"The Widow" Bertha

After saying this, Pastor White shook his body. If Thomas Thames hadn't caught him quickly and pushed the pastor on the chair, he would have fallen directly to the ground.

This startled everyone in the firm, including Bertha.

"What's the matter?" Bertha turned to Ned, "has he been like this yesterday?"

"This……"

It is rare for the elder sister to question him like this. Ned broke out in a cold sweat, and hurriedly defended: "Dr. Butz said that the pastor had a slight fever when he went to the doctor last night, and prescribed some calming medicine for him. Sykes and I left He was still asleep at the time, and there was nothing wrong."

fever?

His pale face, dripping with cold sweat, actually looks like he has a fever.

Fever was not a good sign in Victorian times.Antibiotics can be used for fever caused by mild inflammation in the 21st century, but in London in the [-]th century, where did Bertha find antibiotics for him!

"I'm fine, Mrs. Thames," Pastor White leaned back on the chair and said with difficulty, "The crime scene is in the stocking area."

"Have you been?" asked Bertha.

"Yes."

"..."

Dragging his feverish body from the church to the stocking area, and then to the Thames Office, isn't he afraid that he might faint on the way?

Bertha frowned slightly, and turned to greet Ned: "The office is too messy, you take him to the bar and hotel on South Bank Street to have a quiet time, just in time for Mrs. Bartz to invite her husband to come and see him again. The fever can't be cured." Alright, then hurry up and change your profession to become a doctor!"

"Yes," Ned adjusted the mirror frame, "I will convey them one by one. Do I need to invite Detective Holmes over?"

That's more or less.

"Let him know," Bertha nodded in satisfaction, she looked up at Thomas, "you come with me."

When they arrived, Scotland Yard had sent men to surround the scene of the crime.

Thomas got out of the car first, and stuffed a banknote into the hands of the policeman who handled the case: "Please, sir, my wife wants to see the crime scene for herself."

"Mrs. Thames wants to see for herself?"

The policeman froze for a moment, then glanced at the carriage behind Thomas.

Through the window of the carriage, what he could see was a thin woman with her hair coiled up high.

The figure of Mrs. Thames arouses people's imagination, but none of the policemen near the Whitechapel district has seen her. Some people even say that the existence of Mrs. Thames is just a cover played by Thomas Thames—he used to be a member of the Jesse Gang. People who want to overthrow old Jesse have to learn from others.

And now...

It seems the rumors are wrong.

"It's okay, but the situation inside is a bit ugly," the policeman kindly reminded, "Don't scare Mrs. Thames."

"Thank you for your concern, sir."

Thomas smiled politely: "But our wife has seen everything."

"Ma'am," Thomas reminded in time, "the situation inside seems to be more serious than last time."

"It's okay."

Bertha was a full-time crime reporter before she crossed over. What hasn't she seen?

She led Thomas across the blockade in stride, turned to the back alley of the stocking area, and was almost caught by the bloody smell in the next moment.

What came into view was a mess.

Blood, blood everywhere.

Large swaths of blood stained the wet ground after the rain, and the black soil began to harden and dry after the blood coagulated, mixing with the wounds of the deceased's clothing, making it almost impossible to distinguish the difference.

The victim was lying on the ground with a ferocious face and distorted posture. Huge openings were opened in his throat and abdomen, and even his intestines were dragged out and scattered all over the ground. The scene was extremely ugly.

She seemed to have struggled desperately to survive, but she still couldn't escape the murderer's knife.

"sky."

Seeing such a bloody scene, Thomas almost didn't stop.He hurriedly drew a cross on his chest: "This, this... Is the murderer a human or a beast?!"

Bertha raised the corners of her mouth coldly: "I want to know too, gloves?"

Thomas immediately handed over the white gloves.

After stopping next to the dead body, Bertha decided to retract her foreword. Even as a crime reporter, he really hadn't seen many such scenes.

"Help me remember."

After a brief observation, Bertha said without looking back: "The deceased was a woman with thin and yellow hair, and her clothes had been washed to gray. She was about 40 years old, and her financial situation was not very good."

Thomas immediately took out a pen and paper: "Okay, then... Ma'am, what is the time of death?"

Bertha moved her gaze to the blood-stained soil.

The solidified mud just "wrapped" the victim in. Fortunately, the victim was not moved after his death. This is the first scene of the crime.

