Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

Chapter 529 The Truth
808
When Benson heard the knock on the door, he thought it was the neighbor's kid asking him for candy again.

As a government employee and a recently promoted deputy minister due to personnel changes and the war, Benson's salary did decrease slightly, but his life did not become tight. Melissa's school was not closed either. According to her, the food in the school cafeteria did decrease in quantity and became less tasty than before, but it was still not inedible - after all, the Moretti family was not rich to begin with.

They still led the same peaceful life as before, each having lunch at school and work, then bringing some food back for dinner, and putting away the bread and meat that were not eaten at night as breakfast the next morning.

The Moretti family's neighbor was also a government employee, but because of the difference in salary and position, as well as the larger family size, he was more affected than them. Occasionally, when Benson and Melissa went out, they would see the wife or the elderly of that family wearing a veil and hat and coming back with bread.

But more often than not, they come away empty-handed.

Therefore, Benson and Melissa also reached some consensus. In order to respect each other, they chose to occasionally invite the neighbor's child who was less than ten years old to their home to have a meal together, or give him some candies, cookies and small breads that Melissa brought back from school.

Children can't eat much, and Benson and Melissa are good neighbors who are trustworthy. Therefore, the neighbors all expressed their gratitude. Although they couldn't express it in money, they often asked the children to bring simple origami or handkerchiefs sewn by the hostess.

"Isn't it a little late today? What time is it..."

Benson came to the living room, and before he got close, he heard the door knocked again.

This time, he could tell that the knocking sound was very different from the previous ones. The neighbor's child was less than ten years old, and although he knocked on the door quickly, the force was very light. However, the guest this time knocked slowly, but the force could not be ignored, and the knocking sound came from very high... Benson frowned slightly. He felt that the knocking sound should come from the same height as his head. The neighbor's male owner was not that tall!

Benson suddenly felt something was wrong. Seeing Melissa sticking her head out of her room because of the second knock on the door, he quickly made a gesture and asked his sister to come to him with a kitchen knife.

Even in the current situation, desperate criminals should not break into the communities where government workers live, but, what if?
Benson held the knife and asked Melissa to go back to her room. He approached the door and asked loudly:
"who is it?"

"We are Mr. Benson Moretti, a senior inspector of the Backlund Police Department. Please don't be nervous or afraid." A deep and deep voice came through the door.

Benson couldn't believe it. Although he was a government employee, he seldom dealt with the Sivellas Field, so he deliberately said loudly:
"Can I see your police ID?"

"By the way, I just had dinner with Commissioner Mr. Bradley the day before yesterday, but he didn't tell me that a police officer would come to see me today. Your voice doesn't sound like the senior inspector I know. Is the other one Mr. Bourne?"

He pretended to be familiar with the senior staff of the Sivellas Field, and reported the names of the inspectors and sheriffs who he had only met a few times and had not spoken to a few times, hoping to scare off the suspicious elements outside. Logically speaking, if the target of the robbery was not only a government employee, but also familiar with the senior officials of the police department, then the dangerous elements who only acted for money and food should give up no matter what.

"You can call me Gail, Mr. Moretti."

To his surprise, the man outside the door not only continued to answer, but also said without fear: "I showed you my police ID, you can check it through the peephole. My companion is not Inspector Bourne, but he can also show his police ID."

Benson hesitated and looked through the peephole from a distance. He saw a police officer's ID card with the Sivella Field logo and dark patterns, without any trace of counterfeiting. His doubts did not decrease, but increased:

"Then I believe your identities, but why did you come to me? Our department doesn't have much cooperation with you."

The two senior police inspectors, or the Thunder Church's Punishers, looked at each other and then at the police officer behind them. The police officer consciously covered his ears to avoid suspicion. Then, the one who called himself "Gail" said in a stern tone:

"Mr. Moretti, you are suspected of being involved in a vicious act intended to subvert the country."

"Intent to subvert the country?"

Benson was shocked. If this huge hat fell down, even the corners would be enough to smash him and Melissa into pulp.

