The Sensory Animals of Ston Hill

"Eric Mosen?" The police officer, who was nearly forty years old, had serious lines on his mouth all the year round, and his tone of questioning was also extremely severe.This is his professional habit, he thinks it is more difficult for a person to lie in front of majesty.

"Yes, sir." The servant Eric was overwhelmed by his majesty, and sat on the chair stiffly, twisting his frayed felt hat with both hands.

"Please describe in detail what you saw at the time."

"At that time..." There was a subtle fear in the male servant's eyes, as if seeing the blood again.He was a little emotional, and besides what he saw with his own eyes, he also added a lot of his own guesses and conjectures, and poured out all of them.

The police officer took notes quickly while listening, and after he finished speaking, he wrote a few more lines before stopping, and asked, "But you didn't see Mr. Wales' so-called counterattack with your own eyes, let alone Mr. Ward attacking Wales. Don't you, sir?"

Some men cannot be questioned and denied. The servant in front of him is such a person. He was so angry because of this question that he forgot their identities, stood up impulsively, and raised his voice and asked: "I don't know I understand why you have such doubts! There were only three of them at the time. If it wasn't for that bastard who moved his hand, could it be that Mr. Wales himself broke the corner of the table? Did you see how deep the wound was? It was almost killed that gentleman! I wonder how you should doubt such obvious facts."

"You called Mr. Ward a 'bastard,'" said the inspector flatly.

The servant Eric was slightly taken aback, thinking that the butler was already dead, so it might not be good to say that a dead person is so.But he didn't want to admit the hesitation in his heart. Instead, he scolded in a more disgusted tone than before: "That's a bastard! I told you just now that we rushed to the court because we heard Mr. Wales call Grace's name." The guy who ran upstairs... that bastard has never been kind to Grace before!"

"is it?"

"Yes! I've seen... more than one time! When Grace wiped the floor, she lifted her skirt and tucked it around her waist, revealing... calves. I've seen that bastard staring at her feet and legs more than once. Non-stop. Another time, he purposely let Grace carry things upstairs, while he stood on the stairs and peeked up..."

The police officer lowered his head and wrote down these, and asked, "Do you admire Miss Grace?"

The male servant's entire face was distorted in astonishment and embarrassment. He rolled the old felt hat into a ball and said with a wry smile: "Actually, there is nothing to be ashamed of. More than half of the male servants in the villa admire her."

"Is anyone chasing her?"

"Mr. Inspector, does this question have anything to do with the murder?"

"Maybe it's relevant, maybe it's not. Please answer my question."

"No... at least as far as I know, no."

"Why? I've met Miss Grace. In terms of appearance alone, she is indeed a likable girl. Why doesn't anyone show love to her?"

The valet was confused because of his words, "I'm sorry sir, I never thought about this question... Maybe it's because we all think that Grace doesn't belong to people like us."

"People like you?"

"Poor man, sir." The manservant straightened his back even more so that his dignity could be preserved.

"Miss Anna MacDunne?"

"Yes, yes, Mr. Police Officer..." The young maid straightened her back nervously, her face was tense, and her lips trembled slightly.It couldn't be her fault, she probably hadn't seen many strange men in her life, and she couldn't expect her to be calmer than that manservant when facing a serious police officer.

But the police officer did not intend to pretend to be gentle, and continued to ask in a stern tone: "What kind of person do you think Grace is?"

"Grace?..." Perhaps because of the mention of a familiar person, the maid Anna's face became a little more natural, and she even smiled, "She's fine."

The officer jotted down the simple two words, "Why do you say that?"

"She always smiles, and always has fun ideas to make everyone happy, Mr. Police Officer, you may not know how boring our life is, with people like Grace around us..." Anna pursed her lower lip shyly, " Days can be much easier."

"Is she a smart girl?" He remembered that the maid was extremely timid and dull when he asked the first question.

"Yes, she is very smart, there is no problem in this world that she can't solve except baking and sewing!"

The police officer didn't write down these words exactly. He knew that women like to exaggerate, so he only wrote down a rough outline: "Except for baking and sewing, I am good at other housework."

"Are you good friends with her?"

"...It should be regarded as a friend, at least I regard her as a friend, she always helps me, I am very grateful to her."

"What did she do for you?"

"Carrying potatoes and onions from the cellar, carrying milk and butter to the cellar, this kind of heavy work, in fact, she not only helped me, but also helped other maids. Maids also have a lot of heavy work to do, but our strength Not enough, it will be very difficult to do, Grace will help us."

"Is she very strong?"

"Yes sir, she is the strongest of all the maids, I think she is stronger than my mother. She is not afraid of the dark... You know, sir, we are all afraid of going to the cellar by ourselves, except Grace. , she has always been bolder than us, so we all think she is amazing."

The police officer recorded these sentences verbatim.

"I just asked if you were good friends, but you hesitated."

Anna was taken aback by his sharpness, and explained: "Because, she has a best friend, and they are the closest."

"Who? Is it also a maid in the villa?"

"Yes, sir. In fact, it should be said that she used to be a maid here..." Anna, the maid, was a little sad when she said this. "Her name is Orisa, and she is dead."

"Grace, we meet again. Of course, this may not be a happy thing for you."

Although the police officer in front of him showed the same politeness as in the previous questioning, Grace noticed that he was more alert and sensitive than serious.

He made a shallow curtsy to the officer, "Nice to see you again."

The police officer saw his weakness and asked him to take a seat. After Grace sat down, she repeated earnestly: "Mr. Police Officer, I am really glad to see you again."

The officer realized there was something in his words and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"I hope you will bring justice."

"Mr. Ward is dead," said the inspector suddenly, his eyes sharpened.He saw Grace shiver invisibly when she heard the word "death".

