Chapter 4
Monday, at the Auror Office
Earlier than nine o'clock, Harry yawned, stepping out of the elevator towards his cubicle in the open-plan office. Last night Molly filled him with stew beef again, plus Ron forced him to drinking, he hadn't come to now. Ginny always helped him to get faraway from it, but she said she had some works remain undone, didn't go to the Nurrow to have dinner with him and the children.
Suddenly, he felt that the back side of his head was hit by a finger, he turned, a scarlet paper plane hovered in front of his nose. He was absent-minded for a few seconds, then recalled the two parchments he sent to Group D the day before yesterday.
'So quick!'
He reached out to catch the paper plane. At the very minute his finger touched the paper plane, it turned into a thin document. He ran to his cubicle, sat down and opened the document with the transparent evidence bag and the identifying report:
Sender: Harry Potter (Senior Auror, Leader of Group A)
Date of Sending: 7/Apr/2007
Number of the Evidence Sent: 2007H039014
Identifier: Michael Corner (Senior Auror, Group D)
Result:
Normal waterlogging, has restored. Seen in the restored evidence in the bag.
Tip: Tested some signs of Camouflage Magic, but it's sure that the sayings on the parchments are not camouflaged.
Calculate that the parchments were teared from a kind of booklet, the camouflages have been broken away when tearing.
Date: 8/Apr/2007
Signature: M. Corner
PS: Needless to thank me. Help me to get two tickets of Beyonce's concerts in London the month after the next month
Harry snorted, noting in his heart. A trainee Auror walked cloze to him to report that there was still no trace of Philip Lakes. Wizards don't need passports to travel aboard, and no customs at all. You could travel around the world by apparition only if you were powerful enough without any problems. There was no any effective way of immigration control. But what could easily ensure was that the last time someone saw him was Friday—the day before the murder.
Harry took out a pair of gloves and put them on. He opened the bag, pouring them out and read—actually he understood as he went through them: IOUs. The names, dates, amounts, signatures, and the fingerprints were clear on the parchments. The debtor on the first parchment was L. L. Peterson, owing over nine hundred Gallons, the deadline was May 1st, 2007; the debtor on the second parchment was T. Welsh, owing over two hundred Gallons, and his deadline was April 14th, 2007.
This Saturday. Harry thought. But then, Romilda, a countryside hairdresser, had someone that owe her thousands of Gallons?
He found a screwed parchment in the hill of files on his desk, grabbed a quill and wrote:
Help me to search in the census system, how many adult wizards we have named L. L. Peterson and T. Welsh in the country and who are they. Give me a copy of their data.
Harry put down the quill, rolled the parchment to a thin cylinder and put it into the mouth of a bronze animal's head. The statue seemed to be alive, chewed the parchment and swallowed it down. Then the statue went silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, along with a long sound of stewing, the mouth opened to the biggest, stewing out parchments one-by-one. At the nineteenth parchments, it stopped eventually. Harry rapidly put them in order, starting to read.
There were five L. L. Peterson and fourteen T. Welsh in the country. Most of them were citizens that were extremely normal without any backgrounds, such as a wine shop waiter or a wizards' house designer. When it came to the last page, Harry's attention was caught by the photo—he had seen the woman in the photo. Definitely, the record answered his doubt:
Tina Welsh, an officer in Goblin Contacting Office in the Ministry. Harry seemingly had met her in the corridors or elevators.
The case had something to do with their Ministry inside?
Harry felt a little bit uneasy, walking towards Robarz's office, pushing his door open. Robarz was reading official documents with fully attention. Harry knocked, Robarz looked up.
'What's wrong, Potter?'
'About Vane's case...'
Harry introduced shortly about the identifying report and the search result, Robarz raised his eyebrow.
'Really? Then there are fourteen T. Welsh, identifying the fingerprints and the handwritings, in the common procedure. I'll say to the Gobilin Connecting Office, just a routine.'
Harry nodded, turned around to leave. He crushed onto Dennis by the time he left. His hair was in a total mess, breathing heavily, it was obvious that he ran to there from somewhere.
'Harry! I'm looking for you!'
