City of Tingen, Daffodil Straße 2.

Leaving the note, Klein locked the gate and walked briskly to Leonard Mitchell, who was waiting on the side of the road.

Leonard's short black hair is a little longer than last month, and it looks very messy because of its lack of care.

But even so, with his good looks, emerald eyes and poet-like temperament, there is still an alternative beauty.

Sure enough, any hairstyle is all about the face...... Klein subconsciously complained, pointing in the direction of Iron Cross Street:

"Frye is waiting for us over there?"

"Yes. Leonard straightened his shirt that wasn't tucked into it, and asked casually, "Did you find any clues from the information?"

With a staff in his left hand, Crane walked along the edge of the street:

"No, whether it's the way of death or the time of death, I can't find a pattern, you know, rituals involving evil gods and demons must be matched with a specific time point or a special way. ”

Leonard touched the special revolver hidden around his waist and hidden under his shirt, and chuckled:

"It's not absolute, in my experience, there are evil gods or demons that are very easy to satisfy, as long as they have a strong interest in what is going on. ”

"And there must be a significant number of these deaths that are normal, and they must be eliminated to get the right answer. ”

Crane glanced at him and said:

"That's why the captain asked us to re-investigate and rule out normal incidents. ”

"Leonard, your tone and description tell me that you have plenty of experience in similar matters, but you have been a night watchman for less than four years, and on average you have encountered no more than two extraordinary cases per month, most of them of the simple, easy-to-solve kind. ”

He always found Leonard Mitchell to be a strange and mysterious teammate, not only always doubting himself and thinking that he was special, but also sometimes narcissive, sometimes arrogant, sometimes frivolous, sometimes deep.

Did he have adventures? Adventures that made him feel like he was the protagonist of a play? Klein made rough speculations based on his rich "knowledge" of films, novels, and TV series.

Hearing his question, Leonard smiled and said:

"It's because you haven't officially entered the state of a night watchman yet, and you're still in the training phase. ”

"Every six months, the church will compile the extraordinary cases encountered by each church in each diocese into a book, and according to the different levels of secrecy, make certain deletions in different editions, and then distribute them to each member accordingly. ”

"Outside of the occult course, you can apply to the captain to enter Chanis Gate and borrow those previous case books. ”

Klein nodded abruptly:

"The captain never reminded me about this. ”

Until now, he had not had a chance to enter the Chanis Gate.

Leonard chuckled and said:

"I thought you were used to the captain's style, but I didn't expect you to be naïve enough to expect him to remind you. ”

Speaking of this, he added meaningfully: "If the captain remembers everything and forgets nothing one day, then we need to be vigilant." ”

Does this mean a loss of control?Klein bowed his head solemnly and asked instead:

"Is this a style unique to the captain? I thought it was a problem with the 'Sleepless' sequence......"

Staying up late causes memory loss or something......

"To be precise, it's the unique style of 'Nightmare', reality and dreams are intertwined, and it is often difficult to tell which ones are real, and you need to remember which ones are fake, so you don't need to put them in your head......" Leonard wanted to say something more, but the two of them had already stepped into Iron Cross Street and saw the "corpse collector" Frye waiting at the railroad bus stop.

Wearing a black round-brimmed felt hat, a thin trench coat of the same color, and carrying a suitcase, Frye's complexion was so pale that one suspected that he could suddenly fall ill at any moment, and his cold and gloomy temperament kept the people waiting around him away from him.

After bowing their heads to each other, the three of them did not speak, and converged in silence, and together they crossed the "Sling Bakery" and turned to the lower street of Iron Cross Street.

The hustle and bustle was immediately in the air, and the hoarse shouts of street vendors selling oyster soup, fried meat and fish, ginger beer and fruits, made passers-by slow down.

It was already early five o'clock, and many people were back on Iron Cross Street, and the sides of the road began to be crowded, and some children mixed in, watching all this indifferently, looking at all the pockets.

Klein often came here to buy cheap cooked food, and he used to live in a nearby apartment, so he was quite aware of the state of the place, so he reminded:

"Beware of thieves. ”

Leonard smiled and said, "Don't care. ”

He tugged at his shirt and adjusted the pouch so that the revolver around his waist was exposed.

Huo Ran, the eyes that were staring at him moved away one after another, and the pedestrians around him unconsciously gave way to a road.

...... Crane was stunned, quickly followed Leonard and Fry, and lowered his head to prevent anyone he knew from noticing.

- Benson and Melissa are still in touch with some of their former neighbors, after all, they haven't moved far enough.

Passing through the area where there were many street vendors, the three of them entered the real Iron Cross Street Downstreet.

Passers-by here are dressed in old and tattered clothes, wary of the presence of strange and glamorous people, and they are both greedy and greedy, as if staring at a rotting vulture, ready to attack at any moment, but Leonard's revolver effectively prevents any accidents from happening.

"Let's start the investigation with last night's death, starting with Mrs. Lawwes, who was pasting a matchbox. Leonard flipped through the information and pointed not far away, "No. 134, 1st Floor......"

As the three of them moved forward, the ragged children quickly hid on the side of the road, staring at them with blank, curious, and frightened eyes.

