Mermaid Reef

John felt that after Jason appeared, he felt cold all over.

For the sake of the commission fee, he couldn't drive Jason out, so he had to add a few logs to the fireplace to make the fire burn stronger.

"Although I'm glad to hear your affirmation of my ability, I don't want to touch more things in the mysterious field." John emphasized that he didn't want to go crazy.

"It has nothing to do with mystery."

Jason dropped the gems casually on top of the pile of gold coins, and the firelight from the fireplace cast them into a bright halo.

John's eyes followed this beautiful halo.

Ah, how sad, poverty tormented his soul, and forced him to serve the devil—John leaned back feebly in his chair, fished out a cigarette, struck a match, and lit it.

Taking a deep breath, John showed a standard social smile:

"Please tell me, Mr. Johnson, that detectives are always happy to help other people with problems they are not good at handling."

Jason took out the newspaper he bought earlier and put it on the table.

"The matter I'm going to entrust actually has something to do with you...or, it used to have something to do with it."

The page that Jansen opened was the date and results of several court sessions of the Brandon family estate dispute case summarized by the "Daily Telegraph". The page also included a black and white photo taken at the gate of the court.

The inheritance dispute has been going on for two years.

The impatient man in the photo is the protagonist of the incident.

A 48-year-old unlucky guy who was suspected by his relatives of being an illegitimate child and questioned that he had no right to inherit.

It was also John's former client.

John rushed to Black Lagoon, Iceland, for the baptism certificate of Mr. Brandon, and wanted to find Pastor Conor to write a personal certification document, but encountered a mysterious incident in Black Lagoon, and finally the town was destroyed by a tsunami. Pastor Conor also died, and John could only return to England empty-handed.

John's detective career fell to the bottom because of this incident.

Although in the eyes of outsiders, the tsunami was a natural disaster and there was nothing manpower could do about it, it was true that John did not complete the commission and got back key documents to prove it.

Some people even say that Mr. Brandon has been deeply involved in inheritance disputes for two full years because he did not get the written certificate from Pastor Conor in time. If the detective that Mr. How about leaving Black Lagoon before the disaster?

So in the description of the London tabloids, it was the stingy Mr. Brandon who hired a bad detective and mistrusted him, which led to the lawsuit being dragged into the quagmire.

Although no one knows the detective's name, it does not prevent reporters and critics from ridiculing.

Seeing the bitter satire in the Daily Telegraph, John's face darkened.

If someone else sat in front of him, he would tell the other person to get out of the apartment on the spot.

"I'm sorry about the adverse effect of Pastor Conor's death on you." Jason made an apologetic gesture, but John felt that this expression was perfunctory.

Jensen continued: "So I brought a handsome commission fee, plus compensation."

He put a money bag on the table again, also forty gold coins.

John: "..."

"I think you should have regained your composure and are willing to listen to my entrustment." Jason clicked on the photo in the newspaper and said seriously, "I hope this lawsuit ends in Mr. Brandon's failure."

"what?"

John was shocked and laughed, "What are you talking about? I'm just a detective, a crappy detective who doesn't even own a house! I'm not a judge, and I can't influence the jury's thoughts. It's not in my business."

Jason waited for him to finish before saying calmly: "No, you can collect evidence, follow Brandon, and find evidence against him."

John retorted: "The relatives of the Brandon family have done this for a long time. They also hired detectives, but the evidence they found was not sufficient, so this lawsuit has been dragged on until today. Mr. Brandon is a man who is proficient in the law. , a very capable person is not easy to deal with."

"Those detectives are far inferior to you," Jason replied.

John's expression was complicated. Although the compliment was good, the compliment from the mysterious existence made his hair stand on end.

"You just haven't seen too many detectives..."

"No, I have seen your ability in Black Lagoon Town, and most importantly, I know the true identity of this Mr. Brandon."

Jason's body leaned forward slightly, his voice was deep and powerful, "He is not the heir of the Brandon family, not even an illegitimate child, he is the son of Pastor Conor. Someone used this child to replace the Brandon family and raised him in the countryside children."

