Chapter 49: The Duke’s Investigation Commission
Chapter 49 The Duke’s Investigation Commission
At the back door of the lecture hall of Graysham Academy, there was a small independent room.
Arthur was led to the door by his servant, and before he could enter, he saw the door open on its own, revealing a silver-haired old man with a robust physique, a figure-eight beard, and a black eyepatch over his left eye.
Although this old man is old, but his waist is like a precipitous cliff, he is leaning on a cane, a neat and serious black suit that is not stained with half a bit of dust, even if it is a few feet away, you can feel the oppressive atmosphere on his body.
Bang!
The old man grimly and furiously slapped open the door of the room in front of him, and the door slammed against the wall as if the earth was shaking.
When he saw Arthur standing in front of the door in a police uniform, he was first stunned, then he scanned every corner of Arthur’s body with what was left of his sharp, eagle-like right eye.
After looking at him for a while, and not waiting for Arthur to ask, the old man took the lead and walked forward, heavily patting Arthur’s shoulder.
The old man spoke, “Pierre and I have mentioned you, talented, ambitious, and still so young. But if you can adhere to the tradition and change to the state religion, you can obviously have a better future.
Young man, you still have a long way to go, don’t get involved with those liberals, or sooner or later, you’ll be eaten up by them.”
After the old man in Chinese clothes finished saying this, he left the scene with his cane in a robust manner.
He was followed by a group of swords-guarded attendants, who chased after him while shouting, “Your Highness the Duke, slow down a bit, wait for us.”
Seeing this, Arthur couldn’t help but frown towards the servant who was leading the way for him and asked, “Was this the Duke of Sussex just now?”
Who knows that without waiting for the servant to reply, another middle-aged gentleman wearing a white shirt with a lavender dress and a full head of brown wavy hair walked out of the hut.
This gentleman’s appearance looked a bit similar to the one who left just now, even his iron face had a hint of similarity.
He spoke, ”Mr. Hastings, pay no attention to that insolent man.
I see that he has treated his brain badly from his early service in the Hanoverian army, and he has an air of Germanic meddling all over him!”
Seeing this, the servant asked cautiously, “Your Highness, have you fallen out with the Duke of Cumberland again?”
The middle-aged gentleman had a look of anger on his face, “I should never have invited this blood brother of mine to watch Mr. Faraday’s latest invention! Napoleon’s army could blow up his eyes, but not his brain, which is as set in stone as steel!”
Seeing that the situation was not right, the servant hurriedly changed the subject and introduced Arthur, “Mr. Hastings, this is His Royal Highness, the Duke of Sussex.”
Actually, Arthur had heard of Duke Sussex’s great name long ago.
He was the sixth brother of the current King George IV, so he could also be called Prince Augustus.
As for the one who just grabbed the door and left is his own brother, the fifth brother of the current King George IV, Prince Ernst, Duke of Cumberland.
It has been rumored that the two princes are not on good terms, and Prince Ernst, Duke of Cumberland, is a die-hard Tory extremist, with a military background, who participated in many wars against France as a middle-ranking officer and as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Kingdom of Hanover.
Years of military service also developed his violent and stubborn temper, advocating force in all matters, resolutely opposing domestic reforms, advocating the supremacy of the king, and adhering to the pure position of the state religion.
Some time ago, because the Duke of Wellington forced the King and the House of Lords to force through the Catholic Emancipation Act, the Duke of Cumberland was in the House of Lords on Wellington’s Cabinet attacked.
As for Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex, he is simply a perfect mirror image of this brother of his.
From his youth he had taken little interest in military affairs, and so instead of entering naval or army service, as several of his brothers had done, he had spent his time studying the sciences and arts and traveling the continent.
During the time he spent traveling the continent, he also fell in love with a common noble girl from Scotland and married her without the King’s permission.
His father, George III, was so enraged by this that he resorted to the Crown Marriage Act to declare the marriage invalid and never recognized the Duchess’s title as a means of forcing his youngest son to divorce him.
