Baker Street Charterers

They drove back to Baker Street, and Gleason had already been waiting inside the house, opened the door for them, and couldn't wait to report yesterday's progress——

"We found Miss Bell's lost suitcase on the way to Greenwich!" Gleason seemed to be in high spirits, as if he thought that solving the case was just around the corner. "I also found a passenger who had an impression of Miss Bell. He's in the living room now—"

"Good job, Gleason." Holmes was not surprised at all. After hanging up his coat, he walked quickly into the living room, and immediately saw an old gentleman sitting on the sofa drinking water with his head bowed.

"I heard that you met Miss Cheryl Bell before she died?" Holmes asked straight to the point.

The old man put down the cup in his hand and looked calmly, "Indeed, I think few people can easily forget such a charming lady. Besides, she once fainted on the seat on the way, and a young doctor helped her."

doctor?Nora and Holmes exchanged glances, "Do you still remember the appearance of that doctor?"

"About 35, tall, blond, well mannered."

Holmes nodded. "Is there anything else you know?"

The old man thought for a while, "What was that lady writing when she fainted, it looked like a diary, I'm not sure..."

Holmes couldn't wait to continue asking, "Then do you still remember what the diary looks like?"

"A brown leather case with a leather clasp—oh yes, I remember her holding a red pen."

That's all the information the eyewitnesses know, not much, but critical and significant.

All the evidence points to that Dr. Robert Lee: an appearance that almost fits most of the descriptions, and a red pen as important evidence.

Grayson returned immediately after seeing the old man off, his eyes glowing, "How about it, Holmes, do you have any clues?"

He motioned the police detective to sit down, first poured a cup of hot black tea for himself and Nora, then said leisurely under Gleason's fiery eyes, "There are indeed a lot of clues."

"Tell me now!"

"Nora and I went to Miss Ida Swan's house this morning and the Naval Hospital where Mr. Robert is. In my opinion, they are both suspected of crimes." Then Holmes specifically stated all the incidents at Miss Swan's house. Seeing and hearing, and then mentioned the handsome doctor——

"The style of Dr. Robert's consulting room is completely different from his appearance," he said slightly mockingly, "it is simple and neat, and it fits his military status very well."

"I noticed that there was a rosewood pen holder carved with the head of Shiva on his desk. It was very expensive. It seemed that he had brought it back from abroad. Since he was in the army, he went to India and brought back a souvenir or two. It's not unusual, and this can prove that he was indeed a soldier, and Miss Bell's maid didn't lie, but there is a problem—"

"Do you still remember the maid's original words - 'a soldier's temperament', you two, can you tell that Mr. Robert has been in the army the first time you see him?"

Nora and Grayson shook their heads together, and Holmes smiled slightly, "That's right, a young and uneducated servant can recognize Robert's identity as a soldier at a glance. I have to doubt the past of that maid, Or is she being instructed to hint at us something?"

"But didn't you say that the doctor was indeed suspected?" Gleason was puzzled.

"I don't deny this." Holmes rubbed his fingers on his knees, and his voice was calm, "Also, the second drawer of Mr. Robert's desk is open, and there is a small dark red gift box in it, which is the same size as a pen. No lie, the red pen was indeed given to him by someone, but not his original one - this is more in line with my guess, Mr. Robert said that it came from a gift from 'probably a patient's family' , but he used 'probably', he was not sure of the other party's identity. I guess, this identical red pen was probably given to him by the murderer, in order to divert our attention to Mr. Robert. "

"That means he's not the murderer?"

Holmes shook his head. "Robert Lee is young and promising, tall and handsome. He claims to be very popular with girls. He is a flirtatious man with bad morals... But he is not the person we are looking for."

"How do you know that?" Nora asked, "Flirtatious, virtuous."

"This will be another scandal." Holmes smiled meaningfully. "Nora, have you noticed that there are a few linen canvases in Mr. Robert's bookcase? Only blue, cool grey, white and black ocean paintings?"

Canvas and cool color oil painting?Nora understood instantly, "Ida Swan?"

