fog city detective

After a few minutes of silence, the woman took off the cloth that pressed the wound, glanced at the wound, and pressed the cloth on the wound again.Liang Xi could see clearly from the inside rearview mirror: a suspected gunshot wound.The woman had defensive injuries on her left and right hands.In short, she punched someone, and it was unclear whether she won or lost.She was hit by a bullet in her left arm.Overall it looks like a loser.

Liang Xi knew that there was a gas station in front of him. He felt that people should not be too stingy, and he should add five pounds of gas.Toss John's car at the gas station, find a safe corner to catch a cat, and then use the phone to call the police.

Then Liang Xi heard the sound of the firearm. The woman took out the magazine of the pistol and glanced at it, then pushed the magazine back.Holding the gun in the left hand, it fell down, and the right hand continued to press the wound on the left arm.The woman glanced at the rear-view mirror and saw that Liang Xi was looking at her, her eyes immediately widened.Seeing that Liang Xi was discovered, he immediately turned his eyes to look ahead.At the same time, Liang Xi slowly increased the speed of the car from 80 to 110.

At this speed, if a woman attacks herself, it is very likely that the woman will die and she will be alive.Because of my seat belt.With the opponent holding a gun, Liang Xi gave up and entered the gas station.He is going to London. As long as he enters the urban area of ​​London, his survival rate will be greatly improved.

The woman suddenly spoke, not knowing who she was talking to. Liang Xi didn't see the bluetooth headset, nor did she see the woman holding the mobile phone. He only heard the woman repeat a few auxiliary words: "Well! Good! Well!"

Fifteen kilometers from London, the fuel gauge was a little overwhelmed.Liang Xi can now be sure that he will not be able to reach downtown London.The woman didn't seem to notice the oil gauge, maybe she felt too quiet and asked, "What's your name?"

Liang Xi replied, "Wang Peng." Damn, you don't want to think about whose car you are riding, and your tone of voice is so bad.

Women interrogators usually ask: "Why did you go to London in the early hours of the morning?"

Liang Xi looked sad: "I received a call from my mother, my father just died in his sleep."

The woman didn't speak for a while, and looked at Liang Xi, who was driving attentively in the rearview mirror: "Do you work in Reading?"

Liang Xi: "Yes."

The woman asked, "What job?"

Liang Xi replied, "Gardener."

The woman asked, "What gardener?"

Liang Xi replied, "Davis Manor."

The woman was a little surprised: "Earl Manor?"

Liang Xi nodded: "Yes."

The woman asked, "Is Earl Davis okay?"

Liang Xi replied, "He died the day before yesterday."

The woman nodded, she knew the news of Earl Davis' death, and she felt that what Liang Xi said should be the truth.The woman said, "You have never seen me, understand?"

Liang Xi: "Understood."

The woman said, "I'm near Dick's Golf Club."

Liang Xi: "I'm afraid this is a little difficult."

The woman asked, "Why?" The volume didn't increase, but the tone was like a fist ready to go.

Liang Xi replied, "Because it's out of gas."

Chapter 9 Breakfast

After Liang Xi finished speaking, the car stumbled a few times, and after slowly sliding forward for more than ten meters, it stopped on the side of the road.

The woman sulked: "Are you playing tricks with me?"

Liang Xi hurriedly raised his hand: "No, absolutely not. The oil gauge is here." Luke!

The woman stretched her head, the lights in the car were dim, and the dashboard could not be seen clearly.Liang Xi stretched out his mobile phone to prepare for lighting. The woman grabbed Liang Xi's wrist, stared at Liang Xi, and asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Take the phone to illuminate." Liang Xi felt the power and dared not move: "Let you see clearly."

Woman: "No." She had long felt that Liang Xi was wrong. If she saw that she was not an ordinary person, Liang Xi would be too calm.If he thinks he is an ordinary person, then Liang Xi should not have an attitude of answering questions.The woman let go of Liang Xi's wrist, lifted the central control drawer of the car, reached in and took out a driver's license.

Taking a look with the help of the interior lights: "John?"

Liang Xi said, "It's me."

Woman: "The photo is wrong."

Liang Xi: "I mean: it's my grandfather."

What else did the woman ask, a black seven-seat van stopped side by side.The woman threw John's driver's license onto the passenger seat of the car, held a gun in her left hand, pressed the wound with her right forearm, and opened the door with her right hand.While doing these actions, the woman watched Liang Xi vigilantly and pushed the door with her body to get out of the car.

The back door of the van opened, and the woman was about to get into the car when Liang Xi rolled down the window and shouted, "Hey."