'What happened? So impatient.'
'Kevin surrendered himself!'
Kevin Moreton was very similar to the photo, six feet and two inches high, like a hemp stalk, with light golden long hair that could reach his waist. He had an old scar on his square jaw sticking out. He wore a robe covered with silver chains and rivets and a pair of cheap calf-high boots with thick soles. He sat in the chair in the interrogation room nervously, humpbacked, chewing his thumbnail on his right hand.
'Mr. Moreton,' Harry walked into the interrogation room, pounding a file box onto the table, dealing a head-on blow at the first encounter, an old trick.
Kevin's body shook glaringly, Harry sat down opposite him.
'You surrendered yourself, why? You killed your girlfriend Romilda, did you have an uneasy conscience?'
Kevin looked up frightenedly, said incoherently, 'No, not me, I didn't kill...I downed her—I mean, petrified, then I ran away! I didn't kill her!'
'So? Tell me, how did she die?'
'I don't know, really, really don't know...I saw the news reported, reported that she was dead, I'm afraid that you will go to me, regarding me as the murderer...'
'Of course, you have significant suspect.'
'Please, please listen to my explanation!'
Harry intended to look askance at him and said, 'I'm listening. How about the time you went to Romilda's? and what did you do?'
Kevin took a deep breath, struggling to make himself calm down, and answered, 'I arrived at her home around one a.m., answered the safety question the door asked and entered the house, I started to find...find money. Didn't notice that I've done it so loud—'
Pa!
Harry pounded the files on the table again.
'Tell the truth! What were you looking for?'
Kevin was so terrified that he almost went to under-table, his arms crossed, catching his shoulders, shaking in his seat.
'You have been to Romilda's for several times, couldn't you tell was she rich or not?'
...
Harry glared at Kevin like a wolf through glasses. For two minutes, Kevin didn't open his mouth again, only muttering to himself in his seat, his head down.
Harry grabbed the files and intended to be going to go, Kevin flurried, coming to his feet, but failed to make it and tumbled into his seat.
'Clear?'
Kevin nodded, shaking. He slipped out a small booklet like Muggle's checkbook and handed it to Harry shillyshally.
'Where did you find it?'
'Deep inside a cabinet in the restroom.'
Harry took it and opened, finding that every page were IOUs in the same form to these Romilda grabbed, and the deadlines were several months to today. What was different, that the debtors were all companies or shops, none of them owed much.
'Romilda ran out after hearing the sound, chasing you to the back door, tearing two IOUs from you, then you petrified her, is it?'
Kevin nodded again.
'I tried to cling her hand, but I couldn't. Terrified of being watched, so I ran away.'
Harry took out his wand, pointed it to one of the IOUs and said, 'Revealio.'
Nothing happened.
He recalled what Corner said in his report, so he closed the booklet, scratching along the binding line by his wand, the spine of the whole booklet was being cut down. Along with the sound— 'Puuu...'—the ink mark on the separated parchments began to change. Fewer than seconds, the camouflage had been broken and the real IOUs revealed. Harry quickly looked through them, looked up and put out his right hand. Kevin unwillingly took out the one wrote his own name from another pocket: Three hundred and twenty Gallons, and the deadline was after two weeks.
'What IOUs are these? Owe who?'
'...gambling. owe "the boss".'
'Owe Mr. Lakes?'
'No, owe the casino.'
'What casino?'
'It has no name, it's called "the casino". Just under the salon.'
Harry felt shocked. Underground casino? He nodded to the one-way glass on the wall, gathered up the IOUs, stood up, walked fast out the interrogation room and came to the watching room outside. Dennis was writing very fast in front of a magical loudspeaker, Paul and Emily were standing in a line, watching the Kevin being left in the interrogation room through the one-way glass.
'Wait a minute, Dennis. And Emily, Paul, we divide the work, quickly reckon up all the IOUs.'
Harry divided the IOUs in his hand into four shares and handed each of them one. None of them spoke at that time, all looking for parchments to make a draft.
'I've got nearly eighty-three hundred Gallons.' Emily numbered off first after five minutes.
'I have nearly done...almost eleven thousand.' said Dennis.
