Baker Street Charterers

"Where is Elizabeth?"

When this question was mentioned, Adolf's usual hippie smile disappeared.Sitting on the sofa, he seemed to be in a trance, his always smiling eyes staring blankly out of the window, lost in memories.This process lasted for nearly 2 minutes, during which no one disturbed him, until he came back to his senses as if suddenly awakened, twitched the corners of his mouth, and showed a wry smile.

"I do not know."

Holmes and Nora looked at each other, and he said after deliberation, "Let's put it another way—when did Elizabeth disappear?"

"Half a year ago." Adolf sighed, finally unable to hide the anxiety and irritability in his heart, he inserted his hands into his hair, pulled his scalp almost masochistically, and murmured brokenly, "This is retribution... This must be God's retribution... He took my Elizabeth, and made me lose my last hope... My daughter, my only relative..."

retribution?Holmes paused for a moment. After staring at him for a long time, he said in a low voice, "What have you done in the past five years?"

Adolf bowed his head in silence, his whole body collapsed and stiffened.

"You know that it is impossible for one person to accomplish this and rescue Elizabeth." Nora finally spoke, her tone was soft and gentle, with irresistible persuasion, "It is precisely because you understand this very well that you You will find us and try to pretend to be an expert to attract our attention, won't you? Concealment and concealment will not bring you and Elizabeth back together... You are a father, so you will understand that there are many other parents who are in the same situation as you at this moment are suffering exactly the same pain."

Adolf pursed his lips tightly. He seemed to be worried about something, and there was obvious hesitation in his eyes, but he never opened his mouth to answer.

What is he jealous about?

Holmes moved his eyes from him to the letter on the table, thought for a moment, and said unhurriedly, "I guess, five years ago, a similarly mysterious gentleman hired you, and the price must be very high." Tempting, so you quit your job at the theater without hesitation to work for that mysterious boss...do you think I have a point?"

Adolf froze.Holmes didn't seem to notice, and went on talking to himself, "Later, you found out that you didn't want to do what you needed to do. You regretted it and wanted to quit, but like all dramatic stories, Of course your request will not be granted, so you tried every means to escape, in order not to attract attention, you even turned yourself into a beggar-very smart way. It's a pity..."

Holmes' gray eyes stared at him like a hawk, and his voice was low, "It's a pity that you were found again and hired again, but unfortunately, you found out that the person who hired you is the same as five years ago ...This is the truth about Elizabeth's disappearance—you have been held hostage, and your daughter is the most important hostage. Am I right?"

Adolf kept looking at him until he finished speaking, then he said in a hoarse voice, "What is the evidence for your guess?"

Holmes pulled out the letter paper and shook it, "Look at the inscription here—your sincere admirer, this title is really familiar—I remember that Mr. M also called himself this in the note left to me not long ago. ——A person's habit is not something that can be easily changed. Since he is an admirer, he must have been observing in secret for a long time, and he will only do this when he is very sure——As for why he found you... Nora, What is the name of Mr. Adolph Barker's famous work?"

Nora smiled slightly, "Judas, the Last Supper."

Holmes nodded, "It looks like the work that he likes - the theme of betrayal is full of darkness, the horror of human nature, the greed of money, the insincere confession... and the tragic ending."

"Judas wasn't so bad at the beginning," Nora sang one after another, "but he was too greedy, indulged his evil desires, let his dark side rule his whole life, he loved money more than Eggy- Governor, made a sinful subordinate and slave...Look at his final fate, he lost everything, and finally hanged under a tree...Oh, what a sad story."

Adolf held his hand tightly, expressionless.

Nora turned her attention and asked softly, "Mr. Adolph Barker, do you love money more than Elizabeth?"

The muscles on Adolf's face twitched unconsciously, and his lips squirmed slightly, letting out a painful murmur, "No...Of course not..."

"Then tell us all you know," said Holmes in a mild voice. "While there is still time—do you know that pretty Miss Marianne, who does not look like a kindly guardian."

