Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

Can't sleep tonight.

23: 16.

Lestrade was awakened in his sleep by a rapid knock on the door, and thirty-five minutes later he awoke the two Baker Street detectives in the same way.

On the carriage, Carter described the known circumstances he found at the crime scene.

"The deceased was Del Gunter, and I checked that there was no disguise on his face, not someone impersonating him.

At 10:30 p.m., when I arrived at the scene, Gunter's body had not yet showed signs of death, only a little rigor.The forensic doctor judged the time of death, and it was probably between [-] and [-] o'clock in the evening. "

According to the recollections of the residents near Rushfield, the fierce gun battle started around 20:15, and the sound of chasing and fighting lasted for about three to four 10 minutes.

At 09:30, Scotland Yard was called to the police.

At 10:30, a group of police officers and external forensic doctors arrived at the scene.

"Gunter was hit by bullets from behind, with four bullet holes all over his body. Two shots hit his left and right legs, and two bullet holes in his left chest.

Now it is preliminarily judged that the two shots on the left chest are fatal wounds, which are very close to the heart.But it depends on the specific anatomy. What if Gunter is the mirror person? "

The mirror person mentioned by Carter means that the position of the heart, liver, spleen and gallbladder is opposite to that of normal people. In layman's terms, the heart grows on the right side.

It's rare, but Scotland Yard had a Mirror Man die the year before last.Needless to say, the cause of this body structure is not yet understood medically.

Lestrade tried to pull out a smile, but was called up in the middle of the night, he didn't want to study medical topics at all.

"Carter, it's good that you are becoming more rigorous. But please get to the point quickly, what are the findings at the scene?"

Carter didn't talk about anything else, "The scene was chaotic, and Gunter's body was found in a corner. I think he wanted to avoid the hail of bullets, but he was still deliberately chased and killed.

As for the abnormal traces, no personal items left by Gunter were found nearby.He wore his usual work suit, a wallet with him, and a silver tag necklace around his neck. "

This is an old silver necklace.

An oval hangtag, about half the size of an adult's thumb.

The mouthparts of a sea urchin are engraved on the front and the word "Asmodeus" on the back.

By observing the degree of wear of the tag and the overall craftsmanship of the necklace, it can be recognized that the sea urchin pattern on the front has been carved for many years, and it was completed at the same time as the entire necklace.

In contrast, the English lettering of Asmodeus on the back, a string of letters carved unevenly and in different sizes, is obviously a private engraving by a layman who does not know how to make jewelry.

"Oh! This should be the Aristotle lantern that Ross saw before he was killed."

Lestrade was talking about the graphic on the front of the tag. Although it is a bit old, the clear texture allows people to recognize it as a sea urchin at once. "It matches the two letters 'AL' written by Rhodes before his death."

As for what does the Asmodeus on the back mean?

This time Lestrade knew who it was without any explanation from the two detectives.

"Among the Seven Deadly Sins, Asmodeus is the demon who controls lust."

Lestrade thought about the meaning of Aristotle's lantern that he had been told before, which represented the asceticism of the Cathars.

"Gunter is deliberately provoking, engraving the name of the demon representing lust on the back of the figure representing abstinence, which has the feeling of humiliating asceticism. Am I right?"

Sherlock nodded slightly, "This necklace may have come from Gunter's grandmother. Its chain is too thin, not a style worn by grown men."

"Gunter engraved the name of the Demon of Desire on the back of his grandmother's necklace tag, which is in line with the strict abstinence education he had received since he was a child."

As Kelsey said, she noticed that Carter's expression was a bit tangled, "What's wrong? Is there any special situation at the scene?"

Carter struggled to announce three letters, ""M_AL".Yes, the headache-inducing acronym is back.Judging from the situation at the scene, Gaunt stained his right index finger with blood, and left three distorted blood characters on the ground before he died. "

M? !

"Has anyone been sent to the Gaunt's?"

"Did you check the Gaunt's house?"

When Kelsey and Sherlock heard the abbreviation M, they asked questions at the same time, and immediately thought of the guess four hours ago.

