Mary's Nineteenth Century

Detective Carl brought in the autopsy report.

It is said that it is a report, but there are not many clues presented.It is impossible to accurately identify the total number of victims, but a rough estimate shows that at least 15 people were killed on the ground.

Of these, two females were identified because differences in the pelvis were found.According to the size of the bones, it was determined that at least three children around the age of ten were killed.

The incisions on the dismembered limbs were relatively smooth, and there were few signs of repeated cutting, and most of them were cut neatly across the board.

That means that the murderer may have a medical background, and may have relevant meat cutting experience such as a butcher, but there is also a third possibility-the more you cut, the more proficient you will be.

Most of the wreckage left in the basement was killed in the past six months, and it is impossible to piece together a complete body.

Where did the rest of the victim's body go?Did the murderer kill more people so that he became proficient with the knife?

The remains in the basement didn't give a definite answer, but there was one oddity.

Carr said, "There are black scars on each bone, different shades, and burns from the electric shock. It seems that the murderer gave multiple electric shocks to the victim's body with different strengths."

That's a little bit special.

Today, private use of electricity is rare.The incandescent lamp did not come out, and the complete city circuit was far away like a fantasy.Except for the research on electricity in the laboratory, and the use of arc lamps in some factories, there is very little electricity used in daily life.

Less does not mean none.

Wet batteries, for example, have been invented, and electroshock therapy, for example, has been around for many years.

For example, the physicist Giovanni Adini conducted an electric shock experiment on the body of a hanged prisoner in Newgate Prison in London, England. The 1803 experiment was recorded in the Newgate Prison Chronicle, detailing the muscular response of the dead body to the electrification.

The corpse was not revived by electric shock, but electric shock therapy has long been used in medical treatment.

For example, in 1747, a French hospital gave paralyzed soldiers electrotherapy for a month, successfully allowing them to stand up again. ①

Now, what kind of criminal psychology does the murderer have in the electric shock recorded in the autopsy report?Is it a kind of abuse to the victim?

Regardless of the type of Criminal Minds, the existence of electrical injuries once again shows that the murderer is not short of money, otherwise he cannot afford rare electrical equipment.He also needs to master the corresponding scientific knowledge, otherwise the victim will die under the current if there is no electricity.

This once again points to a direction of investigation. The murderer is rich and talented, and he is not an ordinary person.He will not randomly dump the corpses to create blood chambers, and what kind of hidden connection makes the murderer and the explorer go to the same place?

Thinking of this, Mycroft raised a question that he had doubts for a long time. "Mr. Minton, why did you go to the abandoned church?"

Mary confessed, seemingly unreservedly, "I read some old journals of the school society, which mentioned Berlin city adventures, and the abandoned church was one of the expeditions. It said that there used to be scarab figures in the basement of the abandoned church. trace.

As you know, Mr. Holmes, I am curious about scarabs.If you are idle, you are idle, so go and have a look, who would have thought that you would encounter a dumping point. "

Mary wasn't lying, other than she didn't talk about why she focused on the scarab pattern.

Detective Carl nodded repeatedly.At the police station the day before yesterday, he heard Mr. Minton talk about the antecedents.

This kind of adventurous and curious spirit is really not something that ordinary people can have, which made him faintly envious of that kind of bravery and fearlessness.

"I see."

Mycroft was not suspicious on the surface, but he did not believe that Mr. Minton was curious about the scarab itself.There must be a deeper reason, otherwise why would Darcy be called to go with him.

Let’s put aside those reasons for now, and the current focus is on why the black-feathered murderer chose the abandoned church as the dumping point.

Mycroft asked: "How do the old magazines of the society describe this church? Most of the locals in Berlin have never heard of Cheese Street Church."

That's right.

Detective Karl has lived in Berlin for 13 years and has never heard of such a remote church.

The choice of such a church may be due to the fact that the murderer wandered around the city and found a good place, or it may be that the murderer had read old magazines or participated in the expedition of the abandoned church society before he had a deep understanding of it.

