Chapter 15 March
Liang Xi was very happy to get his first job. After leaving the police station, he immediately went to John's house, ready to tell John the good news as soon as possible and have lunch by the way.
When the car arrived nearby, Liang Xi saw thick smoke not far away. An ambulance honked and overtook him. Liang Xi continued to drive a few hundred meters but was stopped by a patrol car. The road section was temporarily restricted. Liang Xi didn't have time to talk nonsense with the police. He got out of the car and ran towards the thick smoke.
His hunch was right. John's house was on fire. A fire truck that arrived earlier sprayed water on the house in vain. Liang Xi saw Mary, wrapped in a warm blanket and soaked in water, sitting dazedly on the side. Medical staff were examining her. Liang Xi immediately stepped forward: "Mary!"
Mary slowly looked at Liang Xi, who asked anxiously, "Where's John?"
Mary: “Hmm?”
Liang Xi patted Mary's face: "Where's John?"
The doctor stopped her and grabbed Liang Xi's hand, saying, "She has a sudden traumatic psychological disorder and cannot answer your questions now."
Mary suddenly came to her senses, looked towards the house, and cried out heartbreakingly: "John, John is still in there."
"Shit!" Liang Xi ran towards the house, and the firefighters failed to hold him back. One firefighter chased Liang Xi, and two firefighters sprayed water on their heads. As Liang Xi approached the house, it collapsed. Liang Xi couldn't stop and fell to the ground because the ground was slippery. The firefighters grabbed Liang Xi's collar and dragged him away from the fire.
Liang Xi stared at the burning house for a long time, pushed the firefighter away, and stood up, running to Mary: "John is not in there, right? Right?" Ten to eleven thirty in the morning is the time for John to catch up on his sleep, and now it is eleven ten in the morning. Even so, Liang Xi was unwilling to believe that his life mentor was gone, and he asked Mary with a glimmer of hope, hoping that John might go out for something today.
Faced with Liang Xi's questioning, Mary did not answer, but just hugged Liang Xi and cried bitterly.
…
Liang Xi was in a very low mood and very busy during these three days. On the one hand, he had to take care of Mary, on the other hand, he had to communicate with the police, and there were many trivial things to do.
Three days later, Officer Kent, who was in charge of the case, and Liang Xi made an appointment by phone to meet at the hotel where Mary was temporarily staying.
Kent is 40 years old and is a very experienced fire investigation officer. He has received many calls from Liang Xi in the past two days, and his superiors have put a lot of pressure on him. His team has devoted themselves to the fire investigation. Today, the investigation has come to an end. He must inform the family of his findings and answer their questions.
Kent handed a report to Liang Xi: "The forensic doctor conducted a DNA comparison through bone marrow and confirmed that the only deceased on the second floor was John. This was done three times."
Liang Xi nodded, and Mary couldn't help crying again. She tried to control her emotions and went to the bathroom to deal with her tears.
Kent took out another pack of copies, poured them on the table, and said, "Mr. Liang, we believe the fire was man-made."
This answer was within Liang Xi's expectations. The fire spread too quickly. After John fell asleep, Mary went to a convenience store 30 meters away to buy baking soda for baking a cake. As soon as she arrived at the convenience store, the fire was raging, attracting the attention of many people around. The fire started six minutes before Liang Xi arrived. When Liang Xi arrived, the house had already collapsed. Liang Xi also found that the flames spread throughout the house.
Kent said, "We haven't found the ignition point, so it's almost certain that the accelerant is gasoline. I watched the fire develop in the surveillance video. Based on my many years of experience in handling cases, it would take at least three people pouring a large amount of gasoline to cause such a fire in a short time. Mr. Liang, you are also a detective. Based on my description, do you think that the other party needs to set fire to kill John?"
Liang Xi asked, "What do you mean?"
Kent played a surveillance video and replayed it back and forth for more than ten seconds. He pointed to a location on the screen and asked, "Based on the on-site investigation and my speculation, the criminals focused on burning this location and used a heat agent. In the war decades ago, heat agents were used in emergency situations to destroy confidential information such as paper, radio stations, and equipment. Can you tell me what is at this location?"
