Princess of the 19th Century Department Store - Chapter 27

Chapter 27

“What is being investigated here?”

At the sound of the voice, everyone in the room looked out. Beyond the iron-barred gate stood three figures in crisp police uniforms.

Daisy lifted her gaze and immediately recognized one familiar face among them: Inspector Canning.

But at that moment, there was a faint, weighty look of contemplation between his brows. His gray eyes were lowered, his attention fixed on something else. He did not seem concerned with what was happening here, and he was not the one who pushed the door open and asked the question.

Daisy looked impassively at the older police officer walking at the front.

The officer was no longer young, and the insignia on his shoulder marked him as an inspector.

The old constable in the room, who had been conducting the interrogation, snapped to attention as soon as he saw the three officers. He spoke to the older officer at the head of the group with great respect.

“Sir Narbe, the people in this room are shopkeepers from Whitechapel District connected to the batch of tobacco and liquor on the list of stolen goods. I am currently having them identify their suppliers.”

The moment Daisy heard that surname, she remembered. Narbe was the inspector of H Division-in other words, the man in charge of the police station on Whitechapel Road.

Everyone in this room made their living within his jurisdiction. It would not be an exaggeration to say that their fortunes, and even their lives, could hinge on a single thought from him.

When Inspector Narbey heard that the people being interrogated were merchants from his own precinct, he gave a satisfied hum.

He first turned to look at Canning’s expression, then glanced at the other inspector.

After a moment of discussion, he said, “The food merchant is still being escorted here. Why don’t we sit in and listen for a while first?”

Canning drew back from his thoughts and nodded.

The group entered the interrogation room. After some polite yielding back and forth, they sat down at the long table to one side of the room, which looked oddly like a judges’ bench.

Yet the two inspectors seated Canning, who was lower in rank, in the middle. In a system where rank was everything, the implications were profound.

Seeing this, Daisy lowered her head and exchanged a complicated look with her grandfather.

After Narbe sat down, he cleared his throat and asked the old constable, “Are all of these shopkeepers selling stolen goods?”

The old constable shook his head and pointed at Daisy and her grandfather. “Only their family seems not to be.”

When Lobit heard this, he looked toward the high-ranking officers and immediately realized this was his chance. So he refuted the old constable’s words once again.

Steeling himself, he repeated the accusation he had made earlier.

With a grief-stricken look, he turned toward Inspector Narbey.

Malicious competition, disrupting market prices, luring fellow merchants into smuggling-none of those were minor charges.

Lobit had made up his mind. He could not suffer for nothing. He had to sink his teeth into them, even if all he did was leave a mark.

The old constable’s brow furrowed even deeper. He had taken someone’s money, so naturally he had to solve that person’s problem.

“Did she hold a knife to your throat and force you to buy goods from the black market?”

The merchant in front of him was especially dishonest and had contradicted him several times. The old constable said fiercely, “The inspectors are right here, and you still dare slander your fellow merchants with nothing but empty words!”

As they argued, the officers’ attention fell on Daisy and her grandfather.

Daisy’s eyes shifted as she thought for a moment.

Given Canning’s character, what kind of person would he be more inclined to believe?

Meeting the scrutinizing gazes of the officers, she stepped forward, lowered her eyes submissively, and spoke in a timid tone.

“I did sell rum below cost. At Helconsa Spirits, I bought one hundred bottles at the wholesale price of two shillings per bottle. After bringing them home, I changed the price to one shilling per bottle. I only sold them for half a day.”

“But I must admit, this would indeed affect the business of other merchants to some extent.”

Mr. Nash heard the direction Daisy was taking and noticed the subtle change in her attitude.

She was no longer wielding the law aggressively and forcing Lobit to expose his ugly side, making the old constable dislike him.

Instead, she seemed to be showing weakness to win sympathy while still appearing strong and innocent.

Mr. Nash immediately followed her lead and nodded in apology.

“We were in the wrong on this matter. But our family would rather lose money ourselves than go to the black market to scavenge stolen goods.”

Daisy nodded and continued, “We were truly forced into doing such a thing.”

She looked toward Inspector Narbey and explained, “Originally, my grandmother was the one who managed our shop. But during the Whitechapel Female Corpse Case, my grandmother witnessed the crime scene.

“After the shock, she was injured and had no choice but to hand the shop over to me.”

“When Inspector Canning came to our home to investigate the case, the old lady was already so ill she couldn’t get out of bed.”

Narbe turned to look at Canning beside him.

Canning raised his head, his expression unchanged. He opened his mouth.

“That is true.”

At first, not a single detective from Scotland Yard had been able to find any clues about the murderer. For the sake of the investigation, he had gone there himself.

Canning remembered the matter and began studying the very unfamiliar young girl before him.

She suddenly lowered her head and covered her face, the brim of her old hat shadowing her eyes, as if she had begun to sob quietly.

While pretending to sob, Daisy said, “Grandmother ran that shop for so many years. Now that it’s in my hands, of course I have to run it properly. No matter what, I have to let her recover in peace.”

Then, with a look of forced strength, she dabbed at the corners of her eyes, struggling to keep herself composed. Even her voice trembled slightly.

