[Shen Xia] Son of Great Britain

a nightmare.

Favors sat up in shock, took the glass of cold water by the bedside, and poured it vigorously to relieve the unexplained dyspnea.

He rang the summons bell on the bedside, and after a while, a young lady knocked on the door with a tray.

"Little Favors, do you need to open the window wider?" She put the dinner plate on the tea table in the corner of the room, and fetched a coat for Favors to wear.

Favors got out of bed and sat on the sofa chair beside the tea table, "Yes, I'm sorry to trouble you, Miss Hannah."

His words and deeds are like a mature gentleman, but his accent with a little bit of milk makes this impression instantly shattered, not to mention his baby's fat face that is flushed because of illness.

The little gentleman whose full name is Favors Ramirez and who suffered acute allergies from eating seafood by mistake is only ten years old this year.He is not a royal nobleman, and Miss Hannah is just the only nanny in this family.

But to be precise, Ms. Hannah was also a temporary nanny transferred yesterday, because the previous nanny neglected to give him food allergies, the hostess who was far away from abroad immediately dismissed her and asked the housekeeping company to send a new nanny come over.

The young Miss Hannah opened the heavy curtains as she said, and opened the windows wider to let the cold air outside the windows take away the sickness in the room, and her expression became more relaxed.

"Dr. Smith said he would come to see you at seven o'clock. God forbid, you should get better soon."

Favors ate a few mouthfuls of the not-so-rich dinner, and when he heard the words, he turned to comfort Hannah and said, "Don't worry, I can feel that I'm much better. I slept almost the whole day. I hate my mind. The status of the regiment. By the way, isn’t Mom back yet?”

"Last night, Mrs. Roseanne said that she would come back early, but I didn't hear any news about her today. Maybe she will come back later." Hannah shook her head, the mistress of the house was not here, only herself The temporary nanny who just arrived for a day to take care of this overly smart little master made her feel a lot of pressure, so she sincerely hoped that the hostess would come back earlier so that she could finish her work smoothly.

"Last night?" Favors stopped eating, no matter how cute his face was, he couldn't hold back his dignified expression, "Let me see the message she sent."

Hannah hesitated for a moment, opened the hostess' text message, and then kept this interface and handed it to Favors.After seeing the news, Favors opened the webpage under Hannah's attention to check yesterday's flight information and weather conditions.

After learning that she was ill, Favors believed that her mother would come back as soon as possible.There were suitable flights last night and the weather, while bad enough to delay the flight, did not ground the plane.Normally, his mother should have returned late last night.

However, the fact is that his mother has never been heard from until now.

Although there was already an ominous premonition in his heart, Favors still entered his mother's number with a glimmer of hope.

The moment he was about to press the call button, a call with the ending number 1212 came in.

Anyone who lives in London will be familiar with this tail number, because it belongs to Scotland Yard.

Favors and Hannah got on the phone.

***

Biston, Lauriston Gardens.

The venerable war veteran John H. Watson follows his freshly minted roommate - the world's only consulting detective Sherlock Holmes - at the invitation of serial suicide investigator Inspector Lestrade. down here.

This is the scene of the fourth bizarre suicide case, and it is said that there are messages left by the victim.

In order to shorten their time at the scene of the crime (which was a violation of the rules), Lestrade had already begun to introduce the situation of the deceased when he went up the stairs, "according to the passport certificate she carried, her name was Roseanne La Mires, a well-known novelist and playwright, a frequent guest on the bestseller list, you should have read her book."

"No, my brain won't remember those boring books." Sherlock retorted Lestrade without hesitation.

Well, Lestrade already knew that Sherlock would say that, he was used to it and he would not feel embarrassed at all, asking Sherlock about this kind of normal conversation was purely because he said it smoothly.

"That Ms. Ramirez? Oh no, I've read her book, and she writes very interestingly." John, who was not used to Sherlock's style, kindly echoed, which made Lestrade secretly pray for this Sherlock The assistant can last a little longer.

Looks like a nice guy, or at least a normal guy.

Lestrade was heartbroken by Sherlock's words and actions.

He quickly adjusted his status and continued to tell them: "The deceased just came back from Germany, and her luggage and mobile phone were still left at the scene. We have already contacted her family. Initially, it is the same as the previous three times. The cause of death is the same as before, she committed suicide by taking the same poison, but the difference is that she wrote a word in her notebook before she died."

Neither Sherlock nor John asked what the death message was, because they had reached the room where the dead man was.It can be seen that the scene is well protected, and Lestrade specially transferred everyone to give Sherlock a quiet environment for investigating the case.

