Chapter 10 sixth scene

With Jerry Lane and Bruno gone, Inspector Sam lost most of his interest in losing his temper, in fact he almost felt lonely.The frustration and the worried faces of Ryan and Bruno in his mind did nothing to boost morale-although such high morale was rare even in Sam's happiest moments.He kept sighing, sat lazily in a big rocking chair, smoked a cigar he found in the library humidor, listened to some reports passed down by his subordinates from time to time, and watched the Heite family wandering in the house like ghosts. Swing around.All in all, like a very busy person who suddenly finds himself with nothing to do.

The room was unnaturally quiet, broken by occasional screams from Jackie and Billy playing in the second-floor nursery.Meanwhile John Gurley, who had been pacing impatiently in the back garden walk, came in to look for the inspector.The tall blond young man was on fire, and he was going to talk to Conrad Hayter, but my God, that damned cop upstairs wouldn't let him into Hayter's room, what the hell was Inspector Sam planning?Sam dropped one eyelid preoccupiedly, staring at the end of his cigar, and said viciously, Fuck you, he doesn't intend to do anything, Hatter must stay in his room, and he's not allowed to leave; Go away, please.

Gurley blushed and was about to reply, when Jill Hatter and Lawyer Bigelow walked into the library.Gurley swallowed the words back. Jill and Bigelow were whispering, and the two were obviously in the happiest moment of intimacy. Mr. Gurley, eyes burning, rushed out of the library without waiting for the inspector's permission He rushed out of the house again, and when he passed by Bigelow, he slapped Bigelow on the shoulder with his big hand—this did not seem to be a friendly parting greeting, and it scared Bigelow, who was halfway through his sweet talk, to stop He closed his mouth and shouted very seriously: "Ah yo!"

Jill exclaimed, "Why, this—this terrible beast!" Five minutes later, Bigelow's enthusiasm faded, and he bid farewell to Jill, who seemed to be suddenly agitated.The lawyer repeatedly told the inspector that he intended to announce Mrs Hatter's will to the bereaved after Tuesday's funeral, and then hurried out of the house. Jill snorted unhappily, straightened her dress, and then she noticed the inspector's gaze, made a smile that was overwhelmed, turned around and slipped out of the library and went upstairs. The day passed silently.Mrs. Abuko had nothing to do, and got into a quarrel with a criminal policeman on guard.After a while, Jackie ran in yelling and yelling. When he saw the inspector, he stopped immediately, as if he was a little embarrassed, and then ran out yelling again.At one point, the pretty figure of Barbara Height passed by the door, accompanied by the tall and serious tutor Edgar Peary, and the two were talking passionately.

Sam sighed one after another.The phone rang, and he picked up the receiver. It was Prosecutor Bruno...Any news?No.He hung up the phone, chewed what was left of his cigar, and after a while pushed his hat back on his head, stood up, and walked out of the library to the vestibule door. "Are you leaving, boss?" a criminal policeman asked.Sam thought about it, shook his head, and went back to the library to wait--he had no idea what to wait for. He went to the liquor cabinet and took out a flat brown bottle.When he uncorked the cork and drank it to his mouth, the momentary feeling of joy covered up the original gloom. He took a long gulp contentedly, and finally put the bottle on the table next to him, closed the wine cabinet, and sat down with a sigh .

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the phone rang again.This time it was Schelling's medical examiner, and the inspector's dim eyes lit up: "How, how, doctor?" "It's done," said Dr. Schelling, in a weary voice. "The original cause of death remains in effect. Thank God! A blow to the forehead from the mandolin was not enough to kill her, it was evidently likely to frighten her." Broken. The shock stunned the heart, and then died! Inspector, or the extreme fright just before being hit, caused heart failure. Good-bye, bastard." Sam hung up the phone, sullen.

At seven o'clock, we all had a dull dinner in the restaurant next door.The inspector, still depressed, sat at the same table with the Hatter family.Conrad was silent and flushed—he had been drinking yellow soup all afternoon, and now he was staring at his plate, chewing absently, and rose before finishing his meal to go back to his temporary cell, dutifully followed by a policeman And up.Martha was depressed, and the inspector could see that her tired eyes were full of distress, that she looked at her husband with horror, but turned to the two children with love and determination.The two children were noisy as usual and were scolded every two minutes.Barbara has been chatting with Edgar Peary in a low voice. Peary seems to have been reborn, his eyes are piercing, and he talks about contemporary poetry with female poets, as if modern poetry is the most important thing in his life. Love in general.Jill poked sullenly at the food on her plate.Mrs. Abuko put on a late-night face, standing aside like a female prisoner to serve everyone, while the maid Virginia came in loudly, throwing dishes and throwing glasses.