John looked at Jason in shock, then turned to the newspaper.

The detective suddenly grabbed the newspaper and re-read its contents.

The first to file a lawsuit was the elder Brandon's nephew.

He thought that Mr. Brandon did not have the family's iconic blue eyes, but brown. Although the old lady had brown eyes, Mr. Brandon looked nothing like his relatives.Especially when the old lady went to the country to recuperate, Mr. Brandon was born in the country and was taken back to London when he was six years old.

Because divorce is almost impossible, at most they can only live apart, so going to the countryside to recuperate means that the relationship has completely broken down.

In this case, the couple will have another child, which is almost impossible.

Newspaper critics also suggested that Mr. Brandon might be the maid's child, and could not be the product of the old lady's derailment, because the old Brandon recognized him.

Mr. Brandon, who was suspected to be the illegitimate child of the maid, was very lucky, because the old Brandon collapsed quickly and died of mental problems soon after. When Mr. Brandon was 28 years old, his brother also died.

As the second son, Mr. Brandon inherited the property and family business.

The Brandon family is descended from nobles. The old Brandon is the third son of the Marquis. He made a fortune in the shipping business. His relatives used to be richer than him, so he didn't care about the land and property bought by this businessman.Many aristocrats' lives are tight now, and things broke out.

As John said, his former client was a formidable character.

Although the lawsuit dragged on for two years, during this period, one member of the Brandon family had a heart attack, one was robbed and killed, and another died in a jealous duel.

On the face of it, none of these deaths had anything to do with Mr. Brandon.

Apart from that one robbery, too many old people died of heart attacks and young people died in duels every year to count.

Although John had doubts, but he was eager to get rid of this previous commission, and worried that the cruel Mr. Brandon would make trouble for him, so he deliberately avoided these things and usually hid.

Now these pieces of information are arranged in my mind one by one, plus the explosive truth I got today, Old Brandon was found to have a mental problem before his death, Old Brandon’s shipping industry, the photo of Pastor Conor and Old Brandon, the picture Photos lost when the Zephyr sank, vengeance, ghost ship...

Finally John's gaze rested on Jason's face.

He stood up abruptly, and said in an unbelievable voice: "You are the child, the child who was replaced by Pastor Conor!"

The photo was black and white and very old, so John didn't know the color of old Brandon's eyes, and old Brandon had a beard on his face. Looking back carefully now, the outline of that face was indeed somewhat similar to that of Jason.

After John came back from Black Lagoon, newspapers have published news about inheritance disputes in the past two years. John has seen several members of the Brandon family and deepened his impressions before he can draw a conclusion smoothly.

Jason was so unlike any of these people, despite the similar facial features.

They looked handsome and dignified, wore expensive clothes, and looked like gentlemen, giving people the impression that they were either arrogant and gloomy, or frivolous and impatient.

Compared to Jensen, it's as clumsy as the glass in front of a jewel.

"This, this is impossible...you are..."

John felt like his head was going to explode.

Jason is a mysterious existence with weird and unpredictable powers. How could he have a human identity?

But when it comes to "revenge", John, who has seen the power of Sea God with his own eyes, knows that it is impossible for a mysterious existence to have enmity with human beings, and human beings are simply not qualified to be enmity with ancient gods.

In Pastor Conor's notes, mysterious existences are divided into two categories.

One of them is the ancient gods, the masters of the past. They are powerful and terrifying, and they have already fallen into a deep sleep. It is best not to provoke them if they can.

The other is the mystery that was born not long ago, which is relatively speaking, it may be decades or hundreds of years ago, as long as the correct method is used to combat their spiritual pollution, their power may be used, or worthy of human study.

John didn't read the following content carefully, and the notes were lost in the tsunami two years ago, but the information is enough.

Reverend Conor wasn't out to plot the Brandon property.

The old pastor stared at the child who was born in the country. There must be something unusual about the child.

Even the old pastor and the child's father, old Brandon, may be complicit!

