Baker Street Charterers

The destination of itinerary 31 is the house of Miss Ida Swan who lives on Princeton Road. No. [-]a is in a very eye-catching location. As for the reason?Among a group of small two-story buildings with black tiles and white paint on the outside, there is only one house painted with bright wine red paint. The house is surrounded by all kinds of beautiful flowers and trees, which look fragrant and vibrant. exuberant.On the window sill on the second floor, she even saw a small daisy. This beautiful but fragile plant cannot survive without careful care. Miss Swan seems to have raised it very well, and it has almost become a scarf around the house. A pleasant scenery.

Obviously this Miss Swan is an extremely particular and delicate woman in life. It is not surprising that Ethan Reed, who has always had a good reputation in his later years, would admire her and hide it from everyone to support her.

"I seem to be about to discover a peerless beauty comparable to Amanda." Nora said before knocking on the door.

Holmes was noncommittal about this, "A Guanyin of the Dripping Water has already been picked."

The explanation was so hilarious that Nora looked back at him inquiringly to make sure he'd spotted something she'd overlooked, but the guy just loved Jo and refused to tell her.

It took half a minute for the door to be opened, and Nora's eyes lit up instantly—a girl standing in front of her, about 24 or [-] years old, had obvious exotic blood. She straightened her long straight dark brown hair tied with a white ribbon, and her pupils were an extremely transparent and beautiful sea blue, looking like seeing the blue sky and sea under the sun.She was wearing a pure white loose long dress at home, and she seemed to be running over in a hurry, her fingertips were stained with a little red paint, and when Nora opened the door, she saw that she was not wearing shoes!

"Ahem." She coughed loudly, and gave Holmes a warning look. Holmes turned half of his body immediately, but his face remained motionless, looking extremely serious.

Ada Swan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly looked down at her feet, then her face flushed with embarrassment, she hastily apologized, then turned and ran into the room, not forgetting to say "Come in" to them.

Facing the open door, Nora and Holmes were silent for a while. Finally, Nora opened the door and walked in first. Turning around, she said to him, "It seems that it is not the Guanyin of Dripping Water, but a harmless lily. .”

Holmes carefully observed the furnishings in the room, but did not speak.

The furnishings of this room are as clean and bright as Miss Swan's. The curtains are light yellow, and the floor is covered with soft dark brown wool carpets.There are many paintings on the wall that look fresh and immature. Nora stepped forward to look at one of them imitating the "Pearl Girl", and found that the girl looked very much like Ada Swan herself. She was surprised Then I looked at the one below, which was also modeled after "The Woman in Blue Dress", and the lady in it was so familiar that Nora thought it was still a copy of herself.

... What does this mean, does Miss Swan have a habit of drawing self-portraits and hanging them on the walls?

"Oh." Holmes murmured in astonishment. "Look, a harmless lily full of Corot's classical art."

"..." This guy's narrow-mindedness.

Miss Swan walked down the stairs after the two of them roughly glanced at the paintings on the first floor. More elegant and calm.She bent over apologetically, and her voice was as gentle as dewdrops, "I'm very sorry, both of you, I was finishing a small hobby of mine when you came, and I didn't have time to hear the knock on the door."

As for what a small interest is, it is self-evident when looking at the picture frames all over the room.

"Miss Ida Swan, this is Nora, and this is Sherlock Holmes. He is a consulting detective invited by the Police Department."

Ada's wet, lovely big eyes looked over tenderly, showing a soft smile like the wind and rain, "So it's you, I've heard of your name, one of the best detectives in London."

Nora rubbed her nose, "I think he'd be happier without 'one'."

Holmes pretended not to hear these words. Even when he was facing a face that almost all men could not refuse, his eyes were still calm or even unwavering, with a businesslike attitude, "We already know that you and Mr. Ethan Reed's relationship."

One sentence successfully made the weak Lily turn pale, Nora looked at him speechlessly, and interjected understandingly, "Mr. Reed did not tell us, Holmes has his own ingenuity to deduce this matter." thing."

Holmes raised his eyebrows and glanced at her, obviously very satisfied with the words that smoothed things over and subtly praised him.

Ada panicked, staring innocently at them with big deer-like sea-blue eyes, as if wary of what they were going to say next.

In fact, her intuition was right, for Holmes then asked bluntly, "Where were you on the night, the day before yesterday, when Ethan Reed's wife, Miss Cheryl Bell, died?"

"Dead?" Ada froze for a moment, as if feeling very unbelievable, "...You said, Cheryl Bell, died?"

Holmes remained expressionless and said in a steady tone, "That's true. You haven't told me your answer yet."

Ada stayed for a few seconds before answering him softly in a slightly trancelike voice, "...I'm right here, at home, drawing like every night...you can see the picture at the end of this wall A painting with a date on it."

"There is no one to testify against you but this picture, is that so?" continued Holmes.

Ada bit her plump red lips and nodded timidly.

Holmes paused for a few seconds, "When did you start a relationship with Mr. Ethan Reed?"

