Chapter 865: Short Of Time
It had been half a day since Zhang Heng and Decius met for the first time. The two traveled around Rome, from the Binota Mine to the southeast city, then to Klaus’s insula. They had been constantly on the move.
As the investigation continued to deepen, the truth about the shutdown of the mine gradually emerged. The key person of this incident was the man with the red birthmark on his face—Amidio. As the middleman, he met Cobb and came up with the whole plan. Finding him meant finding the mastermind behind him.
And now Zhang Heng and Decius were standing outside of Amidio’s insula.
The sun was about to set.
Amidio’s lived in a more remote location than Kraus. Although nowhere nearly as chaotic as the southeast city, it was a shanty slum. Most who lived here were short-term tenants, having to pay the rent once a week. If they failed, they would be kicked out of the insula. Although not as famous as Klaus, as a rainmaker for the Senate, it stood to reason that he shouldn’t be living in such a place.
With his income, he could have easily afforded a better residence. There was only one reason why he’d choose to live here, and that was to keep a low profile.
He knew what he was doing wasn’t something that could see the light of the day. Hence, he wanted to attract as little attention as possible. With all that in mind, Zhang Heng deduced that he was not a permanent resident of this place. In other words, Amidio constantly changed residences from time to time.
Decius did not like the atmosphere on the street. At the same time, his stomach was making some weird noises, reminding him that time for dinner was way overdue. In the past, he would have finished his work at this hour. He would’ve returned home, sitting at the dining table, and waiting for the servant to bring him some steaming hot food.
But he knew that they had now arrived at the critical point of the investigation, and it was no longer a matter of whether he was going to lose his job. It was directly related to the future of his family. So, he chose not to complain. Instead, he asked Zhang Heng, worried, “Shouldn’t we call some guards over? That guy is unlikely to cooperate with us.”
After dealing with Klaus, Decius had come to an understanding that it was not easy to get these rainmakers to cooperate with them, especially when asked to betray their employer.
“To tell you the truth, I was only appointed as an advisor not too long ago, and I haven’t figured out how to deploy the guards. But it doesn’t matter. I have you by my side. You are like my Watson,” Zhang Heng said.
“What am I to you again?” Decius couldn’t understand what Zhang Heng said.
“Watson… Don’t mind me. I just said it for fun,” Zhang Heng said. From downstairs, he looked up and saw the approximate location of Amidio’s room. An insula designed for the poor, there was no balcony on the second floor. The only place where fresh air could enter was via a small window. However, it was now closed tightly. No one could see what was going on inside the house. Other than that, the wall was tilting. It seemed the building had not been maintained for a long time.
Zhang Heng patted Decius on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go upstairs and meet this, Mr. Amidio.”
“Oh, okay.” Decius tried to dig through his memory, confirming that he had never heard of such a person named Watson. He then moved forward and followed Zhang Heng up the stairs.
The two walked through the dark corridor before stopping outside Amidio’s house.
Decius reached out and knocked on the door. In following Zhang Heng’s teachings, he said, “We are the landlord’s people; coming to collect rent.”
However, there seemed to be no movement in Amidio’s unit. On the other hand, the tenant beside Amidio’s unit opened their door first. And a man walked out of it and said in surprise, “The rent was collected two days ago, wasn’t it?”
Decius looked at Zhang Heng with a look of embarrassment. However, Zhang Heng did not change his expression, “The rent has increased. And now it’s time for him to pay up.”
“But the rent was just increased last month.” The man looked incredulous, “Only a few days have passed.”
The man had a rather boomy voice, and tenants from other units came out to see what was going on. After all, a rent increase was undoubtedly something that everyone cared about. Zhang Heng knew that he couldn’t continue keeping up with the lie. Amidio’s room was extremely quiet too. So far, he heard no sounds of movement at all. Hence, he winked at Decius, signaling him to step aside. He then proceeded to kick on the door of the room.
“Oh my god! Is that even necessary? All he did was he forgot to pay the rent once. Besides, you guys increased the rent on him again! This is…” The man in the next room stopped talking suddenly, and his eyes widened.
The sight in front of him caused him to inhale sharply. He saw a skinny man lying motionless on a round table. His clothes were dyed red with blood, and the blood was still dripping to the floor. Immediately, everyone instinctively took a step back upon witnessing this bloody scene. Only Zhang Heng’s expression remained unchanged. He then stepped forward and walked into the room.
He had seen similar cases while being Holmes’ assistant, and he was numb to such a scene. First, Zhang Heng walked toward the round table. He reached out and touched the man’s nose to confirm that he had stopped breathing. After turning the corpse over, he took a look at the dagger stuck in his chest. After that, he saw the red birthmark on the corpse’s face.
“Hmm… It seems like this is the man we are looking for,” Zhang Heng said to Decius.
“He… is he dead?” Decius’s face had already become as pale as a sheet.
“Yes, and the time of death should be only a few minutes ago,” Zhang Heng looked at the bloodstains. No part of it was solidified yet. “It seems someone was in a rush to visit our target before we could. We walked up the stairs earlier. Maybe we walked past the murderer.”
“Huh?” Decius tried to think of the people he met at the stairs, but he could not remember anything. With a blank mind, all he could think of was that he must’ve gotten himself involved in something big.
What he couldn’t understand was that he was a mere nobody responsible for casting a bronze statue for the emperor. Why would anyone mess with him?
At that time, the man from next door finally recovered from the shock. “There has been a murder case! We should get the patrol team!” he yelled.
After hearing what the man said, everyone quickly went back to their houses, leaving only Decius standing at the door.
Zhang Heng waved at him, “What are you doing? Come in. We don’t have much time. The patrol team should be here soon.”
“What do you mean by that?” Decius asked doubtfully. “Amidio is dead. What else can we ask?”
“People like Amidio do business in the dark. In other words, he carries many secrets with him. He’ll definitely be watching out for assassins. Clearly, the murderer was poorly prepared this time. I checked the corpse, and I can tell you that he was killed with a single blow. No other surface wounds are visible, which means the murderer had no time to torture and interrogate Amidio. If we are lucky, we can still get the information we want without Amidio talking to us.”