Chapter 34 Ninth scene

Under the guidance of Quasi, Sam walked through the winding corridors and came to the hidden elevator.The elevator carried them like a rocket to the moon, and flew up from the inside of the main tower of Hamlet Heights, stopping at a small platform near the top of the tower. In front of them was a stone staircase as old as the Tower of London.Sam still followed Quesy, going up the winding stairs. At the end was a huge oak door with an iron latch on the waist of the gate. Quesy struggled with the heavy iron buckle and the bolt for a long time, and finally Successfully opened it.Then, with all his strength, he panted and roared and pushed the door open, and outside was the top of the tower with stone battlements.

Ryan was almost naked, lying on a bearskin, with his arms resting on his forehead, shielding him from the harsh midday sun. Sam stopped and Quesy smiled and left.Sam was actually stupid on the spot. He could hardly believe that the bronzed, extremely young and muscular body in front of him could be Jerry Lane.His reclining body was smooth and shiny except for the light golden hair on his lower abdomen.Brown skin, strong muscles and a slender and smooth figure, it shows that such a person is still living at the peak of his life, only when Sam's eyes slowly move up from this extremely fit body to his gray hair , I feel very uncoordinated.

The only thing the old actor had to cover his body at the moment was a white loincloth, and his brown feet were also bare, with a pair of flat boots placed beside his feet.There is another upholstered folding chair beside it. Sam shook his head sadly and pulled his coat a little tighter.The weather in New York in October was already cold, and the unobstructed biting cold wind rushed straight to the top of the tower. Sam walked forward and got closer to Ryan's lying body, and he could see it more clearly. Ryan's skin was really smooth Incomparable, and in such a cold wind, there is not even a trace of goosebumps.

Some kind of strange alertness made Ryan open his eyes, or maybe it was Sam blocking the sun that made Ryan aware. "Hi, Inspector!" Ryan sat up, his mind was very clear, he hugged his slender and strong legs, "It's a surprise, please forgive my disheveled clothes, pull the recliner over and sit down, of course, If you want," he said, laughing, "take off your clothes too, and lie down together on this bearskin..." "Oh, no no, thank you very much," Sam panicked, and hurriedly sat on the recliner in fear of being snatched away, "In such a cold wind?" He mocked, "It's none of my business, but Ray How old are you, sir?"

Ren blinked in the sun: "Sixty." Sam shook his head again: "And I'm only forty-five, it's really embarrassing to say-Mr. Wren, this is the truth-I don't have the courage to take off my clothes in front of you. Compared with your body, I am really Like a dying old man." "Inspector, maybe you are too busy to take care of your body," Ren said lazily, "I have both time and opportunity, look here—" He waved his finger to the fairy tales around him "Here I can do whatever I want, and the reason why I have to imitate Mahatma Gandhi and wear this loincloth around my waist is purely because it's that old Quasi who can't turn his head, he may be on the spot. Passed out, if I didn't just cover up my--my private parts a little bit. Poor old Quesy, I've been trying to get him to sunbathe with me for twenty years, and you can imagine the two of us It's funny to see the old man lying together like that! But he's such a hard, stubborn old man, and I don't believe he has any idea what kind of virtue he's getting too old for."

"You're the strangest person I've ever met in my life," said Sam heartily. "Sixty..." He sighed. It is to report these new developments to you-especially the most important one." "Collins, I suppose?" "Exactly, I think Bruno has told you something about our raid on Collins' apartment in the early hours of last Tuesday, hasn't he?" "Yes, the foolish man tried to kill himself, Inspector, you have him in custody, haven't you?" "Yeah, so that he can still enjoy the sweet life," Sam joked with a straight face, and to be honest, the famous tough guy in the police suddenly softened, "I feel like a lynx, running to you Come before me, and bring you the bits and pieces of information we have groped out in the boundless mist, and we also know that you, I believe, have fully grasped all the ins and outs."

