Lorenzo said all this confidently. He liked it very much. Although he didn't say it directly, it felt like he was humiliating Shrike's IQ.
Shrike was silent. It was like this every time. Just when he was about to pull the trigger and kill this damn detective, he would always prove his worth and then make himself very angry.
"Is this your plan, to borrow those forensic doctors?"
Lorenzo nodded.
"Shrike, you have to admit that there are specialties in medicine. I went to Wangli Medical College to attend classes before." There was a distortion on Lorenzo's face that seemed to be the memory of a nightmare.
"To be honest, I feel confused about knowledge for the first time."
"Of course you have your uses, otherwise I wouldn't come to this hellish place like Xiacheng District to see you."
Lorenzo was always so confident and didn't even care that Shrike had pointed a gun at him just now.
"Shrike, I came mainly to ask you some questions."
"what is the problem?"
Shrike put the gun on the table, and he fell into Lorenzo's rhythm again. He was obviously his employer and the leader of the entire downtown area, but when Lorenzo started to talk, he would always feel low.
His head.
Just like a teacher and his students, Lorenzo is the bad teacher. He will not teach his students anything, he will only play with their minds to show his own excellence, as if he can feel satisfied from it.
"Shrike, I need to know the full story of this case."
Lorenzo stared at the shrike closely, his blurry figure reflected in the unique blue-green eyes of the Inverg people.
"A sailor has a secret you want to know... Shrike, I am a detective, not a writer. I need to know the whole story to find out everything, otherwise I will just go home and try to make up a reasonable story for you."
It’s a story.”
Grasping the edge of the table, Lorenzo pulled himself over. He was close to the shrike. The two looked like close friends.
"So, are you interested in talking about it?"
Lorenzo asked with a smile.
…
The story starts half a month ago.
According to Inverg's law, the fishing season is closed from mid-June to mid-September. All fishing boats are anchored in the port and are prohibited from fishing. But one day half a month ago, a fishing boat arrived in the mist.
Port of Rendona.
"My people have been tracking that ship for a long time. They set out from the Viking Kingdom of Nobito. During this period, they changed their route and passed through the ice sea. Finally, they arrived at the port of Rendona half a month ago."
"It doesn't sound suspicious. Every year during the fishing ban period, many fishing boats fish from other sea areas and finally send them to Old Dunling."
Lorenzo said as he listened.
"The problem is that their fishing boat did not unload the cargo after mooring, and no one came out. It just parked at the dock. After several days of exposure to the sun, the fish and shrimp started to stink, which attracted people's attention."
"So...is this fishing boat worth anything?"
This is an essential question. Everything has its value, even this fishing boat is like this. It is a fishing boat that has not unloaded its cargo. Lorenzo can't understand how he alerted this big shot like Shrike.
"It's not just a fishing boat."
Shrike told the hidden story, and the alcohol heightened the atmosphere, making him feel much better.
"My business is not only here in Old Dunling, but also in the surrounding areas... That ship carried things he shouldn't have taken. My people have been tracking it, using a new steamship, which is faster than them
More than twice as fast.
Originally, they would have stopped them on the North Sea, then let the unfortunate fishing boat sleep on the bottom of the sea forever, and sent those Vikings back to their Hall of Valor."
He drank the remaining wine in the glass and continued.
"But an accident happened, as if the god Odin favored them. The fishing boat sailed into the ice sea, and my people lost their traces in the storm. Then just as I said, they arrived at Rendo
At Na Port, those fish and shrimps are just a cover-up, and the real goods have been shipped away long ago."
"So it's the mysterious cargo I'm looking for, right?"
Lorenzo lowered his head and smoked his pipe, nodding as he spoke.
"Yes, according to the list, that Wall was a sailor of the Silver Fish. This group of people seemed to have disappeared from the world after they arrived. Wall and I are the only one who can find traces."
"Including the captain and first mate, there are seventeen people in total. Excluding the dead Wall, the remaining sixteen are still missing."
"But now the only Wall has been killed by you."
Shrike said angrily.
Lorenzo looked at him, his confusion not diminishing.
"Why don't you do it yourself and arrest someone."
"This cargo is related to a certain duke. My people cannot appear at the scene." Shrike is the king in the darkness, but he will still be embarrassed when facing the noble duke.
"What about the goods?"
"I don't know, I only know that it was sealed in an iron box."
Lorenzo smiled.
"Look, another vague request. Can I go to the blacksmith and pick up an iron box to claim the reward?"
Shrike was not angry at Lorenzo's provocation this time. He was calm and uncharacteristically calm.
"Do you believe in such things as a sixth sense?"
"You mean intuition?"
"I guess so."
Shrike lowered his eyes and looked at the revolver on the table. The bullet chamber was engraved with paintings of ghosts and gods. He was fascinated by it.
"You'll know it the first time you see it... It's like intuition, when you see that iron box, you'll recognize it."
The words were mysterious and mysterious, something Lorenzo had never seen before, and he felt something was wrong.
"Shrike, there are still many things you haven't explained to me clearly."
This is a fragmented story, even Lorenzo is a little at a loss, there is a shadow behind it that he can't see clearly.
"Lorenzo, you are just a detective hired by me, not my accountant. You'd better not know so much about my business."
Shrike refused to reveal more, his eyes determined.
"This is for your own good."
"The rest of the information is here. The carriage is waiting for you outside. You can take a look at it on the way to the hospital."
As he spoke, Shrike took out a document, flipped through a few pages, tore out the parts that Lorenzo shouldn't know, and threw them to him.
"Lorenzo, you know how much I trust you. I am the hateful butcher bird, and you are the iron thorn that kills my prey."
