Mary's Nineteenth Century

A day is not complete without something sweet.

Mycroft is adjusting to his new eating habits as Mrs Roman.

At this time, please allow him to use the less reliable method of diverting attention.Divert the quest for sugar to other things, like proving whether there were both praying mantises and titmouses behind Fanny's death.

Before, the whale merchant Theon insisted on objecting to the room being searched, and did not allow people to go to the room to find out whether there was a missing Fanny.

No one is allowed to search, let alone search more thoroughly to find out whether Theon is carrying a special whalebone rope.

There is no more evidence now, unless Theon is fascinated by the mermaid monster and voluntarily agrees, the only way is to search violently.

Obviously, this method should not be used unless absolutely necessary.

But where to find evidence?

Being on the "Diamond", no matter how many murderers are on board, it is very convenient to deal with evidence that does not need to exist - just tie a heavy object and throw it into the sea.

At dinner, the captain saw that the two investigators whom he had hoped for were frowning, thinking that the case really hadn't progressed.

In particular, Mrs. Roman looked at the dinner plate with 'sorrowful' eyes. Those who didn't know it thought that this person was very dissatisfied with the dinner dishes.

Who would have thought that when they came to the captain's room together, they would be told such speculation that the murderer and the body hider were different people.Among them, the whale Shang En may be a witness to the murder, but at the same time, he may be planning to engage in a serial case.

"The purpose is the musical score?"

The captain didn't believe this ridiculous reason either, "Don't bully me, I don't know much about music theory, but I can hear that there is nothing special about that piece."

Mary didn't want to startle the scene and attract attention, so instead of asking the troupe members, she asked the captain directly. "Who is the composer of the troupe? His name is not marked on the script."

"There are two. One is Zall who wrote the script, and the other is Farah. They have worked together for a long time and have a good understanding."

The captain explained that Farah was in charge of the first draft of the score. Generally, he would release the score first, and Zall would fill in the lines after conceiving the story, and fine-tune the syllables along the way.

The details of Zall's Revenge of the Mermaid have not yet been finalized, and the score of Faran's first draft has been prepared.

Now there is no need to discuss whether this creative method is reasonable, but one thing to pay attention to is that Farah, who composed the music, is not on the "Diamond".

"Fala seldom performed with the ship. I only saw him three or four times on the "Diamond". The last time I saw him was half a month ago when he returned to London from New York on a cruise ship. "

The captain recalled, "He didn't like living at sea very much, because he had been at sea for a while when he was young and the crew was bored with the sea. I know you want to ask, will Farah and Theon know each other?"

Mary and Mycroft looked at the captain.

This is an inescapable question, so what is the answer?

"As far as I know, I probably don't know him."

The captain shrugged, "The "Diamond" has cooperated with the troupe for several years, and I often hang out with people from the troupe, but I have never heard Farah know that he knows a whale trader.Of course, I don't know or the people in the Zall Theater Troupe don't know, it doesn't mean that there is absolutely nothing to do between the two.No one in this world has a secret that others don't know. "

Yes, secrets are everywhere.

Mary and Mycroft nodded slightly.

Just from Farah's experience as a seafarer when he was young, he may have an intersection with Theon, who is also engaged in the ocean fishing business.

It is frustrating that it is impossible to contact Farah in London in time in the Atlantic Ocean.

Even though transoceanic submarine cables were laid in the past two years, there is still a long distance between wired telegraphy and wireless communication.

Mycroft could only obtain more information from limited conditions, "Captain Bolton, as far as you know, what kind of person is Farah? Does he like mathematics or cryptography?"

Mary: Good question!

A financially troubled whale trader who goes to great lengths to hide corpses and incite anger just to read a sheet music sounds ridiculous.

But, another angle.

What if the score has a special meaning?There is some kind of code hidden in those staves, and the code is related to a sum of money, which makes the motive for seeking music scores reasonable.

"Playing with passwords? Like endless newsletters published in various newspapers?"

The captain didn't think coded messaging was an unfamiliar phenomenon, because it was the communication method that many people would choose nowadays, especially after the invention of the telegraph.

Because telegraphic communications were expensive and charged per word, people tried to keep their communications as short as possible.

As a result, various abbreviations appeared one after another.It can be as small as a code name agreed between private individuals, or as large as a chamber of commerce group agreeing to refer to a title.Sometimes in order to keep it secret from the outside world, a set of ciphers for internal circulation is made.

Fiddling with ciphers was no longer limited to telegraphic communications, it was more common in the advertising pages of various newspapers.

The ad page has everything, except serious commercial advertisements, there are missing person notices, marriage and dating notices, and so on.Many people like to post encrypted content on the advertising column, hoping to find a fellow who can crack it.

Having said that, the score may indeed be regarded as a kind of code.

Captain Bolton shook his head uncertainly, "As far as I know, Farah has never played with codes, and he is not interested in those twists and turns."

However, did Farah encode some kind of code into the score?

