Chapter 304: Rarely Confused (K7)

Chapter 302: A Rare Confusion (4K7)

Cold wind, torrential rain, lightning, and thunder.

The rain flowed between the brick cracks of the street, pattering and gathering into a flowing stream.

Louis Bonaparte stood under the shade of a tree with a black cloth umbrella, he looked up slightly at the leafy, raindrop-covered camphor tree above his head, and from between the gaps in the foliage, he could see not far away the apartment building that directly overlooked the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.

The windows of the small building were open, and there stood a man with a white china teacup, savoring a cookie in his hand against the London evening rain.

Although his hand was wrapped in bandage after bandage, and he looked as if he had been badly injured, it did not seem to affect his appetite.

Louis shook out his water-stained hair and stepped into his riding boots to get to the bottom of the loft where he walked straight through into the garden filled with onions, garlic and other spices, into the apartment and down the stairs to the second floor.

The door to Arthur’s room was ajar, it had been purposely left for Louis.

Louis stepped into the room only to see that the modest room was furnished with only a bed, a table, a tea set, a spinning phonograph with a few books.

Arthur looked at Louis, whose shoulders were covered with raindrops, and asked with a smile, “How does it feel to be in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department on your first day?”

Louis laughed bitterly, “This job is more difficult than I thought, various forms of documents, case investigation reports, as well as a variety of miscellaneous work, in the past, you said that this position is not a problem to bolt a dog, I still believe it. Now look back, you that is in modesty, right?”

Arthur poured a cup of tea and paced around handing it to him, “You’ll find it difficult, it’s just that you’re not familiar with the process yet. You do as I say, and I promise you’ll have an easy and enjoyable week while I’m absent from work on vacation due to injury.”

“I knew there had to be a trick to it.” Louis put down his teacup and pulled a pen and paper out of his pocket, ready to take notes, “Arthur, how about it?”

Arthur leaned on the edge of the table and wrapped his arms around it, “To be good at this job, the main thing is to know how to pick the right people to do the right things. Regarding the investigation aspect of the case, give it to Sergeant Charles Field, proficient in chemistry and on-site investigation, flexible and thoughtful, in terms of detective business, even if you look at the whole Scotland Yard, there is no one better than him.

And for those things in terms of compliance process, clearly need to be strictly enforced by a board, such as the arrest of those suspects who can be clearly convicted after confirmation by Field, incarcerated indicted debtors, these to be handed over to Tom to be responsible for.

But for those tasks that are just a matter of form, or ambiguous cases with unknown consequences, such as the recent campaign by the department to clean up the vice industry, Tony should be given the job.

Of course, since most criminal cases come out of the Eastern District, we occasionally need to coordinate with local police districts to help with investigations.

As we all know, there are a lot of assholes in the East End, and that includes some of the ones responsible for policing the East End. And with you as Acting Minister, I bet they won’t take you seriously.

So before you do, you need to say hello to Inspector Jones in Tauerhamletts and tell him that I need his full assistance with your work, because I don’t want to wait until I come back in a week’s time to find a mountain of pre-case backlogs piled up.

Of course, sometimes the Office, or perhaps other superintendents, they need our help with shady jobs in the East End that can’t be put out in the open. If it’s not too much, you can do it. But for this kind of work, you have to find someone who is smart, flexible and action-oriented. At the Whitechapel police station in Taulhamletts there is a chap called Ledley, a progressive young man; give him the job and you will soon receive a satisfactory answer.”

Speaking of this, Arthur took a sip of tea, “That’s roughly all there is to it in the Criminal Investigation Department, if any special circumstances arise that are beyond the ability of a few of them, you can just come to me directly.”

Louis Bonaparte looked up with a frown as he bit the cap of his pen, “So is there anything I have to do?”

“What’s there to do?” Arthur sniffed affectionately and put his arm around Louis Bonaparte’s shoulders to sit him down, “Of course! Louis, you’ve got your work cut out for you, you’re more important than all of them put together!”

Louis asked, “Really? What do I have to do?”

Arthur cleared his throat and spoke, “You should know that this year is coming to an end. By the time next spring rolls around, Parliament will be reviewing the public budgets of each department. Therefore, the Ministry of the Interior will set up the departmental budgets before the opening of Parliament next year. And Scotland Yard, as a subordinate department of the Ministry of the Interior, will again need to submit our needs before the Ministry of the Interior formulates the budget.

