"The Widow" Bertha

after an hour.

Sherlock Holmes strode out of the carriage and did not even stop to greet Ned Morrison who was guarding the first floor of the bar—the little accountant had never seen Holmes before, and he watched the thin and stern young man enter After entering the bar, go straight to the steps on the second floor.

Holmes' posture was too righteous, and Ned didn't realize it until everyone else was running up the stairs... Should he stop him and ask for his identity?

Well, Mrs. Thames said to call "Brother Holmes," and although Ned Morrison didn't know them, it was evident that this was one of them.

Ned, the little accountant, was full of confusion, but Sherlock Holmes didn't take him seriously at all.

The detective went directly to the second floor and pushed open the door of the room on the left.

Bertha was alone in the room.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, she turned her head and met Holmes' piercing gaze, without saying a word of nonsense, "It appeared after the decoration was completed. I can confirm that the room was fine until last week."

Holmes nodded, and then moved his gaze to the wall of the hotel room.

He put on his gloves and stepped forward, before carefully studying the symbol belonging to the Truth Society, he said: "Who discovered it."

Bertha: "The future proprietor of the pub, Mrs Butts, a doctor's wife, is heavily in debt."

Holmes: "She didn't do it."

Bertha: "I know."

Logically speaking, Mrs. Bartz was the first to discover the symbol, and she was the most suspicious when the bar kept its door locked.

but……

"Mummy brown," Holmes concluded quickly, "she can't afford it."

"..."

It was even more exaggerated than Bertha thought.

Bertha didn't know much about the history of painting, but she could probably tell that the brown symbols on the walls were made of oil paint.And Victoria is no different than the 21st century, where amateurs can always buy cheap chemical alternatives even if they can't afford expensive professional paints.

Before the chemical industry flourished and penetrated into the daily life of every household, "art" was an industry with a fairly high threshold.The ability of oil painters to modulate colors is equivalent to their own unique skills, and the cost of oil paints using natural materials as raw materials is also ridiculously high.

Like the symbol of the Society of Truth on the wall.

Bertha just deduced that it was oil paint, which must have been expensive.And Holmes' conclusion is even more exaggerated - mummy brown, as the name suggests, is a brown raw material made from mummies. If you think about the cost of mummies, you will know how expensive this pigment is.

Mrs Butts certainly couldn't afford it.

"Even if Mrs. Butts could get the mummy brown, she couldn't come in with paint and brushes empty-handed," Bertha added, "and it's impossible to mix the hidden paint in just a few words before and after." OK and drawn."

"How are the doors and windows?"

"The door is always locked, and the windows are locked," answered Bertha. "There is no sign of a window, but I haven't had time to search the other rooms."

Instead of going through the gate, you can also turn in from other windows and come here, and this possibility cannot be ruled out.

"Such a big price." Bertha seemed to laugh at herself, "So I am so important."

Holmes raised an eyebrow.

He checked the doors and windows himself, and confirmed Bertha's statement: the locked doors and windows showed no sign of being opened, at least it could prove that the intruder did not enter or exit from here.

"lady."

After the detective completed the general inspection, Ned Morrison brought Mrs. Butz who had returned in a hurry to the door: "Mrs. Butts brought the magazine."

Holmes: "A magazine?"

Bertha: "Mrs. Butts says she's seen the symbol in a medical journal."

Holmes frowned immediately.

He said nothing, but passed Bertha straight past Ned's medical journal.Such behavior made the little accountant look surprised.

Ned glanced at Bertha, and saw that his eldest sister did not raise any objections to this, so he put all doubts and confusions back in his stomach.

No matter which of the "Sherlock Holmes brothers" this is, they are all very important figures to Mrs. Thames.Maybe Thomas knew?

Even Mrs. Thames' boys knew very little about Mrs. Thames except Thomas.All they knew was that his wife was Thomas's sister, that she was a wealthy widow herself.For more information, even if Ned had secretly sent someone to inquire about it, he couldn't find out why.

She seemed to appear out of nowhere, like a nemesis who fell from the sky after hearing that her brother had been killed.

But now that Nemesis has landed, she has her own connections in London, and Holmes in front of her is one of them.It's just that she didn't come to the Whitechapel area before that.

Ned decided not to say anything about it, as long as the lady's connections were useful, what did the rest matter to him?

"Medical and Scientific Research?"

Holmes took a look at the magazine and tilted his head: "Interesting."

Bertha: "What?"

Holmes: "This is the mainstream publication in major hospitals. Not to mention that every doctor has a copy, at least the coverage rate can reach [-]%."

Bertha: "..."

In other words, this can basically rule out the suspicion of Dr. Bartz.

She thought that if such a symbol could be published, the magazine would not be a serious magazine.But since the penetration rate is so high...it's hard to say that Dr. Bartz bought it for this symbol.