As soon as he entered this old room that had been vacant for a long time, Sherlock couldn't wait to observe the surroundings. After recording all the situation in his mind, he began to look at the dead body again.

[There is no ring on the body, and there is no trace of the ring. ]

-single.

[New gemstone earrings, brand-name clothing bags, popular models. ]

[cleanly dressed]

[bestselling author]

- Wealthy and well-bred.

[An oval-shaped pendant that can be inserted with a photo. The photo is a photo of the deceased with a little boy. ]

-Single mother.

[Italian text on the back of the pendant. ]

-Souvenirs.

[wealthy with cheap necklaces]

-Mother-child relationship is better/child has passed away.

[Visa, passport. ]

-I often go out to collect materials, and take a late-night flight back from Germany.

- Landing at Heathrow.

[The weather was bad last night, rushing back late at night? ]

- Hurry up, what's going on.

- The child is seriously ill?Parents die?Someone's invitation?Flee back to the country?

[The deceased's personal notes. ]

-The next book will be about vampires.

-It is complete with bills, and the itinerary can be restored.

-Specially jotted down math books.

[The name of the esoteric mathematics book specially written down in the portable notes]

-A reference book for novels×

-The writing posture is inclined, and the strokes deviate slightly from normal writing.

- Temporary recording, dictation.

- A gift for someone?

[Under Math Notes: Hannah, Necklace (double underlined)]

-Hannah, female name, friend?loved ones?Neighbor?nanny?

- Necklace, the gift that can't go wrong.

- There is no specific style of necklace. Hannah has a normal relationship with the deceased, but she will definitely see it.

- Hannah is the babysitter/housekeeper, newcomer.

[Death message: fat]

-English fat: adj. fat, valuable n. fat, oil vi. fattening

- The murderer is a fat man ×

-Words are not finished.

Thinking of this, Sherlock looked up at Lestrade and noticed that he was looking at the death message. Lestrade explained: "I have sent someone to collect the sighting information nearby, and temporarily got the news that there is a strong man People have been here."

"Stupid!" Sherlock stood up and said mercilessly.

Anderson outside the door sneered, "Freak, let me hear your opinion, don't you even know English?"

Sherlock ignored him at all and closed the door directly. Lestrade shrugged helplessly, went out and sent Anderson away before returning, "Tell me what you found?"

"The deceased was in her late thirties, a single mother, clean and self-conscious, without a lover. She went to Germany to get material for her next novel, but her son was ill. After the nanny Hannah informed her, she booked a plane ticket and rushed back late at night. She knew Dealing with interpersonal relationships, not making enemies with people."

Walking around the deceased, Sherlock continued, "The one who had dealt with the murderer before his death was not fighting, but persuading the murderer for some reason, waiting for an opportunity to escape but unfortunately failed.

Her suitcase was in the back center of the room, but her body was some distance away from the suitcase, near the door.There was no sign of crawling or dragging on the clothes or hands, and her movements were pre-death.

There were also no traces of fighting or struggling. She had no direct contact with the murderer, but she was afraid of the murderer's existence. This meant that the murderer must have some kind of deterrent weapon, most likely a pistol.Because if it was a knife, the first two young and middle-aged male victims would not have left no traces of struggle. "

"It's amazing." John exclaimed.

Sherlock gave him a look, and at this moment even Lestrade's nagging questioning was not too noisy, obviously he was pleased by John's straightforward praise.

"Did they give you the dead man's mobile phone?" No matter how many times, Lestrade was still amazed at the wisdom of Holmes. "It is true that she rushed back because the nanny informed her that the child was sick, but her mobile phone was stolen." My police officer took it to contact her family, and I will have someone bring it to you in a while. Now let's talk about what the words she wrote mean."

"Obviously, this is an unfinished word. Looking at her posture and the way she stops the pen, her pen tip does not stop at the bottom right corner, but at the top left corner of the 't', it is obvious that she is about to write The next letter." Sherlock made a virtual circle with his fingers.

Having said that, Sherlock suddenly named John, "What word do you think she used?"

"Me?" John pointed to himself and couldn't react. He thought for a while, and replied carefully, "Maybe it's 'fate', I mean the Fate who said the name. You said she had communicated with the murderer, maybe they The two know each other? She knows the murderer's name is Fett."

"It's so wrong! Observe! Observe her movements, the position of her pen is obviously the tallest letter to be written - bdfhiklt!"

Immediately afterwards, he announced the answer.

"—father."

Unexpectedly, an immature voice told the answer to the mystery together with Sherlock.

