Ed noticed the young man in the hat just before he and Tabilon were about to get up and leave. He caught a glimpse of the inconspicuous gray, a plain-looking, but very sophisticated gentleman's hat, with a slightly rolled brim and a cheap black ribbon. Beneath the brim of the hat were a pair of peculiar brown-gold eyes, with a fierce gaze and a smile on the corner of the mouth.

He was a little distracted, a little distracted, because he was a little confused by what Tabilon had just finished talking to him—in fact, forcibly interrupted.

He was familiar with the sensation, the precise premonition that something he hadn't noticed was about to pop up and jump in front of him to cause trouble. He had carefully analyzed the reasons for this feeling, but the final result made him helpless and unable to do anything. Because he realized that there were some things that he just couldn't realize, he couldn't have thought of every dark corner of the whole world clearly, and he couldn't think of every thing that he thought about in hindsight and annoyed that he should have thought about in advance. Some of them were due to his carelessness, and some of them had nothing to do with him at all, and they were the most nasty of sudden episodes that had no way of predicting before they happened - such as Tabillon's reaction after seeing the picture he gave.

This guy was drinking, of course, no longer tonic water, but a cup of screwdriver specially prepared by him with a red tie, which was strong, colorful, and the deep blood red lake fell under the beautiful orange and yellow, and the legendary "girl killer" who was extremely unfriendly to newcomers and poured two glasses perfectly matched Tagbillon's interest requirements - and then he sprayed the half cup on Ed's face again.

"This photo ......" He choked hard, rudely snatched the photo from Ed's hand, and looked at the slender shadow on it, his expression changed suddenly. He looked up and looked at Ed, who had never seen such a serious expression on his new friend's face before, a dark and sharp gaze that almost pierced his eyeballs, and then pierced the back of his head forty meters, "Where did you get this picture?" ”

"Looks like you know who this person is." Ed said as he wiped his face and remained calm. He was actually quite remarkable like this, because if he were an ordinary person, even if he didn't notice the change in Tagilon's face, just being sprayed twice in a row in a few minutes before and after was enough for him to become congested and angry.

Ed made some rough guesses about the emergence of this situation, and kept a bottom in his heart. But he immediately realized that the bottom he had left was still a little high. Tapyron reversed all his previous indecencies and reached out and grabbed Eddard's wrist. His hands were so strong, he used them so hard that if it wasn't Eddard's arm that he was holding now, but a few pieces of hemp straw, he would have grabbed them into a handful of twisted old newspapers.

"Hey!" Ed frowned. He was unequivocally unhappy with his new friend's rude behavior, and though he knew there might be a reason, he glared at him sternly.

Tabilon was unmoved by Eddard's reaction. His face was as white as frost, and he stared at Ed without blinking. "Where did you get this picture?" He asked, repeating his question and asking more questions, "Do you know who the person above is?" Do you know her name? Why are you looking for her? How many other people besides you know that you're looking for her right now? ”

"That's it!" Ed broke free of Tagilon's hand, pouted and squinted at the old fellow, and rubbed some of the muscles of his arm that had just been grabbed with his other hand, his expression like that of an innocent eighteen-year-old girl who had been insulted. Or maybe it's not very appropriate, because the cosmic star god is on top - how can you still find an eighteen-year-old girl who is still innocent.

Tabilon calmed down a little. He also seemed to realize that he had just been a little too rude, and sat there with his mouth shut and no more talking. But his eyes were still staring straight at Eddard, and his expression didn't change in the slightest. He was waiting for Ed's answer.

"I can explain to you the questions you asked," Ed met Tabillon's silent gaze, feeling as if there were countless invisible thorns trying to break through his face. But luckily he was thick-skinned, so he didn't take it to heart. He quickly made the relevant calculations in his mind, and at the other hand, he waved his hand at Tagilon, signaling him to relax, there was no need to make the conversation between the two so tense - the atmosphere between them had been very good - his voice was as natural as a corkscrew, "But my friend, I tell you what you want to know, I explain everything to you, and you have to do the same - you have to tell me everything you know." ”

"I'll make my own judgment later." Tabilon said, lowering his voice, "But for now, I need you to give me the answer to my question first." Nothing else is left to say until then. ”

His attitude was so tough that there seemed to be no room for concession. This gave Ed another idea right away. He smiled and nodded as if in compromise.

"Okay, that's what you say." He said, then his eyes looked at the picture he had given him in Tabillon's hand, and looked at the strange and familiar figure of himself above, "The answer to the first question is yes - I know who this person is, and I know her name." ”

“……”

"Her name is Adele, and she's a hired employee in my employer's family."

"What?" Tabilon's eyes widened suddenly, and his expression changed suddenly.

Ed looked at the old guy strangely, and at this moment what he was thinking in his heart was all on his face. "What are you surprised about?" He asked.

