Chapter 621: The Receiver

The sergeant and Xia De met on the temporarily empty stairs to prevent anyone from seeing Xia De. And the middle-aged man, who looked thin, tall, and shrewd, took Xia De's ID and checked it, then immediately stood at attention:

"May I ask what is the matter? Can we provide you with any help?"

MI6 belongs to the Royal Army establishment and is not in the same system as the police. But when MI6 agents are in action, low-level police officers must provide cooperation. Although the sergeant is higher than the police officer, he also belongs to a low-level police officer.

"This murder case is related to the matter I am investigating. I need to understand some things about this case and identify the murderer as soon as possible to proceed with the next step of the action."

Xia De said, and the sergeant was a bit embarrassed:

"The case is not complicated. It was originally suspected to be a part of the serial murder case of stealing internal organs that happened recently, so so many people were brought, but the body is complete, with only a gunshot wound and a knife wound, so it should not be that matter recently."

The security situation in Midhillburg is truly worrying.

"However, there are too many tenants on the fourth floor. We have only simply screened the people who might have committed the crime and screened out 21 possible murderers. If you want to..."

"Where is the crime scene?"

Xia De asked very directly. This vigorous and resolute approach made the sergeant trust him even more:

"In the victim's room."

"Take me to see it, and in addition, clear the others out for the time being. I don't want too many people to see me."

"Understood."

The sergeant let the police take the 21 suspicious tenants to wait in another room for the time being. He took Xia De to the room with the "11" metal plate.

The third floor of Sikar Hotel is small rooms divided from large rooms with poor privacy, while the fourth floor is a real single room, but it is as narrow as the guest rooms of the Three Cats Hotel. The desk, bedside table, wardrobe, and bed almost occupy the entire room. The room is very tidy, and there is no strange smell. The windows and curtains are tightly closed, and the flower-shaped gas lamp on the wall is illuminating at this time.

"Why close the curtains in broad daylight? There are no buildings higher than this nearby."

Xia De thought in his heart.

The victim is still lying on the ground, but has been covered with a white sheet. Xia De lifted it and took a look. The bullet hit the heart directly from the front, which is the cause of death. And there is a knife wound on the shoulder, which looks like there was a struggle here before the shooting.

"Look, this is a typical Kassenrik appearance."

The shrewd-looking middle-aged sergeant commented.

"What is his identity?"

"We just roughly checked his luggage and found his ID. Hotel owner Mr. Tels also proved that the other party had been living here since the beginning of the Harvest Moon, claiming to be a merchant from the south, waiting for a batch of goods in Midhillburg."

Xia De nodded, and then pretended to search in the room. With that knife wound oozing blood, he could actually find the real murderer directly with 【Echo of Blood】, but he still had to pretend.

Originally, he was just perfunctory in searching, but the sergeant behind him was dutifully introducing it to Xia De, so Xia De had to pretend to be serious.

The luggage of this Kassenrik merchant is very simple, only personal clothing, several novels, and a set of Rhoder cards. Besides this, it is worth noting the ticket for the local "Star Three Rhoder Card Club," and a train ticket back to Kassenrik from Midhillburg clipped in a book. He had actually bought the ticket for next Tuesday, which was the 1st of next month, in advance, thinking he already knew the time to pick up the goods.

"Does the hotel owner know when he usually goes out and when he comes back?"

Xia De asked again, and the sergeant flipped through his notebook:

"He usually goes downstairs for breakfast at eight o'clock, then goes out. He comes back for lunch at eleven o'clock in the morning, and then takes a nap for a while. He usually doesn't go out in the afternoon, either staying in his room or going downstairs to find people to play cards. After dinner at night, he sometimes goes out, and once he goes out, he won't come back to stay overnight."

"Life is quite simple."

Xia De said, and then reached into the other side of the coat hanging on the chair and touched the other party's wallet. Black leather, looks very ordinary. The police haven't checked this yet, so Xia De opened it in front of the sergeant.

Inside are about 3 pounds of banknotes and coins, several business cards written in Kassenrik, which are the deceased himself, a law firm, and a warehouse. Besides this, there are train tickets when he came to Midhillburg and several casino chips. The tickets were punched, representing that they were used, and those chips all came from a casino, which is very close to here.

"He goes out every night, wouldn't it be to the casino?"

Xia De muttered, and reached into the other pocket of the coat again, taking out a pair of gray gloves. Checking the chest pocket, this time he took out a pocket watch that looked very new, several coins, a handwritten receipt for buying the pocket watch, and a fountain pen.

Opening the watch cover, there is a photo of a woman inside, probably the other party's wife.

"Looks very normal."

Then he picked up the fountain pen casually, brass color, about as long as Xia De's middle finger, but the thickness was no more than one-third of the middle finger. He took a look and there was no problem, but suddenly he was stunned:

"Why is this fountain pen so familiar?"

【Of course it's familiar, you have used a strange spell on it, and you can recognize the traces.】

This was the fountain pen Xia De received from Virgil Cameron on the night of the Great City Player final. This fountain pen was later passed by Xia De to the Gray Glove intelligence system and exchanged for 2000 pounds. Half a month later, he actually saw it here again.

Pretending to check the fountain pen, he confirmed that the fine wire and note inside the pen cap were gone. If Xia De hadn't touched it himself, and even cast 【Breath of Time】, he wouldn't have believed that such a coincidence would happen, even if the appearance of the fountain pen was exactly the same.

