Chapter 50: Locked Up
Chapter 50 Locked Up
Arthur was sitting in the office of the district police station, the investigation report that he had just gotten from Duke Sussex was in front of him.
According to the records of this investigation report, the number of people known to have disappeared so far, has been as many as forty-five.
Forty-five people, sounds like a lot.
But when placed in the context of the total population of St. Giles Parish, it seems mediocre.
The most notorious slum in bustling West London, St. Giles Parish has between 5,500 and 6,000 houses, of which the average number of people living in each is a staggering 12.7, according to relevant Home Office documents.
In the Crow’s Nest area, the most chaotic part of St. Giles Parish, this number of occupants can even be adjusted upwards to 18 people per block.
In other words, there are at least 70,000 London paupers crammed into this ancient parish, known as a haven for criminals to sell their loot and the best place to hide.
If it were any other well-policed parish, the missing forty-five would have made the headlines by now.
But in the parish of St. Giles, where people come and go and the roads are so narrow and crowded that even the best-lit thoroughfares are not as bright as the alleys around Trafalgar Square, the story has made even less of a splash.
As soon as you enter this parish, you look up and see roofs of unauthorized extensions everywhere, and in the deepest part of the road you never know what the devil is waiting for you, so that even the bravest policemen in Scotland Yard are not quite so bold as to venture into it in the dead of night.
In fact, when Scotland Yard was first established, there was a large-scale remediation of the parish of St. Giles, but the result of the increased patrols was that the area was subjected to thirteen assaults on the police within a month, including one policeman who nearly lost his life as a result of a siege by a couple of thugs.
Since then, the police inspector in charge of St. Giles Parish has ordered a relaxation of supervision of the area, with only two routine patrols during the day, and the patrols must be carried out in pairs of three or more policemen.
Arthur looked at the material in his hand and muttered: “The only parish in West London that can keep a lid on a case of this magnitude is St. Giles Parish. However, this list of missing people looks a bit strange.”
Agareth, who was beside him, sniffed and came forward to take a look, “Let me take a look.”
The Red Devil couldn’t help but grin as he scanned over this missing information with a single glance.
“Wow! This is my favorite puzzle game.
Tsk, tsk, tsk, Arthur, this is not an easy puzzle to solve, you have to factor in a very large number of factors.
If you confuse any of them, you’re missing the point by a mile.”
Arthur raised an eyebrow and asked, “You came up with an answer?”
“Of course.”
Agareth rubbed his hands together with a wicked grin, “But if you want to know, we’ll have to make a deal. A hint in exchange for one of my needs.”
Arthur saw through the Red Devil’s verbal trap at a glance, he crossed his arms behind his head before leaning back in his chair, shaking his legs as he spoke.
“One demand? It’s not even more than a soul. Agares, you’re sitting on a price. But it doesn’t matter what price you set, I don’t intend to fulfill it anyway.”
The Red Devil sniffed, his left eye instantly glaring like a two-meter tall pendulum clock, his blood-filled pupil almost leaping over the desk onto the tip of Arthur’s nose.
“Hey! Arthur, fuck you! I didn’t say I couldn’t bargain.”
“I’m sorry about that. Even when doing business with a devil like you, I don’t like to do it on credit.”
Arthur held a white porcelain teacup in one hand and cupped the information in the other, scrutinizing it over and over again, which finally allowed him to summarize something.
Although the ages of the missing people ranged from as low as six or seven years old to forty or fifty years old, the distribution was extremely wide and there was absolutely no pattern to be found.
But strangely enough, the gender distribution of the missing persons was extremely strange, with males amounting to as many as thirty-six and only nine of them being female.
Of the nine women who disappeared, eight had disappeared after being released from prison.
Only one woman actually disappeared from the streets.
As for the male missing persons, there were twenty-four missing from prison and twelve missing from the streets, a more even distribution overall. Of course, this regularity in the statistics may not be entirely reliable.
Because this is only the number of people known to be missing on Duke Sussex’s side, it does not represent all the missing data.
However, the portion of prison disappearances should be relatively reliable. Because these prison missing person information can be combined with the Ministry of the Interior, Scotland Yard and the London District Magistrates Court during this period of time the relevant archived information for comparison and verification.
The same cannot be said for the missing on the street.
I’m afraid we’ll have to get a few people familiar with the parish of St. Giles to carry out an in-depth investigation if we’re to draw any real conclusions.
And the reason he was waiting in his office today was precisely to wait for someone familiar with St. Giles Parish.
Arthur was pondering in his mind when he suddenly heard a fierce argument resounding outside the door.
“Damn! What gives you the right to arrest me? Didn’t I just go to the store to buy something? I neither stole nor robbed anything, so hurry up and let me go back!”
“You still dare to be tough, was that buying something? Scream again, or I’ll whip you with a civilized weapon!”
As soon as Arthur heard this voice, he knew that the one standing outside the door must be Tony.
He just pulled open the door and saw Officer Tony was holding up a civilization battle ready to deliver a head-on blow to a handcuffed suspect.
Arthur hurriedly called out to him, “Tony, what are you doing?”
That suspect saw the Bass star on Arthur’s shoulder patch and hurriedly ran and hid behind him.
He shouted, “Mr. Officer, I want to file a complaint against your subordinates for rudely arresting good citizens!”
Arthur frowned and asked, “What the hell is going on here?”
Tony’s face was red with anger, and he pinched his waist and gasped for air while cursing, “Arthur, don’t listen to this son of a bitch’s bullshit. This kid is an active offender, I was in the neighborhood at the time of the crime, the victim ran out to get help, I called the police on the spot, he can’t hide from me in any way.”
“What case did he commit.”
Tony held back half a day, angry speech is not favorable to the road: “You let him say it himself!”
Arthur whipped his head around and asked, “What did you do?”
The suspect looked innocent, “Mr. Officer, I just went to the store to get something. I went to the store to buy some food for my pet dog, but the woman shopkeeper saw that I wasn’t dressed neatly or cleanly, so she suspected me of being a thief or a robber, and had to make me lead the dog over to her before she would sell it.”
“And did you lead it over there?”
“Of course I did, I had to lead it over there even to prove that I had the financial resources to keep a dog! But the next day, I went to buy food for my pet cat, and she demanded I bring the cat again.”
“So did you carry it over?”
“Of course! I’m a good-natured, law-abiding citizen!”
Arthur scratched his head in confusion as he asked, “Tony, isn’t this all quite normal? Why did you arrest him?”
Hearing this, Tony said angrily, “The first two days were normal, but this guy bought hand towels today!”
“Lock him up and lock him up. You lock him up for now, and when Tom gets here in a little while, you two come to my office together.”
“Ughhhhhhh! Mr. Officer, Mr. Officer! I am unjustly accused! Unjustly!”
Officer Tony was furious when he heard that this suspect dared to cry injustice, and went up and gave him a stick, “Be honest! Fuck, who told you to take off your pants and shit in the store! Lock you up for three days, calm down for me!”
(End of chapter)