Lawrence and his party followed the sweaty butler into Dubarly's single-family villa.

The servants in the house seem to have been summoned long ago, and it is believed that the butler had summoned them here after discovering Lawrence's carriage.

A dozen or so male and female maids waited in unison at the entrance hallway, looking vigilantly and uneasily at Lawrence and Grosso who followed behind the butler.

Behind them, you can even see sticks and knives hidden in a hurry.

It seems that if Lawrence insisted on breaking in by force, these people would not hesitate to break into an armed conflict with Lawrence and his party.

And these people would rather draw a sword against a royal envoy than let Lawrence in the investigation, which in itself is a very strange thing.

In other words, these servants have put the secrets of this mansion on an equal footing with their own lives.

"Dubarry, bastard... Looks like he's hiding some great secrets."

Lawrence thought to himself, glancing at the strange-looking servants.

And after perceiving this series of visions, Lawrence couldn't help but be even more interested, convinced that he would definitely not return empty-handed today.

"Please come in, gentlemen..."

The butler smiled stiffly and beckoned them in, and then rebuked the servants:

"What are you slackers doing here! Go back to your posts!"

The servants immediately dispersed, and the butler continued to lead Lawrence and the others into the meeting room.

There was nothing special about the parlor, and the décor was a rococo style with golden colors, which was also the favorite style of the nouveau riche who made their fortunes in industry and commerce, and who probably thought that being in the midst of a golden splendor would make up for their class disadvantages.

The walls are covered with second-rate landscape paintings and portraits from the last century, and despite their limited artistic value, the owner of the museum has framed all the paintings in gilt, not knowing whether to show off his taste in art or to show off his wealth.

However, the sofa chairs here are quite soft and hard, and there is no discomfort after sitting on them.

"Don't worry, gentlemen, I'll bring you hot tea and desserts."

The butler said to Lawrence politely, and he was about to leave.

"Wait." Lawrence directly called out to the butler, beckoned him to come closer, and said in a deep voice:

"We're not here to visit, so tea and snacks are free. I have some questions for you."

The butler walked up to Lawrence tremblingly, nodded with a fluttering look in his eyes, and said:

"It's... Of course, I will fully cooperate with you."

"Very well, does Jean Dubarry usually live here?" Lawrence asked.

"Yes, Lord Dubarry should only have this property." The butler hurriedly replied:

"But he often spends the night in his property, you know, the casinos, the bathhouses, the stuff..."

Lawrence nodded slightly, if Dubarry did only have this one residence, he would probably have left some important materials here instead of the shops.

After all, it was even more unsafe for those industries to be crowded, and he would never have expected that his home would be searched under the protection of the Duke of Richelieu.

….

So Lawrence toggled his fingers and asked casually and unhurriedly:

"When you were just outside the door, you deliberately prevented us from entering, right?"

"I... How dare I obstruct your investigation."

The butler wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, a trace of imperceptible cunning flashed on his face, and said with a smirk:

"It's just that many of Lord Dubari's possessions and personal papers are in this mansion, and I must be cautious, and I hope you will understand my difficulties."

"Oh?" Lawrence raised his eyebrows and looked at the butler with some surprise, but he didn't expect him to take the initiative to mention Dubarry's private papers.

In Lawrence's expectation, the steward should do his best

It was right to bury Dubarry's secret, so he frowned and ordered:

"You say Dubarry's property and personal documents are here? We need this evidence in our investigation."

"Of course, of course, I'll get it for you."

The butler nodded hurriedly and said, and then trotted out of the living room with Lawrence's acquiescence, and beckoned a few servants to go up to the large study on the second floor.

Seeing that the butler agreed to Lawrence's request without any hesitation, Grosso also said a little strangely:

"I didn't expect it to go well, I thought I was going to force a confession from this little old man."

Lawrence nodded, but didn't speak, just looked down in thought.

He also felt that the change in the attitude of the butler before and after was too strange, and he had just gathered all the servants to plan to fight each other, but now he had to take the initiative to hand over Du Barry's secret.

Although Lawrence threatened the butler with his help, Lawrence did not feel that his words would make him sell everything to him so voluntarily.

...

Lawrence: They waited in the parlor for a long time before they saw the butler directing six tall manservants to work together to carry a silver-white safe down the stairs.

The safe was half the size of a table, and even the manservants were so tired that they gasped and placed it in the living room.

"Whew..."

The butler propped his hands on the safe, and said with a flattering smile:

"Sir Bonaparte, if you want something important, Lord Dubari, you will definitely put it in this box. Even I don't know what's inside, only that Lord Dubarry's important real estate title deeds, gold, silver, jewelry, documents and letters are all in it."

Grosso stood up and circled the safe, reaching out and patting it like a watermelon, making a dull noise.

"Shhhh It's sturdy, it's not a tin box, it's a big piece of iron."

Grosso said in surprise and excitement that it would certainly not be something simple to be kept tightly guarded by this kind of box.

Lawrence glanced at the safe, which was covered in layers of light patterns, and looked like it was well-made.

In particular, there is someone's initials engraved on the bottom of the keyhole, not Dubarry's, and if nothing else, the locksmith's name.

This also shows that the locksmith is very confident in this lock, and will use his reputation to guarantee its safety.

Lawrence looked at the keyhole above and asked:

….

"Where's the key? We just need what's in it as proof."

