Lorenzo Holmes arrived in Old Dunlin six years ago and now works as a private detective in this city of steel and steam.
Another person died.
That's what people are talking about this morning.
According to the "Queen's Daily", a man was shot and killed at the junction of Erins and the inner city in Dongcheng District. Because it was close to the inner city where rich people lived, the patrols were dispatched very quickly, but just like before
Many times, they found nothing.
According to Su Yalan's autopsy, the man was hit head-on with a shotgun at close range. The scattered bullets battered the front of his body to a bloody mess, making it difficult to distinguish his appearance. However, based on the tanned skin and the faint fishy smell, Su Yalan
The Department speculated that he was a sailor, but they didn't know why the sailor appeared there that day. It was obviously very far from the harbor, and he had no motive to come here.
Another mystery, at least that's what the public thinks.
No one was surprised by this result, or even panicked. After all, everyone has been used to it for a long time.
This is Old Dunling, the heart of the entire Inverge, the heart of the entire world. The first steam engine in human history came from here.
Therefore, countless strangers come here every day, some for wealth, some for knowledge, and some for power.
Excessive abortions have brought about deterioration in public security. In order to maintain order, Jiudu Dunling has been divided into four urban areas, each of which is linked to another.
The center is the center of power of the entire Ying Erweg. The Platinum Palace where Queen Victoria lives is there. At the same time, the Wangli Third Mobile Troop is stationed there. Beyond this is the inner city, where most of the wealthy and noble people of Old Dunling live.
Here, you enjoy the 24-hour protection of the patrol. Beyond this is the outer city area divided into four small areas. Most residents live here, which is the largest part of the entire old Dunling. The last one is Xiamen.
urban area.
According to the visitor’s documents, various areas of Old Dunling are open to them one by one. If you are dressed in rags, you cannot enter the outer city at all. At most, you can only hang out in the lower city area, and the lower city area is not considered in a sense.
urban area.
It was a slum at first, but as more and more people came here, the lower city continued to grow, and finally became so large that even the consul had to face it.
Therefore, a chaotic and disorderly urban area emerged, where the largest black market transactions in the entire Old Dunling were conducted, and the final incineration furnace for all secret information. It was only a thin line away from the world that everyone pursued.
This dead sailor was from the lower town. In the eyes of the residents of Inverg, the people from the lower town were not even human beings. They were just a bunch of dirt that tarnished this beautiful city.
The sailor's death became the talk of everyone, and no one cared at all except one person, the man who killed him.
Lorenzo is walking in the downtown area. Now he is on the edge of the downtown area. The infrastructure here is not the same at all. His boots are treading on the muddy road. If it were not for his livelihood, Lorenzo would not come here.
this.
Wearing a deerstalker hat dyed black, with his short pale blond hair pushed down, a dark red tie on his chest, and a wide gray and black windbreaker that perfectly blocked the firearm underneath, he held his cane and looked at it from time to time.
Pocket watch, looks like a businessman in a hurry.
Lorenzo's clothes were just right and he was no different from an ordinary pedestrian, but now he was in the lower town, and to the people in the lower town, he was just a fat sheep who had strayed here by mistake.
People from different countries and regions are waiting for this fat sheep in the corner. This place is not under the jurisdiction of the patrol. Even if someone dies, there is rarely any accountability. After all, there is a huge flow of people here, and countless people arrive with ships every day.
this city.
There is everyone among them, and they know very well who they should attack and who they should not attack.
Several new strangers became interested in Lorenzo, and they quietly divided Lorenzo's property. Some wanted his windbreaker, and some wanted his pocket watch.
The rest of the people just ignored this. After Xiacheng District became the black market of Old Dunling, a new black industry chain was formed here. Most of the people who dared to rob people were gang members. If they helped, they would only get themselves involved.
On the dirty street, this group of people surrounded Lorenzo with fierce eyes.
"My friend is well dressed."
The leader looked at Lorenzo with a smile on his face. This was not a kindness, he just found that Lorenzo's pocket watch was much more valuable than it looked.
"If I were you, I wouldn't do this."
The voice was a little helpless, as if he was used to it, and Lorenzo didn't care about what happened to him.
