[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

Killed?

Mary stood up almost immediately: "What life? Who happened?"

Dawson was panting, apparently running all the way from the workers' gathering area.Mrs. Hudson kindly handed him a glass of water, and the young Irishman drank the clear water to the bottom in one gulp before recovering.

"No, I don't know," he explained, "Henry and I went out to work as usual today, and when we walked out of the street, we saw a woman lying on the ground. We thought it was because of drinking too much or some sudden illness. I walked over to have a look, but I didn’t expect—”

Speaking of the latter, the young man looked terrified: "It turned out to be a corpse, the head was smashed to pieces, it's too scary!"

Holmes raised his eyebrows: "You didn't realize until you got closer, isn't there any blood around?"

Dawson: "No."

Holmes clasped his hands together and fell into deep thought: "That's where the corpse was dumped near the workers' gathering area. The first scene is not there. You don't know the victim. Does anyone nearby know him?"

Dawson shook his head.

"We called people in a hurry, and we didn't know anyone nearby," he said, "There is really no way, Henry stayed where he was to maintain order, and I hurried to find you."

The detective did not show any signs of eagerness, or of finally getting the case, when he heard Dawson's plea for help.

Instead, he said, "For an ordinary homicide, you should go to the police instead of me."

"Look for the police?! What's the use of the police," Dawson said angrily, "By the time they solve the case, the murderer has already gone abroad!"

"..." Mary was speechless for a moment.

While it's not an exaggeration, Dawson has a reason to distrust the police.

The workers' gathering area can be regarded as a relatively safe location in the slums, while the resting places for thieves, thugs, or other gangsters are even more mixed.It is also a dead person, an unknown female corpse lying in a slum, and a victim lying in a mansion, the treatment is naturally different.

Although if it is not an unsolved case, it will not be as exaggerated as Dawson said, but it is not uncommon for irresponsible police detectives to pass it by carelessly.

Under such circumstances, it is normal for the workers to choose to believe Holmes instead of the police.

But there is only one Sherlock Holmes in the whole of London. If he takes charge of all the big and small cases instead of the police, then even a detective with three heads and six arms will not be able to work without eating, drinking, and sleeping.

Therefore, Holmes was not moved by Dawson's words: "Apart from the wound, is the rest of the body basically intact?"

Dawson: "Yes."

Holmes: "Is her belongings still there?"

Dawson: "They are poor people like us. They have few possessions, but they have cheap ornaments and purses on them."

Holmes: "I'm sure there are no other signs of abuse, are you?"

Dawson:"……"

Hearing Holmes' words, the young man's face twisted subtly for a moment.But Holmes' calm expression told him: his association was not wrong, and what the detective asked was whether the victim had been sexually assaulted.

"No, no." Dawson took a deep breath and said.

"Then after the police confirm the victim's identity," the detective announced, "ask them to investigate the victim's whereabouts in the past three days. The secret was leaked out, so it was killed and silenced."

Dr. Watson was shocked when he heard this, "How can you be sure, Holmes?"

"Analysis and observation, Watson!"

Holmes sat on the sofa and spoke calmly. The gesture seemed that Watson asked some inappropriate questions: "These two types of thinking are essential in reasoning cases. The victim has not suffered other violations, nor has he been robbed, so The murderer had only one motive and that was to end her life."

Speaking of this, the detective paused, showing some disapproval: "He hit the head with a heavy object, which is enough to show that the murderer was very cruel, and he took a lot of trouble to move the body to a distance—the method Proficiency and a certain awareness of covering up evidence can rule out the possibility of ordinary people accidentally killing people. This person is very likely to be a gangster. And the gangster murdered a woman, not for money or sex, but simply to capture her. I'm afraid she heard something she shouldn't have heard. It's not difficult to infer, Dawson, no matter how stupid the police are, they will go to the nearby criminal dens to consider. It won't be too late for them to find me after they can't find any clues. .”

Dawson: "But..."

