Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

1875年,12月24日，下午04:30。

The port of Marseille, France, is deserted.

Today, most people return home early, gather around the warm fireplace and wait for the annual Christmas dinner.

"Aiden, Sam. Hurry up today and try to deliver within an hour."

The boatman Green said while pulling the anchor, and then the boat left the port and set off for a small island several kilometers away.

——It is the location of the Chateau d'If prison surrounded by the sea.

Château d'If prison, known as the strongest prison in France, once entered, almost cut off contact with the outside world.

This year, the prison has just installed a telegraph.Due to the high cost of communication, unless there is a major event such as a prison robbery, it will not be used at all.

There is no permanent spare ship on the island, in case prisoners escape from the prison and escape by robbing the ship.

Usually, every Tuesday and Saturday, they depart from the Port of Marseilles to go to the Island Prison to resupply supplies.If the prison guards want to change their taste and eat some fresh ingredients, they must contact the delivery boatman a week in advance.

Even if a prisoner dies of illness in the prison, the body must be transported back to land, and there will be a situation where it has to be stored for a few days until the ship arrives.

Today is an exception.

There are only a few exceptions a year, and today is an extra Christmas dinner for the prison guards.

There were three people in the boat, Green who drove the boat, and Aiden and Sam who carried the goods.

The pockmarked Sam is Kelsey who bought the cargo fleet to work for others.

Why did you leave London, England and come to Marseille, France when you clearly agreed to spend a peaceful Christmas?

If Sherlock asked, Kelsey had good reason to start with Joan Spada's suicide note.

Joan's suicide note was not long, less than half a page of letter paper.

At the beginning, a sentence is quoted: "The undead in the pyramid linger for a long time, some are peeping, and some are guarding the huge treasures left by the predecessors. 』

Later, Joan writes about how she pretended for several years to be the janitor of the Egyptian Museum, and when the end came, she found that she really liked Egyptian culture.

In the face of death, she has no regrets.Her undead will go to the underworld and will also become a member of the guardian pyramid.

This trip is not going to hell, so I won't meet Lucifer again.

Lucifer, who fell from a holy angel to a devil, is the representative of the sin of arrogance, but it is difficult to feel the arrogance from him when we first met him.

It reads at the end, 'It's just that the devil Lucifer is no longer a kind angel.No matter how he disguises himself, he attempts to rule in darkness.Lucifer is defiant, and darkness may come when human beings are at their happiest. '

Kelsey read it several times, except for the reference to the quote at the end, and she even used the revealing potion, but there was no extra line in the letter.

This suicide note said that ordinary is very ordinary, which are all lies.

Joan Spada simply said two points, she will go to the underworld to guard the secrets of the pyramid, and the devil Lucifer will come to the world eventually.

Similar arguments are very common. If you look through cheap horror novels on the street, five out of ten may use this as the story.

The strange thing is the content.

Joan has a son, why should she send a suicide note to the unfamiliar Joe Smith?

Still, a letter with no substantial content at first glance was sent across Haiti to the United States.

Could it be that he was bored with nothing to do and just wrote a letter before he died?Or the deep meaning she wanted to express was hidden in a few words.

Letters sent out by the prison, even suicide notes, must be checked.Maybe something, Joan could only pass it on to Joe Smith in a hinted way.

The intersection of Joe Smith and Joan Spada is just that the former exposed the latter's exchange poisoning layout.When the latter is dying, what important news needs to be conveyed to the former?

Two possibilities.

First, Joan has a discovery that cannot be determined to be true or false, and wants to hand it over to Joe to decipher the proof.

Second, there is a follow-up to the poisoning case, which is related to the leader Svoboda who is serving a sentence in the Chateau d'If prison.

According to Kelsey's analysis, these two possibilities correspond to the two points expressed by Joan in her suicide note.

Especially the second point, the devil Lucifer is a fallen angel, implying that he has fallen from a doctor to the leader of a serial murder case.

Combined with several cases encountered before, several times were related to the seven deadly crimes.

Lucifer, representing the arrogant devil.Arrogance, one of the seven deadly sins.