"Dear inspector, let's be honest, don't take offense. For a long time, you have had a lot of doubts about me. You think I'm just bluffing, and I can't really see the core of these murders. This is actually a very natural and reasonable idea. .In fact, even at this moment you are not sure whether my silence has been really ignorant of the situation, or just practicing some new belief. However, you have such confidence in me, for me It is also an unexpected and heavy compliment. Inspector, I want to tell you sincerely that we have always stood side by side in this terrible circle of fog, now and forever, until we can clear the fog together and see the light again. until."

"Yes, if ever," Sam said dejectedly, "well, let's not talk about that, it's more important to talk about Collins, this stupid bird, and we'll find out why he's crazy The reason why he lost that money back in the stock market is that he used his official status to handle income tax and embezzled the tax money from the federal government!" "real?" "It's true. So far, he has made one hundred thousand dollars, or even more. The detailed figure needs to be further investigated, but it is definitely not a small amount. Mr. Wren, he seems to have 'borrowed' public funds from the federal government He went to play stocks, and he lost money, so he had to get deeper and deeper. Just in time, Longstreet gave him that bad information again, asking him to enter the international metal stocks, and this fool moved the last fifty thousand yuan to make a desperate move. This is indeed true. He made a last-ditch effort—in order to make up for the previous losses, to make up for the long-term embezzlement. The tax bureau seems to have noticed that Collins's hands and feet are not clean, and he is sending someone to check the accounts privately. No wonder this kid is in a hurry. "

"How can Collins have the ability to prevent the tax bureau from conducting a public investigation? Inspector, what is his supernatural ability?" Sam pursed his lips tightly: "For him, this is easy. During the past few months, he has forged documents and records to avoid the exposure of the embezzlement, and bribed some high-level political figures. But this can only last for a while , will soon run out of skills and have no way out.” "It really provides a footnote to our understanding of human nature," Lane said softly. "This man is hot-tempered, greedy and easily provoked. In his life, he may have had a good time defrauding people, and he can also use his political power." The power calls the wind and the rain...but now he's on his knees begging for mercy, as Bruno told me! A loser, Inspector, a total, hopeless loser, who has to pay for his crimes price."

Sam didn't seem to sympathize: "Maybe, anyway, this case is enough for him-of course, it's all evidence of circumstances, but it's enough to see. Motives, for example, everyone knows that he hates Longstreet and Dulwich." For DeWitt, killing Longstreet was based on revenge. He always believed that Longstreet had betrayed him; for DeWitt, it was because his embezzlement of public funds was immediately exposed, and DeWitt refused to accept Longstreet's mess. Collins If you go in or die, you will die, so let’s just kill him for fun. According to all the evidence so far, the police believe that the murderer of Longstreet and DeWitt is 10% Collins, and it is not ruled out that Wood’s murder is also by him. Possibility. It was not difficult for him to get on the Mohawk Ferry at that time, and he could also sneak off the ferry when the ferry docked. We traced his whereabouts that night, and Collins could not provide a clear alibi...Moreover, when he was In court, Bruno can still use his typical criminal reaction when we broke into his house as evidence-including what he shouted, including his attempt to commit suicide..."