Sam, who had been brooding throughout the meal, cast a skeptical look at everyone equally.He was the last to leave the table. After dinner, old Captain Trevitt came in on his wooden prosthetic leg, greeted Sam politely, and went upstairs to Miss Smith's room, where the nurse accompanied Louisa to her lonely dinner.Captain Trevitt remained there for half an hour, then went downstairs quietly. Dusk passed slowly, and night fell.Conrad staggered into the library, glared at the inspector, and went to drink himself.After putting her two children to bed in the nursery, Martha Hit shut herself in her bedroom.Since she was not allowed to leave the house, Jill had to hide in her room.Barbara Hitt was writing upstairs.After a while Peary came into the library and asked if there was anything else he could need of him, saying he was very tired and would like to go to bed if the inspector allowed him.Sam waved sullenly, and the tutor went upstairs to his attic bedroom.

Gradually, even the tiniest sound died away.Sam's sense of powerlessness grew so strong that he didn't even wake up when Conrad staggered from the library and went upstairs.At eleven thirty one of the inspector's men entered and sat down wearily. "What?" Sam yawned with sunken eyes. "Nothing about the keys. Boys trying to track down what you say is a copy. No sign of any locksmiths or hardware shops. We've searched all over town." "Oh!" Sam blinked. "That's unnecessary anyway. I already know how she got in. Go home, Frank, and get some sleep."

Interpol left.At exactly midnight, the inspector wrenched his heavy body off the armchair and went upstairs, where Pickerson was still twiddling his thumbs as if he hadn't stopped all day. "Anything happening, Pickerson?" "No." "Go home, Moxiu just came in to pick you up." Pickerson took orders without hesitation.In fact, he rushed downstairs so impatiently that he almost bumped into Moxiu who was going upstairs. Moxiu saluted the inspector, and then took over Pickson's post on the second floor. The inspector stepped up to the attic. There was complete silence and all the doors were closed.There was light in the room of the Abuko couple, but when the inspector stopped at the door, the light suddenly went out.Then he climbed the attic stairs, opened the skylight, and stepped onto the roof.Near the middle of the dark roof a tiny spark went out, and Sam heard a furtive footstep, and he said wearily, "Take it easy, Johnny, is there anything going on?"

