SGB Chapter 57

## Chapter 57: The Great Detective Hastings

**Greenwich Police Station, Superintendent’s Office.**

Arthur shed his civilian clothes and donned his familiar police uniform.

Agareus, leaning back in his chair, asked with a mocking tone, “How are you going to save that little girl named Robin? To be frank, she might have contracted a lung disease from working too long in the textile factory. Such diseases are not easily cured.”

Arthur fastened his uniform buttons as he replied, “Agareus, stop making light of the situation. If you have any suggestions, just say it.”

“Oh! Arthur, it’s not that I’m not helping you. Medicine is not my area of expertise, mathematics, astronomy, and linguistics are my forte.

As for medical matters, you’d be better off asking Bal than me. At least Bal knows how to create plagues, that Fly King is an expert in that.”

Arthur pulled out the Royal Society pass given to him by the Duke of Sussex from his drawer.

“Agareus, even though I knew you’d give me this answer, I still can’t help but say:

You spend your days selling crutches to normal people, hiring cripples to push carts, making you form a band, you find me a group of mutes to sing.

You can’t get souls, don’t blame me, it’s because you’ve done too many nonsensical things.”

The Red Devil, angered by these words, slammed his hand on the table and roared.

“Arthur! Don’t blame me for speaking harshly, anyone who makes a deal with the devil has strict rules!

All contracts are carried out under the constraints of Hell’s Law, everything is fair, just, and open.

You didn’t get what you wanted, you can only blame yourself for not making your request clear, you can’t blame me!”

“Hell’s Law?” Arthur caught the new term. “What is Hell’s Law?”

Agareus snorted, “You wouldn’t understand even if I told you. Since you’re a Scotland Yard policeman, just understand Hell’s Law as the law of the world.

In short, when it comes to the terms of a deal, I can’t deceive you, no devil dares to mislead you in this regard.

Anyone who dares to cheat on Hell’s Law will have their power revoked by the power of the law.”

Arthur raised an eyebrow, “So, the devils of Hell are all law-abiding citizens? Shouldn’t that place be Heaven, not Hell?”

“Oh! My dear Arthur.”

The Red Devil rubbed his hands and chuckled, “If you’ve been to Hell, you’ll know. If a creature just abides by the most basic laws, that’s not a good thing.

Because it means he will do everything beyond the law, are you sure that’s a good thing?

For example, Bal, collecting dung doesn’t violate Hell’s Law, eating dung certainly doesn’t violate it either, but can you stand your neighbor doing that every day?

If you can, I can sell you my villa in Hell right now, let’s sign the contract now, ten souls, a fair price and cheap.

You may not know that because he built a dung field restaurant next door to my house, there are thousands of flies having a party there every night.

I’ve been hanging that house in Hell for thousands of years, but no one wants it. You know, my house used to be a high-end villa district!”

Arthur scoffed, “I thought you and Bal just had some personal grievances, but I didn’t expect there to be a financial dispute. Agareus, it seems I don’t know you well enough.”

Agareus waved his hand generously, “It’s okay. As you said to Adam before, let the past be the past. As time goes by, I believe we can definitely form a good partnership. Arthur, be less suspicious of me, I don’t always want to cheat you.”

Arthur tucked the Royal Society pass into his pocket, “That sentence is enough to make me uneasy. Alright, let’s talk about it today, I have to go to the Royal Society to find Faraday.”

“What are you looking for him for? Isn’t he a chemistry and physics expert? He doesn’t know medicine.”

“But he should know someone who does. I heard that the medical community is very interested in the progress of chemistry, and many of them have deep connections with chemists.

Mr. Faraday should know some good doctors, even if he doesn’t, I can ask other scientists to help me find out.”

Arthur picked up his bowler hat and walked out of the room, but before he reached the police station, he heard someone calling him.

“Officer, wait a moment, someone just reported that two people died on Central Street!”

“Dead?”

Arthur turned around and saw a breathless young police officer.

He hurriedly asked, “What happened?”

The young officer saluted and said hurriedly, “The Wells Hotel on Central Street reported that two travelers died in their rooms. The hotel owner said the cause of death might be a gas leak.

We just received the call and sent officers to seal off the scene according to your instructions from the last work meeting. Do you want to go there yourself?”

Arthur, upon hearing this, immediately put on his hat and said, “Take me there right away!”

…

Ten minutes later, Arthur arrived at the Wells Hotel at 24 Central Street, Greenwich, with Tom and Tony.