Under the magic of Inspector Sam's eloquence, Ryan stretched his long and strong arms, and said with a smile: "I have no doubt that Collins will be found guilty, but Inspector, have you seriously considered the situation at that time?" At five o'clock in the morning, the police suddenly knocked on the door to arrest people. Collins was drowsy, and he probably thought that his embezzlement of public funds had been revealed, and he was about to be arrested on charges of embezzlement and theft? If we put ourselves in his shoes Wasn't his state of mind, his suicide attempt, and his shouting that you would not be 'captured alive' justified?" Sam scratched his head: "This is exactly the same as what Collins said. We interrogated him this morning for embezzlement of public funds. How do you know?" "Oh, inspector, isn't this something even a child can figure out?" "I feel," said Sam cautiously, "that you think what Collins said is true, that you don't think he's the murderer we want, do you? Seriously, it's partly Bruno who wants me to come here. Ask your opinion, you know very well that we are going to prosecute him for murder, but Bruno is really afraid of a repeat of the past if he is bitten by a snake." "Inspector Sam," Ryan stood up with bare legs, puffing out his bronzed chest, "Bruno can't sue Collins for murdering DeWitt." "I guessed you would say that." Sam clenched his fists and looked at Ryan unwillingly. "But think about our position. Have you read the newspapers? The cynicism about wrongly prosecuting DeWitt ?It's better now and they're making a big fuss about DeWitt's killing so we've got to hide like thieves from the news guys lately. I can tell you privately that I can't even get my job right now Save it, let’s not talk too far, even before I came here this morning, I was severely shaved by the director.” Ryan looked up at the river in the distance: "I did this," Ryan said softly, "just to help you and Bruno, don't you think I will tell everything I know? In fact, this game has It's almost the end, Inspector, we're about to hear the long whistle; and as for your mention of your job being in danger... If you get the real culprit in front of the Chief soon enough, I don't believe he can blame you. " "I'll put..." "That's right, Inspector," Ren's smooth body leaned against the rock wall, "tell me what progress you have made!" Sam didn't reply right away, he was rather embarrassed: "Mr. Wren, I never meant to force you to speak, but since the first murder case, this is the third time I've heard you tell me who the murderer is and who isn't." , expressing an extremely positive attitude, I am curious why you are so sure that Collins is not the murderer?" "Well," Ryan said softly, "it's a long story, Inspector, but on the other hand, I feel that the matter has reached the point of actual proof. So, this afternoon, would you like to join me on the ground To investigate possible evidence of Collins' involvement?" Sam smiled in relief: "Mr. Wren, after hearing what you said, my heart suddenly felt at ease... As for other new developments, there are quite a few. First of all, Dr. Schelling's detailed autopsy report on DeWitt has been released. , the bullet was also dug out, and it was exactly the .38 caliber he had judged earlier; the second development, in fact, was no progress, Bergen County Prosecutor Cole helped track down the passengers who left the car before the body was discovered, and got nothing. The county team searched for the murder gun together, and searched both sides of the entire railway track in a carpet style, but found nothing. Of course, Bruno thought that there was no reason, because the murder weapon was never lost. Since Collins killed the man, the murder weapon was naturally The revolver that Collins was holding that morning. We did a ballistic analysis and compared Collins' revolver to the bullet in Dwede's body and found a discrepancy. Of course, that doesn't clear Collins. He may have used another Shot DeWitt, at least that's what Bruno thought. Bruno's theory was that if Collins had killed with another gun, he wouldn't have had a hard time getting that gun in a taxi and throwing it over the Hudson on the ferry to the car. If you go in the river, it will really sink into the sea." "Interesting coincidence, this is," said Wren. "Go ahead, Inspector." "Oh well, we also questioned the taxi driver who was driving Collins back to New York that night to see if he took the ferry that day and if Collins would get off on the ferry, the driver couldn't say why, he just remembered Collins getting on the bus When the train left Ridgefield Park Station, that's it. The third progress is not a progress. When we further cleared the documents and materials related to malls and private individuals in Longstreet, we found nothing interesting. The fourth aspect is quite intriguing. During our search of DeWitt's papers, we made a rather striking discovery that check stubs—two checks per month for the past fourteen years—were made out to a man named William Crochet's guy." Ren was not surprised, and saw his gray eyes staring closely at Sam's mouth dimly: "William Crochet, um... Inspector, you are