Mary and Mycroft decided to take another look at the score, perhaps missing details on their first reading.

At the same time, it is more important to be loose on the outside and tight on the inside. On the one hand, it is necessary to create a frustrating scene where the case has not progressed at all, and on the other hand, it is necessary to prepare for secret surveillance and trapping.

Captain Bolton advised passengers to be vigilant, and no one can tell whether there will be a second case during the remaining seven days of the voyage.

You might as well choose to live in twos when you are resting at night, so that you can take care of each other and avoid being targeted by people with ulterior motives because you are alone.

Some passengers accepted the offer, others were not.

For example, The Whale Merchant, and the American pastor Vincent, both expressed that they did not want to give up the comfortable environment of a room for one person.

This result was within Mary's expectations.

To her relief, Mr. Lucas Sr., the first-class composer, agreed to share the Bentley for the night's rest.

The whale Merchant Theon may be eyeing the score, and besides the score in the troupe on board, the composer Lucas carried the score. He may be the next target to be targeted.

Is the inference correct?

The crew increased the number of night patrols, and nothing happened on the cruise ship on the first, second and third nights after Fanny's body was found.

The fear of the tourists gradually calmed down, and they began to feel that the serial killings by the evil spirits according to the script were just their own unfounded worries.Fanny's death by falling into the water and her strange death were just a coincidence.

On November [-]th, there are only four days left to arrive in New York Harbor, USA.

Four days had passed since Fanny's body was found, and most people on board felt that the case had not progressed at all.

Perhaps, there will be no new developments, because it was originally a coincidence of accidentally falling into the sea.

03:55

Before dawn, the sea was foggy again.

On the cruise ship, only the operating cabin lights are on.

Most of the people were asleep, there was no voice on board, and there were few footsteps of patrols.

At this time, the sound of the waves and the sound of the ship passing by is all in one's ears.

'crunch—'

Suddenly, there was a slight sound of pushing the window.

The sound was so soft that it was quickly buried by the sound of the waves.

The mist was hazy and the night was dark.

The patrol did not find a shadow appearing on the outside of the cruise ship's hull.With a rope tied around his waist, Shadow had already climbed to the bathroom window of a first-class cabin on the third floor.

Push and pull the window frame.

As luck would have it, the window wasn't locked from the inside, and opened with a single pull.

The windows were just the right size for a grown male to climb through.

Shadow crawled through the window and leaped lightly to the ground.

He tiptoed out of the washroom, but turned and walked towards the study very familiar with the layout, and lit the small kerosene lamp hanging on his waist while walking.

By the light of the fire, I could clearly see a stack of music scores on the desk.

Shadow began to search, as if looking for something.The more he flipped, the more impatient he was with the movements of his hands. It was from the silent flipping that he involuntarily made the sound of flipping paper.

Before dawn, misty sea.

In the dimly lit study room, there was a person standing by the desk with the door behind his back, flipping through the music scores furtively.

At this moment, a human voice suddenly sounded.

"Mr. Xien, do you need help? You don't sleep in the middle of the night and come to other people's study to turn over the score. Do you have a deep love for music?"

How could there be anyone in this suite? !

Even walking silently at the door of the study.

At the desk, Sean heard voices and threw away the score in his hand.

He was about to turn around and do something, but before he could move in time, he found a cold object on his back near his heart.

is the gun.

Sean gasped, how could he not understand that he had fallen into an ambush trap.

how could be?

Theon still couldn't believe it. He had carefully observed the movement on the ship for the past three days.

Mrs. Roman, who was in charge of the autopsy, didn't have much appetite, and she couldn't pretend that she didn't think about food or tea. Could it be because there was no progress in the case of Fanny?

On the other hand, even though Mr. Minton went to check outside the underwater ship, he still kept a sad face because no new evidence was found.

For this reason, Theon also asked Bentley about it.

He knew that Minton and Bingley were in the same group, and Bingley also expressed concern about his partner's emotions, because there are no new clues in the case so far.

It's okay not to find new clues.

Xi En was secretly proud, who would have thought that he came on a boat to find the music score, such an absurd reason would not be believed by anyone.

Now, what's the situation?

Xien was pointed at the gun and didn't dare to move around, but still couldn't help but said angrily: "These days, you deliberately spread fake news to wait for me to be baited! You deliberately conspired to deceive me by pretending to be fake! A group of hypocritical liars !"

Mary couldn't deny it, it seemed that she was not cold enough, and Theon dared to complain about her at this time.

"Do you want me to apologize for the good acting? Well, I'm sorry for making you smug for a while. Stop talking nonsense, and now we should talk about your role in Fanny's death."

At this moment, the door of the guest room was opened from the outside.

Two more came, the Captain and Mycroft.

Mycroft: Who's being hypocritical?

He was very sincere to the table without sweets, which was clearly the most authentic state.This makes him inseparable from the word hypocrisy, or at least irrelevant, right?