To be precise, Scotland Yard will be finalizing the budget request report by mid-December. So, Louie, you’ll have a lot of meetings to attend during the course of the week. What you’re going to be doing is easy to say, but quite difficult to do. I want you to make it a point to cry poor at all kinds of meetings, to Director Rowan at internal meetings, and to the Department of Internal Affairs at the senior police conference held by the Department of Internal Affairs.

You’re going to tell them what great things we’ve done this year, how many cases we’ve solved. You have to tell them that without the CID, London would be a sea of corpses, and the city and beyond would be filled with arsonists and murderers. We need better equipment, more manpower, and better quality training, and ultimately, we need more funding, which means money.”

Hearing this, Louis took off his hat and scratched his head as he asked, “But would that be too much? The Criminal Investigation Department did solve a lot of cases this year, but the one with a big social impact …… the former Congressman Harrison one?”

“No, don’t mention Harrison, he screwed us over, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs won’t like that. And now that Mr. Harrison is under investigation, that fiasco was hard to suppress, there is absolutely no need to bring up old matters again.”

Arthur took a sip of tea and spoke, “Louis, I think you could have mentioned yourself more. Well …… I mean, the Criminal Investigation Department has taken the initiative to discover some talents like you by taking advantage of the cases while solving them this year.”

Hearing this, Louis spoke with an odd expression on his face, “Would the Internal Affairs Department like that?”

“I don’t know. Whether they like it or not, you can start by getting that atmosphere going for the department.”

Arthur pretended to be confused, “I think they’d be interested in your last name though, Louie, you understand, sometimes funding is all at the whim of those lazy asses in Internal Affairs. Aside from their lack of interest in their work, those lazy asses have a wide range of interests. Whether it’s the gossip of the ladies in their bedrooms, or all sorts of bizarre street stories, or the latest issue of the Britannia serial novel, they love it all. Louis, you’ve at least been in a couple issues of The Times in a row this year, so you’re perfectly confident in that regard.”

Hearing this, Louis could only rub his temples helplessly, “Well …… if this really gets the Ministry of the Interior to mercifully grant a little more money, say for us to change that Colt revolver, I’m still quite willing to try. Arthur, then again, is that gun of yours commercially available?”

Arthur spoke up, “It’s definitely not available on the market for the time being. But if Scotland Yard’s application for a collective changeover to the Colt revolver is approved and passed by the Department of the Interior, Mr. Samuel Colt will have the money to set up his first production line at the beginning of the next fiscal year. When that time comes, you’ll be able to meet that gun on the market.”

Louie shook his head, “No, I’m not talking about a mass-produced model, I mean what if I wanted to get Mr. Colt to make a custom model like yours?”

Arthur returned, “Then you might need to get in line. Although Samuel has been working overtime on it, he’s been getting handfuls of custom orders since the duel ended. But seeing as how you’re so willing to sacrifice your ego for the department and ask Scotland Yard and Home Office for funding, I can make a request with Samuel, like letting you cut in line or something.” Louis heard this and just sucked in his breath with wide eyes, “Arthur.”

Arthur picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea, “What’s wrong?”

Louis propped one hand on the table and propped his head up, “Mr. Wheatstone was really right, you, as a person, are really quite bad sometimes. But compared to Fouche of France, the extent of your badness is somewhat cute. How do you manage to do bad things while not being as annoying as Fouche?”

“Simple.” Arthur put down his teacup and said, “Just play within the rules. In Britain, drilling loopholes is very normal, and no one will hold onto your behavior in this regard, even to the extent that some loopholes were purposely set aside for people to drill. As for the harm produced by drilling, it can also be expected in advance, so people see this kind of people scolded two sentences on the end. But if like Fu Che such does not follow the rules, do set off the table thing, that can not be scolded two sentences can end.”

“Okay.” Louis drew out a few recorded records from his accompanying briefcase and placed them on the table, “I’ve brought all the blanks you ordered today, Mr. Wheatstone rushed them out over night and day. Hopefully, all that equipment we set up ahead of time in the Astley Theater box will help with funding requests for the coming year, or …… at least help us add a few more cases to our work report.”

The smile on Arthur’s face grew a little thicker as he saw a couple of the records.

In that duel at the Astley Theater, he was neither concerned about the outcome of the duel, nor was he worried about the success of Chopin’s London debut, and as for the king’s royal sword, it was completely unplanned.

What he was most concerned about were the records in his hands.

The result of all the publicity before the duel was a flood of big names, and although Arthur didn’t know what they talked about, even if it was just some ordinary gossip, it was still very useful for enriching the Police Intelligence Service’s archives.

After all, Arthur had always wanted to get to know the bigwigs who shaped Britain’s policies, but unfortunately, this understanding was usually one-way.

