After determining the number of cards to be drawn, people urged the antique shop owner to deal the cards.
He excitedly dealt six cards to Madam Sang Mei first. Madam Sang Mei opened the cards without hesitation. Although the first card caused cheers among the people, it was a special card of Colorful Moon, Piano Music: Summer Night, but it did not trigger the special rule that required "this card is not the first card, and all cards in the hand have the same suit".
"And maybe the king or queen."
The female owner said a little unconfidently, and turned over the remaining five cards as people stared at her with wide eyes and expectation.
Every time the cards were turned over, someone would whisper "King" or "Queen", but the final total was 7, which meant the cards were busted.
"Looks like I won."
Xia De breathed a sigh of relief, but the old antique shop owner still dealt him six cards.
In this case, Shad didn't need to open his cards. He would win regardless of whether he busted or not. But people were looking forward to it, and Shad wanted to win with grace, so he gathered the six cards in front of him.
He reached out to reveal the cards, but then put his hand down and turned to the black-haired girl at the table and said:
"Tifa, come and help me open the cards."
He called the other person by her name directly, and the maid didn't object but laughed instead.
She walked over to Shade:
"What do you think the outcome will be, Detective?"
"No matter what the result is, I can accept it."
The white hands flipped open the cards one by one.
The first sun 1.
The second moon 1.
The third star 1.
People's whispered discussions came into his ears from all around, and no one wanted to disturb this scene. Xia De was also surprised by the result:
"Mrs. Sang Mei, you checked the dealing and shuffling of the cards, so don't accuse us of cheating."
"Don't worry, I can afford to lose, and these cards won't affect the outcome. Let your friend continue to play the cards, she has really good luck."
Tifa stood up and looked down at Shad. After Shad nodded, she reached out and flipped over the remaining three cards.
The sun, the moon, the stars.
Since the 1 and of the flower suit were already taken by Shad in the second game, the six cards that Tifa turned over were theoretically the one with the lowest points.
The whispered discussion finally turned into loud cheers and discussions. The probability of this kind of card appearing is even smaller than the probability of drawing a special card.
Madam Sang Mei covered her forehead and sighed, but there was still a smile on her lips:
"Detective, your female assistant is not from the casino, right?"
"Of course not, but she is indeed my lucky girl."
Shad smiled jokingly at Miss Servette and put his cards together, and the hostess threw the King's Agent Double over to him.
When Shad stood up, the black-haired girl handed him his coat:
"I had a great time playing this game, so can you give me the information I want?"
"Of course, but when the official competition comes for the big city players, I won't let you win so easily."
Even though it was a bet against Rhodes, Shad still paid 0 pounds for the information in the end. He claimed that he was a gentleman and would not let a woman doing business in the downtown area lose too much money for nothing. But in fact, he knew that the victory of this game had a lot to do with Tifa's dice-rolling technique.
After the gambling was over, Mrs. Sang Mei gave the address of a skilled woman who was familiar with the blind musician as agreed.
The women who work the sex trade at night at the Three Cats Inn spend their days sleeping or attending to personal matters in their own residences. The Three Cats Inn provides a place and protection for their business, so that they will not be harassed by nearby gangs or murdered by ill-intentioned guests.
Mrs. Sang Mei would charge a certain amount of protection money, but would not provide them with accommodation and meals. After all, Mrs. Sang Mei considered herself a serious businessman, not a lowly brothel owner.
No one knows the real name of the woman who was acquainted with the deceased blind musician, but the common name is Mary, which is one of the most commonly used female names of this era according to statistics.
Mary lived in a rental apartment in the lower town in the north of Tobysk, but it was not the kind of rental apartment where one person had one room or even one floor. Instead, it was a rental apartment in the slums where one room was divided into several areas.
If it was just him, it wouldn't matter, but Shade didn't want to take Tifa to that kind of place. So he asked the maid to wait at the alley entrance. After Shade found Miss Mary in a shabby apartment building with peeling walls, stinking smells, narrow and damp, corridors full of daily necessities, and almost no room to stay in the room, he took her out of the alley and talked to her in a restaurant on the street.
It was noon, so she was treated to lunch. Tifa wanted to serve Shade as a maid, but Shade forced her to sit next to him.
"Mary" looked to be a woman in her thirties, close to forty. She was a little thin, with rough skin, heavy bags under her eyes, and the blue veins on her wrists were clearer than anyone else's. She was wearing a red dress that was very characteristic of a technical staff, and her face was smeared with some cheap makeup. The smell of perfume that she bought from somewhere made Xia De want to cough.
