"The Widow" Bertha

That night.

When Katie appeared outside the bar box again, the Italians guarding the door showed a vigilant look.

They were wary of this woman but they had nothing to do - the woman that Mrs. Thames gave to the head of the family should naturally be treated well.It happened that the family and the Whitechapel District were in a very tense state, and Katie, who was between the hostage and the "gift", was naturally embarrassed.

It can neither be treated politely, nor can it be completely turned against.Therefore, even though the Italians didn't dare to turn against her, they didn't give Katie a good look, and just said bluntly, "What are you doing here?"

Katie smiled coldly: "Look at the traitor."

As she spoke, she subconsciously squeezed the cigarette case in her hand.

The iron cigarette case was cold in Katie's hands, but there were more than just cigarettes in it.

She pretended to be nonchalant, opened the cigarette case, took out a cigarette, and at the same time pulled a broken piece of paper hidden in the cigarette case into her palm.

The address of the laboratory is written on one line.

—Katy picked it up from Marco's ashes a few days ago.

She heard Marco talking to his men, saying things like "Mrs. Thames found the farm" and "the rest of the address has to be burned".

Anyway, after listening to it, Katie felt that there must be something wrong.

After Marco and his men left, she sneaked into his study and took out the unburned paper materials.

Katie fought all night, and in the end all that was left was a note that was burned to the size of a palm.

Gotta hand this over.

So she lit a cigarette and walked into Marco Esposito's box in a stately manner.

The Italians didn't care about her at all, and even Marco just gave Katie a cold look and let her sit down.

Not long after, the boy named Phoenix walked in.

He still looked like he was cowering, and he didn't even dare to look up when he saw Marco Esposito, until the Italian behind him kicked him hard: "What are you doing here, are you in a daze?" ?”

"I-I'm not..."

Phoenix then stammered and said, "I've already found out where that witch hid Bill Sykes."

Marco tilted his head.

He wiped his face and asked coldly, "Where is it?"

Phoenix: "At the church in Whitechapel, there are three handles every day."

Mark laughed out loud: "It seems that the situation is not very good."

Phoenix: "I also found out...at seven o'clock every night, the guards...will change shifts."

Katie stood up instantly.

"You traitor!"

She was sitting on the sofa three steps away from Phoenix. When the boy's information landed, Katie rushed up and slapped Phoenix mercilessly.

Girls in red-light districts are not easy to mess with, and Katie learned how to compete with girls her age for food and attention before she learned how to receive customers.She slapped the tall and thin boy directly to the ground, and Phoenix's right half of his face swelled up almost immediately.

Katie didn't think that was enough.

She squatted down, grabbed Phoenix's collar with one hand, squeezed his face with the other, and put her index finger and thumb directly into his mouth.

"Little beast!"

Katie screamed like crazy, "Watch me grab your snitch tongue out!"

Phoenix: "No—"

Katie: "You're going to hell!! I'll pull out your tongue over and over every day in hell!"

The viciousness shown in this way even stunned the Italians. No one doubted that Katie really planned to use her own hands to pull Phoenix's tongue out alive.It was Marco who frowned and said in Italian: "What are you doing here?!"

Only his men reacted.

The two men forcibly pushed Katie away, and she couldn't stop abusing her.

Phoenix covered his mouth and retched crazily. He didn't know whether he was frightened or he was holding his breath. His nose was already crying.

Such a farce seemed to satisfy Marco, and the Italian leader laughed out loud when he saw the angry Katie and the mournful Phoenix.

"Mrs. Thames has all sorts of capable people on her hands."

He was out of breath from laughing, but when he met Phoenix's begging gaze for help, Marco's face suddenly changed: "Get out of here soon?!"

So Phoenix went away.

He stumbled out of the Italian bar, and after making sure no one followed, he leaned on the wall and let out a long sigh of relief.

Then the boy opened his clenched fist.

Just now Katie stuffed a note into his mouth, Phoenix was afraid that his saliva would blur the handwriting, but luckily he didn't.The address on the slip of paper stained with his own saliva was printed and hadn't disappeared from getting wet.

Phoenix returned to their temporary residence with the address.

After leaving Whitechapel, the three boys pooled their money together and rented a cramped, dark room next to Nancy's for a modest fee.

When he returned, he was left with two boys who had also been engraved with the word "traitor." Bernie and Benjamin had just returned.

Phoenix gave them the note in his hand: "Katie gave it to me."

Bernie, the oldest, took a look: "...this..."

Benjamin: "You know?"

Bernie frowned immediately: "It's a laboratory, I know, I used to run errands there."

laboratory.

The three people in the room immediately understood what this meant.

What Madam and the detective named Sherlock Holmes have been investigating is the laboratory of the Truth Society, isn't it?This cult has lingered and even killed the famous Reverend White in Whitechapel, and all Lady Thames boys hate it.

Bernie, the oldest, took a deep breath: "Katy picked up this address from the Italians, proving that they definitely have something to do with the murder of the Irish."

Phoenix: "But we have no real evidence."

Bernie: "Got to take a look at the lab."

Benjamin was shocked: "Go...to the laboratory?"

Reverend White died because of it, the prostitutes in Whitechapel died because of it, and even Bill Sykes had a high fever, delirious, and even showed signs of madness, so what about them?

What good things can be found in the laboratory.

Benjamin is not the youngest of the three, but he is not much older than Phoenix. He is only 19 years old and has green freckles on his face.

