Ember Gun

  Chapter 2 Second-rate Detective

  Lorenzo Holmes, who arrived in Old Dunling six years ago, is now mixing in this city of steel and steam as a private detective.

   Another person died.

  This is the topic people talked about this morning.

According to the "Queen's Daily", a man was shot and killed at the junction of Ilyins and the inner city in Dongcheng District. Due to the proximity to the inner city where the wealthy live, the patrols were dispatched very quickly, but just as before. Like many times, they found nothing.

According to the autopsy in the Su Yalan Hall, the man was hit by a shotgun head-on at close range. The scattered projectiles beat his body to a **** face, making it difficult to distinguish his appearance, but based on the tanned skin and the faint fishy smell, Su Yalan The hall speculated that he was a sailor, but they didn't know why the sailor appeared there that day, because it was very far from the harbour, so he didn't have any motivation to come here.

  Another unsolved case, at least the public thinks so.

  Everyone is not surprised by this result, or even panic. After all, everyone has been used to it for a long time.

  This is the old Dunling, the heart of the entire Inervig, the heart of the entire world, where the first steam engine in human history came from.

  Therefore, countless strangers come here every day. Some are for wealth, some are for knowledge, and some are for power.

  The excessive flow of people has brought about the deterioration of public security. In order to maintain order, the old town has divided four districts, and they are all in one circle.

At the very center is the power center of the entire Inervig. The Platinum Palace where Queen Victoria lives is there. At the same time, there is also the third mobile unit of the king. Outside of this is the inner city, where the rich and nobles of Old Dunling basically live. Here, enjoy the 24-hour protection of the patrol. Beyond this is the outer city divided into four small areas. Most residents live here. It is the largest part of the entire Old Dunling. The last is the next Urban area.

According to the documents of the visitors, the districts of Old Dunling are open to them one by one. If you are dressed in tattered clothes, you will not be able to enter the outer city. At most, you can only hang around in the Xiacheng District, and the Xiacheng District is not counted in a sense. Urban area.

  At the beginning, it was a slum, but as more and more people came here, the Xiacheng district continued to grow, until it was so large that even the consul had to face it.

  As a result, a chaotic and disorderly urban area has appeared, where the black market transaction with the largest amount of money in the entire old town is taking place, and the last incinerator of all secret information, it is only a thin line from the world pursued by everyone.

  The dead sailor was a person from Xiacheng. In the eyes of the residents of Inervig, the people in Xiacheng are not even human. They are just a group of dirt that tarnishes this beautiful city.

  The death of the sailor became the talk of everyone, no one cared at all, except for one person, the one who killed him.

  Lorenzo walks on the edge of the lower city. The infrastructure here is not the same. The boots are stepped deep and shallow on the muddy road. Lorenzo would not come here if it were not for his livelihood.

Wearing a deerstalker hat dyed black, he pressed down his short light golden hair, a dark red tie on his chest, and a wide gray and black windbreaker perfectly blocked the guns underneath. He held his cane from time to time and looked at the gun in his hand. The pocket watch looks like a businessman in a hurry.

  Lorenzo's clothes are just right, no different from ordinary pedestrians, but now he is in the Xiacheng District, and from the people of Xiacheng, he is a fat sheep who strayed here.

People from different countries and regions are watching this fat sheep in the corner. It is not under the jurisdiction of the patrol. Even the dead are rarely held accountable. After all, there is a huge flow of people here, and countless people arrive with ships every day. The city.

  They have all of them, and they also know who they should start with and who shouldn't.

  There are several newcomers who are interested in Lorenzo. They whispered to divide Lorenzo's property. Some people want his windbreaker, and some people want his pocket watch.

  The rest of the people just ignored this. After Xiacheng became the old black market in Dunling, a new black industry chain was formed here. Most of the people who dared to grab people were gangsters, and they would only get themselves in when they helped.

  On the dirty street, this group of people surrounded Lorenzo just like that, with fierce eyes.

   "My friend is well dressed."

The person headed by    looked at Lorenzo with a smile. This was not kind, he just found that Lorenzo’s pocket watch was much more valuable than it seemed.

   "If I were you, I wouldn't do it."

  The voice was a little helpless, it seemed that he was used to it, and Lorenzo didn't care about what happened to him.

This is the case in the Xiacheng District. He killed a few desperate people under the crowd of dozens of people, thinking that he would build some prestige, but he would still be like this every time he came. Lorenzo thought someone was targeting him, but Later he discovered that it was just that these people were no longer there.

  This is the Xiacheng District, the temporary residence of those from other countries. From the legal point of view of Inervig, this is not protected by the kingdom, and the people here are not considered citizens. Beyond this is the estuary of the Thames River, where there is the largest harbour in Inervig. The people who huddle in the lower city may be here today, and the next day they may rush to other waters with the fishing boats.

There are also gang reasons. The benefits of the black market are only these. For the sake of these industrial gangs, conflicts break out in the lower city every day, and people die every day. Their corpses will be thrown directly into the Thames River. After being filtered by the steam hub, the corpses Will be incinerated together with sundries.

  It's not that no one remembers Lorenzo, it's just that they died too quickly.

