The Evil God of Hogwarts

"Do you know what this building was used for before?" Ellie withdrew her curious gaze and asked.

The man stretched out his cigarette case towards her, and when he saw the detective shaking his head, he lit one for himself, "Before we rented this place, it was always empty. Oh, no, there was a shipping company that wanted to rent it before. Call me What's going on, um - let me think about it."

The man walked to the shoe cabinet, pulled out the clean glass ashtray and continued: "Oh, it's called Monks Ocean Company. They even gave me a business card."

Ellie nodded, and she continued to ask: "So, you don't know what happened here?"

"Ha!" The man leaned back against the shoe cabinet, his posture elegant and relaxed. Long-term dance practice has made his body as flexible as a girl. "Are you referring to the shooting in the nursing home? Of course I know about this. People who live nearby all know."

"Tell me." Ellie took out her notes and looked attentive.

"Are you serious?" The man's face was full of confusion. He didn't understand why a police detective came to inquire about this matter.

In his opinion, there must be at least three versions of the nursing home shooting circulating here, not counting those in various newspapers. Instead of asking him, it is better to go to the local newspaper office to find out. Those reporters are like hunting dogs, and no details can escape their noses.

"Do you think I'm kidding?" Ellie asked.

The man flicked ashes into the ashtray and said, "Okay, okay, I didn't expect to be so free as a police detective. If I had known, I would have taken the exam."

"Then I'm afraid you have to take off your little skirt first." Ellie pointed to the light pink nightgown on the man with her pen, "By the way, the skirt is nice, where did you buy it?"

The man looked down at his nightgown and said with a smile: "You have a good eye. There is a department store two blocks away. This year's new model. The clerk saw that I was a man and seemed to want to trick me, but she didn't. success.

"If you're really interested, we can discuss the price later. But I think you're just trying to compliment me, and for the sake of being useful to me, tell me what you want to know about the shooting. As we all know, most people Details of the case can be found in newspapers and police reports.

"So either you are a hopelessly stupid police detective, or you want to find out something that the public doesn't know. What I'm curious about is, why did you come to me?"

"You're renting this place, Mr. Carpenter? Or..."

"Just call me Carpenter." The man blew out the smoke from his mouth. "If you think that I know a lot of secrets because we rented this place, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. We rented this place entirely because the price is cheap. After all, there is no How many people are willing to open a company in such an unlucky place?”

"Monks Ocean Company." Ellie reminded.

"Oh, yes. As far as I know, that shipping company closed down after being open for about half a year."

"what happens?"

"I don't know about that." Carpenter straightened up from the shoe cabinet and crossed his arms over his chest. "Maybe there was a tsunami. You know, those shipping companies have always been unstable."

Ellie wrote down the name of the company in her notes and asked again: "So, it's just that the rent is cheap."

"My partner never believes in these superstitious things. He only cares about profit."

"Wouldn't this have an impact on your business? In a place like this?"

"A little bit, but the people who come to us are usually outsiders. What's more, it's been so long, not many people still remember it."

"If you say that, you must know someone who still remembers these things." Ellie asked.

"Detective, I'm not the kind of person who likes to gossip about other people."

"Give me a name, Carpenter, and I'll make sure you get to class safely today."

"You know, Detective, I just started to have a crush on you. Don't let that fade away so quickly."

Ellie smiled but said nothing.

The two stared at each other like this for a while, until Carpenter put out the cigarette in his hand in the ashtray.

"Okay, okay." He compromised. "There is an old man in the apartment building across the street, named Strike, or Strike or something. In short, you can ask him. He probably lives in this block the longest. ”

"Look, it's not that difficult to say it." Ellie said, "One more question. Do you know a man named Kimball?"

"Kimball?" Carpenter looked confused. "Never heard of it."

After coming out of the dance training institution, Ellie stood on the street and looked at the apartment opposite. She took out her pocket watch and checked the time. It was still a while before the police station went to work. She should have time to visit the old man from Strike. .

She walked quickly across the street to the apartment building. There was a doorbell in this old-fashioned apartment building. Ellie reached out and pressed it. As expected, it was broken.

She exhaled, stretched out her hand and patted the rusty iron door. After the first attempt to no avail. The eldest lady increased her strength and shouted: "Liverpool Police Station, open the door!"

I don't know if it was the shouting or the harder knocking on the door that had the effect. The iron door at the other end was finally opened. The manager of the apartment was a woman in her thirties. She stared, obviously not happy about being disturbed so early in the morning. Quite dissatisfied.

However, after Ellie took out her police ID card, she calmed down the expression on her face slightly, but she had no intention of opening the door to let Ellie in.

"What do you want, officer?"

"Does Strike live here?"

"You mean Mr. Scott?"

"Probably, an elderly man."

"Then it should be him." The administrator confirmed, "Did he commit anything else?"

"Why do you say that? Did he do something that warrants my attention?"

Hearing what Ellie said, the administrator realized that she had said the wrong thing. She quickly shook her head and said, "No, well, he just has a weird personality. Everyone who lives here knows that he has a little..."

"Take me to him."

"Um, can I see your ID?" the administrator asked cautiously.

Ellie nodded, took out the police officer certificate and put it in front of her eyes. After the administrator looked at it carefully, he asked, "Are you satisfied? Can you take me to see him?"

"Please wait a moment. I'll open the door for you." The administrator opened the iron door. "Excuse me, officer. It's not peaceful here all the time. We have to be careful."

Ellie walked into the apartment, waved her hands and said, "It's okay. So, as you said before, Scott is a little weird, right?"

"I...I, more or less, detective. He has lived here for a long time and is old. You know, old people are like this."

"If you think all old people are like this, then what is it about him that makes you feel weird?"

Ellie's question stumped the administrator. She hesitated for a long time before finally saying, "You'd better go see him yourself, detective."