In other words, the wet soil hadn't started to dry when she fell to the ground.

"It should have been shortly after the rain last night," Bertha said, "probably at the same time as I went to see Pastor White."

After speaking, Bertha took a clean knife from her pocket and pried open the victim's mouth.

"She lost her two front teeth," Bertha couldn't help frowning, "she was beaten by a murderer before she died."

"The victim was beaten to death?" Thomas asked in surprise.

"No."

Bertha pointed to the victim's throat for Thomas from a distance: "It was still a precise two-cut throat, plus the abdomen was disembowelled. The cause of death should be excessive blood loss."

If Bertha had been skeptical about the "No.2 dead person" that Pastor White said before—one more person died, and it may not be the same person—now she decided to affirm Pastor White's conjecture.

The unidentified victim and Martha Garrison both died from the skilled throat slitting, likely by one person.

"Send someone to inquire about her identity," Bertha urged.

"A middle-aged woman, around 40 years old, with little savings," Thomas repeated Bertha's autopsy results just now, "Is there anything else you want to add, madam?"

"Have."

Bertha thought for a while, and said, "Since she was killed in the middle of the night, it's probably a prostitute who came out to stand on the street at night without the management of the madam. Her range of activities should be near the stocking area."

"I see."

Thomas was stunned inwardly: Let's just say that his wife is not afraid of such a scene at all, and she can get so much information just by standing at the scene of the crime for a while, which is not much worse than Sherlock Holmes.

"Other than that," Thomas asked, "what does the lady see about the murderer?"

"Yes and no."

Bertha stood up and murmured, "The last time it was 39 knives, but this time only the throat was cut. If the murderer is really a person, it will be a little troublesome."

"trouble?"

"The murderer's behavior is escalating and perfecting."

Bertha was most afraid of such an outcome.

Assuming that the victim and Martha Garrison were killed by the same murderer, then after the two murders, the murderer's modus operandi has emerged as a fixed pattern.

He tends to slit his throat and treats his victims as roughly as livestock.The first time he stabbed 39 knives in a row seemed to vent his anger, but the second time he "vented" in a more methodical way.

In addition, he chose to disembowel his belly and solve the problem with one knife, and he also used anatomical knowledge, which is undoubtedly closer to the initial profile of him.

This made Bertha start to worry that there would be a third and a fourth victim in the future.

—Yes, she was afraid it was a serial murderer.

The Victorian era did not have the concept of a serial killer (Serial Killer), and the precise definition and scientific analysis of this type of murderer would have to wait until the 80s and [-]s.

Bertha used to be a crime reporter, so she naturally studied several famous serial murder cases in history.

She was well aware that almost all serial killers had a process of escalation and refinement in their first few cases.

"Is the upgrade perfect?"

Thomas evidently did not understand Bertha's words: "Madam, do you mean?"

Bertha sneered, not knowing whether she was mocking herself or hating the murderer.

"No matter how skilled a butcher is, there is also a novice period. The first time butchering a lamb is not proficient enough, and it is understandable to make the scene too ugly. But once you are raw and second, you will naturally know where to cut and what procedures to follow. It's fixed."

Thomas: "..."

Seeing the cold light in Bertha's dark golden eyes, Thomas shuddered.

Are you scared?Bertha had not yet finished speaking.

What she hasn't said yet is that the serial killer's killing motives, patterns and goals are fixed, and when the killer has mastered the method of action, he will continue to wield the butcher knife.

If there is another victim in the future, his identity will definitely still be a prostitute.

This is really troublesome.

Serial murderers were rampant at the end of the [-]th century, and the complicated social reasons are not mentioned. Objectively, it is because of the insufficient technical level of criminal investigation and case detection that it is impossible to catch them.

As time enters the 21st century, the number of serial killers has decreased a lot.The reason is simple. With the development of science and technology, the level of criminal investigation and case detection will naturally increase.With DNA databases, criminal information databases, and quite scientific modern criminal investigation techniques, it is not so easy for a criminal to get away with it.

But now Bertha is not in the 21st century, she is in the Victorian era, without any science and technology as a criminal investigation aid, and the only ones who are still cheating are the Sherlock Holmes brothers.

Thinking of this, she raised her head just in time to see Sherlock Holmes hastily crossing the cordon.

The thin young man met Bertha's gaze, but he didn't even stop walking.He went straight to the victim, stopped in place for a while, and then squatted down, wondering what he was thinking about.

