Mary's Nineteenth Century

Moonlight pours.

There was not a long silence in the living room.

"I would like to ask you to help investigate the traces of the corpse thief."

Wearing Madam Roman's attire, Mycroft seemed to have really become a gentle and honest person.

"I know how presumptuous it is to call at night, but I cannot find a more reliable gentleman than you in America."

Mycroft's tone was very sincere, "Mr. Minton, you also heard that the cemetery was stolen during the day, and Mrs. Susan's body was stolen by thieves. Although Mrs. Susan and I didn't spend many days together, I I don’t want her to be in peace after death. As a friend, we must try our best to find her body.”

Some words come at your fingertips.

When Mrs. Roman traveled around the world, she met three or five friends, and Susan, who was more than ten years older than her, was one of them.

Susan died of illness, but she did not expect to encounter corpse robbers after her death.Since Susan has no relatives or friends in Boston, Mrs. Roman, as a friend, wants to do her best to find out the whereabouts of the corpse, and if possible, she will send the gang of corpse robbers to prison.

"God! What an enviable friendship. In order to complete the friendship, I can't find any reason to refuse you."

Mary listened to the antecedents with great interest, as if praising from the bottom of her heart, as if she never suspected that there were other reasons behind Mrs. Roman's search for the corpse thief.

At the moment, Mary asked directly, "Ma'am, do you have any clues now?"

Only six or seven hours have passed since the departure of the cemetery in the afternoon and the goodbye at the hotel at night.

In a few hours, how many clues can Mrs. Roman get in the unfamiliar Boston?

Mycroft handed over the documents he carried with him, "Thank you very much for your willingness to help. I went to the police station in charge of the cemetery in the afternoon to obtain some information. I mainly asked about unsolved corpse theft cases, although the police have There are not many clues, but there is still a little gain.”

The ghouls are associated with local gangs.

This is a black industry chain.

Under normal circumstances, corpse gangs will choose remote cemeteries, or choose cemeteries that are short of funds and poorly managed to steal corpses.

Bullying the weak and fearing the strong, they will not find trouble to sneak into the strictly guarded cemetery.After stealing the corpse, give it to the next family to sell.The flow of corpses can be roughly divided into three categories, medical experiments, personal collections, and black market drugs.

Today, traces of human corpses can still be seen in black markets in various countries.

Not a whole body, but scattered parts, which are believed to have wonderful healing properties.

Don't expect the Boston police to actively crack down on the black market or body-snatching rings.

That will either wait for a high-ranking police officer fighting for justice to show up one day, or one day the body of some important person is stolen and a roundup warrant is triggered.

Mary flipped through the documents in her hand, and suddenly asked, "Mrs. Roman, how much did you pay for these?"

In the materials, suspicions about certain local gangs were written.

As for the reason why the police did not arrest him, there are also very good reasons, because there is no more empirical evidence.

"Twenty pounds, a few well-meaning police officers quietly provided me with some clues."

Mycroft had indeed been to the police station, but how much of the information given was information obtained by the police station is open to debate.

"It's not easy for those officers to risk retaliation from gang members."

Mary put down the file. She just knew that there was no free information, but it didn't mean that the police station was the source of all the information.

He didn't get the news from the police station, but where did he get it?

This is a good question, and a good question is interesting.

Mary raised her eyes and looked at the person opposite, "Mrs. Roman, do you have any more specific ideas now? Where should we start to find the corpse thief? These materials have shown that there are many gangs in Boston, who should we ask first?"

"How do I know! If I knew, why did I find you?"

Of course, Mycroft would not answer that way, but took a deep look at Mr. Minton, only meeting a pair of clear gray-blue eyes.

Suddenly, the atmosphere was quiet.

Only the soothing piano music still flows slowly.

Did Minton really have no idea where to start the investigation?

That was different from his investigation performance on the "Diamond". At that time, no one else suggested it, and he was very happy to volunteer to climb the ship and go into the sea.

Mycroft was secretly suspicious, and almost instantly determined that Minton was pretending not to know and waiting for him to speak out about the direction of the investigation.

why?

Because the fundamental purpose of investigating the corpse gang has nothing to do with the stolen body of Susan.

Susan is just an excuse as an entry point. Why else would Mrs. Roman not track down the corpse thief for the sake of friendship?

What is the real situation?

Who is investigating the corpse thief?

A name that can almost be blurted out.

Mycroft frowned slightly, as if he was stumped by the question of where to investigate.

After a long while, he said, "I think there are two possibilities. The first one is that the body robbers chose randomly, and Susan ran into it unluckily; the second one, excuse me for asking more, Susan's neighbor , I mean Waller Reggie, who lives in a coffin a few meters away from hers, seems to be in trouble. Perhaps, Susan is involved."

Having said that, it is clear.

Reggie gets into trouble in New York.After his death, the home of his fiancée Bella Pitt was smashed by gang members.

According to this inference, the cemetery where he was buried was also harassed, and the corpse thief happened to steal Susan's body by stealing it.

"You're right! Well, why didn't I think of this level?"

Mary seemed to suddenly realize, "If you want to retrieve Mrs. Susan's body, you must first find out who Waller Reggie offended. Great, we now have a clear direction."

So, Mrs. Roman, you came here from the beginning to investigate Waller, right?

Mary smiled, as if she was happy to investigate the direction, without showing any doubts. "Why don't we visit Waller's father and his fiancée's house tomorrow morning. May God bless us and we can gain something."

"Okay." Mycroft also kept smiling.

