Baker Street Charterers

rache, Rachel, seems like a feminine name.

"What do you think of these words?" Lestrade analyzed triumphantly, "The reason why everyone ignores it is because it is written in the darkest corner of the room, written by the murderer dipped in his or her blood, see , and blood running down the wall! It can be seen that he could never have committed suicide-but why did he choose this place, I can tell you, did you see the burnt candle on the fireplace? At that time It should be lit, then this corner was the brightest, not the darkest, place in the room last night."

Grayson pouted, "Even if you found the handwriting, what's the point?"

"What do you mean? It means that the writer of this word is writing a woman's name 'Rachel', but must have been interrupted by something before finishing it. Please mark my words, when the whole case is cleared up, You're bound to find out that a woman named 'Rachel' has something to do with the case!"

After he finished speaking confidently, Holmes suddenly laughed, which instantly angered him.

Holmes didn't seem to notice Lestrade's blushing face, and said unhurriedly, "You are indeed the first man among us to discover the handwriting."

He accentuated his pronunciation on "man."

He glanced at Nora, who lowered his head, and continued, "This important discovery is naturally attributed to you, and as you said, it can be seen from this that it was written by another person in the tragedy last night. But , I have not had time to inspect the house, if you will allow me."

Under Grayson's chuckle and Lestrade's dissatisfied eyes, Holmes took out a tape measure and a magnifying glass from his pocket, and walked back and forth across the dining room, looking carefully everywhere, and even put his face on the floor.He was concentrating on his work, oblivious to himself, muttering words, always maintaining a state of excitement, exclaiming in a low voice from time to time, and even whistling. This appearance reminded Watson of a well-trained purebred hound……

Unexpectedly, Nora also participated in this game among hunters—she watched for a while and finally made a move. She leaned into the corner and carefully picked up a small handful of gray powder from the floor. After looking at it, Holmes, who was studying the scarlet characters with a magnifying glass, paused for a moment, walked over, carefully observed the powder on her fingertips, and asked, "Do you mind?"

"As you please," said Nora, and Holmes also twirled up the powder, put it in an envelope, and stood up.

During the process, Gleason and Lestrade have been watching them with curiosity and contempt. They obviously don't realize that even the slightest action of Sherlock Holmes must have a clear and practical purpose, let alone such a game. In his actions, a stranger of female gender was also mixed in.

After Holmes finished his observation, the two asked in unison, "What's your opinion, sir?"

"If I intervene rashly, I will take the credit of the two police detectives." Holmes patted the dust on his hands and cuffs. Facing the two thick-skinned guys, he spared no effort to taunt, "You guys have done such a good job. It’s also very difficult for people to get involved.”

He glanced around, "Of course, if you two want to solve this case as soon as possible, I need to talk to the policeman who found the body."

Lestrade looked at the notepad in his hand, "John Lance is off work, you can find him at No. 46, Audley Court, Garden Gate Street, Kennington."

Holmes glanced at Watson, who was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly realized, and immediately wrote down the address.While Watson was immersed in writing, Holmes turned to the two detectives and said slowly, "I think you need to know this-the murderer is a male, more than six feet tall, in his prime, and in proportion to his body, his feet Undersized, wears square-toed leather boots, and smokes tricchi."

When the two were stunned, Holmes continued to talk, "He and the deceased rode in the same four-wheeled carriage. The three shoes of the horse pulling the cart were old, but the shoe on the right forefoot had just been replaced. The murderer It is very likely that it is a person with a red face and long nails on his right hand—but these are just my guesses, and whether it will help you depends on the two of you."

Grayson gave him a suspicious look, "Then the blood on the wall—"

Holmes straightened the collar of his coat, and said casually, "rache is a German word, meaning 'revenge', so you don't have to waste your time trying to find that Miss 'Rachel'."

After speaking, he called Watson and Nora, and left the room without looking back.The two detectives were left looking at each other.

……

Before returning home, Holmes sent a long telegram to a nearby telegraph office, then hired a carriage and returned to Baker Street.

Watson had always had great doubts about the speculation just now, and after getting into the carriage, he finally had the opportunity to ask, "Holmes, you really baffle me, how did you come up with the details of the reasoning? "

Holmes habitually took out his pipe and took two puffs. Even Watson didn't see where he hid it, and asked slowly without answering, "After looking back and forth for so long, what about you, Nora?" Miss, I think you must have accumulated a lot of valuable conclusions."

Nora, who had been uncharacteristically silent since she saw the corpse, came back to her senses at this moment. She looked at Holmes with a slightly teasing look, collected herself, and said, "There are indeed some conjectures, but compared to Mr. Holmes, But it’s nothing worth mentioning.”

"All ears," he said.

"Actually, it's not difficult. Maybe even Watson can see—"

"..." I felt the shame and anger of the doctor again.

Nora glanced at him, as if she felt that she had said something wrong, she was silent for a few seconds, and smiled apologetically. Watson waved her hand weakly to show that she was used to it, so she continued, "I think Holmes also noticed that before last night , it hasn't rained in days, but there are two deep ruts beside the stone steps in the street, which must have been made last night, and the 'three old shoes you made A new shoe's conjecture is probably because one of the hoof prints is much clearer than the other three, so it should be a new one-since this carriage went after it rained last night, and today The sheriff said that no other carriage came all day, so the carriage must have been parked there at night, and it was in this carriage that the two went together to the house."

