Baker Street Charterers

The weather in London in April has begun to warm up. Even though the sky is still gloomy, there is no need to go out to work in the cold wind.Cleveland took Nora back to the clinic. The body was already lying there. The employer sat aside and watched with interest as she began to clean up the stains, until Nora tore away Julie's clothes, looked at them for a while, then nodded and commented , "The breasts are very nice."

Cleveland was taken aback for a moment, and immediately turned his gaze to the towering chest of the corpse. After deliberating for a few seconds, he nodded in agreement, "According to the golden ratio of the human body, it is indeed not bad."

Nora pinched Julie's leg, "As expected of the maid of Brown's family, her skin is better than ordinary people."

Now Cleveland disagreed, he shook his head and said, "Inferior to you."

"..." Nora looked up speechlessly, "Mr. Hawke, the dead are incomparable with the living."

"Oh." Cleveland suddenly realized, but it seemed that he actually disagreed with this statement in his heart, but he didn't refute it. He just pointed to Julie's body and asked curiously, "What did you find?"

"The deceased was about 20 years old, with smooth skin and delicate fingers, pampered. For the time being, he should be very healthy and have no obvious diseases. The details will be confirmed after the autopsy." Nora carefully opened the legs of the deceased, and then paused, slowly Slowly frowning, "...there was a violent sexual act not long before his death, and there were slight lacerations inside, but there was no semen left. Look, a young man of great strength and health, wait—"

Nora carefully picked out a light brown strand of hair that didn't belong to her from the dead man's hair, and observed carefully, "The hair is rough, short and shiny. This is a man's hair." After a pause, "It is very likely that it is Julie's lover, or the murderer-or someone who has both identities."

"You think it's love killing?" Cleveland said enthusiastically.

"Not sure." Nora shook her head, her eyes lingered on Julie's pale face, and she suddenly paused——

She put down the tweezers holding the hair, and carefully opened the already stiff eyelids of the deceased. When she saw a pair of emerald green eyes below, she was completely stunned, her eyes slowly sank, and she remained silent.

"What's the matter with you?" Cleveland asked, not because he was worried about her, but because the suddenly heavy atmosphere made him feel bored.

"Do you think..." Nora spoke slowly, uncertain, hesitant, and muttered, "Julie looks a lot like that Miss Lucia Brown?"

Cleveland stared at the face of the deceased for a long time, and finally shook his head expressionlessly. All corpses looked the same to him, and there was no difference between beautiful or ugly.

"The same blond hair, green eyes, even the same height and build..." Nora closed the eyes of the deceased, thinking, "The sheriff said that Julie went to the antique shop last night, but a Where did the maid get the antiques, and why would she go to that kind of place in the middle of the night?"

"That's not our job." Cleveland replied almost indifferently. "Suicide or murder is a matter for the police department."

Nora was taken aback, smiled suddenly, and shook her head, "You are right, we just need to do our job well." She is not a detective like Sherlock Holmes, she is just a small employee of a clinic, even if the boss's scope of work It's a little strange, but she shouldn't be meddling.

Especially this kind of gossip belongs to Brown, the restless family.There is a lot of dirty things in the big family, and this poor Julie is just a cannon fodder, even if she is very likely to be the illegitimate daughter of the Brown family.

She put all these troubles behind her and concentrated on being Cleveland's assistant until she finished all the work, cleaned up the scene, said goodbye to her boss, and walked quickly back to the rented house.

When the door was opened, a person came out in a hurry. The two met and bumped into each other. The other person just said "Sorry" in a low voice and passed by.Nora rubbed her sore shoulders, looked back suspiciously, only to catch a glimpse of a hunched figure with her hands in her arms disappearing around the corner of the street, it should be an old woman.She put away the keys and went to the living room, where she saw Holmes putting on his overcoat, and hurried out before saying hello to her.

Nora looked at Watson suspiciously. The young man sat on the sofa and waved his hands helplessly, "As you can see, the one who came to retrieve the ring was not some strong man, but an old woman."

"What's going on?" Nora brought a cup of hot tea and asked carefully.

Watson patiently explained what happened today——

No sooner had Holmes and Watson published the recruitment notice in the newspaper than the wrinkled old woman staggered in and claimed that it was the wedding ring of her daughter Sally, the accountant of a British ship, who was ill-tempered and Alcoholic, the ring was lost when she was at the circus last night.Watson asked her address again, 13 Duncan Street, Hongzdichi District, which is far away.

But Holmes said to the point, "But Brixton Street is not between the Honzidi Pool and some circus."

The old woman immediately explained that it was her address, and her daughter lived in Mayfield Apartments, Takhan District, and her daughter's surname was Dennis.

"Then Holmes has just gone to—"

"He thinks that the old woman must be the murderer's accomplice, and he has followed her." Watson waved his hand, flipping through the "Biography of Bohemian" by Onri Mulger in his hand.

Nora nodded, went into the room and cleaned up, changed into normal clothes, dragged her slightly damp hair, and lazily read the "Surgical Discourse" borrowed from Cleveland in the warm living room with the fire.Sherlock Holmes has a huge collection of books, but he has a quirk. He doesn't need people to tidy up his messy bookshelves and desks, otherwise he won't be able to find the papers he put away. In view of this, Nora dare not borrow books at will. Sherlock Holmes books, had to read boring medical books to pass the time.

After dinner, they chatted casually until about ten days later in the evening, when Holmes hurried back. His expression was very complicated, both happy and annoyed. It seemed that he hadn't succeeded.

"Ha——" Holmes took off his icy overcoat, suddenly laughed loudly, sat on a chair, and gestured, "No matter what, I must not let those idiots of Scotland Yard know about this, and it will definitely become my point of laughing at them. Best handle."

