Mary's Nineteenth Century

"Uh, it doesn't matter if it's $28 or $29, does it have any special meaning?"

Tanner's shopkeeper's question broke the weird silence in the morgue.

Good question!

Lestrade and the senior police inspector at the side all gave Tanner a veiled look of admiration. It is a good quality to dare to ask questions.

"Obviously, isn't it?"

Mary really doesn't use irony.Tanner's shopkeeper sells animals other than humans. It's not surprising that he doesn't know this number, but as a police detective of Scotland Yard, he should be sensitive to this number.

Mycroft didn't test Scotland Yard's professionalism, not because he was impatient, but because he knew the level of police detectives here.

“这是与人类颅骨有关的数字。一般意义上，认为颅骨总数有23块,包括了面颅15块与脑颅8块。也有人会将左右两侧各3块听小骨计算其中，那就有了数字29。”

Moulton, who was beheaded, had 28 small knives stabbed in his torso, and the knife that cut off his neck made a total of 29 knives.

"29 knives, not casual hacking."

玛丽道出了骷髅展区内的干缩人头陈列情况，“1、5、7与2、6、8编号结尾的展品都是假货。把这六个数字简简单单加在一起……”

"It's the number 29."

Lestrade was finally able to report the answer with certainty.Although he didn't memorize the distribution of bones in the human body, he could still do such a simple addition anyway.

"So, the current situation is clear."

Mary mentioned the meaning of shrunken heads, "The original purpose of Native Americans to make shrunken heads was not to collect them, but to obtain some kind of mysterious power from them. Morton was stabbed 29 times. The murderer was not just venting his anger, but Some kind of ritual is going on."

What kind of ceremony?

The specific situation is uncertain, but it is inseparable from the power to obtain the head.

"Oh my God."

The shopkeeper Tanner thought of something, and his face turned pale all of a sudden.

"No way, no way? I wouldn't be the next target of that gang of murderers, right? The serial numbers of those goods were completely unintentional, and they didn't mock anyone at all."

The murderer believed in the power of the brain, but the serial number of the shrunken head fake in the skeleton exhibition happened to be related to the number 29.

This can easily lead to bad associations.Why is the sum of the six numbers in the last number of the fake product "29"?Are you laughing at the idea of ​​believing in the mysterious power in the brain? It's ridiculous. It's a fake stuff when you hear it.

Mycroft believed that Tanner's shopkeeper was not hinting at sarcasm, but the point was whether the criminal gang who killed the killer believed it or not.

"Unfortunately, I have to throw a bucket of ice water on you. Shopkeeper Tanner, if you were a murderer, would you believe that people who deal with dead people's bones all the year round don't know what 29 stands for? Head shrinking is fake."

There is a prerequisite for being able to confuse the real one with the real one, which is a sufficient understanding of the structure of the real human head.

Moulton may have done it unintentionally, positioning the number ending in the counterfeit as the sum of 29, but with his professional level, it is not possible to not know the number of skulls.

Tanner's shopkeeper looked even worse. Moulton knew the number of skulls, but he really didn't know!

This is really a disaster without any reason, but there is no way to complain.After the hunting killer case in Forest X last time, he already understood that he shouldn't reason with a murderer with a brain problem.

"No matter what, we need to find the gang of murderers as soon as possible. Otherwise, Morton's death will only be the beginning."

Mycroft gave no further details at the mortuary, but told Lestrade that the stakes of Moulton's death were high.

The body was transferred from Scotland Yard to a secure mortuary where further post-mortem examinations were carried out by experienced doctors.

Not only the autopsy is required for Morton, but also the piranha in that tank must be dissected, looking for possible clues from the belly of the fish and the water tank.

For example, whether there is traditional Chinese medicine in front of Moulton, such as how violent the piranhas besieged Moulton's body, whether they were given food-inducing agents, etc.In this way, the identities of the gangsters were deduced.

When he left Scotland Yard and transported Moulton's body, the pocket watch showed 18:02.

In London in June, the sky is still bright at six o'clock in the evening.

On the main road, there is a lot of traffic, and the flow of people comes and goes like a tide.

Instead of returning to Pall Mall, Mary and Mycroft strolled to the Westminster Aquarium to examine Moulton's death scene again.

I deliberately chose a quiet alley to walk.

The stone road, the floor tiles are slightly damp.One could vaguely hear the cries of newsboys on the main road, but there were only two people in the alley.

"let me guess."

Mary spoke first, "Mr. Holmes, you will show up at Scotland Yard after get off work. Has there been a vicious grave robbery incident?"

Mycroft nodded, "I know, you can't hide this kind of thing from you. At 16:23, His Excellency Matthew blocked the door of my office, interrupting my daily schedule of going to the club to enjoy leisure reading."

This afternoon, Mycroft's smooth return from get off work was interrupted by Matthew.

As always, Matthew brought bad news—several dead celebrities have been robbed from their cemeteries, and it was their heads that were stolen.

In fact, this kind of thing is not new.

For example, the head of Cromwell, the famous British protector in the 17th century, was moved to many places after his death.Circulating in the hands of private collectors, it has become an antique item.

By the 19th century, the idea of ​​a genius skull was all the rage.