Then, as if remembering something important, he couldn't help saying apologetically, "Look at me, I actually forgot something, and I haven't even agreed on the fee for this commission."

"Oh, you're being polite."

Mary said politely, "Follow the market price. I am deeply touched by the friendship between you and Mrs. Susan, and I will never quit just because of a price difference of a few pounds."

Money, is it important?

Mary would not treat money like dung, but tonight she didn't think about the commission fee at all, there was something more important than that.

——It is Mrs. Roman in front of me, this is a person with a secret.And she happens to be free, why not explore this secret.

Therefore, the two quickly agreed on the commission fee, and then agreed on the specific time and method of investigating Waller tomorrow morning.

This is right at the entrance of the hotel respectively.

Mary watched Mrs. Roman leave, turned and walked back to the hotel.You can be sure that life in the United States will not be boring after that.

On the carriage, Mycroft closed his eyes and took a nap.

He can be sure that Mr. Minton has doubts, and the other party will never believe that Mrs. Roman is just a simple widow of a wealthy French businessman.

Doubt it.

If you want to find a collaborator, you will inevitably be suspected by the other party.

Mycroft gave a positive affirmation for the first time after greeting Lord Matthew's character setting on a daily basis.Anyway, Madame Roman is French and has no one-pound relationship with London, England.Waiting for things to happen in the United States, in the future...

The future is too far away, and no one can guarantee that it will be exhaustive.

The sun rose quickly the next day, and the cold November wind could not stop the investigators.

Mary told all she knew about Wharton Reggie.

"I went to see the house yesterday, and I happened to encounter a quarrel between old Reggie and old Pete. Wharton's fiancée's house was smashed, and I think it is necessary to ask about the specific damage."

That is to say, when asking about property damage, the main thing is not to see what was smashed, but to see if there are any missing items.

From stealing corpses to smashing houses, we must be vigilant against someone who is using the banner of revenge and secretly taking advantage of the opportunity.

When Mycroft came to Boston, he was not so much looking for an unidentified informant, but more for a tip that the other party failed to deliver.

Speaking of mission No. 008 during this trip to the United States, he was mainly responsible for processing certain complex information and supplementing the broken intelligence network.

This time, Waller Reggie was involved, because he had undoubtedly revealed in New York that he was involved in a big event, and he didn't want to do it.

What's the big deal?still uncertain.

Before the negotiators had time to get in touch with Waller, Waller died of a cocaine overdose in the back alley of the bar.

What is certain is that Waller's death had something to do with money.

This is an overly broad line.

People live in the world, who can guarantee that they have nothing to do with money?

In front of him, Waller's fiancée Bella also mentioned money.

"You see, because Waller offended people, my house was smashed, and my father's money box was looted."

Bella looked gloomy, and when she heard that someone had come to investigate her dead fiancé, she was left exhausted.

Bella sighed and said: "Ten months ago, Waller went to New York. The first three months were quite normal, and he would come back to see me every month, but in the next six months, we never saw each other again. Money will change a Man, even if Waller hadn't died, I'd be planning to break off the engagement at Christmas next month."

Why choose Christmas?

Because Bella has been unable to make an appointment with Waller.I'm afraid Waller won't be back in Boston until Christmas.

Unexpectedly, Waller's body was riddled with holes, and he died prematurely in New York.

Mary and Mycroft walked around Bella's house, and the traces of the previous night's smashing had not yet been removed.

Bella's father, Pete Sr., left a deliberate mess of marks, and it was evidence that the Wallers should pay for the damage to his family.

Regardless of the original intention, these traces show that the smashing the night before was disorganized, there was no sense of disobedience, and it was not aimed at anything deliberately.

"Are there any other losses besides the cash box?"

Mycroft asked Bella, "For example, the things Waller gave to your family in the past, have they been damaged or lost?"

"Waller's gift?"

Bella sneered and shook her head, "You're thinking too much. He can't send valuable gifts until he gets the reward for his bravery. We only exchange gifts of ingredients and flowers. After he got the gift money, he bought a house , I went to New York to speculate in stocks not long ago, and I didn’t send any gifts to my family.”

"Is there nothing? Please think about it carefully. No matter how small things are, as long as you keep them, will there be none?"

Mary looked around, Bella's family and Wharton's family had similar financial situation, provided that Waller didn't get the thank you money.

Although she didn't think her fiancé had to buy something for his fiancée, she got a huge extra sum of money. Didn't Waller buy a single gift for Bella?

But don't forget what Bella said just now. In the first three months before Wharton went to New York, the two still maintained a normal relationship.

Bella was about to answer affirmatively no when she remembered a little gadget. "Yes, there is one. Wait a minute, I must look for it."

After a while, Bella picked up a dusty rope from the ashesy box.A silver coin was worn on the rope, and it was stained with rust.

"Half a year ago, Waller gave me this silver coin."

Bella passed the silver coin indifferently, "Because the image of St. Michael is engraved on the front of the silver coin, it is said to bless peace, but you can also see that the text on the back of the coin has been blurred, this is a second-hand old product. Le said bluntly, it is a gadget he picked up from the second-hand market, and I can wear it casually."

The minting date on the silver coin is already unrecognizable, and at first glance it generally looks like a random pendant hang tag.

Mary and Mycroft stared at each other.

At the moment, Mary just indicated with her eyes, "Mrs. Roman, I believe that you are as knowledgeable and wise as you, and you will be able to recognize the origin of the coins, right?"

Mycroft: Strange, when did he become proficient at reading eyes?Was it the cunning Mr. Minton who infected him with his strange abilities?