The woman turned back: "What?"

Liang Xi: "Can I have some gasoline?"

The woman turned her head and got into the car, closed the door, and the car sped away.

Liang Xi got out of the car, looked at the taillights of the van with his hands on his hips, and said angrily, "Damn Mi." Without the woman's 60 kilograms, he maintained a constant speed of 80 kilometers, and it was entirely possible to finish the last four kilometers.Don't you have to cheer in London?No, no, anyway, the trailer bill is given to John, and he can take the 24-hour subway home.

Liang Xi has already decided that this woman is not a bad person, but she may be a good person who has turned bad.The tone and attitude of the woman's questioning, the movement of holding the gun, her calm emotions, her vigilance, and the fact that she would rather shout at Liang Xi than point the gun at Liang Xi all explain all this.This also saved her own life, otherwise Liang Xi would hit the brakes at the right moment, and she would directly penetrate the front windshield and be crushed by.

Liang Xi is not sure whether the woman is MI5 or MI6.

Now Liang Xi can only wait for the trailer in the dark, and return to London with the trailer.But good people have good rewards. When Liang Xi was about to call for rescue, a passing driver helped Liang Xi. He pumped gasoline from his own fuel tank to give the Beetle.Liang Xi handed over 10 pounds very hypocritically, and the driver accepted it boldly and shook hands with Liang Xi to say goodbye without being polite at all.

Liang Xi first drove to the street lamp in the suburbs, and wiped off the woman's blood on the back seat with drinking water and a rag in the trunk.Finally drove the car to John's house near four in the morning.Liang Xi was still a little smug in his heart. He calculated the limit of gasoline and parked the car in the garage almost when the gasoline ran out.Thinking of John looking at the fuel gauge in a daze after starting the car, I would wake up laughing from a dream tonight.Calculations I have to pay the price.

There is a compartment in the garage, which is Liang Xi's residence in middle school.Mary was very dissatisfied with John's decision to let Liang Xi live in the garage. She thought Liang Xi could live with them, Liang Xi agreed with this, and John was noncommittal.After living together for half a month, Liang Xi moved into the garage silently because Mary was too enthusiastic.Come to knock on the door if you have nothing to do, deliver snacks, tea, and chat with Liang Xi.He also corrected some bad habits such as lying on the bed when Liang Xi came back, throwing things around, and messing up the table.

Although the garage compartment is simple, it is the first private space that Liang Xi has.Here he can put up star posters at will, play pop music, and do homework upside down.With a twitch of the brain, you can even dance a crab dance on the spot.

After Liang Xi went to college, the bed, tables, chairs and few furniture were covered with dust-proof cloth.Liang Xi pulled the dustproof cloth off the bed, only halfway, because he only slept on half of the bed.I didn't wash up either, so I took off my pants and socks and threw them at the end of the bed, and I lay down and fell asleep.

……

At seven in the morning, the biological clock woke Liang Xi on time.Liang stormed out of the garage and had breakfast with the grass in the front yard. Mary and John, who were breathing in the fresh air, raised their hands to say hello.Liang Xi went to the toilet by the way after washing in the bathroom on the first floor.Back in the front yard, Mary had poured him tea.

Liang Xi put the car key in front of John, sat down by himself, picked up the Ququ cake to enjoy breakfast, and explained the process of handling the case yesterday in detail by the way.

John asked, "What's the basis of your suspicion?"

Liang Xi replied: "Lawyer Cook was invited to Reading from London to witness a sealed will. He was sent by the Earl to Oxford to take a plane to France. Cook is an old man, from what I know about the Earl's children. It seems that the Earl should not have sent Cook like this. I guess it may be that the Earl has no time. Learn from this line, and then synthesize various information, and finally come to a conclusion. "

John nodded: "This case is not difficult for you."

Liang Xi disagreed: "You can't say that. There are several questions that bother me the most in this case: Has the will been destroyed? If the will has not been destroyed, is it in the hands of the housekeeper? In the hands of the children? In the hands of the maid of the year? Once I ask the wrong person, ask the wrong question, I will lose all my chips."

John was noncommittal, and took a paper towel to dry off the tea stained on his beard, and asked, "Who is more important to the Earl's family, Cook or the butler?"

Liang Xi replied: "Of course it is the housekeeper. He knows all the secrets of the family and is responsible for the operation of the entire family."

John said: "Since you speculate that the Earl's euphemism or strong means made Cook get out of the Davis family, is it possible that the Earl will let the housekeeper he doesn't trust stay in the family?"