The front of the hotel was crowded with people, countless Londoners were looking inside on tiptoe, hoping to find out what was going on.

The policemen had already set up a cordon line with ropes according to Arthur’s instructions, prohibiting irrelevant people from approaching.

The policemen patrolling nearby were also urgently dispatched to maintain public order.

“Gentlemen and ladies, please make way!”

Tom and Tony shouted at the top of their lungs, pushing through the crowd, hoping to clear a path for Arthur to enter the hotel.

The surrounding policemen saw Arthur arrive and quickly saluted, “Superintendent Hastings!”

The citizens who had been bustling around turned their heads to look at Arthur when they heard this voice.

“Is that Arthur Hastings? The young officer who saved the boy in court!”

“It must be him! The newspaper wrote it, Arthur Hastings was promoted to Superintendent of Greenwich, it’s him!”

“My God! He’s so young, and he’s tall and handsome, you can tell he’s very capable.”

They spontaneously made way for Arthur, perhaps because they retreated too quickly, they even dragged Tom and Tony into the crowd.

The two of them howled in terror, “Damn it, let us out!”

Arthur couldn’t care less about the two of them at this point, he walked straight towards the hotel’s front desk.

It was a very narrow passage, as soon as you entered the front desk, you could see the price list hanging on the wall.

It read in crooked handwriting – Special Offer Every Evening, 9 PM to 5 AM the next day, Overnight Daily Rent Only Two Pence.

The front desk clerk was a young man in his twenties, he just gave Arthur a forced smile, perhaps he was frightened by the sudden influx of police officers.

“Officer, please come in. The deceased are in the room on the second floor, the other guests in the hotel have been gathered there according to the police’s instructions.”

Arthur didn’t deal with this issue first, but kept looking at the price list on the wall, he asked inexplicably, “Your room rent is so cheap? I just came back from St. Giles in the West End, even the hotels there charge three pence a day.”

The clerk replied, “It’s not always so cheap, didn’t you see? Only the overnight daily rent in the evening is two pence.

At that time, most of the guests who should have checked in have checked in. The boss said that the remaining rooms were empty anyway, it’s better to rent them out at a low price, at least it can make some money back.”

Arthur asked, “Since those who should have checked in have checked in, who rented these overnight daily rooms?”

The clerk shrugged, “There will always be people who live here. After all, it’s not easy to find such cheap rooms. Like those beggars who have won some money by luck, prostitutes who are looking for a place to pick up customers, or those rural farmers who have just arrived in London to make a living but are unfamiliar with the place and have no money in their pockets.”

Arthur heard this and narrowed his eyes slightly, he remembered the missing person list from the St. Giles parish he had seen earlier.

He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go in, but instead asked, “I remember that many hotel owners don’t welcome these people, do they? They think that letting these people in will affect the hotel’s reputation, causing normal guests to be unwilling to choose to live in their hotels. How is your boss’s way of doing business different from theirs?”

The clerk saw that the superintendent was quite friendly and approachable, and his nervous emotions relaxed.

He said, “Who knows? I’ve advised him many times, after all, I’m responsible for cleaning those daily rooms after they’ve been lived in, and I’m tired of doing that.

You may not know, the quality of those poor tenants is really low, they make the bed sheets and blankets dirty, and there are often some wine bottles and other things scattered on the floor.

I’ve reported it to the boss many times, I told him that if he keeps doing this, something will happen sooner or later, even if nothing happens, it’s not good for other guests to see it.

But he just wouldn’t listen to me, he said he had his own ideas, I’m just a worker, don’t interfere so much.

He thinks that the overnight room time is from 9 PM to 5 AM the next day, during which time other guests are sleeping.

As long as those beggars and prostitutes come after the guests have gone to bed and leave before the guests get up, there will be no problem.

But look, what happened?

There were no problems for the first two months, our boss, Mr. Wells, was also diligent, and he insisted on kicking them out before 5 AM every day.

But today? Today I opened the door and found two overnight prostitutes dead in the room.

Mr. Wells is too arrogant, he’s only been a hotel owner for a few months, but I’ve been a waiter for five years.

In my opinion, he can’t do business like that.”

Arthur heard this and took out a penny from his pocket and placed it on the front desk. “Thank you for providing the information, good citizen.”

The clerk was stunned by Arthur’s sudden move, he picked up the coin on the table, looked at Arthur’s back going upstairs, and pondered for a long time before saying.

“Officer, don’t worry, I can talk for another two pence!”

(End of Chapter)