Mary's Nineteenth Century

In the face of sending propositions, the most important thing is to be calm.

Mycroft looked at the questioner calmly, trying to judge the fundamental purpose of Mr. Minton's question about his appearance.Is this a simple question on a whim, or does it have other intentions?

Tick ​​tock!Tick ​​tock!

In just two seconds before and after, a certain possibility was immediately connected.

"You have doubts about Tanner, the owner of the pet shop."

Mycroft's tone was affirmative, "Tanner knew in advance that you came to the East District, so he deliberately concealed certain parts of the news."

The slums in the East End are mixed with fish and dragons, but not without rich people. At least the customers who go to the Jamlach pet store are rich people.In this case, unless there is some attention in advance, how can the shopkeeper tell who the customer is?

Today, the two went to the pet store without revealing their identities and names, but Tanner's attitude revealed a sense of repulsion that he hoped they would not stay longer.

Within the Eastern District, the speed of information transmission between the top snakes in various places is not slow.

Tanner must have been paying attention to the recent research project, and learned that a team of field workers had entered the East End, one of whom included Mr. Minton.

He noticed even more that the manager of the Mousetrap Bar had contact with Mr. Minton, so when he was approached by Mr. Minton today, he immediately recognized who it was.

Then again, what does this have to do with the question of how you look?

That is a cryptic expression.

Mary was sure she had never seen Tanner before, and she knew very well that the body itself was not so beautiful as to be unique.

Temperament can make people look different, but the basic face shape and facial features will not change greatly.This face is more than delicate, but not too distinctive.

To put it bluntly, with the blessing of Mary's own aura, it can make people handsome to [-] meters.But among a bunch of rich or expensive customers who go to the pet store, how can others quickly recognize Mr. Minton at first glance?

The most intuitive way is to look at the face, the more recognizable the facial features are, the easier it is to be recognized.After all, the word of mouth, aura is really too difficult to grasp a description.If a face without distinctive features is recognized immediately, it is difficult not to suspect that one party has long been on guard.

Tanner recognized who the visitor was almost instantly, and then, he inadvertently showed a trace of rejection.

"This is the strange thing, how could Tanner pay special attention to a survey?

People worry that his pet shop will be demolished? "

Mary can't completely deny such reasons, but Tanner seems to have concealed information related to animals. How much does it have to do with the change of store location?

Mycroft thought of the empty elephant cages in the shop. "In the cage where the Asian elephant was kept, there were broken branches of plants on the African plateau. Tanner said that the African elephant has been out of stock for two months. In fact, not only the African elephant, but also the entire pet store has no animals recently purchased from Africa. .”

As long as there are animals in the cages in the pet shop, a simple introduction sign is pasted on the outside to indicate the place and time of the animal's origin, and some also indicate the animal's age, gender and temperament.

A group of animals, none of which came from Africa, how could there be branches of African plateau plants in the empty cage?

"Tanner also has an exhibition zoo under his name. Perhaps some African animals were sent to the exhibition hall instead of the pet store."

But Mycroft thought of another possibility. There were African animals in the pet store, but they disappeared unexpectedly.

The next moment, the two said in unison:

"Fleeing African Lion, 1856.", "London Evening Post."

Seventeen years ago, there was an accidental escape of a lion in the Yamlach Pet Shop.

An African lion grabbed a boy with its jaws open as it escaped a pet shop and roamed the streets.

The owner of the pet store at the time was Tanner's father.It is said that the old Jamrah tried to subdue the tiger with his bare hands despite the threat of death, but in the end the clerk who came came injured and subdued the lion with an iron rod.

The lion was not dead, but was sold out.

The little boy was also rescued, and he received a sum of compensation.The news made it to the London Evening Standard and created a big publicity campaign for Jamlach's Pet Shop.

Now when I mention the incident of lions fleeing in the past, I think of the fact that pet shops are abnormally open until noon recently. Will there be another escape of animals?