“…… No, nothing. Tabilon shook his head, then raised his chin at Ed, "Go on. ”

"She does some of the maid's work for my employer," Ed continued slowly, looking at Tabilon suspiciously, "I don't know how their contracts were signed, but she would come to my employer's house every once in a while to clean my employer's house, take care of the yard, prepare food for a while, and take care of other tasks that my employer couldn't do on his own. Because of my employer, she's very old. She's an old lady. ”

"One...... Old lady," Tagilon repeated dryly what Ed had said, "an old lady who can't take care of herself completely? ”

"That's right." Ed nodded, "Although I haven't known exactly, I think the relationship between the two of them should have lasted for a long time, and it should definitely be more than a year or two." They have a good relationship with each other. Especially for my employer, Adele may not be the closest person to her right now – and then, Adele hasn't been to her for a month. ”

"A month—a month?"

"Yes, a month." Ed didn't understand why Tagyron cared so much about this time, "In the last month, my employer has completely lost news of Adele. She never went to work at my employer's house again, didn't talk to my employer on the phone, didn't give any explanation, and my employer couldn't reach her at all. When she contacted me, I rushed to her house - I didn't want to say that because it was rude, but she was as bad as an old hen that had shed her hair. Black-skinned old hen. ”

“…… Sounds really bad. ”

Her home had been left unattended for so long that it had almost become an oversized chicken coop, and she herself had relied on her two moving legs to keep herself from starving. I spent the day cleaning up and buying food for her. Then she told me that she wanted me to find out what was going on with Adele and wanted me to help her get the girl back. ”

"You're a detective?" At this time, Tabilon suddenly asked, "Private detective?" ”

"It seems that we are the only ones who can do this kind of work."

"That employer of yours, what is her identity in detail?"

"I can't say. There are rules for what we do. ”

"Anyway, if you want to check it, it's not difficult to find it...... Why would she be looking for you? Why didn't she go to the police? ”

"Maybe it's because we've known each other before, because of her last commission." Ed said, rolling her eyelids and looking upward, her face hard to say, "Maybe it's because she doesn't want to make a big deal out of it and doesn't want the police to get involved in this matter — she told me that she has some guesses about Adele's unusual disappearance, and she knows that the child's home lives here — in Barblair Beach, and she knows something else about Adele — and she says that the child may not be very clean and often mingles with other people who are not in order." She thought that might be the reason why Adele hadn't heard from her for a month, and she thought that Adele might have gotten into some kind of trouble because of her bad friends, and that if she had got the police to intervene in this, it would probably put Adele in new trouble - so she found me and asked me to deal with it. ”

"And so here you are."

"So I came." Ed shrugged, "I have the pictures my employer gave me, and some of the things about Adele that she tried to recall — basically nothing useful, I was on my own — and if what my employer said was true, and this Adele did have a relationship with some 'non-negotiable' friends, then I guess I should know where to go to her." ”

"Somewhere like this."

"This also answers your last question by the way." Ed exhaled, "Nightclubs, bars, casinos, discotheques, clubs—all kinds of entertainment venues, light or dark, black or white, as long as you can make people play crazy, it is possible to find the clues I want...... In my opinion, she herself is a rebellious adolescent girl who plays a little crazy. ”

Ed said this, not noticing Tabillon's suddenly rolling eyes and drifting gaze. He seemed to be saying something that seemed unusually stupid to Tabillon.

"I really don't know whether to say you're lucky or unlucky," Tabilon sighed—deeply, deeply. He turned to the bar, picked up his glass, and poured the rest of the screwdriver into his mouth as if his throat was connected to the toilet, and Ed grinned as he watched.

"Why ...... You"

"Come with me." Interrupting Eddard's half-way question, Tagyron slammed the cup back to the bar, tugged at his collar, glanced back at Ed, and then moved his ass on the stool and stood up, "It's not too late, make up for it while it's still possible—"

"Mr. Tagbillon."

The sudden sound came from behind Tagyron, in the direction of the entrance of the nightclub. Tabilon turned back unexpectedly, the expression on his face clearly not expecting someone to call him at this time.

He saw a young man, a young man in his twenties, standing in the middle of the small space between the bar and the door, facing him, with a smile on his lips.

He wore a hat on top of his head, a plain-looking, but very elaborate gentleman's top hat, with a slightly rolled brim, and a cheap black ribbon. Underneath the brim of the hat were a pair of peculiar brown-gold eyes, and their gaze was intense.

Tabilon looked at the stranger he didn't know at all, and was about to ask out loud, when he suddenly saw the other side raise his hand towards him, and a small and delicate short-barreled pistol was aimed at him.

"Greetings from the Donfrey family, Mr. Tagilon."

“……”

"Bang-"