Mystery: Starting from Meeting Amon

Chapter 23 True Detective

Boom boom boom!
Lewis knocked on the door three times and walked in.

"Sir, may I ask what I can do for you?" Mrs. Karma Hughes, who was wearing an apron and was a little overweight, was dealing with the leftover cakes and throwing them into the wooden barrel beside her.

What a waste… Lewis thought to himself.

"I saw that you were transferring this store, and I was wondering if you could transfer it to me, beautiful lady." Lewis took off his hat and asked.

"Sir, you are really good at talking." Kama Hughes smiled brightly and raised his chin. "Just call me the beautiful Mrs. Maka. I do want to sublease this store, but the price is a bit expensive."

Lewis twitched his lips. It turned out that praising a woman's beauty really worked. Looking at Mrs. Kama's expression, she really wanted to be praised more.

"Beautiful Mrs. Kama, I would like to rent this room and hope to get a reasonable price."

"How about nine soli per week? This store has a good location. Generally speaking, a store of the same location would cost ten soli per week. But there's a nasty detective across the street. You know, a detective whose mind is only filled with gold pounds will make business worse." Mrs. Kama held the broom at hand with a helpless expression.

The detective is indeed obsessed with pounds, but what does that have to do with your business?
Lewis recalled the process of being blackmailed by Bernie Cooper during the day, and agreed: "I think the price of nine soli a week is reasonable, but I have limited funds, so I can only rent it for half a year, otherwise it will reduce my risk resistance."

“No problem, you sit over there and wait, I’ll go get the contract.” Mrs. Kama brought Lewis a mango cake and a cup of freshly brewed black tea, then ran out of the cake shop.

Lewis took a bite of the mango cake, and the fork in his hand shook slightly in an extremely tiny arc, almost exiting the machine's acting state.

"Damn, what kind of magical cake is this? It uses the same ingredients as other cake shops, but it tastes so bad."

Putting down the fork, Lewis quickly drank two sips of black tea to calm himself. Fortunately, the taste of the black tea was not too bad.

Perhaps the poor cake shop business had nothing to do with Mr. Bergen, it was simply because Mrs. Kama’s cooking skills were terrible.

After more than ten minutes, Mrs. Kama came back with a standard contract. Lewis signed his name on it and paid the rent of 11 pounds and 14 soli with reluctance.

"Great! Now I finally don't have to see that annoying detective and can study my cake recipe at home in peace." Mrs. Kama saved the contract and said in a brisk but unpleasant voice, "Mr. Lewis, I hope you can get rid of that annoying detective. Good luck to you."

Lewis nodded. He felt that Mrs. Kama’s research on cakes was a waste of time. If the other party opened a shop in another place, she would definitely lose the person to blame.

After sending Mrs. Kama away, Lewis got a cake shop and many cakes that were about to expire.

Due to the shadow left by the mango cake, Lewis had to deal with the remaining cakes and then began to tidy up the room.

The cake shop was not big, but the items left by Mrs. Kama were in disarray and very troublesome to clean up.

After working until late at night, Lewis finally finished the environment of the cake shop, leaving only a coffee table and two long chairs in the room. This is where he usually works.

This simple environment reminded Lewis of the Maori Detective Agency in the anime. All that was left was to post a billboard on the original window and the store would be ready.

…In the morning, Lewis woke up from his sleep, feeling the heat in his lower abdomen, and then sighed, he had no money.

All along, interacting with dancers has been Lewis's biggest expense, even accounting for more than 80% of his usual spending.

"Have breakfast first, then put up the office's billboard, and then go find Sera in the evening. After all, it's free."

After setting his next goal, Lewis took action. He first found a shop that made advertisements and asked them to put the words "Lewis Detective Agency" on the window. Then he went back home and started cooking.

Mix the chopped beef and tomatoes together, then add spices and salt and simmer for half an hour. A tomato soup is ready.

Then he threw the brown bread he had bought into the soup to soften it. Lewis took a bite and almost quit playing the "machine" again.

The fishy smell of the beef was not removed at all, and too much salt was added. Overall, it was fishy and salty, which can be considered a dark dish.

"It seems that cooking is different from doing experiments. There are fixed recipes for experiments, but there is no fixed recipe for cooking. I don't have a talent for cooking." Lewis held his breath and ate in big mouthfuls. This at least allowed him to restore his strength.

Lewis missed his sister again. It would be great if he could find Mandy because Mandy would arrange everything.

At noon, Lewis went to the shop that made the advertising pages, took the stickers away, and posted them in the store window.

The detective agency was basically completed, but it was still lacking a sense of ceremony. He still lacked a cane, a pipe, and an opening ceremony attended by the police.

Boom!Boom!Boom!
"Come in." Lewis responded in a deep voice after hearing the knock on the door.

A man with a cane and a black top hat walked in. He looked around and set his sights on Lewis.

"What's the matter?" Lewis was not interested because the person who came was Bernie Cooper, the detective who was blamed by Mrs. Kama.

"Young man, I don't think you're suited to being a detective." Bernie tapped the ground with his cane and said seriously, "A real detective needs an accurate grasp of events, excellent sources of information, and a smart mind. Obviously, you don't have any of these."

Lewis didn't expect the other party to speak so bluntly, he just smiled and didn't bother to defend himself.

As an extraordinary person with the ability of divination, he has long been far ahead of ordinary people in the field of detective work.

What's more, his purpose was not only to make money, but also to digest the machine potion as quickly as possible so that he could be promoted to Sequence Seven as soon as possible.

"I think you don't have to worry about these things. I will take care of them." Lewis said perfunctorily.

"Hmph! You won't have any business because there's a real detective across the street from your firm!" Bernie tapped his cane again and left angrily. It was obvious that this was hatred between colleagues.

(End of this chapter)