Mary's Nineteenth Century

Mary took the file bag and thanked her most sincerely.

She didn't sneer at a wave of Mycroft's back-and-forth, capricious, erratic behavior in passing.

Just get the information.

Give me a smiling face, and we can continue to cooperate next time.

However, the contents of the file bag are difficult to make people laugh.

Its content is mainly divided into two parts.First, it mentioned the strange cases of animal murders in Germany in the past six months.

The extent of its outrage, in the light of the dead rooster thrown at Schiele's statue, is not so much how miserable the animal died, but how bad it was.

Including the dead rooster case, there were four major festive animal deaths from the beginning of June to November.

There is the Oktoberfest wild dog that Bentley mentioned was killed, the black cat was hanged on the Ascension Day, and a donkey went mad and died suddenly on the Whitsunday.

Before and after the death of these animals, no humans were killed in the area.Donkeys, cats, dogs, and chickens die in different ways and in different cities.

"The latest news, the deaths of these four animals have one thing in common."

Mycroft wrote to the sites of the other three accidents after the dead rooster incident and got a reply yesterday. "A single black raven feather has been found on the dead animals."

The black raven feather was also found near the severed finger in the underground blood chamber of the abandoned church.

This can't be a coincidence.

Mary looked at the documents and records. There was no corresponding murderer for the death of the donkey and the black cat, nor who put the animals in. But the black dog at the Oktoberfest was discarded in the beer barrel, and the troublemaker was found at that time.

The troublemaker was an alcoholic, who had a dispute with the store owner because of the taste of beer, and wanted to deliberately disgust the store owner.

After catching the troublemaker, the store owner must have wanted to demand compensation, but the drunkard escaped, and he was unable to find anyone later.

Looking back, was it a simple drunkard making trouble?

In addition to animal deaths, black feathers have also appeared in other cases.

Earlier this year, shortly after King William I took the throne at the Palace of Versailles in France, an elderly couple disappeared from a nursing home in Berlin.

The director of the workhouse reported the case, hoping that the police could try to find someone, but there was no response.The missing old Hans and his wife suffered from dementia and suffered from severe memory loss. They had many records of running out of the hospital in confusion before.

In the past, Old Hans and his wife would go to the nearest post office in a daze.

The only son of the two died in the war. According to their confused statement, they were going to the post office to wait for the child to send a letter home, but they forgot that it would never be possible to receive a letter from their son.

At the end of January, on the day that the old Hans and his wife disappeared, a postman said that he had seen them appear near the post office, but he did not pay much attention to their whereabouts.

Afterwards, the hospital sent people to look for it, but this time they did not find the old couple suffering from Alzheimer's disease as in the past, but found a blank envelope under the street lamp at the entrance of the post office.

"That lamp post is where the missing old couple wandered. In the blank envelope, there is no letter paper, only two black raven feathers."

Mycroft failed to get the feather letter, because it was not taken seriously, and the envelope and feathers had long been disposed of as garbage.

At that time, no one connected the black feather with the disappearance of the old couple.

The reason why I remember the envelope is also because it has feathers and no letter paper. This incident is a bit strange, because it left a mark in the police station's case file.

Mary's expression became serious. Old Hans and his wife disappeared at the end of January, four or five months earlier than the animal death incident, and more than ten months have passed since now.

How many people disappeared silently during the period?For example, prostitutes, homeless people, abandoned children, etc. Even if those living in slums are missing, it is difficult for most people to realize that something is wrong.

Who would notice black feathers, even if they did, but whom to turn to for help?

Then contact the basement of the abandoned church, the whole room is painted with blood patterns, is it using the blood of the missing person?

"The results of the preliminary autopsy will be available this afternoon, and Sergeant Patton said he will send someone to deliver them. Depending on the time, it will probably be within half an hour."

Mary went to the police station early in the morning to ask the doctor who performed the autopsy, but was told that it was extremely difficult to determine the identity of the bones and remains in the basement with the current scientific identification methods.

She also understands that because there is no way to test the DNA, it is not even possible to fully determine how many people died in total, only some rough data can be obtained.

These data are of little help in locating missing persons.

Missing people like the old Hans and his wife have long since lost their relatives and friends who care about their life from time to time.

Even if some people were brutally murdered, they died silently, and no one was even sure that they were dead.

How many people can feel this kind of sadness?

Mary is not sentimental, which brings her to another point.

"It's a bit strange. Old Hans and his wife and little Ralph are completely different types of victims."

Even if he didn't break into the abandoned church, little Ralph's accident and failure to return to England on time would be discovered sooner or later.

Counselor Ralph dotes on his son extremely, and he will never stop looking for little Ralph, which is completely different from the old Hans couple who have no relatives and friends.

Another difference.Old Hans and his wife suffered from dementia, while little Ralph carried guards, and there was a huge difference in defense between the two.