"Today's pet store has another strange feature. Mr. Holmes, we haven't even seen a single clerk except the owner, Tanner."

Reflecting on the disorganized layout of the pet store, Mary was sure she hadn't seen the clerk, not that the clerk might be behind some cage.

In a large pet store, under normal circumstances, the owner will not be alone in charge of external sales.

"really."

Mycroft investigated

An overview of Tanner's hired staff.

"There are three clerks in the pet store, and there are six regular employees in the exhibition hall not far away, and this does not include the transportation team responsible for moving the animals."

The fixed exhibition time of the exhibition hall is Sunday.Opening hours are subject to availability, Monday to Saturday.Today is a working day, and the exhibition hall is not open, so there is no urgent need for manpower to call pet store staff to maintain order.

Right now, the owner Tanner can quibble, for example, that his house is only open for two or three hours, and he simply gives his employees a few days off.What is the real situation?Could the clerk have the skills to subdue the beast, and all went out to find the escaped animal?

Animals are likely to hurt people after fleeing, and if they are widely reported, it will definitely have a serious impact on the business of the pet store.

If this is the case, it is logical that the owner Tanner resisted the arrival of the investigator, Mr. Minton.The pet store will prefer to get the animal back without anyone noticing before the matter is exposed.

While speaking, Scotland Yard arrived.

The two got out of the carriage, and then they went to find East District Patrolmen Lestrade and Grayson.

10:35,

There was some commotion in the Metropolitan Police Hall.

Some of the informants in different clothes were waiting anxiously, and some were arguing loudly with the police.The cases are also varied, such as theft, robbery, street fights and so on.

Lestrade has only been in the industry for half a year, and it is impossible for newcomers to sit in a single office and enjoy black tea.What's more, he was sent to the most chaotic area in London. One can imagine how heavy the work tasks are.

At the moment, he looked at the two people who came to the door.Judging from the clothes alone, the two should not overlap with his work scope.

"Mr. Minton, Mr. Holmes, what can I do?"

Lestrade looked at the two business cards handed to him, and wondered in his heart whether some grown-ups would be left in the slums, right? "The two want to inquire about cases related to the East District?"

Mary asked directly, "In the past five days, have any unidentified corpses been found in the East District?"

"No. There was no report, and no corpse was seen during the inspection."

Lestrade is very sure, because the patrols and searches in the Eastern District have been increased recently, but nothing has been found yet.

Mycroft observed Lestrade's expression, "Look at your affirmation, the East District should have strengthened its police force recently. Is the cause related to the disappearance of animals?"

"Oh! You also have a leopard haunted

News? "

When Lestrade heard that the animal had gone missing, he cheered up. "Do you know the source of the leopard? It's the goods from the Yamlach pet shop?"

The person who asked the question actually asked a rhetorical question, which shows that there is indeed a problem in the Eastern District.

It turned out that on April [-], someone reported to the police that they saw a beast suspected of being a leopard near Whitechapel.

Lestrade and his partner, Gregson, went to the most famous pet store in the East District and asked the owner Tanner if any animals had escaped, but they got a negative answer.

Lestrade briefly described the previous situation, "In the past three days, the inspection of the East District has been strengthened, but so far no one has been injured by the leopard. It seems that the reporter was dazzled."

The report was made by a miner who caught a glimpse of a leopard on his way to work before dawn at five o'clock in the morning.

I said I saw it, but in fact, I just saw the back of an animal flashing away at the entrance of an alley more than ten meters away through the dim street lights.

The miner's half-awake mind was frightened at the time, so he didn't pay much attention to whether there were leopard tracks on the ground, and thought it might be dizziness.

When he got off work, he met Lestrade who was on patrol and brought up the matter.When I turned back to the sighting site, the ground was covered with messy footprints of people coming and going, and it was difficult to distinguish whether there were leopard footprints.

"A missing leopard, and there have been no recent casualties."

Mary expressed doubts about this, "The leopard's attack power is not low. It needs to eat meat, and it can't steal food such as live geese, live cattle and sheep in the East District. When it is hungry, it will attack humans."