"Behold their arms and their legs, like matchsticks. Leonard sighed and was the first to enter No. 134, which had three floors.

Mixed gases suddenly penetrated Klein's nostrils, and he could vaguely distinguish the smell of urine, the smell of sweat, the musty smell of dampness, and the smell of burning coal and wood.

Raising his hand to cover his nose, Klein saw Beach Mountbatten waiting here.

The sheriff in charge of the surrounding neighborhood has a brownish-yellow beard and is full of flattery for Leonard, who reveals his identity as an inspector.

"Sir, I've made Lawvis wait in the room. Beechy Mountbatten laughs in a distinctive, slightly shrill voice.

He obviously didn't recognize Crane, who was much more energetic and decent, and only cared about currying favor with the three chiefs and leading them to Lawvis's house on the first floor.

It is a one-room house, with a two-story bunk bed on the innermost side, a table on the right with paste, cardboard and other items, a basket full of matchboxes in the corner, and a tattered cupboard on the left, where both clothes and cutlery are placed.

On either side of the door were crammed with stoves, toilets, and small amounts of coal and wood, and in the center there were two dirty bunks, and a man was sleeping in a rotten quilt that made it almost impossible to put his feet on.

On the lower bunk of the bunk bed, a woman lay cold, gloomy, and apparently had lost all her life.

Next to the corpse sat a man in his thirties with greasy and messy hair, his expression languishing and his gaze losing his lustre.

"Lawvis, these three officers have come to examine the body and ask you something. Beech Mountbatten shouted, oblivious to the fact that there were still people sleeping on the ground.

The languishing man looked up weakly and asked in surprise:

"Didn't you check it this morning and ask about it?"

He wears a gray-blue worker's uniform with many traces of sewing.

"If you want to answer it, you can answer it, how can there be so many questions!" Beechcraft Mountbatten reprimanded him fiercely, and then smiled at Leonard, Crane, and Fry, "Sir, that's Lawvis, and in bed is his wife, the deceased, who died of a sudden illness after our preliminary examination. ”

Crane and the others stood on their tiptoes and walked from the gap between the bunks to the bed.

Frye, with a high nose and thin lips and a cold temperament, did not speak, but patted Lawvis softly, signaling him to get out of the way so that he could examine the body himself.

Crane glanced at the sleeping man on the ground and asked suspiciously:

"Who is this?"

"I, my tenant. Lawvis scratched his scalp and said, "This room costs 3 sules and 10 pence a week, I'm just a dock worker, my wife makes 1 basket of matchboxes to get two and a quarter of a penny, 1 basket has, yes, more than 130 boxes, we, we still have children, I can only rent the spare space to others, a floor shop only costs 1 sula ...... a week"

"I had a tenant who was helping with the theatre and wouldn't rest until 10 p.m., so he sold the daytime floor to this gentleman, who was the one who guarded the theatre doors at night, well, he only had to pay 6 pence a week ......"

Listening to the other party's chattering introduction, Klein couldn't help but look at the basket in the corner for a while.

1 basket of more than 130 boxes earns 2.25 pence, which is about the price of two pounds of brown bread...... How many baskets can you make in a day? (Note 1)

Leonard looked around and asked:

"Was there anything unusual about your wife some time before she died?"

Lawvis, who had already answered similar questions, pointed to his left chest and said, "Since last week, well, maybe last week, she used to say that it was stuffy and breathless here. ”

Is there a precursor to heart disease?normal death??Klein interjected:

"Did you see her die?"

Lavis recalled:

When the sun went down, she stopped working, and candles and kerosene were much more expensive than matchboxes...... She said she was tired and asked me to talk to the two children, and she took a break, and when I looked at her again, she had stopped, she had stopped breathing. ”

Speaking of which, Lawvis's grief and pain can no longer be concealed.

Klein and Leonard asked a few more questions, but neither could find anything unnatural.

After glancing at each other, Leonard spoke:

"Mr. Lawvis, please go out and wait a few minutes, we will do an in-depth examination of the body, I don't think you will want to see what follows. ”

"Okay, okay. Lawvis scrambled to his feet.

Beechy Mountbatten walked to the side, kicked the tenant who was sleeping on the floor, and violently kicked him out, while he closed the door and stood outside.

"How's that?" Leonard then looked at Fry.

"Died of heart disease. Frye withdrew his hands and affirmed.

Crane thought for a moment and pulled out a copper coin in the denomination of half a penny, intending to make a quick decision.

"'Mrs. Lawvis's heart disease has a supernatural influence'? no, this is too narrow, and the answer is misleading...... Well, 'Mrs. Lawvis's death was influenced by a supernatural factor'...... That's it!" he whispered silently as if in thought, quickly settling on the divination sentence.

In silence, Crane came to Mrs. Lawvis's corpse, his eyes deepened, and he popped up the coin.

As the aftermath echoed, the brass-colored coin tumbled and fell, resting firmly in his palm.

This time, the king's head is facing upwards.

This shows that Mrs. Lawvis's death was indeed influenced by extraordinary factors!

Note 1: At the end of the Victorian era, a basket was 144 matchboxes, and the labor cost was 2.25 pence, and the limit for a woman to be busy from morning to night was 7 baskets.