Holmes shrugged, "At the beginning, I also suspected that Mr. Robert's strange expression when he heard 'pregnant in March' was because he thought of Miss Bell. Now that it was confirmed that the doctor on the train was not him, as for the evidence? -"

Holmes suddenly pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. Nora looked intently, and found that it was a prescription drug list for a patient, "Look at the date this was written, it happened to be the day Miss Bell boarded the train and was killed. At noon, he was too late to get on the train. According to her servant, Miss Cheryl Bell has been diagnosed for almost two months. Why did she go to find Robert so suddenly? I guess, it is Because she hesitated for a few weeks after learning the news of her pregnancy, and finally decided to tell him, so Mr. Robert did not know the news of the lady's pregnancy before."

Nora twitched, "Xiali, when did you steal this list?"

Holmes paused, "...that's not the point, let's continue talking about this case."

Nora gave him a sideways glance, and finally chose to cooperate, "What about the explanation about canvas and oil painting?" She already had a general idea in her mind, and this move was just to take care of Detective Gleason's fragile self-esteem.

"As you probably already know," Holmes obviously knew her well, "the texture of the canvas is very consistent with the paintings hanging on the wall at Miss Swann's house, and the oil painting of the sea with familiar tones and brushstrokes is obviously Miss Swann's." A masterpiece. I suppose Miss Swann's had a painting similar to it, but she destroyed it just in time for our visit."

Nora snorted and explained Ada's various abnormal behaviors before.

"You mean..." Gleeson mused, "Miss Swann was having an affair with Robert?"

"My explanation is——" Holmes smiled slightly, "Miss Swan and Dr. Robert had known each other and dated for a while before, but they separated for some reason, until they met again about half a year ago— As for the reason for their separation? Well... I can't think of any other better reason than money or pregnancy."

"How do you know all this?" Grayson asked, unconsciously respectful.

"As I said, if you want to know anything about a person in a small town, you only need to ask the local shoemaker and the innkeeper's wife, and the kind and enthusiastic Ms. When he came to the Naval Hospital, three months later he had very frequent contact with two ladies, one of whom was naturally Miss Bell, and the other—"

Holmes narrowed his eyes, "'Slim back, beautiful brown hair, like to wear a long white dress', Nora, don't you think this description sounds familiar?"

Nora shrugged, "Obviously Miss Swan's style."

"So Robert Lee was dating two beautiful women at the same time?" Gleeson looked angry and envious.

Nora added in good time, "This Miss Ida Swan was also seeing two gentlemen at the same time."

Gleason immediately looked like he swallowed a fly.

"Poor Mr. Ethan Reed." Nora sighed full of sympathy, "his wife put on a cuckold for him, and even the lover he misses has his heart attached to someone else. This is simply a model of the most failed man."

"—and the key point." Holmes interjected, "Speaking of which, I am very curious, which 'friend' introduced a young talent like Mr. Robert Lee to the unhappy and nervous Miss Bell? "

He turned his head and asked Grayson solemnly, "Sheriff, do you have the information and address of Miss Bell's maid?"

Gleason flipped through the notebook in his hand, "Well... I only know that her name is Marianne, she is from the United States, and she came to Bell's house as a maid half a year ago."

Marianne... Nora was silent.

"...cough, um, 'half a year ago' is a very interesting time point." Holmes cleared his throat, as if nothing had happened, but raised his voice slightly, "Then where is her rental address?"

"Let me see... well... 14b Mayfair, north side of Piccadilly."

Two or ten minutes later, the three of them stood at No. 10b in the so-called Mayfair area. Nora pointed to the empty old bookstore in front of her, and asked in a flat voice, "This is where Miss Marianne lives?"

Gleason looked embarrassed, "...we didn't have time to check this news—of course it's proven to be fiction now."

"Well," Holmes straightened his bow tie calmly, his expression was completely opposite to that of the dejected Nora and Gleason, his eyes were bright, he was full of smiles, and he looked high-spirited, "—this case seems to have become more serious. Interesting, guys."

Nora and Grayson both sighed.