However, there are no relevant reports so far.

Not only was there no news in the Eastern District, but there were also no reports of wild beasts eating people in other regions.

At this moment, Agent Gleason hurried back from the outside and motioned for Lestrade to take a step to speak.

Corridor corner.

Grayson said while wiping the sweat from his brow, "Lestrade, you are really good. I was doing inspections outside, but you are still sitting in the bureau. Since it is suspected that there are wild animals infesting, it is not a good deal." Separately go to each street to check one by one."

"Hey, I only rested for less than 10 minutes, can you stop being so fussy."

Lestrade felt that he and this partner were naturally at odds. Although they both worked hard, they could quarrel from time to time.

Grayson didn't talk too much nonsense, "Okay, then I'll let you pick up a ready-made cheap one. I found it. An abandoned building in the Whitechapel area

In the abandoned house, a fresh corpse was found.

Don't spit it out later, the female corpse looks miserable.I think she is still very young, but the skull is crushed and the face cannot be recognized at all.The main organs of his torso were bitten off, and his limbs were also bitten to pieces. "

As he spoke, Grayson tried hard to suppress the nausea.

He also just joined the industry for half a year, and although it wasn't the first time he saw a corpse, it was the first time he saw such a disgusting corpse.

Nausea is nausea, and there is no fear, but a little excitement.It was the excitement of finally meeting a big case.

"Really? A corpse bitten by wild beasts?"

Lestrade was also a little excited. He had had enough of trivial cases, and now he was excited about encountering a big case.

Unlike many police detectives in Scotland Yard who were dawdling around, both Lestrade and Grayson hoped to make some achievements.

Therefore, when they hear that the beast is missing, they will spare no effort to track and investigate, which is also a kind of responsibility, responsibility to potential victims.

Grayson nodded affirmatively, "How can I make a joke about this kind of thing. The problem now is that we have to try to find a reliable doctor to do an autopsy on the corpse."

Scotland Yard does not have forensics on staff.

Now to autopsy the autopsy, the police have to contact the hospital or university laboratory by themselves.

Lestrade immediately pointed to the reception room at the other end of the corridor, "I think the two gentlemen inside should be willing to help."

In the reception room, it was quiet.

Mary sat side by side with Mycroft, waiting patiently for the detectives in the aisle outside to settle matters.

For a while, I was free.

When I was idle, I remembered the unresolved issues on the carriage just now.

Mary didn't forget that although Mycroft had seen through the deep meaning of her question about her appearance, she hadn't simply given a positive answer to the question.

"Mr. Holmes, I think it has been very hard for you to find Ferencz recently. Please don't work too hard, otherwise it is easy to cause minor problems such as memory loss."

If it wasn't for memory loss, how could he forget to answer the question half an hour ago?Was it an attempt to muddle through?

Mycroft caught the banter in the so-called concerned words.

Turning his head, Mr. Minton next to him looked natural, as if he had no intention of taking time to ask questions at the police station.

Pretend, you pretend again!

Mycroft said solemnly, "Thank you for your concern, please rest assured

, my memory is fine.For example, I can clearly remember your extraordinary appearance and beauty. "

Mary can accept the former item with peace of mind, but the latter item is really a compliment.

Looking at Mycroft again, I saw that this person looked calm and composed, as if there was nothing worthy of emotional ups and downs, and he was just stating a fact.

Mary smiled, "Mr. Holmes, thank you for remembering. Forgive me for not being good at words, but what I feel is just like what you think. It is a similar perception."

what?

How dare this person claim to be inarticulate?And what is similar?

Mycroft looked directly at the people around him. Was Mr. Minton simply praising him for being handsome?Or, so-called perceptions represent deeper thoughts?Just like his feelings of restraint.

The next moment, the door of the living room was pushed open.

Lestrade and Grayson came in, breaking the silence of the room. "Gentlemen, are you interested in going to Whitechapel to look at the body?"