Chapter 19 Ninth scene

Hours later, in the silence of the house, Mr. Wren quietly climbed up to the attic, climbed up the little ladder to the roof, pushed open the trap door, and jumped onto the slippery roof.A criminal policeman in a raincoat and holding an umbrella leaned helplessly on the chimney to stand guard.Ryan greeted him cheerfully, ignoring the rain dripping on his clothes, and walked over to peek into the dark interior of the chimney pipe.Although he knew that if he had a flashlight he could see the top of the wall that separated the dead man's room from the laboratory, he couldn't see anything at the moment.He stood there thinking for a while, then waved goodbye to the criminal policeman, and went downstairs through the trap door.

On the second floor, he looked around, all the bedroom doors were open, and there was no one in the aisle, so he quickly turned the door and entered the laboratory.Moxiu looked up from behind the newspaper he was reading. "Hey, oh!" Moxiu greeted enthusiastically, "If it wasn't for Mr. Wren, who would it be? I'm so glad to see you. I've never been sent such a boring job." "I believe it." Ren murmured, his eyes rolling. "It's great to see a normal person's face, I said," Mo Xiu said in an affectionate tone, "It's as quiet as a grave here—hey, hey!"

"Indeed... Moxiu, you can do something for me. Or do something for your colleagues on the roof." "Who—Klaus?" Moxiu asked dewyly. "I think that's his name. Please go up to the roof and accompany him. He seems very sad and needs someone to accompany him." "Oh," Moxiu moved his feet restlessly, "uh, this, I don't know, Mr. Wren. The boss's order is very strict - I can't leave this room." "The responsibility is all on me, Moxiu," Ren said impatiently, "please go up! And you can help me watch more closely from above. I don't want to disturb you for a few minutes. If anyone wants to go up to the roof , scare him away, but don’t be too aggressive, remember.”

"Uh," Moxiu said hesitantly, "Okay, Mr. Wren." He shuffled out of the laboratory. Ren's gray-green eyes were shining brightly.He followed Mo Xiu to the corridor, and waited until Mo Xiu went upstairs and no one could be seen before he opened the door of the dead man's room next door and entered.There was no one in the room, and he crossed the room quickly to the window overlooking the garden, saw that all the windows were closed and bolted, went back to the door, locked the inside lock first, ran out of the corridor, pulled the door up and shut it tightly , and then pushed to see that it was locked, then he flashed into the laboratory, locked the door from the inside, took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and started to work.

The first thing that most attracted his attention was the fireplace.He touched the mantelpiece, leaned his head down to look under the stone arch, retracted again, and took a few steps back... He hesitated for a while, then looked around a few times, the rolltop desk was almost burned, the iron file He had inspected the wardrobe before. What about the half-burned wardrobe?impossible.He retracted his chin, bent down, passed through the outer wall of the fireplace without hesitation, and stood up straight between the outer wall and the firewall that served as the back of the fireplace.The old black brick wall, smooth to the touch, was almost as high as Wren's head, and Wren was a little over six feet tall.He took a small pencil-shaped flashlight from his vest pocket and scanned the bricks of the partition wall with that tiny light. Whatever he hoped to find, in vain, the entire wall was completely bricked. Work neatly.Even so, he tapped and poked at each brick to see if any were loose.Finally, acknowledging that there was nothing to be found, at least on this side of the lab, he straightened himself up and visually measured the height of the partition wall.Not too difficult a climb, even for an elderly gentleman, he reckoned.After thinking about it, he swung the pencil flashlight on the top of the wall, grabbed the edge of the wall with both hands, and pushed himself up.He climbed over the wall, and the agility and lightness with which he landed on the bedroom side is really admirable. Although he is sixty years old, his muscles are still as strong as a young man. The dripping rainwater gently hit the top of his head and cheeks.

On the bedroom side he repeated the previous steps looking for loose bricks, still in vain.At this moment, there was a look of annoyance between his brows.He pushed himself against the top of the fire brick wall again, but this time he straddled it like a knight, flashlight shining everywhere. He froze for a moment almost immediately, his annoyed brows stretched out.About a foot above the head, in the wall of the chimney-pipe, there was an apparently loose brick, the plaster was peeling off all around, and protruding a little more than the adjacent brick.Ren's fingers grabbed the small brick like iron pliers, and then pulled it out, almost losing his balance and falling to the ground, because the brick was very loose, and it was pulled out with a light pull.He carefully placed the brick on the top of the wall between his legs, then focused the light of his flashlight into the dark rectangular hole in the brick.

Inside the big hole that was peeled off with great effort, there was a shiny white thing! Ren's fingers stretched out.When he retracted his hand again, he was already holding a piece of white paper folded into many folds, blackened, dirty and yellowed by smoke.After a quick glance at the paper, Ryan tucked it into his back pocket and bent down again to explore the interior of the hole.Something gleamed in the light of the flashlight, and he reached for it with his hand. In an extra hole dug out at the back of the hole, there was a small test tube tightly closed with a wooden stopper. He took the test tube out of the hole and observed it carefully, his eyes were clouded.

