Chapter 58: Great Detective Hastings
Chapter 58 The Great Detective Hastings
Greenwich Borough Police Station, in the Inspector’s office.
Arthur took off his civilian clothes and changed back into his familiar police uniform.
Agareth, meanwhile, leaned back in his seat and teasingly asked, “How do you plan to save that little girl named Robin? With all due respect, she may have developed a lung disease as a result of working too long in the textile factory. I’m afraid this disease isn’t that curable.”
Arthur spoke while fastening the buttons of his uniform, “Agareth, don’t say anything snide. If there is a way, just say it.”
“Wow! Arthur, this time it’s really not that I won’t help you, medicine really isn’t my area of expertise, math, astronomy, and linguistics are my specialties.
As for medical matters, you’re better off asking Barr than me, at least Barr understands how to create a plague, that’s all that Lord of the Flies understands.”
Arthur took the Royal Society pass given to him by the Duke of Sussex out of the drawer.
“Agareth, although I had known that this was more than likely your response, I can’t help but say it.
You spend your days selling crutches to normal people, hiring cripples to push carts, asking you to form a band, and you get me a bunch of mutes to sing.
It really can’t all be my fault that you can’t get a soul, but because out of tune is something you do far too much of.”
The Red Devil sniffed and clapped his hands in anger as he cursed.
“Arthur! Don’t blame me for speaking harshly, there are strict rules for anyone making a deal with the devil!
All contracts are made under the laws of hell, and all standards are fair, just, and open.
If you didn’t get what you wanted, you can only blame yourself for not making the requirements clear, it’s not my fault!”
“Laws of Hell?” Arthur caught this new vocabulary, “What is the Laws of Hell?”
Agares grunted, “You wouldn’t understand even if I told you, since you’re a Scotland Yard cop, just understand the Laws of Hell as earthly laws.
In short, there’s no way I’m going to cheat you on the terms of the deal that’s at stake, and no devil would dare to hoodwink you in that regard.
Anyone who dares to falsify the laws of hell is going to have their powers withdrawn by the power of the law.”
Arthur raised an eyebrow at this, “So, the devils of hell are still all law-abiding citizens? Shouldn’t a place like this be heaven? How could it be hell?”
“Whoa! My dear Arthur.”
The Red Devil rubbed his hands together and hemmed and hawed, “If you’ve ever been to Hell you’d know. It’s no good if a being merely follows the most basic of laws.
Because that would mean that he would do everything outside of the laws, and are you really sure that would be a good thing?
For example, Barr, collecting feces doesn’t violate the laws of hell, and eating feces certainly doesn’t, but could you stand to have your neighbor do it every day?
If you can stand it, I’ll sell you my villa in hell right now, we’ll sign the contract right now, ten souls, for a fair and cheap price.
You probably don’t know, but because he built a shithouse restaurant next to my house, there are thousands of flies partying there every night.
I’ve been hanging that house in hell for thousands of years, and as a result, it’s still unoccupied, you know, my house used to be a high-class villa area!”
Arthur bristled, “I thought you and Barr just had some personal grudges, but I didn’t realize there was actually a financial dispute. Agares, it seems I don’t know you well enough.”
Agareth gave a generous wave of his hand, “That’s okay. Just like what you said to Adam before, let bygones be bygones. As time passes, I’m sure we can form a good partnership. Arthur, be less wary of me, I’m not always trying to screw you over.”
Arthur slipped his Royal Society pass into his pocket, “That’s enough to make me uneasy. Never mind, that’s enough chit chat for today, I’ve got to get to the Royal Society to find Faraday.”
“What are you looking for him for? Isn’t he an expert in chemistry and physics? It’s not like he knows anything about medicine.”
“But he should know someone who does; I’ve heard that the physician community is very interested in advances in the field of chemistry, and many of them possess a deep friendship with chemists.
Mr. Faraday should know some good doctors, and even if he doesn’t, I can ask the rest of the scientists to ask around for me.”
Arthur picked up the yarmulke on his desk and walked out of the room, but before he could get outside the police station, he heard someone call out to him.
“Sir, hold on a second, someone just called the police about two dead people on Central Avenue!”
“Dead people?”
Arthur looked back, the one who came was a panting junior constable.
He quickly asked, “What the hell is going on?”
The junior constable stood at attention and saluted, then hurriedly said, “The Wells Inn on Central Avenue reported that two travelers had died in their room, and the innkeeper claimed that the cause of death was probably a gas leak.
We just received the police and sent officers over to block the scene as you instructed in the last working meeting. Look, do you want to go over there yourself?”
Arthur sniffed, immediately put on his hat, and spoke, “You take me there right away!”
