Mary's Nineteenth Century

Whether the carrot cake is successful or not can only be concluded after eating it, but at least there were no accidents such as the fryer tonight.

Mycroft still maintained a calm appearance, seemingly unaffected by the words "Enjoy you well".

He can also joke, "Judgement of good or bad cakes varies from person to person, and I cannot be complacent in saying that I have succeeded in making a perfect carrot cake. However, I can be sure that the carrot you gifted has a very blessed effect. It blessed me without Then there's the bomber incident."

After speaking, Mycroft stood up, seemingly in a hurry, but he didn't want to stay in this room for half a minute longer.

Like enjoying him to the fullest, assuming he listens to a few more sentences, he really can no longer maintain the illusion of calmness. "Tomorrow is another busy day, so I won't disturb your rest, let me say good night first."

"You go to bed early too, good night."

Mary also got up and sent people to the door as if everything was normal.Watching Mycroft walk out steadily, his calm back gradually disappeared from sight.

Finally, Mary couldn't help chuckling.

Why dear Mr. Holmes is so charming and cute, people can't help but want to try how cute he can be.

Cute and charming?

Descriptors of this sort, Sherlock sees no one-pound relationship to his brother.

Especially the next morning, when he found that the freshly baked cakes from last night were gone, he glanced at Mycroft's stomach cryptically. How could such a sweet tooth not make people gain weight?

What a mess of eyes.

Mycroft keenly grasped Sherlock's momentary expression, and knew at a glance that his brother was slandering his figure.Sure enough, the younger brother has nothing to do with being cute.

The brothers didn't have another word to say about carrot cake.

A new day will continue to search for potential victims, and the scope of the search needs to be expanded, and the dumping point is no longer limited to the East End of London.

What came faster than the news of the victim was the list of Tanner's shopkeeper's contact with the African cheetah.

Just looking at the names, none of the 33 contacts matched the characteristics of the suspect, at least no one who was familiar with the East End of London.

"However, no one can escape God's punishment!"

Tanner congratulates himself for going so far

Asked if there was a photo of the hunting team, he pointed to one of the young people who looked under 30 years old.

"This man, although he looks very ordinary, but I can recognize that face, which has not changed much from 17 years ago."

Does 17 years ago, namely 1856, sound a little familiar?

Mycroft thought at once of the old Evening Gazette story—the boy who escaped from the lion's mouth.

For Jamlach Pet Shop, 1856 is definitely a memorable year.Because the iron cage in the pet shop was not closed properly, an African lion escaped from the shop and grabbed a passing boy.

"This man is Jason Decker? Has he changed his name?"

The Jason that Mycroft mentioned was the little boy who narrowly escaped death. The news reports back then did not write too much detail, only saying that the pet store lost a sum of money.

"Jason has lived in the East District since he was a child, and his family's living conditions are not very good, so he is willing to accept the compensation and not continue to pursue the pet store's negligence, right?"

"Yes, my father paid Jason a hundred pounds back then. For the Jason family, it is impossible to accumulate so much savings even if they have worked for more than ten years."

Tanner felt that as a businessman, his father had paid enough. To put it bluntly, the lives of the East End were really worthless. "It's not just compensation. At Jason's request, my father agreed to him to work in the store."

Seventeen years ago, Jason was ten years old.

Even though there are corresponding laws and regulations on child labor these days, not many employers and employees actually abide by them.

"Jason is thin and thin, and he can't do heavy work. He is mainly responsible for cleaning."

Tanner was deeply impressed by this, mainly because he thought Jason was very brave.Jason was almost killed by a lion, and he dared to go to the pet store to deal with a large group of animals with great lethality.

Mycroft had doubts, a compensation of one hundred pounds was enough for Jason's family to move out of the slums, how could Jason's parents agree to him working in a pet shop with a high risk factor? "Jason works in a pet store, where is his family?"

"Mr. Holmes, I think you know that getting rich overnight does not necessarily lead to good results."

Tanner had heard about Jason’s family situation, “One hundred pounds may not be enough to pay for a pet for a pet store customer, but for Jason’s family of three, it is a golden pie in the sky. His father, Lao De Kerr used to be a manure hauler, and old Mrs. Decker was a laundryman, and then I heard that old Decker left with the money.

opened. "

Leaving, this word is too neutral, it should be said to abandon wife and son.

Decker Sr. took away all the restitution money from his son's near death, leaving Jason and his mother to continue to live a life of darkness in the chaotic East Side.

"My father also agreed to work in the pet shop out of sympathy for Jason."

Tanner remembered the approximate time, "Around the summer of 1862, Mrs. Decker died of tuberculosis, and Jason quit his job in the pet shop. He was 16 years old and disappeared from the East End of London."

No one knows what happened in the next 11 years, Jason became Dawson Vega.

Others on the African hunting team said Dawson was a professional hunter who occasionally teamed up with them on hunts.Because the family is not short of money, hunting wild animals in Africa is just looking for excitement.

Even if the name is changed, the face remains the same.

Mycroft looked at the photograph. It was not clear enough, but he could still see a long scar above Dawson's right eyebrow. "Jason was attacked by a lion, did he leave a wound on the right side of his forehead?"

"Yes, he almost hurt his eye. This injury is very conspicuous, and it has become an easily recognizable mark of Jason."

It never occurred to Tanner that the hunting team he had been cooperating with for many years actually had an old acquaintance hidden. "However, Dawson's self-reported scar has nothing to do with this. He proudly mentioned that it was a medal for killing a tiger."