“After the shop came into my hands, it wasn’t as if I didn’t try other methods. I held promotions and started selling smaller portions in the shop. All I managed to do was just barely get the business running again-enough for us to scrape by, that’s all.”
“I never imagined that even something like that would make Mr. Lobit, who lives not far from us, hold a grudge against me.”

Daisy drew in a deep breath and forced herself to be strong again.

“The moment my family’s business improved a little, he started selling sundries at a loss. He made such a mess of things that my family could barely afford porridge. Everyone on Clark Street knows it.”

“If anyone disrupted the market, he was the one who started it.”

“We truly had no other choice. To win back business, we could only do the same sort of loss-making promotion. I would never dare smuggle anything.”

Daisy sniffed.

“I have invoices as proof. It has absolutely nothing to do with stolen goods.”

Canning’s slender fingers were wrapped in leather gloves, the pads of them tapping faintly against the tabletop. He leaned back in his chair and turned to the older constable.

“The invoices.”

The older constable hurriedly handed them over.

Canning took the invoices and turned them over in his hands, giving them a look.

She really had not had it easy.

Inspector Narbey asked, “Is this genuine?”

Canning nodded silently.

Narbe gave a low hum. Canning was connected by marriage to the wine merchant Helconsa family. If he said it was genuine, then it was genuine.

Besides, from the looks of it, this young girl really was a responsible, filial child.

Seeing the situation turning against him, and seeing the girl act more and more like it was all true, Lobit immediately shouted at the top of his lungs:

“You filthy little wretch! You start pretending to be innocent right in front of the officers and think anyone will fall for it?”

“Officers, she is no decent person, and her family is nowhere near as miserable as she claims.”

Thinking of the few boxes of cigars that had been returned to him, Lobit snorted coldly.

“If they have enough money to buy high-end cigars worth several pounds a box to bribe the sanitary inspector, do they look like people I forced to the brink of starvation?”

“If they can spend that much money bribing an inspector, who knows how black-hearted their business is!”

At that, Canning looked toward Daisy. After being shouted at by Lobit, she covered her face again.

Her thin shoulders trembled a few times before she finally raised her head, revealing the eyes hidden beneath the brim of her hat, misty with tears.

She truly did not look like she was acting. Canning tilted his head slightly.

“I gave a gift because Mr. Mossana, the inspector, is conscientious and dedicated. He works tirelessly for the food quality of Clark Street.”

“I admire him from the bottom of my heart. Besides, who on Doros Street doesn’t give the inspector something? He likes good cigars. Everyone knows that. Didn’t you give him some too?”

“Just because I gave the same thing you did, only with more thought put into it, and the inspector returned your cigars to you, you decided to slander my family’s goods?”

“If we were truly selling some forbidden item, with a pushy, unreasonable competitor like you making trouble even when you have no case, would we have survived until today?”

The more Daisy spoke, the more she sounded like an honest person driven past her limit.

Lobit was even angrier than she was. He wanted to say something in rebuttal, but then he noticed the expressions of the three police officers. They all seemed to be looking at him with faint disdain.

They had actually been fooled by that wretched girl!

Lobit choked for a long while, his face turning red, but he could not come up with a reply. Saying more would do him no good.

Daisy raised a hand and pressed at the corner of her eye, then glanced toward the three officers.

Their expressions varied. Inspector Narbey and the other inspector were looking at Lobit with clear contempt.

There seemed to be a trace of pity in Canning’s eyes.

The slight furrow in Daisy’s brow eased a little. Just then, the barred door beside them was pushed open again.

A constable came in and said to the three men:

“Sir, the prisoner has been brought in.”

Canning was the first to stand. He looked at the older constable and said:

“Since this has nothing to do with stolen goods, there’s no need to continue questioning them.”

Narbe and the other two inspectors also nodded in agreement.

The older constable snapped to attention again and respectfully escorted the three men out of the interrogation room.

Seeing that they had left without looking back, Daisy held back her tears, cleared her throat, and wiped her face expressionlessly.

“Sergeant, since the officers have said we have nothing to do with the stolen goods and there’s no need to question us, may we leave now?”

Some time later.

Daisy and Mr. Nash stepped out through the gates of Metropolitan Police Headquarters.

Grandfather and granddaughter spent a hefty sum in the square to hire a carriage waiting by the roadside for fares, then rattled all the way back to Whitechapel.

By the time they returned to Clark Street, the darkness of the sky had already begun to turn translucent.

No one at home had gone to bed yet, and the shops on the nearby streets were still lit. Mr. Nash went home to knock on the door.

When he turned his head, he saw Daisy heading toward Lobit Grocery.

“Daisy? What are you going to do?”

She raised a hand and waved.

“I’ll be back in a bit.”

Wrapped in her shawl, Daisy walked steadily toward Lobit Grocery, intending to look for Little George.

Little George had worked for Lobit for so many years. He was bound to know plenty of dirty secrets.

A fine and a few days in jail were nowhere near enough.

She was going to beat the dog while it was down. She would make sure that old bastard Lobit could never come back-and she would get her hands on that shop in such a prime location.

…