Reverend Conor was too hasty to escape, and old Brandon brought the boy back from the country, and wanted to hold him hostage,

As a result, before the pastor was found, the old Brandon suffered a sudden illness, or a mental illness, and he failed to tell anyone the truth in time.

John's client dared to write a letter to Pastor Connor because he believed that the pastor would help him, and might even help him to testify in court...

The above conclusions jumped out one after another, making John dizzy.

"What's going on here? What did Pastor Conor do? Could it be that he found a ghost ship and used a special child as a medium to steal the power of a mysterious existence?" John stared at Jason.

The atmosphere in the room was eerie, only the fire in the fireplace was burning quietly.

Jason's expression remained the same, he raised his hands and clapped lightly: "I said a long time ago that you are a very good detective, as long as the clues are in front of your eyes, you will connect everything together and find the truth .”

John broke down and said, "You want me to reveal the truth? I'm afraid the judge won't believe in the existence of 'occultism', nor will he believe that a respectable priest made a sacrifice with the acquiescence of the child's father." The things of evil gods."

"It's not a sacrifice."

Jason corrected very seriously, "They tried to replace the gods. They discovered that a 'mystery' was at the most critical stage, but lacked wisdom, so they looked for a medium to allow the 'mystery' to merge with controllable objects."

"And they failed?"

"Yes, even the most inconspicuous mystery, a mystery that has not grown up, is not an existence that humans can imagine."

When Jason said this, his expression was calm, as if it had nothing to do with him.

"When witnessing the real body of the ghost ship, everyone went crazy. Only Priest Conor and old Brandon who hid in the cabin survived by relying on some mysterious runes. I am not that child, I just have the memory and memory of that child. Emotionally, I have been looking for Pastor Conor for 40 years."

If it wasn't for the fact that Sea God was awakened by the smuggling weapon fight on Forestier's deserted island that day.

If it wasn't for the Zephyr that John was on that day, it happened to pass by, and was strayed into the mysterious realm by the storm, and hit the ghost ship again.

Jensen wouldn't have found the letter to Reverend Conor from a man pretending to be Brandon in John's luggage and belongings, and found that photo.

Jason felt a little uncomfortable thinking about Gemil.

John, however, mistook this subtle change of expression for Jason's concern about the impostor.

"Well, you want this guy to fail and lose everything? Count on the old Brandon's diary or something?" John asked a little confused, "Forgive me, you can't stand up and inherit the property. "

"Old Brandon has a daughter."

Jason took out another handful of emeralds from his pocket and said emphatically, "A woman who has been widowed for three years, if she abandons those mean husband's relatives and the pitifully small property of her husband's family, and takes the children back to cloth Langdon's surname, she is more qualified than any relative to inherit the old Brandon's family property."

"But she..."

John retorted subconsciously, and then suddenly thought of something.

Just two years ago, the United Kingdom introduced a new inheritance law, and women can also become property heirs (Note)

"I don't care about the money of the Brandon family. Human wealth means nothing to me, but I don't want these things to fall into the hands of that Conor. Maybe I can easily kill him and make him crazy, but then It's so boring, he should be sober and lose everything."

Jason put the dozen or so large and small emeralds on the gold coins, and let them add a beautiful halo to the small, dilapidated apartment.

Jason stood up, put on his hat, and nodded politely to the stunned John: "If you are unwilling to accept the 'evil' entrustment, then treat it as seeking justice for a child who only lived for six years but suffered so much. You can take a break from old Brandon's eldest son who died 20 years ago, that was a hidden crime too, wasn't it? Goodbye."

The door is closed.

Only the dazed John and the gold coins and precious stones covered the table were left.

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The author has something to say:

Detective: Shit, he gave way too much

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Note: In 1925, British women could legally become the sole heirs of the full property. Before that, they could only get part of the property in the will.In particular, non-tradable land, additional properties, and titles were impossible to inherit unless the king granted permission in the past, so if the duke had no son, it would be troublesome, and he could only marry his daughter to his property heir (that is, a close relative) after 1925 , British women finally have the possibility of inheriting full property in addition to marriage