All three people in the room were taken aback. Lestrade looked at the door, where a boy wearing a navy blue sweater with a white border stood there.He and Watson looked at each other, and they both suspected that it was the other's child, but they quickly dismissed this idea.

Lestrade stepped forward, squatted down to block the boy's sight, and at the same time angrily shouted at the police officer outside: "Who put the child in!"

This is an episode that no one expected, Lestrade tried to carry the boy out of the room.

"It's easy to avoid them, Mr. Inspector, please let me see my mother." The boy refused Lestrade's embrace, and the cold gray eyes made Lestrade feel a little familiar.

At this time, John, who knew his identity, also came over, and he said gently: "Son, it's a pity that your mother has fallen into a long sleep here. This is not a suitable picture for you to watch. Please rest assured, we will definitely find the real one." murderer."

Sherlock, the only one who didn't come over, sized Favors with his pair of blue eyes, his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.

Favors also met his gaze and said, "I'm Favors Ramirez. I'm sorry, sir, I interrupted your wonderful reasoning, but please don't pay attention to me, and continue to look for that hateful murderer. I just want to see my mother."

"Ha, that math book is for you." Sherlock said something unrelated to the case. After briefly examining Favors and fusing his information with the deceased, Sherlock had a guess: This kid has a mind different from those of the goldfish.

Sherlock walked away from the dead Lady Roseanne, and Favors also cleverly broke through the double defense of Lestrade and John.

"Arsenal ① is ashamed of you." Sherlock who saw this scene sneered.

Lestrade deeply realized that although children are not very obedient, the worst one is undoubtedly the older one.

Favors, who broke in successfully, had already knelt down in front of his mother, which made both Lestrade and John feel a little bit at a loss. It seemed that they shouldn't disturb the mother and son who were separated from each other.John put down his crutches and squatted down. He hugged Favors' shoulders and silently comforted the poor boy who lost his mother.

Sherlock didn't say anything about the existence of Favors (this is incredible, he never likes people to disturb his thinking), he brought the topic back to the case itself, "The word she wrote is 'father'."

Lestrade asked blankly, "Which father is it? The priest?"

"No, move your little heads. I said that the deceased used some reason to deal with the murderer's words before his death. Don't you think it is the identity of a writer and a fan? That will only make the murderer focus on the deceased. body, the dead cannot make small movements."

Sherlock's speech was fast, like the rattle of a book, which made Lestrade and John have to concentrate on listening, "Obviously, that must be a kind of speech that can impress the murderer. The dying person is the most A common excuse, remember that she came back for a sick child, is there any better excuse than this?"

"Oh... Sherlock!" Lestrade wanted to accuse Sherlock of telling the incident in front of Favors, the victim's family, but was interrupted by Sherlock's next words.

"Her rhetoric is half successful, which shows that the murderer was touched. The murderer is the father of a seriously ill child, or the murderer is a single father who loves his children very much. Her plea resonated with the murderer and he almost let him go. Killed her." At this point, Sherlock suddenly muttered to himself, "She knows the murderer? No, this is not a crime committed by an acquaintance, she must have learned about the murderer through some way..."

Sherlock suddenly turned towards the dead man, and when he was about to squat down to get something, Favors seemed to know what he was thinking, and handed him Madame Rosanne's notebook.

This is indeed what Sherlock wanted, he took it after a pause, and after flipping through it quickly, he almost ran towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going, you can't take away the evidence, and who is the murderer?" Lestrade rushed out of the room and asked him.

"Receipts!" Sherlock, who had already walked down the stairs, held up the notebook, "All the receipts of the deceased's itinerary are in the notebook, but the last trace she left was at the airport, and the murderer brought her here."

"what?"

"The murderer is a taxi driver! This allows him to walk freely in the city without being suspected, and even return to the scene of the crime to admire his masterpiece. He will definitely do this. He thinks highly of himself and enjoys teasing the society and the police. The deceased After coming out of the airport, I took a taxi and was brought here by the murderer, who used some means to force her to 'suicide'." Sherlock was very interested in the murderer's method of committing the crime, and he rushed out like a hurricane. This dilapidated house.

"Sherlock, you can't go!" However, Lestrade's shout was useless. He hammered the handrail of the stairs, and called his men, "Damn it, come on! We need to make a reply to the people who appeared in Hope last night." Si Luo Airport, and the taxi driver who was also present at the scene of the crime to do an investigation, gender male, divorced or separated, with children. Hurry up, guys!"

