Chapter 22 Chapter 20: The Tragedy of Z
The former strange female Amazon warrior who was smoking a cigar with a calm face and commanding John Hume disappeared, and a completely different person appeared in front of her eyes.The original crimson hair was stained with pink and gray; the masculine clothes were dirty and wrinkled and torn in several places; the powdered cheeks and lips were baggy, and her eyes - twinkling With naked fear.
She was a terrified old woman.
Together we jumped forward and half-dragged her into the room.Father Muir circled us, dancing with ecstasy, and a chair was brought to her, and she sat down with a hollow, strange moan.Mr. Wren put away his sad expression and put on his calm and orderly mask again, but this time he couldn't hide his eagerness. His fingers trembled slightly and his temples throbbed faintly.
"I - left for a while," she said hoarsely, licking her chapped lips, "later, I heard that you were looking for me."
"Ah, you heard!" cried the father, his face turning purple. "Where have you been?"
"Hiding away in a cabin in the Erdrondacks," she answered wearily, "I thought—wanted to escape, understand? This—all this dirty, vulgar mess of the Ritz . . . I'm overwhelmed. Get there...damn, I'm far from civilization. No phone, no mail, nothing, not even a newspaper. But I have a radio...”
"That's Dr. Fawcett's cabin!" I exclaimed instinctively. "He must have been there the weekend his brother was murdered."
Her heavy eyelids lifted and drooped, and her cheeks sank further, making her look like a sad old seal. "Yes, dear, there it is. There—I mean, that cabin belongs to Ella. It's his love nest, so to speak." She giggled dryly. "He's always taking his girlfriends. Joe He was there with a whore the week I died—"
"That doesn't matter now," said Mr. Wren calmly. "Ma'am, what brought you back to the Ritz?"
She shrugged. "It's funny, isn't it? I never knew I had this thing, and the next thing I know I cried," she sat up straight and said to him defiantly, "My conscience, let me go back to This is what the Ritz has!"
"Really, Miss Cather, I'm glad to hear you say that." He drew up a chair and sat in front of her while we watched in silence. Before the trial didn't he—he sent you the last piece of the box, the third piece with the letter Z on it?"
Her mouth popped open like a big hole in a "doughnut" and her red eyes stared menacingly as she gasped, "What the hell! How do you know?"
The old gentleman waved his hand impatiently: "It's very simple. You go to the governor and ask for the pardon of Alan Dow, whom you don't even know. Why is it Fanny Kaiser who does it? The only one It may be that Deo has your handle, and I guess the same handle as Senator Fawcett and Dr. Fawcett, so it is obvious that he sent you the last piece of the box, with Z on it..."
"You guessed it," she murmured.
He patted her fleshy knee: "Tell me."
She was silent.
He whispered, "Miss Cather, you have to understand that I already know part of that boat..."
She jumped up in surprise, dug her thick fingers deep into the arm of the chair, and sank back again. "Okay!" she said, with a short, ugly, slightly sentimental smile flitting across her face. "Anyway, sir, who the hell are you? Since you already know the fuck, it seems that you It's not a secret...Didn't Deo tell me?"
"No."
"Keeping the secret to the last breath. That poor bastard," she murmured vaguely, "well, sir, if you sin, you'll get your reward someday, and the hymn is finally fulfilled. Sorry. , Father... Yes, Deo has something against me, and I tried to save him so that I could shut him up. When I couldn't save him, I ran away, just to get away..."
A strange gleam lit up in the old gentleman's eyes, "Afraid of the consequences of what he said, eh?" he said softly, sounding as though he were harmless.
Her fat arms waved: "No, not that, not that worried. But first, I'd better tell you what that goddamn kid's toy means, and how Doo has been holding me in his hands for years, What's up with Joel and Ella Bissett."
It was an amazing, incredible story.Years ago—twenty, twenty-five years, she couldn't tell how long—Joel and Ella Fawcett were two little American punks traveling the world trying to get money wherever they could, Especially scams, because they seem like a lot of effort.They were under other names, and it didn't matter what they were.Fanny Cather, the daughter of an American wharf and thief exiled from England, ran a diner in dark Saigon—the capital of Cochin China in an era of openness and chaos.The Fawcett brothers came here, as she said before, looking for opportunities to "get money", so she got to know them, and she "liked their tune, they were two clever little liars, very brave, Not too many Christian stinkin' rules."