Is the murderer's modus operandi upgraded?

That made his choice of victim go from defenseless to challenging.

"If the same person committed the crime before and after, his mental state must be related to the story of "The Musicians of Bremen"."

Mycroft focused his attention on the world of the four animals that were killed, "The animals died on major festivals, and the dead animal species would not be randomly selected. Donkeys, cats, dogs, and chickens are specially selected animals. , because it corresponds to the four animals in fairy tales."

In the Grimm's fairy tales, "The Musicians of Bremen" was originally a comedy ending.

Donkeys, cats, dogs, and chickens are no longer qualified for their original jobs because they are too old, and they are about to suffer a cruel fate of being slaughtered by their owners.

The four escaped and decided to go to Bremen together to form a band.Halfway into the forest, they met robbers who were feasting and drinking in the hut.

In order to avoid being killed, and to scare away the robbers so that they can move into the wooden house smoothly, the four animals shouted in unison.

Four different calls resounded through the forest at night. At first glance, it sounded like a monster haunting, which made the robbers rush out in fright.Even though the robber turned back later to find out, he was scared away again.

At the end of the story, the four animals live in a wooden house in the forest, playing the piano, singing, dancing and drumming, and live a happy life.

Slightly contrary to the title, they did not reach Bremen, nor did they become musicians in the popular sense.

"Choose these four animals, let them die in a festive festival, and create a festive disturbance, like a serious mockery of "The Musicians of Bremen."

Mycroft was temporarily unable to determine the specific taunting intent expressed by the murderer, "Mr. Minton, what do you think?"

"Perhaps the murderer has something to do with Bremen and the musicians?"

Mary can't say it well either. "Excluding the fact that the investigators are distracted by the mystery, the murderer may think that fairy tales are deceptive. He doesn't believe in happy endings. He may have a similar experience with the protagonist in the story. He has encountered an existential crisis. But it took a very different fork in the road."

Killing four animals that represent a happy life in fairy tales, but leaving a black feather at the crime scene, what does the raven feather represent?

Regarding the good and bad luck of the raven, different mythological systems will give different symbolic meanings.It can be an omen of unknown death, or a symbol of the wisdom of the gods.

In this case, it is not yet possible to judge what kind of meaning the murderer gave to the black feather.

Mary was sure of one thing, though. "Now, at least we know that the murderer is not short of money."

Four animal deaths occurred in different cities in Germany, and there are no direct rail lines between the four cities

If you are a person who works at a certain location, it is difficult to quickly wander from one city to another in an era when transportation is not fast.

Previously, Mycroft had arraigned a habitual thief who threw dead roosters.The habitual thief took a large sum of money to throw the dead rooster before the statue's inauguration ceremony.

"At that time, the mysterious man who used to secretly confess to hire him spoke the accent of Bavaria, Germany, which was the accent of southern Germany, but the musicians who killed four Bremen, Bremen is in the north of Germany."

There is another contradiction here, which belongs to two places, one south and one north.

Today, the police systems of the German states operate independently, and the turnover of personnel is not too high. Did the murderer deliberately use an accent from another place to mislead the habitual thief?

If this is the case, this black-feathered murderer has one more label, this person is "smart", "rich", "cruel", and "in the prime of life".

The last point is related to his dismemberment technique.

The physical strength is enough to move the corpses into the basement, dismember the corpses, and paint a basement blood red at the same time.

Add a little more "ideas divorced from reality".

That will connect life with fairy tales, and the weird graffiti all over the basement are patterns that do not exist in reality.

At present, there are not many clues that can be followed up.

Mary asked, "When will there be news about Mr. Ralph Jr.'s itinerary to return to China?"

Little Ralph had his fingers cut off within a day of being out of town, which means he didn't go very far.

Mycroft made a conservative estimate, "Tomorrow at noon, it will be confirmed whether the little Ralph convoy has followed the original route, but I don't think there will be any survivors in the convoy."

If there were any survivors, it was time to send a message to Counselor Ralph.

What is more strange is that in the past few days, no robbers have been heard near Berlin, and no hotel has reported any major murders.

A team of seven people were all captured alive or killed. In the absence of a frontal violent conflict, only outsmart.

Mary thought of those abduction cases, such as taking advantage of the kindness of human nature, the abductors pretended to be old and weak women and children and asked passers-by to take them home, and then passers-by fell into the trap of the other party.Ralph Jr. was certainly not one to radiate kindness at random, but his weaknesses were well known.

"Since the black-feathered murderer has hired helpers in the past, he may or may not repeat his tricks this time."

Mary asked a good question, "I heard that Mr. Ralph Jr. likes all kinds of beauties. On the way home, how likely is it that he will change his course because of sex?"