The last sentence made Adolf tremble all over. He seemed to be fighting a huge battle with his heart, and his whole hand was shaking.He took a deep breath, seemed to have finally made a decision, gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "You guessed right...that's right...indeed, I was hired by him within five years, for money , I was short of money, Elizabeth was just born, I had to support her, since my wife left, she was everything to me... I needed money."

Holmes and Nora listened quietly.

Adolf's face was pale, and he couldn't help biting his finger, as if to relieve the nervousness at the moment, even the panic, and forced himself to suppress the trembling in his voice, "He found me...he said he admired me very much Judas, who plays the role, even thinks that I am qualified to be his 'Judas'... The reward he promised is good, it should be said that it is very generous, and I quickly agreed to him... That money allows my Elizabeth to eat every meal I had enough to eat, and even went to see a doctor... She couldn't speak when she was born, and she still couldn't call me daddy until I spent all my savings..."

Adolf pulled his hair again, his face was distorted and pained, "This is all God's revenge... He didn't know I did so many bad things, I betrayed him, so I was punished, he will all The punishment for all the sins fell on Elizabeth... Oh, this is my sin, I should bear it, the child is innocent!"

Nora poured him a cup of hot tea, and Adolf took it tremblingly, holding the cup tightly in both hands, as if he was absorbing warmth, he gasped for a while before calming down, lowered his eyes, and said in a low voice, "I don't want to Don't help him with many things... many bad things, mostly scams, I would spend months befriending rich businessmen and trying to lure them out of their fortunes... I know this Is evil, I will go to hell when I die, but I have to do it...Elizabeth's disease needs a lot of gold coins to heal, even if I deserve to be cursed, Elizabeth will be better off-"

He stared at the beret on the table, his eyes gradually softened, as if he was looking at a beloved thing, "This is the last birthday present I gave her, the doctor spent almost all my savings... I didn't expect Just a hat would make her so happy, she's so pretty and kind, she deserves something more noble and fine than this..."

"And then?" asked Holmes calmly. "When did you begin to regret what you had done?"

Adolf covered his face and took a deep breath. He didn't dare to look directly at them. He lowered his eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "I met the Compendi family...they are very kind people, rich, but they never look down on people with lower status , they have a daughter who is the same age as Elizabeth, lively and intelligent..."

He seemed to be unable to continue, choked for a long time, his fingers were trembling, "...just like I did before, I lured them to invest in the shell factory set up by my husband, they lost nothing, Kang Bendi committed suicide, his wife Kicked out of the house sick and dying, and that girl, that girl...she was sold to a brothel as a child prostitute—oh god, she was Elizabeth's age, she was six...look what I was doing?! "

"Just for the money..." he murmured, "just for the damn money... If my Elizabeth knew all this, she would think her father was a heinous devil who deserved to go to hell..."

"Now comes the retribution," Adolf smiled wryly at himself. "I went to hell, and my Elizabeth disappeared. What did I do all for?"

Nora sighed.

Holmes listened to him quietly, and when the other party had gradually calmed down and his face was withered like death, he spoke slowly, "You have indeed done many unforgivable wrong things, you may not have killed anyone with your own hands, but you have made many Families are torn apart and have tasted what it means to be deceitful and betrayal."

Adolf trembled all over, his jaw clenched, and he didn't say a word.

"However," his voice turned slightly quieter, "you still have a chance to repent and repent, and you still have hope to save your daughter, you just need to tell us... who is he and where is he now? Where is the meeting place?"

"I don't know," Adolf said with blank eyes, "I won't deceive anyone this time...he never mentioned his identity, it's always him who came to me...I've been lurking for so long, and I've made myself To the point where no one would look down on me, I paid attention to every case of missing children, but only found insignificant clues... I only know that the orphanage is one of the strongholds, and a foreign woman is in charge of all of them. I inquired for a long time, but Arriving at the name of an intermediary—”

Holmes leaned forward impatiently, "What's his name?"

"They call him Mr. Cowper, but I know his real name," Adolph replied in a low voice, "Adams Duane."

Holmes and Nora Qiqi were taken aback for a moment.