"Did Detective Sparrow cast any curse on me? Why do I always run into people from the Gray Glove?"

He thought in astonishment, but put the fountain pen back in place normally.

【There is no such curse on you.】

So this so-called "merchant" who died was the receiver who received the intelligence from the Principality of Sete and came to Punjab Street to pick up the goods. And the date of picking up the goods, Xia De remembered very clearly, was the last day of this month, which was next Monday. So, the deceased would buy the ticket for the first day of next month, which was next Tuesday, in advance; so the deceased could have time to hang out in the casino, unlike a normal merchant.

"But what does this have to do with me?"

Xia De thought in his heart, stuffed all these things back into his clothes, and then said to the sergeant:

"Let's go to the corridor and take a look."

He blinked, trying to forget the fact that he recognized the fountain pen just now, and then followed the faint bloodstains left by the knife wound, watching the traces fly out of the door, and then turned in the corridor, turning into the room on the left next door.

"The murderer is his neighbor."

Xia De said very calmly. Although the sergeant was surprised by the reason why Xia De reached the conclusion, he didn't ask much when he saw his calm and composed appearance.

As long as the murderer is found, there are ways to make the other party say all the details.

"What kind of people live opposite him, and on his left and right sides?"

Xia De asked standing in the corridor.

"Living opposite is a linguistics professor from the south, Professor Ruhl Higgins. He moved in here last week and is visiting Midhillburg for exchange. That professor is also one of the suspects, but he doesn't look like a murderer no matter how you look at it."

It was not folklore that made Xia De a little disappointed, but if it was really folklore, he would be worried about whether this matter had anything to do with a Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi.

"However, is it Kassenrik people again?"

Xia De now looks at all Kassenrik people as if they are MI6 agents.

"Two people live in the room on the right, Armand Bernhard and his nephew Lester Bernhard. They are also Kassenrik people, and they came to Midhillburg to rely on local relatives, which is easy to verify. In addition, they are not on the fourth floor now, they went out in the morning, so they can be ruled out."

"Bernhard?"

These two names are the names of the two vampires encountered in the 【Boundary of Life and Death】, so they are definitely not MI6 agents.

"Fortunately, they went out, so there is no need to meet."

Xia De felt a little relieved, and then asked:

"What about the left?"

"The one on the left is Mr. Ben Bennett, also a merchant from Kassenrik, who has lived in the hotel for half a year."

It's Kassenrik people again, and it happens to be the murderer, so he might be...

"Nothing to do with me."

Xia De suppressed his distracting thoughts, emphasized again in his heart, and then said to the sergeant:

"The murderer is likely him."

Now that Mr. Ben Bennett is being held in another room with other suspects, those people have great opinions and are unwilling to be restricted in personal freedom, but the sergeant just pretended not to hear. Except for Professor Higgins, there is no one worth noting among them.

"Are there so many foreigners here?"

He asked casually.

"In winter, the train passing through Sikar Mountain will also be affected and reduce shifts, so people who have things to do between the two countries this year will choose to finish them in autumn as much as possible."

The sergeant said. They opened the room of the foreign merchant, and then Xia De pretended to check it again, and easily found the blood-stained dagger and two pistols of different models under the loose floor under the bed.

"Does anyone really carry two pistols when going out? So that's it... The receiver doesn't carry weapons to avoid exposure, and is protected by others who came here half a year in advance, so the murderer is also... but why shoot... infighting..."

Detective Sparrow knew that there was an important mission in the Harvest Moon half a year in advance, which shows that the Principality of Sete and the Gray Glove had early communication, so the Gray Glove might have known the pick-up location in Midhillburg in advance. But the specific location was not passed out by the "Gray-Headed Eagle" until the goods were obtained by the Principality of Sete in the Harvest Moon. So, it is not a loophole that the Gray Glove people could live here half a year in advance.

"With such great effort, what exactly are the goods being passed?"

Although this is a question, it has nothing to do with Xia De. Xia De did not investigate, he could not get involved with spies again.

So he didn't come forward again, but the sergeant announced to everyone that the murderer had been found. Mr. Ben Bennett, who still wanted to argue, admitted that he did it after seeing the evidence:

"I played Rhoder cards with him, and this guy owed me 3 pounds in a week. He originally said he would pay it back today, but when I went to find him, he didn't admit it, so I got angry..."

For Xia De, who almost touched the truth, this must be a lie, but he didn't expose it.

Mr. Bennett was then taken away by the police, and the parts of his and the deceased's luggage that could serve as evidence were also taken away by the police. Because neither he nor the deceased had any acquaintances here, the remaining luggage was temporarily kept by Professor Higgins, a Kassenrik who lived opposite, until the police found the contact person.

The deceased, the murderer, and this Professor Higgins are all Kassenrik people, and the three have a good relationship. Xia De understands that there are many stories in this, but he still chose not to intervene.

No matter what the goods to be picked up are, and no matter whether others know the information in the fountain pen after the owner of the fountain pen dies, or whether they can pick up the goods, it has nothing to do with Xia De. His main occupations are enough, detective, Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi, Rhoder card player, he cannot add identities like double agent, making himself even busier.

【Before passing that intelligence, you thought so too.】

"She" whispered softly, and the voice was very nice.

"This time it must be true."

【Is it?】

Then there was only that laughter. ===== CHAPTER 622 =====