Under Lestrade's eager urging, the police officers in the entire building began to perform their duties.But even though he was busy trying to trace the identity of the prisoner, Lestrade did not ignore the poor boy in the room who had just witnessed his mother's body. He asked the nanny who was stopped downstairs to take the boy to the police car outside, and called again A kind policewoman brought a blanket and hot milk to appease the victim's family.

When everyone was busy, John, who was abandoned by Sherlock at the scene of the crime, dragged his limping leg to the window. He saw Sherlock hailing a taxi on the side of the road, and they said What, then Sherlock got in the car and left.

——"Go back to the scene of the crime and admire your masterpiece."

John thought of Sherlock's evaluation of the murderer just now, and suddenly had a bad feeling.He cursed inwardly, and hurried to catch up, but he couldn't run fast with his crutches. When he went downstairs, his anxiety made him subconsciously throw away his crutches.

Sitting in the police car, Favors, who was wearing a blanket and holding hot milk, happened to see this scene through the car window.

At this moment, he has already presented what will happen next in his mind - Sherlock Holmes who got in the murderer's car will play a game with the murderer later, and in a critical moment, John Watson will Shoot the murderer.

So ridiculous.

He obviously has a talent that others cannot match, and he clearly knows who is behind the scenes, but he can't even protect his own mother.

He is so arrogant.

He arrogantly thought that the person lying upstairs today would be a lady in pink, and arrogantly believed that the serial murder case that would be terminated by Sherlock Holmes had nothing to do with him, so he never told his mother even the slightest warning .

He could obviously create a safe environment for his mother, and even monitor her safety all the time, but he didn't do it.

To be capable but not act is incompetence and stupidity.

No one else can criticize a ten-year-old's behavior, but he can't.

His cheeks flushed from illness turned pale under the influence of the cold wind and emotions. He bit his lower lip, his body trembling slightly, like a frightened child.

The policewoman tucked up the blanket for him distressedly, "Poor child, where is your father?"

Father.

The word appeared in Favors' mind, reminding him of his mother's death message.

Indeed, the murderer this time is also a father, but if it is to point to the murderer, it is more appropriate to write "taxi" or "driver". The word "father" can only be used as a clue to profile rather than a direct correction.Especially before dying, at such an urgent moment, would someone make a detour?

Favors had already noticed the sense of disobedience at the first glance, but he didn't think about it carefully because his mind was not right. At this time, he thought about it for a while and understood what his mother really meant.

That was not the death message used to find the murderer, but the last will she left to Favors, and it was also her arrangement for Favors.

- "Go and find your father."

She believed in her clever son, that he would find his killer even if there was no news of his death.No, she didn't care about catching the murderer at all, she just hoped that her child's future life could be guaranteed, and she believed that he could find the father who had never been masked.

Father.

The person corresponding to this word is completely unfamiliar to Favors.

Knowing him from birth, he is not full of natural yearning and curiosity towards his father like ordinary children. On the contrary, because his mother never mentioned his father's name and identity, Favors also wisely did not ask about the relationship between his parents. s story.

Because of his cleverness in the past, now he has to find the chromosome provider who had a romantic relationship with his mother ten years ago in the vast crowd.

This is almost a clueless matter, and anyone else would be troubled for a while, but for Phevos, he already has the biggest clue—it is his mother herself.

His mother would never let him go looking for someone without a clue, she must have left him some important clues.

Just think about it, Favors.

Favors, who was wrapped in a blanket, frowned.

His mother, Rosanne Ramirez, was from a wealthy family and received higher education since she was a child. Her life was very smooth.She has been particularly interested in literature and philosophy since junior high school. She started writing articles in some newspapers and periodicals in high school. After graduating from university, she often travels around the world in search of inspiration and collision of ideas.

She has been single for many years, and her mother is not without lovers. At least Favors has noticed that she has had two short-term lovers abroad, and they are both young and promising men who are easy to get together and part ways.This means that his mother has good eyesight, at least his biological father will not be a bad person, and the other party is likely to be single-since his mother will not put her precious son in an embarrassing situation.

And judging from her mother's usual whereabouts and behavior, her life plan originally had no children, and Favors' appearance was an accident.

There must be some reason why he was left behind.

Favors thought of the reason almost immediately—in the summer of the year he was born, his grandparents died.

He speculated like this: the mother who received the news rushed back to her hometown, and under the influence of emotions, ignored the slight abnormalities in her body, so that by the time her mother found out, she had already missed the best time.Also because of nostalgia for family affection, he was left behind.

During those two years, her mother published a tragic novel about down-on-his-luck theater actors struggling in London's West End, titled Lady Mary Offstage.