really an informant of important information. So, what about the check amount? Can the banks involved in the exchange or cashing of bills be tracked down?" "Well, none of the checks is less than fifteen thousand dollars. Although there are variations in each check, the bank that cashes it is the same—the Montreal Development Trust Bank, Canada." "Canada? It's getting more and more interesting, Inspector. What about the signature of the drawer—in DeWitt's name or in the company's name?" "On behalf of the company, both DeWitt and Longstreet signed, which we also noticed. We would think that DeWitt was blackmailed, and now it looks like both of them have a share, and the money has not been paid. Included in the company's semi-annual financial records, they each paid from their private accounts in a 50-50 split. In addition, the tax declaration information did not report this expenditure—we checked them all." "Have you tracked down this Ke Luoqi?" "Mr. Wren!" said Sam, in a tone of contempt. "We're driving the Canadians crazy. We've got them as soon as we found these ticket stubs. It's interesting. The report from Montreal says, The drawer was a man named William Crochet—who, of course, endorsed the back of every check..." "Is there no endorsement deposited into the account? Is the endorsement written by the same person?" "It's definitely the same person. As I said, we found that this guy named Koloch deposited money by postal transfer in various places in Canada, and then picked it up by check. The evidence shows that he didn't take too long to spend the money. The bank was completely unable to provide what he looked like and where he went, all he knew was that he asked the bank to send the statement and receipt to the rental mailbox of the Montreal Central Post Office. "Of course we immediately chased the line, but the investigation found that there was nothing in the mailbox, and none of the post office personnel remembered who had rented this mailbox before, only that it was now empty. As a last resort, we went back to DeWitt-Lons Cui’s company looked for clues and found that the checks were mailed to the Central Post Office, but again, no one at the post office knew who Ke Luoqi was, what he looked like, and how he took these checks. We then focused our investigation on this rented mailbox , and the rental of mailboxes is pre-leased for one year each year—of course, by mail.” "It's annoying, isn't it?" Lane said. "I can imagine how upset you and Bruno were." "I'm still annoyed now," Sam said angrily. "The deeper we investigate, the deeper we find ourselves in the fog. Any idiot knows that Keluoqi is definitely hiding from people on purpose." "As you said, Keluoqi may deliberately avoid people, but this, from the DeWitt-Lonstra company, may mean more than Keluoqi himself." "Hey! That's an interesting idea!" exclaimed Sam. "Didn't really think of it that way, anyway, that's all there is to it about the Crochet man, and it may or may not have anything to do with the murder--Bruno thinks so." .Naturally, in order to stick to his current identification of the murderer, these suspicious clues are not surprising to him; The branches and branches are entangled together, so maybe the line of Coloch is irrelevant at all...Of course, if this man named Coloch is really suspected of intimidating DeWitt and the others, it is obviously murder Motivation builds." "Inspector, but how do you explain it?" Ryan laughed, "Why did Ke Luoqi give up the ready-made benefits and kill DeWitt and Longstreet, the two gooses that lay golden eggs?" Sam frowned when asked: "I admit that there is something wrong with the extortion. First of all, the date of the last check stub is June this year, so it is obvious that Koloch's semi-annual income is still going smoothly, As you said, why did he turn his face and slaughter these two big fat golden geese? Especially, the last check has the highest amount among the twenty-eight checks in fourteen years." "Inspector, on the other hand, if we follow your clue theory first, maybe Ke Luoqi feels that the two geese will not be able to lay any more eggs. For example, the ticket in June may be the last one. Like DeWitt and Lonstra telling him it's okay to stop here?" "This is really a bit... Oh, of course, we also checked the communication records between DeWitt and the others and Ke Luoqi, but there was nothing, and this can't explain anything. Of course, these two people will not leave any contact with Ke Luoqi. Contact clues." Ren shook his head lightly: "In any case, based on the factual information you provided, I really can't agree with the extortion statement. Inspector, why is the amount different for each amount? As far as I know, the amount of extortion is usually always Integer, and a fixed amount, isn't it?" Sam had to admit: "This is also to the point, the fact is true, but the amount of this note in June this year is troublesome, it is 17,864 US dollars, is it counted together with interest and tips?" Ryan smiled again, staring at the Hudson River winding above the woods like a blue line in the distance, took a deep breath, and put on his flat boots. "Inspector, let's go