Although he has become the deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance, that is because the deputy minister was dismissed due to political stance and many other reasons, and the noble son who was originally the candidate for the deputy minister died in the war. More importantly, the congressmen who promoted the "Examination Act" also needed a typical case to prove the superiority of this bill, so Benson, a civilian, or a former military family, was quickly appreciated and filled the vacancy. - In addition, Benson did not have the family background and social connections to be worthy of this position. As the deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance, his own family's finances were affected to a certain extent by the war.

Therefore, Benson's first reaction was that someone was trying to frame him, so he argued for himself without hesitation:

"Please don't talk nonsense, Inspector."

"As a new deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance who has only been in office for two months, why would I do such a thing? It does me no good at all!"

"Gentlemen, although I don't know what your purpose is, please stop slandering and spreading rumors about me immediately and leave my house immediately, otherwise I will ask the community sheriff for help!"

Gale, the captain of the Substitute Punishers, took a deep breath, his eyes flashing with lightning, and he was obviously very angry at Benson's words. He had never been spoken to like this by a civilian, let alone a civilian who was not even a believer of the God of Thunder.

His companion nudged him with his elbow just in time and said loudly:

"Mr. Benson, you are suspected of being 'involved', not participating!"

"Please don't be nervous. We are not here to arrest you. On the contrary, you and your family are important stakeholders. We will provide you with protection until the case is thoroughly investigated."

The police officer was obviously speaking more logically, but Benson's heart was still pounding, and his palms were sweating as he gripped the door handle.

"What exactly happened?" Benson licked his dry lips. "I don't remember being involved or involved in anything."

The Punisher thought for a moment, took out his mission book and took a look at it, then asked:

"The ones at home should be you, Mr. Benson, and Ms. Melissa. This matter really has nothing to do with you, but you are indeed listed as important stakeholders... Perhaps your brother Klein Moretti knows the situation."

"Klein?"

Benson almost screamed, and even Melissa couldn't help but cover her mouth. Benson became even angrier:
"This is slander! This is even more excessive slander!"

"My brother, Klein Moretti, is dead! He was a civilian police officer in Tingen City and sacrificed his life fighting criminals! He is a hero of Tingen City and our pride... (Benson took a deep breath, tears flickering in his eyes) Mr. Inspector, this must be someone who used my brother's identity to do evil! Please stop slandering my dead brother immediately!"

Now it was the turn of the Mandated Punisher outside to be surprised. "Klein Moretti is dead?"

He seemed even more unbelievable than Benson, but he was a Beyonder after all, and also a member of the Thunder Church's law enforcement team. The fact that the dead were still active was equivalent to a ghost story for ordinary people, but in the Beyonder world, there were many ways to achieve it, the simplest of which was to summon the dead to work for them. After the death of ordinary people, the spirits only existed for a very short time, so the next best thing was to use certain spirit creatures to simulate the appearance of the dead. This was also a way for some Beyonders to make money by performing "summoning spirits" and "reuniting with the dead" to cheat people out of money.

The simplest and most direct way is that "Klein Moretti" may be an extraordinary person of the "Corpse Collector" path.

After all, he once belonged to the Extraordinary Team of Tingen City of the Church of Evernight. There are a large number of "corpse collectors" in the Church of Evernight, who possess all the formulas of the middle and low sequences. And the records show that he also has a teacher-student relationship with Azik Eggers of the "Church of Death". Maybe he was guided by Azik Eggers to become an Extraordinary of this path, and then entered into suspended animation through some means, and then was awakened.

However, Klein drank the "Fortune Teller" potion under the gaze of everyone and was able to "come back to life". The Punisher could only guess that perhaps the "Archon of Death" Azik Eggers did something in it... Maybe Klein Moretti had never died.

Death is just a technique to escape.

The poor family had no idea that their brother had become a cultist... The Punisher expressed deep sympathy to the two family members who seemed to be completely unaware and who sincerely believed that their brother had sacrificed himself to protect the people.

