Whispering Verse

After determining the number of cards drawn, people urged the old antique shop owner to deal the cards.

He was very excited and dealt six cards to Mrs. Sangmei first. Mrs. Sangmei opened the cards without hesitation. Although the first card aroused people's cheers, it was the special card of Suit Moon 3 [Piano Music·Summer Night]. But there is no special rule that requires "this card is not the first card, and all cards in the hand are of the same suit".

"It could also be the king or queen."

The female shopkeeper said slightly unconfidently, and opened the remaining five cards amidst people's wide-eyed expectant gazes.

Every time the cards are revealed, someone will whisper "King" or "Queen", but in the end the total number is 27 points, and the cards are immediately destroyed.

"It seems I won."

Shade breathed a sigh of relief, but the old antique shop owner still dealt him six cards.

In this case, Shade actually doesn't have to open the cards. He can win regardless of whether the cards are busted or not. But people were looking forward to it, and Shade also wanted to win with some grace, so he gathered the six cards in front of him.

He reached out to lift the cards, but then he put his hand down and turned to the black-haired girl at the table and said:

"Tifa, come and help me open the cards."

He directly called the other party's name, and the maid didn't object. Instead, she laughed.

She walked to Shade:

"Detective, what do you think the outcome will be?"

"No matter what the result is, I can accept it."

The white hands opened the cards one by one.

The first sun 1.

The second moon 1.

The third star 1.

People's low-pitched discussions reached their ears from all around, and no one wanted to disturb this scene. Shade was also surprised by this result:

"Mrs. Sangmei, you have checked the dealing and shuffling of the cards. Don't say we cheated."

"Don't worry, I can afford to lose, and these cards will not affect the result. Let your friend continue to draw cards, she is really lucky."

Tifa, who was standing, looked down at Shade. After Shade nodded, she reached out and opened the remaining three cards.

Sun 2, Moon 2, Stars 2.

Since the 1 and 2 of the flower suit were already obtained by Shade in the second round, the six cards Tifa revealed were the theoretically smallest situation.

The low-pitched discussion finally evolved into loud cheers and discussions. The probability of such a card appearing is even smaller than the probability of drawing a special card.

Mrs. Sangmei covered her forehead and sighed, but there was still a smile on her lips:

"Detective, your female assistant is not from the casino, is she?"

"Of course not, but she is indeed my lucky girl."

Shade joked and smiled at Miss Servit, then gathered his cards together, and the female shopkeeper flicked the [King's Agent - Substitute] over.

When Shade stood up, the black-haired girl handed him his coat:

"I had a great time playing this round, so can you give me the news I want?"

"Of course, but when it comes to the official competition for the big city players, I won't let you win so easily."

Although he was betting on Rhodes, in the end, Shade still paid 20 pounds for information. He claimed that he was a gentleman and would not let a woman doing business in the lower town lose too much money, but in fact he knew that, The victory in this game has a lot to do with Tifa's dice rolling skills.

After the bet was over, Mrs. Sangmei followed the agreement and gave the address of the technical woman who was familiar with the blind musician.

Most of the women who do business in the Three Cats Hotel at night sleep or handle personal affairs in their own residences during the day. The Three Cats Inn provides a place and protection for their business, keeping them from being harassed by nearby gangsters or murdered by nefarious guests.

Mrs. Sangmei will collect a certain amount of protection money, but will not provide them with accommodation and meals. After all, Mrs. Sangmei considers herself a serious businessman, not a cheap madam.

No one knows the real name of the woman who was acquainted with the dead blind musician, but the most common name is Mary. According to statistics, this is one of the most commonly used female names of this era.

Mary lives in a rental apartment in the lower town in the north of Tobesk, but it is not the kind of rental apartment where one person has one room, or even one floor per person, but a rental apartment in a slum, where one room is divided into several areas.

It wouldn't matter if it was just him, but Shade didn't want to take Tifa to that kind of place. So he asked the maid to wait at the alley. After Shade found Miss Mary in a dilapidated apartment building with peeling walls, smelly, narrow and damp, corridors filled with daily necessities, and almost no place to stay in the room, he took her to Outside the alley, talking in a street restaurant.

It happened to be noon, so I treated her to lunch. Tifa also wanted to stand aside and serve Shade while eating like a maid, but Shade forced her to sit next to him.

"Mary" looked to be a woman in her thirties, close to forty, with a slightly thin figure, rough skin, heavy bags under her eyes, and the cyan blood vessels on her wrists were clearer than anyone else's. She was wearing a red dress that was very characteristic of a technical worker, and her face was smeared with some low-quality cosmetics. The smell of perfume bought from someone unknown made Shade want to cough.

