Mary's Nineteenth Century

Mary knew this was a seemingly absurd assumption.Associating Dr. Jekyll with a comatose strange man on the hospital bed is to assume that after taking the transformation potion, the appearance of the person can be completely transformed into another person.

This hypothesis falls outside the realm of currently known science.

However, having personally experienced the almost impossible resurrection and time travel, she must boldly assume that there are special cases in this world, which are beyond the common sense.

It is not an unfounded guess. Based on the currently known clues, it can be said that Dr. Jekyll disappeared from the laboratory out of thin air.

The lab door was locked, the fight took place inside, and the windows ended up ajar.

According to the traces at the scene at that time, it was judged that someone climbed the wall and sneaked in, and soon had a violent physical conflict with someone in the room.Afterwards, the intruder managed to escape through the window, and the strange and vicious man fell into a pool of blood.

The laboratory is on the third floor, more than ten meters above the ground.With the architectural pattern of Dr. Jekyll's house, there are very few footholds on the outer wall for climbing.

A person with agility can indeed escape without being injured by jumping from the window on the third floor, but in the process, how likely is he to kidnap a tall adult man like Dr. Jekyll without disturbing the servants in the villa? ?

Unless the infiltrator is a vampire who grows a pair of wings and takes people away, this guess is also unscientific and outrageous.

Comparing the two weird conjectures, Mary is more inclined to the former.

She has received two anonymous letters forwarded by Watson, the first time from "Dr. Incarnation", and the second time involving the mutation of the champion horse in the horse race, and the content is more or less related to transformation.

Dr. Jekyll, who is good at treating intractable diseases, had already suspected that he had been exposed to transformation potions.Now it may be further speculated that whether Jekyll tried the medicine himself was to test the efficacy of the medicine himself.

The puzzling thing is, given the existence of the potion of transfiguration, what is its propensity to deform?

Why did the kind doctor turn into a vicious strange man? Did this medicine release the other side of human nature that is completely opposite to the daily performance?

Mary did not stop at deduction, she first went to Jekyll's villa to investigate the scene of the incident.

The disappearance happened a week ago. Lawyer Erson almost dug the whole villa three feet inside and out, but he found very little. He only found incomplete footprints on the outer wall.

Presumably the footprints are men's size 7.5 galoshes, a cheap style common in London.There is nothing else to prove the identity of the infiltrator.

In addition to leaving footprints, the intruder also left a mess in the laboratory.

"It's not the chaos caused by the fight, but the infiltrator is looking for something."

Erson pointed to several locked cabinets in the laboratory. "When I came to the scene, the locks of many cabinets were opened. No matter the padlock or the built-in keyhole, they were not spared."

Mary checked one by one. The locks used in the laboratory were all complicated, but none of the locks were broken violently.

The infiltrator either used the original key to open it after subduing Dr. Jekyll, or he was a master lockpicker himself and didn't need a key.

This laboratory is very large, with a total of 110 nine cabinets.

69 cabinets store reagent bottles, pharmaceutical raw materials and other experimental materials.These cabinets were not the target of the intruders, only a few were opened, and the contents were hardly moved.

The intruders targeted the cabinets where the documents were kept. Thirty-two filing cabinets were flipped, while the remaining eighteen cabinets were tightly closed, indicating that the intruder found what he wanted during the process of opening the cabinets.

What will it be?

"Lawyer Earson, have you checked everything in the opened file cabinet?"

Mary pointed to the rummaged cabinet, "What are the specific contents of the hidden documents? Do you have any doubts?"

Erson is not sure, "I have roughly read it. Most of them are related to various medical materials, but they are not common diseases. They are about abnormal mental illnesses, deformed people, etc. In addition, there are some strange anecdotes, such as London Ghosts after the Great Fire."

Mary couldn't help thinking of the red shoes nursery rhyme, "The big fire? The one in 1666?"

"Yes."

Lawyer Earson pointed to cabinet No.66, "This is the one. It contains information about the London catastrophic fire in the 17th century. It includes the distribution map of the destroyed buildings at that time, as well as the supernatural legends that spread after the disaster."

Lawyer Earson was a little puzzled, "Is there anything special about it?"

Mary was also uncertain, so she took out all the things in this cabinet first.

"I heard that when the Great Fire broke out in London, a batch of treasures were buried on the spot before they could be moved. Now it's just a guess. The infiltrators might want to find traces of the treasures."

Infiltrators don't necessarily know Dr. Jekyll's routine.In other words, as a busy doctor, Jekyll's life rhythm changes according to his work.A physical conflict in the laboratory was not necessarily within the infiltrator's predictions, but it was coming, and he chose to find out the required information.

Lawyer Earson was more concerned about where Dr. Jekyll disappeared, but he did not urge Mr. Minton to search the fire information.

