Top-notch artist in entertainment

Chapter 694 The answer
The truth of the final case in "Uncanny Valley", although not enough to surprise and shock Barry.

But the whole case, from the beginning of the case to the case analysis and the testimony of witnesses at the scene, the entire reasoning process was particularly clear and smooth, which made Barry very enjoyable to watch.

After analyzing the clues he had received and relevant testimonies, Holmes quickly came to the conclusion that he had been trapped in lies since entering the manor.

From the witnesses' descriptions, Barry was also able to analyze that Buck and Mrs. Douglas should be the more powerful suspects.

The testimony was already full of holes from the beginning. First, according to Buck, he arrived in the study only a minute or so after hearing the gunshot.

But judging from the complicated situation at the scene, it was obvious that the murderer was in a hurry to leave the mysterious piece of paper and remove the wedding ring from the deceased within one minute.

After all, the wedding ring was worn by Douglas on top of another ring. If it was done in a hurry, it would be impossible for the murderer to put the other ring back on Douglas's hand.

In addition to this, there is another very big flaw, which is the description of gunshots.

Only Mrs. Barker and Mrs. Douglas could claim to have heard the gunshots with perfect accuracy.

The butler was too far away, so it was understandable that he didn't hear it. However, some sounds could still be vaguely heard in the housekeeper's room, but the gunshot was not clearly heard.

In the evening, everyone gathered at the manor. Holmes and several others walked to the bushes in the garden and squatted down. Directly opposite was the suspension bridge and the gate of the manor.

In one night, fourteen places sent messages saying that suspects with similar appearances had been found.

At this point in the book's story, Watson wonders if it's possible that Buck and Mrs. Douglas conspired to commit the crime.

Regarding this point, Mike and others did not quite understand why they did this.

Following the clues, Barry's mind was running rapidly, and he soon had some guesses.

Holmes replied that a good show would be staged at this place, so the few people stayed in the bushes and waited.

This further confirmed that the murderer was likely to come from outside the manor, but only the hotel staff described the physical characteristics of the visitor.

The reasoning is the same as Holmes's, and they both feel that it is not very logical if the two of them conspired to commit the crime.

Based on these clues, it is assumed that 11:15 is not the time for shooting, so the time when the housekeeper heard the sound was around 10:45.

This kind of information sounded a bit inexplicable to Detective Mike and others, but they were completely confused and couldn't figure out what it had to do with the current murder case.

For the National Police Agency, after confirming the presence of a mysterious suspect like Hargrave, the case made considerable progress, and a search was almost immediately launched based on the suspect's characteristics.

However, telling Mike and others not to continue investigating does not mean that there is no hope of solving the case, it is just that this road will not work.

The night was getting darker and the temperature was getting colder. Just when the police detective finally got tired of waiting, there was finally movement.

Compared with some previous cases where the situation could not be guessed at all, the manor tragedy in "Uncanny Valley" actually made Barry feel more involved.

At this moment, Holmes took out an introduction brochure about Birlstone Manor.

Although the content is not long, it records relatively precise information. Among them, it is mentioned that Charles I hid in this manor for a few days during the Civil War, and George II also visited the manor later.

Such words made the two of them stunned, and also made Barry, who was reading, a little curious about what Holmes had discovered.

Wanting to reveal the answer to the mystery, Holmes hopes that Mike and others can cooperate with his arrangements. It doesn't matter where they are during the day, as long as they meet at the manor at night.

And although it seems that this testimony is full of loopholes, Barry does not think that there is no credible content at all.

At this time, the police detective in the story also brought new clues.

As soon as such a question came out, Barry shook his head subconsciously.

Apart from this, there are currently no other clues, and so far Hargrave has not been found.

The answer to the mystery will also be revealed with this dumbbell.

This manor is already famous in history, and there is a special introduction to it.

There was a full half-hour vacuum period before Bakra rang the bell to notify the servant. What happened during this period is an unresolved problem.

Instead, at another time, I heard a sound like a door slamming hard.

The reasoning of the case seems to have reached no progress here, but that night, Holmes conducted a small experiment in the manor without the knowledge of others.

Mike and Mike wrote this letter reluctantly. After all, it was almost impossible to drain the trenches.

In addition, the police were specifically asked to send a letter to Buck.

He said that in order to find relevant clues, the police were about to drain the water from the trench and conduct a search. The project was fully prepared and would be carried out tomorrow morning.

Just the fact that the murder weapon was such a noisy shotgun is a bit untenable.

Holmes's arrangement was full of weirdness. Although Mike and others were reluctant, they all followed the arrangement out of trust.

This also made Mike and others curious about what kind of experiments Holmes had done the night before.

Regarding the same information, Barry already had some vague guesses from a half-god perspective.

Putting aside the history of the manor and regarding the case itself, Holmes spent a quarter of an hour in the study the night before in order to find the missing dumbbell in the study, and successfully found it.

In the village, I once saw the owner of a bicycle outside the manor, who called himself Hargrave.

For example, the Uncanny Valley incident that was directly used as the title, the danger Douglas perceived, the pieces of paper at the scene and the bicycle outside the manor, etc., seemed to Barry to be related clues.

At this point, the story reaches its final moment and the final chapter where the truth is revealed.

After listening to Detective Mike's report, Holmes instead advised the two to stop investigating.

The positions of several people were also facing the study, and they saw a figure walking around in the study, blocking the light.

Based on the analysis of these clues, Holmes further reconstructed the possible course of the case. The case occurred half an hour earlier than originally described, and it is very possible that Buck and the two concealed some facts during this half-hour vacuum period. And disrupted the crime scene to help the murderer escape.

