Mary's Nineteenth Century

bookstore.

Mary is looking for information about caraway seeds.

Nowadays, caraway seeds are often classified as ingredients.The leaves are used as a seasoning, and the rhizomes can be made into food like fried potatoes.

It is also used in cheese making to add a unique aroma, especially in French Muenster cheese and Dutch Gotha cheese.

"Netherlands……"

Marie remembered the interior of the deceased Jacques's house, and there was a photo of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, taken in May 1873.Jacques had been to the Netherlands on a business trip three months ago, and it was the last time he left London before his death.

In the Netherlands, does caraway have a special meaning?

There were not many Dutch books in the bookstore, so I turned to the library of the British Museum, where I finally found a related flower interpretation.

"Caraway, a plant that protects men and prevents wives from cheating. Putting a bunch of caraway at home can prevent wives from having feelings for other men.

If the wife is obsessed and insists on starting an extramarital affair, caraway will hang a branch in the direction where she is going to meet her lover, so as to remind the host that she has been betrayed. ①"

So amazing?

A bunch of plants placed at home can also be like a GPS navigation, predicting which direction the hostess will go to have an affair?

Mary put down her Brick-like Guide to the Mystery of Dutch Flowers.

Although she didn't believe a word about the wonders of caraway, it was as sure as the Romanian architectural superstition of burying foundations with shadows that someone else was sure of it.

In this case, is Jacques ordering caraway seeds, which he has never eaten before, a flower language for his wife's dream love, or is he suspecting that Jennifer is having an affair?

By evening, 54 hours had passed since the telegram was sent to the seaside town in southern England.

Jennifer, who was on vacation in the small town of Eastbourne, still has not responded to the telegram regarding the death of her husband Jacques.

"September [-]th, send a telegram at ten o'clock in the morning. No matter how slow the local telegram delivery man is, it should have been delivered to Jennifer that night."

Mary counted the time, "One day's drive is enough for Jennifer to go back to London. It's already September [-]th, at [-]:[-] p.m., but she still hasn't heard from her. Mr. Holmes, have you received any relevant calls from Jennifer's family? Indicates that Jennifer went to sea or something else happened?"

""Jacques Allen was murdered on the night of the [-]th, please return quickly." It was written like that in the telegram. "

Mycroft also felt strange, "In the past few days, neither Eastbourne Town nor southern England has experienced any irresistible natural disasters. No news of man-made accidents has been published in the newspapers. If Jennifer can't return to London immediately for some reason, so she should send a message."

If you want to send a message, there are ways.

Even if the telegraph stations in the two places are temporarily unavailable, and the speed of the carriage and the train is not fast enough, it is also possible to hire a person to ride a fast horse directly to London to report the letter.

And what about the Jennifer people?What about her response?

In the morning, Mycroft did not find a case similar to Jacques and Luke's after investigating the file of burning corpses. Instead, he changed the direction of the investigation and returned to the relationship between the two cousins.

"Mr. Minton, just now you mentioned that caraway has two completely different flower languages. You may have some ideas about this latest information. Although Jennifer didn't come back in time, I visited the place where I often drink afternoon tea with her. Ladies."

Jacques works in Whitehall, and his wife Jennifer is not a socially resistant character, and sometimes meets the wives of other Whitehall staff for tea.

"Among them, Ulina Black and Jennifer are both from East Sussex, and I heard an old story from her that was not recorded in Jacques' file."

Mycroft mentioned, "Before Jennifer got married, she worked in a private telegraph station in East Sussex for half a year. Mrs. Black who talked about this news did not know which telegraph station it was, only that it was Four or five years ago. The reason why Jennifer talked about this matter in the chat was to show that she did not regret to experience life, and she could have more common words with her husband who was engaged in the telegraph industry."

Four or five years ago?

Mary immediately realized that the timing was a little tricky.That was the time when Jacques graduated and entered Whitehall to work, while Luke gave up his university entrance exams and came to London to seek a living.

Comparing the timeline, the life situations of the two cousins, Allen, are somewhat similar.Four or five years ago, both Jacques and Luke became part of the telegraph industry.

The difference is that the former got a public job in Whitehall that most ordinary people envy, while the latter finally entered a private telegraph station after working hard on his own, but he was always harassed by his gambling father.