If the infiltrator came looking for money, he thought Dr. Jekyll would probably end up kidnapped to show where the treasure was buried, rather than follow the map to find it.

Mary quickly flipped through the information in the cabinet, feeling a little regretful that there was no clear mention of the treasure in black and white.It's not surprising, if the infiltrator came to find the hidden treasure in the fire, the corresponding information should have been taken away.

In cabinet No. 66, besides stacks of folders, there is also a small object.

It is a decoration that can be bought during the Christmas month, a golden Christmas star made of cardboard.The golden Christmas star has traces of time, and it is not a simple five-pointed star style, with 26 corners.

"I'll take these materials back and study them carefully."

Mary puts the Christmas star in the bag, and there is one more crucial thing to do. "Lawyer Earson, next I want to extract some residual traces of fingerprints."

The utensils needed to extract fingerprints can be obtained locally in the laboratory.

Before leaving the hospital ward, Mary applied a layer of ink to the palm of the unconscious and vicious man, and printed his ten fingerprints on the white paper first.

Right now, Dr. Jekyll's fingerprints should be extracted in the laboratory, bedroom and other areas where Dr. Jekyll frequents, and then a preliminary conclusion can be drawn by comparison.

"Okay, let me help you."

Mr. Shanmington, Mr. Earson's lawyer, did not know about the bold speculation about the transformation potion, but he did not ask why fingerprints were taken.

Although the current fingerprint identification is not the mainstream theory in the West, he has heard about the theory of fingerprint identification for a long time, and thinks that Mr. Minton may have a channel to compare suspicious molecular fingerprint databases.

**

During the investigation, time passed quickly, and it was already past eight o'clock at night in the blink of an eye.

Mycroft had just returned to Pall Mall, and today he seized the time to question all those who had witnessed the disappearance of the red box.

At present, it seems that the 69 people in the manor at the time of the incident showed no signs of cooperation from inside and outside, and they did not know in advance about the theft of the red box.

The question goes back to the motive of the thief. Why did Minister Gordon choose "Box K"?

Stealing the treasury red box is interested in the classified documents inside?Or a personal feud with Gordon himself?Or is there some special reason?

"My dear brother, I wish you could give me a supper. I came here without supper when I received your message."

Sherlock came to the door in a dusty manner, with dust on his deerstalker hat that had not been wiped clean. "Your letter said that the "square K" appeared again, where exactly? "

Recently, Sherlock was investigating a high-value insurance case for homicide.

Although he is very interested in the thief "K", he can't just focus on that person until he has more clues. He still has to take other cases to enrich his life.

Half an hour ago, Sherlock had just returned to the rented house after completing the investigation of the murder case.

Before sitting on the chair for 1 minute, I got the note from the landlord.He saw that Mycroft left a message saying that "King of Squares" appeared again, so he rushed over without stopping.

Mycroft briefed Sherlock on the general situation while asking his servant to prepare dinner for him.

"I came to you because I want to know more about your investigation of Square K. There was a big theft case from the night before yesterday to the early morning of yesterday. The red box of the Minister of Finance was stolen. At present, the paper is still wrapped in fire, and the outside world has not yet obtained information."

Since Sherlock left Yorkshire in mid-January, he began to investigate "King of Squares".

During the period, I wrote to Mycroft to briefly mention the progress of the case, including the case that Block K stole the emerald brooch from the former traffic director's house.

At this time, Sherlock will tell all the nine cases he knows.

"The earliest known crime of "Box K" was in early October last year, all the way south from the north of Great Britain.Including the theft of the red box you mentioned, "Box K" committed a total of ten crimes.Stolen items are often priceless, and the amount of each stolen item varies. "

Like sometimes stealing a box of jewels, and sometimes just a brooch.

"However, I still found a pattern."

Sherlock pointed out, "The frequency of thefts twice a month has been maintained for a full five months. The most valuable item among the lost items stolen each time is either red or green. Take the thefts that occurred this month as an example. It was the emerald brooch that was stolen, and the red box that was stolen towards the end of February."

Mycroft seemed to have thought of something, and asked, "Two thefts every month, aren't the two most expensive lost items the same color? The frequency of red and green is half and half?"

"Yes."

Sherlock told the details of the ten items. "Deep-sea red coral ornament, imperial green emerald rosary, chrysogreen cat's-eye ring, pigeon's blood red bracelet, emerald-set pocket watch, ruby ​​tiara, turquoise and diamond tiara, red diamond ring, emerald brooch, and lastly you mentioned the red box."

Except for the red box, everything else is priceless jewels.

Sherlock also suspected that "Box K" was committing crimes according to a certain list. "I suspected that there was some kind of internal connection between these stolen people, but there were no further clues. Do you have any new ideas?"

Mycroft only asked, "When you say red and green, what does it make you think of?"

