Chapter 368: A New Turnaround
Chapter 364 A New Turnaround
“You said that Ms. De Fina had also contacted you after she was interviewed by The Times together with you that day?”
Harrison struck a match and lit his pipe and took a drag, reading leisurely, “Mr. Hastings, it seems that you are a rather decent gentleman, and you don’t usually deal much with this gang of stragglers, do you?”
Arthur borrowed a light from Louis, and while lighting his cigarette, he returned, “There is still some dealing, but perhaps not as in-depth as you have been.”
Dumas also spoke in a serious manner, “Mr. Harrison, I have read your pamphlet of London travel guide named ‘Harrison’s Wonderful Journey’. To my eye, it could almost have been put on public sale in The Cockney if it hadn’t involved some sensitive content.”
Hearing this, seven-star ladybug Harrison’s face suddenly reddened, and he cheekily spoke, “If you say that it is merely a London travel guide, then that would be too much of an underestimation. To tell you the truth, it covers the whole of England, which also includes a lot of Mediterranean flavors and what I saw in the German region during my youthful travels.”
“The German region?”
“Of course.” Harrison explained, “It seems that you do not realize what the two main commodities that the German states export to the outside world are. The first is their rather highly qualified and battle hardened mercenaries. The second, on the other hand, is prostitutes from Germany.”
Arthur said indifferently, “One sells her body and the other sells her life, it seems that these two professions do have a long history and there will always be a place for them no matter what the times are.”
Louis couldn’t help but snicker when he heard this, “Mr. Harrison, you are lucky today. Fortunately, our friend Heinrich didn’t follow us here today, otherwise he would have strangled you.”
Harrison defended himself by saying, “Actually, the things I said in the interview with The Times were not entirely made up. I do want to learn Polish because I want to take my company’s business to Poland, so to a certain extent, taking the initiative to understand the needs of Polish ladies is also very necessary.
The reason why Ms. Delfina was able to arouse my interest was because she told me that she came from an upper-class family in Poland, and she described to me how she used to participate in banquets, and I was fascinated by what she said, and naturally our feelings for each other slowly, well,……you know, love is hard to self. ……”
Louis listened while remembering: “So, you are not only fascinated by Miss Defina’s beauty, more is attracted by her talent?”
“Pretty much, of course, besides the talent, there’s also the scent of gold coins.”
Harrison unforgettably emphasized, “I really want to go abroad to do business and achieve a cosmetic empire of my own, so that I don’t have to always follow those bigwigs’ asses as a vocalist. Do you guys think that I was born to say those stupid things?
Let me tell you guys, no! The reason I say those things is because those so-called big shots were born with such a stupid brain. There are words they are not willing to stand up and say, so it’s left to a humble person like me to open this mouth for them!”
Arthur nodded his head slightly and said, “That’s obvious to all of the group. At least, you have even begun to speak logically since you were banished by the Tories. However, Mr. Harrison, none of that is the point; I’m more concerned about why Miss Defina came back to you afterward.”
“Boy, you’re just too young to understand the nature of these bitches.”
Harrison said as he puffed to warm his hands.
“Do you have any moral expectations of them, since they’re already willing to come and be whores? Don’t be fooled by all the sad stories of their lives that come out of their mouths, I’ll admit that perhaps some of the ladies are indeed so unfortunate. But most of them are just purely trying to make easy money through this business.
Unless you are able to fill up their deep ravines of desire or cut a small hole in their hardened hearts, their betrayal will only be a matter of time or money.
What is clear is that you have not satisfied Ms. Delfina’s appetite. Though she feared the power of Scotland Yard just as much, in the end, her greed overrode her fear. She finally realized that I, the benefactor she set up, was the one who spent the most money on her.”
Arthur took a sip of his cigarette and pondered for a moment before suddenly asking, “Are you saying that the reason De Fina continued to find you back there was because she wanted to continue doing business with you?”
Harrison squeezed a disdainful breath out of his nose, “That’s exactly what happened. But I don’t think she had the guts to tell you guys that truth. You do realize that Delfina is embroiled in a lawsuit behind her, don’t you? It took Scotland Yard a lot of effort to set her straight.”
Louis recalled, “You’re talking about those gentlemen who jointly sued Ms. De Fina? I remember that their reason for suing was that Miss De Fina had abused and whipped them with various instruments, hmmm …… or the word instruments isn’t apt, it’s better to use the word props.”
Harrison laughed, “Yes, that’s right, that’s the case. I introduced all those people to her. First I spent some money to regain her trust, then I told her that there were quite a few gentlemen in London who were just as good. Then again, I introduced her to a few more hand-picked friends, which led to this latter case.”
Hearing this, Arthur rested one hand on his chin for a moment in thought and said, “It seems that Ms. Delfina did hide quite a few things from us.”
Harrison said helplessly, “Mr. Hastings, although there is such a series of conflicts between us. But our first conflict cost me my seat as a councilor. After the second case trial, you called for someone to give me a hard lesson. After I was beaten, although I wanted to take revenge on you, I was not bold enough to directly hire a killer to assassinate you. Even if I wanted to assassinate you, I could not have done it when you were in Liverpool. If you have to say that I did this, then you are questioning my intelligence.”
Hearing this, Arthur’s hand on his teacup suddenly froze in place, and he looked up and asked, “Mr. Harrison, your misfortune of losing your seat as a councilor may have some relation to the existence of Scotland Yard. But the matter of you getting your ass kicked, are you questioning my questionable intelligence?”
“You didn’t do that thing?” Harrison froze as well, “No, it couldn’t have been! Those guys were carrying guns and made a point of threatening me that I shouldn’t think of going to the police when they flipped me over with the butt of a gun, and that the next time I fell into the hands of Scotland Yard, it wouldn’t be as simple as giving me a butt of a gun.”
