The fugitives on the train

Miss Fish took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit her parents. At night, most of the passengers went to sleep, the carriage gradually quiet, Fei Xi also closed her eyes, intended to take a nap. Suddenly, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder and opened her eyes to find two young men standing in front of her.

One of them greeted her politely: "Hello, Miss, I am Officer Qian. This is Robin, the train conductor on the train." He said he showed his badge and police officer's card to Miss Fahey. Miss Fei Xi saw that the police officer's card was issued by the Edinburgh Police Department. The surface was plasticized and the picture on it was younger than the person himself.

Sergeant Qian told Miss Fisher that he was looking for a young Scotsman on the train who had dark hair and a deep red birthmark on the left side of his face near his ear. Sergeant Qian said while gesturing with his hand on his own face: "See who looks like him?"

Miss Fisher shook her head: "No, what happened to him," replied Officer Qian: "This is a murderer, I am escorting him to Scotland for interrogation. Just now he went to the toilet and slipped away when I wasn't looking. Now the speed of the train is 100 kilometers per hour, he certainly will not jump, must be hiding in the train somewhere. I have asked other conductors to start looking from the head of the train. I would like to ask you to do me a favor and start searching with me from the rear of the train. There may be some places where your help is needed."

Miss Fahey happily agreed, knowing that the train would take another seven hours to the end of the line and that something as exciting as catching a fugitive would make the boring journey a little more interesting.

On the way to the rear of the car, Officer Money briefly explained the fugitive to Miss Fahey. The prisoner's name was Angus, who killed a man in Edinburgh, then fled to the European continent, and was caught in France not long ago. Sergeant Money came to England. It was to Dover's customs to extradite him, and then transported to Scotland to stand trial. When he went to the toilet just now, he disappeared when Officer Money wasn't looking. Miss Fish asked curiously: "You escort the prisoner is not to wear handcuffs?"

Officer Qian shook his head: "When we get on the train, someone escorts and someone picks up over there. As long as the car is running, the criminal can not escape. So only when getting on or off the train, handcuffs are used to handcuff us together."

The three men started at the rear of the train and checked half of the train, but there were no clues. A conductor came running to tell them that four passengers on the train had seen a man with a birthmark on his face, but none of them knew where the man was now. Then they walked together to the place where the criminal had escaped. Several passengers near their seats recognized Officer Qian, and one of them, a middle-aged woman, said, "I know you, and there was a young man with a crimson birthmark with you."

Officer Qian explained, "He is a prisoner, I have to escort him to Scotland, he went to the toilet, and then seemed to disappear. Have you seen him leave alone?" Several passengers shook their heads.

"He may have jumped out of the car and escaped." Miss Fahey guessed.

"No, Angus is not the type of person who seeks his own death," Officer Money dismissed her guess, "He is an extremely intelligent criminal. We used every surveillance system in Europe to find his trail."

Miss Fisch speculated about the young criminal's life: "Maybe it was because of that birthmark he had that made him ostracized by those around him that he went down the path of crime," Sergeant Qian waved his hand: "I don't think that's a valid reason, many people have more disabilities than he does. And now those things can be treated with lasers." He said while pulling up the sleeve of his jacket, when Miss Fisch noticed a small tattoo on his right wrist. It was engraved with the word "tareau". Miss Fish thought, as a police officer should remove such a tattoo, but then she thought, this is not her business, in the present young people, this kind of thing is not uncommon.

They went to the toilet and knocked on the door, and a woman's voice came from inside: "Someone."

Officer Qian said loudly inside: "Excuse me, ma'am, I'm a police officer looking for a fugitive, can you open the door and let the lady next to me look inside" The door opened a small crack and the person inside asked to see the police ID. Officer Qian showed his police card toward the door, the door opened a little wider, Miss Fei Xi looked inside, except for a lady, there is no one. Miss Fahey looked back and shrugged towards Officer Qian.

At that moment, the intercom in the conductor's hand went off, and he listened for a moment, then told Officer Qian that the entire train had been cleared. Only a nun wearing a mask and a teenager with a bandage on his head could possibly cover the birthmark on his face, but after checking they were neither.

Miss Fahey suddenly remembered something and asked the conductor, "Does this train have a baggage car?"

The conductor told her there were mail bags in the car behind the locomotive, then said emphatically, "But that car is locked and no one can get in."

"What if there's an emergency? You should have a key!"

The conductor admitted that he did have the key ready. But not on his own, but locked in the trolley, and the general public is not allowed to enter this carriage.

Officer Qian again took out his badge and police officer's card, and one corner of the photo began to curl a little. "With this badge, I have the right to enter anywhere while investigating a case, including that mailbag compartment. I'm not going to touch your mailbag, I just want to see if there's anywhere I can hide,"

The conductor had to ask another conductor for the key and took Miss Fisch and Officer Qian through the first class car to the locked door. The conductor opened the metal door. The compartment was filled with brown woven bags, each with the words "Royal Mail" in bold letters, the top of the bags were sealed. Although each bag is a meter high, but I'm afraid that even the smallest adults are unlikely to hide inside, the fugitive Angus is certainly not inside.

