when the moon whispers

Chapter 562: Rose - False Alarm (Part )

Case Seven Rose
Forty-three False Alarms (Part 2)
The stop-and-go space in front of the chain hotel was fully occupied by two tourist buses.

The revolving door opposite the lobby lost power and got stuck. The panicked guests, frightened by the fire alarm and the automatic sprinklers, could not hear the loud instructions and shouts of the staff who were maintaining order inside and outside the lobby. They rushed to the half-locked sliding doors on both sides of the revolving door, and pushed and shook the door handles that were about to slip out of the lock slot.

Jiang Mo quickly ran to one of the buses that had just stopped, took out his police officer ID and stuck it on the front windshield, then knocked on the glass window twice, signaling the driver who was craning his neck to look at the bustling scene outside the car to quickly back the car onto the ramp, leaving space for personnel to deal with the suspected fire.

The bus driver who had stopped the bus earlier to drop off passengers had just raised his arm to light a cigarette and taken a few steps towards the crowd that was soaked by the shower head when the tour guide grabbed him by the collar and threw him back into the bus. The tour guide then restarted the bus which was still steaming hot. The tour guide, who was holding up his Bee portable speaker, hurriedly coaxed the tourists who were watching the suspected fire scene back into the bus, and before confirming the situation of the hotel they were staying at, they looked for a nearby shopping mall that could temporarily accommodate dozens of people.

The hotel staff finally squeezed behind the crowd, removed the locks of the two door panels that blocked the entrance and exit, and pushed them aside. They hurriedly carried two medicine boxes and asked the messy and bruised guests to temporarily move to the open space vacated by the bus to treat their sprains and bruises.

Jiang Mo walked quickly into the hotel lobby against the gradually orderly evacuation.

The hotel manager came trotting out of the fire escape wearing his soaking wet suit jacket, and ran to the back of the front desk as the landline phone rang. He picked up the call from the fire system that had received a fire alarm and called back to confirm the situation. He held the microphone and apologized so politely that he almost banged his head on the wet counter.

"I'm sorry, firefighters. We just checked the guest rooms and didn't find any specific fire locations. We're worried about false alarms, so we're already checking the guest rooms..."

"Yes, yes, yes - that's right... During the evacuation of the guests, we found that one of the guest rooms on the alarm floor had clothes hanging on the fire sprinkler head, and... there was also smoking in the non-smoking chess and card room of a suite. It is very likely that the smoke alarm was triggered or the sprinkler head was damaged, causing the alarm to sound... Yes... Yes, yes..."

"You still need to come over to confirm, right? Okay, the car has already left, right? No problem, we will arrange for the lobby manager to show you the direction at the intersection. Please cooperate with the fire inspection. Sorry for the trouble—"

Jiang Mo didn't rush to interrupt, but only focused on looking around at the hotel residents who had almost all been evacuated to the empty spaces inside and outside the lobby to temporarily rest and wait for compensation arrangements, frowning in vain. She turned to look at the hotel manager who had hung up the phone, met her vigilant and scrutinizing gaze, showed her ID and took two steps forward, then glanced at the crooked brand badge on her chest, nodded, grabbed the fingertips that she had extended to her but then felt that there was dirty water everywhere and wanted to take back to wipe it, and shook it gently.

"Zhang Han, Manager Zhang. Jiang Mo."

Jiang Mo was concise and straightforward. "I just heard you tell the fire department on the phone that this alarm might be a false alarm of a fire, right?"

"This... how come we have to trouble the police officers from the Municipal Bureau?" Zhang Han held his hands together, took out the intercom that he had tucked into his trouser pocket to prevent it from getting wet, listened attentively to the reports from the housekeeping department, and flicked in the direction of Jiang Mo. "At present, we have not found any dangerous situations such as open flames, so the possibility of a false alarm is relatively high... and it seems that the power was cut off before the alarm was triggered, and it is not ruled out that it is a circuit problem. Our housekeeping department is still confirming and checking each room... Regardless of whether it is a false alarm or not, the most important thing is to ensure the personal safety of the guests. We will also feel relieved when the fire department comes to check it later."

"Guests... can we confirm that all guests registered at the hotel have been evacuated?"

Jiang Mo did not delve into Zhang Han's words. He just glanced around the building and then returned to the backup paper registration book under the front desk counter. He then looked at Manager Zhang's cautious and solemn expression and asked, "Has anyone named Yang Tangguo checked in to your hotel in the past one to two weeks?" "Yang... Yang Tangguo——?"

Zhang Han was startled, and turned around to get the registration book as if something sounded familiar. He opened the plastic cover of the folder and just turned two pages when the intercom clenched in his hand beeped and a call request sounded, asking in a somewhat urgent voice.

"Mr. Zhang! Is Mr. Zhang here? The door to room 433 is closed. We knocked but it didn't open. But I heard a cell phone ringing inside. Can we just open the door and come in?"

"433... Is there a spare key for room 433? If not, I'll send it up directly. Room 433 is here--" Zhang Han quickly flipped through the wet and difficult-to-open paper file. When his fingertips touched the registration column, he suddenly paused and raised his head abruptly.

"…The name registered for room 433 is Ms. Yang Tangguo."

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The fire sprinkler in the corridor had not been completely turned off, and water was dripping from the top of his head. The carpet under his feet had long been soaked, and the slippery and soft carpet caught Zhang Han's half-high heel, almost tripping him and throwing him out.

Jiang Mo ran two steps first, then turned back after hearing a small scream behind her, and reached out to hold the person who stumbled forward. She looked down at Manager Zhang's broken heel, and before she leaned over to help, Zhang Han couldn't wait to take off her high heels and threw them away, then put the room card into Jiang Mo's palm, pushed her, and ran behind her to the dark guest room door at the corner at the end of the corridor.

The housekeeping and security staff were still knocking on the door and calling out in hoarse voices. They caught a glimpse of Zhang Han waving his hand and looked at each other for two seconds. It was not until they heard the voice mixed with water vapor that they stepped back, pushed each other to make room, and waited with gestures for the young policeman in front of them to swipe the card to clear the way.

Jiang Mo ran quickly, vaguely feeling her stumbling body trembling very slightly. She panicked for a moment, grasped the door handle with both hands, sniffed slightly, and smelled a vague smell of burnt from the rusty smell all over the floor.

"Yang Tangguo! I'm Jiang Mo! Are you in the room?"

Jiang Mo patted the door twice, put her ear to the crack of the door to confirm the almost imperceptible sound of the wind, and frowned deeply. She didn't ask again, swiped the card to open the door and went in. She first saw the loose charger port that had fallen to the bottom of the TV cabinet, then picked up the phone that was stuck under a few wet draft papers, glanced at Shao Jie's phone number without a note on the caller ID, shook off the water drops on her head, turned around and walked to Zhang Han, who was so nervous that his face turned pale, and knocked on the door gently to remind him.

"Manager Zhang, when was the last time your hotel staff saw the occupant of Room 433?"

Due to work and health reasons, I will be working on another day~
“When I am drunk, I don’t know who I am. I am not the moon, the cloud, or the crane.”