[Phantom of the Opera] Devil's Beauty

Blanche pushed open the window, probably because of the light rain not long ago, the street was filled with a smell of damp earth, the footprints of pedestrians and the tire tracks of carriages intertwined on the ground.

At the same time, the crying outside became weaker, and there was the sound of rolling wheels, mixed with the girl's crisp comforting voice.It turned out that two girls passed by in a carriage.

Bai Lanzhi let out a sigh of relief and closed the window: "I was scared to death, I thought something was wrong."

With his back to her, Eric tore off his tie with one hand and threw it on the bed.She couldn't see his expression, but could only hear his low and cold voice: "Sorry, I chose a wrong vacation location."

Having been with him for so long, she has been able to understand his subtext very quickly.If at this time, follow the superficial meaning of his words, answer "it's okay", it's a big mistake, because it will cause his mood to become depressed, the correct answer is: "it's okay, I trust my husband Can protect me."

Sure enough, after the words fell, he turned back to look at her. Although his expression didn't change significantly, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, which was obviously very beneficial.

The night passed.

In the early morning of the next day, Bai Lanzhi was woken up by the too bright sunlight.I heard that there are very few sunny days in London, and most of them are gloomy and rainy.

People outside the window neighed, and the sound of the whip breaking through the air sounded from time to time.She rubbed her sleepy eyes vigorously, and was about to ring the bell to call the waiter to bring breakfast when she heard a knock on the door.

Eric opened his eyes and pressed her shoulder with one hand: "Lie down, I'll open the door." He rolled over and got out of bed, took a black coat and put it on, and walked over to open the door.

There were two policemen standing outside the door, one tall and one short, both of tall stature. They were supposed to be conducting routine interrogation, but the moment they saw Eric's face, they pressed their guns and pouches on their waists defensively.

"Sir," the tall man said after a few seconds, "There was a murder here yesterday, and the deceased was a young blonde woman. I think you need to tell us about your movements yesterday evening."

His tone was extremely blunt, and he seemed to have regarded Eric as a suspect. While speaking, he looked around the house, ready to rush in to collect evidence at any time.

Eric frowned, folded his arms, and was about to answer when a clear and soft voice interrupted him, and it was Bai Lanzhi who came over: "Mr. Police, we stayed in the room last night. The hotel owner can Testify. However, around seven o’clock yesterday, we heard the girl’s cries, and we wonder if we can help this case.”

The two policemen were taken aback when they saw her. They knew rationally that they shouldn't judge people by their appearance, but their attitudes were obviously relaxed compared to before.After learning that Bai Lanzhi and Eric were a couple from different countries, they apologized for the initial misunderstanding: "Not only us, I think other people will also mistakenly think that your husband is a vicious villain when they see his appearance."

Bai Lanzhi smiled helplessly, took Eric's big hand, and shook it lightly, signaling him not to mind.Eric looked down at the palm held by her, his Adam's apple was rolling, and it was rare that he didn't make a sound.

At this time, a policeman ran up: "Mr. Holmes has arrived!"

Shorty: "Oh my God, he's finally home. We can finally get rid of those detectives who get paid to do nothing."

The tall man added: "Sherlock Holmes is the most powerful private detective here, but he usually calls himself a consulting detective. In our opinion, there is no difference between the two. We will go down first, and we will contact you later if necessary." .”

Bai Lanzhi looked up at Eric: "Shall we go down and have a look?"

He looked at her thin dress, picked her up by the waist, and put her on the bed: "Get dressed before going."

-

The place where the accident happened was not far from the hotel, just in the back street.There was an apartment for sale with a semi-open garden surrounded by a low fence.A blond-haired and white-skinned girl was lying on the lawn with a serene expression. She was wearing a feathered straw hat and a light blue dress, with a dagger stuck in her heart. Looking from a distance, she seemed to be the only one on her body. Wound.

