Chapter 103 Old Drunkard
T.R.N. Ltd.
Charlotte Holmes looked at the tattered sign in front of her. The iron plate was covered with mottled rust eroded by wind and rain. The originally colorful relief-like three-dimensional letters were now severely peeling and completely corroded by rust. From a distance, only a severely rusted iron plate could be seen.
After receiving Watson's reply last time, the female detective had been secretly investigating the source of Winfrey's funds. She did not go directly to the St. Archbishop's Hospital, which was about to be renamed, but inquired from another direction - from the merchants who were responsible for providing materials for the hospital's decoration.
Although most of the workers who renovated St. Archbishop's Hospital were members of the Winfrey team, as well as some grassroots workers who were really moved by the other party's selfless free medical treatment... they still needed professional facilities, sufficient materials and brand new furniture.
She disguised herself as a rough-looking detective, showed the fully compliant Scotland Yard badge assigned by the Suppression Bureau, and questioned the merchants in a deep voice... But she got nothing. According to the merchants, they did not contact Winfreys directly, and the remuneration was only collected from a strong man named Nello under his command, and all of them were low-value coins. It took them a lot of time to count the number on the spot.
When the female detective asked them to show the coins paid by the hospital, she found that these old penny coins with the portraits of George III and IV looked quite old, but they were cleaned very cleanly, and there was almost no oil or sweat stains.
The merchants said that the coins were already so clean when they received them... This made her plan to track the identity of the sponsor through the coins fail, but it also proved that the sponsor behind the scenes was indeed consciously hiding his identity.
Is it a new merchant or an ancient noble?
What is the reason for their sponsorship of Winfreys? Do you hope to gain power beyond the ordinary?
Although the female detective failed to obtain the information of the sponsor behind the scenes, she learned another piece of information that might be useful from a worker.
The foreman who was responsible for providing medical equipment merchants with goods said: "Mr. Detective, I know one thing that may help you... I have seen a team of porters wearing gray clothes. They just silently carried goods into the hospital every time and never talked to us. Moreover, every time we foremen lined up to find Mr. Nello to collect the payment, we never saw the porters appear... I suspect that they have either received the money long ago, or the money involved is too large to be transferred directly through the bank."
So the female detective followed the team of gray-clothed porters and came to the two-story building in front of them that looked like a private workshop.
No one who saw this shabby company would think that it would be the source of the secret funds for Winfreys to acquire St. Archie Hospital... After all, from the appearance alone, it is a rare thing for this small company to maintain its operation without going bankrupt.
The female detective thought so, and took a sip of the ginger juice disguised as rum in her hand, which made a sour and smelly burp, making the passers-by around her look disgusted and fan away from this dirty old drunkard.
The old drunkard did not care about the contempt and disgust of the crowd. His red nose flashed with a shiny light, and he cursed in some remote country slang. He stumbled forward with his hunched and fat body, shaking off grass and plaster with every step.
Gulp g ... Until late at night, the old drunkard woke up again and drank the wine in the bottle. He slapped the bottom of the bottle hard but couldn't squeeze out any wine. He muttered slang sentences that no one could understand but could clearly feel the dissatisfaction in them.
He smashed the empty bottle to the ground with a clang. The crisp sound of broken glass rang out in the quiet and dark street, awakening the homeless wild cats and scaring away the mice that were looking for food.
There was still no movement in the T.R.N. company opposite, and even the lights were not on... If the female detective had not witnessed during the day that batches of porters carried goods into this narrow building, some workers walked out quickly, but some workers never appeared at the door again... She almost really thought that this was just a small enterprise engaged in unpopular distribution business.
But she had patrolled the surrounding area beforehand. This small building only had this door in front for people to enter and exit. Unless they had dug a tunnel to another place... No matter what the reason was, it proved that T.R.N. company was definitely not an ordinary company!
Even if it doesn't involve taboos or evil things, it must be hiding some shady activities... but it can also be used to relieve boredom.
The old drunkard let out a bored yawn, wandered toward the end of the street, and disappeared into the shadows where the street lights could not illuminate him.
…………
Charlotte Holmes retracted her thoughts and poured the ashes of the burned paper into the toilet and flushed it away.
She was still thinking about the content of the letter, thinking about those extremely suspicious plants, and that T.R.N. Co., Ltd. was definitely not as simple as it seemed... It seemed that while Watson was seriously infiltrating the Winfres gang, she couldn't do it either. Relaxed.
She thought of the plan proposed by Watson again, and a faint smile couldn't help appearing on her cold face.
"To be able to think of such a seemingly random but clever plan, Watson's thinking is indeed more flexible than mine on some levels."
"Is this the bitter meat trick in the wisdom from the ancient East that Watson often mentioned... It seems that I need to learn it too."