Gun of Ashes

Chapter 5: Chapter 1: Second-rate Detective_3

”It’s just speculation.”

”What kind of speculation?”

Hearing Lorenzo’s words, Bola became interested. As always, Lorenzo Holmes never disappointed him.

”I tracked him down through a drug dealer. A sailor from the Lower City District, not earning much but buying hallucinogens from different dealers every day. When I found him, the sailor seemed to have injected a large dose of hallucinogens, his speech was slurred, and with the area being near the Inner City District crowded with patrolmen, I couldn’t get much out of him...

So I speculate he must have encountered something, something that horrified him to the extent that he could only escape through hallucinogens.”

Lorenzo’s voice was soft, as if he were reciting a creepy story.

”Why do you think it was something frightening?” For some reason, Bola was very concerned about the word fear.

”Because I shot him in the chest, dozens of bullets pierced through his heart, lungs, and bones. Even inhaling hallucinogens, he would feel pain and become conscious.

You have to know people are afraid of dying. As long as I enticed him slightly, he would be very respectful with the remaining time of his life, answering whatever I asked.”

”But he didn’t. He kept speaking a foreign language I couldn’t understand... Although his face was mangled by the bullets, I could see he wore a look of relief, almost beautiful.”

”It was as if I hadn’t killed him, but rather saved him from some nightmare.”

Bola paused as he listened to these words. He didn’t care for Lorenzo’s speculation but was concerned about his actions.

”You killed him? You should have brought him to me alive!”

”Huh?”

Lorenzo was taken aback.

”You didn’t say you wanted him alive, and also, could you pay a bit more attention to who you are? You’re Bola, the boss of the entire Lower City District. The nobility of the parliament wishes you dead, and the gangs below want you dead too. Only when you’re dead can they become the next boss.”

He took the glass of wine directly and drank, then continued.

”I’m looking out for you. Anyone familiar with my identity more or less knows about our relationship, and you’ve repeatedly emphasized the confidentiality of this matter. I guess it’s pretty important, right?

They all want to take you down, and with something this important, I won’t leave any evidence for them. You see, it was just a dead sailor, no one would link it to you.”

Lorenzo put down his wine glass and spread his hands.

”A win-win situation.”

”So your idea of a win-win situation is to kill the only lead and then come here to drink?”

Bola’s tone was calm as he took a revolver from under the table, with divine engravings on the shiny metal surface, so exquisite it didn’t even look like a gun.

”I hope you understand one thing; you are my employee, and I am your employer. Actions like these won’t get you paid; rather, you’ll get a bullet.”

Without even lifting his head to look at Lorenzo, he loaded bullet after bullet into the cylinder, leaving one chamber empty, then spun the cylinder, pointing the gun at Lorenzo.

”You’re the best detective I’ve ever met, but what you did this time was really stupid... So, do you want to try your luck? A one in six chance.”

Bola looked at Lorenzo seriously; he wasn’t joking about this.

Lorenzo’s smile froze on his face.

”Alright, alright, you really are a boring person.”

He waved his hand, trying to lower the gun, but Bola immediately raised it back up.

Seeing this, Lorenzo understood he had no choice but to clarify things with the gun aimed at him.

”I’ve been following that sailor for many days now, his name is Wol. He’s a Viking from the Northern Seas. These past few days, he’s been lingering around different drug dealers with no intention of returning to the port, as if abandoned by his captain.”

”When you gave me this case, you only asked me to investigate this person, saying he had a secret.”

As if the gun wasn’t there, Lorenzo became casual again.

”To be honest, the requirements of your case were really ridiculous. You didn’t even know his secret but asked me to investigate...”

”Identity, connections, nothing. He’s a very clean person, until I witnessed him injecting hallucinogens.”

”What happened?”

Bola was particularly attentive to this matter regarding the sailor Wol.

”It’s ridiculous, you know?”

While Lorenzo complained, he made a gesture of injecting into his neck.

”A whole dose of hallucinogen is lethal to ordinary people. He injected it all at once and even several days in succession. I confirmed this with the drug dealers, he’d buy it every day.”

”I thought maybe it was a Viking’s physique issue. After all, their ancestors’ pirates once reached the gates of Old Dunling.”

At this, Lorenzo raised his eyebrows, telling such dark history always made him particularly cheerful.

”I found a Viking in the Lower City District and experimented; after a full dose of hallucinogen, he was already foaming at the mouth.”

”So, there’s something wrong with Wol’s body?”

Bola keyed in on the critical point.

”Yes, there’s a major problem with his body. Not only that, but he was highly aggressive; he killed at least six people during these few days. Otherwise, where do you think a sailor would get money? And indeed, I did kill him, but also, he asked me to.”

Lorenzo recalled the story of that night.

Amidst the rising white steam and the light cast by the Zeppelin Airship, Lorenzo was a dark silhouette, beneath him was twisting tormented flesh, dark red blood oozing from every bullet hole, chest heaving fiercely, and a whimpering sound from his throat. Although he couldn’t understand the sound, it was as if he understood the meaning.

Kill me!

Take me away!

”Then I thrust my staff sword into the wounds along the bullet hole.”

Lorenzo pulled out his cane, the black wood splitting open to reveal the cold gleam underneath.

”I pierced through his cervical vertebrae... His carotid artery ruptured, massive internal bleeding ensued, and he quickly died, but the bizarre thing happened then.”

In Lorenzo’s story, Bola couldn’t help but lean forward, listening carefully to every word, constructing the scene of that night in his mind.

”He should have died... he definitely died, but his heart was still beating, beating wildly. You could say his brain was dead, but the body was still alive, extracting fresh blood from the bullet holes.”

”This was a completely abnormal phenomenon. I pierced his heart with the staff sword as well, and it was only then that this corpse truly died.”

The story ended, and Bola fell into silence as if considering something. Lorenzo wasn’t in a hurry, leisurely sipping his drink, knowing that whatever was before Bola was good stuff, he should drink as much as he could.

”You should have brought his corpse back.”

”No need.”

”No need? You knew there was something wrong with the corpse!”

This time Bola was truly angry, seemingly ready to shoot the next second.

”And bring it back for what? This is a casino, not a morgue. You’ve got a bunch of thugs but not a single coroner... Do you even know how many bones are in the human body?”

With disdain in his gaze, Lorenzo continued.

”Now Wol’s corpse lies in the morgue of Victoria Central Hospital, being dissected by forensic scientists who don’t even know how long they spent grinding at the Royal Medical College to graduate.

They slice it piece by piece, place it neatly on an iron rack, like a sumptuous human body feast, each anomaly carefully recorded in the report, and all of this is waiting for me to collect.”

Taking out his pocket watch, Lorenzo checked the time.

”Two hours until they get off work, do you have anything else to ask?”