The boy looked at his two companions, and felt that they had come up with an idea: "Just, let's go like this?"

Bernie said helplessly, "We have no choice."

Benjamin: "I don't...don't understand."

Phoenix sighed.

He knew what level Bill Sikes' followers were, and Bernie was the clearer of them all.As for Benjamin...he was different from himself.

Benjamin has a surname, Benjamin Browning. Although he also lives in a slum, his parents are workers.

He has a family, blood relatives who are alive and have not abandoned him, and following Sykes is nothing more than running errands, and he has never done anything to collect debts or beat people.

If it is true that Phoenix and Bernie cannot retreat, Benjamin has much more options on the surface.

But this is not the case.

"You don't have a choice," Phoenix said in a low voice. "Everyone in the Whitechapel District knows you are a traitor, so you want to go back like this? Without Madam speaking, who can prove that you are not a traitor?"

Bernie also said, "Come with us, Ben, and get back the evidence, so we can go back to Whitechapel."

Benjamin: "But..."

Phoenix: "No but!"

Benjamin: "But I just don't understand!!!"

The stuttering and timid boy, after days of hiding in the dark and shabby cubicle, finally broke out.

"I, don't understand, just, I don't understand," he growled, "I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything! I'm not a traitor, I'm not, why look down on me!!! Why look down on me!! !!"

No one answered him.

Phoenix and Byrne could only listen quietly to Benjamin's roar, watching the boy with freckles break down after bursting out.

"I just... just want to make more money for my family," he shouted hoarsely, "Mom... Mom can't see, but she still wants to make money by doing embroidery. Dad...has so much pneumoconiosis. I don't want to They worked so hard, some people said that the laboratory...the laboratory had news, so I went, what did I do wrong? What did I do wrong?"

"I want me, my whole family is alive! That's it, why do the Italians... call me a traitor, why... Mrs. Thames calls me a traitor, why do you look down on me?"

Who can answer?

The 19-year-old boy fell to the ground crying, almost out of breath, but so what?

All the questions, didn't Phoenix and Byrne ask them from the bottom of their hearts and break down every sleepless night?

The two of them could only let Benjamin turn from screaming and insulting to wailing, and finally sobbed in a low voice because he had no strength.

"I...I just want to, I just want to live," Benjamin cried, "Why, why?"

Phoenix crouched down slowly.

He stretched out his hand in silence, and pulled the boy who was two years older than himself from the ground: "Do you want to live?"

Benjamin nodded.

"Then do you understand," Phoenix said, "if Mrs. Thames hadn't called you a traitor, you wouldn't have survived at all."

Benjamin cried with snot and tears, his pale face was extremely embarrassed, he was sobbing but couldn't answer.

If Mrs. Thames hadn't admitted that they were traitors and drove them out, the Italians would definitely have troubled Mrs. Thames on the grounds that "Thames is covering up traitors". By then, let alone the three of them, more people would have died.

"You ask why, and I'll tell you why."

Phoenix said and took out a gun from his arms.

It was slipped to him by Ned Morrison before he left.

"Because you don't have this."

Then Phoenix opened his empty space.

"Because you have no money either."

Why look down on them?

And why should I look up to it?

"Because of you, me, and Bernie, and your parents, and the parents who abandoned me and Bernie, generations without guns and money, don't you understand, Ben, ghetto people are worthless , if you don't join a gang, if you die in a factory, no one will care about you except your parents.

Now Bernie and I will care about you, Mrs Thames will care about you, not if you live, but if you die, if we die. "

"I don't want...I don't want to die," Benjamin responded, still in tears, "I don't want to die."

But the moment they left the gang, the three of them knew each other well and wanted to go back alive?The odds are slim.

"You've got to come with me and Bernie to the lab, Ben."

Phoenix said: "Do you want your parents to live well? Do you want others to look up to you? That's simple, just go to die. After you die, Mrs. Thames will support your parents, and she will put your tombstone Hit it in the most expensive cemetery and tell everyone in the future that you are a sacrificed hero."

"Think about it, Ben." Phoenix grabbed Benjamin's shoulders, and the 17-year-old boy even smiled, "When we were born, we were neither of us. But after death, our names will be engraved on the exquisite marble, and every year my wife will personally bring people to visit our graves and present beautiful flowers.

Maybe the cemetery next door to you lived in the beautiful lady who died young—didn't you always think the factory owner's daughter was very beautiful?That woman doesn't even look at us, it doesn't matter, everyone living next door to you will be rich. "

At this point, Bernie interjected: "I don't want a pretty lady, but a pretty guy."

Phoenix was taken aback when he heard the words, and then laughed wantonly.

He slapped Bernie and stood up. The young boy turned his head to look at his crying companion, and stretched out his hand towards him: "Ben, are you coming?"

Benjamin raised his head in a daze, and looked at Phoenix and Bernie who were all smiling.

Beautiful tombstone...he didn't care.

but--

Get useful clues, Mrs. Thames will support his parents.

Yes, madam will certainly do so.

Benjamin was still afraid of death, he still felt aggrieved, his legs were trembling at the thought of facing some strange creature and terrifying murderer, but the freckled boy hesitated for a long time, and still tremblingly moved toward Phoenix raised his hand.

"I, I'll go with you." He wiped away his snot and tears with his sleeves, "It's all come to this point, I have to leave something for my parents."

The two teenagers clasped their hands.

Phoenix laughed and pulled Benjamin up.

"That's right, Ben!"

He said with a smile.

"Let's go to hell together!"