On September 6, at 8:20, there was the sound of horseshoes and carriage wheels rubbing against the curb stones on the street, and then someone began to slam the doorbell.
Leaning on the armchair, Master Cat put down the coffee in his hand: "It sounds like a two-wheeled carriage." He stretched his neck and looked out the window: "Hmm... a very cute little carriage, and a pair of beautiful ones. Thoroughbred horses, worth at least a hundred and fifty guineas each, seem to have ushered in a very wealthy client on our first case here."
Wang Xu was playing poker boredly at the side: "How do you know it's the client? Didn't you say yesterday that before a certain relationship is established in the circle of private detectives, there may not be any business within a month?"
Mr. Cat didn't bother to explain how he deduced the fact that the other party was the client. Anyway, it didn't matter whether he said it or not, because Mrs. Hudson, the landlady, had already arrived at the door. After a short knock on the door, she came in with a A tray with a business card on it.
Mrs. Hudson was obviously displeased by this unexpected visit. She said, "There is a gentleman downstairs asking to see you."
Master Cat replied, "Please come up."
Two minutes later, there was the sound of slow and heavy footsteps on the stairs, from the stairs to the hallway, and finally stopped at the door.
In came a tall man, really tall, no less than six foot six, with a broad chest and powerful limbs. His clothes are very gorgeous, and can even be described as magnificent.
Double-breasted jacket front, slits trimmed with lambskin, dark blue cloak lined with scarlet silk over the shoulders, a flame-shaped brooch pinned to the neckline, and a piece of it was embedded in the middle of the thing. Not a small emerald.
In addition, he was wearing a pair of calf-high leather boots with dark brown fur on the cuffs, which directly gave the impression of a rough and luxurious appearance. In the UK, a guy who would go out dressed like this on weekdays usually It is regarded as "typical vulgarity" by those "upper class" cultural people.
"Which one is Mr. Logan?" He looked at Master Cat and Wang Xu with inquiring eyes.
Cat master said: "I am, this is my assistant Mr. Atkinson." (The pseudonym Wang Xu used in his passport was Rowan Atkinson, because this is his favorite British comedian...)
"Are you... Chinese?" The surprise on his face was hard to hide, you know... These days, the chance of meeting Chinese in London is almost zero, and these two still don't wear braids.
"I don't think it will affect what we are going to talk about, at least I think my English is not bad."
The man glanced at Wang Xu again: "Mr. Logan, I hope your assistant is a decent young man and acts very prudently, otherwise I would rather talk to you alone."
Wang Xu thought to himself: I'm not afraid of ignorance, but I'm afraid of comparing goods. Maybe it's not decent, let alone prudent, to put me in the crowd, but I stand next to the cat master. That consciousness... that level...
Master Cat didn't know that Wang Xu was distracting him, so he replied without hesitation: "You can rest assured, in my business, especially in keeping the client's private information confidential, I do the best job, and Mr. Atkinson is like It's my Boswell (Johnson's right-hand man), who has a very professional work ethic."
The man thought about it for a while before he said: "Okay then... First of all, I must clarify that the dignitary who sent me here is unwilling to reveal his true identity, so please don't ask me..."
Master Cat interrupted him directly: "These nonsense will only take up my precious time, please answer my question first, who are you?"
Sitting next to her, Wang Xu was a little stunned. What she just said was still human, why did she change her attitude all of a sudden
The man's expression changed obviously, and his palms were already sweating: "What do you mean, I should have sent a business card, I am Count von Kramm..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Master Cat snapped his fingers as if by magic, and then the business card appeared in his hand, and then he threw it into the fireplace with a flick of his hand.
"Oops... I accidentally burned it, I haven't had time to look at it..."
The client's eyes followed the flight path of the business card to the fireplace, and he clearly saw that the business card was inserted into the stone on the edge of the fireplace... and then slowly reduced to ashes.
Master Mao stood up, walked over and patted the man on the shoulder: "This business card is too new, it was just printed today, I'm not interested in a fake name at all."
Wang Xu has no doubts about the correctness of this reasoning. Just a few days ago, Mr. Mao talked with him about the production skills and identification methods of various fake documents, etc., using their fake passports as an example, and said A story, roughly, how he found a local professional counterfeiter in London by virtue of his excellent reasoning ability, and helped and guided him, so that his business level rose to a great level. ask him for money...