"You think the Black Feather Killer might have something to do with the club's old publications."

Marie also had this suspicion a long time ago, and the currently known characteristics of the murderer's behavior indicate that he may have attended university, even if he did not necessarily graduate from the University of Berlin.

"Actually, there are not many things mentioned in the old school magazines. More than ten years ago, the university community went to the abandoned church for a series of activities to explore the fire remnants of Berlin. After entering the church, they found a scarab pattern in the basement, but No other queer traces mentioned."

In other words, there is nothing obviously special about the abandoned church.

At present, it seems that this place has a unique geographical location and is remote enough that there will be no idlers.

Whether it has any special significance to the murderer is unknown.

It can be seen that the characteristics of the murderer are now roughly delineated.

Young and vigorous, with a professional background in electricity or medicine, with a higher education, may be related to the old journal of the University of Berlin.And not short of money, bought a private power generation device within half a year, and has very good language skills.

Starting from these characteristics, first check whether there are suspicious persons in Berlin.

It is definitely not enough to rely on the Berlin police alone. It is necessary to use multiple methods to find people.

Don't worry about the British embassy's lack of effort.Because of the disappearance of little Ralph, Counselor Ralph tried his best to seek help from acquainted dignitaries, hoping to screen out suspicious persons as soon as possible.

Mary went back to the school archives in order to find relevant traces.

Although the records of the club's activities are not detailed enough, and it is likely that there is no record of the black feather murderer, the needle in the haystack is still there.

Time flies, and it has been four days since the discovery of the underground blood chamber.

The search team outside Berlin sent back news that little Ralph did not return home according to the original planned route.

The hotels along the way had never seen a group of seven people coming to stay. After searching in many places, they finally met two witnesses of farmers.

Witnesses saw the Jr. Ralph convoy heading towards the forest.

There are no large-scale villages in that mountain forest, only a few extremely scattered mountain residents.In the past, there were wild beasts in the forest, but I have not seen any wild beasts in recent years, but it is not a good place for fishing and outings.

Because there are swamps in the forest, there have been rumors of crocodiles eating people.The farmers have never seen crocodiles, but when hunters went into the mountains to catch fish, they found human remains that had been eaten by crocodiles.

After the search team sent back the latest news, they turned their heads and headed towards the forest, trying to find the exact location of Little Ralph and his party.

The speculation came true.Someone deliberately led little Ralph into the wilderness, and he could do whatever he wanted in the mountain forest where there was no help.

In this series of straightforward narratives, one caught Mycroft's attention—crocodiles cannibalized people, and hunters found stumps in the river.

There was a question earlier, where did the rest of the body parts of the dismembered victims go?Was it buried, burned, or thrown away?Dead bodies have to go somewhere.

Little Ralph is led into the woods, revealing the existence of a black-feathered murderer's stronghold there.

Human limbs that have been eaten by crocodiles have been fished out of mountains and forests. Could it be a purely natural place to destroy corpses?The crocodile eats the remains, which is tantamount to helping the murderer clean up the victim.

In the mountains and forests, it is also the murderer's stronghold, and it may also be the corpse destruction point.

Mycroft decided to go out of town and see for himself.The search team cannot rely on the details of the crime scene relayed, for fear of missing some important points.

In addition to the coachman, there was one more person on the carriage.

Mary must go and see it together.Some clues have to be present at the scene in order to have a more concrete perception, and the murderer's style of committing crimes can only be understood but not explained in words.

Depart in the afternoon and arrive at the side of the mountains and forests at dusk.

It took more than four hours to drive, and the driving speed was relatively fast. After leaving the city, the bumpy road conditions were obviously not suitable for reading.

The two people in the carriage couldn't read to pass the time, and they both had nothing to do.

Mycroft closed his eyes and rested first.