Grace closed her eyes and opened them again, showing an extraordinarily tenacious determination, "That's the justice that Mr. Wales won for me, but Mr. Wales suffered so much for nothing. As far as this matter is concerned, justice It has not come upon him yet."

The police officer didn't speak immediately, but thought quickly under the guise of taking notes.Before he came, his superior reminded him: "Mr. Wales is the valet of the Earl of Arundel, you must pay attention to it." However, the mistress of Kent Hill was once the richest country gentleman widow in the area, and has always been in contact with various departments of the city government. Very good... Compared with Mr. Wales, should the Countess be more important...

"We'll talk about this later, let's talk about the time when the incident happened—" The police officer saw the obvious disappointment on the maid's pale and weak face, and felt a little guilty, but he quickly controlled himself Feeling emotional, asked: "Grace, why did you appear in Mr. Ward's bedroom late at night."

Grace showed great shame and fear when she heard Mr. Ward's surname, and even covered her face with her hands after hearing the questioning, "Sorry, sir, I can't forgive myself..."

"What can't be forgiven?"

It took a while for Grace to take her hands off her face, revealing her wet eyes and pink nose, "I... almost failed to keep my chastity."

Chastity... The police officer's eyes moved down from the maid's face involuntarily, and when he came to the lower abdomen through the chest, he was awakened by the sudden surge of heat in his body, and hurriedly lowered his head to pretend to record.His handwriting became irresistibly scribbled, recalling the first time he saw the maid—the maid was the purest and lovely little daisy in the mountains at that time, but now she has become the most delicate and alluring rose in the courtyard wall ... In just a few months, what happened to this maid?Is she really... still chaste?

"Sir, Mr. Police Officer?" Grace called softly.

The police officer looked up in a panic, and saw the maid's emerald eyes wide open, showing a curious look like a domestic cat, and asked him, "Sir, what are you thinking?"

The police officer lowered his head and wrote a few words, raised his head and said in a low voice: "Please continue to tell me what happened at that time."

What Grace described was basically consistent with what Mr. Welsh said, and what Eric the servant had guessed was basically the same.

The police officer took everything he said and asked him: "Your friend Orisa died of a miscarriage. Aren't you afraid of suffering the same fate as her? Losing your job as a maid and losing your life is no job for you." Is it more terrifying?"

Grace looked at him with resentment, but that resentment was not annoying, but made people feel guilty.

"Sir, do you know what happens to a maid when she loses her job? What can a woman do when she has no family, no savings, no house and no bed? You've heard of the women who wait at the back door of the factory ? If you don't know, I can tell you—"

"How do you know these things?" The police officer actually interrupted the interviewee.Of course he knew which women the maid was referring to. There were many such women standing in the dirty alley across the street from the police station. Whenever he had to pass by that alley, he had to turn his back. Face to avoid seeing those exposed breasts and thighs, and then waved their batons to drive them away.Of course he wasn't afraid of those prostitutes, he was just afraid that such words would come from the girl in front of him.

"Many men like to say this in front of women." Grace replied in a steady voice, seeming to have overcome the panic just now.

What made her suddenly calm down?The question, however, only passed in his mind for a moment, and the officer tried to divert his interest from Grace herself back to the case itself.

"Is Mr. Ward connected with Orisa's death?"

Grace's face froze for a moment, and her cat-like green eyes opened slightly uncontrollably—he was almost caught by his cat's tail.

As expected of the smartest Grace in Anna's mouth, he took advantage of the astonishment on his face and asked, "What do you know? Did you hear something?" The more he spoke, the more excited he slid down from his seat , knelt down to the police officer's feet, grabbed the hem of his clothes and cried and begged: "Please tell me, Orisa is my best friend, I want to know who killed her!"

The police officer helped him up in a panic, enduring the urge to comfort the crying maid in his arms, "Sorry..."

After Grace came out of the living room, she didn't go to the basement, but went upstairs by the side stairs for the servants, and knocked three times on the door of a room.

"Come in." A deep and calm voice answered him.Grace's heart, which had been gripped for a long time, instantly relaxed and turned into another kind of tension.

He pushed the door briskly and entered, avoiding the Earl of Arundel. After bowing his knees and bowing to him, he looked at the lying Mr. Welsh and asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"It's much better, thank you Miss Grace for your concern." Mr. Welsh said and was about to get up.

Grace realized that he was going to salute herself, and hurriedly ran over to stop his intention, but was wrapped around her waist by an arm stretched out from the side, and led by the man, she spun half a circle and fell into a firm embrace inside.

He remembered this embrace, which rescued him from despair, as if a god descended, wrapping the light of hope around his body.

Grace curled her arms and snuggled into the earl's arms, her heart beating so fast that he couldn't help it.He felt a little thirsty in his mouth and couldn't help licking his lips lightly.

Mr. Wales was as faithful as ever, quiet as if he didn't exist, and didn't bother anyone.

However, the Earl just hugged Grace and let go.

Grace finally took a look at the earl, just a glance, then hurriedly looked away, staring at the second button of the earl's uniform, and replied: "He asked a lot of questions, more than... the previous time. a lot of……"

"After all, a gentleman died this time."

His tone was indifferent, and Grace couldn't help but looked up, and the earl happened to be looking at him at the same time, the quiet and deep eyes made Grace feel dizzy, it seemed that the hunger from the previous two days was starting to take effect again.

"Would he... doubt it?" Grace felt that her tongue was slack, "Will Mr. Wales get into trouble because of this?"

The earl gave a low laugh, which seemed to resonate directly from the chest cavity, which was deeper and sweeter than the cello, "Are you afraid?" He raised his hand and put his palm on Grace's face, "Don't worry, the law only punishes those it can punish."

Grace had no time to think about whether she was a person who could be punished by the law. He was completely drowning in those silver-gray eyes.