Chapter 16 Chapter Sixteen

I walked around the street twice, looking at this place again and again. It was already dark, and I couldn't see very clearly. There was a light in a room in the front. The whole room seemed to be calm and inactive, at least there was absolutely no major activity going on. The house has a high-end style, and the thick ivy covers the side of the house facing the street and the porch, revealing that the status of the owner must not be low. I parked the company car and walked up the steps.Before ringing the doorbell, I took out the Jade Bodhisattva who had been following me in my pocket and hid it in the dark place of the ivy. I intuitively felt that it was inappropriate to bring the Jade Bodhisattva inside.If this guy was in collusion with Xuewei, and Xuewei stole Jade Bodhisattva for him, nine out of ten he already knew about me completely, and of course he would also know that Jade Bodhisattva is by my side now.

I pulled the ivy to hide the Jade Bodhisattva better, and rang the doorbell. The man who answered the door was even shorter than me, about fifty years old.A pair of watery eyes, wretched and wretched.Just looking at it reminds me of a mangy dog ​​in a back alley, pinching its tail, always waiting for someone's leather shoes and stones. I want to call on Mr. Zimmer.I said. I am Zi Momou.said the man, looking at me curiously with blue watery eyes. My surname is Lai.I told him: Lai Tangnuo, is a private detective.can i talk to you There's no reason not to, Mr. Lai.do you want to come in

I followed him into the house.We went through a reception hallway to the street room where I saw a light outside the door. This room is arranged like a study, like a private room and a work room.In the room there is a large desk, a small jeweler's workbench with several small jeweler's turntables, a drill press; a large safe with two cipher disks; a binocular microscope, some books, A large swivel chair was behind the desk, and in front of it were two old-fashioned leather upholstered straight-backed chairs. please sit down.He said in a calm and polite tone: Mr. Lai, tell me what I can do for you.

My purpose here is a little more sensitive.I said. Please tell me.He said. I kept watching him, hoping to find the most appropriate wording.May I ask if you recognize a model named Ha Xuewei.I asked. He picked up a pencil and began scribbling on a stack of paper.After a few seconds, he looked up and said: Does it matter? quite relevant.I said. It's up to you.He said. I said: I am professional, Mr. Qi. Professional? Yes, private eye. you told me. I was paid to work. uh-huh. Do you know that Huangfu Youtian is dead?I asked. I saw it in the newspaper. Huangfu Youtian has two valuable jade bodhisattvas, very good jadeite, almost flawless.The carving is also top-notch, with a ruby ​​inlaid on the forehead, it looks like there is a fire of wisdom in the mind of the Bodhisattva.

Qi Momou was still scribbling in his hands.He muttered in his mouth: Interesting. One of them was stolen the night before the murder.Three weeks before this incident, the other one had been stolen.Huangfu Youtian attached great importance to these two bodhisattvas and considered them priceless. Watery eyes lifted from the pile of scribbled paper, glanced at me, then lowered their heads again, drawing a triangle and slowly adding a circumcircle. I know who took these two bodhisattvas. Really capable. It won't be long before the police will know too. How long, how long, how long? Maybe a few minutes.

go on. Ha Xuewei, I said: a double-headed opportunist, a young woman with great mobility.She is smart and beautiful.She is naive, but she has no experience dealing with the police. As long as the police investigate her harder, she will confess. She has stolen some small but specific jewelry works of art many times besides Jade Bodhisattva. I didn't speak, and Qimomou didn't speak. The pencil kept scribbling on the paper, all of which were triangles and circumscribed circles. She will give your name.I said last. There is no reason to mention my name.He said, not looking up at all.

Of course the police will investigate.I said: They may be applying for a search warrant now. I stopped talking, and the room fell silent, only the sound of pencils scribbling on paper was heard. They will come here.I said: time is running out, how can I help? What can I do for you? I am currently representing the assets of Huangfu's family. I am working for the widow Huangfu Feili. I have been ordered to find the Jade Bodhisattva back. There is a bonus for this matter.If you help find Jade Bodhisattva, the insurance company will give you a bonus of 3,000 yuan. Of course, the insurance company has strict regulations on bonuses. The 3,000 yuan bonus must never be paid to the thief who stole the Jade Bodhisattva, or the person representing the thief, so it is very important for me to come forward.

I would like to come forward and say that you called me before the police knew about Ha Xuewei.Let me prove what you said: this jade bodhisattva is in your hands, and you bought it from a young lady who claimed to have passed it on to her from her ancestors.The lady said that her grandfather was a trader in the Far East. He bought it from China and kept it until it was passed on to her.Later, when you read the newspaper, you even thought of the similarity of this Jade Bodhisattva, so you called to tell me. In this way, you will stay out of the matter of receiving stolen goods, and you can get a bonus of three thousand yuan from the insurance company, maybe a little more.

