Part 2 The Faceless Man Chapter 97 The Air Pollution Investigation Committee
Sir Des Shaw? Mr. Hibbert Hall? Who’s all this with, no acquaintance at all …… Crane pretended he had no doubts, half-jokingly:
”Let’s hope they bring blue skies and sunshine to Birkeland.”
”Yes, while it is every man’s liberty and right by law to burn anything in his own fireplace, blue skies and sunshine are things more to be desired.” Luke Sommer, a member of the Soot Abatement Society, echoed the sentiment, pointing to the rented wagon, “We should get over there, Mary desperately needs some help.”
Starling Sommer, in turn, added with mock reserve:
”There may be councilors coming to the feast, from the Birkeland Region, or, for that matter, the Kingdom.”
”One can only imagine the magnitude of the feast.” Klein gave a polite compliment and watched the Sommer’s get into their car to leave.
Just as he turned his body around, ready to head to the mailbox at the end of the street, a mailman in a dark green uniform arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, dropping a letter into the letterbox at his door.
A letter for me? Klein pulled out a set of keys and casually chose the one with the antique shape and almost brass color.
Click!
The “master key” opened the mailbox with ease.
From now on, I can only carry this key out of the house …… Klein grunted, and took out his newspaper subscription and the letter he had just received.
The letter was from Eisinger Stanton.
He had also gone through the stale unsolved serial murder cases yesterday, picked out a few of the most suspicious ones, and through the police department, initially confirmed the current status of the corresponding suspects, so he wrote to private detectives interested in this direction, such as Klein and Kaslana, to share his gains.
This happened to include the two cases that Klein focused on.
The well-known great detective sees the same thing ah …… I just wrote the letter for nothing …… Klein flirted with himself and reentered the living room.
According to Eisinger’s description, the case of the random murder of the latecomer lined up a lot of people, but never managed to lock in the suspects, and after a lapse of many years, it was already very difficult and almost hopeless to find clues again.
Of the four suspects in the other case, one was a teenager whose mother was also a victim, a prostitute, single, and the only child he had; he was abused by his mother, withdrawn and vicious, and was the first person the police suspected, but less than half a year after that case, he was seriously injured in a gangland firefight in the East End, and died in the surgical room of the Charity Hospital.
His body was burned in effigy and buried in the cemetery in witness.
This makes it impossible to link him to the current serial killings.
If there is no cremation, I will definitely go to dig the grave to confirm …… the fraudulent corpse Klein seriously considered the possibility of the other party s fraudulent corpse.
Of the three remaining suspects, one had moved so many times in the intervening years that the police had lost track of his situation and needed more time to pursue him, one had gone through bankruptcy and moved from the North Side into the East Side, and one had stayed put and was still operating a grocery store on the same street he had been on in the first place.
Klein re-drew a sheet of letterhead and first described the situation accordingly, then asked the recipient to secretly observe the two suspects with specific addresses, which he emphasized:
”Serial murderers are cruel, vicious, and possess strong aggressiveness, so please be very careful not to get too close to them, and observe them as if they were just ordinary neighbors.”
”The information I need is their recent mental state, for example, whether they are irritable, whether they like to lock themselves in their rooms, rarely interact with others, and whether they have assaulted others.”
This was the same information he had gotten from the Sun, that after each killing, the Demon would eat the victim’s internal organs as required by the ritual, and remain in a state of bloodthirsty mania wanting to hurt others until a new victim appeared.
After emphasizing his safety once more, Klein folded the letterhead, slipped it into a new envelope, and put a black stamp on the surface.
Then he put pen to paper and wrote down the name of the recipient:
”Detective Stuart.”
……
Queens, inside the luxurious villa of the Earl of Hall’s family.
Susie was sprawled in the corner of her study, looking around in seeming boredom.
Earl Hall, who had a somewhat bulging stomach, took a puff on his pipe and addressed his eldest son in front of him:
”Hibbert, do you know why I must let you enter the Air Pollution Investigation Committee?”
Hibbert Hall replied as if he had been thinking ahead:
”You wish to influence the formulation of relevant laws and policies?”
”No. Although I am the second largest shareholder of the Constanton Coal and Steel Consortium, I am not too concerned about this issue, and I have long been urging them to make adjustments accordingly. The fight against air pollution is the wave of the future, and of that I have no doubt.”
”Hebert, although our family has a fixed seat in the House of Lords, and you will become a member of the House of Lords sooner or later, but apart from the Speaker of the House and other people with special status, why is it that some nobles will have more influence when they are also members of the House of Lords?”