"It hasn't been long since I came back from York City, so I have a certain understanding of the customs there."

Sherlock talked about the dressing customs of this era, "Women wear red clothes to indicate they are married, while green clothes represent unmarried."①

Mycroft nodded, "That's true. According to this custom, a short-lived novelty appeared on the streets of London on December 1868, 12. You were still studying in Yorkshire that year, and you went to Cambridge University the following year. Maybe you don't know that very well."

what thing?

Sherlock searched his memory, "Is it the rumored traffic light? It is said that the first red and green gas lamp was installed at the intersection where the most lively parliament building in London is located, but it only had a lifespan of [-] days. It exploded."

"you are right."

Mycroft remembered the tragedy after the explosion. The parliament building was adjacent to Whitehall, and he heard the explosion not far away that day.

"After the signal light was designed, it was necessary to manually change the signal color of the seven-meter-high lantern. The accident caused many injuries and the death of a police officer on duty."

The first traffic light only lasted 23 days, after which no one proposed to use the traffic light again.

London has returned to the state of no signal lights on the streets, and even if you look at the whole world, there is no city that mentions the use of signal lights for the time being.

In 1874, traffic lights were very foreign to most people.

Sherlock guessed the implication of Mycroft's words, "You mean that the law of stealing the "K" is related to the signal light accident?Like the former Secretary of Transport with stolen jewels, or the current Finance Minister Gordon Gordon, they may be related to the installation of signal lights.

The London-wide installation of signal lights was called off because of the explosion.And now that "Block K" is revisiting the past, maybe he was one of the victims of the accident? "

"If there is such a possibility, we might as well investigate this clue."

As Mycroft said, he saw the servant carrying the dinner tray into the living room. "Sherlock, you have dinner first, and I'll go to the study to find information about the signal light accident six years ago."

"Okay, I'll go upstairs later."

Sherlock did not require Mycroft to dine with him.

Objectively speaking, letting his brother stay at the table did not work the delicious magic on the dishes either.In the legend, the saying that you can eat more bowls of rice with one face is inexplicable to him.

Mycroft went upstairs, but instead of going directly to the study, he made a detour to the storage room on the west side.

Looking out from the west window on the third floor, I found that the living room on the second floor on the east side of the next door was lit.The window was ajar, and Mary could be seen sitting by the window alone, probably waiting for dinner to be served.

Hurrying back to London yesterday, Mycroft could only send a telegram to say that the originally scheduled skiing competition was postponed, and it was too late to explain the situation in person.

At the moment, he was about to go to the next door, and he laughed when he thought of the footsteps.Instead of going downstairs and going out, he went back to the study and took out a slightly stiff white paper.

**

3 minute later.

Mary sat by the window waiting for the belated dinner. She had just finished fingerprint collection and comparison at Dr. Jekyll's house.Just as he was thinking about the weird but undeniable fingerprint comparison results, he heard a burst of wind in his ears.

Looking sideways, the moonlight melts.

With the moonlight, I saw a paper airplane flying into the window impartially, and landed firmly on the empty dining table.

On the wings of the paper airplane are words - "see inside".

Mary was taken aback for a moment, then looked towards the next door, and met Mycroft standing at the west window with a smile on his face.

Childish ghost Sherlock Holmes, actually playing with the plane to send messages.

Mary thought so, but couldn't help laughing, and took the paper airplane apart to see what happened.

I saw the words on the inside of the plane: "My Mr. Minton, I'm sorry that our skiing appointment has to be postponed. For the sake of being ordered by the hairy Cupid, please don't postpone the skiing benefits you have given me, don't let it Be a limited-time privilege, okay?"

Dear Mike has even played with paper airplanes, how could she refuse cruelly?

Under the interrogative sentence, Mary simply replied with the word "yes", and then drew a heart.It is to refold the paper airplane, get up and throw it to the next door.

The next moment, there was a sudden draft.

When the paper airplane is blown by the wind, it inevitably deviates from the angle.

Instead of flying towards the window where Mycroft was on the third floor according to the established route, it floated towards the window of the restaurant on the second floor.

not good!

Mycroft turned at once, and ran down the stairs as fast as he could.

Can people be as fast as the wind?

At the dining table on the second floor, Sherlock heard the movement of the window and saw a paper airplane flying over.

Someone here is so naive as to play with paper airplanes, who is that naive ghost?

Then, Sherlock grabbed the paper airplane, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw "see inside" written in familiar handwriting on the wing of the airplane.Immediately afterwards, he heard a series of hurried and familiar footsteps rushing down from the third floor.

In an instant, Sherlock's hand holding the paper airplane froze in mid-air, and his whole body seemed to be petrified.

hell!Please God tell him quickly, has some big secret been broken? !According to the trajectory of the flight, is he holding an important paper airplane to send a message?