Gunter's ambitions are growing. Will he spy on Moriarty's power in the criminal group?

Gunter's usual life trajectory has nothing to do with the East District, but tonight he died on the streets of the East District. What was the cause of his death?Did you get involved in gang competition?Or is someone trying to borrow a knife to kill someone?

In this way, will the Gaunt family hide some shady information, and will those information be stolen first?

Lestrade didn't know the details, but seeing the serious expressions of the two, he immediately said that someone had been monitoring the Gunter's house recently.

"There are 24-hour police officers around Gunter's house to observe whether he has any abnormal behavior. What are you two worried about?"

"Please turn around and go to Gaunt's house first."

Sherlock is skeptical of Socrates' surveillance capabilities.

Assuming Gunter was murdered deliberately, he might be a professional killer of a criminal group, and the agents might not even notice that someone had broken into Gunter's home.

Seeing Lestrade's blank expression, Kelsey explained a little, "The scene of the Rush in the East District is under police control, Gunter is dead, and Detective Carter has carefully inspected it. We can review it later.

Now it is necessary to confirm whether the Gaunt's house has been patronized by thieves.Maybe it was because of Tiaohu Lishan, taking advantage of the gap of these few hours, some important information was stolen first. "

Lestrade & Carter: Very good, solid hammer!Neither detective believed Scotland Yard at all.

What exactly are Scotland Yard's surveillance capabilities?

Outside the Gunter house.

The two detectives held binoculars and said that they did not see any unknown persons coming in or out.

At 18:00 tonight, the chef will come to cook on time and leave at 19:05.

At 19:10, Gunter left the house empty-handed.

Since then, no one has been in or out of Gunter's house again.

"You have been staring at the direction of the main entrance in the southwest, the rear of the house, and the position of the windows in the northeast? Have you noticed?"

Kelsey walked around the small building of Gunter's house and carefully observed the lawn and walls, but found no suspicious footprints.

The police officers in charge of surveillance shook their heads, "Well, we didn't go to the northeast to inspect."

Kelsey pointed to the second floor, "That is to say, you have been keeping an eye on the main entrance, and you haven't seen any unusual lights in those rooms."

"Yes." The police officer in charge of monitoring had to admit, but also argued, "During this time, we have confirmed that Gunter will definitely close the windows when he leaves the house. Tonight, after Gunter left, we went around the house , make sure all the windows are closed."

Can someone silently open the locked window from the outside?

The police officers in charge of surveillance tonight did not hear any unusual sounds anyway.

Kelsey looked up, glanced at the chimney on the roof of Gunter's house, and walked into Gunter's house without rushing to conclusions.

"Jerry, go upstairs."

Sherlock has completed the survey of Gaunt's study on the second floor, and found a hidden compartment in the wall to store the safe.

Just now, Lestrade watched from the sidelines how Mr. Holmes cleverly opened the combination lock, and saw that there was only a thick photo album in the safe after opening the box.

Open the photo album, the content is outrageous.

A total of seventy photos, divided into three parts.

The first 49 photos are all old women, and a capital A has been added below the portrait.

On the back of each photo, the time when the old man entered the nursing home, the time and number of assaults, the time of death, and the disgusting comments of the assault victim were recorded.

The next five photos were of two familiar dead people.

Three frontal photos of Woolf being tied up, and two candid photos of Rhodes in disguise.On the back of the photo, the time of shooting and the time of death of the person are also written in pen.

Comments on Woolf: 'If a fool wants to threaten me, let him enjoy the wonderful feeling of strangling himself to death. '

Comments on Ross: "A perverted man disguised as a woman, perfecting you, making you completely unable to be a man." '

The last sixteen were photos of the old woman again, and only the time of admission was written on the back. They were the murdered candidates targeted by Gunter.

Above, the handwriting on the back of the photo exactly matches Gunter's handwriting.These have fully proved the various crimes committed by Gunter.

Just as Lestrade was looking at the photo album angrily, he found that Sherlock didn't study the contents of the photo album carefully, but went back to the safe.

