#because this chapter really went dark lol
Whiteley contemplates what he’s going to do with the evidence to make negotiations go smoothly. While he was having a meal at his residence, Patterson comes to report about an policeman named Bart Fowler who was found dead a few hours ago.
Bart was the one who killed the hitman that attempted to murder Whiteley. Bart’s mother was suffering from a serious illness and he needed a large amount of money to pay for her medical fees. Just recently, he paid the hospital £500 in full.
Whiteley concludes that someone must have paid Bart to kill the bomber to prevent the latter from saying anything, but then Bart himself was killed for the same reason.
Due to this development, Patterson proposes to increase the guards patrolling Whiteley’s residence, but Whiteley rejects it. He explains that there will just be higher risks as these new guards might be bribed the same way as Bart was. He prefers to just keep the 2 policemen he picked before.
After Patterson leaves, Whiteley states that offense is the best defense, and goes out alone with the evidence in hand to negotiate with the House of Lords.
When he arrived at the meeting place, it was not a member of the House of Lords that were there to greet him but Milverton, who introduces himself as an agent of the House of Lords. Whiteley then presents the evidence he has of the House of Lord’s wrongdoings and says that if they ever lay a finger on his family and friends, or reject his election amendments bill, he will reveal to the public all the wrongdoings of the House of Lords.
He will not expose them as long as they agree to those two demands. He also informs him that the documents in his hands are just one of the many copies he has of the evidence.
Upon hearing all that Whiteley has to say, Milverton tells him that he will relay it all to his client.
Once Whiteley has left, Milverton laughs in amusement because he didn’t expect that someone would try and intimidate him, the King of Intimidation. Unfortunately, he says threats don’t work on him and Whiteley won’t be able to expose the House of Lord’s wrongdoings because he plans on stealing the evidence Whiteley has.
How? By turning Whiteley into a murderer. No one would believe anything a murderer says, after all. It would make the evidence he possesses useless.
At the Whiteley residence, Sam finds their maid dead and panics. Sturridge, one of the policemen Whiteley selected, then turns up holding a knife dripping with blood behind his back. He continuously apologizes to Sam as he kills him, telling him that he too has a family he has to consider.
Meanwhile, back in the Milverton residence, Harry and Gosling, the two people who were responsible for the policeman Bart’s death, inform Milverton that they have finished all the preparations. Harry then goes on to comment that Milverton sure does like to use underhanded means to take care of things. When asked whether he is condemning Milverton for that, Harry denies it because they too are having fun doing it.
Milverton then asks Harry if he has ever read the Bible, and continues to talk about the Devil that appears in it. He explains that the reason the Devil tempts people into doing evil is simple. Making people do evil things gives them the greatest pleasure.
Since the beginning of time, doing evil have always been enticing for humans. The bible depicts it as the forbidden pleasure. Pursuing that forbidden pleasure is the real evil.
He then goes on to say that evil goes far beyond humans’ set rules and ethics. The Lord of Crime is just evil based on the social norms set by human society.
Then, Milverton claims the he is evil itself. Corrupting people into doing evil gives him no greater pleasure.
When Whiteley gets home, he finds his secretary, maid and younger brother all dead. Sturridge then turns up with the knife laid on his hands. He remorsefully confesses that he is the one who killed all of them, which causes Whiteley to yell at him with wild eyes.
And with that, Milverton claims that he has created a new villain. He believes that Whiteley should now have fallen to the dark side. It gives Milverton no greater pleasure than to drag a politician loved by the masses into becoming evil.
Sidenote: The original Charles Augustus Milverton in the Conan Doyle novels was known as the “King of Blackmailers” (恐喝王) where as YnM’s version calls him the “King of Intimidation” (脅迫王). There are probably better ways to translate the latter… Should I have gone with ‘threat’ instead? I don’t read the English scans so Idk what English fandom has gone with, and Wikipedia’s entry for 脅迫 is linked to the Intimidaton (and Threat) wiki in English. ;;;
恐喝 means using another person’s weakness or secrets for extortion.
脅迫 means threatening another person and filling them with fear to make them do what you want. In criminal law, it means threatening someone harm through words and/or action.
The meanings are similar and can both be translated as blackmail, with slightly different nuances…