The owner of the apartment was chanting bad luck, the police came in and out, and two men dressed as detectives were circling around the blonde girl, showing pensive expressions from time to time, and one of them was the Sherlock Holmes that the tall man was talking about.

At this moment, one of the detectives shouted loudly: "I get it, I get it! This is a love murder! Please look over here, the murderer is a very cunning man, but he kept a secret, leaving a clear footprints." His tone was as excited as winning a horse race, "Look, there are a bunch of footprints of men approaching her from behind, but she didn't notice it, only the approach of her lover can make her so unguarded , there is no better explanation than killing love!"

The other detective stamped his foot in dismay, seeming very annoyed at being scooped up by him.

A police officer who looked like a sheriff walked over, knelt down, and observed carefully for a moment: "You can see such shallow footprints, and your eyes are good."

The detective said triumphantly: "That is, Mr. Sheriff, I can also tell you one piece of valuable information. These are a pair of big feet of size 43, and they are wearing high shoes from the shoe shop of No. 130 Camberwell Road. High leather boots, you just need to go to the store to investigate who the customers who bought the 43 size high leather boots are, and then rule out their social connections one by one, and the case will be cleared up!"

He seemed to be very reasonable, and many policemen were already nodding their heads frequently.

It was the first time for Bai Lanzhi to see the scene of a detective solving a crime, and she was full of curiosity: "Is the foot size 43 big? I used to..." She wanted to say female pet, but she changed her words after meeting Eric's gaze. "A friend's shoe size is 46. The teacher who teaches... the ballet said that all the girls in the dance troupe have big feet around size 45."

-

Five minutes later, a man in a plaid coat and black scarf came over. He had a long, thin face and gray eyes that were stern and penetrating.He stood in front of the fence of the apartment, and instead of raising his foot to go in like other policemen, he stood where he was, with a fugue-like expression on his face.

"Sherlock!" the sheriff called to him.

It turned out that this was the famous private detective.

Sherlock raised a finger and shook it to indicate that he heard, but did not answer.He circled the fence like a well-trained hound.After a while, he stepped into the garden and took out a magnifying glass from his coat. As an astronomer observing the starry sky, he carefully examined the body of the deceased.

As soon as Sherlock arrived, all eyes were on him.The former detective said unwillingly, "Mr. Holmes, I know you are a famous detective, but I'm sorry, this case has already been solved by me - I swear to God, this is a love murder, the murderer It’s a man with a size 43 big foot. Before you came, I was already planning to discuss the solution with the sheriff..."

Sherlock suddenly asked, "What's your shoe size?"

The detective is unknown, so: "41 yards."

"Lift up your feet and look at your footprints."

The detective did as he did, but still didn't understand, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

Sherlock looked at his footprints and smiled mockingly: "It's still too late for you to apologize to God."

"what?"

No longer answering the detective's words, Sherlock stood up and said arrogantly and directly: "This is not a love murder, but a long-planned murder. The murderer is a woman of the same age, height, and weight as the deceased."

"How is this possible?!" The detective yelled, "It just rained a little yesterday, and the soil is still wet. Every time I stepped on a footprint, there was no footprint belonging to a woman?"

Sherlock pointed impatiently at the 43-yard footprint with his chin: "That's not it."

"Size 43...Mr. Holmes, stop joking. How can a woman's feet be so big?"

Sherlock frowned, as if he couldn't stand his stupidity, and turned to the sheriff and said, "This case is extremely simple. Although the murderer was well thought out, he still showed immature feet."

He said in a tone of reporting scientific results: "The murderer is a 16 or 17-year-old woman, brown hair, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 43 feet, a member of the theater ballet. Her family is poor, sensitive and irritable. , loves vanity, and recently had unsuccessful sex transactions. She prepared for the murder for one to two months, but failed to do it because of her timidity. However, the deceased recently reaped unexpected success, which aroused her jealousy heart, making her impulsive to kill..."