At the moment, Mary thinks about the superstitious uses of caraway, and has to make a bad connection.

"Mr. Holmes, do you mean that the cousins ​​have no real life intersection, but they may have had emotional entanglements with Jennifer?"

"Yes, I have such doubts. After hearing you mention the superstitious effect of caraway seeds in preventing wives from cheating, the relevant doubts have deepened."

Mycroft wasn't jumping to conclusions just because of a coincidence of timing. "Mr. Minton, you may not know enough about the telegraph industry. Of course, I don't know much, so I asked my colleagues for advice, and then I was popularized a wave of secrets in the industry."

The telegraph originated at the end of the 18th century, and in the mid-19s, a complete telegraph network had been formed in Western Europe.

Then it expanded in all directions, covering the whole of Europe and Asia in a few decades, and even connected to the Americas with submarine cables.

Telegraph operator is one of the technical positions officially recruited for women in the society.

Unlike laundry workers, cleaners, garment factories, etc., the job of a telegraph operator sounds a lot more decent. It is considered not just to sell physical strength, but also requires agility and responsiveness.

However, there are relevant restrictions, and female telegraph operators are usually required to be unmarried young people.

Being unmarried is a social stereotype.It is believed that with a husband and children, a woman cannot work wholeheartedly.

There are age requirements for youth, which must be between 18 and 30 years old.Because the outside world generally believes that high-intensity work requires enough energy and is not suitable for middle-aged and elderly people.

"This industry is closed to the outside world. In order to work efficiently and quickly, telegraph operators on different lines and companies will create their own language systems."

Mycroft heard from a source at the Whitehall Telegraph Station, "Experienced telegraph operators can determine who the other party is only from the hand speed style of Morse code sent by the other party. It is said that this is similar to the voice of speech. It’s easy to spot the differences between different people.”

It's amazing, isn't it?

There are even more wonderful things.

Mycroft continued, "There are still unspoken rules in the industry. For example, A at Site 1 and B who wants to cooperate with Site 2 all the time, they can use a little trick to occupy a line. Deliberately use passwords when sending and receiving , making it impossible for other telegraph operators to receive.

Usually, as long as the productivity is maintained, other colleagues will turn a blind eye to it. Who doesn't want to cooperate with someone who understands each other's habits.Just on a personal level, what do you think will happen by doing this? "②

Mary thought to herself that this was like a 19th century version of Internet dating, and even evolved into online dating.

"The two have never met each other, and they have established a unique and deep relationship in a relatively closed environment without knowing each other's real life background. Most of the telegraph operators are young men and women, and after a long time, they may start to travel in different places. love."

"Exactly, it is said that the success rate is not low."

Mycroft was popularized by colleagues at the telegraph station, because most of the women who can become telegraph operators are the daughters of priests, small businessmen, and government officials.

The family background of the female telegraph operator is not very wealthy. After all, rich ladies rarely come out to work nowadays.Even if you work, you will not choose to nest in a room for ten hours a day.

However, the family environment of the female telegraph operators would not be too bad, otherwise they would not have access to such advanced gadgets as the telegraph.

Of course, there are other factors that affect whether the meeting can bear fruit after meeting in reality.It may be that the elders are dissatisfied, or dissatisfied with each other's looks and so on.

Back to the death incident this time, Jennifer and Luke seem to have no obvious intersection, but do they know each other in the telegram network world?

Mycroft thus produced a directory of all telegraph stations in East Sussex.

Jennifer didn't say in detail which site she worked at, but fortunately, after calling one by one to inquire, she got a positive reply from one of them.

"It's the "Thunder Telegraph Station", which is far from Jennifer's house, and it takes five hours to go back and forth.I asked, and Jennifer rented a house near her workplace for half a year. "

Mycroft also asked manager Jennifer why she quit. "On the surface, Jennifer's reason for her resignation was that she wanted to spend more time with her parents."

Jennifer worked for half a year, and two years after she resigned, she married Jacques Allen.

Is the reason for resignation true?

Right now, there is no way to verify it. We can only confirm that there is a line between the Thunder Telegraph Station in East Sussex and the Purple Light Telegraph Station in London.