In other words, before receiving the bad news, his mother had been in London for the novel, and the encounter with his father was undoubtedly also in London.

According to her mother's little habit of projecting the characters around her into the story (he had seen the characters representing the two lovers in her mother's book), his father should be a unique charm in the book, and he will be in the important place. Minor roles that appear all the time.

[She'd never met a more learned man than Mr. Penguin, and those bombastic men were like goldfish compared to him. ]

[Such a lovely sunshine!Is this Mr. Penguin's Christmas present to her? ]

Phevos' name "Phevos" is the modern English wording of Phoebus in Greek②, which means light, and also refers to Apollo Phoebus, the god of light (the sun god) in Greek mythology. .

"Mr. Penguin" is a doll that Mary found in a broken wooden barrel in the utility room in the book. The long-term pressure caused Mary to imagine it as the noble and knowledgeable Mr. Penguin.

His father must be Mr. Penguin in the barrel.

The siren was blaring outside the car window, watching the police officers who were mobilized to go to a certain place, Favors knew very well that everything was going according to what he knew.

The next day, Favors followed Hannah to Scotland Yard to deal with follow-up matters. He was sitting in the waiting area, holding hot cocoa given by the police.

Just as he was enjoying the slightly sweet hot cocoa, his vision was blocked by a figure.

"'father' does not refer to the murderer." After solving the case, Sherlock also noticed the inconsistency of the death message.

Favors nodded with a smile on his face, and greeted John, who hurried behind Sherlock with an apologetic face, in a friendly manner.

"The death message was supposed to be that my mother wanted me to find my real father. Thank you for finding the odious murderer, Mr. Holmes. May I ask you to help me find my father? I think he lives in London, single, and a man of great knowledge. My mother called him Mr. Penguin in the Barrel." Favors looked up, and Sherlock saw his face and cold gray eyes clearly.

If it was normal, Sherlock would reject such an entrustment before he finished speaking, but this time, not only did he not refuse after listening to it, but he even showed a weird smile.

He didn't answer whether he accepted the entrustment, but turned his side to let Favors see Lestrade who was coming after hearing the news, "I think you can stay at the inspector's house first, he won't mind, because he His wife cheated on her a year ago."

"Sherlock!" Lestrade roared angrily when he heard the last sentence, and then he squatted down and said to Favors with a pleasant face, "Hello, boy, I'm Greg Lestrade, Scotland Yard Inspector. I have learned from your nanny, she was only on duty to return to Mrs. Ramirez, if you still know the contact information of your relatives, we can ask him to pick you up."

Seeing that Favors shook his head, he said again, "OK... It doesn't matter if you don't know, you can stay at my house first (he gave Sherlock a sideways look), and I will hire another nanny to take care of you during this period. For the sake of safety, since your neighbor was burglarized not long ago, and your current situation requires adult supervision, we cannot leave you there alone. We will contact the Child Welfare Bureau to help you find your relatives, or ...adoptive families."

If they couldn't even find an adoptive family, then Favors would have only one place to go, and the orphanage was not a good place.In view of the previous scandals in the British orphanage, Lestrade was unwilling to send the child to the orphanage until he couldn't find the other's family.

Favors was not confused or worried about his future, he calmly extended his hand to Lestrade, "Thank you for taking me in, Mr. Detective, I am willing to follow your arrangement."

Next, after Favors's expiring temporary nanny Hannah came over with a cup of hot milk, Lestrade asked her if she would accept his offer to continue to take care of Favors.

After seeing that Favors already had hot cocoa in his hand, Hannah took a sip of milk in embarrassment, "I'm sorry, Mr. Inspector, my next job has already been arranged. If you don't mind, our company has There are plenty of suitable nannies to take care of little Mr Favors."

"Okay, I will contact your company." Lestrade felt a little regretful. He felt that Favors might be able to accept the new environment faster if he had familiar people by his side.After he explained something, he asked Hannah to take Favors back to pack his luggage, and he would pick Favors up when he got off work.

After Sherlock saw Hannah taking Favors away, he asked inexplicably, "His neighbor was burglarized?"

"Yes, we have inspected the scene, and there is no trace left except for the safe being destroyed. And the informant also refused to tell what the missing items were. He was in a hurry to go on vacation, so the case was not successfully filed in the end." Lestrade De looked at Sherlock suspiciously, "Are you interested in this case?" This is not Sherlock's style.

"...Of course not." Sherlock hesitated for a while before replying.

Lestrade felt that there must be something tricky in it, and he decided to check the records of this case later.

Looking at the bewildered Lestrade, Sherlock sneered again.