Except for her charming eyes, this woman has nothing to do with "beautiful" in Shade's aesthetic sense. Although it was very rude, to Shade, the other person was like a wild flower that was about to rot and disappear in the swamp. The ghetto of Tobesk is this swamp that will swallow up a lot of people, not just their lives, but their lives.

When she heard that Shade invited her to dinner, the woman happily followed Shade out of the alley. When he walked out of the alley, he wanted to hold Shade's arm and take advantage.

But after seeing the black-haired girl in a blue skirt at the alley, Miss Mary immediately became honest again, and she understood that she had no advantage.

Because it was Sha De's treat, she ordered a lot of food without telling anyone. Shade didn't mind this. The restaurants on the streets next to the slums were not expensive. As long as he could get even a little bit of information, the trip would be worth it.

"I want to know about Mr. Frank Bundy."

After the woman finished ordering, Xia De said.

"Old Bundy? Are you his creditor? No, I don't know where he went."

Mary's accent was quite Tobesc, and she had probably lived here for many years.

People in Xiacheng District seem to like to use running away from debt to define a person who has not been seen for a long time.

"No, he's dead."

When he said this, Shade also observed the woman's expression, but the latter did not show any emotion. She just raised her head, widened her eyes with exaggerated eyeshadow, and asked curiously:

"How did you die?"

"suicide?"

The woman was stunned for a moment and said with her lower lip slightly raised:

"Oh, God, suicide is a serious sin... But it's not surprising. The last few times I saw him, he had some mental problems. Do you understand? He was nervous, as if he was afraid of something, When we were in bed, I used to be a ****, but now I like ****** and bury his **** in mine..."

"That's enough, I don't want to hear the details."

Shade frowned and interrupted, Miss Servit was recording silently on the side, so the woman in her thirties raised her lips and smiled:

"So what do you want to know?"

"Mr. Bundy, did you say anything strange? I went to the North Mountain Opera Company where he works, but Mr. Bundy didn't mention it to his friends. I think you are probably the only person he said something to."

"Yes, but..."

He twirled his fingers.

Shade handed over a shilling again, and the woman accepted it with a smile:

"He complained to me that he shouldn't have gone to a doctor to treat his eyes. After his eyes were treated, he always saw some blurry shadows at night, and then those shadows became clearer and clearer. He didn't say that he saw it. What, poor old Bundy was actually frightened by himself. I have heard of similar things. It seems that his eyes were not completely treated. Old Bundy had never seen anything before, so he was like this. Small things scare you.”

"weird stuff......"

Shade glanced at Miss Servit, who nodded slightly. Their guesses yesterday seemed correct.

"Well, did you know that he always uses a bright yellow oil to put in his eyes?"

"Of course I know. This is the medicine prescribed by the doctor. You must continue to use that strange medicine, otherwise your vision will worsen until you turn back to the blind person you were before."

"Since there is a way to make yourself invisible and avoid the strange things in the night, why not stop taking the medicine?"

Shade asked again. The woman put her right index finger in front of her mouth, rubbed her nails with her teeth, and showed a sarcastic smile:

"Sir, he has seen the light. Do you want him to give up?"

Shade immediately thought of the words in Mr. Bundy's suicide note——

[I was once trapped in darkness but never lamented my fate, but why should I see the light now? 】

"So that's it. I don't want to lose my eyesight and return to the dark world before, but I also endure fear all the time, until I madly give up fighting fate and end my life."

Shade sighed and motioned to Miss Servit to write down this paragraph carefully.

"Cowardly man."

Miss Mary said while leaning on the back of the seat. She reached into her pocket and actually took out a slender, low-quality cigarette. But seeing Shade's eyes, she put the tobacco back.

"Mr. Bundy is here with you. Does he have any relics?"

Shade asked again.

"No."

The woman answered quickly.

"lie."

Miss Servit suddenly said, Shade was not surprised by the result.

"It doesn't matter, I have special persuasion skills."

Shade said softly, looked around and saw that no one was paying attention, so he took out a one-shilling silver coin from his pocket with his left hand, took out the revolver with his right hand, and put them together on the table.

He looked at the woman sitting opposite him:

"Which one do you want as reward?"

So he successfully saw the belongings left by Mr. Bundy in the narrow apartment where Miss Mary lived.

A patched men's coat, a pair of black rain boots, an old pair of Rhodes cards, two mismatched socks, an empty wine bottle, some scribbled sheets of music, a pen with a rusty cap, and a Just a flat curved bottle.

The bottle contained a bright yellow potion that looked like oil, and it was half full. This was exactly what Shade found in the North Mountain Opera Troupe.

So he took away the bottle and the sheets of music, and let Miss Mary keep the rest.

At this point, the investigation of the clues of the Three Cats Hotel is completed.