A man appeared next to the inspector: "Damn it, what the hell did you send me to? Boss, I haven't seen a ghost come up all day." "Hold on for a few more minutes, and I'll call Klaus up to meet you. You'll be back in the morning." The inspector opened the skylight again and went downstairs.He found Klaus and told him to take over, then plodded into the library, groaned and sat down on the armchair, cast a sad glance at the empty brown wine bottle, turned off the lamp on the table, put his hat on his nose, I closed my eyes and fell asleep. The inspector wasn't quite sure when he first noticed something was wrong.He remembered tossing and turning restlessly in his sleep, once loosening a numb leg and then sinking back into the ottoman of the armchair.He didn't know when the incident happened, but it might have been around one o'clock in the morning. But there was one thing he was sure of.Just when the clock struck two o'clock, he woke up suddenly, the hat on his nose fell to the ground, and he sat up nervously.Something woke him up, but he didn't know what.Is there a sound, something falling, or someone shouting?He listened with bated breath. Then the voice came again, a distant, frightened man calling: "Fire!" The inspector jumped up like a nail in a chair cushion and rushed out into the corridor.There was only a small night light on in the corridor. Under the weak light, he saw curls of smoke drifting down the stairs. Mo Xiu crawled on the stairs, shouting hoarsely, and the whole house was filled with smoke. The bitter smell of fireworks. The inspector didn't ask a word.He caught up to the second floor and flew around the stairs. Thick yellow smoke poured out from the crack in the door of York Heit's laboratory. "Call the firetruck, Moxiu!" Sam yelled, frantically looking for the key.Moxiu staggered and ran down the stairs, pushing away three criminal policemen who were standing guard all over the house and heard the noise.Cursing incessantly, the inspector inserted the key into the keyhole, gave the door a hard twist, and pushed the door open—and then slammed it shut again, for no sooner had the door opened than there was a foul, greasy smoke and tongues of flame rushing towards him. .The muscles on his face twitched, and for a moment, he stood there at a loss, looking around like a trapped animal. Several heads appeared in the corridor, each face was panic-stricken, coughing and trembling inquiries were everywhere. "Fire extinguisher! Where the hell is it?" Sam yelled. Barbara Hayter ran up the aisle: "Jesus! . . . no fire extinguisher, Inspector . . . Martha—child!" The corridor became a fog, and there were panicked figures everywhere, and flames began to emerge from the door of the laboratory.Martha, in her silk nightgown, ran screaming to the nursery, and came out a few moments later with the two boys. Billy screamed in terror, and the rarely frightened Jackie clutched his mother's hand.They all ran down the stairs and disappeared. "Everyone get out! Get out!" Sam yelled deafeningly, "Don't stop and get stuff! Those chemicals—explode—" His yell was drowned out by screams.Jill Hitter staggered past him, pale and confused; Conrad Hitter pushed her away and fled downstairs; Edgar Peary rushed from the attic in pajamas. Coming down just in time to see Barbara Height reeling to the ground, choked by the smoke.He carried her on his shoulders and carried her downstairs. Everyone was choking and coughing, with bitter tears in their eyes. Sam sent the criminal police guarding on the roof to run down crackling, driving the Abuko couple and Virginia in front.The inspector was drowsy as if he was in a dream, coughing, choking, shouting, picking up buckets of water and pouring buckets of water towards the closed laboratory door, he heard the siren of the fire engine... The situation is urgent.The harsh sound of brakes announced the arrival of the fire engine, and the firefighters started to connect the water pipes and dragged them along the alley beside the house to the back garden.Tongues of flame protruded from the windows surrounded by iron bars, the fire escape ladder was raised, the ax smashed the window glass that had not yet been melted, and water jets shot directly into the laboratory from between the iron bars... Just as the firefighters staggered into the house and went upstairs, Sam, with disheveled hair, dirty black body and bloodshot eyes, stood on the sidewalk outside the house and counted the heads of people in thin clothes and trembling around him.Everyone is there, no...not everyone! The inspector's face contorted with pain and terror.He ran up the stairs, crashed into the house, and made his way up to the second floor, stumbling over wet pipes along the way.Once upstairs, he went straight to Miss Smith's room, followed by Moxiu. He kicked open the door and rushed into the nurse's room.Miss Smith was like a white hill, wrapped in a large nightgown, and fell unconscious on the ground; Louisa Kabian, with a desperate expression on her face, was at a loss, trembling all over, and crawled on the nurse's body , tilting the wings of his nose to smell the bitter and unpleasant smell of smoke. Sam and Moxiu tried their best to get the two women out of the house... And it seems to be just in time.For as they were staggering down the stone steps outside the house, there was a dull, loud bang behind them and over their heads—a burst of flames burst out of the laboratory behind the house like a cannonball explosion.After a thunderous explosion, there was a moment of stunned silence, and then there was the hissing and shouting of firefighters trapped in the flames... The inevitable finally happened, and some chemicals in the laboratory caught fire and exploded. An ambulance arrived with its horn honking, stretchers were sent in and out one after another, and a firefighter was injured. Two hours later, the fire was extinguished and the sky was just beginning to light up as the last firetruck departed.The Heite family and other personnel who took shelter in Captain Trewitt's brick house next door climbed wearily back to the burnt old mansion.The captain in his pajamas and nightgown, wooden prosthetics echoing hollowly on the pavement, assists a waking Miss Smith in tending to Louisa Cabian, who is literally petrified and eerily hysterical, helpless.Doctor Miriam, who was notified by the call, had already arrived and was busy supplying sedatives. The upstairs lab was horrible.The doors had been blown off, the iron bars on the windows were loose, most of the bottles on the shelves were broken, and the floor was wet.Beds, wardrobes, and desks were all charred, and the glass of most stills, test tubes, and electronic instruments had been melted.Strangely, there was little damage elsewhere on the second floor. Sam, with bloodshot eyes and a grey-faced face, gathered everyone in the library and lounge downstairs, and criminal police stood guard everywhere.Now no one dared to make jokes, lost their temper or disobeyed orders. Most of the time they all sat in depression, and the women were even quieter than the men, looking at each other dully. The inspector went to the phone and called back to Police Headquarters.He spoke first with Attorney Bruno, then had a long, sombre conversation with Police Chief Burbage, and then he made a long-distance call to Hamlet Heights in Lanscliff, New York. There is something wrong with the wiring.Sam waited, which was surprisingly patient for him.When he finally heard the irritable and trembling voice of Old Quesy, the hunchbacked servant of Jerry Lane, he gave a detailed description of what happened that night.Ren, who was deaf and unable to answer the phone himself, stood next to Kuisi, and through Kuisi's lips, he understood bit by bit the story told by the inspector on the phone. "Mr. Wren said," the old hunchback asked sharply when Sam had finished, "do you know how fires start?" "I don't know. Tell him that the entrance to the chimney on the roof is guarded every second, the windows are locked from the inside, and no one has tampered with it, and the door of the laboratory is watched by my subordinate Moxiu all night." The inspector heard Kuaixi repeating these words in a high-pitched voice, and then Ryan's deep voice was heard from afar. "He said, are you sure, Inspector?" "My God, of course I'm sure! That's why I don't understand, how on earth did that fire bug slip in and start the fire?" There was silence after Quesy's retelling.The inspector waited, sharpened his ears, and then Quesy said, "Mr. Wren needs to know, did anyone try to enter the laboratory after the fire and explosion?" "No," growled Sam, "I was paying special attention." "He said to send someone to guard that room right away," Quasi said with a sharp voice, "unless there will be firefighters coming later. Mr. Wren will be there this morning, and now he is sure he knows how it happened, he Say……" "Oh, he's sure, is he sure?" asked the inspector impatiently. "Then he's better than me. Say! Ask him if he expected this fire!" There was a pause, and then Quasi replied, "No, he said, he didn't expect it, it was a complete surprise to him, he couldn't understand it." "Thank God, there's a hard time for him," growled Sam. "Well—tell him to come early." As he was about to hang up the phone, he distinctly heard Ryan whispering—quietly—to Quasi, "It must be, and everything points to that...but, Quasi, it's too much." incredible!"