Why it never ends

Chapter 172
This night, Schmidt was enjoying his last dinner in Tan Yi in his mansion.

Considering that Schmidt doesn't have much appetite at the moment, his servant prepared a relatively simple dinner for him: a plate of salad and a glass of red wine.The salad is mixed with the old inspector's favorite asparagus, gerisanan cheese, winter toon leaves and sweet prawns, and the plate is very elegant.

Schmidt ate in silence, never touching the red wine glass next to him. The butler observed for a few minutes and stepped forward to replace the red wine with white wine. Schmidt really started drinking—he urgently needed to drink some alcohol at this moment, but The color of red wine disgusted him.

Avinash was sitting at the other end of the long table at the moment. He had nothing to do, so he flipped through the daily records of Schmidt handed to him by the housekeeper.During these ten days or so, the old inspector suffered from severe insomnia: almost from the day of Hoffman's tragic death, Schmidt couldn't sleep.

The steward noted next to the note that he had been prescribed sedatives by his family doctor, but he refused to take them.

"Is the luggage ready?" Schmidt asked suddenly.

"Ready, sir."

Schmidt raised his head, his gaze was quite meaningful, "Have you prepared all the 'commonly used medicines'?"

"Ready, I specially put it in your travel bag. The sleeping pills are in the middle of the medicine bag, and there are about three days' worth. You can open some new ones when you arrive in the core city..." The housekeeper paused, " The clothes are also ready."

"Okay." Schmidt put down the knife and fork, and looked up at the time.

There were still more than two hours before they set off for the train station, some fine sweat oozed from his palm, but he quickly wiped it off calmly.

"You have suffered from insomnia recently," Avinash put down the record book, "Are you worried about the 'Assassin'?"

Schmidt immediately sneered, "Insomnia is indeed a problem. It's not because of worrying about assassins. You sleep like this when you get older... You will experience it in the future, especially in winter."

Avinash slightly raised his eyebrows and responded.

As if worried that Avinash wouldn't believe it, Schmidt added: "I'm not worried about some 'assassin' 'Red Velvet', I know she just wants to see me in a panic like Richie, but I have to. Say, she made a mistake."

Avinash nodded, "That's good."

"I actually know exactly what she thinks... Do you want to hear it?"

Avinash glanced at Schmidt. He probably understood the other person's psychology: the more afraid of something, the more he should take the initiative to talk about it, which will help relieve the fear.However, he is not willing to play the role of a listener to relieve other people's anxiety at this time, not to mention that once the conversation is started, the old inspector probably has a lot of long speeches waiting for him.

But having said that, he has been around Richie these days, and apart from a few subordinates, he has no insiders to talk to—except Paule.But Paule is really a bit boring. He may be good at the topics of banquets and parties. In this murder case, he would have nothing but flattery and panic.

"Tell me about it." Avinash pretended to be interested, "I'm all ears."

"Send everyone the death notice in advance, isn't that setting up obstacles for yourself to commit crimes?" Schmidt's voice said, "With her ability, she could have solved all the enemies in the dark, but now she has done so With great fanfare, everyone is on guard...Why would she do such a troublesome thing?"

"Indeed, what do you think?"

Schmidt paused every word, "In order to prolong my pain."

Avinash let out a sigh of realization.

"Look at Rishi, from the first day he received the death notice, he fell into the fear of death, and every day after that, he was looking at his own photos and imagining how he would die - look at this What kind of fear has tortured him... He, a devout Catholic, would choose to commit suicide because he couldn't bear this pain.

"The devil lurking in the dark is making each of us spend the twelve days of fear! She is using this kind of trick to torture me and each of us... But she thinks she can succeed in this way Is it? No!"

Schmidt stood up suddenly, "At least not here, I won't be intimidated by this woman's means, I want to see it, when I get to the core city—"

Before the words were finished, there was a sudden harsh sound of brakes outside the window, followed by a dull impact, and they immediately started barking dogs in the distance.

In this instant change, Schmidt had already raised the gun in his hand, and he continuously pulled the trigger towards the window, and the glass shattered.But those few bullets obviously missed anything - Schmidt came to his senses amidst the noise in the distance and the silence nearby.

Cold sweat slipped from the corner of his forehead, and he couldn't control his panting for the rest of his life. In the silent dining room, the sound of breathing seemed so harsh, and a burst of tinnitus rushed to his brain along with the hot blood. Schmidt felt dizzy for a while. It took a while to recover.

After a while, the butler ran up, "Master, a private car has been involved in an accident, and the patrol team has already called an ambulance... They heard gunshots and want to ask if you are safe."

Schmidt sat slumped in his chair, deaf to everything.

"Safe." Avinash replied on his behalf. He stood up and signaled to the butler that he could step back.The dining room was silent again, and Avinash walked to Schmidt silently, and gently put down his gun.

The old inspector raised his head, and under the bright light, Avinash saw that this aging face was covered with furrowed wrinkles.

"...give it back to me," Schmidt trembled, "don't... take my gun."

Schmidt's eye sockets were deeply sunken, and his eyeballs were also severely congested. For a moment, Avinash couldn't tell whether the redness was due to exhaustion or because he was shocked into tears by the accident just now.

Thinking of the majestic old man who comforted Rishi at the police station a few days ago, Avinash put the gun back in his palm.

"You're right," Avinash whispered, "That man just wants to see you fall into fear, and you won't let him succeed, will you?"

The old inspector suddenly held Avinash's hand tightly like a child, he put his eyes on Avinash's clothes, and his breathing trembled.

"Can you help me find a priest...I need...repentance..."

Avinash sighed, and he asked his subordinates to send a message to the housekeeper, while he stayed here with Schmidt through what might be the most difficult period right now.

It was a deep night outside the window. Avinash stood in the hall and looked out. He suddenly thought, if the murderer is watching outside at this moment, then he should be secretly proud of himself now.

(End of this chapter)