This was the case in the Lower City. He had killed a few desperate people before with dozens of people watching, thinking that he would gain some prestige. However, it still happened every time he came here. Lorenzo thought that someone was targeting him, but
Later he discovered that this group of people was just gone.
This is the lower town, the temporary residence of those foreigners. According to Inverg's law, this is not protected by the kingdom, and the people here are not citizens. Beyond this is the estuary of the Thames, where
It has the largest seaport in Inverg, and the people hanging out in the lower city may be here one day, but may go to other seas with the fishing boats the next day.
There are also gang reasons for this. The only interests in the black market are these. For these industrial gangs, conflicts break out in the lower city every day. People die every day. Their corpses will be thrown directly into the Thames River. After being filtered by the steam hub, the corpses will
It will be incinerated together with other debris.
It's not that no one remembers Lorenzo, it's just that they died too quickly.
The bright knife dangled in front of Lorenzo's eyes, and just as he was thinking about how to deal with these desperate thugs, the sound of rapid horse hooves sounded, and a dark carriage stopped by the street. The carriage driver didn't know what to do when he saw this scene.
He politely took out his pistol and shot at these thugs.
He was really rude. After a few gunshots, the bodies of the thugs were lying in front of Lorenzo. People on the street fled because of the gunfire. For a while, only he and he were left on the empty street.
Coachman.
"Mr. Holmes?"
It seemed that he couldn't see Lorenzo clearly because of his old age, but the shooting just now was so precise that it was a bit difficult to judge the coachman.
"it's me."
After glancing at the emblem on the carriage, Lorenzo got on the carriage without hesitation, but instead of sitting in the carriage, he sat at the front of the carriage and sat with the carriage driver.
"What happened to those people?"
Looking at the corpse on the ground, Lorenzo looked disgusted.
"Stowaways. There have been more and more stowaways recently. Most of them are criminals. They think they can usher in a new life in Old Dunling, but they don't know that starting a new life requires saying goodbye to their past... They still retain
He has the mentality of a thug, so he has caused a lot of trouble recently."
The coachman waved his whip, and the carriage started slowly, moving forward on the muddy road.
"Shrike doesn't care about this?"
"Your Excellency has been very busy recently. There are two gangs that are about to go to war because of territorial issues. Your Excellency has been mediating recently. Those two gangs have important industries. Your Excellency doesn't care whether they win or lose, but because of their conflict, those industries will inevitably decline.
Affected, their lives are not that valuable."
"Hmm...it seems to be his style." Lorenzo said and nodded.
"By the way, Mr. Holmes, if you want to come next time, please tell me in advance. I will come to pick you up. This can avoid unnecessary conflicts."
The coachman added, as considerate as a butler.
Lorenzo nodded and said nothing. Although he got into the car not long ago, it was obvious that he had arrived at his destination.
Behind a series of dilapidated buildings is a hidden castle, made of various piles of rubble, hung with tattered flags and iron frames, like the work of an artist.
He got off the car and took off his hat to thank the coachman. This was something he had only learned in etiquette class for a long time. He was too lazy to think about what occasion it should be used for, but it had become part of his habit.
Walking towards the weird castle, the half-opened door opened directly to him, and then the true appearance of the lower city was revealed before his eyes.
Different from the dilapidated outside world, this place is as luxurious as the inner city, like traveling from the slums to the Platinum Palace in an instant.
It was already the end of October, and the weather was getting colder, but Lorenzo still felt a heat the moment he entered, not only physically, but also in his heart.
The space inside is much larger than it looks from the outside. Various precious paintings are hung on the pale gold walls. The floor is made of marble that can reflect people's figures. Waiters with gorgeous masks are holding plates on various gaming tables.
Bringing drinks.
The distant female voice singing on the high platform in the center stirred up the atmosphere of the entire casino.
Incense was lit in the exquisite iron cages around it. The smell was very good, but it contained a trace amount of stimulants, making those hesitant guests put all their chips on the line.
This is what Xiacheng District is really like, full of life and money.