Assuming that Swoboda claimed that his arrogance was invincible, how could he plead guilty without objection, accept trial with humility, and be imprisoned with obedience?

Unless the Chateau d'If prison is the goal of Svoboda from beginning to end!

He immigrated to France from the Czech Republic in order to be sentenced to a French prison, and according to his crimes, he was most likely to be sent to the Chateau d'If prison.

In this way, Swoboda has the world in his hands.

Isn't it a manifestation of extreme arrogance to achieve your goals even if you don't hesitate to serve a sentence in prison.He believed that he would be able to escape unscathed, or worse, as Joan wrote, Lucifer would bring darkness to the world.

Thinking of this, Kelsey immediately sent a telegram to the Turin police in Italy, asking if Joan had sent letters to other people before she died?

The answer is no.

Joan sent only one letter after being imprisoned, that is, a letter sent from an Italian prison to Joe Smith in the United States by asking the prison guards before her death in early November.

Because of forwarding, the suicide note arrived in Kelsey's hands in mid-December.

The only letter ever sent, the deceased sender Joan Spada, means that no one else can give a direct reference now.

"Lucifer is arrogant, and darkness may come when human beings are at their happiest."

Kelsey pondered the sentence.The happiest moment Darkness falls, does it signify a point in time?Will it be a symbolic Christmas?

If in doubt, confirm it.

Immediately bought a ferry ticket to France, and found the guard who bought it last time.

Kelsey managed to meet Swoboda while he was in custody in Paris pending sentencing.

At that time, she suspected that Svoboda's behavior was suspicious and there was an unaccounted for crime, but the verification failed.

Suspicion has always existed, and this time Joan's suicide note aggravated this suspicion.

Kelsey hopes to see Swoboda again to find out, but wants to find out exactly how he wants to bring darkness into the world.

However, the Château d'If prison is much more difficult to enter than the Paris police station.

It hangs alone on the sea, and even the prison guards inside cannot leave the island at will, let alone allow outsiders to visit the prison.

However, there is no perfect prison in this world.

Kelsey's price was high enough, asking for a chance to go to the island quietly.Then I got a message that on December 12, an additional cargo ship would be sent to provide extra meals for the prison guards.

Few people wanted to go to sea to work on Christmas Eve, so Kelsey had the opportunity to work on behalf of others.

When she landed on the island, she would contact the deputy warden Sauron and tell her that Black Eagle had introduced her, so she would have 10 minutes of private visiting time.Of course, to be on the safe side, there must be a jailer watching over the prison during the visit.

At dusk, the sea breeze blows.

The wind swayed the boat.Green and Aiden were unmoved at all, and had long been used to the bumps.

When the ship sailed out of the port to an open place, the Chateau d'If Prison could be seen far away.

The towering gray and white rock building looks like a knife and an axe. It suddenly appears on the sea, as if it is naturally gray and has nothing to do with warmth.

Kelsey overlooked the prison. During the few days waiting to land on the island, she took the time to go to the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy.

The statement about Lucifer in the second half of Joan’s suicide note can be inferred to be related to Svoboda, but what is the meaning of the sentence she quoted at the beginning?

The quotation about the undead in the pyramid at the beginning of the suicide note is not a profound point of view or rhetoric, and most of the books on the market that mention Egypt will have something to do with it.

Joan could have said it in her own words, but she quoted the original sentence and gave a detailed source.

"Quoted from The Dead Are Watching You: The Treasure and Curse of the Pyramids, p. 42, 1852, published by the Roman Fallian Press."

This approach is really weird.

Is there anything special about the books mentioned?

This spring, Kelsey posed as Professor Joe to participate in the Egypt exchange meeting, and she read through many books related to Egypt.

Whether it was British or a book in the library of the Turin Museum, she didn't remember that there was a copy of "The Dead Are Watching You".

With this question, Kelsey approached Forman, the curator of the Egyptian Museum, but got an unexpected news.

"Oh! This book is not a work, it is a popular ghost story."

Thanks to Foman's Appreciation of Elegance and Common Appreciation, there is really this book, but I pointed out a misremembering. "The book wasn't published in Rome, it was published in Turin. It wasn't published 23 years ago either. It was first serialized five years ago and finished printing four years ago."