But Sussex clearly didn’t take the matter to heart, and more than that, he spent his days in the House of Lords, singing the praises of his old man and his brother, George IV, who later succeeded him on the throne.
His ideas over the years included, but were not limited to, reforming Parliament, reforming the Church, abolishing the slave trade, and removing discriminatory treatment of Jews and dissidents and interfaiths.
In short, in the eyes of the Duke of Sussex, everything about the country was wrong with him, and everything had to be changed.
Even the campaign to amend the Bloody Act some time ago, Duke Sussex also contributed a great deal of effort.
Almost at the same time when the reports about Arthur were flying all over London, Duke of Sussex took advantage of this east wind and submitted the 800 signatures of the jurors that had been collected early in the morning to the House of Commons, urging them to push forward the revision of the bill as soon as possible.
Duke Sussex gritted his teeth and glared fiercely at his brother’s departing direction, and it was not easy for him to dissipate his anger before he replaced it with a smiling face and opened his mouth at Arthur.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Hastings. To tell you the truth, I’ve actually wanted to meet you for a long time.”
Arthur placed his right hand in front of his chest and his left hand behind him, bowed slightly, and gave him a royal audience salute.
“It is also a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness the Duke.”
The Duke of Sussex extended his hand to him in a friendly manner, “I had thought you were just an honorable and courageous police officer, but I didn’t realize that you were actually interested in science.”
Arthur shook the other’s hand, “Science is also part of policing. You may not know that the policing situation in the London area is not optimistic.
According to the data retained by Scotland Yard and the Ministry of the Interior, the population of the London area has risen by close to fifty percent in the past thirty years, while the crime rate has soared by three hundred percent, with all kinds of vicious crimes emerging.
In order to be able to solve those puzzling murders, we must introduce new science and technology to assist in solving the cases, and constant learning and progress can only breathe new life into Scotland Yard’s policing force.”
Hearing this, the Duke of Sussex couldn’t help but see a light in front of his eyes as he smiled and said, “I knew it! Even though no one in Scotland Yard can be trusted, I can trust you!
You are worthy of being the best policeman in Great Britain, and if I entrust you with the investigation of the parish of St. Giles, it will certainly be accomplished successfully.”
“The investigation of the parish of St. Giles?”
A trace of bad feeling surfaced in Arthur’s heart, from the name of this region alone, he had already detected an aura of danger. Duke Sussex nodded, “That’s right. Although I was just elected as the president of the Royal Society this year, I didn’t throw down those jobs I had on hand from before.
You may not know that I have been working on investigating the criminal groups in St. Giles Parish and the living conditions of the local street children all these years.
This work I have been carrying on for five or six years, but it was not long ago that I discovered a strange phenomenon.”
“What phenomenon?”
Duke Sussex spoke, “The private investigator I hired told me that a portion of the stray children they had been in contact with for a long time had strangely disappeared after being imprisoned.
And there is also a portion of vagabonds who have been begging all year round in St. Giles Parish who have also lost their tracks at the same time.
My private detectives found neither their bodies nor any trace of their departure.
For after making inquiries and inquiries and visiting their temporary homes, we found that they had actually not taken even the little property they had left with them.
This is not a normal phenomenon, and I suspect that there may be something fishy going on here.”
Arthur frowned as he realized the seriousness of the problem, “What is the approximate number of missing vagrants, have you counted them?”
Duke Sussex returned without thinking, “The ones who were released from prison and disappeared are roughly in the mid-twenties, and the beggars who disappeared from the streets should be about the same number.”
“Have you reported them to Scotland Yard?”
The Duke of Sussex became angry at the very mention of it, and he returned, “Of course I reported it! But the gang of Scotland Yard police after investigation gave me the conclusion is actually: this is just the normal flow of vagrants phenomenon, they these people live in no fixed place, want to go wherever, so there is nothing worth noting.