Unlike the inner city, this area is not subject to jurisdiction and has become a den for many noble people to sell their stolen goods. They seem to be gambling, but they are diverting their wealth to another channel. The amount of secret currency transactions here every day is an amount that is difficult for ordinary people to reach. Of course,
There will also be many excitement-seeking nobles coming here, and they are all VIPs from the Lower City.
Shrike once told himself this. According to Yin Erweg's law, everyone here's crime is enough to spend the rest of his life in prison. Of course, therefore, the entire aristocracy of Old Dunling will be reduced by at least one third.
people.
No one stopped Lorenzo. Unlike those short-lived strangers in the outside world, the people here can live a long time, and they know very well who Lorenzo is.
Pushing open the iron doors, Lorenzo easily reached the deepest part of the underground, where he met the employer of this business.
The man was wearing an exquisite silver mask with carvings of thorns and birds. He was sitting behind an oak table, the whole room was filled with incense, and the song was slowly flowing from the gramophone. He closed his eyes and waved like a conductor.
His hands, until Lorenzo's arrival broke the world he was immersed in.
"Welcome! my friend!"
He saw Lorenzo and smiled in welcome.
This is the real ruler of Lower City, the Shrike who all gangs bow to.
Butcher Bird Shrike.
Lorenzo sat opposite him unceremoniously and spoke directly without any polite words.
"There was nothing on that man. Before he died, he seemed crazy. He couldn't ask anything, and there were no clues to investigate."
"Huh? Is that really true?" Shrike took out the wine glass from under the table and poured his favorite wine into it. "Lorenzo, you are the best detective I have ever seen. You should have discovered more than this, right?
."
After listening to Shrike's words, Lorenzo sighed helplessly.
"It's just speculation."
"What speculation?"
After hearing Lorenzo's words, Shrike became interested. Sure enough, Lorenzo Holmes never let him down.
"I found his whereabouts based on drug dealers. A sailor in the downtown area didn't have much income, but he would find a different drug dealer every day to buy hallucinogens. By the time I found him, the sailor seemed to have been injected with a large dose of hallucinogens.
My words were vague, and there were patrol police everywhere near the inner city, so I couldn’t ask too many questions...
So I speculate that he must have encountered something, something that frightened him so much that he was so frightened that he could only use hallucinogens to escape."
Lorenzo's voice was very soft, as if he was reading a touching story.
"Why do you think it's fear?" For some reason, Shrike cared about the word fear.
"Because I shot him in the chest, and dozens of bullets penetrated his heart, lungs and bones. Even if he inhaled hallucinogens, he would feel pain and wake up.
You must know that people are afraid of death. As long as I give you a little temptation, he will respect my words in every possible way for the rest of his life and answer whatever I ask."
"But he didn't. He kept talking in a foreign language that I couldn't understand... Even though his face was smashed by the bullets, I could see the relief-like beauty on his face."
"It's as if I didn't kill him, but saved him from some nightmare."
Shrike was stunned when he heard this. He ignored Lorenzo's speculation, but paid attention to his actions.
"Did you kill him? You should have brought him to me alive!"
"ah?"
Lorenzo was stunned.
"You didn't say you wanted to live. If you still have trouble, please pay attention to your identity, okay? You are Shrike, the boss of the entire lower city. The nobles in the House want you dead, and the gangs below also want you dead. Only you are dead.
Only then can they become the next boss.”
He directly took the glass and drank, and continued.
"I'm thinking about you. People who know my identity know more or less about our relationship, and you have repeatedly emphasized that this matter should be kept secret. I guess this matter is very important, right?
They all want to bring you down, and I won’t leave them any clues on this important matter. You see, it’s just a dead sailor, and no one will think of you.”
Lorenzo put down his glass and spread his hands.
“The best of both worlds.”
"So your best of both worlds is to kill the only clue and then come here to drink?"
Shrike spoke calmly and steadily took out a revolver from under the table. The shiny silver metal surface was engraved with reliefs of gods and ghosts, and it was so exquisite that it didn't look like a firearm at all.
"Lorenzo, I hope you can understand one thing. You are my employee, and I am your employer. You will not get money, but you will get a bullet."
Without even raising his head to look at Lorenzo, he loaded bullets into the magazine one after another, filling five rounds and leaving one. Then he turned the magazine and pointed the gun at Lorenzo.
