Ch.119Ch.8 – And Then There Was Nothing (4)

# June 22, 1929, 10:50 AM

## Southern Harbor Warehouse Sector, Polard City

## Polard Island

The entire warehouse district is bustling. Trucks, handcarts, and porters are chaotically mixed together. My eyes, nose, and mouth are overwhelmed by the shouting, cursing, honking, and exhaust fumes.

Thanks to this, I went unnoticed. Perhaps it was because of the bread bag I was carrying, or because the workers were all focused on their own tasks.

I asked a worker who was resting and drinking water where 11-C was, and he pointed toward the sea.

11-C wasn’t just a simple warehouse. Half of it was submerged in water, while the other half extended over the dock.

I opened the door, which had white paint layered over peeling blue paint. The smell of fishy water, oil, and metal hit me immediately.

The warehouse was large and elongated. A small crane and shelves caught my eye. A boat with a hole in its side was placed on a frame.

It seemed to be a facility for repairing and maintaining small vessels. The door on the far side of the warehouse was wide open, connecting to the sea, and in the middle floated a small barge carrying a new Ford automobile.

“What’s that?”

And beside the barge, Aurora in her outdoor attire and five of her subordinates were waiting. She had a document envelope tucked under her arm. I held out the bread bag. Aurora approached, waving off her subordinates, and opened the bread bag.

“Cream-filled bread. A box of cookies. Milk? Are we going on a picnic?”

Aurora bent over laughing, almost to the point of tears. After laughing for quite a while, she handed me the document envelope and took the bread bag in exchange.

“Get in the back seat for now.”

Aurora and I climbed into the back seat of the Ford. We were the only ones in the car. After closing the door and waiting a moment, the barge’s engine started.

The smell of oil and exhaust wafted in, and the barge began to move slowly. As the stuttering engine accelerated, the noise actually decreased, and the exhaust fumes receded behind us.

I asked Aurora where we were going.

“Arkham.”

Aurora rummaged through the bread bag and pulled out the cookie box.

“We’ll cross the sea, go up the Miskatonic River, and enter the Arkham dock’s ship repair facility. It’s my warehouse, of course. We’ll tie up the barge there, drive around the city, and then take the barge back.

I can’t do the male disguise twice. The chest binding is uncomfortable, and the mustache itches. And having to go all the way to Kingsport to catch a bus and rent a car… ugh.

Isn’t this better? Just moving the car by barge. Before you ask more questions, read those documents first. I’m going to eat cookies. Chocolate fudge? Makes you fat… I should only eat half. Hmm. Did you buy something tasty?”

I had many questions, but I opened the report first. The first page was about an auction in Arkham a month ago, detailing which items were bid on by whom.

One section was underlined:

Brick fragment with snake-man carving (1/2)

Final bidder: Irving Montana

Appraised value: …

The next report was a logistics shipping record. “Irving Montana’s” address was listed as apartment 601 on the 6th floor of a luxury apartment in eastern Arkham.

But next to it was a note: “This apartment building only has 5 floors.”

“It’s a virtual mailbox. Real and fake addresses are mixed together, making it hard to detect unless you know it’s fake from the start. Look at the next page, it gets even more interesting.”

The item was shipped to a warehouse in Kingsport. It was declared as a wooden craft, and the recipient’s name was Esther Goffman. The item moved to the warehouse was returned to Arkham, this time as a Chinese porcelain set.

I asked what this meant.

“It’s an extremely classic smuggling method. They keep switching recipients, senders, item descriptions, and addresses to avoid tracking. About two weeks ago, a subordinate working at the Kingsport post office contacted me. He said there was a sudden increase in shipments with deliberately incorrect addresses and asked if I knew anything about it. Did I mention that I control all of Kingsport and a third of Arkham?”

This was news to me. I thought the White Hand only had warehouses in Kingsport. Aurora took a sip of milk.

“I’d be a fool not to take over after watching the Kingsport local gang disappear right before my eyes. Remember that rude casino owner? The ‘Queen’s Pavilion’ casino. That’s mine now too. No, I didn’t kill him. His limbs are intact. What I mean is, shipping south of Boston is now completely under White Hand control. No cargo escapes our notice. Most factions already know this. So who dares to pull this amateur stunt in my distribution network? Without reporting it? It’s strange. I told them to follow it, and guess what they found? Open the last page.”

Finally, the item was shipped to the Polard Natural History Temporary Museum under the name of luxury sandalwood chess pieces. The recipient was Lillian Beth, curator of the temporary natural history museum—a man with a slightly elongated face and a mustache. He was in the newspapers I had organized with Crayfield.

“‘Aim for the light, but stay away from politics.’ That’s my father’s policy. I dislike my father, but I try to follow that policy. Why? Because he doesn’t follow it himself. He was quite close to the former mayor, Isaiah Black, and is close to the current mayor, Arthur Black. Have you ever looked into that man’s eyes? Like swirling sewage. But why would the mayor be involved in such basic ‘smuggling’? I found it very suspicious.”