downstairs together, it's time to 'let action crown thinking', so, 'let action and thinking become one'!" The two walked towards the stairs, and Sam looked at Ryan's toned bare chest and laughed. "Excellent!" said he. "You always see me before I even open my mouth. Don't think, Mr. Wren, that I ever ask such personal questions, but only Shakespeare Can say that, can't you? Are those words you just quoted from the play Hamlet?" "Inspector, please first." The two walked back and forth into the dim tower and walked down the stone ladder, followed by Ren, who took a step forward with a smile on his face, "Don't blame me for my bad habit of quoting. What I thought to be gallant speeches came from a Dane, Inspector, you guessed wrong, it was Macbeth." Ten minutes later, the two were already sitting in Ren's library. Ren put on a gray robe and concentrated on studying a large map of New Jersey, while Sam stood aside in confusion.Lane's chubby butler, who looked like a pudding and a lump of roast beef - Lane called him Falstaff, quickly disappeared into the arched aisle next to the bookshelf after serving his master to dress. After studying it carefully for a while, Ren pushed the map aside, turned to Sam with a smile on his face, and seemed extremely satisfied: "Inspector, the time for the pilgrimage has arrived, and this is an important pilgrimage." "Is this our last trip?" "Oh, no—not the last, Inspector," Wren replied softly, "probably the penultimate pilgrimage, you've got to keep your faith in me again, Inspector, I have to begin to doubt My own ability has improved, since DeWitt was killed, I may have been able to foresee this, but I have not been able to effectively prevent it... You see, I have been blaming myself for DeWitt's death..." Ren fell silent, Sam stared at him curiously.After a long time, Ren shrugged his shoulders, "Let's begin! My dramatic instinct as an old actor does not allow me to spoil this perfect climax scene specially arranged for you. Please arrange it according to what I said, and I hope good luck and If we go together, I will be able to produce excellent evidence. Overturning the idea of ​​Collins' murder will of course cause trouble for our good friend Attorney Bruno, but after all we have a duty to protect innocent people. Inspector, please immediately from the Call the relevant units here, we need a group of search personnel, meet us in Weehawken as soon as possible this afternoon, and be sure to bring salvage equipment." "Salvage equipment?" Sam was stunned on the spot, "You mean salvage...in deep water? Looking for corpses?" "Let me put it this way, we have to be fully equipped to deal with every possible situation, huh? Kuisi, what's the matter?" The little make-up genius, with his old leather apron still tied around his waist, came into the library with a sizable tap-paper envelope in his hand, and he looked at Wren with disapproval—of course he did. It turned out that Ren had nothing on him except this gray robe—Ren hurriedly took the letter, and there was an official seal of the consulate on the envelope. "Information from Uruguay," Ren happily told Sam, who of course looked bewildered.Ryan tore open the seal and took out several teletyped photos and a long letter. After Ryan finished reading the letter, he put it on the table. Sam couldn't hide his curiosity anymore: "Is this a set of fingerprint photos? Did I read it wrong, Mr. Wren?" "Inspector, you read that right," Rein replied with a group of photos in his hand. "This is a fingerprint photo, which belongs to a very interesting gentleman. The name of this person is Martin Stoop." "Oh, that's really embarrassing," Sam apologized promptly, "I thought it had something to do with the case." "My dear Inspector, it is indeed relevant to the case." Like a rabbit suddenly caught in a bright light, Sam looked at Rain with the eyes of a hypnotic fan, and he licked his lips. "But-but," Sam asked suddenly, spitting, "what case is it? This one we're investigating? My God, Mr. Wren, where the hell did Martin Stoop come from?" ghost?" Ren patted Sam's thick and strong shoulder affectionately: "Inspector, it seems that my investigation work is half a step ahead of you, but I shouldn't be complacent-this is too uneducated...Martin Shi Top is the Mr. X we were all looking for—the man who took Harry Lonstra, Charles Wood, and John DeWitt from our wonderful world." Sam swallowed his breath, blinked his eyes fiercely, and shook his head vigorously trying to shake off the mist: "Martin Stoop, Martin Stoop, Martin Stoop, kill Lonstra, Wood and DeWitt's murderer..." The name seemed to stick to his tongue. "What, God." He finally couldn't help laughing out loud, "But I never heard the name? It never Didn't appear in these murders?" "Inspector, why do you care about the name so much?" Ryan put the fingerprint photos back in the Luzon paper envelope, and Sam clenched his fists unconsciously; looking at the stack of photos that disappeared in the envelope in awe, as if they were rare and unobtainable See Confidential Information. "Why bother so much about the name? In fact, my dear Inspector, you have seen this Martin Stoop many, many times."