……
Ten minutes later, Arthur then brought Tom and Tony to the Wells Hotel located at 24 Central Avenue in the Greenwich District. The front of the hotel was crowded, and countless good London citizens were standing on their tiptoes and looking in, hoping to understand what had happened here.
And the police officers had already pulled up a cordon with ropes as per Arthur’s order, prohibiting unrelated people from approaching.
The constables patrolling in the neighborhood had also been urgently deployed here to maintain public order.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please make way!”
Tom and Tony yelled at the top of their lungs as they rushed into the crowd hoping to squeeze a path into the hotel for Arthur.
The surrounding patrolmen, seeing Arthur’s arrival, each rushed to attention and saluted, “Inspector Hastings!”
When the citizens, who were still bustling about, heard this voice, they couldn’t help but turn around and look towards Arthur.
“He is Arthur Hastings? The young police officer who saved the little boy in court!”
“Can’t be wrong! It’s all over the papers, Arthur Hastings was promoted to Greenwich Borough Police Inspector, and that’s him!”
“My goodness! He’s so young and tall and handsome, and you can tell at first sight that he’s very capable.”
They spontaneously made a path for Arthur, perhaps because they backed away so rapidly that they swept both Tom and Tony into the crowd.
They both howled in horror, “Damn it, let us out of here!”
Arthur couldn’t care less about either of them at this point, but stepped into his riding boots and headed straight for the front desk of the inn.
It was a very narrow aisle, and as soon as you entered the front desk, you could see the price list hanging on the wall.
On it, in crooked handwriting, was written–Daily evening special, 21:00 to 5:00 the next day, overnight day room for only two pennies.
The receptionist, a young man in his mid-twenties, met Arthur with a forced smile, perhaps frightened by the sudden intrusion of a large number of policemen.
“Mr. Officer, inside please. The deceased is in the room on the second floor, and the rest of the hotel’s guests have been gathered there as per the police’s orders.”
Arthur didn’t bother with that first, but kept surveying the price list on the wall and asked for no reason, “Is your rent here so cheap? I have just returned from St. Giles in the West End, and even the hotels there receive three pence a day.”
The waiter returned, “It is not always so cheap, don’t you see? Only the overnight day room in the evening is two pence.
By that time the guests who should be there have basically checked in, and the owner says that the remaining rooms are empty, so he might as well rent them out at a low price, and at the very least get some of his money back.”
Arthur asked, “Since the ones who should have checked in have done so, who rented these overnight day rooms?”
The waiter shrugged his shoulders and said, “There’s always someone, after all, it’s not easy to find such cheap rooms. Like those beggars who got lucky and got some money, prostitutes who are looking for a place to pick up customers, or countryside peasants who just came to London to make a living but don’t know their way around and don’t have much money in their pockets.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed slightly as he heard this, remembering the list of missing persons from the parish of St. Giles that he had read earlier.
He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get in, but instead turned to ask, “I seem to recall that many innkeepers didn’t seem to welcome these people, did they? They think that getting these people in will affect the reputation of the inns, leading to normal guests not wanting to choose to stay in their inns as well. The way your bosses do business, how come it’s not quite the same as theirs?”
The waiter saw that this police inspector was quite easygoing and approachable, and his nervousness relaxed.
He spoke, “Who knows? I’ve also persuaded him many times, after all, I have to be in charge of cleaning those day rooms after they’ve been lived in, and I’m tired of doing those jobs.
You may not know, the quality of those poor tenants is really too low, the bedsheets and bedding are dirty for them, and there are often some wine bottles and other things scattered on the floor.
I’ve told the owner many times that it’s going to be a problem sooner or later, and even if it’s not, it’s not a good idea for the other guests to see it.
But he wouldn’t listen to me. He said he had his own ideas, and that I was just a part-time worker, so I should mind my own business.
He thought that the time for overnight room is from 21:00 to 5:00 in the next morning, and other guests are sleeping at this time.
As long as those beggars and prostitutes come after the guests have gone to bed and leave before the guests get up, then there won’t be any problem.
But you see, what happened?
For the first two months there was no problem, and our boss, Mr. Wells, was diligent enough to insist on booting them out by 5:00 a.m. every day.
But today? Today I opened the door to find two dead overnight prostitutes in the room.
Mr. Wells is just so arrogant, he’s only been an innkeeper for a few months, but I’ve been a waitress for five years.
From my point of view, it’s definitely not a good idea to run a business like he does.”
Hearing this, Arthur fished a penny out of his pocket and placed it on the receptionist’s desk, “Thanks for the information, good citizen.”
The waiter was stunned by this sudden move from Arthur, he picked up the coin on the table and looked at Arthur’s back as he went up the stairs, pondering for a long time before he spoke.
“Mr. Officer, don’t be in a hurry, I can talk for another tuppence!”
(End of chapter)