"The Widow" Bertha

That same night, Hampton Street.

Anne Poole is going out tonight.

Nancy knew she couldn't help it.

A few days ago, Nancy had an unexpected guest at home: Thomas Thames.He and Sikes had always been at odds, but Nancy liked Thomas--no girl didn't like him, and she had a lot of trouble with Sikes for it.

Thomas came to the door and hoped that Nancy would assist Mrs. Thames in catching the murderer who was raging in the Whitechapel area. He spoke simply and did not mean to force Nancy at all, and even asked her to think clearly because she might face the murderer.

But Nancy still agreed to him.

That evening Nancy came to Hanboning Street, and it took her little effort to meet Anne Poole.The middle-aged prostitute regarded her as a prostitute who had fallen into the street. After a few chats, Nancy moved into Annie Poole's house as a homeless orphan.

For a penny a day, she could live in an adjoining room to Anne Poole's, which was probably converted from a storage room, and the room was as cramped as a coffin.Nancy did not complain aloud, for Anne Poole herself was not much better off, and she had two sons and a daughter.

Mrs. Thames said that prostitutes were the target of raging killers. Even Anne Poole was frightened. She didn't go out to receive customers for several days and lived on Nancy's "rent" of a penny a day.

But how can four people live on a penny a day?

Anne Poole really had no other choice, and there were no new victims in the past few days, so she decided to take the risk.

"It's okay." Lying on the bed in the storage room, Nancy heard Annie talking to her son, "There are so many women in London, how could it be my turn?"

"I waited until dawn to go out. At that time, there were workers who got up early to work on the street. I could come back before dawn. If I was lucky, I might be able to pick up three or four customers."

"At that time, I will go to the bakery to buy bread and come back."

Nancy knew that Anne Poole was definitely not the only one who thought so.

Although I don't understand why Mrs. Thames asked people to keep an eye on her-in Nancy's view, there was nothing special about Anne Poole, she was like all the whores Nancy had seen.

Poor, wretched, desperate, that's pretty much all the poor in London.

But since she took the wife's salary, she had to get things done.

Nancy decides to follow.

Annie left the house quietly at almost five o'clock, and she got up and followed out.It was not yet dawn, and the morning light in London was thick and foggy, which gave Nancy a chance to follow her.

A few meters away, she could hardly see anyone, except Annie's skirt looming in the thick fog.

The heels clicked, and finally Anne stopped on a fairly bright street corner and lit a cigarette.

The lit cigarette was the only light source Nancy could clearly see.

She hid behind and waited for about half an hour before finally hearing faint footsteps in the distance.

The footsteps stopped, and Annie whispered something to the other party, as if they were discussing the price, and then the two walked to the back alley one after the other.

Is this a guest?

Nancy's footsteps that were about to move forward suddenly stopped: Although it was true that she had to keep an eye on Anne Poole after she got the job, she didn't say that she was required to watch other people pick up guests.

But the reality did not give Nancy time to hesitate.

Just when she was wondering whether to keep up, a faint voice suddenly came from the depths of the back alley: "No..."

"H-Help, oh-!!"

Oops!

Nancy's heart skipped a beat, almost without thinking, she picked up a stone from the ground and rushed in.

The fog was so thick and it was so dark that she could hardly see anything.When she broke into the back alley, Nancy could only see a black figure with a figure almost like a man beating Annie, she screamed at the top of her voice without saying a word: "Come on! Kill me!!!"

The black shadow suddenly paused.

In the dark environment, Nan Xi couldn't be sure whether it was a human or a so-called demon. She struggled to pick up a stone and smashed it at the back of the shadow. move.

But he let go of Annie.

Anne Poole fell to the ground and crawled off the ground with her hands and feet. She tremblingly said, "He, he, he has a knife! Help—!"

When she said this, Nancy had already seen the cold light flashing past the black shadow's arms.

He didn't let go of Annie's plan, and the cold light was still hitting Annie Poole. Nancy couldn't care about anything else, so she turned around and raised her hand——

The extremely sharp blade should have landed on Anne Poole's throat, but the black shadow was bumped by Nancy and blocked by raising her hand, which deviated from the original route.

Nancy felt no pain.

She only felt that something scratched her palm, which was colder than the pain, followed by the warmth of skin and flesh bursting and blood gushing out.

What a sharp knife.

"Run."

Nancy gave Anne a tug with her good hand.

"Run, Anne!"

But where else could he go?

A shadow blocks the entrance to the back alley, his blade looming.After being beaten, Anne Poole still couldn't see the shadow clearly. When he came to ask the price just now, he was also in the dark and couldn't see clearly. Anne only remembered the brim of the gentleman's hat and the endlessly extended shadow under the cat's eyes.