The dazzling knife swayed in front of Lorenzo's eyes, and as he was thinking about how to deal with these desperate thugs, the rush of horse hooves sounded, and a dark carriage stopped by the street, and the coachman did not see the scene. You are polite, take out a pistol and shoot at these mobs.

He was really welcome. After a few shots, the corpses of the mobs lay in front of Lorenzo. People on the street fled because of the gunshots. For a while, only him was left on the empty streets. And the coachman.

   "Mr. Holmes?"

  It seems that he can't see Lorenzo clearly because of his old age, but the shooting just now is so precise that it is a bit difficult to judge the coachman.

"it's me."

   glanced at the emblem on the carriage, Lorenzo got on the carriage without hesitation, but instead of getting in the carriage, he sat in the front of the carriage with the carriage driver.

   "What's the matter with those people?"

  Looking at the corpse on the ground, Lorenzo looked disgusted.

"Stowaways. Recently, there are more and more stowaways. Most of them are criminals. They think they can usher in a new life in the old town, but they don’t know that they have to say goodbye to their past when they start a new life... They still keep it. Thug thinking has caused a lot of things recently."

  The coachman waved his whip, and the carriage started slowly, moving forward on the muddy road.

   "Shrike doesn't care about this?"

"The adults have been very busy recently. Two gangs are about to go to war due to territorial issues. The adults are mediating recently. Those two gangs have important industries. The adults don't care whether they win or lose, but because of their conflict, those industries are bound to go. Affected, their lives are not so valuable yet."

   "Well... it looks like his style." Lorenzo said and nodded.

  "By the way, Mr. Holmes, if you want to come next time, please order in advance, I will come to pick you up, which can avoid unnecessary conflicts."

   said the coachman again, thoughtful like a housekeeper.

  Lorenzo nodded and did not speak. Although he was in the car not long ago, it was obvious that his destination had arrived.

  Behind a heavily dilapidated building, there is a hidden castle. It is made up of all kinds of rubble. It is hung with broken flags and iron frames, like the work of a certain artist.

   walked to the weird castle, the half-covered door opened directly to him, and then the real appearance of the lower city was revealed before his eyes.

  Different from the run-down of the outside world, the luxurious here is like an inner city, like a slum passing through a slum to the platinum palace.

  It was already the end of October, and the weather turned cold, but Lorenzo still felt a burst of heat as soon as he entered, not only in his physical sense, but also in his heart.

The space inside is much larger than it looks outside. Various expensive hanging paintings are hung on pale gold walls. The floor is marbled with shadows. The attendants with gorgeous masks are holding plates on the gaming tables. Bringing drinks.

  The distant female vocals on the high platform in the center drove the atmosphere of the entire casino.

  The delicate iron cage around is lit with incense. It smells good, but with a trace of stimulant, so that those who are still hesitating to bet all the chips.

  This is what Xiacheng really looks like.

  Unlike the inner city, it is not under jurisdiction and has become a den for many nobles. They seem to be gambling, but they are turning their wealth to another channel. The amount of secret currency transactions here is an amount that is difficult for ordinary people to reach. Of course, there will be a lot of nobles who are looking for excitement here. They are all VIPs in the Xiacheng District.

Shrike once said this to himself. According to Inervig's law, everyone here has committed enough crimes to spend the rest of his life in prison. Of course, the entire old Dunling aristocracy will be at least one-third less. People.

  No one stopped Lorenzo. Unlike the short-lived strangers outside, the people here can live a long time. They know exactly who Lorenzo is.

   Pushing open the iron doors, Lorenzo easily went to the deepest part of the underground, and here he met the employer of this business.

  The man wears an exquisite silver mask with thorns and birds carved on it. Sitting behind the oak table, the whole room was filled with incense, and the singing on the phonograph slowly flowed. He closed his eyes and waved his hands like a conductor until Lorenzo's arrival broke the world he was immersed in.

   "Welcome! My friend!"

  He saw Lorenzo and welcomed him with a smile.

  This is the real ruler of Xiacheng, and all the gangs are the shrike who bows their heads.

  Butcher Bird Shrike.

  Lorenzo sat opposite him unceremoniously, and spoke directly without any polite words.

   "There is nothing on that person. Before he died, the whole person was as if he was crazy. There was nothing to ask, and there was no clue to check."

"Huh? Is this really the case?" 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 found more than this, right? ."

  Lorenzo sighed helplessly as she listened to what the shrike said.

   "It's just speculation."

   "What speculation?"

  Hearing Lorenzo's words, Shrike became interested, and as expected, Lorenzo Holmes never let him down.

"I found his whereabouts based on drug dealers. A sailor in the lower city, with little income, but would find different drug dealers to buy hallucinogens every day. By the time I found him, the sailor seemed to have injected a large dose of hallucinogens. I was not able to ask too much...

  So I speculate that he should have encountered something, something that shocked him so much that he can only escape with hallucinogens. "

  Lorenzo's voice was very soft, as if he was reading a piercing story.

  "Why do you think it is a thing of fear." I don't know why Shrike cares about the word fear.