Hebert pondered and said:
”Titles, wealth, business status, and connections within the government and military?”
”This is only part of it, in addition, there is also the ability to deal with affairs, people will always rely on the same kind of people who have rich experience and have participated in a lot of things, if you want to make a difference in the political arena in the future, in addition to inheriting the seat, you also have to participate in all kinds of affairs as much as possible, and show the corresponding ability, and gradually become active in the line of sight of all the parliamentarians and all the ministers, so that they will slowly feel that you are worth trusting, this is from your own trust, which comes from your own influence.”
”Hibbert, take a look at the Republic of Intis, take a look at the current situation of their nobles, you should understand that as time passes and society develops, the explicit privileges will be weakened, the knighthood will become less and less important, it is just an honorary title, and the position in the business field and your own influence is what you should be concerned about.” Earl Hall explained in detail.
”What if I meet something I’m not good at?” Hebert mused.
”Then pretend that you can handle it. Don’t care if you’ll waste money, assemble a team of professionals and listen to their opinions so that you can make a decision. Everyone has many areas they are not good at, only money is all-powerful.” Earl Hall nodded.
Hebert replied with what seemed to be a dawning realization:
”I understand, Papa.”
By this time, Susie next to him yawned in boredom.
When it was all over, it slipped into Audrey’s drawing room and repeated all that it had heard, muttering at the end:
”I don’t understand what they’re talking about at all ……”
Audrey listened thoughtfully and smiled lightly:
”It’s a good thing you don’t have to smell those pungent odors.”
”Is it?” Suzie asked rhetorically with seeming understanding.
Audrey didn’t answer it, turning to another thought.
She had intended to quietly direct the councillors’ attention to the deplorable state of the East End, the factory district, and the docklands, but in the last two social gatherings she had found herself surprisingly unable to find the opportunity.
The nobles, the councillors, the senior government employees, simply wouldn’t talk about similar topics, and there was no way to steer them if they wanted to!
……
It was Monday afternoon again, and Klein returned leisurely from the Krag Club to 15 Minsk Street.
Because Stuart’s side hadn’t yet given the results of the preliminary investigation, and he couldn’t find anyone he could train as a pharmacist for the time being, he didn’t have much to do yesterday and today, so he simply went to the Kraig Club to practice his gun, read a book, as well as, dabble in food.
In the process, he got to know several more members of the club.
That’s where the business will come from after that. …… Crane lamented a word, and took four steps against the grain, into the gray mist above.
He carried out all kinds of preparations step by step, first of all, he manifested the dummy “world”, familiarized with the manipulation skills of the “all-black eye”, and then sent a message to the “sun” that the tarot party was about to begin. Then he sent a message to the Sun that the Tarot party was about to begin.
After this, Klein waited for three o’clock to arrive, and then reached out and touched the crimson star that corresponded to each of the members of the group – a solid connection was established, and the “magicians” had their own illusory star.
Finding an excuse to concentrate on her work, Forsyth Vole dismissed Hugh, when she saw a momentary surge of grayish mist.
In the blink of an eye, she found herself on top of that mysterious, ethereal gray mist, inside the lofty, majestic palace, with the long, ancient, patinated bronze table in front of her, surrounded by a fog-covered blur of figures that were hard to make out.
A figure? A figure! Are these the members of the party that Mr. Fool spoke of? Forsyth looked at all of this cautiously and warily, feeling that the members of such a secretive gathering were all very, very powerful and extraordinary people.
Except for me,…… she thought with a sense of weakness and trepidation.
However, to consider it from another angle, if I, a Sequence 9, can join, the other members may not necessarily be very powerful, the requirements of this party are obviously not powerful, but for some reason and “Fool” Mr. connection …… Forsyth quickly dismissed the previous Forsyth quickly rejected his previous judgment and relaxed a little.
At the same time, “justice” Audrey also found that there is a new person in today’s party.
Is it a woman …… Hugh, or is it Fowles? Passed the test? Or someone else? Audrey almost forgot to greet Mr. “Fool”, just want to carefully observe the characteristics of the new member.
Even if the person’s figure was a blur, you could still make out the hair color and silhouette, and hear the accent and idioms!
Well …… I also have to pay attention to, “upside down man” Mr. was the first to confirm that I am a nobleman from my special pronunciation of some words, as well as the habit of using some special words …… Audrey stood up, lifting the hem of her skirt falsely, and addressed Klein at the top of the long bronze table:
”Good afternoon, Mr. ‘Fool’.”
Greetings complete, she did not hide her own curiosity, glancing at the newest member of the group in the same row as herself and asking with a smile:
”And this is?”