Louis stood up and stretched as he leaned over the window to look out, “By the way, Arthur, why did you rent this house as a point of contact with funds? Rent in Mayfair isn’t cheap, and after spending a lot of money to only get such a small room, this is a bit of a poor value for money?”

Arthur jumped away from the gramophone needle and placed the record on the turntable, “If you mean living comfort, then yes, it is indeed poor value for money. But the Police Intelligence Service didn’t rent this house to live in in the first place, don’t you notice what you can see through the windows? Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, that’s what the Bureau rented it for.

The Criminal Investigation Department feeds on investigating cases, while the Police Intelligence Bureau feeds by working on intelligence. I certainly can’t submit records to the Home Office as a credit to the Police Intelligence Bureau, so I have to come up with something I can show them. You’ve been living in London for a while now, and you should know who usually gathers at Speaker’s Corner, right?”

Louis sat on the window and read, “I’ve heard something about it. I’ve heard that the place looks different every hour of the day; perhaps in the morning they’re singing the praises of the government, by midday they’re already sneering, and by the time the afternoon rolls around they can practically hold up torches and set the Palace of Westminster on fire.”

“It’s more than that. You’re bound to get schizophrenia after spending too much time here.”

“How so?”

Arthur spoke up, “The representatives of the merchants from the east say that our government is being held by greedy nobles and corrupt clergy, a shameful representation of a feudal and backward country.

The workers’ representatives on the west end add that the government is being manipulated in the hands of the financial cities and factory owners, a country of all evils representing the interests of the big bankers and businessmen.

The representatives of the little people in the south, holding to Malthusian theories of population, attacked the government’s decision to give in to lazy people who try to get something for nothing as unthinkable, and that Britannia’s imposition of a poverty tax of up to 8.6 million pounds a year to give relief to those lazy people would only produce more poor people and discourage decent people who were proud to have a job from working.

The clergy in the north, on the other hand, insisted that it was the low moral quality of society that was the source of all the mischief, and called upon the people to rejoin the Church, to persevere in daily prayer, penance and the glorification of the Bible, and that it was only the God of mercy who could save Britain at such a time as this.”

Louis looked up and out and said, “It seems that today is not coincidental, it is raining and we can’t find an audience, so even the representatives of the east, west, south, north and south followed all the absences.”

Arthur shook his head and said, “Not all of them are absent, the night delegates usually work rain or shine, and their fans are more determined than the listeners from the east, west, south and north. Rain or shine, the place always comes alive at dusk when the sun sets and the moon climbs the branches.”

Louis wondered, “What do you mean?”

Arthur leaned against the window with his teacup, “What else could it be? Naturally, it’s the stragglers, and Hyde Park is likewise a key area for them to do business. All the parks in London are basically like this, and since Scotland Yard is rectifying its morale lately, there are not many places for that group of girls to go to, so recently the crowd around Hyde Park is more than a few times larger than usual.”

“Ah ……” Louis suddenly realized, “But …… since this matter we all know, why not also make Hyde Park as the key surveillance area Why not?”

Arthur raised an eyebrow, “Simply because Hyde Park is in the West End, and it’s a busy part of the West End. If we are speaking from the perspective of a decent gentleman, although Scotland Yard has to rectify its morale, we can’t completely block the girls’ way of life, and there’s no way that tens of thousands of extra jobs will suddenly be created in London, they do need to eat after all.

If it is to stand in the less upright point of view, Hyde Park near the residence of a number of pivotal to the political situation of Britain, these people in a number of old immodesty, we also have to slightly give them an opening, really want to block all the places. Unless these guys mention it voluntarily, Scotland Yard doesn’t have a strong enough will to make trouble for them.

For the time being, at least, we’re prepared to make peace with them until the budget for the next financial year is approved by Parliament. After all, it’s the clerical community that isn’t happy with the streamers all over the place, and while they have just as much pivotal social influence, it’s the nobles and merchants who dominate the council that will be the main ones to see if the motion passes or not.”

Louis smiled and asked, “So you think you favor the opinion that Britain is an evil country that represents the interests of big bankers and merchants?”

Arthur shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know, all I know is that it represents whoever gets to make policy. And the parliamentary staff in Britain is always changing, so who knows?”

As Arthur was speaking, suddenly, there was a knock on the door in the room.

Louis pulled the door open, and standing outside was a lady he had never seen before, dressed in a crushed white dress.

“Please …… ask, is Mr. Arthur Hastings here? I …… am here to apply for a job as a housemaid.”

(End of chapter)