Ed parked his new car outside the orphanage's gate, picked up his new glasses, and straightened his new hairstyle in the rearview mirror. He didn't feel right, there seemed to be a monkey imported from Atlantis under the sea of the earth to perform lipstick eating in the car. Then he realized that what made him feel this way was himself as he saw it in the mirror.

The new hairstyle is beautiful, the new glasses are beautiful, and the new car is beautiful. In less than three months, he had gone from a down-and-out dingo to Stuttgar to a purebred golden retriever who needed to be groomed with a diamond comb, and it felt better than eating three bullets in one go on the battlefield.

He had seen the Grim Reaper before, the guy wearing a mask made of white bones, with his mouth open and his long red tongue spitting out. And now he saw it again, and there was a little red flower on its mask, and the painting was crooked, and I don't know which clever ghost did it, it was simply mad. Well done.

Ed pushed open the door, put his feet on the hard, slippery ground on the side of the road, and looked up at the orphanage door. The orphanage's name is "Shepherd", and on the surface it looks like a super-kindergarten funded by a wealthy person. At the entrance stood a large stone monument that had obviously not been carved much on purpose, with the name of the kindergarten engraved on it, and the font was more beautiful than the kelp of the deep water.

Ed glanced at the stele twice, then looked back. Whoever built this shepherd's orphanage halfway up the hill in the first place, he was a very far-sighted fellow. The view from here is so great that Ed can see almost the entire Belvedere at a glance.

He stood there admiring for a moment, then turned and walked towards the gate of the orphanage and spoke with the security guard at the door. After a while, he was allowed to drive into the compound. A few minutes later, he arrived at the dean's office.

Belvedere is located in Stuttgarh's 7th administrative district, near the southeastern edge of the aerial metropolis, and it won't take long for you to drive south and crash directly into the energy barrier outside the border. Ed heard that someone had indeed been killed there, and that he was a fool drunkard carrying a truckload of fake canned meat, which eventually led to a police investigation and a series of subsequent turmoil.

Of course, that's a different story, and it has nothing to do with Ed. The reason why he came all the way from the city center was because of a commission, a commission that traveled thousands of miles from here to the city center, to his hand, and at the same time came a large amount of money in advance. So although it was strange, Ed rushed over as requested in the letter of commission. He wanted to know what was wrong with the orphanage in this remote town in the middle of nowhere, and why the local detectives didn't even think about getting him in the city center.

The dean's office is very large, but it is very well furnished, just like the manager's office of a subsidiary of a super-large company.

The dean was an elderly woman, probably in her sixties. But she is very well maintained, her white hair is neatly combed, and although her skin is wrinkled, she can still see the elasticity visible to the naked eye.

After Ed entered the room, she looked up at Ed as she was working on a file behind her desk, and then immediately put down her pen. She stood up, wearing a goose-yellow lady's skirt and a light blue coat, as if she had just finished a ballroom dance with the squid in the fish tank.

"Mr. Ed." She walked over to Eddard over the desk, shook Ed's hand, and smiled kindly, "You're Mr. Ed." ”

"I'm Ed. You must be Dean Emily. ”

"Just call me Ellie."

Ed stiffened his face and exchanged polite words with Dean Ellie, trying not to make himself appear rude. But this disguise gave him a headache, a pain in his scalp, and a pain in his hair. He felt that if he lived in a world like Ellie for a long time, living by their set of rules and regulations, he would sooner or later have to cut himself into eight pieces and stuff them into a cement bag and throw them into the sea.

The two sat down next to the coffee table in the room. Dean Elle sat across from Eddard, who glanced next to him as he sat down. He and Elle weren't the only ones in the room, he had noticed it when he first entered the room. In addition to the two of them, there was also a black-haired man, dressed in black, with black clothes, black pants, and black leather shoes. However, unlike Ed's cheap single-button suit, he just casually matched it with black, and he didn't pay attention to it at all.

He sat on the sofa chair with his back to the doorway, and from beginning to end, he had a dead face, without saying a word, staring at the clean ashtray on the coffee table, as if a naked little man had been shooting at him all the time.