Most of the main customers in that small restaurant were crew members. Every day, she was caught in the crowd of scum and good-hearted sailors, and she heard many secrets on the ship.Men are not allowed to drink alcohol when they go to sea for a few weeks. Once they go ashore, they can drink freely, and they will often leak things that should not be said between the criss-crossing.She learned a very valuable secret from the second officer of a cargo ship that was docked. The second officer was drunk and lewd, so she tricked him into telling him the news.His ship was loaded with a small but extremely expensive cargo, a batch of rough diamonds to be shipped to Hong Kong.
"It was an easy thing to do," she said hoarsely, jumping into memory.I looked at her and couldn't help trembling: This haggard and fat old woman was once a beautiful girl!She said: "I told the Fawcett brothers the secret, and made a deal. Of course, they don't want me, Fanny Cather. I don't trust them, and I would rather leave the store. So I went with them, and the three pretended to be Passengers get on board."
Everything is surprisingly simple, the crew are Chinese and East Indian sailors, poor.Stupid to the point of frightening them with just a few words.The Fawcett brothers raided the weapons room, killed the sleeping captain, killed the rest of the officers, shot half the sailors, robbed the cargo, scuttled the ship, and joined Fanny Cather Escape in the lifeboat.The Fawcett brothers were so sure that none of the crew survived that they landed at night on a barren coast, divided the spoils, and parted, only to meet again thousands of miles away a few months later.
"Then who is Alan Deo?" Mr. Wren asked quickly.
She flinched: "He's the second mate, the one who got drunk and told me the secret at first. God knows how he got that dog back, anyway, he survived, he didn't fucking drown, I guess he swam later Go ashore and look at his wounds! And he must have held a grudge all these years, wanting to avenge Brother Fawcett and me."
"Why the hell doesn't he call the police at a nearby port?" Father muttered.
She shrugged, "Maybe he wanted to blackmail us from the very beginning. Anyway, we heard that the ship was later registered as 'missing'. Although the marine insurance company had investigated, it was fruitless. We put the diamond in Amsterdam. Sold to a big collector, and then the Fawcett brothers and I came to America, and we've been together." Her husky voice turned grim, "I mean, we're one, we can't let them get away from me We were in New York City for a while, and then we came up to upstate New York. The brothers are very slick, especially Ella, who has always been the boss of the two brothers-he wants Joel to study law, he goes to After studying medicine, we all became rich..."
We were all silent, the bloody stories of piracy, Vietnam, shipwreck, diamond robbery, and crew murder seemed too unbelievable, but in her mouth, all these were facts... Then, I was caught by Mr. Wren A calm voice brought back reality.
"Nearly complete," he said, "except for one thing. I know it from some unimportant details—I've had two conversations with Deo, and only sailors have that kind of diction and talk." way - the ocean becomes a big point in the background. And then there's the little box - I'm pretty sure, a suitcase for ocean shipping. Then there's the 'Hijaz', which sounds like it might be the name of a racehorse, or Some new game, or an oriental rug—see how wildly I speculate—and finally, very simply, the name of the ship. But I’ve checked old records and can’t find a ship with that name.”
"No wonder," said Fanny Cather wearily, "that the ship's name is the Star of the Hijaz."
"Ha!" exclaimed Mr. Wren, "I may never find it, the Star of the Hijaz, eh? And those diamonds, of course, were in the captain's trunk, which Deo once re-made one you stole." I give you the box to go, knowing that this symbolic gesture will frighten you at once!"
She nodded and sighed.Now I think back to the actions of the old gentleman in the past few weeks. It turned out that they were deducing the theory of "ship-ocean-wooden box"... At this time, the old gentleman stood up and slowly approached Fanny Kaiser .She slumped wearily in her chair, as if worried about what was about to happen.We stood silently for a moment, what was going to happen?I don't see the slightest hint of it being possible.
His nostrils fluttered slightly, "Miss Cather, you just said that you escaped from Leeds last week not because of your own safety, but because of your conscience. What does that mean?"
The tired old Amazon made a desperate gesture with her big fingers painted crimson, "They're going to send Deo to the electric chair, aren't they?"
She whispered hoarsely.
"He has been sentenced to death."
"Then," she cried, "they've wronged an innocent man! Alan Deo didn't kill Brother Fawcett!"
We seemed to be pulled by an invisible thread, and we couldn't help leaning forward together.
The old gentleman bent over to get closer to her, with bulging veins on his neck, "How do you know?" He shouted like a bell.
She sank suddenly into the chair, her face buried in her hands. "Because," she began to sob, "Ella Fawcett told me when she died—from her own mouth."
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