By the time Ed returned to the detective station, it was already afternoon.
From afar, he saw a short child leaning in front of the door, wearing a patched grid pattern newsboy cap on his head, holding a cigarette like an adult. The wind got in through the tattered left leg of his trousers and snorted out from the right side.
That was the newsboy who often delivered the daily newspapers. He was about seven or eight years old. Ed usually called him "Little Tommy."
What is he doing here?
Ed immediately noticed something was wrong: what he held in his hand was not a crumpled newspaper cigarette wrapped in low-quality tobacco, but a high-end Blue Star cigarette with a pure cotton filter.
"Oh my god...you learned to smoke when you were only seven."
He strode over and snatched the cigarette from little Tommy's mouth. The newsboy wanted to dodge, but he couldn't keep up with the movements of the Level 2 Extraordinary. Before little Tommy could make any move, the cigarette had already reached Ed's hand.
"Hey, I spent a lot of money to buy that, and you're violating my dead property! And I'm eight years old!" Little Tommy could only complain with his gaping teeth.
"I thought you meant 'private property.'" Ed corrected seriously as he poked his lit cigarette against the wall. The cigarette butt let out a whine, then fell to the ground like a dead moth, "What's the difference between seven and eight years old?"
"These are completely different things..." Tommy argued, as if he was thinking about how to refute Ed, "Seven years old..."
"What's seven plus eight?" Ed interrupted his train of thought.
"Seven plus eight..." The newsboy lowered his head and stretched out his hands, and then discovered that there were no 7 or 8 fingers on his palms.
"You must not have been to Sunday school seriously."
As part of Leiria's education popularization policy, the Sunday school run by the church has been providing free basic education on Sundays to children or adults who work on weekdays, so that people can read scriptures or other books independently.
"Why should I go? Sunday is the best day for selling newspapers." Little Tommy said nonchalantly.
"You can't spend your whole life selling newspapers, little man." Ed straightened the newsboy cap that was tilted on Tommy's head. "In the long run, learning knowledge can give you the opportunity to engage in more technical jobs and earn more. money."
"Huh, maybe... By the way, you don't want to know what I'm doing here?"
"A brown-haired lady who lives in the West End. She is well-dressed and has some freckles on her face. She asked you to deliver a letter to me and gave you a large sum of money."
"Holy shit, how did you guess that, man?" Little Tommy stared at Ed in stunned silence, as if he had seen a ghost.
Who else could it be... Ed rolled his eyes. I didn't expect Catalina to actually bribe the newsboy, but it's not a bad thing, just think of it as charity in disguise.
"Detective is such a magical profession."
"Can I join?"
"Of course, if you work hard enough. But you have to learn to read before it's too late." Ed spread his palm forward, "Where's the letter?"
Little Tommy did not move, but put his hands behind his back, blinked and said:
"She said you would pay me."
"Really?" Ed said with a raised eyebrow.
That doesn't sound like something Catalina would do. She must have given the little guy a good deal of money - at least for little Tommy - and he took the money to buy a pack of fancy cigarettes.
"...Really." Little Tommy argued.
"No, little man, I'm not giving you any more money."
Ed put his hands on his thin shoulders, stared into his eyes, bent down and said earnestly:
"If you had spent it on the right things, like buying a better-fitting dress, subsidizing the family, or saving up to go to a real school, I might have considered it, but instead you used it to buy something like this. Something that hurts your body.”
"...Now you can either give me the letter, or I can go there in person and ask that lady to find a more motivated and manly liaison next time."
Little Tommy's face turned as red as an autumn apple. He finally took out the envelope and handed it to Ed, then ran away as if he was insulted.
"Remember to go to school on the weekends."
"Don't even think about teaching me how to do things! Man!" His voice grew distant and disappeared at the end of the narrow street.
Ed sighed helplessly, took out the key and opened the door. Sylvie sat on the sofa with her hands behind her head and said:
"Do you think he'll go to Sunday school?"
"I can only hope so."
"In a sense, my dear good gentleman, you and that eldest lady are really similar." Sylvie sneered from the side.
"I try to take it as a compliment."
"You know very well in your heart that no matter how much you persuade, that little brat will only spend the remaining money on smoking and drinking. If he is older, I guess he will still spend the money on having sex with that fat guy. A place like a priest.”
"Had Tommy not been born in the East End but in Oakland, he could have been as kind as Catalina."
Ed answered as he opened the envelope. He knew that what he could do was extremely limited, but in the end it was better than doing nothing.
To my faithful attendant, Mr. Edgar Waikolo:
May the Holy Spirit guide your path. Please take my armor to Langley Street in the Docklands at eleven o'clock tonight, and I will talk to you in detail then.
your mentor blackadder
"Isn't that rich lady celebrating her birthday? How come she still has time to play knight pretending with you?"
"Putting aside the strange letter itself, it's a good thing."
Ed put down the letter. He had long wanted to throw this hot potato to Catalina.
I don't know how much trouble this kind of treasure will cause if I keep it in my hands. Even if Mr. Eaton doesn't ask further about the armor, he will have more doubts about himself.
The only strange thing was that the meeting place was neither the East End where he was nor the West End where Catalina was, but Langley Street in the dock area.
This may have been for security reasons, to avoid detection by other members of the Oakland family. After all, even to her own relatives, it was difficult for her to explain the series of things that had happened before.
Ed does have relatively plenty of time at the moment. Since the leg injury is still in the recuperation period, he does not need to return to the team for the time being, while Quinn and Eaton are busy with other tasks. Ed had all the time to sneak out unnoticed and hand the armor to Catalina.
As for how to save it without being discovered, that's what Catalina needs to consider...