For example, Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert all lost their heads after death.Their skulls were taken by those obsessed with music and placed with great care. ①

Skull worshipers firmly believe that the skulls of famous people exude some kind of spiritual power.Those geniuses who did great things while they were alive have their roots deep in their heads.

Even though the body of the genius master is dead, the remaining power resides in the skull.As long as you can communicate with it spiritually, you will reach a special state.

Which kind of power you want to get, just dig the genius or expert grave.Cut off their heads, and then stand up and worship.

Absurd as it sounds, this was the crazy and chaotic 19th century.

The bad news that Matthew brings is about this.In the past three months, ten tombs have been robbed one after another, and the heads in the coffins have disappeared.

The owner of the robbed tomb was either rich or noble, or a well-known scientist.The cemeteries of these people are not unguarded, but the grave robbers are not afraid of the grave guards at all.

"Ten tombs, 22 tomb guards and tomb robbers had a head-on conflict. The death toll of the tomb guards was as high as five."

Mycroft summed up the data provided by Matthew, "Not all in England, but France, Italy, Spain. The news has just been compiled into Whitehall today, and all the sites of the graves that have been looted have left a figure. I think, It's a good guess what number it is."

"It's the number '29'. "

Mary was sure that this time she encountered a murderous organization with eccentric ideas.

"It sounds a bit like the practice of a heretic cult. They do not hesitate to kill people to obtain the skull by any means. It is to hold a major sacrifice."

Herein lies the tricky problem.

Let's call this vicious and murderous gang the head worship organization. What kind of mysterious power does its purpose acquire?

It is known that the worship organization draws energy through the heads of dead people, so once the dead corpses cannot meet their needs, will they attack the living people?

Kill a living person and cut off his/her head, which will logically obtain the energy in the head.

Who will be on the kill list?

Judging from the robbed cemetery, the possibility of unknown people is unlikely, while famous people are easy to be targeted.

Mary said, "The possibility of ordinary people being targeted cannot be completely ruled out. The owner of the Tanner shop said that he had seen the deceased in the missing suitcase. He was skinny and dressed in shabby clothes. That kind of corpse is also the target of the worship organization." .”

Now, it is basically possible to speculate on the reason why the worship organization is targeting Moulton.

Nothing was missing from the hotel where he lived and the skeleton exhibition area where he worked, except for the corpse in the suitcase that was not on the cargo manifest.

"Of course, there is also the second possibility."

Mary hadn't seen the missing body, and she didn't think Tanner's owner was right. "The corpse was transported from New York to London. It was so skinny that it could not be faked, but what clothes he wore could be artificially replaced after death."

In that case, the unknown male corpse might also be a big shot.

Dressing him up as a poor man in a slum is the usual cover-up trick.Even if someone opened the suitcase, they would not pay too much attention to the dead.

Mycroft said, "Before I left for Scotland Yard, I had wired New York that maybe the body in the suitcase would be identified. Or at least who the suitcase was originally addressed to.

The boxes containing the rabbit's feet and the boxes containing the dead bodies were sent from New York Harbor.At present, it seems that the terminal should have made a mistake with the goods.

The corpse was not successfully signed for, and a group of worship leaders received a box of rabbit feet instead.The publicity of the skeleton exhibition is overwhelming, and it is not a secret that the lucky rabbit feet are sold in the aquarium. It is logical to follow the vine to find Moulton.

"The hotel said that Moulton went out alone late at night last night, and he looked normal at the time. He should have met with the buyer organized by Baitou, and he didn't think there would be any danger."

Mary speculates that Moulton has been in the dead man's skeleton business for several years, and he has long been used to the underground trading of corpses.Since he picked up a dead body for nothing, he sold the goods as extra money.

Moulton never thought that this underground fair would kill him.

As for why the murderer wanted to kill Moulton?It may be to kill people, or it may be that he desecrated the number 29.

"You understand what that means."

Mycroft paused, "The skeleton exhibition in London just opened yesterday. If the murderer knew the number of the dummy head, he might have been to the exhibition. Yesterday, we were probably in the same room as them, but we didn't find each other. "

Looking back now, none of the visitors in the exhibition hall showed any abnormalities yesterday.

Either it was just a good time to miss the murderer, or the murderer was good at controlling emotions and disguising.

Mary does not deny this possibility, but there is another possibility.

"Perhaps it was because the murderers saw the dummy heads in the display cabinet last night when they traded the corpses, and they clashed with Moulton on the spot. After all, the sum of the ending numbers equals 29, which is an easy number to calculate."

"What you said is not impossible, but I just reminded you in advance."

Mycroft did not bring up this point aimlessly, "It is very likely that such a cruel but well-organized small group organization will have to break into the interior to find out more inside information. If there is a need in the future, we will avoid using real Identity is better."

Makes sense.

Mary rolled her eyes and asked with a smile, "Dear Mr. Holmes, what do you suggest? What character should we play to sneak into it?"

Mycroft swears to God, just now he really thought about the case seriously, but he turned his head to Mr. Minton with a meaningful smile, which seemed to imply that his reminder came from some impure thoughts.

However, after being asked, his rich associative power and imagination really started to run at full speed inappropriately. There were too many characters in his mind, so many that Holmes had a sudden difficulty in choosing.

This unscientific!