Mary's Nineteenth Century

Sometimes, one annoyance solves another little annoyance.

Just as Mycroft was thinking about the correct posture for delivering carrot cake, a police officer on duty from Scotland Yard came to report that four new corpses with wax appeared.

There is no doubt that this is an emerging trouble.

But Mycroft was able to knock on the door of the small building next door in the name of spreading the news, and found out that he might have come at just the right time.

Mary opened the door, fully dressed and with a hat on her head.

"Mr. Minton, are you going to go out, or have you just come back?"

Mycroft asked, "Let me tell you a new news. At dusk, the operators of the Thames dredging project found four dead bodies in the abandoned sewer. Do you have time to hear the details?"

"Come in, I just came back."

Mary glanced vaguely at the small cardboard box in Mycroft's hand, but didn't ask what it was.

"An hour ago, I received a letter from St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and I just went to Tanner, the owner of the pet store, to check some things."

The two entered the living room one after the other.

"It seems that I came here by coincidence."

Mycroft naturally left the carton on the coffee table, as if concentrating on the case for a while, without mentioning anything else.

"Please sit down."

Mary also didn't seem to notice Mycroft's small movements, and took off her hat and put it on the hanger without turning her eyes.

She handed out a letter. "I just received the preliminary autopsy results of the cheetah. The toxicology test on whether it was anesthetic has not yet been released, but a set of very similar data was found during the comparison of the signs."

In the letter, Watson succinctly mentioned: "The distribution of the claws and sharp teeth of the shot cheetah is almost exactly the same as the wound of the unknown female corpse."

Only by carefully measuring the cheetah can we know the detailed physical data, and it will take some time to imitate a set of metal claws and teeth, which shows that the murderer has long been eyeing the cheetah in Yamlahe's pet shop.

Mary pointed out, "The murderer did not observe the cheetah in London. The cheetah arrived in the Port of London only nine days ago, and the unidentified lady was killed five days ago. Four days is not enough to complete the complicated preliminary preparations."

"Due to the lack of equipment for making metal sharp weapons on sea ships

, so before the cheetah was loaded onto the freighter, the murderer targeted it in Africa. "

Mycroft thinks this probability is very high. "The Zimbabwe tobacco shreds that fell near the Whitechapel indicate that the murderer has a connection with Africa. The murderer has been to Africa to observe cheetahs, which is also consistent with previous speculations."

That's true, but cheetahs are beasts, and you don't just observe them just by observing them.

Especially the observation of teeth, claws and other data. If the cheetah hadn't lost the power to resist, the so-called close-up observation may mean that a human being was seriously injured.

"Most of the time when the murderer approached the cheetah was after the cheetah was captured by the hunting team, and the identity of the personnel who allowed access to the cheetah is basically well documented."

Mary said, "This should be able to find out who is the most suspicious. I just went to Tanner's shopkeeper and hope he can confirm the list of people in Africa who have come into contact with cheetahs as soon as possible."

This is indeed good news, a breakthrough has been found to determine the specific identity of the murderer.

Mary asked, "How about you, Mr. Holmes? What news have you received? Four more people have died?"

"At dusk, the maintenance workers of the Thames River Municipal Works discovered an abnormal situation in the abandoned sewer. There was part of the wax on the four corpses."

Mycroft mentioned, "Agent Lestrade was listening to colleagues in other areas talking about this matter, and stopped by to see the corpse. The face of the deceased was so rotten that it was difficult to see clearly, but there are two things that are certain .”

The four dead appeared in the abandoned waterway section not far away. Three men and one woman were not wearing clothes.

In addition, the cause of death of the four people was the same, they were shot in the head and heart.The point is that there is a blood-stained stone a few meters away from the side of the four corpses.

"Blood-stained stone, it seems that this strange and familiar feature of the death scene caught the attention of Detective Lestrade."

Mary's focus has been on the fact that the deceased was not wearing clothes, "People have no clothes and have returned to their original appearance. In a sense, human beings are equivalent to other animals."

That's why Mycroft thought it was bad news.

The corpse of the deceased was not even an inch. It means that the murderer's hunting target is no longer a beast but a human being.

Most of the corpse wax appeared half a year after the death of human beings, indicating that the murderer started hunting and committing crimes half a year ago, and his modus operandi was gradually upgraded.

Initially, the murderer was a hunter with rich experience in hunting animals in the grassland.

Rear

Now, he's back in London and begins hunting the living in the city's sewers.

Developing step by step, hunting underground can no longer satisfy his desire to kill, and he needs to move to the ground.

"Perhaps, it's not too bad. The complex killing mode takes time. This murderer went to Africa and returned to London. He probably hasn't fully evolved yet."