This time, Sherlock bent down and poked his head into the safe.

Calm down!

Lestrade secretly thought that there is no need to make a fuss, and it is a routine operation for detectives to drill cabinets.Counting silently, Sherlock left the safe after 1 minute.

Immediately, Sherlock told Kelsey to go upstairs.

"The airtightness of the safe is very good. If things are stored in it for a long time, they will leave their own smell."

Sherlock just identified the residual smell in the cabinet, "It smells of ink, and at least four different pen ink smells. Now, we only found a photo album. The words on the back of the photos are written in blue and black ink, and Gunter The blue and black ink of the E brand on the desk is the same."

There is more than one bottle of ink on Gunter's desk. In addition to the blue and black ink of the E brand, there is also the black ink of the U brand and the red ink of the Q brand.

Sherlock sniffed the three inks carefully, and all of them matched the ink in the safe, but apparently the documents written in the other two inks were missing.

"Not only the materials written by Gunter, but also the documents printed out by typewriters were stored in it, and all of them are gone now."

Couldn't find any other documents, did Gunter take them out early and think that there is no need to keep them in the safe?Or, someone got there first and took away the remaining information in the safe?

"There are no suspicious footprints on the perimeter."

Kelsey discovered that the study was just to the northeast, out of sight of the surveillance police. "Are there any strange marks in the house? The windows, door, and safe door have not been pried?"

Sherlock shook his head, "There are no signs of prying on the surface, and there are no suspicious marks on the window sills, floors, walls, etc."

If there is a burglar, he is undoubtedly a master at it.

Lestrade was not stupid, and at this moment he understood that the two detectives suspected Gunter's death was not simple.

"Judging from Gunter's departure time, he also left the house 5 minutes after the chef left. This is a bit abnormal, and there is no time to eat a few bites of dinner."

From Gunter's house to the Rush in the East District, not all roads can be traveled by horse-drawn carriages.

Based on the road conditions in London from [-]:[-] to [-]:[-] at night, it takes about an hour to take a carriage and then walk.

According to this calculation, Gunter arrived in the East District around [-]:[-].

At a quarter past eight at night, the gun rang.

Gunter was caught in a shootout almost minutes after he arrived.

"From this timeline, Gunter seems to have made a temporary decision to go out, otherwise he could have asked the chef to cook at home in advance."

Lestrade also felt strange, "A cruel and cautious murderer, who can make him leave home temporarily and go to the already chaotic East End at night? Is it the "M" that Gunter wrote before his death? "

"Inspector, you have a lot of ideas."

Kelsey didn't mention Moriarty, and there were some things that weren't time to elaborate. "Search the whole house several times, without missing a single corner, to see if there is any sign of an intruder.

Also, please get an agent to give Mr. Watson a message.Ask him to get a member of the Baker Street Squad to come to the Gaunts as soon as possible, preferably a chimney-sweeping kid. "

Most houses in London have chimneys to match exhaust gases from the heating of the fireplace.

Due to the narrow and long structure of the chimney pipe, in the era without the assistance of high-tech equipment, only small enough people can go in and out to clean it.

This made child labor the main force engaged in chimney sweeps, and there were several highly skilled chimney sweeps in the Baker Street squad.

"Oh! Mr. Bennet, you are so thoughtful."

Lestrade didn't talk nonsense, and arranged for people to act separately.

At the same time, the two detectives were thinking about another important question. What did Gunter's words mean before he died?

"M, it shows who did it, and called Gunter to the East District temporarily."

Sherlock thought about the remaining two letters of 'AL', "It is impossible for Gaunt to mention AL for no reason, not just alluding to his necklace."

So what else?

Sherlock substituted Gunter's thinking pattern, "A cunning man, an ambitious man, he deals with the murderous criminal group, it is impossible not to stay behind.

The information in the safe may not be all confidential, and the handles related to M may be kept elsewhere. "

"Gunter left the word AL before his death. When you see the necklace he wears, you can guess the meaning of Aristotle's lantern."

