Chapter 99: Good News and Bad News
Chapter 99 Good News and Bad News
The night was hazy, in the shadowy corners of the brick alleyways of the Whitechapel district.
Strong men with fierce eyes were stepping into puddles and poking their heads outwards, looking at the sparsely populated streets.
Suddenly, he spotted a young girl in a hurry, and a smirk of conspiratorial triumph appeared on the burly man’s face.
He patiently waited for the young girl to walk to the front of the alley, suddenly drew and lit up the knife hidden behind him, violently rushed forward to cover her mouth, and with the blade on her neck, dragged her a little bit towards the alley.
The young girl was dragged along by him struggling all the way, the great fear made her unable to hold back her tears, she wanted to scream, but she could not make half a sound.
The burly man glared and threatened, ”Bitch, shut your mouth, I’m just robbing some money. You mustn’t make a sound or I’ll take your life!”
Seeing the young girl’s white calves disappearing little by little into the bright white moonlight, gradually being swallowed into the shadows, while the big man’s smile in the shadows became more and more hideous.
Just as he pondered how to ravage the young girl after robbing the wealth in a while, a wide and sturdy palm landed on his shoulder without warning.
Behind him resounded a word-for-word, uniquely flavored authentic Chinese English.
“What are you fucking doing?”
The burly man jerked his head back, and just one look gave him goosebumps.
It was a dozen or so big men with big brimmed hats and black trench coats, hell, I don’t know when they came here.
Before the robber could even open his mouth to argue, Arthur had already taken the lead and kicked him in the stomach, then picked up a broken brick from the ground and shoved it into the mouth of the fallen robber.
“Split up into two people and bring this idiot back to the station for me.”
The young girl looked at all this happening in front of her in a daze, she had just come back to her senses and was about to get up to thank Arthur when she saw him raise a finger up between his lips.
“Ma’am, words of thanks are unnecessary, we are on a special mission. It’s so late in the day, you’d better not go out. You were lucky this time, and you should understand that not every time a nightingale is in distress you meet an owl.”
After speaking, Arthur tilted his head at Dennis again, “Dennis, you are responsible for escorting this young lady back.”
Officer Dennis sniffed and rushed forward to help the lady up, “Ma’am, don’t worry. We are Scotland Yard’s patrol officers, where your home is, and I was ordered to be in charge of escorting you.”
The young lady sniffed, bracing her weakened legs, her pale face barely revealing a trace of a smile, she lifted her long skirt and gave a slight salute to Arthur, and then she left the place under Dennis’ support.
Arthur looked at their distant figures and couldn’t help but frown, ”The Whitechapel District, it’s kind of not down to its reputation. I just squatted here for a while, and I managed to stumble upon a major case.”
Hearing this, the Red Devil just smiled and said, “Arthur, you’d better withdraw your attention as soon as possible. I have already seen the carriage you have been waiting for arriving through the heavy night curtains.”
As soon as Agareth’s words left his mouth, there was indeed a jingling of ringing bells from the street.
The driver of the carriage was sweating profusely as he panicked and glanced around the streets of Brick Lane, feeling his entire heart in his throat.
“First …… sir, 75 Brick Lane is almost here, do you see if you settle the bill in advance, I don t dare to stop here for a moment more.”
Just after he said this, a slit was pulled open in the window of the exchange between the driver and the passenger, and two fingers holding a banknote stretched out.
Jones’ slightly tired voice followed, “Don’t worry, I can’t lose you. Remember to help me move some stuff later, and consider the extra as a tip.”
The coachman took the ticket and glanced at it, it was a brand new one pound sterling.
Under the power of money, he immediately felt filled with courage.
Although the coachman’s hand was still trembling as he gripped the reins, a smile was already written all over his face.
“Alright, sir, isn’t it just a few boxes? No problem!”
As the two spoke, the wheels of the carriage came to a stop.
The coachman took out the towel resting on his shoulder and wiped his sweat, then took a deep breath and jumped off the seat, slapping the door and shouting.
“Sir, we’re at the place, let’s start moving things.”
The car door was slowly pushed open, revealing the three boxes of goods hidden inside as well as Jones, who was gripping a flintlock pistol and covering the lower half of his face with a black cloth.
The coachman was startled by him, and he was about to shriek, but Jones snatched him up and covered his mouth.
With the blackened muzzle of the gun pressed against the coachman’s head, Jones warned, “Be honest if you want to make money! Help me carry the stuff down, and after that, there’s nothing for you to do. But if you dare to scream, then I don’t mind having another life on my hands.”
The driver held his hands up high, looked at Jones steadily, then gulped and slowly nodded his head.
“OK …… I …… I’ll do whatever you say.”
Under the coercion and surveillance of Jones, the coachman moved the boxes down one by one, he was tired and panting, but he didn’t even dare to spit out half a word.
Jones just stared at him as he carried the boxes to the door of the detective’s office, and then opened his mouth again and instructed the coachman, “You, go up and knock on the door.”
“Huh?”
The coachman was about to refuse, but no sooner had he hesitated than Jones’ pistol was pressed against his chin again.
He was already psychologically scarred by what had happened the last time he’d come to the detective agency; after all, no one could say anything about Fred’s temper.
As night fell, it was the time when the animal in man was at its peak, and if Fred suddenly went mad and shot him twice, Jones could not afford to do so.
He read at the driver, “I told you to knock, are you deaf?”
“Well, well! I’ll knock, and you take it easy, never take it easy.”
The car driver screamed bitterly in his heart, but things had come to this, and he had no other choice.
He tremblingly stretched out his hand and patted the door of the detective agency, yet after a long time there was never a response.