With an almost unchanged appearance and identical scars, it is very likely that Jason and Dawson are the same person.

This is in line with all the previous speculations about the characteristics of the murderer, which can explain why the murderer is familiar with the East District but not short of money, and is also very familiar with the animal operation process of the pet store.

Mycroft confirmed one more thing, "Master Tanner, has the layout of the pet shop remained unchanged for more than ten years?"

"It's not just that the layout hasn't changed, I haven't even changed the door keys."

Tanner regretted thinking about it. He should not have saved those pounds and refurbished the shop when he took it from his father.

It's too late to regret.The cheetah was stolen and was almost charged with serial murder of the leopard.

The most urgent task is to find Dawson and determine whether he is the murderer of the big hunting case.More importantly, find out those who went missing in the East End.

As of the evening of April 4, Fernandez's master and servant had been missing for eight days. Lydia and Wick

Tom disappeared for seven days.The scope of the search was expanded to cover all of London, and five more victims of imitation cheetahs were found, just like the unknown female corpse.

A total of six people were killed, four men and two women.They are all wearing expensive or brand-new clothes, and it is easy to see that the owner of the clothes is in a good financial situation.

Unsurprisingly, the three deceased were wearing clothes belonging to Wickham and Fernandez respectively.

The clothes worn by the other two deceased were all new this spring, and one only needs to browse the fashion shops in London to know which shop the clothes came from.

"The identity of the original owners of the other two sets of clothes has been confirmed. "One Leaf Zhiqiu Tailor-made Clothing Store" sold a man and a woman's custom-made clothes in March. The buyers were the Rossi brothers and sisters from Italy. "

Mary traced it down, and the Rosie brothers and sisters came to London for the April Ball. "According to the recollections of friends in London, the Rossi brothers and sisters planned to go outing in the outer suburbs of London, but they did not specify where they would go."

According to the occupancy records of the hotel, the brothers and sisters of Rossi reserved two months' rent, but they have not returned to the room since April 4.

Where did all the people who disappeared go?

Subtle but crucial clues were found from the five dead who were changed into other people's clothes.

"See this orange-gray? It was found on the clothes of the three deceased."

In the laboratory, Watson points to three small pieces of cloth in a tray.They were taken from three different pieces of clothing, all bearing the same orange-gray powder particles.

"The clothes scratched some kind of shell-like lichen. Dr. Jekyll consulted a botanical friend and determined that the particles came from a rare species of lichen in a forest in the outer suburbs of London."

As he spoke, Watson took out a hand-drawn drawing and a photo of the specimen. "Mr. Minton, does it look familiar to you?"

Mary recognized the plant just by looking at it.Even if you don't know the detailed scientific name, you know where this lichen plant comes from. "Forest X, we saw it four years ago when we escaped from the triangle basement."

Forest X, a dense forest in the outskirts of London that few people have set foot on.

The murderer once built an underground triangular secret room in the forest, but it has not been discovered by others, which shows how good the secrecy is.

"Encrusted lichens grow tightly on top of rocks or trees and are generally difficult to peel off. So it's almost certain that these clothes went to Forest X."

Mary doesn't think that a few clothes can automatically float in the woods, and it becomes a ghost story. It should be that the original owner of the clothes haunts the X forest.

"Forest X is huge. Although I escaped successfully, I still dare not say that I know [-]% of it."

Watson also did not expect that one day he would hear that there would be another murder in a similar place. "Mr. Minton, what are your plans now? Unfortunately, I have a bunch of exams in the next few days, otherwise I really want to go to X Forest together."

Intend?

Mary would not arrogantly say that she was familiar with Forest X, even after escaping from the underground chamber four years ago, she went back to look for traces of the murderer who had been revolving around.It is to walk all over the suspicious area, but in the end it is still nothing.

As a result, I am more sure that my knowledge of Forest X is not comprehensive, and I can't even guarantee the 60.00% possibility that there are no secrets in the rest of Forest X.

At the moment, the murderer is haunting the X forest, which proves that there are indeed other dark evils in that forest.

It is very difficult to find someone, because the X forest is very large.However, combining the current clues can be regarded as good news, and the approximate scope has been determined.You can borrow a few hounds that are good at tracking from the Tanner shopkeeper, and then borrow the personal belongings of the missing person to start the search in the X forest.

As for whether the missing person can be successfully found in the huge forest?Are there any factors in the forest that interfere with tracking scents?Does the murderer have any accomplices?

Questions like these are no reason to stop.

Pall Mall.

Mary got out of the carriage, and instead of going home at once, she stopped at the gate for a while.

For her, there is a small problem right now.How to use the art of language to explain to Mycroft the murder in the X forest four years ago?

Don't say it, it's obviously not what a rational person does.

Considering that the two murders occurred in the same forest, it cannot be ignored that there may be some connection between the two murders.Concealment at this time may cause unnecessary mistakes and injuries.

Of course, it is also possible that the two cases have nothing to do with each other.

"Mr. Minton?"

Mycroft looked out from the window of the study on the second floor, and in the setting sun a familiar figure was staring at the gate of his house in a daze, which was really rare.

Almost instantly, three reasons were speculated.

First, Mr. Minton finally found that the door was decorated very much in line with his aesthetics;

Second, Mr. Minton secretly missed the owner of the gate, and finally showed an expression of thinking about others inadvertently.

Apart from the above jokes, combined with today's progress in solving the case, it is most likely the third reason.

Mycroft leaned out of the window and said in an almost certain tone, "Mr. Minton, you have identified the whereabouts of the missing person and the murderer, and you have been murdered there, right?"