The Whispering Verses Chapter 174: Mrs. Flamel’s commission

When I woke up, it was already half past six on Tuesday morning.

After preparing breakfast for himself and Mia, while reading the newspaper, Shade glanced at the advertising section. Only then did Shade realize that he had not given Mia a bath for the cat for more than half a month.

But before Shade could make any move, the orange cat, who seemed to be aware of it, ran to the first floor of the house after eating its own goat milk-soaked cat food. No matter how much Shade shouted, it refused to go upstairs.

After Shade took the initiative to go downstairs, the small cat avoided his hand again. Even when Shade forced it into a corner, the cat stared for the first time and made a growl-like noise at Shade. "Meow~" the voice.

Light pours into this home without decorative walls from the windows on the first floor. Shade, who was squatting in front of Mia, had a look of astonishment on his face, and then a frustrated look on his face, looking at the cat he had raised for half a month with some shock.

"You actually treated me..."

He opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he just stood up slowly and retracted his hand that wanted to pick up the cat.

Standing there, looking down at Mia, her lips trembled, but she still said nothing. First he turned his head, then turned around, and walked towards the stairs with a slightly heavy step.

Mia the cat stood in the corner and looked at Shade's back. The cat's big eyes blinked twice, and then immediately followed him. The cat walked with Shade at his feet, looking up with its big eyes, trying to observe Shade's expression.

"Meow~"

It barked softly.

Xia De stopped and looked at his feet, bent down and picked up the orange cat, and then his expression changed:

"Ha~ let me catch you!"

He showed a happy smile, held the orange cat's waist with both hands, and raised it high. A man who is good at acting, even if he is acting to cats, he still displays excellent acting skills. This is the basic ability for foreigners to survive in a different world.

"Meow~"

The small orange cat struggled twice but failed to get out of Shade's hands, so it stopped unhappy. But fortunately, Shade didn't bathe the domestic pet cat today.

Because he doesn't know how to wash a cat.

People in this world believe that animals like "cats" have the ability to bring good luck. This is a cultural and customary view. Therefore, many thaumaturgy related to "luck" can be related to cats.

Shad's behavior of catching the "cat" this morning seemed to have brought him good luck. This morning, he did not wait at home for the maid Tifa Servit to come to his door. Instead, he waited for a brand new client.

The advertisement published in the newspaper last week finally worked.

The client who came to the door was a thin, middle-aged woman. Judging from her clothes, her financial situation should not be good. When she followed Xia De upstairs nervously, Xia De also guessed that this client was also here to entrust matters such as "husband's cheating".

But the situation was stranger than he thought.

"Detective Hamilton, here's the thing. My distant relative, Mr. Firas Lemaire...I don't know exactly how far away, I just met him decades ago. . Mr. Le Maire passed away and left me a large inheritance..."

The middle-aged woman sat uneasily on the sofa, her **** just rubbing against the side of the sofa, as if she was afraid of damaging the sofa. She did not take the tea prepared by Shade. After sitting down, she nervously pulled on her skirt and told her about her commission.

The middle-aged woman’s surname is also Flamel, but her relationship with the deceased Mr. Firas Flamel can be traced back to her great-grandfather’s generation.

"A few days ago, his lawyer...is that the word? I remember it was. His lawyer came to me and asked me to sign and take away Mr. Le Maire's estate, but I was very I'm afraid this is some kind of trap. You know, sir, it's the kind of trap that tricks people into signing documents and then taking everything away."

This is a relatively common trap in this era, but for outsiders, in this slightly ignorant era, traps such as "Ponzi schemes" are actually the most cost-effective scams.

Of course, Shade wouldn't do that. Even if he wants to make money, he must rely on the knowledge in his head to make money openly. He always thought that he was probably a "positive person"...

"To put it this way, I haven't done anything illegal so far, and I didn't throw the steam bomb."

He thought in his mind, and then comforted the somewhat nervous woman softly. He saw that the woman had never been to such a place:

"So, what do you want to entrust me to do?"