Aurora took out a new cookie and bit into it with a crunch. It must have been quite crispy, as crumbs stuck to the corners of her mouth.

“I asked my most trustworthy subordinates—those whose fatal weaknesses I hold—to prepare reports. They put them on my desk at dawn today. As I read through them page by page this morning, connecting them with the story you told me yesterday, I had a feeling this wasn’t an ordinary matter. That’s why I called you, and you came at just the right time. With bread and milk, no less.”

I asked why she had changed her attitude in just one day, since yesterday she had said it would be difficult.

“Yesterday was an official meeting. You made an appointment through my subordinate during my working hours, not directly with me, so all my other subordinates knew I was meeting you. In that setting, would I agree to something that benefits only you and not the entire organization? Would my people like you for that? Especially looking into the entire warehouse logistics flow? No way.

Today? Today I’m officially going to Arkham for ‘business.’ They know I ‘hired’ you to come along. So if you just joined the White Hand, we wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble.”

It was a curious combination of official business and personal curiosity. Still, I was grateful that Aurora herself had called for me.

“Well… there’s no need to be so grateful…”

Aurora’s face reddened as she turned her head away. Then, looking back at me:

“No, what am I saying? After all the thinking I did. You should be more grateful to me. Speaking of which, have you thought about becoming independent from Crayfield? I could get you a separate apartment and office. Then we could meet more often. It would be more comfortable. What do you think?”

Instead of answering, I pointed out that there were cookie crumbs on the corner of her mouth.

“Then wipe them off.”

I took out my handkerchief to wipe them away, but Aurora shook her head.

“…with your lips.”

* * * * *

The barge was faster than a conventional passenger ship and didn’t have the characteristic rocking motion. It glided across the calm sea and up the Miskatonic River. A few small boats passed by, but otherwise, the riverbank was quiet. Eventually, we docked at Arkham’s repair facility.

“Wait nearby and be ready to depart as soon as I return.”

Aurora gave strict instructions to the facility workers. Then she pulled me out of the car. I thought we were going to the driver’s seat, but she took me to the facility’s office. Two elegant suits were laid out.

“Change your clothes. You’re not planning to go to the Arkham auction house dressed like that, are you? It’s a place for nouveau riche, and they’ll turn you away at the entrance if you’re not well-dressed.”

Aurora put on her dress and headed to the next room. The suit seemed almost too extravagant to wear, but once I put it on, it fit me so perfectly that it didn’t even feel like I was wearing clothes.

“It suits you well. You should dress properly when you’re with someone like me.”

Aurora’s outfit was incredibly lavish as well. A burgundy silk dress with a diamond brooch the size of a fist, and she even carried a fan adorned with peacock feathers. I asked how she knew my clothing size to prepare this. Aurora’s face turned bright red as she slapped the back of my hand.

“Shut up. Just get in the car.”

* * * * *

As Aurora had said, entering the auction house was challenging from the start. People in expensive clothes and jewelry were let in immediately, while those dressed modestly faced rigorous questioning.

For all the difficulty getting in, the auction house building was dilapidated. The wood was dried and twisted, looking unsightly, and the floor was riddled with holes as if termites had infested it. Every time a sharp heel stepped on the wooden floor, it made a piercing sound as if being punctured by an awl.

Still, the wooden furniture had a certain luster. Not from being varnished, but naturally polished and worn by time and touch. They gave off the soft, comfortable feeling unique to wood. The people wandering around the auction house were similar. Elderly couples moved leisurely, while relatively younger, plump, red-faced groups scurried about.

“Number 3. Number 3. Here it is.”

Aurora led me to room 3. At the entrance, a clerk handed out numbered tickets. Aurora got number 22, and I got 23. Another clerk guided us to our designated seats. Since the auction hadn’t officially started yet, there weren’t many people. Aurora leaned toward me and covered her mouth with her fan.

“Now, you decide. We’re primarily here to see who comes to buy that thing, so we can track them. If you want, I can buy it for you. What do you think?”

I didn’t think it was necessary to buy it. Wasn’t it a cursed object? When I expressed my opinion, Aurora seemed a bit disappointed.

“Are you sure you don’t need it? From what you said, it sounds like an extremely valuable item.”

I was about to say there was no need, when my attention was drawn to a woman who had just entered the auction house. She wore a black dress that exposed her shoulders and had a gold bracelet on her wrist.

Looking closely, I saw that it was a coiled snake. A sapphire necklace sparkled above her slightly exposed cleavage. With her reddish-blonde long straight hair, she was a face I recognized.

“Katherine Scully?”

Aurora gripped my arm tightly.

“Why is that woman here? When did she grow her hair out?”

It wasn’t Katherine. It was Emma Scully. She turned her head in our direction and gave a faint smile when she saw Aurora and me.