Shadow of great britain

When Arthur heard this, he took out the pocket watch carried by the murderer from his pocket.

He stared at the portrait of the woman on the inner wall of the pocket watch for a long time, and then he found some similarities between the eyebrows and eyes of the portrait.

"The craftsmanship of this painting is really bad. If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known that the protagonist of this portrait, Mrs. Agnieszka, is Delfina, the Polish female teacher hired by Mr. Harrison."

Arthur closed the watch cover and suddenly asked: "But if Miss Delfina is Agnieszka, then... Fiona, should you explain to me carefully why she has two What about the name? Were you deceived by her, or was I deceived by you? "

Fiona opened the document in her hand and said: "This matter is not about who was deceived by whom. In this business, it is normal to have a pseudonym. Not everyone can bear to use their true identity. Many of the girls here want to go into the flesh business and save some money while they are young, and then return to their true identities and live a normal life. I respect their ideas and generally do not inquire about their past easily. That’s why girls are willing to work for me.”

Arthur leaned back on the chair holding the wine glass: "Fiona, I have no intention of prying into your business secrets. But out of curiosity, I still want to ask, although their ideas are beautiful, how many people have successfully implemented them in the end? "

"You actually asked me this? I thought you would know better than me. According to statistics from Scotland Yard, are the number of warblers in London increasing or decreasing?"

Arthur took a sip of his wine, looked at the clear wine and said, "Maybe you should change your career to be a reporter. Or, if Scotland Yard is willing to recruit women, I might consider hiring you as a press spokesman. Use questions to answer questions. , this is a pretty good language habit.”

Fiona rolled her eyes: "Yes! At least I am more honest than you. I even think I can go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If I become the Foreign Secretary, I will tell the Poles to stop daydreaming. Britain will not provide you with any help. Instead of privately sending diplomats to communicate with the Russian Embassy, ​​and then hypocritically sending people to express condolences to our Superintendent Hastings after the assassination of the Commissioner."

"Huh?" When Arthur heard this, his eyes suddenly locked with Fiona's eyes: "How did you know that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent someone to Liverpool?"

Fiona replied angrily: "I'm not blind. The guy who just walked out of the hotel, I met him when I was a maid in the Russian Embassy. But the guy obviously forgot about me. He must have forgotten me." It is difficult to associate a beautiful lady with a lowly servant.”

"Has he been to the Russian Embassy?" Arthur thought for a moment: "When?"

Fiona said angrily: "It seems that you are indeed more interested in diplomats than beautiful ladies."

Arthur said: "Fiona, although I don't mean to offend, I still have to say that the diplomat and I chat better because we communicate in similar languages. Therefore, it is not so troublesome to get along with each other. "

"Oh?" Fiona was holding back her anger: "Don't I speak English? Or do you look down on my Russian ancestry?"

"No, no, no, Fiona, don't get me wrong. Russian girls are very beautiful, at least much more beautiful than German girls. But the girls' language is indeed different from the diplomats' language."

Fiona asked angrily: "Would you rather deal with a lying diplomat than communicate with girls?"

Arthur asked: "Why do you think diplomats can't be trusted?"

"Quite simply, this is what I observed while working as a maid in the embassy."

Fiona said: "When diplomats say 'yes', it means 'possible'. When they say 'possible', it means 'no'. If they directly say 'no', then they He is no longer a diplomat."

When Arthur heard this, he nodded happily and said: "Fiona, I knew it was right to send you to work in the embassy, ​​but not all girls can be as insightful as you. You are absolutely right, But you obviously haven't noticed that the language habits of girls are almost completely opposite to those of diplomats. When girls say 'no', they mean 'maybe'. When they say 'maybe', they mean 'yes'. If they If you really say 'yes', then she is not a woman. Although I know it is difficult, I hope that at work, you can at least use diplomat language to communicate with me."

"There's no way!"

"Why?"

"Because you are absolutely right." Fiona glared at Arthur: "If I really said that, then I would not be a woman."

"Okay then." Arthur picked up the wine bottle and refilled her glass: "It seems I can't let you accommodate me, so let me try my best to accommodate you. After all, I am quite interested in many of your secrets. , it’s almost always a seller’s market when it comes to critical intelligence.”

After a few words back and forth, Fiona felt as if her emotions had almost been vented.

When her mind returned to calmness, she finally started to activate her logic program again.

Whether it is the actual level or the level of future plans, her interests are highly tied to Arthur. Miss Fiona will not just watch this small hill that may grow into the Alps be leveled with explosives. .

She said: "The diplomat came to the Russian Embassy not many times, but not too few times. I met him once before resigning from the embassy in December."

When Arthur heard this, he suddenly frowned: "Wait...you resigned from the embassy? Then who works there now?"

When Fiona heard this, she just said bitterly: "You may not believe it, but it was such a coincidence. After I resigned and sent three girls to the embassy, ​​one of them was Agnieszka, or in other words, Delfina.”

"You sent her to the Russian Embassy?" Arthur felt his scalp was numb: "Don't tell me, she is gone now."

Fiona defended with a guilty conscience: "My dear, you have to know that girls who can speak Russian are not that easy to find, and there are even fewer who work for me. Moreover, Delfina is a Polish girl, and Scotland Yard used to do it for her. She provided legal assistance in the lawsuit against Harrison, and I thought she would be a reliable informant."

Arthur took a deep breath: "Why didn't you ask me before you did this?"

When Fiona heard this, she yelled that she was wronged and said: "Of course I asked you, but when I went to find you, the only one you had at home was the new laundry maid, and she told me that you had gone to Liverpool early in the morning."

