The Shadow of Great Britain

565: Chapter 290: Social Dance Party 565: Chapter 290: Social Dance Party Liverpool, old wharfs, the streets in front of the Golden Lion Hotel.

Ever since leaving the pub, Arthur had continuously surveyed the roads in the nearby blocks.

As an experienced Scotland Yard detective, he quickly identified several locations that could be used for long-term surveillance of the hotel rooms, which would likely serve as hideouts for the assassins mentioned by the Red Devil.

Although Arthur usually didn’t believe the jokes that came out of Agares’s mouth, unfortunately, the information this time was bought with souls.

Signed in black and white on the contract and sealed with the Red Devil’s privately minted Hexagram stamp, Arthur had no choice but to believe it.

No matter what Arthur thought, he didn’t believe that Agares would risk falsifying a soul contract for such a trivial deal.

After all, the force of the law is not like the London Stock Exchange, where one can turn a blind eye; if Agares dared to tamper with a soul contract, he was a hundred percent guaranteed to incur the iron fist of the law and have his indefinite Devil’s business license revoked.

According to what Arthur knew, the Devil’s industry doesn’t allow working without a license, a rule even Baal, the head of the demons, had to follow.

It simply wasn’t Agares’s turn, a second-in-command running cold, to breach it.

Thinking about this, Arthur couldn’t help but light a cigarette, muttering to himself quietly, “In my view, building Britain into a version of Hell seems better than now.

At least they play by the rules, and the qualifications of frontline employees are generally strong.

After all, apart from Hell, I’ve never seen a deputy running around in the front line pulling in clients.”

However, while Arthur believed that the Red Devil wasn’t exaggerating about the assassin issue, it didn’t stop him from being utterly baffled as to who would bother to travel from London to Liverpool to kill a special commissioner of the Cabinet.

As a Scotland Yard officer, and especially as one temporarily promoted to this position to save the day, Arthur didn’t even have time to express his unpopular opinions before attracting such hatred.

It all seemed incredibly unreasonable no matter how he thought about it.

Based on Arthur’s experience in investigating criminal cases, cases involving physical harm came down to a few reasons.

Either it was due to personal grievances or economic interests, coupled with a small portion of issues on a spiritual or belief level; these three aspects were sufficient to explain the causes of all the murder cases Arthur handled.

In terms of personal grievances, as a Scotland Yard Chief Inspector, it was definitely impossible for Arthur not to offend anyone.

At the very least, those he had personally sent to prison surely all wanted his life.

But among them, finding someone with both the courage and means to hire an assassin to target Arthur was extremely difficult.

Regarding economic interests, Arthur did some quick calculations.

Previously, the stocks of Thames River Tunnel Company and Brunel Road and Bridge Construction Company, recommended by Lionel Rothschild, had climbed out of their low values over the past year.

After the Treasury issued £200,000 Municipal Engineering Investment Bonds, the Thames Tunnel project quickly obtained government financial support.

The stale tunnel project was largely restarted at the beginning of the year, and this world’s first tunnel built using shield tunneling technology was nearing completion.

Due to this positive news, the current stock price of the tunnel company had doubled.

And another company Arthur held shares in—Brunel Road and Bridge Construction Company, as Lionel had said, their design for the Avon Gorge Bridge won the bid, and the stock price surged as well.

Currently, the net value of these two stocks had climbed to £1,700.

Which meant that Arthur, blindly entering the stock market, had gained a seventy percent profit in his first year of venturing.

Without making a sound, he had defeated ninety-nine percent of stockbrokers in the London Stock Exchange, demonstrating to London’s investors what a real heavy hand looked like.

Before Arthur was dispatched to Liverpool, these two companies had just announced this year’s dividend distribution plan.

Although these two newly relieved companies weren’t as generous as insurance companies and banks, Arthur still received a return exceeding his annual legitimate salary—£130.

If one added the gifts and monetary gifts Arthur received, the British’s investment, his part-time earnings from music concerts, and the sporadic bonuses at high-level Scotland Yard police meetings from unknown sources, a conservative estimate put his current assets above £3,000.

If Arthur’s heart darkened a bit more and he skimmed from the Police Intelligence Department’s operational funds, he could push this figure even higher.

If someone disliked Arthur due to his assets, then the only candidate he could think of was Mr.

Benjamin Disraeli, the major investor of the “British,” especially since Arthur had loaned a substantial £500 to assist his election campaign.

But back to reality, that was just a joke.

Arthur didn’t believe his Jewish friend would have murderous intentions over unpaid debts, especially since Disraeli had too many debtors, and £500 wasn’t even considered a significant amount among the loans.

Though Mr.

Disraeli had made a good amount of money this year, due to debts from his early days in the newspaper business, even excluding the money from Arthur and Great Dumas, he still had a staggering debt of £4,000 unpaid.