This……

Are you a human?

Or, as Mrs. Thames said, is this the ghost from hell?

She and Nancy... Are they going to die here?

Just when Anne Poole was desperate, the footsteps of other people came from outside the back alley.

Sombra's target was changed from Anne Poole to Nancy. Knowing that she was being targeted by the latter, she did not give up trying to survive. She picked up sand from the ground and smeared it on the attacker's face, but the opponent avoided it.The man-like figure stretched out his hand towards Nancy, and he grabbed the young girl's wrist, holding her tightly like pliers.

The next moment, the cold light reappeared——

Nancy closed her eyes in horror, but the pain never came.

The footsteps outside the alley finally arrived half a step late, and Nancy only caught a glimpse of a folding chair raised high in the air through the gap between her closed eyes, and directly hit the top of the black shadow's head.

The attacker was directly knocked over by this force.

He let go of Nancy, and the young girl staggered a few steps and also fell to the ground.

It's almost dawn.

Dimly, Nancy found that there were not one, but two visitors.She fell to the ground, and then the figure who hit someone with a chair reached out to help her up.

What Nancy saw was a pair of red gloves.

Then Thomas Thames' voice came from above her: "Thank God, you are all right...Holmes, stop him!"

Needless to say, Sherlock Holmes, who followed closely, would do the same.

The tables turn abruptly when two grown men take on a murderer.The assailant immediately decided to run away, but he had just taken the first step when Sherlock Holmes' staff swept over him.

Different from his brother's straightforward attack, the young detective's movements are undoubtedly more fancy, and his interception was blocked by Sombra at a faster speed.Holmes did not attack again, but took a step back as if he had anticipated it in advance——

The murderer's blade slashed across his face.

Soon the murderer realized that he could not entangle with the two.

As the sky gradually brightened, the scene in the back alley became clearer. Even the murderer hiding in the shadows could clearly see the young man wearing a red scarf and red gloves, pulling out a gun from his beige coat.

Holmes immediately shouted: "Catch it alive!"

Thomas: "Damn it!"

With a gunshot, his bullet hit the murderer's calf with precision!

The huge impact made the murderer fall to the ground again, but he seemed to really feel no pain.While falling to the ground, the black shadow also grabbed Holmes' left foot. The two big men wrestled on the ground like this, making it impossible for Thomas to fire a second shot.

However, after knocking Holmes to the ground, the other party didn't stop any longer. The murderer raised his bloody left leg and ran out of the alley.

Thomas didn't care about re-aiming, and if he hit Holmes, he wouldn't even think about surviving tomorrow.The young man simply took a step forward, rushed forward and directly grabbed the sleeve of the murderer's coat——

"Tearing" The sound of cloth being torn echoed in the back alley.

The sleeves of the shadow were ripped off by Thomas, but with the first smear of light after the night, Thomas Thames froze on the spot when he saw the object in his hand.

"What are you still doing in a daze!?"

Holmes got up from the ground. Just as he was about to catch up, he was also slightly taken aback when he saw clearly what Thomas was holding.

The torn sleeves were turned inside out, revealing the inside.

It was the skin of a human arm.

Thomas Thames pressed his thumb on the bloody human skin, and the blood couldn't stop rolling down from the air. He could hardly believe his eyes—did he just tear off the murderer's flesh?

***

When Bertha arrived, Sikes was yelling at Thomas.

She roughly spelled out some useful information from Sykes' swear words, it's nothing more than that my woman is hurt and I want you to look good, and you have to give me an explanation for what you did when you agreed it's okay.

Thomas, who let him growl, was thinking about something.

This absent-minded attitude angered Sykes even more, he rushed forward and grabbed the young man by the collar: "What the hell are you crazy about? Don't think you are a **** so I dare not beat you!"

"Who should I tell you?"

Bertha's complexion suddenly turned ugly. She glanced at the pale girl who helped Anne Poole out. She lowered her head, her palms were hastily wrapped with a white veil, and blood had already seeped out.

This is probably that Nancy.

She had heard the name, the poor girl who betrayed Sykes in "Oliver Twist" and died tragically in the end.

"If you really care about 'your' woman," said Bertha coldly, "she's right here, and you're yelling at Thomas?"

"..."

Sikes stopped now.

He let go of Thomas, took two steps and turned back to spit before turning his attention to Nancy.

Bertha went to Thomas: "What's going on?"

Thomas came back to his senses.

The young man raised his head, his handsome face turned pale.He handed the human skin in his hand to Bertha.