When I asked them to further intervene in the investigation, they again told me that Scotland Yard’s policing force is extremely short, and that they might not be able to spare enough manpower to conduct a large-scale investigation into this case within a short period of time.”
Arthur mulled over this for a moment as he heard it, he always had a feeling that something wasn’t right.
After thinking for a while, he replied, “Actually, they are right, Scotland Yard does have an extreme shortage of policing forces. If we want to investigate this kind of case, we might have to set up a specialized investigation team for a long visit, and we also need professionals to follow the evidence for a long time. Given the current situation, I’m afraid that Scotland Yard really has no time to take care of it.”
When the Duke of Sussex heard this, his disappointment overflowed.
“So, even you are not willing to take on this case?”
While Arthur wanted to rebuff, he remembered the reply letter that Sir Peel had given him.
For the time being, I’m afraid that trying to track down Fred is unlikely.
If the case of the Duke of Sussex could be solved, it would not be impossible to count it as a merit.
He hesitated for half a day before finally speaking, “I can take this case. But you must promise me one condition.”
Duke Sussex was overjoyed as he hurriedly inquired, “You please speak.”
“First of all, the parish of St. Giles does not belong to my jurisdiction, therefore, until the case is solved, I cannot accept your application to report the case in the name of the Greenwich Police District.
Rather, I will first conduct a private investigation in my personal name.
If the truth is found out, I will submit the relevant evidence to the Greater London Police Authority, and at that time it will be up to you to bring it to the direct attention of Scotland Yard.”
Duke Sussex nodded and said, “There is no problem with that.”
Arthur spoke again, “To tell you the truth, in fact, we have the same shortage of police force in the Greenwich Police District.
Therefore, if the Greenwich Police District encounters difficult cases during this period of time, I need the Royal Society to be able to send relevant professionals to assist us in solving them.
In this way, we can free up a portion of our manpower to specialize in investigating St. Giles Parish.”
Duke Sussex sniffed and nodded again, “Although I may not be able to convince those top scientists, we have quite a few scientific apprentices here.
Although they aren’t as erudite as the scientists, they have acquired quite a bit of basic practical knowledge because they often work in the laboratories as understudies.
I can try to convince them by offering them a portion of their remuneration and see if they are willing to assist the Greenwich Police District in solving the case.”
Seeing that Duke Sussex actually agreed to his two requests so easily, Arthur was at a loss for words for a moment.
It was at this moment that the Red Devil suddenly appeared, and he stood behind Arthur and whispered.
“Arthur, guess why Scotland Yard is not investigating this case? Listen to me, don’t touch it, or you’ll probably fall to pieces if you’re not careful.
There are things it’s better not to know than to know. You’re having a pretty good time right now, there’s no need to get into this mess.”
Arthur glanced at the Red Devil and murmured in a low voice, “Agares, are you trying to do this with me again? Deliberately provoking me? Heh ……”
“You don’t eat this?”
Arthur narrowed his eyes slightly, “No, I just don’t eat this. Listening to your tone, you should be harvesting a lot of souls this time, right?”
The Red Devil sniffed and grinned a big mouth revealing iron saw-like broken teeth, “Wow! My dear Arthur, now do you understand why I picked you to be my contractee?
I …… just love that about you!
Clean and crisp, and if you don’t make a move, you’ll give me back a hell of a lot! Hehehehehehahahahaha!!!”
The scarlet saliva of the red devil dripped on Arthur’s riding boots, and on the reflective shiny uppers one could vaguely see countless howling and shouting bleak souls, who hissed and cried out in pain, seemingly wanting to pull all the visible people along with them into the endless abyss of the sea of blood and earth.
Arthur took off his hat and shook the Duke of Sussex’s hand without hesitation, “Your Highness, I, Arthur Hastings, hereby formally enter into a secret investigative commissioning agreement with you on behalf of the London Metropolitan Police Force, East London Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Police.”
(End of chapter)