Closer to home, the client stood up suddenly, so excited that he couldn't control himself. He paced back and forth in the room quickly. After a minute or so of intense ideological struggle, he finally sat down again with an almost desperate posture: " Mr. Logan, you are much more powerful than I imagined... Please don't mind if I offended you just now."
Master Cat also sat down again, and resumed his polite attitude: "Of course I don't mind, then... Please answer my previous question first, so that I can serve you better."
"Okay... my real name is Georg Gervais Gismond von Elstein."
There was a sneer at the corner of Master Cat's mouth: "Hehe... Members of the royal family..."
Elstein replied: "Hey... It's not anymore. As far back as the last century, my family was exiled because of a licentious and spendthrift person. In the Regency period, my grandfather only An old house handed down by his ancestors and a few acres of barren land remained. He drank alcohol all the year round and lived the life of a lonely king and grandson.
But my father changed everything, he borrowed money from some relatives to get a medical degree, he went to Calcutta to practice medicine, he lived a prosperous life with his medical skills and natural resilience, he married my mother while he was in India, My grandfather was a major general in the Bangladesh Artillery Regiment. He died prematurely due to a tropical disease, so my father brought my mother back to England after marriage to change careers.
In fact, he seems to have been even more gifted with business, and when I was a boy our family was one of the wealthiest in England, with holdings extending beyond the county borders to Berkshire in the north and as far west as Hampshire is all over our family.
I have said so much, you may think it is wordy, in fact, I just want to point out that my father attaches great importance to my character, he does not want me to repeat the actions of those prodigal sons of my ancestors, so if I do something that makes him It is intolerable, he will even disqualify me from inheriting the estate. "
Master Cat smiled and said, "So... your commission must be related to a certain lady."
Elstein sighed: "Yes, the thing is, a few years ago, I once had a relationship with a lady named Eileen Jones, she was so talented that other women were all overshadowed , all the men who have seen her bow down under her pomegranate skirt, of course, I am no exception."
Master Mao interjected: "You don't need to tell me about the history of your relationship with her. I don't think you want to reveal too many private things. Just tell me what you need me to do."
Elstein replied: "It has been a while since we broke up, but there are still some things in her that are not good for my inheritance. It is an envelope. I have thought of many ways to negotiate with her, but she She just refused to return it, and later I even hired someone to burglarize her house, but I searched her house three times and still couldn’t find it.”
Master Cat asked: "Oh... so... Let me ask a few questions. First of all, have you ever been secretly married?"
"No."
"Then there shouldn't be any legal documents to prove your relationship?"
"No."
"I don't understand this. If it's just a few love letters with inappropriate wording, how can she prove that the things are not forged? You know, with your status and worth, people who want to forge something to blackmail you will never Not in the minority."
"That word is my note."
"Bah! I copied it!"
"I use private letterhead."
"Stole it."
"The letter bears my own seal."
"fake."
"And my picture..."
"I got someone to follow me and take pictures."
"It's a photo of me and her..."
"Cut...PS."
"what did you say… "
"Hmm... slipped the tongue, wait... the group photo... could it be... that kind of..." Master Cat's eyes suddenly became very ambiguous.
Wang Xu ignored them from just now, and just played poker next to him. At this time, he complained in Chinese: "If there is a chance, I should introduce him to Guanxi..."
Elstein said: "You should understand now, this incident has a great impact on me, I would like you to use the detective method to figure out where she hid the things, as for how to get them, I can tell you otherwise." Get someone to finish it."
Master Cat sneered: "You must have condescended to go to a very dirty tavern and ask the bartender who is the most unqualified and unknown detective in London, and then you came to me?"
"Yes..." he could only admit.
"You pretended to be an emissary, as if you were asking for help for your boss or friend. You are undoubtedly planning that when the matter is successful, we will still know nothing about our real client, so that there will be no danger of leaking the secret."
"That's right." He continued to nod.
Master Mao took a sip of coffee: "You are very lucky, sir, because you met us. If you find someone who can't even see through the above things to help you, you will only fail in the end."
Elstein wiped his sweat with a handkerchief: "Then, Mr. Logan, have you accepted this commission?"
Master Mao said: "Of course, but in terms of remuneration, I don't want money, I want you to do something for me."
Alstein thought for a while: "What's the matter?"
"Hehe... Don't be nervous, for you, it's just a matter of little effort."