Mary sat on the side, saw his unwilling expression, and suddenly said, "Why don't I go and have a look."

Holmes: "You?"

The detective turned his head. Although he used a questioning tone, there was no trace of surprise when he turned his head.

"I'm a little worried," she said, "it's at the door of Dawson's house, which is Miss Morstan's door. She is also an unmarried young woman, and something like this at the door will definitely scare her." Immediately, I will go and have a look, maybe I can find some clues."

"If you go, I will not hinder you," said Holmes. "As you earn your living by it, you ought to see what a real case looks like, but..."

"but?"

Sherlock Holmes' pale eyes gazed at Mary with a calmness, but also a certain sincerity.

"My suggestion is to ask Watson to accompany you."

Mary's heart warmed.

As an unmarried girl, she followed the Irish workers to the slums to investigate the corpse of an unknown woman. Not to mention her reputation after being seen, the security and environment of the slums alone were not safe for Mary.

Holmes will not waste time on such "boring murders", but it is only natural to ask a reliable friend to accompany and protect Mary.

The detective is sincerely concerned about Mary's safety.

How could Mary have any reason to refuse this care?

"Thank you," she raised a sweet smile, "then doctor, would you like to accompany me?"

"Of course!"

Watson stood up almost immediately: "Protecting a lady is what any gentleman should do."

Mary: "Not to mention it happened in front of Miss Morstan's house, right?"

Watson: "Ahem."

The handsome doctor coughed a few times after being exposed, and before Mary could react, he laughed himself: "Nothing can escape the eyes of you and Holmes, miss."

Mary smiled: "Let's go, I'll go back to Serpentine Street to change."

She did not forget Holmes' advice when she first stepped into the slums. Mary first returned to her home on Serpentine Street, and found the maid's dress from the many dresses in the closet.

When Mary and Watson came to the slums, the police had already arrived.

Dawson pushed away the crowd, and kept yelling, "Let's go, let's go! Mr. Holmes has sent someone over!"

Hearing this, the poor people who were talking a lot immediately stepped aside and let Mary and Watson walk to the blockade.

Just as Watson approached the scene, he saw the inspector in charge of the case across the cordon, and asked in surprise, "Inspector Lestrade?"

The detective who was standing behind the cordon suddenly turned around: "Doctor Watson?"

Well, they are still acquaintances.

Since Watson had just assisted Holmes in solving a case, he and Inspector Lestrade were also acquaintances.As for Mary, although she has never met the detectives of Scotland Yard, she is quite familiar with this famous npc in "The Cases of Sherlock Holmes".

The detective, who looked about 40 years old, discovered that Watson had been directing his men to investigate the scene.When he saw Watson and heard that the two had come in place of Holmes, he directly asked the police to let them enter the cordon.

"This is..." He glanced at Mary.

"This is Miss Mary Bennet," said Watson, "also a . . . private eye. She was at Milton—"

"Helped a lot of workers, and solved a big case."

Inspector Lestrade took the words, and at the end he looked at Watson, who was equally astonished, triumphantly: "It's fine if you don't know about such a big economic case. I'm from Scotland Yard." The implication is , although he is not as talented as Sherlock Holmes, he is also an experienced detective with his own sources.

As he said that, he nodded politely to Mary: "This is not a big case, and the scene is very ugly, you lady, I think it's better to avoid it if it's not necessary."

"It's ok."

Mary shook her head: "I came here to investigate the situation."

Detective Inspector Lestrade had already reminded her well that Mary insisted on watching the scene, but he did not forcefully stop her: "Then please go ahead."

After getting approval, Mary and Watson exchanged glances, and the two walked to the corpse covered in white cloth.

Watson squatted down and lifted the white cloth.

As Dawson said, the victim was brutally brutalized—she was face down, and her entire skull had been severely smashed by a heavy object and had been deformed.The bloodstains had dried up a long time ago, and the blood was entangled with the hair at the back of the head, and the scene was quite frightening.

