The Evil God of Hogwarts - Chapter 350

c340 Strange old man

“Do you know what this building was used for before?” Ellie asked, retracting her curious gaze.

The man held out his cigarette box to her, and when he saw the detective shaking his head, he lit one for himself. “Before we rented this place, it had been empty. Oh, no, there was a shipping company that wanted to rent it before. What was it called, um – let me think about it.”

The man walked to the shoe cabinet, pulled over the clean glass ashtray and continued: “Oh, it’s called Monks Ocean Company, and they gave me a business card.”

Ellie nodded, and she continued to ask: “So, you don’t know what happened here?”

“Ha!” The man leaned against the shoe cabinet, his posture was elegant and relaxed, and his long-term dance practice made his body as flexible as a girl, “Are you referring to the shooting in the nursing home? Of course I know about this, and everyone living nearby knows it.”

“Tell me about it.” Ellie took out her notes and looked like she was listening attentively.

“Are you serious?” The man’s face was full of confusion. He didn’t understand why a detective came to inquire about this.

In his opinion, there are at least three versions of the nursing home shooting that are circulating here, not counting the ones in the newspapers. Instead of asking him, it is better to go to the local newspaper office to find out. Those reporters are like hounds, and no details can escape their noses.

“Do you think I am kidding?” Ellie asked back.

The man flicked the ash into the ashtray and said, “Okay, okay, I didn’t expect to be so idle as a detective. I would have taken the exam if I had known.”

“Then I’m afraid you have to take off your little skirt first.” Ellie pointed at the light pink nightgown on the man with a pen. “By the way, the skirt is nice. Where did you buy it?”

The man looked down at his nightgown and smiled and said, “You have a good eye. It’s a new model of this year in the department store two blocks away. The clerk saw that I was a man and wanted to cheat me, but she didn’t succeed.

“If you are really interested, we can discuss the price later. But I think you are just complimenting me. Since I am very useful, tell me what you want to know about the shooting. As we all know, you can find most of the details of the case in newspapers and police reports.

“So either you are a hopelessly stupid detective, or you want to find out something that the public doesn’t know. I’m curious, why did you come to me?”

“You rented this place, Mr. Carpenter? Or…”

“Just call me Carpenter.” The man spit out the cigarette in his mouth, “If you think I know a lot of secrets because we rented this place, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. We rented this place entirely because the price is cheap. After all, not many people are willing to open a company in such an unlucky place.”

“Monks Ocean Company.” Ellie reminded.

“Oh, yes. As far as I know, that shipping company closed down after about half a year.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Carpenter stood up from the shoe cabinet, one hand folded across his chest, “Maybe there was a tsunami. You know, those shipping companies have never been stable.”

Ellie wrote down the name of the company in her notebook and asked, “So, it’s just that the rent is cheap.”

“My partner never believes in these superstitious things. He only cares about profits.”

“Will this not affect your business? In a place like this?”

“A little bit, but the people who come here are generally outsiders. What’s more, it’s been a long time since this happened, and not many people still remember it.”

“If you say that, you must know who still remembers these things.” Ellie asked.

“Detective, I’m not the kind of person who likes to gossip about others.”

“Give me a name, Carpenter, and I promise you can go to class safely today.”

“You know, detective, I just had a little crush on you. Don’t let this feeling fade away so quickly.”

Ellie smiled, but didn’t speak.

The two looked at each other for a while until Carpenter put out the cigarette in his hand in the ashtray.

“Okay, okay.” He compromised, “There is an old man in the apartment building across the street, named Strike, or Strike or something. Anyway, you can ask him, he is probably the person who has lived in the block the longest.”

“Look, it’s not difficult to say it.” Ellie said, “There is another question. Do you know a man named Kimball?”

“Kimball?” Carpenter looked confused, “Never heard of it.”

Coming out of the dance training institution, Ellie stood on the street and looked at the apartment across the street. She took out her pocket watch to check the time. There was still a while before the police station went to work, so she should have time to visit the old man Strike.

She walked quickly across the street and arrived in front of the apartment building. This old-fashioned apartment building had a doorbell. Ellie reached out and pressed it. As expected, it was broken.

She exhaled, reached out and patted the rusty iron door. After the first knock failed, the eldest lady increased her strength and shouted: “Liverpool Police Department, open the door!”

I don’t know if it was the shouting or the increased force of the knocking that worked, the iron door finally opened. The manager of the apartment was a woman in her thirties. She stared, obviously quite dissatisfied with being disturbed so early in the morning.

However, after Ellie took out her police officer ID, she slightly restrained the expression on her face, but she didn’t mean to open the door to let Ellie in.

“What do you want, officer?”

“Does Strike live here?”

“Are you referring to Mr. Scott?”

“I think so. An elderly man.”

“That should be him.” The administrator said affirmatively, “Did he commit a crime again?”

“Why do you say that? Did he do something that I need to pay attention to?”

Hearing Ellie say that, the administrator realized that she had said the wrong thing. She shook her head and said, “No, uh, he just has a strange personality. Everyone who lives here knows that he has a little…”

“Take me to see him.”

“Uh, can I see your ID again?” The administrator asked cautiously.

Ellie nodded, took out the police ID and placed it in front of her. After the administrator looked at it carefully, he asked, “Are you satisfied? Can you take me to see him?”

“Please wait, I’ll open the door for you.” The administrator opened the iron door, “Excuse me, officer. It’s not peaceful here, we have to be careful.”

Ellie walked into the apartment and waved her hand, “It’s okay. So, you said before that Scott is a little weird, right?”

“I…I, almost, detective. He has lived here for a long time and is old. You know, old people are like this.”

“If you think that old people are like this, then what is the weird thing about him that makes you feel weird?”

Ellie’s question stumped the administrator. She hesitated for a long time, and finally said, “You should go see him yourself, detective.”