landbeastnovel Chapter 30 Public Coach Company
Chapter 30 Public Coach Company
Under the blazing sun at 2:30 p.m., Lucius and his party walked east for about ten minutes and found the General Public Carriage Company located on the second floor facing the street.
The first floor is a carriage parking area and stable, with a huge arched doorway opening onto the street, where you can see seven or eight different kinds of public carriages parked.
Lucius glanced instinctively into the parking lot.
Several coachmen were carrying buckets and rags to clean the carriage. A young man rolled up his sleeves to his elbows and wiped the mud off the carriage door, while another slightly older coachman brushed the horse's mane.
A bald man with a large belly, dressed in a suit, paced back and forth in the parking lot, holding a notebook and occasionally stopping to point out something.
As the bald man turned around from the stable, he caught a glimpse of three men in police uniforms appearing at the entrance to the parking lot.
His mind raced, and with an agility far beyond his physique, he jogged forward, asking cautiously and carefully:
"Officers, what's wrong?"
Felix maintained his usual businesslike seriousness, took out a police badge bearing the Hull Police Department seal from his breast pocket, and said briefly and efficiently:
"According to our investigation, a criminal left East York University Station in your company's carriage around 1 p.m. We need to find the driver of that carriage and ask him some questions."
This reason was prepared on the way here, deliberately avoiding elements involving mysticism.
After hearing Felix's words, the bald man's tense shoulders relaxed.
General Motors has an internal tiered system for handling emergencies:
Green indicates a routine inquiry, yellow indicates lost passenger property or damage to the carriage, and red indicates personal injury or a more serious accident.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, thought for a moment, and pointed to the half-open window in the middle of the second floor:
"The operations manager, Mr. Thomas, is in his office. You can go up and ask him. He will know roughly where the carriage is currently stopped and which driver is on it."
Without further ado, Lucius and his companions passed through the side door of the parking lot and went up the indoor staircase to the second floor.
Safety posters from the public carriage company were displayed on the walls of the stairwell, with the slogan "Safety First, Service Foremost" displayed below the images.
After the group had settled down, Lucius stepped forward and knocked on the operations manager's door.
"Come in," a male voice came from inside.
Lucius pushed open the door and entered, finding incense burning in the room, dispelling the smell of manure and hay emanating from the stable.
On the far left wall is a map of Hull, with different colored lines outlining the carriage route. The location of each stop is also marked with its name, spacing, and duration.
Thomas, sitting in front of the desk, was a thin man in his early forties, wearing only a white shirt and a dark gray vest.
He was surprised to see three of the people who came in wearing police uniforms. He stood up from his chair and spoke with more composure than the bald man downstairs: "Officers, what's wrong?"
Felix followed his standard procedure, showing his police identification and explaining his purpose.
Thomas was quite experienced in handling such matters; passenger disputes and lost and found incidents occurred almost weekly on public carriages.
He turned and walked to the route and station planning map on the left wall. His eyes quickly scanned the labels on the map, and after a couple of seconds of contemplation, he gave his suggestion:
"We'll be passing East York University station at 1 p.m.... The driver you're looking for is named Colin. According to the station schedule, if there aren't any major changes to the traffic, he's currently at Central Park station, and the next stop is Botanical Garden station."
Lucius got the information he wanted, and as he followed Felix out, he heard footsteps behind him.
"Wait a minute, officers," Thomas caught up and said with a smile, "Let's go in our carriage. I'll arrange a coachman to relieve Colin."
Lucius's eyes lit up. It was the height of the afternoon sun, and if it weren't for the fact that the public carriage company was not far from the University City station, he would have insisted on calling a taxi.
Felix clearly thought the same thing and nodded in agreement to Thomas's request.
After the group went downstairs, Thomas called out to a coachman on his left who had just finished washing the carriage:
"Face, take a few officers to the Botanical Garden station and relieve Colin. Well, today counts as a normal workday, and tomorrow is your day off again."
The coachman, Fies, was a capable young man who looked to be no more than twenty years old. He wiped the water off the front seat with a towel, backed the carriage out of the parking lot, and parked it on the side of the aisle.
He turned to Lucius and the others and smiled, "Officer, that's enough."
Lucius and the others took their seats one by one. Fies glanced back to make sure they were seated properly, then pulled on the reins.
Because it didn't need to stop at public stops along the way, Faith's carriage was much faster than Colin's when it stopped at stations.
At 3:20 p.m., the carriage entered the small square outside the Botanical Garden Station.
Lucius looked around. In his memory, the original owner had only been here once when his parents brought him here when he was a child.
The botanical garden in Hull is not large, but due to shipping, you can see many exotic plants from kingdoms such as Winchester and West in the southern continent.
In particular, the most iconic jacaranda trees in the center are in full bloom in June and July, and the whole botanical garden is filled with a faint fragrance when the wind blows.
Lucius found an open-air café that faced the direction of the public carriage stop.
A maid wearing a white apron came over, and Felix ordered four cups of black coffee.
Before half the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee had passed, the enclosed carriage came into view.
"Colin, Supervisor Thomas asked me to relieve you, so you can leave early today," Faith called out as he parked his carriage next to Colin's.
Colin looked surprised. He secured the reins around the armrest before replying, "What happened? My day off is tomorrow."
As soon as he finished speaking, he followed Firth's intentional or unintentional glance and saw three people in police uniforms sitting at an outdoor cafe not far away.
Colin understood; he had received emergency response training at least three times and knew what to do now.
He climbed down from his seat, walked to the carriage, pulled the curtain open slightly, and said to the three passengers inside in a professionally apologetic voice:
"I'm so sorry, esteemed guests, you will need to transfer to another carriage to reach your destination. This young waiter will take over for me."
The passengers complained a few times, but seeing another carriage parked on the platform outside, with the driver already helping to carry their luggage, they didn't say anything more and got off the carriage one after another.
Colin nodded to Firth, and only after Firth drove away from the platform did he approach Lucius and the others with a feeling of unease.