Hearing this, Louis couldn’t help but look over at Arthur as he lowered his voice and asked, “Could it be that Miss Fiona and the girls have taken matters into their own hands with all this?”
“Threatening a councilor? Even a former councilor they wouldn’t have the guts to do that. But ……”
Arthur pondered for a moment and returned, “Just in case, you should send someone to confirm it afterward.”
Louis took a deep breath, “If they really did it ……”
Arthur took off his hat and placed it on the table, “That’s unfortunate, Scotland Yard has never been one to forcefully retain competent employees, she can choose to return to society and continue to earn money on her own ingenuity.”
Dumas suddenly remembered the scene he crashed in Liverpool when he heard this, and the fat Frenchman snickered, “Or, she could choose to bring her skirt up to meet her.”
Harrison, on the other hand, balked, “If you didn’t direct this, then most likely it was someone under you who took matters into their own hands. Like I said earlier, this kind of dirty work is something that the people underneath are eager to do. Although you are not ranked in the whole of Britain, but in London this acre of land is barely considered to have a name.
If it wasn’t one of your men, was it De Fina, the whore, who called you? A Polish ragtag who hasn’t been in London for long, what gives her the right to call out so many strong men with guns at once?”
Arthur returned, “We’ll find out afterward about the internal possibilities. But I don’t think that my subordinates should be as spiritual as you are yet. What’s more, we have some details that you are not aware of, which makes me even more suspicious of what has happened to Ms. Defina in recent months.” “What details?”
Louis casually flung out a document towards Harrison, “According to our investigation, one of the murderers in the Liverpool assassination case was none other than Miss Defina’s husband. Mr. Harrison, if you do not explain the exact details, we have good reason to bring you to Scotland Yard for further questioning.”
“Huh?”
With a thud, Harrison dropped the teacup in his hand on the table in shock.
Tea splashed everywhere, but at this point, he couldn’t be bothered to clean up his expensive attire.
Harrison stood up and said, “Mr. Hastings, I assure you that I really have nothing to do with this case.”
Arthur took out a handkerchief and wiped the water droplets on his face, “I know, and I don’t want to wrongly accuse an innocent man. However, you understand, the top needs an explanation. If you can’t explain the details of it, you are well suited to be that account, given your current status.”
Harrison’s shirt was soaked with sweat when he heard this, and he couldn’t stop wiping it away as he picked up his napkin, his eyes darting around.
He searched left and right and knew that Arthur wasn’t lying to him.
A Tory renegade, a hardliner hated by the Whigs, and at the same time, a former MP seen as a thorn in Scotland Yard’s side.
He was indeed well suited to be the greatest common denominator between the forces.
But as an MP who had talked about sacrifice and dedication for so many years, when the penny was going to drop on himself and give him an about-face, Mr. Harrison decided to go negative for a bit.
He slapped the table and protested, “Mr. Hastings, this is a conspiracy, you’ve been set up and I’ve been framed! Earlier I thought that Defina had brought someone to beat me up as a way of venting her anger, but now it seems that it was a complete setup for your subsequent assassination!”
Louis also nodded in agreement, “Indeed, everything is too subtle. When all the coincidences come together, then this is not a coincidence, but a conspiracy.”
Harrison racked his brain, “That bitch Defina, I thought she came back to me for money. Now it seems there must be someone else behind her. Mr. Hastings, we need to arrest her as soon as possible before she escapes!”
“Unfortunately, Mr. Harrison.” Arthur spoke, “Back when the Liverpool assassination happened, Defina had already disappeared. And not only is she missing, even her several children are nowhere to be found. That’s why I wanted to come and ask you when you last saw her.”
“The last time ……”
Harrison recalled, “I …… I’m a bit confused, I think it was a few days after I got beaten up. It was when I went to Regent Street for the opening of a friend’s new store, and I happened to see her with a couple of men. At that time, she was dressed in bejeweled clothes, if not for the two small red moles at the corners of her mouth and shoulders, I almost didn’t recognize her.”
“Beaded?” Dumas pondered with his pen in his mouth, “It seems like she did make a fortune!”
“It’s more than that ……,” Harrison mocked, “I was afraid of getting another beating, but it seemed too spineless to just walk away. So I got some revenge on her. I deliberately walked up to her, planning to wait for them to separate, and then tell her new concubines about my past affair with her.”
“And what happened?”
“I tailed them in a carriage for quite some time, and finally posted up while Defina went to a store to try on clothes. I chatted with them casually, only to learn that these people were actually military attachés of the Russian Embassy ……”
Hearing this, Arthur suddenly spoke up and asked, “How many months was this, do you remember it well?”
Harrison spoke, “It should be October.”
Hearing this, Louis hurriedly flipped through the archive documents in front of him as he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Arthur, “According to Miss Fiona’s statement, Defina’s entry into the embassy should have been on November 25th. If she hooked up with the Russians in October ……”
Arthur held the paper and read it again and again, and instantly felt the extent of the matter as well.
The Russians did have a reason and a motive to assassinate him, and it was also true that the use of a Polish assassin with a pro-French background would have maximized the benefits for the Russians, and this was even in line with the current policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The only question now was whether Viscount Palmerston knew or not, and whether anyone else in the Cabinet knew of the Russian plan.
If they all pretended to know, it would be more than a matter of finding out the truth.
What’s more, the Russians had even thoughtfully prepared an alternative truth for the Commission of Inquiry.
Arthur had been staring at Harrison for half a day, and his nose had caught a whiff of something bad.
“Louis.”
Louie looked up, “What’s wrong?”
“If the Board of Inquiry issues a warrant for Mr. Harrison’s arrest after that, remember to put him in solitary confinement in the CID cell.”
(End of chapter)