Chapter 234: Chameleon and Lizard (K4)

Chapter 233 – Chameleon and Lizard (4K4)

Knock knock.

“Enter.”

Arthur pushed open the door of the director’s office, and although the sunshine was good today, the more abundant sunshine still couldn’t hide the shadow on Rowan’s face.

Rowan leaned back in his office chair and smoked a cigarette vigorously, he glanced at Arthur who pushed his way in and was silent for a long time before he nodded at him, “Have a seat, Superintendent Hastings.”

Arthur had just taken his seat when he heard Rowan’s heavy inhalation resonate through the almost frozen air.

He removed his pipe and snapped it into the lacquered wooden ashtray on the table, both arms braced in front of the case, his body leaning forward slightly.

There was neither the expected scorn on his face, nor could he see any semblance of joy at the downfall of his enemy.

The first words that came out of Rowan’s mouth made Arthur feel a bit puzzled: “Kid, why are you doing this kind of thing? The top is now very important to you, you suddenly make this kind of thing, although I am the Scotland Yard administrative director to bear the leadership responsibility, but you as the executive, is also to be affected. I know there is some unhappiness between the two of us, but you can’t do this kind of thing because of this little temper, right? Arresting a member of parliament while the parliament is in session, what on earth were you thinking?”

Arthur’s brows frowned at his words, and he stared at Rowan for a long time without saying anything, as if he was thinking about something.

Seeing him in this manner, Rowan could not help but feel even more angry, but in the way of this subordinate in front of him who led the London Police Intelligence Service was actually infinitely close to being on par with him, Rowan could only suppress his fire and ask again in a good voice.

“Arthur, you are a smart person, so I won’t come to those falsehoods with you. There’s no point in playing too many sets, I just want to tell you that you should think things through when you do them. You’ve only just celebrated your twenty-first birthday not long ago, while I’m already almost fifty this year, and my current state of mind is that it’s best if I can go further, and if I can’t, then I’ll just peacefully retire from my position in the Greater London Police Department.

The end of your life is not here at all, you don’t need to fight for this position under my butt. Look at you, now you not only have the jurisdiction of the London Police Intelligence Bureau, the London District Attorney’s Office is under construction, you also have a name. Your future is promising whether you go to the Lord Chancellor’s Department or the Ministry of the Interior, do you think that compared to the two departments I just mentioned, the title of the Commissioner of the Greater London Police is much more valuable?”

Rowan’s words had just finished, when Arthur, who had been silent, suddenly took off the hat on his head and threw it on the desk.

He stroked his hair and spoke, “Director, the same words, I had originally planned to ask you. This case is not beneficial to you or me, and I couldn’t figure out before why you would throw such a case to the Criminal Investigation Department, so if all the words you just said were really from the bottom of your heart, then I can only think that you didn’t do it intentionally, but merely neglected your duties. If you really think I’m smart, then you should understand that it’s impossible for a smart person to do such damaging things.”

When Luo Wan heard this, he was first stunned, and then he seemed to have come back to his senses as well.

The gloom on his face gradually faded away, replaced by a slightly twitching corner of his mouth and a wave of inexplicable anger: “Fuck, they’d better tell me that this time it really was just a mere dereliction of duty.”

Luo Wan slammed the table and yelled at the office door, “Come on a live one, immediately go and transfer the case file over to me, I’ll see which asshole thing handled this case!”

Accompanied by Luo Wan’s roar, the officer on duty outside the door was scared out of his wits.

It didn’t take long before the case file was presented to Luo Wan.

He flipped through the dossier information page by page, and it didn’t take him long to see the veins on his neck rippling.

But this is not to blame Luo Wan temper, but this case inside and outside wherever revealed a hint of bizarre.

Considered from a normal point of view, Bernie Harrison, as a member of the House of Commons, a successful and well-educated doctor, could not have been unaware of his rights.

Yet he did not say a word when he was arrested and was honestly handcuffed to Scotland Yard for interrogation.

Even if this can be explained by Mr. Harrison’s cowardly nature, how did he come to commit a felony murder?

Speaking of this murder, that’s another slightly marvelous plot point.

Not long ago Mr. Harrison’s wife had reported the unexplained disappearance of a maid employed by the family, and a few days later the maid’s body was found by a ferryman on the Thames.

After an autopsy, the coroner claimed that the maid’s cause of death was identified as drowning.