He sat on Ed's left-hand side, Dean Ellie's right-hand side. Ed looked at him twice, unmoved because he didn't understand the situation, and just looked at Dean Elle inquiringly. Dean Elle immediately answered his questions.

"This is Mr. Orin." She said that the husky voice peculiar to older women sounded very magnetic, "Our commission has a lot to do with Mr. Orin." ”

"Isn't it a principal?"

"It's not. The client is the hospital...... Or you can understand it as me. ”

Ed looked at Dean Ellie, and then at Orin, who still looked dead and didn't say a word, and frowned. "What the hell is going on, Lady Ellie."

"Speaking of which, it was a mistake on the part of our hospital." Dean Elle sighed and glanced at Orin cautiously, "Mr. Orin learned about and selected a child in our hospital through some channels some time ago to adopt. The child's name was 'Barry' and he was a seven-year-old boy. We have already done all the formalities, because Mr. Orin is very busy, so the procedures are all remote, and we have never met in person. Mr. Orin told me that he would come and pick up Barry in the near future. Then, a few days ago, a man came here, called himself Mr. Orin, and took Barry out of here......"

"I think I get it." Ed listened to Dean Ellie's concise and concise narration, raised his eyebrows, glanced at Orin next to him, and lifted his glasses, "That person is not the real Mr. Orin." The little boy named Barry was abducted by someone who didn't know who. ”

"That's right." Dean Elle nodded with a wry smile, her expression was even more ugly than crying, and she kept peeking at Orin next to her. Orin's face was more dead than a dead man. But he still sat there with his composure, his hands clasped to his chest.

Ed kind of understood why he was like this.

"Mr. Orin is busy, very busy." Dean Elle whispered, like a rat hiding next to the rat pill, "He's going to have to leave Belvedere in a few days and go home, so we hope you can get Barry back as soon as possible." ”

"Dean Ellie," Ed cleared his throat, "with all due respect. This is a missing person, and your best bet is to call the police, which should be more efficient than finding a detective. ”

"About that ......"

"To hell with the cops!"

Orin, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up at this time. He glared at Eddard, puffing his neck and swearing like a plate of uneaten centipedes and bear's paws.

"I live far from here—you don't need to know where—why do you think I came to Belvedere to adopt. Child? Why do you think we brought you from the city center? He snarled viciously, "I don't want anyone to know about me, understand?" The less people know about my adoption of that little mongrel, the better! ”

Ed leaned back to avoid squirting saliva on his face. He glanced at Dean Ellie, and understood slightly. It seems that this Mr. Olin adopted. There is another story behind the child's actions.

But that has nothing to do with Ed. What he needs now is to make a choice, whether to accept or not to accept the commission in front of him to find someone. He chose to pick it up.

"I need something," Ed made up his mind, looking up at Dean Elle earnestly, "I need all of your help in any way possible." ”

"Of course." Dean Ellie nodded repeatedly.

"I need a picture of Barry, and an image of the man who impersonated Barry, I think you have surveillance footage of him here. Secondly, I need a list of all the people who know about Mr. Orin's adoption of Barry, not just from the hospital, but also from Mr. Orin. And ......"

The routine squeezing of toothpaste lasted twenty minutes, and Ed had been clumsy and impatient at first, but now he was at ease. At this time, the mask on his face is the same as the work clothes on his body, cheap and useful, so that the customer does not feel that he is thinking about some rude things in his heart.

Twenty minutes later, Ed got up and left. Dean Elle watched his back disappear into the doorway, watching the door gently close from the outside, until there was no more sound in the huge office, and she finally let out a soft breath.

Then, she took the cigarette case from her bosom and lit a thin lady's cigarette for herself. Her gaze became ethereal behind the smoke and her expression blurred.

"How's that," she said in a calm voice, slowly and coldly, as if suddenly she had become a completely different person, "is it difficult?" ”

"What difficulty." Orin, cowered in his chair, glanced at her stiffly.

"Little guy, don't be so prickly, I've been friends with your boss for many years, and I can let you swim with the fish in that nameless lake in the mountains and forests north of the city tomorrow with a phone call. You know what I'm asking. The old lady's eyes were introverted, and she snorted coldly, "Of course I'm asking, are you sure that you can kill this foolish detective cleanly afterwards." ”