Mary deduces the process of change, from hunting animals in the grasslands to hunting humans in urban sewers, and then hunting leopards on the ground.

Mycroft immediately understood, "If hunting humans on the urban ground is the most exciting mode, now the murderer is in the final transition stage-hunting humans in the jungle."

In this way, it can explain why there is a female corpse that has changed Lydia's clothes, why it is necessary to imitate a cheetah to kill a female corpse, and it can even explain why it is necessary to steal a cheetah from a pet shop.

It was misfortune that caused the disappearance of several people to be blamed on the cheetah who sneaked out.

Stealing a leopard and killing it kills two birds with one stone.

The murderer not only enjoyed the pleasure of hunting in the city, but also blamed the leopards for some people's deaths by imitating the killing of cheetahs.

Imitating cheetahs to kill people without using guns seems to change the way of killing people, but it is not.

The most important thing here is not to kill people, but to eliminate the identity of a group of people.Those who died at the paws of the so-called leopards were dressed in other people's clothing.

"Others" became the key.

"The murderer made it very complicated, just to take away a group of people, because their identities are different from those of the previous dead."

Mycroft speculated, "The past dead, such as the four embalmed corpses just now, are most likely marginal people who rarely received attention. The murderer's recent crime goals have changed, and he is not satisfied with hunting marginal people."

The original victims were bums or slum beggars living alone.

They are a vulnerable group, and the reality is cruel. Even if they are murdered, it is difficult for them to attract the attention of the police or officials.

The murderer expanded the selection of victims, as if from hunting non-threatening herbivores to challenging dangerous carnivores.It is no longer limited to the slums of the Eastern District, but targets people like Ferenc's master and servant, such as Lydia and Wickham.

Only in terms of individual strength and survivability, people who live comfortably are not necessarily strong

For people living in chaotic areas.

The threat that the murderer believes comes from factors other than the target individual, such as their family members coming to find them, such as a group of people hired to find out the case.

For this reason, they steal cheetahs and imitate cheetahs to kill people.All these are just to create the illusion that the target group of victims has been killed by the absconded cheetah.

Mary thought of the dead cheetah found in the West End, "If it was blamed on the cheetah, there should be a few undiscovered corpses that seemed to be killed by the cheetah. Not limited to Whitechapel, the whole of London may be a hiding place .”

The reason is simple, cheetahs may be scurrying around, not concentrating on a certain place to hunt and kill.

Based on this theory, when the murderer imitated the killing of a cheetah and scattered the corpses in different areas, it would also increase the difficulty of handling the case, and it would be impossible to find out that there was an abnormality in the cause of death of the deceased in the first place.

Why would the victim be at the mercy of the killer?

Don't forget, the mandala anesthesia ingredient left in the body of the unknown woman.

At the moment, it is necessary to send additional personnel as soon as possible to find the remaining bodies that died under the imitation cheetah attack, and to determine how many deaths were faked by the murderer.Collect more clues to speculate where Ferencz, Lydia and others were taken.

"The four embalmed corpses found at dusk were sent to the University of London School of Medicine. A further autopsy report will be available at noon tomorrow at the earliest. I hope it can bring some valuable clues."

After finishing his business, Mycroft seemed ready to leave without any lingering thoughts.Before leaving, he casually mentioned the small paper box on the coffee table.

"You brought a lot of carrots yesterday, and I baked some carrot cakes for you tonight. Make it for supper or breakfast, whatever you want."

Mary had already smelled the faint sweet aroma, and the combination of carrots and butter was so wonderful, as if it was tempting her to eat it quickly, so she didn't have to wait patiently.

At the moment, regarding Mycroft’s casual mention of “I baked some cakes by the way”, it is necessary to ask more deeply. Who is the subject of baking the cakes in the sentence?

"Thank you, I will definitely enjoy you..."

Mary paused suddenly, staring at Mycroft, as if she was thinking about how to express it correctly next.

The moonlight is hazy, slanting into the window.

In the house at night, there are only two people sitting opposite each other, and I am most afraid of sudden silence.

Sure to enjoy yours?

what is this

How imprecise to absurdly punctuate a sentence!

Mycroft was about to get up, and now that the carrot cake had been delivered successfully, he felt relieved to say good night and leave.

Never expected to hear such a sentence!It made him abruptly stop the movement of getting up, and turned to meet Mr. Minton's burning eyes.

The next moment, Mary just added it in a serious manner: "I will definitely enjoy the cake you made by yourself."

Saying so, Mary smiled. "Right? Did I guess right? The smell is different from the Black Forest cake fryer in Berlin. You succeeded this time, right?"

Mycroft: Him?success?

Yes, as a Sherlock Holmes, he must be able to maintain a calm smile at this moment, right?