Jones held the pistol in both hands on the back of the car driver’s head, his heart always feel an indescribable anxiety.
He cursed at the coachman, “Harder!” The coachman could do nothing but clench his fist and slam it heavily on the firm’s door, but after a long time, there was still no sign of movement inside the house.
A sense of ill feeling flashed through Jones’ heart, he finally realized that something was wrong, his first reaction was to turn around and try to run, but just as he took a step he remembered what Superintendent Clemens had instructed him to do yesterday.
Clemens yesterday s tone, he remembered …… very harsh.
If he could not deliver the goods to Fred’s hands, then according to Clemens’ temper, most likely he would let Jones eat these things himself.
But how could he have the channels and connections to digest the loot?
These things put in his hands for a day, then he will not have peace for a day, wealth is certainly everyone wants, but not everyone has the strength to guard these riches.
Thinking of this, Jones could only stiffen his head and rushed to the driver of the car and spoke, “Ram it for me.”
“Huh?”
The cart driver could not cry, and he began to complain in his heart about why he usually did not honor God, so that he was allowed to crash into such a thing.
“Sir …… I ……”
“I told you to crash through that door!”
Jones, too, had been pushed to the point of no return, and with his finger on the trigger, he forced the driver to say, “I’m going to count to three, and if you don’t ram it, I’m going to fucking shoot you on the spot!”
The car driver almost dropped to Jones’ knees as he groveled and begged, “Sir, please, for the sake of my still having a family, let me go, I really can’t.”
Jones looked at the carter with wide eyes and a trembling body, he bit his lip and froze for half a second before he kicked him hard in the ass.
“Get out! Get the fuck away from me!”
“Thanks! Thank you, sir!” The coachman climbed into the carriage on his hands and knees as if pardoned, and with a shake of the reins he sailed away, “God bless you!”
Jones, with his gun in one hand and his waist in the other, sighed violently as he looked up at the darkened detective’s office, “Alas!”
He took two steps backward, sinking his shoulders and slamming them with all his might toward the front door.
However, when his shoulder hit the gate, it did not meet much resistance.
The door wasn’t actually locked, and only a creak was heard as Jones stumbled in.
He stumbled and fell to the ground, his finger pressed against the pistol accidentally actually pulling the trigger.
Only a thud was heard, and the musket then fired, the bullet striking Jones in the thigh and bleeding all over the floor.
Jones momentarily ate pain, but did not dare to make half a sound, he gritted his teeth and raised his head toward the dark detective office to look, and soon he saw the light emanating from the oil lamp placed on the table directly in front of him.
And behind the oil lamp was the wall with huge words written crookedly, the content of the words was not elegant, but passionate.
–Jones old boy, welcome!
“What …… is going on here?”
Jones looked around, yet he saw nothing but the writing on the wall and the table with the oil lamp.
All the furniture and decorations were gone, as if the place had just been ransacked and everything valuable and worthless had been taken out.
Suddenly Jones heard a scattering of footsteps behind him.
Immediately afterward, sprawled on the ground, he saw the black trench coat walking past him.
The figure so familiar that it made him despair picked up the letter that lay beside the oil lamp, and in his fear, Jones remembered the gun at hand.
But before he could raise the pistol, he heard a neat drawing of the gun from behind him.
Jones’s hand hanging in mid-air immediately froze in place.
Arthur opened the letter and merely glanced at it, and then heard the sucking breath that contained anger resound in the silence.
He turned around and grabbed the injured Jones by the collar.
“I have good news and bad news, which are you going to hear first?”
Jones reluctantly smiled, “It’s better to hear the good news first ……”
“The good news is that you just got away with it, if you had shot the carny, then what would be lying on the ground right now would be a corpse.”
Jones let out a long breath as he thankfully said, “And …… what about the bad news?”
“The bad news is that you got us all screwed by Fred, both for me and for Clemens, and you fall into the fucking category of incompetence!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Arthur raised his fist and slammed it hard into the side of his face.
Only a thud was heard, and Jones lost consciousness almost instantly, falling crookedly to the ground.
Tony rushed forward and asked, “Arthur, what’s going on?”
Arthur didn’t say anything either, he just flung the epistle in his hand to Tony.
Tony scanned it, it was filled with obscenities and Fred’s smugness.
–Jones, Clemens, you’re a bunch of dumb asses! Why should I continue to help you when you’ve all paid off the old man’s shipment?
–After this job, and with the money I’ve saved, I’ll have enough to buy a big farm in the United States. Bye-bye, idiots. I’m going west for the gold.
–Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that by the time you read this, my ship will have sailed. You’ve all fallen for my ruse!
–Besides, Scotland Yard will get the tip-off letter I left tomorrow, so you’re all just waiting to get in there, dumb asses!
Tony couldn’t help but panic when he saw this, and he hurriedly asked, “Arthur, so what now?”
Arthur pondered for a moment, and suddenly thought of what Elder had said to him earlier, that the Beagle seemed to be heading out to sea today for its first sea training.
He glanced at his watch, it was exactly three o’clock midnight, if Elder hadn’t lied to him, it seemed like it might not be too late to chase Fred.
“Tom, Tony, you two come with me to the dock at once! The rest of you, some of you take Jones back to the police station, and some of you go at once to stand guard in front of the Home Office, and as soon as Sir Peel arrives you will report to him directly on the latest case, and ask him to convey to the Foreign Office and the Royal Maritime Court a warrant for Fred’s arrest on the high seas!
Finally, if we can’t find a ship to take at the docks, we’ll also need the Royal Navy and the Marine Police to provide a vessel with sufficient firepower to intercept Fred!”
(End of chapter)