Liang Xi nodded slowly: "So the housekeeper is one of the Earl's most credible people."

John said: "The two maids entered the Earl's Manor from the age of 20, and they are the people the Earl trusts most. But you must know that the work of a housekeeper cannot be compared with that of a maid. For example, you can ask Dai Dai from the maid's mouth. But you can't get these clues from the butler's mouth. In addition, you have contacted the four children of the earl, and you should be sure that the butler must know about the will. The only thing you have to worry about is that the will is still there. "

John said: "Assuming the will has been burned, the conversation between you and the steward is to ask the right person and ask the wrong question. You should not play the chips, you should first explain Cook's contribution to the Earl's family over the years, side by side. Ask, express that you know what the housekeeper is clear about the will, and hand over the initiative to the housekeeper. Although the result is good, there are some small problems in your handling process, but I am very satisfied with your overall performance. Therefore, I decided to send you Two gifts."

Liang Xi rubbed his hands together: "John, we know each other so well, how dare I ask for your gift. Cash it."

Chapter 10 Job Search

John laughed and took out a bunch of keys: "The first gift is the detective agency. If you want to be a detective, you can keep it. If you don't want to be a detective, you can also sell the detective agency."

Liang Xi was startled: "John, your health is not bad enough to retire."

John didn't answer Liang Xi's question, he pushed the key in front of Liang Xi, and said, "The detective agency is yours now, I have contacted the lawyer, and he will complete the formalities for you. After the formalities are completed, the lawyer will give You have a cheque for £[-] for the daily expenses of the detective agency. It depends on your ability to make money."

Liang Xi heard a small question: "Why did the lawyer give me five thousand pounds?"

John replied, "Because the lawyer owes me five thousand pounds, and in that name, let him repay the money by the way."

Liang Xi nodded, so it was.Believe in your thighs.

John pushed the table car key to Liang Xi: "As a detective, you definitely need a means of transportation. That car is also yours."

John thought Liang Xi would be very happy, but Liang Xi silently drank a cup of tea before accepting the key, the expression on his face was unpredictable.This is cocooning.It was originally a prank to play with John, but I didn't expect that the final clown would be himself.The old thing doesn't think that he can count on him, so he turns around and pits himself, right?

Mary did not participate in the conversation between the two men. She heard that it was time to bake the cake, so she went to the kitchen to work.John saw Mary enter the living room and go to the kitchen, but he hesitated.Liang Xi noticed something unusual and asked, "Do you want a divorce?"

The brain hole of the detective is like this, not only strange, but also jumping.But John didn't refute. After thinking for a while, he said, "If you can have a meal with Mary once a month, I think she will be very happy."

Liang Xi said: "30 times a month. But your name is John Char, not John Bill Gates."

John laughed: "Haha!"

This is side-by-side. John has been in frequent contact with an old friend named Matthew recently, and they all eat out, sometimes for a whole day.Coupled with factors such as sending the detective agency and the car to Liang Xi, Liang Xi speculated that John had a recent change.In his mind, Liang Xi listed John's possible changes, terminal illness?Impossible, because Mary was a retired doctor. Without Mary's persecution, John would not have gone for a physical examination. John was definitely the last person who knew about a terminal illness.In addition to terminal illness, the next worst may be marriage.

John did not deny Liang Xi's proposed marriage, which made Liang Xi quite worried.He knew Mary's love for John.For example, Mary would rather John live like a vegetative person, busy serving and taking care of John every day, rather than wanting John to die first.The marriage was a bigger blow to Mary than John's death.

However, John was a thief, and he did not admit the marriage change, which made Liang Xi unable to express his thoughts on the matter.Mary brought out the cupcakes, and the two men started chatting about the case again.Mary is sitting in a rocking chair, knitting a sweater, listening to the two men chatting, and this is her happiest time now.

……

Liang Xi bought half a barrel of gasoline from a neighbor, said goodbye to Mary, and drove to his residence.Liang Xi lived in an apartment on Rump Road, not far from the university and the detective agency.

Rump Road, also known as Apartment Road, is a well-known apartment-type residential community in London.The main population of renting is white-collar workers and students.Liang Xi's residence is located in 19, Building 2102. The room is not large, with a total area of ​​more than 50 square meters.One kitchen, one bathroom, one living room, one room.The things at home are very simple, second-hand computers, beds, tables, chairs, wardrobes.There are no coffee tables or sofas in the living room, and stacks of plastic stools are placed in the corners for possible visitors.