Shrike looked at him.
"So get out of here, if you don't do this well, I will put the last bullet in it." He was referring to the revolver with a 1/6 probability.
"Okay, okay."
Lorenzo stood up, picked up the documents, turned to leave, but stopped again.
"Still do things my way, right?"
"I only care about the outcome of this matter."
This was probably an answer, so Lorenzo pushed open the iron door and left without looking back.
…
Walking out of this stone castle, the cold air rushed into Lorenzo's nose in an instant. The air was so humid, cold and oppressive.
It's so cold...
Old Dunling is like this. With thousands of tons of water vapor filling the air day and night, it is always rainy here. They gather over the city, as if a dome of clouds and fog covers everything. The sun will illuminate the cloudy sky golden, like the sky.
It's also burning.
The coachman was already waiting for Lorenzo outside. This time Lorenzo walked directly into the carriage and started looking through the documents.
The scenery outside the car window slowly changed. After several inspections, they entered the outer city. Different from the dilapidated and desolate lower city, towering Gothic and Barot-style buildings could be seen everywhere here, and tall steam towers stood in the sky.
Between each block, thick smoke rose from the chimneys, turning everything gray.
This is the birthplace of steam technology, the most advanced city in the world. With the innovation and development of technology, everyone lives with hope.
The documents are fixed with exquisite iron frames, and the edges are decorated with mottled brass. This is a common decorative technique in this era. Gears and pipes, everything seems to be like a steam machine. For this reason, there are a group of people who worship those hot machines.
machine, thinking that it is the great power given to humans by gods.
Lorenzo opened the document and read it carefully in the shaking carriage.
What is written here is much more detailed than what Shrike said. Most of it comes from the personal dictation of the people under investigation. The words are messy, but all of them are recorded without exception.
Seeing this, Lorenzo felt more comfortable. In the past, those people who handled cases only kept the important and streamlined parts, which made some accounts look extremely cold.
It was Lorenzo's suggestion to write down every sentence in detail. Only in this way could Lorenzo feel that he was facing a person when facing this piece of paper, a real person of flesh and blood.
, say everything slowly.
He reached into his arms and took out an exaggeratedly carved iron box, which was neatly filled with cigarettes.
Picking up one of the red-lined cigarettes, Lorenzo took it in his mouth and looked at everything on the document.
Smoke filled the carriage and slowly rose.
Time seemed to slow down. The things contained in the tobacco spread to his nerves after the blood exchange, and his gray-blue eyes shimmered.
It was as if the carriage had entered another world. The window darkened, and finally turned into pitch black. In this darkness, only the light from Lorenzo's cigarette remained.
"Let me see you..."
Lorenzo whispered, and with the glimmer of light from the cigarette, his fingers rubbed the rough paper, and he silently read the words on the document in his mind.
To put it simply, the so-called spirit of words means that words come into being, just like the classic "God said there should be light, so there was light."
It is a narrative from the bottom of the heart, so the "spirit" is fermenting in the darkness.
Lorenzo looked at the documents under the firelight, and suddenly there was a rapid sound of wind in the darkness, and the fishy smell of sea water swept over him.
Something seemed to be approaching Lorenzo. It crawled slowly on the ground, making a sticky and disgusting sound. Its eyes were silently watching the meditating man, and it stopped not far away.
Thunder struck, lighting up the darkness for a moment under the threat of the storm, and the earth shook.
Although it was only for a moment, you can still see Lorenzo sitting on a chair with his head lowered in thought. If you zoom out, you can see that he is on the Silver Fish at this moment.
The sea was beating against the ship that was on the verge of sinking, a strange cold wind was caressing him, and the cracked and damp deck in front of him was now full of people.
As if none of this existed, Lorenzo raised his head coldly and looked at the silhouette that was reflected pale by the thunder. The seaweed-like hair was swaying in the wind, and the water was dripping like blood.
Lorenzo showed no fear at all, as if everything was normal.
"Where on earth have you been?"
He asked towards the strange darkness.
The crew members disappeared out of thin air, the mysterious cargo. He was looking for the weirdness hidden between the lines, the thing that really drove all of this.
The fleeting thunder was about to leave, and at the end of the light, Lorenzo noticed a hint of old blood.
The creature staring at him in the dark.
Turning his head sharply, Lorenzo found the key point.
His eyes quickly swept away, and he saw that it was a ferocious corner, but then the corner overlapped with a familiar face, and a voice sounded.
"Mr. Holmes?"
The coachman opened the door and looked at Lorenzo surrounded by smoke. His eyes were dull and empty, as if he was looking at himself.
It wasn't until the cigarette ashes burned Lorenzo's fingers that he reacted like he was waking up from a dream and threw away the cigarette butt.
As the coachman opened the door, everything that was strange and dreamlike ended.
The sky was still gloomy, and the coachman's face was a bit disappointed.
"Sir, I thought you wouldn't touch hallucinogens or anything like that."
It had been a long time since he arrived at the Victoria Central Hospital. He called Lorenzo many times but there was no response. He even said that when he opened the car door, Lorenzo was still as sluggish as if he was in a dream.
Although he works for the boss of all gangs, the coachman still instinctively resists things like hallucinogens. The young man thinks that this is the key to heaven, but in his opinion, it is an invitation to hell.
"You know, in my line of work sometimes I need some inspiration."
Lorenzo smiled and did not answer directly.
The coachman sidled out of the way, muttering as Lorenzo got off.
"If you need it, I know a few good addiction treatment therapists...but their methods are a bit rough."
Out of politeness, Lorenzo smiled and thanked the coachman for his concern, and strode forward towards the grand castle-like hospital.