Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

The second client, Billy, revealed the situation of his missing fiancée Katie.

Katie, this year.

Seven years ago, her biological father called the shots on her marriage to Billy.

"After Mr. Karen passed away, I discussed with Katie that we should wait until she was 20 years old to discuss specific marriage matters."

Billy said that the two of them didn't need to rush to get married at all, but last Christmas, Katie revealed her desire to get married as soon as possible.

Why such a change?

Billy couldn't give a definite answer.

Billy confessed, "Although we have been engaged for many years, Katie and I are not close. Unfortunately, we have not been able to develop love for each other. However, neither Katie nor I have the idea of ​​​​breaking the contract. It should have been done step by step."

There are always reasons why plans are disrupted.

What Watson thought of first was Katie's family misfortune, "I just mentioned that Old Freeman is Katie's stepfather. How is his relationship with Katie? When did Katie's mother remarry?"

"As far as I know, the relationship in Katie's family is quite harmonious."

Billy said five years ago when Katie was 13, her mother remarried and moved to London.Unlike his biological father, Karen, who worked as a lawyer, his stepfather, Freeman, ran a bar. "In these years, I have never heard of any conflicts between them."

Sherlock remembered clearly what Billy said just now, "However, you came to find someone today, and Miss Kitty's parents didn't show up. You said they thought their daughter was crazy and ran away secretly. What's going on? "

The cause is not complicated.

"In October last year, Katie was severely allergic to mangoes. For a period of time, the rash on her face was very severe, and the rash area was very itchy. The disease repeated for two months and she suffered a lot."

Billy could understand that young girls value looks, "I went to visit a few times during the period. Katie had a short temper for a while, and she would throw things in the room regardless."

That scene was insane.

Katie was wearing a veil, banging the cutlery and yelling at Billy to 'fuck off'.

Billy couldn't help touching his nose as he said, "I almost got hit in the nose by a fork thrown by Katie. But I don't believe that Katie is crazy, she is just grumpy because of illness. At Christmas, Katie The rash on Dee's face has finally healed, and her temper is roughly under control."

"is it?"

Sherlock looked at Billy, who was obviously hesitant. "Miss Kitty proposed early marriage at Christmas last year. At that time, did her rash fully recover? No sequelae left?"

Billy shook his head helplessly, "No, Katie has a few shallow scars on the left side of her face. This may be the reason why she wants to get married early, for fear that I will dislike her and break the contract. But seriously, she Never admitted that reason."

Some reasons may not be able to speak out openly.

Billy didn't get to the bottom of it, anyway, he didn't intend to regret the marriage.

It was an agreement with Katie to hold the church ceremony in mid-March, and the day before yesterday was to make an appointment for the wedding venue and other matters.

Katie disappeared near the church.

It was said to be missing, but in fact it was more like running away from marriage halfway. She left the maid and the coachman behind.

"The coachman chased for two streets, and saw Katie get into another carriage from a distance, and then disappeared."

Billy's tone was also unbelievable, but there were passers-by at the scene to testify. "After that, I went to Katie's house. She didn't come home for two days. Mr. Freeman gave me a punch and blamed me for not taking good care of Katie. I was not told until yesterday that Katie had another sweetheart."

Old Freeman, that is, Katie's stepfather, told another story.

Last year, Katie had a secret lover.

Katie's mother did not support her daughter's reneging on the marriage contract, so there was the part where Katie deliberately fell ill and pretended to be crazy, in order to drive Billy away and make Billy propose to renege on the marriage.

This trick did not succeed.

Katie simply stated that the wedding was early, but in fact it was to let the family relax their vigilance, and she escaped successfully.

"This statement is logical, but there is always something strange."

Billy was skeptical, "Although I'm not close to Katie, I can't be sure if she's interested, but because we're not close, Katie just directly asks not to get married, there's no need to make things so complicated."

That's why Billy came to the detectives to investigate.

Hearing this, Sherlock and Kelsey looked at each other.

Kelsey asked Billy: "Did Katie's biological father leave an inheritance? The kind that was given to Katie alone."

"Sorry, I didn't know that. Katie never brought it up."

Billy shook his head uncertainly. After explaining what he knew, he left another photo taken by Katie at the beginning of last year and left first.

After a simple dinner.

Watson looked at the two detectives who were about to go out to investigate. Today, they took over the two disappearance cases and wondered if they should split up.

"Where do you two plan to go first?"

Watson was even more curious about the inheritance issue just mentioned, "Could it be that these two disappearances are related to inheritance?"

"It's too early to draw conclusions."

Kelsey said that the evidence is insufficient, but there are only three possibilities for a person to disappear before marriage.

——I didn’t get married because of emotional entanglements, I didn’t get married because my money was not allocated properly, and I couldn’t get married when I encountered an accident.

It is also a coincidence that the two disappearances happened on the same day, and they both came to 221B Baker Street for help.

Since it is a coincidence, we might as well investigate together.

Watson arranged an easy job to find out whether the missing fiancé Heller was an employee of the Anglo-French joint venture Babar Coffee Company.

This required a trip to Paris, as the Babar company did not have a branch in London.