"I'm very sorry, Lord Bonaparte—" the housekeeper sighed, shook his head regretfully, and said:

"Of course, a servant like me won't have a key to the safe, so you'll have to ask Lord Dubarry for yourself."

"yes, I see."

Lawrence looked carefully at the butler's face, bowed his head lightly at this reasonable reason, and then commanded his guard:

"Someone, get this box into the carriage first."

"Hey, Lawrence." Grosso suddenly frowned, and said to Lawrence in Italian:

"Dubarry didn't mention any keys he had last night, and he didn't have any on him."

"I know." Lawrence nodded slightly, glanced at the butler, and said:

"But it's not in this person. Even if he was there before, he must have disposed of it yesterday. Don't think anyone will find such a trinket if you throw it into the Seine."

"So I guess I won't be able to find the key."

Grosso frowned at the thick safe, sighed and said:

"The locks on this box are all built-in, and it will take a lot of work to open them."

"It's okay, there must be a locksmith in Paris who can open this box."

Lawrence said unconcernedly.

Even if he couldn't find a suitable craftsman, Lawrence would have moved the box to the Palazzo Douillely, where there was a master locksmith.

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, I will send someone to help you move out."

Seeing Lawrence accept the box, the butler was overjoyed and hurriedly beckoned a few servants to carry the safe out of the door.

"What's next, the valuables should be in that box."

Grosso looked at the courteous figure of the butler, yawned boredly, and said:

"Shall we go straight back?"

Lawrence watched with a gloomy face as the butler walked out of the door with the servant carrying the safe, squinted at the sticks and knives scattered in the entryway, and shook his head slowly.

"Not leaving? Do you think there's anything else?" Grosso frowned and asked:

"Dubarry wouldn't have expected his lair to be raided, so that's all in the safe."

Lawrence raised his chin and pointed at the sticks, shook his head, and said:

"No, did you notice. When we were just about to break in, they were really ready to put up force. If it's just Dubarry's personal property and private documents, they won't be able to do this."

"You mean...? What else are they hiding?"

Grosso touched his chin and pondered, and he also noticed that the butler was a little too attentive, as if he wanted to quickly stuff the safe for them and urge them to leave.

"It should be, and it's enough to kill them." Lawrence said earnestly.

Lawrence did not believe that the stewards and servants would be loyal enough to act with him in order to protect Dubarry's property, and that what they wanted to hide must be something more important.

"Hey, hey, it's funny, I like dangerous and deadly things, of course for others."

….

Grosso stood up suddenly, looked at the servants in the atrium who were still struggling to carry the safe, and took the initiative to say:

"They won't be able to come back for a while, so I'll take someone to search for them?"

"Go ahead, watch out for the basement or secret room or something." Lawrence nodded in agreement.

...

When Grosso returned to the parlor to find Lawrence, only a dozen minutes had passed.

The men outside managed to move the safe to the carriage and were trying to lift it into the carriage, which was nearly a meter above the ground.

"Hey, boy, you're right."

As soon as he entered the meeting room, Grosso said directly to Lawrence.

His face was extremely serious and dignified, without a trace of the usual cynicism.

As for the precision shooters who followed behind Grosso, they all frowned and cursed in a low voice, obviously seeing something that impressed them.

Lawrence stood up, made eye contact with Grosso, nodded, glanced out the window, and commanded in a deep voice:

"Grosso, take me there. The rest of the men lay in ambush at the door, and when they returned, they were immediately restrained, and tried not to kill them."

The crowd sprang into action, and Grosso led Lawrence through the parlor down a flight of stairs to the basement of the house.

It doesn't look like a problem, just a basement for clutter and discarded items, littered with wooden crates.

Lawrence even saw a set of rusty plate armor, which was clearly not an antique artifact, but a set of garbage, judging by the scrap iron objects thrown next to it.

"Do you smell anything?" Grosso frowned and reminded.

"Smell—" Lawrence sniffed twice, only to notice that the air was mixed with an unbearable rancid smell in addition to dust.

It's like the smell of undigested food scraps in a disemboweling whale, plus a hint of human feces.

"It's not kitchen waste, Lauren

Si."

Grosso glanced at Lawrence, who was aware of the anomaly, and walked straight to a corner of the basement and kicked open a completely inconspicuous wooden box.

I saw that there was a hole in the ground with a slightly smaller caliber under the wooden box, which was connected by a wooden ladder to the lower floor.

"A secret room? Wait..."

Lawrence frowned and walked towards the hole, but suddenly heard a strange sound in his ears.

The sound came from the chamber below, and it was very noisy, and it seemed to have been reflected and refracted hundreds of times before reaching Lawrence's ears.

And the composition of this burst of sound made Lawrence stunned in place:

"The dog barks... And the cries of women?"

"That's right, Lawrence."

Grosso glanced down at the cavern, his face darker than ever, and whispered:

"There are a dozen iron cages down there."

"What do you mean?" Lawrence asked, standing still.

Grosso was silent for a while, as if there were some words that were difficult for him as a sailor to say.

After all, even a murderous man like Grosso showed pity and anger in his eyes, and he slammed his fist against the wall and said in a low voice:

"Dubarry... I really regret that I didn't have a good time with him yesterday."

Lawrence covered his mouth, closed his eyes to slightly overcome the vomiting sensation that came up from his stomach, then shook his head and said:

"Don't worry, Grosso, you still have a chance, many, many chances, but not before I drain the last shred of his value."

Likes to eat fat cows