  "Because I hit him in the chest with one shot and dozens of bullets pierced his heart, lungs and bones, he would feel pain and wake up even if he inhaled hallucinogens.

  You must know that people are afraid of death. As long as I seduce a little bit, he will be respectful to my words for the rest of his life, and I will ask what and what to answer. "

   "But he didn't. He kept talking foreign words that I didn't understand... Although his face was broken by bullets, I could see that his face was as beautiful as relief."

   "It's as if I didn't kill him, but saved him from a nightmare."

  Shrike was taken aback when he heard this, he ignored Lorenzo's speculation, but cared about his actions.

   "You killed him? You should have brought him to me alive!"

"what?"

  Lorenzo was taken aback.

"You didn't say that you want to survive. Could you please pay attention to your identity? You are a shrike, the boss of the entire lower city, the nobles in the House want you to die, and the gang below want you to die, only you are dead. They can become the next boss."

   directly took the wine glass and drank, he continued.

  "I am thinking of you. People who know my identity more or less know the relationship between you and me, 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 will not leave them a handle 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 hand.

   "The best of both worlds."

   "So your best of both worlds is to kill the only clue and come here for a drink?"

  Shrike calmly spoke, and steadily took out a revolver from under the table. The silver metal surface was engraved with reliefs of gods and ghosts, exquisitely devoid of firearms.

   "I hope you can understand one thing. You are my employee and I am your employer. You won't get any money like this. Instead, you will get a bullet."

   didn't even look up at Lorenzo. He filled the bullet nest one after another, filling five rounds and leaving one. Then he turned the bullet nest and pointed his muzzle at Lorenzo.

   "You are the best detective I have ever seen, but you are really stupid in doing this... so do you gamble on luck? One in six probability."

  Shrike looked at Lorenzo seriously, he was not joking about this.

  The smile on Lorenzo's face stiffened.

   "Okay, okay, you are really boring."

   waved his hand, he tried to press down the muzzle, but then the shrike raised the muzzle again.

  Seeing this scene, Lorenzo also knew that he could only explain the matter at gunpoint.

"I have been following that sailor for many days. His name is Wall. He is a Viking from the northern waters. In the past few days, he has been wandering among several drug dealers. He has no intention of returning to the port. Look. Get up and be abandoned by his captain."

   "When you gave me this case, you just asked me to investigate this person, and 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 in this case is really ridiculous. You don't know his secret, but let me investigate..."

   "Identity, communication, nothing, a very clean person, until I witnessed him injecting hallucinogens."

"what happened?"

  Shrike is especially concerned about Sailor Wo.

   "It's so boring, you know?"

  Lorenzo put on an injection around his neck while talking nonsense.

"A whole bottle of hallucinogen is lethal to ordinary people. He just shot it all in, and he continued to use it for several days. I have confirmed this from the drug dealer. He buys it every day. ."

   "I thought it might be a problem with the Viking's physique. After all, the pirates of their ancestors hit the old Dunling door directly."

  Speaking of this, Lorenzo raised his eyebrows. Talking about this dark history always made him extraordinarily happy.

   "I found a Viking in Xiacheng to experiment, and he was foaming at the mouth after a whole hallucinogen went down."

   "So Wall has a problem with his body?"

  Shrike grasped the key.

"Yes, there is a big problem with the body. And not only that, he is very aggressive. In these few he killed at least six people, otherwise you think there is no money for a sailor. Then I did kill him, but that was what he asked for. mine."

  Lorenzo recalled the story of that night.

Among the rising white steam and the lights cast by the Zeppelin, Lorenzo was the dark silhouette, with twisted flesh beneath him, dark red blood in every bullet hole, his chest violently ups and downs. There was a whimper in his throat. Although he didn't understand the sound, he seemed to understand the meaning.

kill me!

Take me away!

  "Then I pierced down the wound of the bullet hole with my staff and sword."

  Lorenzo pulled out his cane, and the dark wood cracked to reveal the cold light beneath it.

   "I pierced his cervical spine... the carotid artery ruptured, causing a lot of internal bleeding. He died soon, but something strange happened at this time."

  In Lorenzo's story, Shrike couldn't help but leaned forward, listening carefully to every word, 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 the 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 a sword and stick again. At this time, the corpse is truly dead."

  The story is over. The Shrike is silent and seems to be thinking about something. Lorenzo is not in a hurry, just drinking a little wine. He is very clear that all the things that can be placed in the Shrike are good things. Drinking more is a little bit.

   "You should have brought his body back."

   "No need."

   "No need? You know that there is a problem with the corpse!"

  Shrike is really angry this time, it seems like it will be shot in the next second.

   "What about taking it back? You are here in a casino instead of a morgue. You have a bunch of thugs but you don't even have 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, and it is dissected by a group of forensic doctors who have been in the Wangli Medical College for an unknown period of time before graduating.

One by one, they are cut apart and placed neatly on the iron frame, like a rich human feast. Every anomaly is recorded in the report in strict accordance with the rules, and all of this is now waiting for me. Pick. "

   Picking up his pocket watch, Lorenzo looked at the time.

  "There are still two hours before this group of people get off work. Do you have anything else to ask?"

  (End of this chapter)