However, because of his brother's death, the family received several thousand pounds in compensation. I don't know if this was Klein Moretti's purpose.

"…There is no point in saying more. Look at this."

The Punisher took out a photo from the assignment book. The photo was pinned to a file with a paper clip. The personal information on the file was "Sherlock Moriarty".

"Look at this, Mr. Benson."

The Punisher placed the photo in front of the cat's eyes so that Benson could see it clearly.

Benson squinted his eyes and looked at him for a while. He didn't think there was anything special about this bearded detective. If this detective looked like Klein, then there were too many people in the world with similar facial features and eyes, even those with similar blood ties.

But just as he was about to retort, he saw the Punisher take out another photo from the folder.

The picture on this photo is very interesting, with photos of Sherlock Moriarty and Klein Moretti.

Moreover, a beard identical to that of the private detective was drawn on the photo of Klein Moretti. After the beard was drawn, Sherlock Moriarty suddenly changed from "only similar in spirit" to "80% similar". Benson stared in disbelief and remained silent for several seconds. Even his eloquence, which he was proud of, was temporarily ineffective because the facts before him were too shocking.

If Leonard were here, he would find that he drew both photos - yes, he was the first to discover the similarities between Klein and Sherlock. But he would also be surprised, because he had inserted these three comparison photos into the book long ago after he found out the truth, and after he dug up the grave and resolved the misunderstanding, he hid them in the most inconspicuous place on the bookshelf as a secret shared by him and Klein. How could they be found so easily and shown to Klein's family so easily?
Melissa stood at the door of the bedroom, and she heard clearly what the Punisher said outside.

She had originally scoffed at the other party's words, but when she saw Benson's body suddenly stiffen, Melissa suddenly felt her heart tremble violently, as if something was sliding in a bad direction and then falling into the abyss.

“This—this doesn’t mean…” Benson’s voice became dry.

There were still tears in the corners of his eyes, and his expression had become dull, which made him look particularly weird and funny.

The words of the Punisher were like a hammer that smashed Benson's dying struggle to pieces:
"Sherlock Moriarty has no identification. He claims to be from Jianhai, but there is no family with this surname in Jianhai."

"Mr. Benson, let me tell you this. This Mr. Sherlock Moriarty suddenly appeared in Backlund in September last year. As I recall, that was about a month after Mr. Klein's death, right?"

"To be honest, before this... we also went to Tingen. I'm sorry, but in order to ensure that Mr. Klein Moretti's reputation was not tarnished by the criminals who stole his identity, we obtained the approval of the church there and dug up his grave."

As he spoke, the Punisher took out another photo.

Benson didn't want to look anymore, but the last glimmer of hope forced him to raise his head. Then, he saw the familiar tombstone and the familiar smiling face of the young man on it. In front of the tombstone was an opened coffin, with nothing but air inside. The body that should have been sleeping there was nowhere to go.

"The best brother..."

Benson's lips had completely lost their color. He stared at the comparison photos through the peephole glass in disbelief and despair.

He simply couldn't accept such a huge psychological gap.

"Klein...are you still alive?"

The usually mature brother's fingers trembled slightly. He gripped the door handle tightly and muttered to himself: "Are you still alive? Why... don't you come back to find us... What dangerous things are you doing..."

"Mr. Benson?"

The Punisher did not hear his mumbling clearly, but he also realized that his words probably worked and made the other party believe him - this is certain. In the face of such overwhelming evidence, no matter how irrational Benson Moretti was, he should have realized that his brother was not dead, but simply escaped from them through some means and then joined some hidden evil organization.

"Mr. Benson," he said again, knocking on the door. "Please open the door."

Click.

Benson opened the door, revealing a face full of red bloodshot, which seemed to have aged ten years in an instant.

"I'll go with you."

He spoke in a hoarse voice, filled with endless sadness: "Please tell me, where is Klein now, what did he do, why, why did he try to subvert our country..."

TBC
------

good night!