"You are the best detective I have ever seen, but what you did was really stupid... So do you want to gamble on luck? One in six probability."
Shrike looked at Lorenzo seriously, he was not joking about this matter.
The smile on Lorenzo's face stiffened.
"Okay, okay, you are really boring."
Waving his hand, he tried to press down the muzzle of the gun, but then Shrike raised the muzzle again.
Seeing this situation, Lorenzo also knew that he could only explain the matter clearly at gunpoint.
"I have been following that sailor for many days. His name is Wall, and he is a Viking from the northern seas. In the past few days, he has been wandering among several drug dealers, with no intention of returning to the port. Look,
He looked as if he had been abandoned by his captain."
"When you gave me this case, you just asked me to investigate this person. You said he had a secret."
As if there was no muzzle in front of him, Lorenzo became casual again.
"To be honest, your request for this case is really ridiculous. You don't know his secret, but you asked me to investigate..."
"Identity, communication, nothing, a very clean guy, until I witnessed him injecting hallucinogens."
"What's wrong?"
Shrike was particularly concerned about Sailor Waugh.
"It's ridiculous, you know?"
Lorenzo was talking nonsense while pretending to have an injection in his neck.
"A whole tube of hallucinogens, which is a lethal dose for ordinary people, he just drank it all, and continued to drink it for several days. I got this confirmed by the drug dealer, he bought it every day
."
"I thought it might be a problem with the Vikings' physique. After all, their ancestors' pirates once attacked directly at the gate of Old Dunling."
Lorenzo raised his eyebrows when he said this. Talking about this kind of dark history always made him particularly happy.
"I found a Viking in the lower city to experiment. After taking a whole bottle of hallucinogen, he was already foaming at the mouth."
"So there's something wrong with Wall's health?"
Shrike grasped the key.
"Yes, he has serious health problems. And not only that, he is very aggressive. He has killed at least six people in the past few years. Otherwise, how can you think a sailor has money? Then I did kill him, but it was because he asked for it.
mine."
Lorenzo recalled the story of that night.
In the rising white steam and the light cast by the Zeppelin airship, Lorenzo was the dark silhouette. Under him was twisted and living flesh and blood. Every bullet hole was filled with dark red blood. His chest was heaving violently.
There was a whining sound in his throat. Although he couldn't understand the sound, he seemed to understand the meaning.
kill me!
Take me away!
"Then I stabbed along the bullet hole scar with my staff sword."
Lorenzo pulled out his cane, and the dark wood cracked, revealing the cold light underneath.
"I pierced his cervical vertebra...the carotid artery ruptured, causing massive internal bleeding. He died soon, but something strange happened at this moment."
During Lorenzo's story, Shrike couldn't help but lean forward, listening to every word carefully, and constructing the scene of that night in his mind.
"He should be dead...he must be dead, but his heart is still beating, beating violently. It can be said that his brain is dead, but his body is still alive, squeezing a steady stream of blood out of the bullet holes.
"
"This is a completely abnormal phenomenon. I pierced his heart with my staff and sword again. Only then was the corpse truly dead."
The story ended, Shrike was silent and seemed to be thinking about something. Lorenzo was not in a hurry and just drank a small drink. He knew very well that everything that could be placed in Shrike's place was good, and it would be better if he drank more.
"You should have brought his body back."
"No need."
"No need? You clearly know that there is something wrong with that body!"
Shrike was really angry this time, as if he was about to shoot in the next second.
"So what if you take it back? This is a casino, not a morgue. You have a group of thugs but not even a coroner... Do you know how many bones there are in the human body?"
Looking at the shrike with disdain, Lorenzo continued.
"Now Wall's body is lying in the morgue of Victoria Central Hospital, being dissected by a group of forensic doctors who graduated from Wangli Medical College for who knows how long.
Cut off piece by piece and neatly placed on the iron frame, it is like a sumptuous human body meal. Every abnormality is recorded in the report in strict accordance with the rules, and all of this is waiting for me to go there at the moment.
Pick."
Picking up the pocket watch, Lorenzo looked at the time.
"There are still two hours until these people get off work. Do you have anything else to ask?"