Chapter 972

Below we find a group of brightly colored people walking in circles at a slow pace.

Weeping, their faces tired and lifeless, they were dressed in robes with hoods drawn down over their eyes.

The style of the robe seemed to have been made for the monks of the Abbey of Cluny.

The outside of the robe is gilded, and the golden light is dazzling.

But it's all studded with lead.

We still turned left and marched with them, listening to their mournful cries.

——Dante's "Divine Comedy: Inferno"

In 1933, James Hilton described a place of eternal peace and tranquility "Shangri-La" in his novel "Lost Horizon" far away in the mountains of the East.

There are sacred snow-capped mountains, deep canyons, flying waterfalls, quiet lakes surrounded by forests, herds of cattle and sheep wandering on the beautiful grasslands, a sky as clear as a mirror, resplendent temples, and a pure and hospitable wilderness. resident.

Shangri-La was later referred to as a paradise on earth, and a five-star chain hotel was named after it.

Mandala means "comfort" in Buddhist scriptures and is one of the four auspicious flowers in Buddhism. According to legend, it only blooms in the Paradise of Paradise. When Jung introduced the concept of mandala to the West, it caused a sensation.

Hollywood was in its "golden age" in the 1930s, when extravagance and false prosperity enveloped the streets of Los Angeles, and the Mandala Hotel was built at this time.

Crystal chandeliers, stained glass, and exotic rugs, it was once an avant-garde hangout for fashionable celebrities.

But with the Great Depression and the collapse of the bubble economy, the Mandala began to crumble. In front of the gate of the hotel is a large parking lot that can accommodate a huge motorcade. We can see the grand scale of the hotel, but at this time there are several cars parked in the parking lot. The street lights provided by the municipal government are the only light in the parking lot. There are obviously no cameras and the parking lot is not guarded, no wonder no one wants to park here.

"Are you satisfied, Mr. Mills?" The hotel manager asked politely.

"Very good." Mills looked at this room. It was not a "honeymoon suite", but a very ordinary double room, with two single beds side by side, covered with soft and clean sheets, without a large bed. Windows, like many American houses at that time, the glass windows are sliding up and down, and it is difficult to jump from it unless you deliberately.

"Our place is a little far from the sea, but the people who live in this room say they can see the sea, and there is the sound of waves at night."

Perhaps it was because Mills had made an appointment through a church, or perhaps the manager was eager to spread the word that the failing hotel was haunted, and he immediately started talking to Mills about the situation.

For supernatural lovers, this hotel is like a treasure. Jumping off a building, hanging himself, committing suicide by swallowing a gun, taking sleeping pills, overdosing on drugs, all kinds of ways to commit suicide can be found here.

There was a murder case in the hotel two years ago, or it was suspected to have happened here, because the body was found in the water tank on the top floor of the hotel, and the deceased was still a hotel resident, but the police did not find the crime scene.

The only evidence is the strange behavior of the deceased in the elevator. This dilapidated hotel doesn’t even have cameras in the corridors. The elevators are the only ones, and there is no sound. Some people suspect that the suspect is outside the elevator, but it’s a surveillance blind spot. There is no way to see.

"So, instead of jumping off a building, he 'jumped into the sea'?" Mills asked.

"I can't say that."

"Why didn't you add a protective net when something happened?"

"I can't say that."

"Then I have nothing to ask, my luggage is brought in?" Mills asked instead.

"It's already in the cloakroom."

"I'll call you if there's anything to do. This is the main desk phone, right?" Mills picked up a small card on the desk, which was placed next to an antique dial telephone. Its workmanship is very good. Exquisite, it seems to be used by high society in the 1930s.

"Are you sure you're alone?" the hotel manager asked worriedly.

Mills plucked from the neck and pulled out a cross.

"If he can't help me, it's useless for you to come." Mills said with a smile.

"Well, since you said so." The hotel manager was about to leave, but hesitated at the door, and stopped again.

"The last person stayed here for two nights, how long do you plan to stay in this room?"