Mary showed a look of unbearable: "The long blow is something like a wooden stick."

Watson glanced at Mary, was about to say something, and finally swallowed the words.

"You know a certain amount of forensic knowledge, of course," he said, "how could you not?"

Mary knew that he was reminded of the scene in "Serial Killer Chess Game" that showed the analysis of the victim's body, so she just smiled and didn't say much.

As described by Dawson, the victim suffered no other injuries. There was a bloody gash on her forehead. Watson initially deduced that it was hit by the butt of a gun, but the fatal injury was still a blow to the back of the head with a wooden stick.

The body was moved to the vicinity of the workers' gathering. Her wounds were so horrific, but the surrounding soil was not stained with much blood.

After Watson's examination, according to the degree of blood clotting, it was preliminarily confirmed that the time of death was last night.

"Can she be identified, Inspector Lestrade?" asked Watson.

"Looking at her clothes, she should be from the vicinity of Whitechapel." Lestrade replied.

If Sherlock Holmes were on the scene, he would definitely have to sneer—they were near Whitechapel, and this "nearby" summed up the entire slum. Who knows which block and which street it is?

Mary thought for a while, and asked Inspector Lestrade for the items collected by the detectives.

It's a pity that they didn't get more than the Irish workers. After several young people stopped them, no one searched for money from the corpses, but what the police got was just a cheap pendant, almost empty money bags, and A silk handkerchief.

A silk handkerchief is not the proper possession of a poor man.

The romantic Watson couldn't help but said, "Could it be that she was killed during a tryst with a certain gentleman?"

Mary shook her head. She turned over the handkerchief and showed him the corner where the name should be embroidered. The place was empty, leaving only a few imperceptible needle holes.

"The owner's name has been removed," she explained. "The girl is probably a thief."

"There are countless thieves living near Whitechapel," said the Irish worker Dawson. "This area is too big, Miss Mary. She couldn't be found stealing, so she was beaten to death, and the person didn't want to be responsible before dumping her body." right?"

"Which gentleman would come here late at night?" asked Mary rhetorically.

Also.

A gentleman with a silk handkerchief coming to the slums has much the same effect as when Mary first came into the neighbourhood, and it is impossible for the Irish workmen not to notice.

So Mary felt that the handkerchief with her name removed could only prove the girl's occupation, but not prove that the owner of the handkerchief was the murderer.

"After the victim died, she couldn't move from the scene of the crime to here." Mary whispered.

"Of course."

Inspector Lestrade was very puzzled: "If the dead can walk on their own, wouldn't our investigation process be much easier."

Mary smiled reluctantly, and instead of responding to the inspector's cold joke, she squatted down again with her skirt in her hands.

She took a small piece of dry soil from the sole of the victim's shoe, brought it to her nose and sniffed it, and then her breath caught.

Watson: "What?"

Without further ado, Mary stuffed the dirt under Watson's nose.

Watson: "I—damn it!"

He was so choked that he took three steps back, almost swearing.Mary threw the mud clods to Inspector Lestrade, only to feel the smell of rotten fish still lingering in her nostrils.

"There is a fish stall nearby, check to see if there is a den of thieves," she said, "I think this clue may help confirm the victim's identity... oh and more."

Mary carefully recounted Mr. Holmes' conjecture: "The murderer did not care about money or sex, and the motive was only to end her life. Therefore, it is speculated that she may have heard something she should not hear. Since she is a thief and lives in Among gangsters, murderers have to keep secrets even if they kill—you may have a big case to work on, Inspector."

Inspector: "..."

The middle-aged detective was not surprised or frustrated by this. He took a deep look at Mary and asked earnestly, "Forgive my offense, Miss Mary—what is your relationship with Holmes?"

Mary: "..."

She was silent for a moment, and replied with a smile: "Friendship."

The author has something to say: Lestrade: What is your relationship with Lao Fu?

Mary: Married Couples - [dragged away by Elizabeth covering her mouth]