Bertha knew what he was thinking: "I don't see any human beings on all fours, or any sign of monsters."

That is to say, this case is the same as the Martha Garrison case. Judging from the scene alone, there is only one perpetrator, that middle-class male with proficient knowledge of anatomy.

Holmes did not answer. He paused beside the corpse for a long time, and finally got up after observing, "Where is her child?"

Thomas: "Huh?"

Bertha: "What—you said she was pregnant?!"

Sherlock Holmes ignored Mrs. Thames and her men who were stunned on the spot, and stood up straight, searched around, and finally found a piece of meat covered by mud among the muddy ground.

It was a fetus that already had a basic human shape, but was only the size of a palm.

The fetus that was pulled out of the mother's womb was already black and purple, and mixed with the surrounding soil, so Bertha didn't notice it immediately.

"Yes, pregnant," Holmes used the past tense. "Three months ago, the fetus was dragged out by the murderer."

At that moment, Bertha fell into an ice cave.

She heard an obscenity cursed at the self-proclaimed gentle Thomas Thames, and Bertha's thoughts were almost immediately diverted to a rather dire realization.

--Yes, that's right.As a former crime reporter, she naturally studied several famous serial murder cases in history.

It happened in the Whitechapel District in the 1th century. The dead may be prostitutes. The No. 39 victim was stabbed 2 times, and the No. [-] victim was cut open on the spot, and even the fetus in the womb was dragged out.

If at this point she couldn't recognize who they were dealing with, Bertha had spent her whole life in crime.

What they are facing is the big case that caused a sensation in London in the 1th century, and it is also the famous unsolved case in the world more than a hundred years later, as well as the No.[-] serial killer that has been clearly recorded in history.

He's nicknamed Jack the Ripper.

"Ma'am? Ma'am, are you all right?"

Thomas' voice called Bertha back to reality, and he said worriedly: "If, uh, if you feel uncomfortable, let Holmes continue to investigate first?"

"It doesn't matter." Bertha replied with concentration.

She took a deep breath: "From today onwards, in all the places under our jurisdiction, no prostitutes are allowed to go to the streets after nine o'clock, let the word go to Mrs. Raton and other old prostitutes in the red light district, and go home at night." Obediently turn on the light and wait for someone to come to the door."

Thomas: "Uh..."

Without waiting for a reply, Bertha turned and walked out of the back alley of the stocking area.

She was so aggressive that the boys who followed were confused, but Thomas understood what Bertha was thinking, and he followed closely: "Madam, you can't give orders directly like this, women in the red-light district won't take you like this." Love, many... many prostitutes don't come out to pick up customers, they will starve to death."

Also.

Hearing Thomas' sincere admonition, Bertha calmed down a little from the disgust that surged from the bottom of her heart.

For the poor at the bottom of society, those who stutter today will not care about tomorrow.Being killed on the street is death, and starving to death if you don’t come out to pick up customers and have no money is also death. What’s the difference?Some prostitutes even take their families with them. She has no income for a day, and it may be the whole family who are starving.

Under such circumstances, even if Bertha issued a curfew order in the name of the gang leader, some people would risk going out at night, and they might end up blaming Mrs. Thames for being unreasonable and losing the benefits they earned when they first gained a foothold. reputation.

It is true that a ban cannot be issued directly.

Bertha thought for a moment, and decided to take a detour.

"You get Maria from the gypsy side," Bertha began, "and Buddle and Mickey the coachman."

"lady?"

Jack the Ripper has been an unsolved murder case for more than a hundred years. Even after the development of DNA technology in the 21st century, it is said that DNA testing has been used to find the real murderer. The story is still not known.

At the moment when the case happened, Bertha was almost against the whole mystery.

Isn't it just a mystery? !At least Bertha remembered the general pattern and location of his next crime.

Bertha's dark golden eyes were shining brightly, and she had a lot of ways to solve puzzles—Bertha couldn't believe that she hid all the women who met the target of the crime, and the murderer still had someone to kill.

"Since you don't appreciate it, don't blame me for scaring people."

A few sharp traces flashed in Bertha's dark golden eyes. She took off her blood-stained white gloves and said slowly: "If you don't fear Mrs. Thames, you don't fear gods and ghosts."

You must know that when she came to London, she almost started her career by pretending to be a ghost!