The detective's poisonous tongue is obvious to all. Fortunately, the tenants are not weak-hearted people. Nora closed the book and asked curiously, "What's going on?"

Holmes lowered his eyes and took a sip of the hot tea offered by Mrs. Hudson. His gray eyes were full of joy. He put his hands on the arm of the sofa and straightened his body. He looked excited and proud, but his voice was deliberately With a mysterious and low expression, "You know that I have been following the old woman, right?"

Watson and Nora nodded cooperatively and listened attentively.

Holmes was even more complacent, and narrated complacently, "The old lady did not go very far, limping as if with a sore foot. Then she stopped suddenly, called for a cab, and said in a very loud voice, 'To Hunz 13 Duncan Street, Dickey'—she needn't have been so loud, she could have heard it all along the street."

"I began to think that she was telling the truth. When she got into the carriage, I jumped into the back of the carriage..." Nora was taken aback at this point, looked him up and down suspiciously, and Holmes gave him a displeased look. She silently retracted her eyes, and heard him continue to say emphatically, "——this is a necessary tracking technique for a detective! When it was about to reach the 13th, I jumped out of the car and pretended to be wandering on the road. I saw the carriage stop with my own eyes. Open the door, but no one gets out—"

"Missing?" Watson was startled.

Holmes shrugged. "Obviously the driver was cursing loudly at the non-paying passengers, so I went to No. 13 to inquire. It turned out that there lived a paper-maker named Keswick, and there was no such thing as a Dennis family. "

"Could it be that an old lady jumped out of the car and ran away?" Watson exclaimed, but Nora shook her head and said the answer, "You are wrong, Watson, that is not an old woman at all."

I finally found out what the sense of disobedience was at that time. How could an old woman walk out in a hurry after bumping into a healthy lady, and it was a pity that she didn't pay attention to the rough and low apology at the time, which made her The suspicious person just swaggered past him.

"Oh!" cried Holmes strangely, applauding. "Miss Norah is indeed very clever--damn, I was fooled by my stupidity. He must be a young man in his prime, and a very clever man. Not only that, but he is also an actor." The best man, unparalleled virtuosity—" Holmes emphasized this point emphatically, but everyone could see his intention to cover up his mistakes, and couldn't help but smile.

The matter came to an end here, but it was not in vain. Fortunately, it was determined that the ring was of great significance to the murderer, so that he took great risks to retrieve it. Of course it failed, and the real ring was still in Watson's possession. in the pocket.

Watson went back to his room to rest due to exhaustion.Holmes was still in the living room, playing the melancholy violin music, his sideways eyes showed his usual blank look, as if he was immersed in his own world.Nora had the "Surgical Treatise" open on her knees, but she didn't look at it, but lowered her head to think, until the song was finished, she said in a calm tone, "Mr. Holmes, have you heard that Cleveland Hawke?"

Holmes seemed to have just realized her existence, paused for a moment, put down the violin, turned around, stared at her, and repeated, "Cleveland Hawk?"

Before Nora could answer, he added, "If you mean the Hawkes in London, then—yes, I've heard of them."

"very famous?"

Holmes put his finger on his chin habitually, and hummed, "An ancient clan that has been gradually declining but has been powerful for a long time, an authority in the British medical field, a group of lunatics who are sick and crazy about medical research." Holmes thought it was very detailed. He commented in this way, and finally asked, "Why are you asking this?"

"Unfortunately," Nora closed the book and said weakly, "One of the authoritative lunatics in the ancient clan is my immediate boss."

"Oh." Holmes let out an exclamation of unknown meaning, and then his eyes lingered on her face and body for two seconds, and finally told her with great amazement, "It's very lucky that your appearance and value are completely excluded from the 'worthy of research' 'Beyond this standard, you can continue to work with confidence."

"The standards of those guys are really high." Nora comforted herself tactfully.

Holmes ignored the voice of the leftover woman. He seemed to have thought of something, pondered for a while, and stopped Nora when she put down her book and was about to go upstairs to rest.

"Nora—Miss No Surname."

Nora turned her head, expressionless, "Sharp."

"Miss Nora Sharp." Holmes called out smoothly, his gray eyes twinkling slightly, as if hesitating, "Would you like to be my female companion and go to a boring dinner together tomorrow afternoon?"

Nora has no interest in ridiculing people who invite people to a party and add the word "boring". "Oh, my dear Mr. Holmes, have you found no suitable female companion to accompany you to dinner parties, and have turned to a lady like me who is 'far below the mark'?"

"Look, you must be very clear. First, you are a 'lady'." Holmes said slowly. "Of course, this is not the only condition—it is the opposite of what you said about 'can't find a suitable one'." It would be a disaster if those beautiful gentle ladies took a great interest in me beyond friendship, the great detective has always had such a charm."

"Then Mr. Detective, who is 'terribly charismatic,' I refuse."

“Dinner with delicious food and wine...”

"make a deal."

"..."

Holmes swallowed back all the persuasion that had come to the tip of his tongue. With a difficult expression on his face, he said slowly, "...you are such a refreshing lady."

"I just saved the complicated process and jumped to the final result." Nora smiled slightly and reminded, "I think you should know that I don't have a dress for the dinner."

"That's easy." Holmes wrote down an address. "The owner of Appolina's is an acquaintance of mine. I think she will be happy to help you with this."

"Acquaintances?" Nora was curious. Sherlock Holmes also has friends?

"Her husband committed theft and adultery and I did her a little favor."

"Cleared the grievances?"

"No," said Holmes, smiling. "I helped to convict him."

"..."