'Mine is ninety-four hundred. What about you, Paul?' Harry noted down their numbers and asked.
'Nearly ninety-four hundred, too.'
Harry quickly added them in his heart and wondered, 'Merlin's beard, there was almost... forty thousand?'
He looked around, they were all looking at others with an expression of 'things are going big'. Harry took back the IOUs, running into the interrogation room.
'What the casino is it?' he asked Kevin as he entered the door.
'I said, just under the Lakes's Salon. Don't know when did it open, but it is always here, managed by Mr. Lakes, although he hardly showed up in the casino.'
'Which Mr. Lakes?'
'Coeur of course!'
'What about his brother?'
'His brother doesn't manage anything. Ah, to be honest, his brother is a miss-fire.'
Being cheated by Coeur Lakes. Harry cursed him in his heart and then asked, 'But you said the boss is another person?'
'Well, the rumor said so...'
'Who?'
'Donno. Nobody met him. They called him "Lanca" or "Loc" or anything.'
'Romilda was helping the boss manage the IOUs?'
'Yes. You can go to interrogate other debtors, they all know "Mimi".'
'Mimi?'
'Romilda's...well, stage name.'
'How do you know the IOUs were in her hand?'
'She overdrank last week and showed off towards me, saying how trustful the boss thought her, giving all the IOUs to her to manage. I gave her endless vines, she told me that she put the IOUs in her home.'
Harry paced in the interrogation room, thinking. It had got nearly forty thousand Gallons recently, so what about its turnover every year? The casino was broad in scale, if t was true, probably could involve a whole local criminal gang.
'How could I know you are not framing Mr. Lakes? How could I know the so-called casino and the IOUs are not being made up by yourself?' Harry stopped and asked overbearingly.
'For the love of Merlin and great Dumbledore! All I said were true! Feel free to search! I tell you, the casino is full of life! Doesn't close the whole week, seven days! According to what I saw, at least sixty or seventy frequent callers!' Kevin thumped the table with his fist agitatedly, Harry stopped him by taking out his wand, he surrendered with his hands up, 'I didn't kill!'
'Ok, then you tell me, who do you think that killed Romilda?'
'Of course, Coeur—or that what "Loc", they discovered that the IOUs were lost, murdering her to prevent divulgence of their secrets!'
'You left Vane's home around one a.m., could they murderer realize something happened to the IOUs so soon?'
'This...I don't know...'
Harry took back his wand and clicked his fingers towards the one-way glass. Dennis, Paul and Emily showed up in the interrogation room immediately. Dennis handcuff Kevin, and Paul and Emily caught him.
'Mr. Auror—The Honorable Mr. Auror! I just want to prove my guiltlessness!'
'Emily, find others to continue to interrogate him, making clear the detailed position of the casino, the way of entry, the structure inside, the stuff and so on, no matter how big or trivial, you know what I mean.'
'Fine.'
'Paul, Take Coeur Lakes here to interrogate him as the prime suspect, asking him throughout the night.'
'Ok.'
'Dennis, cooperate with Group D, research the physical evidence for one more time, mainly see whether if there are something related to Coeur or Lakes Salon, try your best to give me a search warrant for the Salon.'
'No problem. I'll handle this.'
At last, Harry turned to Kevin,
'Well, you are guiltless?'
He walked not turning around with this saying left behind.
He ran to Robarz's office straight away as he left the interrogation room. But his superior wasn't here, He left a short note on his desk, went back to his station and decided to put the IOUs in order. This time, he began to notice the name on them. His intuition told him that the former 'T. Welsh' was not aa accident.
His intuition was right.
After twenty minutes, on the desk, the IOUs were divided into two parts. On the left hand, which was thicker, were those names Harry didn't have any impression. On the right hand that was thinner, seventeen in total, were names Harry had an impression on—they were all officers in the Ministry, or those who had some relationships to the Ministry. On the cover, is 'H. Longbottom', owing over five Gallons.
Harry felt rejoiced that he didn't find Robarz just now. He stuffed it into his pocket, locked the rest into his drawers, grabbed the robe and ran to the lift.
(To be continued)