Open the book, page 42, counting from top to bottom, the words quoted by Joan appear on lines 9-10.

There is no mistake in the book, it is word for word.

Kelsey was still puzzled, and she read the entire book, not quite understanding what Joan meant by quoting this sentence alone.

However, Kelsey was sure that Joan would not misremember the place and date of the book's publication.

That also means that in 1852, in the late Napoleonic First Empire in this world, Rome was also under its jurisdiction.It is probable that a man named Faria, or something marked by it, happened in Rome.

Time is running out, and Kelsey wonders if she can make a trip back and forth to Rome before Christmas Eve to find out about the incident.

Or whether it is extremely peaceful or not, she first asked a few words to the curator Forman in his hometown in Rome.Furman actually knew a priest named Faria, who was imprisoned in 1852.

"23 years ago, I was planning to get married and wanted to find the most respected priest to witness the marriage. I originally hoped to invite Father Faria, but I don't know what happened. He was questioned and imprisoned in Chateau d'If."

Curator Furman sighed and recalled, "That's unbelievable. Father Faria is a good man and a wise elder. In fact, many people thought he was slandered, but there was no evidence back then, and no one dared to confront the Holy See."

Is Joan's label referring to Father Faria? Is Father Faria imprisoned wrongly?

Twenty-three years later, Napoleon has died, and Italy has established itself as an independent country. It is difficult for anyone to think of proposing to reverse the case for those in prison.

To Kelsey's surprise, it was the Chateau d'If prison again.

Could there be an inference that Svoboda went to prison on purpose just so that he could see Father Faria?

The answer is at hand.

Green docks the boat while Kelsey and Aiden unload the cargo.

On the other side, Green also got off the boat, and went to knock on the gate of the prison with ease. "Baldy, it's me, bringing the Christmas dinner!"

Not long after, the prison gate was opened.

Green was taken aback for a moment, the gatekeeper today was unexpectedly Captain Bolton, not the bald jailer he was familiar with.

"Don't stand still, I'm waiting for you to bring the wine. The bald man has already gone to help the kitchen, you move your things to the back kitchen."

Bolton spoke impatiently, motioning the three of them to come in quickly.

The three stepped across the rusted threshold.

Bolton quickly locked the iron door, the click sound was especially harsh in the silent prison.

Bolton didn't intend to lead the way, but stopped when he saw Pocky Face, and handed over all the supplies in his hand to Green.

Kelsey grabbed her hat with a silly smile, "Sir, I'm here to deliver something to Deputy Warden Sauron, can you do it for me?"

This kind of thing is not allowed on the surface, but it is repeatedly prohibited in secret.

Originally, they thought it would be enough to let the bald jailer lead the way, but they didn't expect to meet Captain Bolton today.

Kelsey quickly handed over a small bag of gold coins, and the traveling fee was indispensable.

Bolton grabbed the purse and weighed it slightly, but his expression was still impatient. "Okay, let's go this way."

So, the four separated.

Kelsey followed Bolton around corners to the guards' rest area.

Walking all the way and paying attention to the surroundings, for some reason, she always felt that the Chateau d'If prison was a bit too quiet.

In her previous life, she went to quite a few prisons, either interrogating detainees or giving prisoners psychological evaluations.

There was never a time like today's Château d'If prison, which gave people a feeling of death, as if there were not many living people left here.

"arrive."

Bolton stopped in front of a corridor and pointed to the end. "The penultimate room has a nameplate on the door. Deputy Warden Sauron won't wake up until dinner is served. You knock on the door yourself. I don't care that much."

"Thanks……"

Before Kelsey finished thanking him, Bolton turned and left.This guy's impatience was palpable, as if he was anxiously waiting for the Christmas dinner to arrive.

This will not care about any attitude issues.

Kelsey walked down the corridor, scanning the room nameplates along the way.The outermost is the common room of several prison guards, the inside is the room of the squad leader, and the end is the room of the warden.

Although the sun had not completely set at dusk, the prison corridor was already so dark that lights had to be turned on.