Kelsey looked around the study room, no, this room is obviously too hidden, but it will attract attention.Assuming that the final hole cards are to be stored, the most dangerous place is the safest place.

"Living room wall light."

"Living room wall light."

Kelsey and Sherlock said in unison, thinking of the two decorative wall lamps on the side of the oil painting on the living room wall.

The wall lamp refers to the shape of the copper lantern in Aristotle's life time, and slightly changes it on the basis to make it suitable for wall decoration.

The two went downstairs immediately.

On the wall of the living room, there are two copper lamps majesticly inlaid.

There was a little dust on the lampshade, and when it was taken apart, there was really something hidden in the lamp body.

A copper key and a palm-sized bronze medal.

In terms of style and texture, both things came from the same place.

On the front of the bronze medal is a pentagram array, and on the back is a string of special characters, which have the same source as the characters engraved on the key.

"Like a rune. Have you learned it, Tom?"

The rune alphabet Kelsey mentioned was an alphabet used in Scandinavia in northern Europe in the Middle Ages.

Gunter's grandmother was from Sweden, where the runes used to be prevalent.

This script was once used by the Vikings, but it is no longer a common script today, and very few people can read it.

Sherlock didn't learn it either, "It seems that we have to find an authoritative translator. This bronze medal may be a pass to a hidden place, where Gaunt left his last hand, and he can use this key to obtain those secrets. "

Only, neither had ever seen a similar token or key.With only a string of words on the bronze medal, I don't know if I can find the location of this secret place.

This is the last hole card left by Gunter. He dared to put it in the wall lamp of the living room in a fair manner. I am afraid that he has discovered the secret inside the lamp, and he still needs to find the correct treasure location.

Before dawn, the results of the full survey of Gunter's house were also released.

The entire building, such as the stairs, the carpet in front of the fireplace, the chimney opening on the roof, etc., can be seen, even in every corner, there is no sign of sneaking.

However, members of the Baker Street Squad discovered an anomaly in the chimney duct.

There are distinct handprints and footprints on the inner wall of the pipe, the size of which is slightly smaller than that of an ordinary adult male, but much larger than that of a child.

At present, chimney sweepers are not all child laborers, and there are very few adult men.The softness of its body is incredible, and it can enter and exit narrow and long pipes.

Except for those who are very talented, this must go through long and arduous physical training, and very few people can do it.

In the next few days, Lestrade visited the chimney sweeping shop near Gunter's house and learned that Gunter cleaned the chimney every two months.

The chimney was recently swept in late March, and Gaunt always hired children, never the very rare adult chimney sweeps.

Carter, on the other hand, went to dig the grave anyway.According to Gunter's photo album, the bodies of those old women were found in one-to-one correspondence.

Although no trace of assault could be found on the body, the old women on the list were all the objects that Gunter served as a volunteer.

A week later, Grayson also interrogated the cause of the East End Rush.

The shootout had been started over one side's cargo, but neither of the gangs involved knew Gunter.

No one noticed when Gunter arrived in the dark alley, because it was a scuffle and it was impossible to tell whether someone shot Gunter with a stray bullet.Judging from the bullets alone, the type of bullet that killed Gunter was consistent with the type of weapon used by the gangsters.

At this point in the investigation, the progress of the case has become clear.

Gunter was involved in the assault of an old woman in a nursing home, murdering Woolf and Rhodes, and his photo album is the best evidence in court.

Although this cruel and cunning murderer has been caught, another mystery has been involved in his death.

Apparently, Gunter was deliberately lured to the location of the gang fight, and he was most likely assassinated by a killer pretending to be a gang member.

A killer appears on the East End, and the Gaunts infiltrate professional thieves to steal the safe's top secret.

What made Gunter silenced?

The murderer was still suspicious, and did not want to be found out that Gunter was murdered deliberately.

The answer must have something to do with M, and the secret that Gunter possessed made M want to get rid of it.

However, the clues stop at the key and bronze medal left by Gunter.