Liang Xi said: "This is a secret room on the first floor near the backyard, about 20 square meters, which is John's secret meeting place. Three years ago, John spent tens of thousands of pounds to install a set of advanced anti-eavesdropping equipment in the secret room. In fact, I have never seen him use it. It is called a secret room, but it is more like a library. The four walls are all built-in bookshelves filled with books. I once suspected that the secret room was a place for John to escape from Mary."
Kent asked, "Is there anything important in there?"
Liang Xi recalled for a long time, and said: "One day two years ago, Mary went to the hospital to visit a good friend. I received a call from John, but there was no sound from the other end. I rushed to John's house, listened to the sound of the phone, opened the secret room, and found John unconscious in the secret room. It was not until he was sent to the hospital that we learned that John's high blood sugar caused electrolyte imbalance. At that time, I saw a book, a map, and a sextant on the table. The map looked like a treasure map, with a pirate logo and a red X. Afterwards, I asked John, and John insisted that I had seen it wrong, and there was no map or sextant."
Kent nodded. The idea of pirate treasure was ridiculous . London wasn't even by the sea.
Liang Xi said: "Officer Kent, have you found the person for me?"
Kent: “Who?”
Liang Xi said: "In the past few months, John has been going out frequently, almost every two or three days, to meet an old friend. Each meeting lasted more than three hours, and one time it lasted more than ten hours. Mary said the other person's name was Matthew, and he was a close friend of John when he was young. But Mary herself has never seen this man named Matthew."
Thinking of John's instructions that seemed like a divorce, Liang Xi thought John felt the danger. It was so dangerous that John was unwilling to reveal a word to Liang Xi.
Kent shook his head. "I'm sorry, we didn't find this Matthew. John is a friend of the chief of the police department. The higher-ups take this case very seriously. I will report the information back to the police department. I hope we can continue the investigation with the help of the police department."
Liang Xi blamed himself: "I should have asked more questions at that time."
Kent comforted him: "Mr. Liang, this has nothing to do with you. I will inform you as soon as I have the latest clues. Now... John is not looking good."
Liang Xi understood what Kent meant and said, "I will get Mary's commission."
Kent nodded: "The Forensic Identification Office is near the police station."
Liang Xi said: "Okay, I'll get it done this afternoon."
Kent stood up and shook hands with Liang Xi. "Mr. Liang, if you have any clues, please inform me and don't act on your own. From what I can tell, the other party is not a good person."
Liang Xi assured: "I will contact you if I have any clues."
Kent glanced at the bathroom and said, "I'll trouble you to take care of Mary."
Liang Xi: "Thank you for your concern. I can handle it."
"goodbye."
"goodbye."
…
When the forensic department identified the body, Liang Xi could no longer recognize that it was John, or even that it was a human being. After taking one look at it, Liang Xi could not bear to look at it anymore and silently pulled the white cloth over it.
The funeral was held two days later, and the attendees were all kinds of people. There were retired and current London police commissioners, fishermen from Northern Ireland, FBI agents from the United States, and alcoholics from Belgium. There were more than a hundred people in total. Mary could barely recognize a small number of them.
After the funeral, Liang Xixian received fire insurance, personal accident insurance and property insurance from the insurance company. Since Mary was used to living in the community, Liang Xixian rented a villa far away from her original home for her to live in. After obtaining Mary's opinion, he contacted a construction company to rebuild a house on the original site according to the original appearance of the house.
Two months later, the house was completed. Liang Xi ordered as many identical furniture as possible based on his memory and Mary's description.
Three months later, Mary moved back into a home that felt very much like her own.
With the help of the community church, Mary finally let go of the past, changed some of her living habits, and began to participate in various activities organized by the church. Looking at Mary chatting and laughing with the aunt, Liang Xi knew that no one and nothing could make up for Mary's regret for losing John.
After the matter was settled, Liang Xi deposited the remaining insurance money into Mary's account. As Mary returned to her normal life, Liang Xi's life became more and more difficult. After paying for the funeral and deducting his own expenses in the past three months, there was not much left of the 5,000 pounds. The translation job that Liang Xi regarded as a lifeline, which paid 80 pounds per hour, has not even received a phone call so far.
After three months, everything seemed to have returned to normal, except for the clinking sound of Liang Xi's pockets due to poverty.