Moreover, Holmes flipped through the pages and showed Bertha the page with the symbols on it.

It is nothing more than a popular science article occupying a small space, mixed with other popular science articles related to medicine but not so close. If you say it is not eye-catching, it is because the article prints this symbol and writes it in a very interesting style. out the content.

The article wrote that 100 years ago, colonists discovered symbols in cultural relics in South America, and the local indigenous people had totem worship for them, and pointed out that it was a creature that had not yet appeared in civilized society.

South America...

Bertha raised an eyebrow.

Not to mention Mrs. Butts, even Bertha, who is also a layman, let her read this kind of professional publications, and all she can remember is this kind of interesting popular science articles.

"This is last month's issue," Holmes pointed out.

"so what?"

"Generally speaking, there is a delay of about one month in magazine printing."

Bertha understood immediately.

Even though Holmes can use the basic deductive method to determine the identities of Ned Morrison and Mrs. Bartz in an instant, it does not mean that he chooses to trust Bertha's people.It was an understatement to remind Bertha, and at the same time to confuse the others present - the delay of one month meant that the content of last month's publication was decided two months ago.

What happened two months ago?

Bertha and Mycroft jointly wiped out a force of the Truth Society in London.

No wonder Holmes would say "interesting" as soon as he saw the magazine cover.Is it such a coincidence that the Society of Truth has lost personnel in the front foot, and their symbols have been published in medical journals in the back foot?

"Now I have a clue." Holmes closed the magazine. "Mrs. Butts, can you give me this magazine?"

"Uh, of course."

Mrs. Bartz didn't understand what happened, but she probably understood that there was trouble, so she nodded after hearing the request.

But Bertha understood that Holmes was going to start the investigation from the magazine and the staff who wrote the article.

But in this way, for a publication with such a large circulation, even if there is a clue, it is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.It is not easy to investigate further because of this.

Holmes, however, did not mind the trouble, and even showed great interest in it.After getting approval, the young man put a roll of magazines under his arm, nodded to Bertha hastily, and raised his legs to leave.

When Holmes walked to the door, Ned Morrison passed by. The young detective stopped and said, "Someone wipe the symbols on the wall."

Ned: "I see...huh???"

Who the hell is he!How to make people proficient? !

Bertha couldn't help laughing at Ned's shocked and confused look.

It's fine to use Thomas, but also to use her other younger brothers. I think Sykes has not escaped this disaster.

Of course, the slander is the slander, but Bertha didn't intend to stop it, she raised the corner of her mouth: "He is right, Ned, find someone to repaint the walls, this time you and Mrs. Butts send someone to watch, how about it? "

Mrs Butts: "I will, ma'am."

Bertha: "Okay, then go back today first."

"go back?"

Ned was taken aback when he heard the words: "Then, what about you, Ma'am?"

Bertha, who was standing in the room, turned her head sideways when she heard the words, and under her high curled black hair, there was an ambiguous smile on her beautiful face.

"I'm waiting for someone."

***

She was waiting, of course, for Mycroft Holmes.

Although this "big god" didn't go out often, the Truth Society found her, and Bertha didn't believe that he could still send a postman to deliver the message.

Sure enough, just a few minutes after Ned and Mrs. Butts left, Bertha, who was sitting in the room, heard steady and vigorous footsteps in the corridor.

Today's South Shore Street is not the same. Thomas has placed a lot of his own people around, which not only means that Bertha is not afraid of being attacked by someone, but also means that the symbols on the wall are even more strange.

It was indeed another Holmes who entered the door.

Mycroft entered the room, still nodding politely to Bertha in the chair, and then his eyes fell on the brown symbol.

"Mummy Brown."

He seemed surprised and said: "It seems that the Truth Society attaches great importance to this matter."

Bertha teased, "It's a good feeling to be remembered."

The gentleman didn't reply immediately, the cane fell to the ground, and he supported his body with the cane in a casual posture, as if he didn't care about the appearance of the symbol in a tone of indifference - only those eyes that were exactly the same as those of Sherlock Holmes had never been and never been Leave the symbol on the wall.

After a long time, Mycroft looked back: "Interesting."

Bertha: "..."

As expected of the two brothers, the emotions expressed are exactly the same.

"Why," Bertha leaned back on the chair, put on a gesture of dissatisfaction, and complained not very sincerely, "I've been threatened, Mike, aren't you worried?"

"That's natural, ma'am, South Shore Street is full of your people, and the Truth Society can still draw symbols on you without anyone noticing," Mycroft said sincerely, "You can no longer live here. "

"So I'm going to move to Pall Mall with you again?"

"better not."

Mycroft Holmes was still courteous, but what he said next gave Bertha a chill at last.

"Because of my house on Pall Mall Street, the symbol also appeared," he said.