After a while, the window was pushed open, a man poked his head out furtively, and then fished it out in the water of the trench.

Under the watchful eyes of Holmes and others, they saw the other party pull up something big and round in the water like a fisherman reeling in his line.

Seeing this situation, Holmes and others immediately took action and headed straight to the manor. As soon as the butler opened the door, everyone headed straight to the study.

The person who was carrying out salvage operations in the study room was none other than Buck, and under the desk was a large package that had just been salvaged.

The dumbbell in the study disappeared, and outside the window was the moat connecting the water. The night before, Holmes entered the study and tried to salvage it with Watson's umbrella, thus finding the package. However, after finding it, in order to catch a big fish with bait, Holmes put the package back into the water and asked the detective to write a letter to deliver the false news.

The purpose is to wait and wait to find the person who lost the package.

After opening the package, the dumbbells were inside. In addition, there were many other contents, including a long knife. In addition, there was a complete set of shoes, socks and clothes, a gray tweed suit and a yellow short coat.

Holmes picked up the garment and examined it. The inner pocket of the peacoat was long enough to hold a sawn-off shotgun.

And the information revealed by the clothes is more than that. There is the name of the clothing store on the collar, which comes from Neil's Clothing Store in the town of Vermissa.

At first glance, there may not seem to be any connection, but the town of Vermissa is a mining area rich in coal and iron.

Buck and Douglas had previously worked together in the mines. After gathering this information, it was not difficult to figure out that the VV written on the mysterious card was the abbreviation of Vermissa Valley, which is the so-called Uncanny Valley.

Holmes' analysis ended here, and then he looked at Buck, wanting Buck to explain further.

But Buck never spoke, and at this moment, Holmes called out a name that surprised everyone present.

[.I strongly suggest that Mr. Douglas be asked to speak out himself. 】

Mr. Douglas is indeed a very brave man. No one at the scene dared to shout and no one dared to agree. In the shocked eyes of Watson and others, Douglas, who should have died, walked out of the darkness.

For readers like Barry, this kind of resurrection from the dead is vaguely guessable.

It was also because before the final answer was revealed, it was repeatedly suggested that the bicycle owner was similar in height and weight to Douglas, and at the same time, famous people had taken refuge in Birlstone Manor in history.

Combined with the clothes in the package and the behavior of Buck and the two, Barry already had a rough guess.

When reading detective novels, failing to guess the truth is a very enjoyable experience, and guessing the truth will also give you a sense of accomplishment.

When Barry read this point, he nodded with satisfaction, and then began to wonder about the deeper story behind it.

Regarding the truth about the murder at the manor, Douglas has actually been hunted by a mysterious organization.

The so-called Bicycle Man is actually the killer who came to hunt Douglas.

The reason why Douglas behaved abnormally was because he noticed the presence of the killer.

On the day of the incident, the killer sneaked into the manor and tried to kill Douglas.

However, when Douglas was already on guard, the two got into a dispute, and Douglas eventually counterattacked during the dispute.

After the counter-attack was successful, Douglas, with the help of his wife and friend Buck, began to think of changing the situation.

After all, the two men were similar in stature, and the bicycle man's head was missing. In the background era of the story, it was difficult to have a clear identification method for a while, so after Buck called the police, the effect of concealing the truth was successfully achieved.

As for Douglas himself, he was hiding in the manor.

The truth of the case has been restored to a rough outline, and the first half of the story ends here.

The second half is a retrospective of history, telling the background of the big story arising from this case.

Barry paused while reading. For such an opening, Barry quite liked it and felt that the whole story went very smoothly.

And because of the different eras and backgrounds, Barry did not think about the corpse being replaced at the first time. There were many surprises during the reading process.

What really surprised Barry was that such a case seemed to only serve as an introduction and an appetizer in this detective collection.

Throwing out such a case made Barry particularly curious about the uncanny valley past behind the case.

However, after noticing that it was not too early, Barry stopped in time, put down the bookmark and picked up the phone.

As a well-known old editor, Barry still has some connections.

For example, some famous writers and even practitioners have contact information.

However, there was no direct way to contact Jiang Yuan.

But after thinking about the news he saw today, Barry hesitated to make a video call to Karl.

In the early years, Carl also had some works published by Barry.

I thought that Karl attended Jiang Yuan's autograph session, so I wanted a contact information.

But after the video was connected, I didn't expect that the two of them were in the same dinner party.

When Carl just received Barry's video, he was a little excited. After all, he still respected Barry.

After the video was connected, Barry also exchanged pleasantries and mentioned his idea of ​​starting a magazine.

After all, there were a lot of works to be collected, so I thought about it and roped in Karl.

Karl naturally agreed to Barry's invitation, and then Barry talked about Jiang Yuan.

So Karl directly handed the phone to Jiang Yuan's hand.

Jiang Yuan was a little surprised when he suddenly received a video from an old man, but Karl was very kind and introduced him to Jiang Yuan.

By the way, Barry's purpose for making this video was explained, which was an invitation from the magazine.

After Karl gave a general explanation, Jiang Yuan looked at Barry, who immediately introduced his idea for the magazine and the invitation.

At the end, Barry added that he had just finished reading the first part of "The Uncanny Valley" and said it was really excellent.

Jiang Yuan nodded in his mind, Conan Doyle was indeed excellent.

After praising him, Barry looked at Jiang Yuan calmly. In fact, he was shaking his legs nervously outside the video.

Jiang Yuan thought about Barry's invitation, and after thinking about it, he felt that it was not impossible to try. After all, he had a lot of short stories in his backlog.

"You may consider"

Before Barry finished speaking, Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)