Apart from her charming eyes, this woman had nothing to do with what Shade considered "beautiful". Although it was very rude, in Shade's opinion, she was like a wild flower that was about to rot and disappear in a swamp. The slums of Tobesk were this swamp, which would swallow up many people, not only their lives, but also their lives.
Hearing that Xia De invited her to dinner, the woman happily followed Xia De out of the alley. When she walked out of the alley, she even wanted to hug Xia De's arm to take advantage of him.
But after seeing the black-haired girl in a blue dress at the corner of the alley, Miss Mary immediately became obedient again. It seemed that she realized that she had no advantage.
Because it was Xia De's treat, she ordered a lot of food without hesitation. Xia De didn't mind it. The restaurant on the street next to the slum was not expensive. As long as he could get even a little information, this trip would be worth it.
"I want to know about Mr. Frank Bundy."
Xia De spoke after the woman finished ordering the food.
"Old Bundy? Are you his creditor? No, I don't know where he went."
Mary's accent was quite Tobesk; she must have lived here for many years.
People in the downtown area seem to like to define someone who has not appeared for a long time as running away from debt.
"No, he is dead."
When saying this, Xia De also observed the woman's expression, but the latter did not show any emotion. She just raised her head, opened her eyes with exaggerated eye shadow, and asked curiously:
"How did he die?"
"suicide?"
The woman was stunned for a moment, and said with her lower lip slightly raised:
"Oh, God, suicide is a big sin... But it's not surprising. The last few times I saw him, he had some mental problems. You know? He was nervous, like he was afraid of something. In bed, he used to ****, but now he likes ******, and he buried his **** in mine..."
"That's enough. I don't want to hear these details."
Xia De interrupted with a frown. Miss Servet was recording silently, so the woman in her thirties raised her lips and smiled:
"So what do you want to know?"
"Mr. Bundy, did he say anything strange? I went to the Noshan Opera Company where he worked, but Mr. Bundy didn't mention it to his friends. I think you are probably the only person he said anything to."
"Yes, but..."
Twisted his fingers.
Shad handed over another shilling, and the woman took it with a smile:
"He complained to me that he shouldn't have gone to the doctor to treat his eyes. After his eyes were cured, he always saw some vague shadows at night, and then those shadows became clearer and clearer. He didn't say what he saw. Poor old Bundy was actually scared by himself. I have heard of similar things. It seems that his eyes were not treated thoroughly. Old Bundy has never seen anything, so he was scared by such trivial things."
"Strange things..."
Shad glanced at Miss Servet, who nodded slightly. It seemed that their guess yesterday was correct.
"Well, did you know that he always used a bright yellow oil to put on his eyes?"
"Of course I know. This is the medicine the doctor prescribed for him. He must continue to use that strange medicine, otherwise his eyesight will worsen until he becomes blind again."
"If there is a way to make yourself invisible and avoid strange things in the dark, why don't you stop taking the medicine?"
Xia De asked again. The woman put her right index finger in front of her mouth, rubbed her nail with her teeth, and smiled mockingly:
"Sir, he has seen the light. You want him to give up, right?"
Shad immediately thought of the words in Mr. Bundy's suicide note -
I was once trapped in darkness but never lamented my fate, but now why do you want me to see the light
"I see. He didn't want to lose his sight and return to the dark world he was in before, but he endured the fear all the time until he madly gave up fighting against fate and ended his life."
Shad sighed and motioned Miss Servet to write this down carefully.
"A cowardly man."
Miss Mary leaned against the back of the chair and said, she reached into her pocket and actually took out a thin, low-quality cigarette, but when she saw Xia De's eyes, she put the tobacco back.
"Did Mr. Bundy leave any relics with you?"
Shade asked again.
"No."
The woman answered quickly.
"lie."
Miss Servet suddenly spoke up, and Shad was not surprised by this result.
"It's okay. I have special persuasion skills."
Xia De said softly, looked around, and seeing that no one was paying attention to this side, he took out a one-shilling silver coin from his pocket with his left hand, took out the revolver with his right hand, and put them together on the table.
He looked at the woman sitting opposite him:
"Which one would you like as a reward?"
So he successfully found the items left by Mr. Bundy in the cramped apartment where Miss Mary lived.
A patched men's coat, a pair of black wellies, a pack of old Rhodes cards, two mismatched socks, an empty wine bottle, some scribbled music sheets, a fountain pen with a rusty cap, and a flat curved bottle.
The bottle contained a bright yellow, oil-like liquid, and it was half full. This was exactly what Shad had found in the Noshan Opera Company.
So he took the bottle and the sheets of music, and left the rest to Miss Mary.
At this point, the investigation of clues about the Three Cats Inn has been completed. (To be continued)