This is to recharge your batteries and prepare for the subsequent search of the mountains and forests.He didn't avoid the existence of another person because he was in a small space together, which might interfere with his mood.

Yes, not disturbed at all.

Mycroft swore he didn't recall the look in someone's eyes two days ago.

Anyway, this time they were in the same carriage, and Mr. Minton behaved politely, and never showed that presumptuous glance again.

Mary really didn't look at Mycroft any more, but quietly enjoyed the scenery outside the car window.Her eyes are not X-rays, and they are not unable to see through clothes to observe the injury, so there is no need to continue to look at it uselessly.

This doesn't mean giving up.On the contrary, he has already made up his mind.

Mary decided to wait for the opportunity to take off Mycroft's clothes and check thoroughly where the injury that caused Mrs. Roman's 'death' was.

All the way calm.

Even though there was no conversation, there was no awkward atmosphere in the carriage.The two seem to be old friends with a tacit understanding, and they can get along naturally without talking.

The harmonious atmosphere was broken on the other side, because he met the search team who wanted to bring the latest discovery to Berlin.

"We've found Mr. Ralph Jr."

The search team's face was not very good. "In a wooden house courtyard in the woods, we found three carriages belonging to Mr. Ralph Jr.'s convoy, as well as the body of Mr. Ralph Jr. who was killed."

"Are you sure it's Mr. Ralph's body?"

Mycroft was not surprised. Little Ralph had been missing for several days and had his little finger cut off. It was also a routine operation for the murderer to choose to kill him.

The search team nodded, "It's confirmed. The corpse suffered no facial damage and can be accurately identified, while his left little finger was severed."

Next, the situation is roughly described.

There are five rooms in the courtyard of the wooden house, but there is not a single living person.Not only was there no living person, but there was not even a single living horse, and only the carriage was left of the carriage of Little Ralph's team.

"There is only the body of little Ralph in the courtyard, and his guards and maids are missing. The entire courtyard has been cleaned, and no poison or murder weapon has been found for the time being."

The search and rescue team members thought of the process of entering the courtyard of the wooden house, and couldn't help feeling a little chills down their backs, because it was really weird there.

The wooden house in the forest was cleaned very clean.All furniture and daily necessities are placed as usual, such as the bed sheets are also neatly laid out, but there is no living person in sight.

There was only a dead body lying on the floor of the woodshed.

Little Ralph was dressed on his back, his eyes wide open.

A large pool of blood flowed from his body, most of the blood had dried up, and his body was covered with maggots from smelling the corpse.There was a big hole in the heart. The shape of the wound was strange, and it was not pierced by a conventional knife.

"It is preliminarily estimated that Ralph Jr. was dead for two days. In addition, a clover was placed on the forehead of the corpse."

The search and rescue team members described the situation one by one, and led the way to the wooden house courtyard in the forest. "As you requested before, once Mr. Ralph Jr. is found murdered, we will try our best to conduct investigation without destroying the traces of the scene."

only……

The search and rescue team finished talking about almost all the survey findings, but got stuck on the last point.

Of course, Mycroft noticed the entanglement of the search and rescue team, "What's wrong? Is there anything else special?"

"Oh yes."

The search and rescue team was a little hesitant and hesitated to speak out. Seeing that the wooden house had appeared in the field of vision, he quickened his pace. "There are two letters in blood next to the body. Mr. Holmes, you will know it at a glance."

After 10 minutes, the firewood room dumped the body.

Mycroft saw the so-called blood characters at a glance, about [-] centimeters away from little Ralph's right foot, and two cursive letters—"MH" were written in blood on the ground.

The five search and rescue team members all had slightly strange eyes.

When they saw the blood, they couldn't help thinking that the acronym of Mycroft Holmes was "MH".This makes people have to wonder if there is some connection between the death of little Ralph, the black feather murderer and Mycroft?

At this moment, Mycroft didn't change his face, but quickly looked at the people with him, and asked a good question. "Mr. Minton, what do you think of these two words in blood?"