How much do you want? I didn't expect him to be so blunt. I had to answer this question carefully. If I said it too cheaply, he would get suspicious.If I talk too much, he kicks me out. I waited for those watery eyes to look up at me.Say: One thousand yuan in cash. What if I don't have a thousand dollar bill?He said. I think you have. I'm sorry, he said: I'll answer the call first. He stood up, passed me, and walked outside.I heard him pick up a phone and say: Hello, hello yes.A door closes and all I can hear is the phone conversation, not what is being said. Apparently there were two telephones in the house, one in this room and another on a different line in a room at the back of the house, the one that just rang.

I sat alone in my room, thinking with my head. There's nothing wrong with my ears, I don't hear the phone ring.How can I be sure that there are two phones with different lines? I jumped up, moved to the office, and carefully picked up the phone. Just in time to hear Qi Momou's voice saying: Then I will leave it to you.The phone cuts off. I hastily put down the phone, as if afraid of burning my hands, and returned to the original chair.I was just lighting a cigarette and blowing out the match when Zimmer came in again. Friend, he said: You want a lot. In our line of work, expenses are also high.

Will it be too much? Not so. What guarantee do I have that you won't play tricks? In your presence, I can call Mrs. Huangfu.I told him I called from my apartment; I said you called me in the afternoon; I said I came to see you; you told me you had a Jade Bodhisattva, which looked like one of the stolen pair.I told her you wanted her to come over and I was sorry for disturbing her peace. He started doodling again, this time adding a quadrilateral circumscribing each circle. Zimomou looked at his watch. I look at mine. Time is running out.I reminded him. There are many.He said. I wait for him to continue. Suddenly, he straightened his waist.He said: You have to write a few words as I said. He handed me some paper and a pen in his hand. I said: I first need to know what you asked me to write. He said: I want you to write: I, Lai Tangnuo, a private investigator with a license, received a call from Zimomou at 2 o'clock this afternoon.Mr. Qi told me that he thought he had a stolen Jade Bodhisattva from the Huangfu Youtian collection project.According to Mr. Qi, this Jade Bodhisattva was purchased legally, but he was shocked because he read the newspaper and found that it was so similar to the stolen one in Huangfu's collection. I personally visited Qi Momou, and Qi Momou showed the Jade Bodhisattva, and I told him that it was indeed very similar to the stolen item.Mr. Qi immediately handed over the Jade Bodhisattva to me for safekeeping, and asked to use this statement as a receipt, and the Jade Bodhisattva will be returned to the owner by himself. Mr. Qi Momou told me that he bought the Jade Bodhisattva at a price of 1,000 yuan at the beginning, and he hoped that the sum of 1,000 yuan could be recovered. Otherwise, he declared that he would not take any money. I pretended to be a fool and said: I can get you three thousand yuan. Of course, he told me: You're going to get me three thousand dollars, and you said maybe more, but at the moment I need this statement for my own protection.In case you want to play tricks, I can use them.I don't use it unless necessary. If you come to me and make me a condition, it may be a lie.You said that you were invited by Mrs. Huangfu, I believe, at least I saw in the newspaper that your company was invited to protect Huangfu's collection. Friend, you yourself said time was running out.Whether you do it or not is up to you, you decide. Don't forget that I also have a purpose.I said: I have a thousand yuan. certainly. One thousand yuan must be in cash, this is a secret between the two of us. Just the two of us know?he asks. certainly.I assure him. Then you can write quickly.he told me. Say it again.You say, I will write.I said. He said it again, and I wrote it down, hesitated for a while, and signed my name. He opened the upper right drawer of the desk, took out a Jade Bodhisattva, took out a wallet from his pocket, counted out ten hundred-yuan bills, and handed the Jade Bodhisattva and the bills to me. I put the money in my pocket, grabbed Jade Bodhisattva, and said, "Maybe time is running out, I have to slip away before the police come." I'm feeling it too.He said. He walked me to the door, he didn't bother to shake my hand, and I didn't bother to shake his hand. I hurried across the street, jumped into the company car, started the engine, turned on the headlights, and shifted the gear into first.When the car was about to leave the road, a cold, hard, round iron was placed on the back of the head and neck. Take your time, man.A voice said: Turn right at the corner ahead, and there is an open space after two streets, drive slowly into it. I thought about it quickly.who are you?I asked. It doesn't matter much.He said. What are you going to do? We will tell you. note?I asked. Ask less questions and focus on moving forward. Turn off the engine.said the voice. I turn off the engine. The lights went out. I turned off the lights. Put your hands on your head, fingers interlocking. I do as he bids. They searched my whole body with two hands to see if there was any weapon. get out. I get out of the car. Two people came out of the rear door, both of them were very tall people.When I opened the door to enter their trap, it was really difficult for them to hide behind the front seat of our company car for two people their age. You're pretty nosy, aren't you?one said. As I was turning around, another guy hit me; one punch on the side of my head left me with stars in my eyes, nothing in my stomach but retching and nausea, and another punch hit me on the other side. side temples. I fell down, out of breath, and a guy kicked me in the ribs, and I sat up and grabbed his calf.He didn't pay attention, I threw him hard and threw him to the ground. I heard someone laughing, something hit me on the head and nothing felt right anymore.