"...half a year ago."

"Mr. Ethan Reed pursued you first?"

"……Yes……"

Holmes' question became more aggressive. "You knew he had a wife at that time, didn't you?"

Ada turned pale, bit her lip and said nothing, but her expression told him everything.

"Excuse me, Miss Swan, do you get paid for these paintings?"

You also know that these questions are offensive - Nora sighed inwardly, but stared at each other with piercing eyes.

Ada seemed a little confused by the question. She opened her lips slightly and stared at him blankly. After a few seconds, she came back to her senses and stammered back, "No, it's not, it's just my interest... I , I opened a flower shop by myself, not far from my home..."

"'Green State'?" asked Holmes.

Ada was taken aback. He didn't expect him to know this, and even Nora gave him a silent glance-this is simply not a level of memory.

Holmes nodded and said gravely, "Thank you for your cooperation. We have only these questions. Good night, ma'am."

Then she turned around and left. Nora was stunned for a moment, and she gave Ada an apologetic smile. The other party returned her a timid smile, and she quickly followed.

Holmes kept his head down as if thinking about something, until he reached the end of the street and slowly raised his head. He was surprised by Nora's silence at this time, and he raised his eyebrows, "You seem to have something to say."

"Actually, I have a lot of questions, but I understand that 'interrupting Sherlock's thinking' is a very unwise thing to do. If he interrupts his reasoning on some important clues, maybe tomorrow I can see another smoky House 221b."

Holmes smiled, but remained expressionless on his face, "I am worried that I will never find that souvenir Bunsen burner from the relatives of the victims of the 'Manchester Hanging Mystery', maybe it was stolen by thieves, Maybe hidden by my enemies, don't you think?"

"..." Nora looked at the sky.

"Get down to business." Holmes turned serious. "What did you find?"

"A soft mixed-race girl with a loli face, slender waist and long legs who is easy to push down."

"……what did you say?"

"Oh, I mean, this Miss Ida Swan seems very innocent." Nora smiled, "A little beauty who destroys other people's families but feels innocent."

Holmes glanced sideways at her. "That's the only thing you noticed all night?"

"...God! I swear it took us less than 10 minutes from walking in that door to coming out! Including the time waiting for Miss Swann to dress and wash!"

"It turns out that your ignorance is not so unbearable." Holmes nodded appreciatively. "It seems that you have also discovered the point about washing."

Nora shrugged, "I just saw her bare feet stepping on the floor with not-so-clear water vapor footprints."

"anything else?"

"...Sherlock, I'm 21 years old, and I hate playing the game of asking me and answering me."

Holmes withdrew his gaze with some regret. He squinted his eyes and looked into the brightly lit distance, "You must have seen some paint stained on Miss Ida Swan's hands when she opened the door?"

"Yes."

"It was painted by herself, not 'painting' as she said."

"Her exact words were 'I was finishing a little hobby of mine and didn't hear the knock on the door'," Nora corrected.

"It's true that she didn't hear the knock at the door in time, but it wasn't because of 'little interest'." Holmes showed a slightly cold smile characteristic of meditation. "I guess she is doing something that is very important to her. Important matter, but our visit interrupted her, she hurriedly glanced at us from the window, and after realizing that it was a stranger, she quickly applied the existing paint on her hands, as for why I knew this One point - if she is really painting as she said, then the paint that is accidentally stained will have a more layered sense, instead of being so fresh and messy like children's graffiti. More obvious, have you noticed that she placed The paintings on the walls are almost all in shades of gray, blue, white, black and purple. She is very fond of cold colors, but the paint in her hands is bright yellow and bright red. She is too anxious to ignore this detail——ha, a Bad liar."

"...I don't think it's her fault, it's just that no one but you can judge it."

"An artist often has sloppy living habits and poor self-care ability. I think this Miss Ida Swan is beyond my expectations. Her room is so clean that there is almost no fault. It seems that it has been cleaned up specially in recent days. Go through it."

"You suspect..."

Holmes did not answer this question, but said to himself, "As for the bare feet? You also found that she had cleaned them and wiped them hastily, but there was still residual moisture, but why did she do this before seeing anyone... I remember the ladies Do you like to put perfume behind your ears, underarms, wrists and ankles?"

"You are really knowledgeable, and it is true, so that Miss Ada is trying to cover up the smell of the perfume that Mr. Reed gave her?"

"She did have some serious thoughts, but it's a pity that we found out about their ulterior relationship first." Holmes smiled meaningfully, "Not smart enough and poor acting skills."

Nora was educated, and she looked at Holmes with admiration. "And those creepy paintings on the walls?"

"Under what circumstances would a person repeatedly imitate a masterpiece and frame himself?" Holmes murmured in a low voice. "This beautiful, pure and harmless Miss Lily Ida in your eyes is either extremely self-admiring or innocent. Remedial self-doubt, and I'm leaning more toward the latter option given her previous behavior."

Nora was silent for a long time before sighing softly and said, "...the perfume is poisonous."