Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty Two

(one) "Is it still too late? Has she been saved?" I walked up and down restlessly, unable to sit still. Li Jun sat and stared at me, he was patient and kind. "You have to believe that we have done everything we can." Still the same old answer, which doesn't reassure me at all. "Do you know how to treat thallium poisoning?" "It's not a common case, but the doctor has tried everything possible. If you ask me how it turns out, I'm sure she'll get through it." I stare at him, how do I know if what he says is really worth believing?

Maybe he was just comforting me? "Anyway, they've proven it was thallium poisoning?" "Yes, it has been proven." "So what the 'White Horse' hides is very simple: poisoning. It's neither witchcraft, nor hypnotism, and it's not some kind of scientific death light! It's simply poisoning. She even boasted about me, I I think she must be smiling from ear to ear." "Who are you talking about?" "Sesha Gray. The first time I went to tea, she was talking about the Borgias, using 'rare and clean poisons' and poisoning gloves and stuff. 'Just ordinary Arsenic, nothing else.' It's that simple! Hmph! That whole set of deceitful pretense, trances, white cocks, charcoal pots, talismans, voodoo, and inverted crosses - all for the sake of deception Superstitious people. The famous "box" is to deceive people with knowledge and brains. Now many people don't believe in ghosts, spells and witches, but when it comes to "light waves", "electric waves" and "psychological phenomena", But it's easy to be fooled. I bet that box is just some lights and vacuum tubes at best. Because we are all afraid of strontium 90, so when it comes to science, we can't avoid being deceived. The whole background of 'White Horse' is Liar, the 'White Horse' is just a horse that swaggers, no more, no less. Everyone's focused on that, so it never occurs to me that there's a conspiracy going on elsewhere. The most beautiful thing about this Yes, they're all safe. Sesha Gray can safely boast of her amazing powers. There's no way this sort of thing will get her convicted in court. Even checking her box can't find any evidence of harm. ...any court would have ruled that such a thing is absurd and impossible! Of course, it is true in fact."

"Do you think the three of them belong to the same party?" Li Jun asked. "I don't think so. Bella really believes in witchcraft. She believes she has magic powers and enjoys it. Sybil is the same. She is really a psychic. After entering a trance state, she does not know what is happening outside. . She believes what Sesha says." "That means Sesha is the main character?" I said slowly: "As far as the 'White Horse Hotel' is concerned, yes, but she is not the main character of the whole drama. The real main character is hiding in the background, planning everything, organizing everything. It is perfectly planned. , you know, everyone has their own job, no one else's business. Bradley is in charge of legal and money matters, but he doesn't know anything else. But of course he can get paid very well , and Sessa Gray, too."

"You seem to have a very satisfactory explanation." Li Jun said coldly. "Not necessarily, but I know the basic facts. It's been the same for hundreds of years, cruel and simple. It's just simple poison, the dear old medicine of death." "How did you think of thallium?" "Several things came together all of a sudden, starting with what I saw in Charles that night, where a girl had her hair pulled out by another girl, and she said, 'It doesn't hurt.' I thought, that's not bravery. , just a fact. It really doesn’t hurt.” When I was in the United States, I read an article about thallium poisoning. It said that workers in a certain factory died one after another. The woman poisoned seven people to death, and the causes of death were also different, including brain tumor, encephalitis, pneumonia and so on.Symptoms also vary greatly. At first, there may be vomiting, diarrhea, or pain in the limbs. Doctors may take it as a sign of rheumatic fever or paralysis—one patient was even fitted with an iron lung.Sometimes there is also pigmentation on the skin. "

"You're like a medical dictionary!" "Of course! I've looked it up, but while everyone's symptoms are different, they all have one thing in common - hair loss sooner or later, and for a while, thallium was used as a depilatory - especially with ringworm Children. It was later discovered that this element is dangerous, but occasionally it is used carefully as an internal medicine according to the patient's weight. I think most of it is used as rat poison now. This medicine has no peculiar smell, dissolves easily, and is very Easy to buy. Just one thing to watch out for: don’t let people suspect you’re poisoning.”

Li Jun nodded. "Exactly," he said, "that's why the people at the White Horse Hotel insisted that their customers stay away from the victim to avoid any suspicion. The most beautiful thing is that there is no poison in the food or drink, and the deliberate murderer does not have to be killed." Buy thallium or other poisons. The person who actually poisoned had nothing to do with the deceased, and I think that person only appeared once." He paused. "Can you figure it out?" "It seems like every time there is a cheerful, seemingly innocuous woman who surveys the opinions of victims for a household goods research company."

"Do you think it was that woman who poisoned her?" "I don't think it's that simple," I said slowly. "I think those women are actually doing the survey, but they have a hand in it. If we can find a woman who works in a coffee shop on Tudunham Palace Road A woman named Irene Brandon may be able to find some information." (two) Barbie's description of Eileen Brandon was quite correct, her hair was neither assy nor bird's nest, permed back against her cheeks, she had barely any makeup on her face, and she wore Is the most common shoes.She told us that her husband died in a car accident, leaving her with two children.Before this job, she worked for a company called "Customer Response Classification" for more than a year, and then she left of her own accord because she didn't like that kind of work.

"Why don't you like it? Mrs. Brandon." Li Jun asked. She looked at him and said: "You're an inspector, aren't you?" "Yes, Mrs. Brandon." "You think there's something wrong with that company?" "I'm investigating. Did you leave with the same suspicions?" "I have no real evidence to tell you anything." "Of course, we understand that this is an undercover investigation." "I get it, but I really don't know much." "You can tell us why you want to leave that company."