Officer Qian was obviously a little disappointed with the results, leaving the bag car, he asked the conductor what the next stop was, the conductor told him that the train to Edinburgh in the morning, not stopping in the middle of the station.

Sergeant Qian was a little anxious: "You can stop at Newcastle."

The conductor shook his head solemnly: "Unless it's an emergency, this is the Edinburgh Express."

"That's an emergency!" Sergeant Money yelled angrily, "I'll have to contact the station and have them search the area around the track, I think my lad probably jumped the train after all."

The conductor said with a grimace, "If he jumped the train while it was moving at high speed, then you don't have to worry about him running away. He must still be lying there waiting for you. You can use our car's phone to contact the police station."

Officer Qian rejected his suggestion: "No, no. Anyone with a device can tap a cell phone, including a car phone. Angus has a lot of friends in crime circles, they will help him. I need a secure ground route to contact the Lovejoy Castle and London Police. If he's jumped off the train and is still alive, we need to find him before his friends do."

The conductor thought for a moment, got on the intercom and spoke to the conductor, saying that a prisoner had escaped from the car, probably jumped out of the car, and that Sergeant Money, who was escorting the prisoner, had requested a stop in Newcastle to report to his superiors on the safest telephone line, and the conductor looked at his watch while listening to the conductor. Then he put down the intercom and turned to Officer Money and said, "Mr. Officer, we'll be passing Newcastle in 34 minutes, so get ready to get off the train and stop for only a few seconds."

"That's enough, thanks." Officer Qian's mood seemed to calm down a bit and walked to the seat near the door and sat down. He shrugged his shoulders toward Miss Fahey: "We did our best, we looked in every possible place on the car, and he's definitely not in the car." Miss Fahey turned her head and stared out into the dark night and asked, "Did you grow up in Edinburgh?"

"Yeah, not too much of a kid away from home. I've been as far as London before, and this trip to Dover is the furthest I've been from home. It seems I should really have stayed home." Then Officer Money fell silent.

The train sped through the darkness, and only when it approached the outskirts of Newcastle did the windows begin to light up. The train slowed down, preparing for a short stop in Newcastle.

As the conductor came up to open the door, Officer Money held out his hand to shake Miss Fahey's, "I'm getting off, thank you for your help."

"Officer Money ......," Miss Fahey said as she shook his hand, "I have one more solution."

"It's not to check in the cab, is it?" Officer Qian smiled at her, "Not there at all."

"No, there's another place I never thought of." The train had stopped, and the conductor began to urge the officers to get off.

Officer Money asked, "What place?"

Miss Fahey looked at him firmly, "Right here, right in front of me, you are Angus, and it was Officer Money who was thrown off the train."

This time, instead of continuing to laugh at her, the man in front of her panicked, and he pushed her out of the aisle and rushed toward the door. The conductor's attempt to catch him only resulted in the guy who tried to escape falling over and stumbling onto the platform. A uniformed staff member on the platform rushed up to help him.

"I'm Officer Money." The man who fell on the platform raised his badge and photo police card one last time.

Miss Fahey would not let him go this time and said loudly, "He's lying, he's a fugitive, his name is Angus." She rushed over, grabbed the officer's badge and tore a photo off it, and a completely different photo below, of a slightly older man with a birthmark on his face. The staff member's expression became stern as he tightened his grip on the man he had just picked up: "Sir, you'd better come with me, impersonating a police officer is a very serious matter, and you too, young lady."

By the time they reached the police station in Newcastle, it was 3:00 a.m. The police officer in charge of the inquiry asked Miss Fahey about the situation: "When did you first suspect this man, Miss Fahey?"

"Oh, he showed his ID to someone, and I noticed that one corner of the photo started to roll up, but the ID was plastic, you see? The photo should be on the inside of the plastic layer, not on the outside. I think he knocked out Officer Qian in the toilet while he was sleeping around, stole his badge and officer's ID, then threw the police officer off the train, then cut the extra passport photo he had with him to the right size and pasted it on the officer's ID." "Paste it with what?" "Just about anything sticky, like toffee. There's only one problem to solve once he has the ID, and that's having to get the train to stop before it gets to Edinburgh, because the police are waiting for him at Edinburgh station and are sure to recognize him." The policeman nodded and continued, "But why did he find you?"

"Perhaps, he thought a young woman like me would be more likely to sympathize with a disillusioned policeman. First, he convinced me of his identity, then described Officer Money's birthmark as the main feature of the prisoner, Angus. Then took me with the conductor and searched the car for an hour, which made it easy to believe that he had indeed lost the criminal, and gave him an excuse to ask to stop and go down for help."

"All this from a photo with the corners rolled up?" The policeman asked curiously.

"Another thing," Miss Fahey smiled, "I saw a tattoo on his right hand, 'tareau,' which is French, but he said he had only been as far as Dover. Angus has just come from France, and the word means 'bull' in French, and I just happen to know a little French ......"

"Bull?"

Miss Fahey nodded: "His name is Angus, the Angus of 'Angus the Bull'. I guess he had this tattoo done in France, probably to gain the goodwill of French women, but he couldn't escape the English women." With that, she laughed again.