Originally, the case was going to be closed as an accident, but just yesterday, the coroner suddenly retracted his testimony and claimed that he had made the above statement because he had been physically threatened.

For this reason, the Coroner also applied to Scotland Yard for habeas corpus as a condition of his confession.

It is because of this series of fantastic drama, the local police district then, on the grounds of the complexity of the case, requested the Criminal Investigation Department, which has the expertise and resources, to assist in the investigation and lead the second autopsy work.

After receiving a series of information with strong pointers, including but not limited to the fact that Mr. Bernie Harrison was engaged in the chemical agent related industry, the victim maid was suspected to have maintained a long-term improper relationship with her employer Mr. Harrison, and the coroner claimed that the person who bribed and coerced him was in close contact with Mr. Harrison, etc., the local police district naturally identified Bernie Harrison as the biggest suspect and submitted a search warrant to the local magistrate’s court for arrest. Magistrate’s Court and a search warrant was filed.

If Bernie Harrison’s identity as a councillor had not finally come to light, this case would have been a slam dunk.

However, it was because of his status as an MP that the case was elevated from a criminal matter to a political one.

If Harrison really was the murderer as the clues proved, it would be fine, if he was not the murderer, then Scotland Yard would inevitably be on the collective minds of the MPs.

After all, Mr. Harrison is sitting on the same bench with them, in the view of the MPs, today Scotland Yard can casually arrest Harrison, then tomorrow they can casually arrest them, this is not a sentence of work error can be resolved, because it represents Scotland Yard intends to challenge the final bottom line of parliamentary politics. Director Rowan took a deep breath as he put down the file and leaned back in his seat with his fingers crossed, “Arthur, you probably understand how serious this matter really is. More than half a year ago, the train hit and killed Mr. Huskisson, it was nothing more than an accident, and we all put so much effort into fixing it.

Now, if this case goes south, or if we can’t give the Legislature a reasonable explanation, you and I are going to be in deep shit. This is a felony murder charge, which means you have to kill your head. So we can’t count on the Department of the Interior in this case, and you can’t count on the Chancellor’s Office, either, because the Chancellor and the Secretary of the Interior won’t come forward at this time because of the anger of the members of the House of Representatives.

We all know that people like to take credit, and no one likes to take the blame, especially in a case like this, so we’re on our own this time. If you’ve got a good reason, say it now, we may have had a little tiff in the old days, but the purpose of a little tiff was to kick each other out of the boat, not to chisel and sink the canoe, and we’re on the same side now.”

Hearing this, the playful Red Devil couldn’t help but cover his mouth with a bad smile and said, “Arthur, you see, the chameleon is the badge of politics, and it really let Talleyrand get it right. As long as the drive is strong enough, even father-killers can sit in the same boat.”

When Arthur heard this, he kind of understood Rowan’s position.

Since Rowan was open and honest with him, there was naturally no need for him to hide it.

Because just like Luo Wan said, whether he liked it or not, the two of them were now grasshoppers tied to a rope.

And most importantly, this case didn’t seem to be as simple as it appeared.

Arthur threw out a document from the bag of papers in his hand, “Hail Scotland Yard is fortunate to have such a wise director as yourself, your analysis is correct and I agree with you, trying to muddle through with such claims as a workplace error is impossible, and there is no way that this could have been a workplace error.

To be honest, before I came to your office, I also deliberately read the file once. As a result, it’s better not to look at it, but this look really made me discover an interesting doubt, and it’s because of this matter that I previously suspected that this case was not one that you intended to frame me for.”

Rowan spoke with a black face, “Arthur, I don’t like you, but I’m not a fool. I am always reluctant to do things that do not benefit me and cause trouble for myself. Let’s not talk about this, what suspicions did you actually find?”

Arthur pointed to the documents on the table and spoke, “These documents are the personal files of the police officers who were responsible for investigating Mr. Harrison’s murder case, and guess what, it’s like these police officers had an appointment, and actually left their jobs not long ago. At first I thought you had arranged some good place for them, but now it seems they obviously have their own way.”

Hearing this, Rowan’s face grew more and more somber, “Fuck, you mean, someone’s got their eye on me?”

Arthur shook his head slightly, “I don’t know whether that person is staring at you or me, or maybe we both just got involved because of our bad luck, and that person’s aim is actually directed at the whole of Scotland Yard.”

Rowan pondered slightly, “I don’t think I’ve offended anyone lately, I mean other than you.”