According to expert translators versed in the rune script, the bronze plaque reads 'Magic Forever' and the key reads 'Elder Fourteen'.

This alone cannot locate the mysterious hiding place, and even Myrockft has never seen such tokens.

It may be from some shadowy organization.

Refer to the Cathar sect that Gunter's grandmother believed in. It is a heretical Christian sect. Hundreds of years ago, it could not preach in an open manner and went underground.

So, it looks like tokens and keys from a number of years ago may also have come from Gaunt's grandmother, but there aren't enough clues yet to analyze their origins.

All the written records that can be found in Gunter's home and office do not involve his secret operations.

Time to enter May [-]st.

The warm wind is blowing in London, and the streets and alleys are full of spring.

Purple and yellow pansies, red autumn radishes, snow-white hawthorn flowers, etc., full and bright flowers sway in the wind.

In the bright spring, the blood and conspiracy seemed to be far away.

In a certain church in London, under the witness of several friends, a couple's wedding has just been held.

Kelsey serves as a witness for Adler and Norton.

Although the truth of Woolf's death has been ascertained, the threat from the King of Bohemia still hangs in the dark.

Adler and Norton spent a month handling the affairs of the theater troupe and the law firm. The two decided to get married in London, and then immediately went to the United States on the other side of the ocean.

It was two and a half hours later, the ferry ticket at [-]:[-] this afternoon.

Let's say goodbye this time, maybe the next time we meet will be in New York.

Kelsey watched the carriage go away, secretly praying that the next reunion had nothing to do with any case, just a simple reunion of friends.

"It's a little early now."

Sherlock glanced at his pocket watch and suggested, "It's two o'clock now, and it's still more than an hour before tea time. Why don't you take a stroll?"

Kelsey readily agreed, and has been running around investigating the case for nearly a month, and has not wandered around for a long time.

The afternoon sun is just right.

It is a rare enjoyment to take a leisurely stroll through the streets.

The two walked towards Westminster Abbey.

Kelsey was a little puzzled. In the past, when he wandered around, he usually headed towards the streets and alleys where strange drugstores and bookstores were located. Today, Sherlock actually changed his direction.

Is this unintentional?

Kelsey didn't ask either, but Sherlock stopped when he got near the church gate.

Pedestrians walked on the street in twos and threes, and occasionally a few went in and out of the church.

Looking up, the sun shines on the spire of the church, covering this Gothic building with a golden halo, and leaving a mottled light and shadow on the ground.

At this moment, Sherlock stared at Kelsey.

He tried his best to maintain a calm expression, took a deep breath and said with a smile, "Jerry, I have something for you."

Saying that, Sherlock took out a palm-sized silk cloth bag from his pocket, and a beautiful bow was tied on the mouth of the bag.

"Well, what was agreed before is the Easter plaster egg, which can be preserved forever. Why don't you open it now and have a look."

An Easter egg, is it necessary to pick and open it in front of the cathedral?

In the past, Westminster Abbey has witnessed the vicissitudes of England for thousands of years.Now, do you want it to witness the scene when an Easter egg is sent out?

Kelsey took the pouch and untied the bow.

Before taking out the eggs, she took a deep look at Sherlock, and she was almost sure that the eggs inside were unusual.

I saw the egg with a powder blue background, and a mathematical formula "r=a(1-sinθ)" was painted on the small plaster egg.

It is the famous Cartesian cardioid.

This method can draw a heart image on the coordinate system.Back then, Descartes wrote this formula on letter paper and sent out such a subtle and special love letter of confession.

At this moment, the wind is a little quiet.

Kelsey stared at the painted eggs, without looking up or speaking for a long while.

Sherlock hid his nervousness and tried to ask in a calm tone, "Jerry, do you like it?"

what do you like?

Are you satisfied with this specially made easter egg, or accept this special confession?

Kelsey raised his head slowly, with a smile in his eyes, but asked solemnly, "Dear Mr. Holmes, aren't you worried that I can't understand mathematics? Could you please teach me the specific meaning of this formula in rich language?" ?"