"Until I find out," Mills said.

"Be careful, Inspector, I was going to seal this room, but the priest of the parish said it's better not to do that, ghosts can go to the next room to make troubles, I just want to run the hotel well, and impress my peers by improving the quality of service , not supernatural events."

Mills thought of the man's old-fashioned front desk, and felt infinite sympathy for the manager's ambition.

After the door of the room was closed, Mills felt his heart tighten. The hotel floor was covered with gray carpet, and there was no sound when he stepped on it. Mills did not rush to unpack the luggage, but went straight to the mini bar and opened the mini fridge.

"Damn it, there's nothing!" Mills complained. There was a kettle on the bar to boil hot water for tea, but the free tea bags looked shoddy, and he wasn't interested at all.

So he had to go to the cloakroom and take out his luggage.

It's just behind the wall near the head of the bed. It's very big inside, almost a walk-in closet. As soon as he walked in, he smelled a strong fragrance. This fragrance is similar to the "fresh and natural" in the toilet. It's not the same as the "lemon smell", but it reminds him of places like temples, mixed with another smell.

"The hotel manager asked the monk to perform rituals?" He muttered, cursing his brows, "It seems that as long as it is effective, it must be used regardless of its origin."

After speaking, he took out his travel bag and put it on the bed where he didn't plan to sleep. After taking out the change of clothes, he put the black folder on the snow-white sheet.

It is impossible for this kind of hotel to have computers. Laptops are easy to be missed by thieves, not to mention that the information in the computer cannot be printed out immediately. Sometimes the Vatican still uses typewriters and handwritten paper documents to organize and file.

Those in charge of the trial files are all old priests, and it is a kind of torture for them to wear reading glasses to look at the electronic display screen. Generally speaking, priests write well, but Mills still plans to use a typewriter to type.

There was one in the desk drawer, and after taking off his coat, Mills took the black folder to the edge of the desk and typed on the old typewriter.

It is said that in the case of supernatural events, such mechanical products are more reliable than electronic products.

The average human has 32 teeth, whereas a rosary has 59 beads, and if Angela Warren wears a necklace with one human tooth in one bead, then there's more than one human tooth on that rosary.

Mills was about to record these discoveries, and soon the rhythmic sound of the typewriter sounded in the empty hotel room, although Trish complained that the sound sounded like noise.

"Do you know about the diamond necklace scandal before the French Revolution?" Trish sat on the carpet in the study, chatting with Mills while packing her luggage.

"I don't know, what is it?" Mills said absently.

"The gossip said that Marie Antoinette was involved in defrauding the royal jeweler of a very expensive diamond necklace. Hugo described it as being worn only around the neck of a horse. The jeweler tried to sell it to the Queen of Spain and some other nobles, but they all failed..." Trish was still chattering, and Mills' attention was no longer on her.

"In order to win the Queen's favor, the Archbishop of Rohan listened to the news from Jeanne de Valor, the former British princess and later countess and personal maid. The Queen liked the necklace very much, so he bought it in installments. The necklace was handed over to Jeanne, but Jeanne didn't give it to the queen, but kept it for herself, and split it off and sold it on the black market. The cardinal was heavily in debt because of his extravagant life. The huge sum of money could be raised in time. The jeweler who could not receive the money went directly to Queen Marie Antoinette to complain. The last straw for the king."

Mills looked at Trish, "What happened to that female liar?"

"She was whipped, branded and sentenced to life in prison, but then she escaped to England and wrote her memoirs."

"She's lucky."

"Mary was unlucky, she was beheaded." Trish said sadly, "The queen is a complete victim in this matter, and she doesn't know anything."

Mills felt a white light flash in front of his eyes, and when he saw clearly what was in front of him again, he suddenly cried out in fright.

It was a delivery box, the sealing tape was cut by a dagger, and he knocked it down on the ground in desperation.

With a sound of "ding", the thing fell to the ground. He was sweating coldly and looked at it in shock.

It was a typewriter, not a courier box. He had misread it just now.