"Up to 90.00% nine. The remaining one percent is that little Ralph is sick and unable to order his followers. He can only walk according to the original route."

Mycroft recalled little Ralph's preference for beauty. It can be said that there is no taboo and he likes the new and dislikes the old, but there are certain rules.

"If I'm not mistaken, at this stage, little Ralph prefers weak girls, preferably living in the countryside. But he has never met them, so he asked his lover to role-play."

It's not a secret either.

It was at the house of the courtesan that Mycroft went to find Ralph Jr. after the dead rooster to confirm the situation.At that time, the courtesan was dressed as a country girl.

Suppose little Ralph met a lovely and pitiful girl halfway during his trip, and the other party asked him to escort him to a residence in the mountains, it was almost impossible for him to refuse.

When they got to the place, as long as they drank a cup of tea mixed with poison, it would be a matter of minutes before the entire carriage was wiped out.The guards should be more vigilant, but maybe seeing a girl living alone made them underestimate the enemy.

Mycroft speculated and added, "The guards of Ralph's family don't have extraordinary intelligence and willpower, and it's normal for people to take advantage of their weaknesses."

The specific situation needs further investigation.

More people need to be dispatched, and the scope of the search should be expanded based on this inference.

At the moment, the two of them read all the known information, sat and waited for the autopsy report that would be delivered to their door soon.

After a moment of silence, Mary suddenly said, "Actually, Little Ralph and his party were taken advantage of and disappeared without a sound.

You should have heard the news at the end of the past year that Mrs. Roman was shot and fell into the sea on the boat back to Paris and died.If someone told me that Mrs. Roman was rescued and asked me to go to such and such a place, even if I suspected it was a trap, I would have gone. "

Why are you saying this all of a sudden?

Why do you want to play the affectionate old days, the rumored couples are all news to fool outsiders.

Mycroft didn't think it was sentimental.

Others didn't know the inside story, but he personally sent an anonymous letter implying Mr. Minton and telling him the fact that he was not dead.

Mary continued, "It's a pity that there is no such news. What I waited for was the news in the French newspaper that Mrs. Roman's corpse was found on the beach.

In March, I went to Paris and finally saw the dead body of Madame Romain.That's really cruel, it's dead without a whole body. "

Mycroft secretly thought that he had seen it too. The corpse that His Excellency Matthew found was very good, and the post-processing effect was very realistic.

But, still the question, why do you say this?In mid-February, the anonymous letter reporting safety should have arrived in New York, and Mr. Minton should know very well that the body is fake.

Even if you were not sure before, are you still not sure after this reunion in Berlin?

The day Mycroft decided to watch the dung beetle together, Mr. Minton doubted his identity.

Because of this, he deliberately added the prefix 'dear' when referring to Mrs. Roman, and deliberately invited them to have afternoon tea together. Those were all temptations.

Mary still looked sad and continued to immerse herself in the performance of reminiscing about her old love.

"The remnant body was eaten by sharks, and it was impossible to identify the fatal wound in front of it. I have interrogated the five killers who committed the crime, and they confessed that they were shot because of the dark sky, and they were not sure that the bullet hit Mrs. Roman's body. What part of it, I only know that it was seriously injured and fell into the sea."

Having said that, Mary withdrew her blank and sad eyes and looked directly at Mycroft.

"So far, I have not been able to determine the specific injuries my dear Mrs. Roman suffered until her death, and I don't even know the location of the most basic wounds. Do you think it is very regrettable?"

After going around in a circle, the subtext was finally thrown out.

Now that we meet again, it is only natural to care about the injury and ask about it.

However, Mrs. Roman's identity is completely dead.

Mary couldn't ask the living one where the injury was, whether there were old wounds that were not healed, or whether there were sequelae.

Mycroft pursed his lips.It was not clear for a moment whether to be happy for Mr. Minton's concern, or to be careful about how to deal with this problem.

How can he answer?It is impossible to speak out about the injury, otherwise it would be self-destructing.

"Please grief."

In the end, Mycroft could only cooperate with this performance in memory of Mrs. Roman, "The dead are gone. Those who are alive must live in good health."

This hint is straightforward enough.

He is alive, and his old injuries do not affect his current life in the slightest.It is to be able to run around, have a healthy body, and have no sequelae at all.

"You're right, I hope."

Mary obviously didn't quite believe it.Especially the words of those with outstanding acting skills, if this person says nothing, must he be all right?

Mary: As the saying goes, seeing is believing!

Mycroft felt a dark and presumptuous gaze sweep over his whole body.

From the wrist, to the neckline, to the front of his body, there is a posture that he wants to take off his clothes to see clearly.This taste is really...

"Mr. Minton, you..."

Mycroft was about to say something, but at this moment the servant knocked on the door of the drawing room.

knock --

The servant said outside the door, "Agent Carl from the Berlin Police Department is here."