"Investigating that lawyer is the person who wants me to sign. I don't understand this, I don't understand it at all, so I need to find a reliable person to investigate the whole thing. I don't know much about literacy, but I know that in Shengde The detective who opened the office in Lan Square is definitely not a liar."

This is the innocent thought of the lower class citizens, but they never imagined that the guy who works as a detective in Saint Teresa Square may not be a liar, but may be a foreign spy or a visitor from another world.

"The investigating lawyer...has any information about him?"

Xia De thought for a while and asked.

"Yes, I have his address, sir. I just need you to confirm whether he is a so-called lawyer. Oh, God, this word is such a twist."

The middle-aged woman with a low level of education said sheepishly. Shade shook his head and said it was nothing.

If you're just checking to see if the other party is a lawyer, it's pretty simple. The rough way is to go directly to the door to confirm whether it is a ring warlock. If yes, immediately tell the client to ignore the matter. If not, take out a pistol and threaten the client to tell the truth.

He can also use non-rude methods, such as going to the person's door to talk to them, or following them for a day.

"Let me ask a little bit, what is the amount of the inheritance you are talking about?"

Shade asked again, but Mrs. Flamel was not wary:

"About 50 pounds."

"It's really a lot."

This is not an exaggerated metaphor. For the people at the bottom, 50 pounds is a big number enough to change the fate of a family.

"So what did Mr. Firas Le Maire do originally, and do you know how he died?"

Xia De asked again, although this information seems to have nothing to do with investigating the identity of the lawyer, but it is relevant to determine whether this is a scam.

"I know, the lawyer told me."

Mrs. Le Maire recalled, but she did not know some details:

"When I was in my twenties, I heard that he went to sea with the fleet to explore a new northern route to the New World. Later, we gradually lost contact, and I only heard by chance that he had joined a great fleet. ...The lawyer said that he died in a shipwreck, and people later found the suicide note he left with his friends in the harbor. He seemed to have expected that sooner or later, there would be problems with his inheritance. The cash was fifty-three pounds, and in addition there were some personal items, a diary, a collection of books, and some strange little souvenirs... Oh, this was probably the poor man's life savings."

Although she was not familiar with her distant relative Firas Flamel, Mrs. Flamel still wiped her reddish eyes with a handkerchief.

Let Mrs. Flamel calm down first, Shade thought about the details of this commission, and finally decided to proceed with the commission.

After all, investigating whether a stranger is a lawyer is only a day's work.

As for the entrustment fee, since Mrs. Le Maire herself is a middle-aged woman whose husband ran away and raised the children by herself, Shade did not charge too high a price.

When the two finally signed the entrustment agreement, they agreed that if the lawyer was not a lawyer, Mrs. Le Maire, who would not be able to obtain the inheritance, would have to pay Shade 5 shillings for the investigation fee.

If the other party is a lawyer, then Shade will follow Mrs. Flamel to sign and collect the inheritance of a suitcase. After Mrs. Flamel received the inheritance, Shade received a huge reward of up to 5 pounds.

This pricing method satisfied both parties, and when the client was about to leave, Shade specifically asked the other party which newspaper he knew the address from. The advertisement had been placed last week, and Mrs. Flamel must have been attracted by a commission from some newspaper.

"Steam Bird Daily, I am worried that I will be deceived and dare not go to the detectives advertised in those small newspapers to commission... My neighbor, a kind-hearted young man studying art at Tobesk University, helped me I read the advertisement, I don’t know much about reading..."

Mrs. Flamel said embarrassedly. Shade sent the client downstairs, feeling that he owed Miss Louisa even more.

"At most, I will cooperate with her in researching [The Little Match Girl]. Now I have no other ability to repay her."

He thought as he watched his client merge into the bustling crowd of Saint Teresa Square.