Arthur also thought slightly, “I’ve offended maybe slightly more people, but I think those guys should be back in France by this point.”

When Rowan heard this, he just rolled his eyes, “Young man, do things on the down low. If you can put me at ease a little bit, we wouldn’t have to be so stiff with each other. Forget it, you probably won’t listen even if I say it, I didn’t like to listen to advice when I was young. Since all your enemies have gone back to France, and all my enemies are basically in the ground, this time this matter is clearly aimed at Scotland Yard?”

Arthur nodded slightly, “Let’s just say the odds are in favor of that, but we can’t rule out a small chance. But I think Mr. Bernie Harrison must know something, because his behavior is so abnormal that I really can’t figure out why a member of the House of Commons would accept an arrest without saying a word. The great iron cage of Parliament can’t even cover them, and Scotland Yard handcuffs will keep this group of MPs honest?”

Rowan mulled it over for a moment and suddenly opened his mouth to ask, “Does Mr. Harrison represent the Whigs or the Tories in the House of Commons?”

Arthur scanned the document in his hand that had just been sent by the Parliament, “Tory.”

When Rowan heard this, he couldn’t help but sigh, he tapped the desktop in annoyance, “Sir Peel’s side, don’t be in a hurry to step in first, although you and Sir Peel are still on good terms, but the level of weight is still not enough, I’ll go and apologize to him in person later on, so as to appear that we take this matter more seriously.

I’ll explain it to him face to face, otherwise the Tories, if they make a fuss in Parliament, will certainly use it as an excuse to say that our arrest of Bernie Harrison is a political retaliation by the Whig party using the power of the executive. This matter has now made a bad step down, we can’t let them expand their influence.

By the way, if Sir Peel doesn’t believe me, he’ll certainly ask you to verify it again later, so let’s match words later, and don’t make any mistakes.”

Speaking here, Rowan suddenly changed his words: “By the way, has Mr. Harrison been released? If not, hurry to put him home, he really do not know what the plague, is the parliamentary chair sitting uncomfortable, nothing to come to our group of bitter police to add what chaos?”

Arthur spoke, “Mr. Harrison has already been released, but we will definitely have to contact him again later, this case is really too bizarre, if we can’t get him to talk, this matter is simply impossible to investigate.”

Rowan’s fingertips tapped on the desktop, his brows furrowed as he said, “I’d rather not be able to contact him, if he evaporates, we’ll have an easy time. In that case, it’s just the right time to convict him of absconding, so that we can also plug the mouth of the council, after all, if Harrison really committed murder, the council wouldn’t dare to come out and stand up for him.”

“But the fact that Harrison dared to follow me to Scotland Yard means that it wasn’t him who committed the murder, or perhaps he felt sure that even if it had been him he would not have been convicted.”

Rowan only felt that his brain was full of chaos, he rubbed his hair and proposed his own vision towards Arthur: “Harrison is definitely not that easy to talk, he is a councilor, and we can’t just interrogate him, we can only look for other doors to probe for information about him. Let’s put it this way, on the council side, I’ll try to hold you back a bit for you, and if I can drag it out for a few days, it’s a few days.

Although I hate this little brat of yours, objectively speaking, when it comes to investigating cases, there is no one better than you in Scotland Yard. You are responsible for overseeing this case, so feel free to bring out any means you have, and feel free to ask me for any favors you need. Whether it’s Scotland Yard’s resources or my personal connections, if I can solve the problem for you, I will do whatever it takes to solve it for you.”

Speaking here, Rowan couldn’t help but stand up again, both hands resting heavily on Arthur’s shoulders, reminding: “Young man, what are the preconceptions, we will talk about it later, but we will solve the internal problems internally. This case, to a large extent, if not done well, that is Scotland Yard up and down three or four thousand people collectively lose their rice bowls, to a small extent, it is my early retirement, you early farewell to the bright political career.

I will emphasize one last time that any means can be used, and I know that your London Police Intelligence Service has resources in some areas, but you will have to consult with me in advance before resorting to certain extreme methods. This is an MP, not a mudslinger, you know what I mean?

A congressman’s business has to be settled decently. You understand, the guys don’t want a repeat of what happened to Clemens. Why did he die? It’s because he did things so undignified.”

Arthur just smiled when he heard this and put away the papers on his desk, he lifted his white gloves and pressed them to his chest, “Understood, sir.”

(End of chapter)