There was no label on the tube, and it was filled with a white liquid. He checked carefully and found a dropper with a rubber tip in the hole, but he didn't touch it.Instead of putting the bricks back in place, he turned over from the side of the laboratory to the wall, reached out and took out the test tube of white liquid placed on the wall, and bent down to get into the laboratory. At this moment, his eyes were a pale green, the green covered the gray, as if he was suffering a lot. With a gloomy face and dirt all over his body, he threw the test tube into the pocket of his coat, walked to one of the burnt work tables, took out the stack of papers from his back pocket, and slowly opened it... After opening it, there were several sheets of thin and rough typing paper, densely packed with neat handwriting.He read.

Wren would often point out long afterward that this was a notable moment during the Het investigation.But judging by the expression on his face as he read the document, this discovery not only did not make him high-spirited, but made him even more depressed.Not surprisingly, his face darkened as he read, and he nodded grimly now and then, as if some established conclusion had been confirmed; at a certain point an expression of utter amazement crossed his face, but it fleeting.After reading the whole text, he seems to be reluctant to move, as if just sitting in this extreme stillness can stop the inevitable tragedy of time, events and future.But after a while, he blinked, found a pen and paper in the pile of sundries beside him, and started writing vigorously.He wrote for a long time, painstakingly copying down the words of the document he found.When he was done, he stood up, stuffed the copy and the original into his back pocket, put on his coat, dusted his trousers, and opened the door to the laboratory.He looked around the aisle, but it was still quiet outside.

He stood there for a long time, silent as if dead. At last he heard movement downstairs.He trembled slightly, and walked to the railing of the stairs.Looking down through a crack in the railing, I saw Mrs. Arbuckle waddling towards the kitchen. "Mrs. Abkel," he called softly. She looked up in surprise. "Who—oh, it's you! I didn't know you were still here. What's the matter, sir?" "Can I trouble you to bring me a piece of bread and—by the way, a glass of milk from the kitchen?" Ren asked happily. She stood still, raised her eyes and stared at him, then nodded resentfully, and waddled out of Ren's sight.He waited in the same unnatural stillness, and presently she returned with a tray of bread with jam and a glass of milk, plodding up the stairs, and handing the tray to Rain over the banister.

"The milk is almost gone," she said suddenly, "I can only give you this little." "That's enough, thank you." As she stepped down the stairs with the same ferocity, he raised his glass and began to slowly sip the milk.But as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs and disappeared into the corridor leading to the back of the house, Ryan stopped immediately, strode back to the laboratory, and locked the door tightly again. At this point he was fully aware of his next move.He set the tray on the work table and searched the low cupboard under the ledge.Due to the protection of the doors and the proximity to the floor, there is little damage inside and you can find what you need quickly.He stood up, and in his hand was a small cork-sealed test tube, the same one he had found in the cave.After rinsing the test tube under a tap on the laboratory table, he carefully poured the milk from the cup into the test tube in an amount equal to the white liquid in the test tube in the hole.When he was satisfied that the two test tubes were similar, he corked the milk test tube tightly, poured the remaining milk in the cup into the sink, climbed back to the fireplace firewall, straddled the wall, and put the milk in the glass. The test tube is inserted into the hole where the original test tube was found earlier.He left the dropper in the hole untouched, then he replaced the folded-back stack of yellowed papers, arranged the loose brick as he had found it, and climbed down the wall. He wiped off the dirt on his hands in disgust, his facial features wrinkled into balls. Suddenly, as if remembering something he had forgotten for a while, he unlocked the laboratory door, walked back, climbed over the brick wall separating the fireplace on both sides again, and landed from the bedroom.He unlocked the bedroom door, stepped into the corridor, and entered the laboratory through the unlocked door. "Mo Xiu!" He called up the chimney vigilantly, "Mo Xiu!" The raindrops hit his hot face, giving him a cool feeling. "Yes, Mr. Wren?" Moxiu's voice was stifled by the chimney pipe.Ren looked up and saw a vague head shadow in the gray frame on the chimney mouth. "Come down now, Klaus stay on the roof." "No problem!" Mo Xiu replied sincerely, and his face disappeared.After a while, Moxiu rushed into the laboratory. "Here I am." He had a satisfied smile on his face, his suit was covered with raindrops, but he didn't seem to care at all, "Found what you want?" "Ah—forget it, Moxiu," Ryan said, standing firmly in the middle of the room, "Did anyone try to go up to the roof, by the chimney?" "There is no one, and there is no movement, Mr. Ren." Mo Xiu's eyes were wide open, because Ren's right hand just stretched out from behind, and sent something into his mouth... That was, Mo Xiu was shocked It was found that it was a piece of bread.Ren chewed thoughtfully, as if he had never heard of such a thing as poison in this crazy Bohetu home. His left hand was hidden in his coat pocket, tightly grasping the test tube containing the white liquid.

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