Mary can already guess the follow-up, "Yesterday, old Allen talked about Luke's work experience when he came to identify the body. He worked in the telegraph station in London for a period of time, because he couldn't bear to be harassed by his father, a gambler. outskirts town.

However, the period of time Luke stayed in London coincided with the time Jennifer was at the Thunder Telegraph Station.Let me guess, Luke's working point in the city at that time was the purple light telegraph station? "

"Yes, you are right."

Mycroft, however, said that he could not confirm that Luke and Jennifer knew each other.

"Telegraph operators use code names, and records of their work are periodically deleted. Four years in, the two stations involved in this case have long since ceased to keep records of Luke and Jennifer."

This is also normal. The telegraph station transmits a large amount of information every day, and paper backups cannot be kept.

"I think you must have also asked the colleagues who worked with those two people if they knew the inside story."

Mary almost expected the answer, "Luke's personality is a bit withdrawn. Although he is serious and diligent in his work, his relationship with his colleagues is not warm. Therefore, most of the time, no one knows about his private affairs."

"You're right again."

Mycroft had inquired at two telegraph stations, and no one at Purple Light knew about Luke.

"Jennifer works at a relatively light Telegraph station, but she has not disclosed to any of her colleagues whether she has made friends on the Telegraph line."

The acquaintances on the telegraph lines were secret.

If the two parties did not deliberately occupy a line, some fishing activities may not be discovered.What's more, half a year is not too long, not long enough to hide the secret.

As a result, the range of suspects in Jacques' murder will expand again.

Assuming Luke is alive, assuming he had an affair with Jennifer, it would be logical to have a conflict with Jacques.

Will such a conflict lead to murder and burning of corpses?

"Jacques was killed in a dark alley. There was no sign of dragging or calling for help. He was probably killed by someone he knew. Luke fits this characteristic and has a motive for committing the crime."

Mary pointed out, "It's not just for personal reasons, but also because he and his cousin have similar blood in their bodies, but their life trajectories are very different from childhood to adulthood. Sometimes the closer the relationship, the easier it is to cause comparisons." The final sense of loss. From envy to jealousy, the last straw leads to hatred."

The question is does Luke have time to commit crimes?

A substation in the suburbs caught fire on September [-], killing two people; in London, on September [-], Jacques was killed at night.

"Mr. Minton, you went to the church where Luke's body was parked. You said that the deceased was charred very badly. Not only was his face unrecognizable, but his bones had shrunk due to the high temperature."

From this, Mycroft proposed, "Unlike Jacques, Luke's body cannot be identified. Combined with the newly obtained clues, it is necessary to make a bold guess."

What bold speculation?

It wasn't Luke who died in the power distribution room, it was Jin Chan's plan to escape.

Before Mary answered, she keenly noticed that the atmosphere had changed, and she met Mycroft's particularly meaningful eyes.

"Oh no! I'm sorry, I made a slip of the tongue. This may be true for others or a wild guess, but it may not be true for you."

Mycroft lowered his voice, and stepped forward to whisper. "Mr. Minton, do you have relevant experience, don't you? I'm telling you quietly that I had a completely unexpected harvest when investigating a similar case of burning corpses. The inspector of Q town also went to Paris four years ago. He said that Bennett The family's third daughter was also burned."

"Very good! Mr. Holmes, as expected of you, your calmness and patience are as good as ever."

Mary looked up at Mycroft.The two exchanged the case for a while, and finally this one was waiting for her here. "So? What do you want to express?"

"The time when the third daughter of the Bennet family was burned was very close to the time when you saved Miss B and was buried alive by revolving murderers."

Mycroft did not believe that Mr. Minton would not make associations to this, how could a suspicious person not conduct a detailed investigation.

"You have known about this for a long time, but you have avoided talking about it. I have a guess, and it is because it is related to you."

"Really? You have a theory. You might as well tell it."

Mary responded unhurriedly, and suddenly smiled as if thinking of something. "Dear Mr. Holmes, you dared to speculate that I was a werewolf before, what about this time? Do you have a more powerful speculation?"

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly became quiet.

Mycroft: Thank you so much, please don't poke his feet!

He once opened his brains on the werewolf deduction, will he make the same mistake again?