This made the feeling of dead silence reappear. Walking through one door after another, not a single room made the slightest sound.

Three meters, two meters, one meter.

When it was half a meter away from Sauron's room, a sudden change occurred.

Kelsey suddenly fell to the ground, less than two seconds later, there was a 'bang' gunshot.

I saw a bullet whizzing past, even passing through the position where Kelsey had just stood.If she slows down, the bullet doesn't hit the wall, it hits her body.

Bolton, who fired, obviously didn't expect the shot to miss.

He froze for a moment, took a few quick steps in, raised his hand and was about to shoot the ground again.

'boom! ''boom! '

Kelsey was faster than Bolton, and when he fell sideways, he drew the gun from the calf holster.Two bullets hit Bolton's right hand holding the gun and his thigh back and forth.

'Boom! ''Kang——'

The gun in Bolton's right hand fell with a sound, and slid a long distance away. He also fell to his knees without standing still.

"you……"

Before Bolton could ask anything, a man in a prisoner's uniform jumped out from behind him, and smashed him on the head with a stick.

'Bang! '

Bolton hit the ground face down, completely silent for a moment, and then the prisoner dragged away the keychain from his waist.

Kelsey quickly got up and collected Bolton's gun, but did not approach the prisoner rashly.

In the dead and silent prison, the prison guards who intercepted and killed the supply supplies, and the prisoners who turned against the prison guards.

Today, this Christmas Eve, a major change has taken place in the Chateau d'If prison that the outside world does not know about.

"Are you a boatman? Go, grab the boat. It's too late, we can't go."

The prisoner spoke quickly, "That cold-blooded doctor, no, it was the prisoner Svoboda, who poisoned the entire prison. Almost all the prisoners died, as did the warden and deputy warden. His accomplices were three A little captain."

Kelsey wanted to ask: How are you still alive?

This one obviously didn't have the heart to say more.

Running out of the corridor, he rushed to a pillar and helped an old man hidden behind the pillar to his feet.

The old man was also wearing prison clothes, and his complexion was very bad, as if he was dying.

At this time, based on his rich experience, Kelsey restored the old man's youthful appearance from his old face, which was consistent with the description of curator Furman.

"You are Father Faria? Do you know the Spadas?"

The old man was startled and opened his eyes wide.

Although his face was pale, his eyes were extremely sharp at the moment. "Who are you? No, who sent you here?"

"Joan Spada, she mentioned Faria's name. Maybe you don't remember the lady, though."

Kelsey didn't elaborate. Now is not the time to reminisce about the past, so he quickly explained why he came: "But no one sent me here. I just thought there was something wrong with Svoboda, and I wanted to come and try to find his flaws."

However, he never expected to encounter a prison blood change!

"Joan? By the way, it's Joan, that girl, the last of the Spada bloodline."

Father Faria muttered to himself, and quickly returned to his senses.He nodded to the prisoner who supported him, indicating that the visitor should be fine.

The prisoner announced his name as he walked, "Edmond Dantès, what is your name?"

Wait a minute, why does this name sound familiar?

Kelsey finally finds shallow imprints from her barren literary fiction memory.

If you change the name, it will be more familiar.The original name of the Count of Monte Cristo was Edmond Dantès.And the Count of Monte Cristo escaped from the prison of Chateau d'If.

good, very good.

Even if Kelsey hadn't read this set of long masterpieces, she was sure that Dantès in the book never escaped from prison under such circumstances.

Why so sure?

Because she visited the Chateau d'If prison, the guide's commentary did not mention the bloodbath of the prison, and the display boards in the prison did not mark it as such.

Otherwise, it can be said that it is better to have no books than to believe in books.

Kelsey has no memories of related novels to refer to, and she has no complaints about it, but what she complains about is luck in this life.

— She wanted to have a peaceful Christmas, it was so difficult.

"Jerry Sam."

Kelsey paused, showing a simple and natural smile, "You can call me Lucky Boy. Please believe that everyone calls me that."

Dantès: Is it an illusion?Something seemed wrong, but I couldn't tell why.