"I feel like they're doing something that I don't know about." "You mean, you don't think that's a real company?" "Basically, they don't look like they are doing business. I suspect they have another ulterior purpose, but I don't know what purpose it is." Li Jun asked some more questions, such as what kind of work did she do, and she said that the company gave her a list of some residents in a certain area, asking her to ask some questions to those people, and then write down the answers. "What do you think is wrong?" "The questions seemed to me to be unstructured, incoherent, almost casual, like—how should I put it?—like an excuse for something else."

"Do you have any idea what that 'something else' might be?" "I don't know, I just don't understand." She was silent for a while, and then said in a skeptical tone: "For a while, I suspected that they might be scouting the terrain before stealing. But then I thought it was impossible, because they never asked me to describe the room, or the occupants. Time may not wait." "What items are included in those questionnaires?" "It's different. Sometimes it's about food, sometimes it's about cosmetics: creams, lipsticks, foundations, etc., and sometimes it's about medicine, what brand of aspirin or sleeping pills do customers use, etc."

Li Jun asked casually: "Didn't the company ask you to provide samples of any products for customers?" "No." "Just ask questions and write down the answers?" "yes." "What's the purpose of those questionnaires?" "What's strange to me is this. The company never told us. Probably to provide information to some production factories-but our approach is really amateurish, and there is no system at all." "Do you think that among the questions you asked, is it possible that a certain problem, or a certain group of problems, is the real purpose of that company, and the others are just a cover-up?" She thought about it, frowned, and finally nodded. "Yes, it's possible," she said, "that's why the questions were chosen so randomly—but I don't see any one, or any ones, that are particularly important." Li Jun looked at her sternly, then said softly: "The truth must be more than what you told us." "Yeah, I just thought something was wrong anyway, so I started talking to a Mrs. Davies—" "You talked to a Mrs. Davies—didn't you?" Li Jun's voice remained unchanged. "She doesn't feel very happy either." "why?" "Because she overheard something." "Hear what?" "I tell you I can't be sure, she didn't make it clear, just from what she's heard, it's a company that's made money off the hook. 'It's not what it seems,' she said : 'Oh, well, it doesn't affect us anyway. We're paid well, and we haven't done anything illegal, so why bother with it!'” "That's all?" "She also said something, but I don't understand what she was referring to. She said: 'Sometimes I feel like a communicator.'" Li Jun took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. "Is there a name on this list that has special meaning to you? Do you remember visiting any of them?" "It's impossible to remember," she said, taking the paper, "because I've seen too many people..." She paused when she saw the list.Then read: "O'Mara." "You remember an O'Mara?" "No, it was Mrs. Davies who mentioned him once. He died suddenly, didn't he? Cerebral hemorrhage. She felt very disturbed and said to me: 'Two weeks ago, he was on my list, see Looks good.' Later, she mentioned about the spread of infectious diseases, she said: 'Some people seem to curl up and die just by looking at me.' She smiled and said that it was just a coincidence .But I don't think she likes that much, anyway, she said she wouldn't worry about it." "That's all?" "This--" "tell me." "After some time, we met by chance one day in a restaurant in Soha, and I told her that I left C.R.C. to find another job. She asked me why, and I said I didn't know that company She was very uneasy about what to do. She said: "Maybe you are doing the right thing. But this kind of work pays well and the working hours are short. And people have to take some risks in their lives! I have no luck in my life, so why bother?" Care what happens to other people?' I said, 'I don't understand what you're talking about? What's wrong with that company?' She said, 'I'm not sure, but I might as well tell you that I saw a Someone I know comes out of a house where he should be fine, but with a bag of tools. I wonder what he's doing there?' She also asked me if I ever met a guy running a White Horse Hotel Woman, I asked her what the White Horse Hotel has to do with these things." "What did she say?" "She laughed and said: 'Go and read the Bible.'" Mrs. Brandon added, "I don't know what she's referring to. That was the last time I saw her, and I don't know where she is now, or if she's still in C.R.C." "Mrs. Davis is dead." Li Jun said. Eileen Brandon looked surprised. "Dead? How come?" "Pneumonia, died two months ago." "Oh, I see, what a pity." "Is there anything else you can tell us, Mrs. Brandon." "I'm afraid not anymore. I've also heard people mention the 'White Horse Hotel', but if they continue to ask, they immediately shut up and look very scared." She looked uneasy. "I—I don't want to be in any danger, Inspector Li Jun. I have two young children. . . . To be honest, I don't know anything else than what I just told you." He looked at her sternly, then nodded, promising her that she could go. After Eileen Brandon left, Li Jun said: "In this way, we have made a little progress. Mrs. Davis knows too many things that she shouldn't know. She wants to turn a blind eye and close one eye. Pretending not to know what they were doing, she was suspicious of everything in her heart. Then she suddenly fell ill, and before she died, she invited a priest to come and tell him what she suspected. The problem was, she How much did she know? I think the list was of people she visited at work who died shortly after, so she felt like a contagious spreader. The real problem was that she saw people from a house Who was the 'acquaintance' who came out? That must have put her life in danger. If she knew him, he likely knew her—and knew she recognized him. If she Tell Father Gorman that the priest must be removed as soon as possible before he tells anyone else." He looks at me. "You agree, don't you? This must be the case." "Well, yes," I said, "I agree." "Perhaps you know who that man is?" "I suspect a man, but—" "I know, we have no evidence at all." He was silent for a while, then stood up. "But we're going to get him," he said. "We're going to. If we can be sure who the man is, there's always a way of getting him. We'll try one by one!"