Liang Xi's clothes are not many, summer T-shirts, jeans, sports shoes.Winter sweatshirts, jackets, thermal underwear, jeans and sneakers.In spring and autumn, dress according to the temperature of the day.The most expensive are the suits made by the Italian hand-tailored shop that Mary bought for Liang Xi after she went to university, and a pair of leather shoes worth up to [-] pounds.This suit was worn only once when I accompanied John on a case in Belgium.

After Liang Xi came home, he first boiled water, took his underwear and T-shirt to take a bath.After taking a shower, the water was turned on, I rushed a cup of tea, sat in front of the computer and started writing my resume, preparing to apply for a job.It's impossible for a detective to be a detective, no joke, being a detective will really starve to death on the street.The only survivors in the detective industry are private investigators, whose day job is to do background checks on targets, affair investigations, etc. at the request of their employers.Strictly speaking, private detectives no longer belong to the category of traditional detectives.

As the home of Sherlock Holmes in the novel, London has a surprising number of detective fans.In order to realize their detective dreams, many young people will open their own detective offices.Normal cases are investigated by the police. Only when the victim or the victim's family is dissatisfied with the police's investigation results will they seek the help of detectives.There are also powerful people like Earl Davis, who only seek the help of detectives if they do not want to alert the police and the media.

There were not many bad guys, and the police stole the biggest piece of the cake again, leaving a little crumb to satisfy the huge crowd of detectives. 10 years ago, with the popularization of surveillance in urban areas, the improvement of the technical force of the police, and the improvement of the national legal awareness, the detective has become a very unpopular profession.In addition, this generation of young people rarely likes slow-paced detective novels like Sherlock Holmes. Not only can there be no traditional detective agency in the streets and alleys of London, but even detectives often become a profession of ridicule and teasing on TV talk shows.

The best choice is to be a police detective. The police detective is selected from the police, so you must be a police officer first.

There are three categories of police in the UK.The first type of regular police, the second type of community police, both need physical training and testing. Liang Xi has a congenital slight flat foot, which does not affect his life, but his foot endurance is poor, so he is not suitable for endurance sports such as long-distance running and mountaineering.Can't pass the fitness test by training.

The third category is volunteer police, which refers to police officers who have full-time jobs and use their spare time to perform police duties.Volunteer police do not have high physical requirements, and there is a monthly subsidy.But the problem is that you first need to have a full-time job. Detectives are not full-time jobs. They are classified as self-employed or as business partners.

Graduation is equivalent to unemployment, the future is foggy, and you can't see where you are going?

Regardless of 21, Liang Xi went online to enter the talent market and began to send resumes.It doesn't look at the major or the position, only the salary.Whether it is an enterprise or a public office, if you see a position with a monthly salary of more than [-] pounds, you will submit your resume.Cast the net widely and catch more fish. Presumably there will always be a few stupid personnel or bosses who will take a fancy to me.

After spending half an hour delivering the resume, Liang Xi picked up the book and read it, completely relaxed after the college entrance examination and waiting for the score.Now that what people can do has been done, the next step is to see the will of God.

However, Liang Xi didn't have any luck skills in reincarnation, and God thought that most of the bosses still had IQ.In the next week, Liang Xi didn't even receive half of the application calls, and he even wondered if he had filled in the wrong number.This is not a joke, he has been calculated with probability.The reason why electronic fraud is so rampant is not because of how clever the scammers are, but because of the large population base, there are always a few scammers in the percentage ratio.Inferring from this logic, at least one of my 120 resumes should have found the right person.

After receiving a call from the lawyer, Liang Xi and the lawyer met in the coffee shop downstairs of the detective agency. The formalities were quickly completed. The Rose Detective Agency and five thousand pounds were officially handed over to Liang Xi by John.After a week of waiting for the results of the application, and after rubbing food at John's house many times during this period, Liang Xi thought that he could not hang himself from a tree.So I decided to re-issue my resume in the detective agency and wait for the recruitment results again.

During the meeting with the lawyer, Liang Xi asked and learned that the five thousand pounds was not money owed by the lawyer at all, but John's own money.However, John told his lawyer that he handed over five thousand pounds to Liang Xi in the name of arrears.Liang Xi was quite puzzled by this. On the one hand, when he was eating dinner this week, Liang Xi did not find any signs of marriage between John and Mary.On the one hand, even if the marriage changes, the relationship between Liang Xi and John and Mary will not change, so why give himself five thousand pounds?

Called to ask, John replied: "If you don't need it, you can give it back to me."

Liang Xishuang hung up the phone and finally deducted some money. Do you want to take it back?no way!