Compared to when he first came to this world, Xia De was already above the poverty line. Continuing to accept such relatively low-paying commissions is not because he is addicted to his identity as a detective, but because he has more ideas.

First of all, it will be a long time before we leave the civilized world and go to St. Byrons Comprehensive College in the far north. Before that, he needed to hang out in Delarian, so it was very important to maintain a necessary and decent identity.

Furthermore, detectives can also make a lot of money, but this requires the accumulation of countless small commissions, so it is foolish to look down on low-paying commissions.

Not to mention, the learning method of ring magicians means that academic ring magicians who take correspondence courses need to have identities that can deal with crises in their respective areas of operation.

So, even though I am not as eager to make money as when I first came to this world, it is still necessary to accept commissions.

Not to mention, Shade is actually very interested in this type of small commission. Foreigners intend to see more of this strange world through this method.

The client arrived in the morning, and Shade planned to follow him throughout the day to confirm whether the lawyer was a fake. Tracking the lawyer would start during the day tomorrow, so he spent his slightly quiet Tuesday elsewhere.

About ten o'clock in the morning, Shade took Mia out and went to "Good Peter's Pet Shop" on Purple Iris Lane. This was where Shade first met Miss Bayas and took her away. Mia's place.

The shop owner with a rosy nose was deeply impressed by this young orange cat. Seeing Xia De coming to the door with the cat in his arms, he almost announced that he would not accept any business today.

But fortunately, Shade does not want to foster Mia here again:

"I want to know how to bathe my pet."

He told his purpose, but the shopkeeper blocked the door and had no intention of letting the man or the cat in.

"Just wash it directly, what else can you do, as long as you don't use as much force as washing clothes."

In this bustling era, complex and diverse pet service projects have not yet been developed.

"Then you can give it..."

"When this cat is in the store, my wife and Miss Cindy usually bathe it."

The middle-aged shop owner said, shaking his head quickly, as if he was afraid that he would leave the cat behind.

The cat being held by Shade still remembers this place, but it doesn’t seem to have a very good impression of it. Now it is curled up in Shade’s arms and refuses to move.

"So are those two ladies in the store now?"

Xia De asked again, and the man replied without thinking:

"I haven't been here for the past half month, no, for the past year. They...elope. But in fact, you don't have to bathe pet cats so frequently. Cats are different from people. Sir, you yourself Just wash the cat. It’s very simple. It doesn’t matter if you wash it every three months or even four months. Cats are not delicate. ”

Xia De suspected that the other party just wanted him to leave quickly, but he also knew that Mia had left a "deep" impression on the middle-aged shop owner, so he expressed his regret that the other party's wife had eloped with the female shop assistant. , left here.

When he spoke, the middle-aged shop owner's expression was very exciting, and even made Shade look forward to the scene when he next visits here.

As for washing cats, you still need to think carefully.

After leaving Purple Iris Lane, it was almost lunch time. Shade found a restaurant nearby, spent 1 shilling and 10 pence, and had a pretty good lunch with his cat.

After leaving the restaurant, I saw that it was still hazy today, and the harsh summer sun could not penetrate the fog layer, so I took Mia and walked towards the Prophet's Association.

It was a very dull afternoon. After the heavy rain last night, the water on the ground evaporated so quickly that it was impossible to tell that it had rained more than ten hours ago.

Foreigners wearing long-sleeved coats are not very adaptable to the city's climate. Fortunately, the Prophet's Association on Silver Cross Avenue is still cool.

He is not here for the Rhodes cards, but to find Miss Anat and want to tell her about his recent contact with Miss Bayas.

According to the contact information left by the brown-haired female fortune teller last time, she first explained in the lobby on the first floor that she wanted to come for fortune telling, and then reported Miss Anat's name. But unfortunately, Miss Anat is not in the association now.

The management of the association's ring warlocks is relatively relaxed, and they are not required to work every day like the church ring warlocks. Although Shade knew where Miss Anat lived, it was obviously very unlikely that she would be home during the day.