinary man who has only received training, then, then I won’t be a human being! Klein spat out, didn’t take off his double-breasted long gown, placed his revolver, took two steps sideways, and gestured to Talim that he could begin.
He wanted to hook his fingers and render some atmosphere, but when he thought of his opponent’s strength, he didn’t bother wasting his spirit.
Talim was quite a bit excited by this, and after a few small hops in place, he jerked forward with a quick step and threw a swinging right.
Klein blocked and grabbed with his left hand, and in the meantime, he shortened his body and turned his waist, probed his right palm, and came in for a smooth backbreaker.
Pfft, Talim flew out, landing on his back – Klein hadn’t put any force into it at the end, just threw his opponent away from his body with inertia.
”Awesome!” Talim quickly stood up and gave a thumbs up, “As expected of a renowned detective, your marksmanship and fighting are excellent.”
Just defeated a weak chicken like you, where did you see that I have a high fighting standard? Klein made a belly laugh and asked with a smile:
”Now that you’ve understood, can you tell me what commission your friend wants to do?”
”Oh, he’ll be at the club later, so talk amongst yourselves.” Talim rubbed the side of his back with his backhand, “I don’t know exactly what the commission is, by the way, he’s a reporter, Mike Joseph, a news reporter from the Daily Observer, presumably hoping for short-term protection.”
”Okay.” Crane asked no more questions and continued to practice with his guns, but not just revolvers, but also shotguns, single shot rifles, repeating rifles, making sure that in the future, when he was in a situation, he would be able to fly with whatever firearms were around.
Close to twelve o’clock, he returned to the first floor and went into the cafeteria, grabbing a grilled chicken and a pan-seared bratwurst, as well as the club’s limited supply of cream-cheese h-lobster for the day.
Putting these away, Klein fetched the Fernet Porter paella, fruit salad, oyster consommé, and marquis black tea.
In the face of this sumptuous lunch, he couldn’t help but swallow his saliva and praised the goddess in his heart.
If he ate out, I’m afraid this meal would cost 3 Sule …… Klein alternated between silver knives, forks and spoons, and ate with great satisfaction.
He had almost finished fixing the food on the table when Talim Dumont approached leading a man in a heavy overcoat and half-high bowler hat.
”Detective Moriarty, this is the friend I was talking about, Mike Joseph, Mike, and this is the well-known great detective, Mr. Sherlock Moriarty.” Talim smiled as he introduced both parties.
”Nice to meet you.” Mike removed his hat and curtsied.
He was close to thirty years old in appearance, with rather sparse eyebrows, rather rough skin, and unusually visible pores.
However, his features were quite nice, his azure eyes were especially attractive, and with the addition of two nice moustaches, he had a nice touch of maturity.
Klein couldn’t help but touch the stubble that had thickened and multiplied around his own lips, got up and invited the other to sit down, and said with a smile:
”Today’s cream cheese h lobster is not bad, you guys can try it.”
”Okay.” Without excusing himself, Mike Joseph took his dinner plate, circled around and took a lot of food.
”He came over in a hurry and hasn’t had lunch yet.” Talim smiled and explained for his friend and placed a stack of newspapers on the table.
”I can see that.” Klein set aside his knife and fork, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and leisurely sipped his black tea.
He had eaten a very satisfying meal just now.
At that moment, Mike Joseph walked back with two plates of food, took a few quick bites to pad his stomach, and then looked up at Klein:
”Detective Moriarty, have you heard about the recent serial killings?”
”The ones that took the entrails?” Klein asked briefly back in his mind.
Next to him, Talim nodded his head and lamented:
”Sure enough, every detective is following this serial murder case.”
Mike, on the other hand, flipped out one of the newspapers and pushed it to Klein, “Here’s the latest report.”
Klein took it and realized that it was none other than the Daily Observer, the newspaper Mike worked for, and they wrote on the front page:
”11! Another Lady Murdered! West Villas Field at its wits’ end!”
–The Birkeland Police Department is headquartered on West Vilas Street, on the edge of Queens, so they’ve been nicknamed “West Vilas Field.” 11?
Eleven?The eleventh case? Resisting the urge to frown, Klein read down the page in confusion, and found that, just like the one he had encountered, the targets were female, all wearing long, gaudy dresses, and had been disemboweled to remove their internal organs.