Chapter 11 Finding Objects

There is a restaurant on Burning Street, there is a cafe.There is a 50-centimeter-wide staircase in the middle of the restaurant and the cafe, and you will find the Rose Detective Agency when you go up the stairs.The area of ​​the detective agency is not small. The upstairs of the cafe is the office, the old-fashioned single sofa, the wall clock, the bookshelf, the fireplace, the rocking chair, and the antique style.Upstairs of the restaurant is the reception area, modern sofas, coffee tables, toilets, and a lounge of about ten square meters.

Assuming that he can't find a job within a month, Liang Xi decided to move to a detective agency and reduce his expected salary to [-] pounds.It is impossible to sell the detective agency, at least when John was alive, Liang Xi would not consider selling the detective agency.

To tell the truth, Liang Xi really likes the detective agency.He especially likes to sit in the rocking chair by the fireplace, with the help of the fire, drink a cup of hot tea and hold a book.But such a life is not only addictive, but also degenerate, making Liang Xi an otaku.Without earning money, Liang Xi was not qualified to be an otaku.

After another week, not only was there no recruitment call, but the detective agency also had no business.Liang Xi, who was sitting and eating, even walked 10 kilometers to John's house for lunch in order to exercise, and then walked [-] kilometers back to the detective agency to continue delivering resumes.This time he changed his strategy: vote for a part-time job.Sprinkle resumes for £[-]-an-hour jobs.

After handing out the flyers, bah!After sending out the resume, there was a long-lost knock on the door.

Liang Xi opened the door, and a man in his 50s came in. The man saw Liang Xi take off his hat, and Liang Xi noticed that he was wearing a Bluetooth headset on his left ear."Is John there?" the man asked.

If you are an old customer and friend of John, you should know that John didn't come to the detective agency very often a few years ago. If necessary, you can only contact John by phone.Obviously this man was not a regular customer, so Liang Xi invited him to step in and replied, "John has retired, can I help?"

The man looked at Liang Xi with some doubts. He was eight meters tall, with a childish face and sophisticated eyes. He couldn't see how capable Liang Xi was.But the man didn't think about it for a long time and said, "Of course you can."

"Please come inside." Liang Xi led the guests to the living room to sit down.

The guests didn't talk nonsense. After sitting down and introducing each other, the guest who called himself Richard said, "I'm looking for something."

Liang Xi put the mineral water in front of the guests and asked, "What?"

Richard explained the situation, he is a lawyer called the screw company.The screw company has a factory in the London industrial area, and it mainly produces large screws on a daily basis.There is a 17-story apartment not far from the factory, which is the workers' dormitory.A golf club took a fancy to the screw company's site and bought it.

According to the plan, the screw company will relocate the factory and the company to the Manchester industrial area, and the apartment building will be demolished in three days.Richard wants to ask Liang Xi to look for something in the apartment building.

Richard himself didn't know what the thing looked like, he said: "A storage device may be a mobile phone card, a flash memory, a mobile hard disk, or an abandoned computer. Just connect the thing to the right one. On the storage, there will be an interface for entering the password, and there is a small sailboat on the interface.”

Liang Xi thought that Richard didn't tell the truth, Liang Xi said sincerely: "Richard, in a 17-storey apartment with a lot of garbage left, it is almost impossible to find something that you can't describe clearly. . You should tell me more."

Richard thought for a while and said: "Well, it is a storage device that stores the financial information of the screw company. Selling the London land and buying the Manchester land, the company has carried out a legal tax avoidance behavior. This behavior is misunderstood as tax evasion."

The person who misunderstood was a deputy financial director named Cai Wu, a 33-year-old female who lived on the 15th floor of the apartment building.Cai Wu did not call the police after getting the evidence, but blackmailed the screw company.The screw company sent someone to negotiate with Cai Wu. Cai Wu told the screw company that the things were in the apartment building, and she could take someone to get the evidence immediately after paying the money.And make sure no one else knows about it.

The two parties discussed the issue of price. Because the expected amount differed by one digit, Cai Wu gave the screw company three days to let the company think about it before contacting her. She did not want to waste time.Unexpectedly, Cai Wu died in a car accident on the way back to the apartment.The screw company dispatched personnel for three days without finding anything.Three days later, the employees had all moved out of the apartment building, and the blasting company took over the apartment building.After a week of measurements and calculations, the demolition company will install explosives to demolish the apartment building in three days.

Therefore, the screw company asked a lawyer to find professional assistance. Richard asked John to handle a case more than ten years ago, so he came to the door today.