Tonight, Kelsey and Sherlock went to Katie's house to find out the situation.

'Knock knock knock', 'knock knock knock'...

After continuous knocking on the door, Freeman opened half of the door.

Freeman is of average build, about 40 years old and has no beard. When he heard the intention of the visitor, his face darkened. "Detective? What are you here for? There is nothing to investigate at home!"

As soon as these words came out, Freeman was about to close the door heavily.

The next moment, the expected sound of closing the door did not sound.

Kelsey was standing on the side near the door, with quick eyesight and quick hands, he quickly supported the door.

She asked Freeman sternly: "Your daughter is missing, so nothing happened? Could it be that because Miss Kitty is only your stepdaughter, you don't care about her life?"

At nine o'clock in the evening, the residential area has become quiet.

Freeman's hand sank slightly, he didn't expect to fail to close the door, and his face froze when he heard these words again.

This will first look around outside the door, and he is relieved when he finds that no neighbors are watching. He can only let the two of them in with a bad face, "Come in and say, don't disturb other people."

The daughter disappeared, and the atmosphere in Katie's house was also extremely depressing.

There was no one else in the living room, and Katie's mother was said to have been bedridden with anger.

There was no tea reception at this meeting, let alone polite greetings, and the room only had a strong smell of tobacco and alcohol.

On the table was a half-filled bottle of vodka and an animal-skin tobacco pouch.

The pipe was placed on one side, and some broken porcelain pieces could still be seen on the ground, indicating that there may have been a dispute just now.

"That kid Billy still went to report the crime. What did he say? Didn't he tell you that Katie pretended to be crazy and eloped with someone?"

Freeman opened his mouth to ridicule, "Katie has the face to do such a scandal, why do we bother to find her? Just pretend that we have never raised this daughter. What else do you want to inquire about? Even if we get back the shameless things, I won't let her in the house again."

"Please be careful with your words."

Sherlock's expression was cold when he heard this, "Mr. Freeman, it has not been confirmed that Miss Kitty eloped with someone."

According to Billy's description, no one saw Miss Kitty's face clearly near the church the day before yesterday.The lady who sneaked away was wearing a veil, and the coachman spotted her back from a distance of several meters.

Sherlock said objectively, "In this case, it is possible to identify the wrong person."

"Heh!" Freeman obviously didn't believe it, and sneered disdainfully. "If you admit the wrong person, why didn't Katie go home?"

Sherlock stared at Freeman, "Haven't you considered a possibility? Someone pretended to be a substitute and took this opportunity to kidnap Miss Kitty."

"what?"

Freeman's eyes widened, "You mean someone swapped my daughter? God! Mr. Holmes, please don't put those weird cases on ordinary people like us. Katie just eloped with someone. .As a father, don't I know more about this kind of thing than you, an outsider?"

Immediately afterwards, Freeman told that story.

Last year, Katie secretly fell in love with someone, intentionally ate mango allergies, used her rash to go crazy, and wanted to regret her marriage with Billy, etc.

The words were exactly what Billy had relayed.

Sherlock also asked directly, "In that case, why not simply cancel the engagement? Could it be that Mr. Billy disagreed? But that's not what he meant."

"How can we cancel the engagement!"

Freeman made no secret of his resolute opposition, "How can you say that you regret the marriage if you regret it! Besides, Katie refuses to reveal who her nasty lover is. Lead her astray."

Freeman spoke in a firm tone, with no room for negotiation at all. "Since there is nothing wrong with Billy, Katie should marry him according to the marriage contract. Backtracking, this kind of thing must not happen in my family."

However, Katie, who is now a fiancée, has disappeared.

Nor could Freeman say with whom the stepdaughter might have run off.

Kelsey glanced around while listening, and there were a few wine bottles on the floor of the living room, which were all high-grade vodka similar to those on the table.

After hearing about Katie's situation, she mentioned, "Mr. Freeman, what you drank is spirits. It's rare in the market in London. I wonder where you bought it?"

"I'm a bar owner. It's easy to get two bottles of wine."

Freeman said, "Is there anything wrong with asking the distillery to bring two bottles of spirits? If there are no other problems, please leave as soon as possible. I hope you don't make any noise about finding Katie."

Kelsey said he has no other questions at the moment.

Sherlock's eyes flicked over the animal skin tobacco bag, and he determined that it was some old seal skin.He glanced at Freeman's hands again, and bid farewell.

"We will try our best to find Miss Katie, and I hope you can fully cooperate in the future."

"Humph!"

Freeman still sarcastically stated that he didn't need a daughter who ruined the family tradition, and he didn't promise whether he would cooperate or not.He did not give a positive answer to the detectives' desire to see Katie's mother next time.

Finally, the two detectives were sent away with a slamming door.

'Bang! '

The sound of slamming doors echoed in the empty street.

Sherlock and Kelsey did not go home immediately.

The two observed the three-story building from the outside, and there was no light at all in the direction of Katie's bedroom on the third floor.After going around in a circle, I left in a carriage.

As soon as they got on the carriage, the two spoke at the same time:

"I have a thought about Freeman..."

"Freeman may have been..."