"oh……"

Agares took out a fan from nowhere and fanned Arthur. As he fanned it, he said with a bad smile: "This girl is so appealing to me. No wonder she has been trying to seduce you since she walked in? Ya Se, if you can't hold it back, you probably won't be able to scold her harshly now, right?"

Arthur was not in a hurry to get angry, he just covered his head and thought carefully for a while.

Although he was indeed annoyed that Fiona had decided to cut things off before he did anything else, if Fiona really asked him for advice on the transfer of the embassy, ​​he would probably approve it.

After all, judging from Delfina's background, it is indeed unlikely that she would voluntarily surrender to the Russians and reveal her identity.

After all, the Russians' attitude towards these Polish exiles is well known to everyone.

However, if we prepare for the worst and Delfina really turns to the Russians and tells all the secrets to the embassy, ​​then the situation for Arthur and Scotland Yard will become extremely dangerous.

If Delfina is willing to come out and accuse Scotland Yard of performing fairy dances on MPs, although Tory leader Sir Peel has decided to distance himself from Mr. Harrison because of the recording issue.

But on the surface, in order to maintain unity within the party, the Tories will definitely still pursue Scotland Yard in the House of Commons. Even if they don't use the topic to play off the topic, at least Arthur, the mastermind of the fairy jump, must be responsible.

However, the Russian Embassy has not sent Delfina to accuse her now, and they have not even let out any news about this.

Then, there are only three possibilities left.

Either Delfina did not surrender to the Russians at all, and the Russians did not know the twists and turns of the Harrison incident. They just happened to hire Delfina's husband to assassinate Arthur.

Either Delfina has surrendered to Russia, and the Russians also know her identity. The pocket watch left by the murderer at the crime scene is proof. The Russians knew that Arthur would definitely notice this thing, and followed the clues to investigate until they found the Russian Embassy.

The Russians did not allow Delfina to make accusations in order to have a backup plan and warn Arthur not to act recklessly. They did not intend to target Scotland Yard, but simply to give the British government sufficient reason not to continue to intervene in the Polish issue.

Of course, there is a third possibility, that is, Delfina did surrender to someone. The real behind-the-scenes murderer left such clear clues in order for Arthur to find the Russians' heads and then frame them for the Russians to conceal their true purpose.

Arthur thought about it and suddenly turned his attention to the anxious Fiona: "Madam, where was your momentum just now? Successful people will not be afraid of such trivial things. Having said that, even though you have made a mistake, But at least you didn’t hide your mistakes, causing me to make a bigger misjudgment, which is quite commendable.”

Fiona lowered her head and said with a blush, "Are you telling the truth?"

"What are you shy about? Your skirt is still stuck to your butt. It's no use pretending to be a girl here and being ignorant. What I need is your remedial measures later."

Arthur leaned on the chair and asked: "I believe that with your intelligence, you must have checked Delfina's background clearly early on, right?"

"Well..." Fiona stood next to Arthur holding the document and asked angrily: "Do you want me to read it to you?"

"You behave much better now than before."

Arthur glanced at her: "Keep it up. If you can maintain this high standard of service, maybe I can consider setting a health care fee for the Criminal Investigation Department."

Fiona finally breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this, but her performance still made her feel a little frustrated.

She gritted her teeth unwillingly and said: "Actually, Delfina had disappeared long before you were attacked. But because she worked as a maid in the Russian Embassy, ​​I didn't dare to go to Scotland Yard to report the case casually. Instead, I watched to see if the embassy would report the case on her behalf. But after waiting for two days, there was still no movement from the embassy, ​​so I asked two other girls working at the embassy to inquire.

As a result, they told me that the housekeeper told them that Delfina had resigned and returned to her hometown. But we all know in our hearts that Delfina's hometown is Poland. Therefore, what the housekeeper said was all nonsense, something must have happened to her. So, that night, I sent my ‘locksmith’ to go to Delfina’s residence.

The bedroom was a mess, with messes on the table and in the cupboards. The whole room looked like it belonged to a family that had to flee at short notice. We found next to nothing there except a change of clothes. However, after some searching, we still found some interesting things. "

Arthur asked: "What?"

Fiona explained in detail: "There are more than a dozen mortgage notes from pawn shops. The mortgaged items include gold and silver jewelry, books, and various scattered things that can be exchanged for money. The 'locksmith' is worried that he didn't bring them Returning things would make me angry, so he brought all these notes back to me.”

"The pawn shop's bill, this is indeed consistent with the official investigation results..."

Arthur pondered for a while and then asked: "You didn't throw them away, did you?"

"Dear." Fiona scolded, "I'm not that stupid. The first time you sent someone to tell me that you were going to investigate Delfina, I paid for all the things from the pawn shop with my own money. However, You probably don't like those jewelry that ladies love, but I know you like books, so I brought them to you."

Arthur pointed to the corner of his eye and asked, "Can reading a book cure hanging eye?"

"Of course that won't work, but the book may be able to unlock some clues."

Fiona turned around and took out the book with "Napoleon's Life" on the cover from her bag, carefully opened the title page, pointed to the passage on it and said, "Dear, look at what this is?"

Arthur glanced down and saw clearly written in French on Fiona's fingertips:

To my friend Mr. Czeslav Kovalczyk.

——Alexander Korona Valewski

This is a very typical Polish name. Arthur briefly recalled it in his mind and found that he had no impression of it.

He asked: "So, who is this Valewski?"

Fiona pursed her lips and whispered in Arthur's ear: "Dear, like the male secretary next to you, he is a member of the Bonaparte family, the illegitimate son of Napoleon and the Polish Countess. Are you sure you Is that police officer Louis Bonaparte next to you really reliable?”