Watson suddenly realized, and Holmes smacked his lips without showing any surprise, and hummed thoughtfully, "That's all?"

"You mean the murderer's height?" Nora smiled slightly. "It's not difficult." As soon as he finished speaking, Watson felt slapped in the face again, but the two who were immersed in discussing the case didn't seem to notice his emotions. Nora continued, "A person's height can be inferred from many factors, such as the length of his steps. You must have noticed the footprints of this guy on the dirt outside and the dust inside, right?"

"That's right." Holmes finally revealed a hint of approval.

"Of course, there is another way." Nora said, "I don't know if you have noticed that when a person writes on the wall, he will instinctively write at the height of his eyes, and write in blood at the height above the ground." At six feet, the results are obvious."

"And his age?" asked Watson impatiently, already used to being struck.

"The boots of all the people present were mostly patent leather and relatively light. One footprint was slightly square and heavy. The footprint went directly from the edge of the pool to the road, and it was obvious that they had jumped over it. The pool was about four feet wide, and they jumped suddenly. People in the past should have been very strong." Nora slowly recalled, "Besides, do you think a white-haired old man would be able to force a 40-year-old man to take poison?"

"Exactly, exactly." Watson clapped his hands and sighed, "Nora, you were born to be a detective! You are as careful as Mr. Holmes!"

"No, it's far from it." Nora replied honestly, "Mr. Holmes must have known these things a long time ago. I haven't figured out even the guesses about fingernails and cigars. He has already confirmed them."

"Oh?" Watson became more interested, and turned to Holmes who was puffing.

With the two scorching gazes, Holmes obviously felt greatly satisfied with his self-esteem. He shook the ash, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said lazily in the slight jolt of the carriage, "The writing on the wall is written on the wall with the index finger dipped in blood. Written, and with a magnifying glass, I can see that some of the plaster has been scraped off next to me. If this person had manicured nails, it would never have happened."

Nora recalled the situation at that time and nodded in agreement. It really was Sherlock Holmes, and she was ashamed to be able to see even such a subtle place.

"In addition, Miss Nora and I saw scattered ash on the floor. The lady may not be clear about it. The color is very dark and swollen. Only the ash of Indian cigars is like this."

Speaking of this, he could not help showing off a little triumphantly, "I have studied the different appearances of cigar ash, in fact, I have also written articles on this topic. It can be said without humility that no matter what brand of cigar it is Or the ashes of cigarettes, I can recognize at once by looking at them-it is only in these details that the difference between a dry and shrewd detective genius and the likes of Grayson Lestrade can be shown."

"Impressive." Nora praised sincerely. She really didn't expect someone to be so boring. It is really impressive to spend a lot of time researching this kind of thing.

"Why do you speculate that the bloody word is revenge, not the name of the person?" Watson's doubts have obviously not been answered yet.

"It's just a trap. A wise man never falls for it." Holmes' unintentional words once again shot Watson down into the abyss. "He hinted that it might have been done by a secret group of the Socialist Party, with the sole purpose of leading the police astray. That's all. It wasn't German, and a little attention shows that the letter a is more or less German-like, while real Germans often write in Latin. A not very good imitator, really Unnecessary."

Even if Nora did a good job in her previous life and claimed to be a leader in murder cases, she still has to admire Holmes for his extensive research and deep knowledge. At least in terms of language knowledge, Holmes can be regarded as a model detective.

"I take back my superficial evaluation of your previous article." Watson praised him. "It turns out that it is indeed reasonable."

"Sooner or later, detective art will definitely develop into an exact science, and I am the founder." Hearing his praise, Holmes was so happy that he stopped smoking. Both noticed that when others praised his achievements in reasoning, Holmes was as excited as a girl who was praised for her beauty.

Nora intuited that she had found Holmes' sensitive spot.

"Aren't we going to find that John Lance?" Nora asked.

"I'll go back tomorrow morning. Today I need to sort out the clues I found." Holmes was very happy to solve the doubts when he was happy, so he took another two puffs. What about Neruda's concert?"

"Stop the car." Nora said suddenly. Although the driver was puzzled, he still dutifully stopped.

Nora got out of the car, turned around and smiled at the puzzled duo, and said, "I still have something to settle, I promise, I will return to Baker Street safely within half an hour."

"You don't need me to see you off..." Watson asked gentlemanly.

"Believe me, Watson, no one with a wink will trouble me."

Watson recalled the miserable situation of the hooligans when they met for the second time, and felt sorry for them. After a few words of advice, he left with Holmes.

Watson in the carriage was very curious and puzzled, "What is she doing, Holmes, maybe I should expect your exquisite reasoning ability to tell me the answer."

Holmes leaned lazily on the car seat, "Probably the most unavoidable among women, but also the most boring, but serious enough to cause family bankruptcy and sisters to fight."

Watson was taken aback, "What?" Bankruptcy? ?fight? ?

Holmes narrowed his eyes and said with certainty——

"Shopping."

"..."