Chapter 13 Section 13

Someone asked to search the drains of the anatomy lab, and I told them that it was filled with scraps and rubbish that I had thrown away, and that it was only for me.I said I had the key to the trap cover.The police searched up and down the building and finally arrived at my apartment. I also took them to the basement and we walked from the front to the back and back.They searched my place and left. At 4 o'clock that afternoon, Professor West returned to the laboratory after lunch.As soon as he opened the door, his doorbell rang.I said to my wife, "His door must be open, and I can go in." I still went downstairs and saw him standing by the table reading a newspaper.He asked me if I knew Mr Foster next to Howe Market.I asked if it was the food vendor.He said exactly.Asked if I bought a turkey for Thanksgiving.Not yet, I said.He handed me an order and said, "Take this and pick out a good turkey. It's my habit to give away a few turkeys every year. Maybe I'll ask you to do something for me." I thank him.He sent me another order to pick up sweet potatoes from Mr. Foster.I went to Foster's with two bills and picked out a very large turkey, weighing eight or nine pounds.That was the first time Professor West gave me something.

………… On Wednesday morning, Professor West came early.I saw him come in.I sneaked up to the door to hear what he was doing.I peeped in through the keyhole first, but I couldn't see anything inside because the door buckle covered it.I took out my knife and tried to cut a hole in the door, but found it too loud.So I got on my stomach, pressed my face to the floor, and looked through the crack at the bottom of the door, but the most I could see was his knees.I just watched it for about 5 minutes, then got up and walked away. At 9 o'clock, my wife and I went into town and didn't come back until the afternoon.

On my return, around 3:00 pm, I noticed that the walls outside Professor West's laboratory were very hot.I was standing right next to the wall and I could feel the heat on my face.I put my hand on it, but after a while I had to move it.I know it's because there's a stove going on in it.Likewise, Professor West's door was locked again. I couldn't see anything, so I ran out the back door of the building and climbed over the wall to a double window that was lit.The window was not bolted.I lifted the window and got in, ran to the furnace, lifted the soapstone covering it, and saw that there was still a little flame inside.I went to the stairs behind the laboratory again, and found some splashes on the treads that I had never seen before. It didn't look like water, so I tasted it.Later, I went to the secret room on the second floor, where there were also some of the same stains, which were still wet.I think they are blood.

On Thanksgiving, I went to the Hopon Wharf to bring Professor West a chunk of lime that he had ordered on Tuesday, "as big as my head."There is nothing doubtful about this in itself, I have to carry lime for him every winter. In the afternoon, I started drilling holes in the brick wall for the pipes under Professor West's bathroom.I started around 3 o'clock.I want to see with my own eyes what's inside there, so that I will give up and seal everyone's mouths.Every time I go out from medical school, I always hear people say, "Dr. Peckman is in the medical school. If he can be found anywhere, it's the medical school." I hear such comments as soon as I go out.All the places in the building have been searched. If there is nothing suspicious in the sewage pipes, I can explain to the neighbors in the neighborhood.

I took a kerosene lamp and worked for 1 to 1.5 hours. I felt that the tool was not in my hand, and I thought it was not a way to chisel it down, so I came out.We went to a Thanksgiving dance that night and didn't come back until 4:00 the next morning.A total of 20 dances, I danced 18. It was almost 9 o'clock when I woke up on Friday.My wife has been calling me since before 8 o'clock, and she wants me to finish it early.During breakfast, Professor West came in. He went to the kitchen to get the newspaper of the day, and asked me: "What's the news? Have you heard anything about Dr. Peckman?" I said: "The news is flying all over the sky. I don't even know who to trust." Then, Professor West went upstairs.

Towards noon, I was working in the anatomy lab talking to Dr. Henry Baikiru, who told me to finish what I was doing and continue digging the walls.I went to the anatomy demonstration room and saw Dr. J. B. S. Jockson working there too, and I told him about the digging.He said: "Mr. Littlefield, I feel that this matter is very terrible. Can you finish it tonight?" Then he said: "If anything is found, it is best not to alarm Professor Holmes. Sammon Street told Old Dr. Baikiru." That was Professor Jacob Baikiru, father of Dr. Henry Baikiru. In the afternoon, I first borrowed a drill, or short bit, from Mr. Leonard Fuller.He wanted to know what I was up to, and I turned it off with a joke; but I reckon he'll figure it out.I put my wife on guard at the pumping door, from which I could also see through the front window several hundred feet beyond the gate.I told her not to open the door until she saw who it was.I said to her, if it was Professor West, knock four times on the kitchen floor; if it was someone else, don't tell me.

I was busy when Mr. Kensley and Constable Stilwell came.I emerged from the basement and stood on the front steps to talk to them.Mr. Kensley asked me which private site I haven't found yet, and I said.Mr. Kensley said, "Let's go to his laboratory again." I said I couldn't get in, and it was locked.As soon as they left, they saw Officer Cui Nuomeng approaching from a distance.I knew him very well, and I went up to him and told him about the wall-cutting, and said that if he came back in twenty minutes or half an hour, I might be able to tell him the result.We met my wife as we walked back to the gate, and she said, "Lucky for you, Professor West just went in."

Officer Trinomon and I stood at the door and continued our conversation.Not long after, Professor West also came out to join our conversation. He said that when an Irishman crossed the Joels River Bridge, he used a $20 bill to pay one cent for the toll, and was detained by the checkpoint. .They did not believe that the Irishman would have so much money, and suspected that he had something to do with Dr. Pikeman's disappearance, because according to Professor West's statement to the police, he handed him a large sum of money on the day of his disappearance.Professor West also said that Director Francis Tucker was investigating the matter himself, and left after speaking.