This is a case with obvious traces of devil worship, West Velasco field must have been transferred to the night watchman, the vicarious punishment or the mechanical heart squad, they want to divination have divination, want to psychic have psychic, but also has all kinds of strange and effective extraordinary means, how come so far have not yet solved the case, did not catch the criminal? That guy has rich “anti-detection” ability and destroyed the soul of the deceased? Or maybe the soul of the deceased was taken along with the internal organs, which was necessary for the demonic ritual? Well, he can certainly interfere with divination …… also, “demon” path of the extraordinary without similar ability, how dare serial killings …… Klein thoughtfully to Mike Joseph said. said:
”You want to do a private investigation?”
”I’m sorry, I can’t take it on, not without an invitation from the police, I have to maintain good relations with them.”
By good relations, I mean relations that invite me to the police station for tea …… Klein spat to himself.
The real reason for his refusal was that getting involved in the investigation of this serial murder case could easily run into the official Extraordinary Ones, among which might be the Night Watchers of the Church of the Goddess’ Diocese of Birkeland.
”No, it’s not an investigation, no, the exact description is that it’s not an investigation to find the killer, I’m just trying to finish my story.” Mike Joseph explained as he finished swallowing the shrimp.
”Report?” Klein asked as he set down his white glazed porcelain teacup and crossed his arms in a leisurely stance.
Mike Joseph said:
”If you buy the Daily Observer tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, you will see an in-depth report I did on the serial killings, and one of the most important parts of it is to reveal what the victims have in common and to alert similar groups of people.”
”Well, what are the commonalities?” Klein asked curiously.
Mike took a sip of his coffee and said, “Aside from being female and wearing long, colorful dresses, there is one other very important commonality. I did a deep dive into the occupations of the victims and found something interesting.”
”Some of them were maids, some of them were weavers, some of them were seamstresses, some of them were schoolmistresses, and on the surface, there was no overlap whatsoever, but in reality, all of them had been working as street girls.”
”Street girls? Governesses?” Klein asked back with slight consternation.
In the Kingdom of Ruin, teachers were part of the middle class and were paid a minimum of two pounds a week, enough to make a decent living for a lady who had absolutely no need to work as a streetwalker.
Mike moved the corner of his mouth and sighed:
”It was once, and they probably all had very hard times before they found work that could support them.”
”I’ve done a survey before, in Bakerland, one in six women between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five are working or have worked as a streetwalker, heh, this is our country, all foreigners who come here will feel amazed that a very conservative country, a bustling metropolis, is full of streetwalkers. ” (Note 1)
This, this data is a bit exaggerated ah …… If it’s true, it can only be said that reality is more exaggerated than fiction …… This damn world …… Klein was staggered for a while, thought about it, and deliberately said:
”One question is, how did the murderer know that the victims had been working as streetwalkers? It’s not like they had labels on them, and you’d need a deep investigation to find that out.”
”Not bad for a great detective, that might be the clue.” Mike Joseph replied not surprised.
No, if it was an extraordinary person from the “Demon” pathway, then his selection criteria might be the type that looked corrupted but not completely corrupted, and they should have a sharp intuition about corruption, so they might be able to directly see the corresponding in-depth “color”, plus the colorful gowns as a clue. Together with the trigger point of the colorful long dress, the target is basically locked …… Klein answered himself in his mind and turned to ask:
”So, what else do you want to investigate?”
Mike nodded and said:
”In these eleven cases, ten of the ladies had been working as stand-up girls, but one of them wasn’t, and she’s still a prostitute now, well, it’s the youngest, only sixteen years old, Shibel, which seems strange and odd, and I’d like to go to ‘The Golden Rose’, that’s the place where she, er, she works, and do a a deeper investigation to see if I can find out anything.”
”I’m worried that inquiring will annoy the people there, so I’m going to ask you to protect me for a short time; you don’t need to teach them a lesson, just protect me from escaping at the most critical moment.”
”I’ll pay you a pound if nothing happens, if there’s a fight then that goes up to five pounds, what’s your opinion?”
Klein grinned:
”I’ll go wash my hands and reply.”
He owed a polite bow and made his way slowly to the lavatory before flipping a coin and receiving an affirmative answer.
Footnote 1: This is a late Victorian statistic about London.