Inside the private detective agency.
“Sir, your commission is complete.” The private detective Henry, who had a smoker’s voice, looked at the gentleman in a black tailcoat, a top hat, and a dark face mask, and said with a sigh of relief, “This was no easy task. Not that it was difficult, but it cost us too much effort. Frankly speaking, I really regret it. I regret setting the price too low.”
No, no matter what you say, I won’t pay a single penny extra! Klein emphasized in his mind, then pointed at the thick stack of documents on the coffee table and said, “Is this the investigation report?”
“Yes.” Henry pressed down on the report, which was at least sixty pages, and sighed, “This is the most troublesome…”
Before he could finish, he saw Klein hand over four one-pound notes, and his attention shifted entirely to verifying their authenticity.
“This is the full balance.” Klein reached for the thick investigation report.
Henry coughed twice and said:
“You are truly an honest and trustworthy gentleman. Ah, I never imagined at the start that the investigation report would take up so much paper—it was completely beyond my budget.”
At that moment, Klein picked up the very thick report and abruptly stood up.
He gave a slight bow, immediately took his cane, and walked toward the door.
Detective Henry’s following words were thus stuck in his throat.
Hey, why would I pay for the paper expenses of the investigation report? It’s included in the overall commission fee! Klein felt the remaining 5 pounds and 8 shillings of his private savings, muttered to himself, and quickly walked to Bessik Street.
He first looked around to make sure no one was watching him, then nimbly left the place and, seizing an opportunity, took off his mask.
Klein didn’t plan to go home now. Instead, he intended to find a nearby café, quickly organize the investigation report, identify the houses where tenants had changed after his divination of the “Red Chimney,” and then check some of them before dinner.
There were quite a few cafés in the nearby neighborhoods, but almost none met Klein’s requirements—since steam and machinery became symbols of the era, more and more cafés lowered their standards and turned into cheap restaurant-like establishments, providing tea, coffee, bread, toast, and dishes like braised lamb with green peas to busy laborers. As a result, respectable gentlemen and ladies no longer went to cafés to discuss matters, no longer considered such behavior a status symbol, and various clubs emerged to replace the original social function of cafés.
After walking for a good while, Klein finally found a café with a decent atmosphere.
After sitting down in a secluded booth, he took a sip of South Wales coffee that cost only three and a half pence, and cautiously opened the investigation report.
“…In the North District, East District, West District, South District, Golden Wutong District, Dock District, and University District of Tingen City, there are a total of 1,179 houses with dark red chimneys… In the outskirts of Tingen City, there are 546 houses with the kind of red chimneys described by the client… This does not include the towns and villages belonging to Tingen but relatively far away.”
“The following are the addresses of each house and corresponding information about landlords and tenants. As per the client’s request, more detailed information has been collected for the last three months.”
…
Klein scanned page by page, constantly making notes on the paper he had brought.
In the end, he found that after his divination of the “Red Chimney,” a total of twenty-five houses had experienced tenant changes.
“Not too many. I’ll try to finish checking them in two days. Hmm, in my dream divination I saw that red chimney and part of that house. If I encounter them in reality, I’ll definitely have a spiritual familiarity and thus confirm the target. Simply put, I’m a human screening device…” Klein nodded silently and, based on the different locations of the houses, planned out fifteen to visit today.
As for whether such an action was dangerous, he didn’t need divination to get the answer.
Since there had been tenant changes, it meant that the mastermind behind the scenes, who had disrupted his fate and kept causing coincidences, had already left!
Hopefully, I can learn from the landlords what the previous tenant looked like… But since that hidden figure could unknowingly influence my fate and make coincidences seem natural, he would certainly have a way to erase traces of his existence… Sigh, I can only pray to the Goddess that that guy makes some mistake… Klein let out a breath, forcibly cheered himself up, put on his silk top hat, took his cane and report, and left the café.
Next, he hired a two-wheeled carriage for 2 shillings and, before dinner, visited all fifteen houses with red chimneys. Unfortunately, none of them was the one he had seen in his dream.
“If tomorrow’s check still yields the same result, things will be troublesome. He is still living in one of the red chimney houses that I divined… This either means he is confident enough not to fear my pursuit or even capture by Tingen’s Nighter team, or it means he doesn’t know he’s been exposed, and the power that resisted my divination earlier was not entirely his…” Klein stood at the entrance of 2 Narcissus Street, analyzing one possibility after another.
After a few minutes, he brushed some dust off his black tailcoat, adjusted his top hat, took out a copper key, and opened the door to go home with a smile on his face.
He planned to prepare braised lamb and honey roast meat for Benson and Melissa tonight.
…………
At eleven o’clock at night, the three siblings said goodnight to each other and went into their respective bedrooms.
Klein closed the door, stood in front of the desk, and by the light of the gas lamp, looked out the bay window. At this time, the nearby streets were pitch dark, with only a few street lamps showing the way. The stars in the high sky were embedded in a black curtain, twinkling faintly, not very clear.