"Wait a minute!" the detective interrupted, "Mr. Holmes, you are obviously contradicting yourself here. On the one hand, you say that she is well thought out and planned for a long time, and on the other hand, you say that she is an impulsive murder... I have also handled many cases of impulsive murder. There were signs of a very violent struggle, and this case—”

Sherlock glanced at him and asked lightly, "Excuse me, are there signs of struggle or scuffle at the scene?"

"No, no..."

"Excuse me, besides the fatal wound, are there any extra wounds on the deceased's body?"

"No, I'm also very puzzled about this..."

Sherlock interrupted him at a slightly faster speed: "There is nothing to doubt. This is one of the reasons why I believe that the murderer is a woman. Women are different from men. When men kill, the corpse will reflect their instinctive desires, such as aggressiveness, Lust for food, desire for power... Women usually kill because of comparison and vanity, so they seldom abuse corpses. Most female murderers choose to kill with poison, but the murderer in this case chose tranquilizers. She Her thinking is fairly strict. After the murder, she did not forget to put on the newly bought high leather boots to forge the scene, but she forgot one of the most fatal and serious mistakes-a man with a foot size of 43 and a height of at least six feet , but according to the relationship between the depth of the footprint and the weight, the weight of this footprint is only about 42kg."

Having said that, he glanced at the dull detective: "Now look at the footprints you just stepped on."

The detective raised his foot numbly, lowered his head numbly, and saw the footprints he stepped on inadvertently, which were much, much deeper than the footprints at the murder scene.

-

In a horrific murder case, this person only observed the surrounding environment and the state of the deceased, and guessed the murderer's gender, height, weight, and even the color of his hair, which is even better than the magic of a circus magic.

But miraculous is miraculous. Bai Lanzhi knew that she could not praise other men in front of Eric, so she just stopped a policeman and asked, "The case has been solved, does it mean that London is safe at night?"

The police first looked at their disparate appearances in amazement, and then shook their heads: "Who told you? This is just a small case, and the real serial murder is still far from being solved. For the sake of safety, we should Go out as little as possible."

"Thank you for letting me know." Bai Lanzhi nodded.

She took Eric's arm and was about to turn around and go back to the hotel when a magnetic voice sounded: "Wait."

The policeman immediately nodded behind them: "Mr. Holmes."

The showy Sherlock Holmes just now was standing behind them, walking quickly in front of them.Looking at his face from a close distance, his cheeks are thinner than they look from a distance, almost to the point of emaciation. Unlike Eric, there is no male perfume smell on his body, only a strong and pungent smell of tobacco .With his hands in the pockets of his overcoat, he scanned Eric carefully, his eyes shining with intensity, interest, and wonder.

"It's strange, it's so strange!" he muttered to himself, "I can't even see your occupation, it's impossible." He stretched out his hand towards Eric, his tone almost humble, which was quite different from the haughty look just now, "Sherlock Holmes, a consulting detective."

"Eric." The tone was very cold.

Hearing Eric's voice, Sherlock squinted his eyes, and his expression was a little excited.With his index finger knuckles resting on his chin, he looked carefully at every part of his body like observing a chemical reaction in a test tube.Bai Lanzhi always felt that his eyes were the same as when he just observed the corpse.

"I've seen you before, but I didn't expect you to be so interesting in person," said he. "You have muscles like no gentleman has, so you can never be of noble birth; but You are quite rich, with a full carat of diamonds on your cufflinks, and a soft and smooth pony leather coat, but you are not at all like an upstart; your fingers are very slender, longer than any violinist I have ever seen. They are all long and flexible. Just now when you put your arms around this lady's shoulders, you moved your fingers. The degree of opening and closing between your fingers is amazing. You are a natural musician...but the fingers of your thumb and index finger You don’t have the accent of any country, but I can still tell that you have been in France, Italy, and India for a while.” He paused, and there was a hint of pleading in his tone, “Can you Can't tell me, what exactly do you do, I'm just too curious!"

He said such a long paragraph in one breath, with a sincere expression like a child begging for candy, but Eric only answered three words concisely: "Composer."