Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

03:30 am, empty streets.

Harding and three colleagues had just arrived home from get off work at the bar and were talking about yesterday's encounter.

"I heard that the footsteps we heard yesterday morning came from the dismemberment maniac! He hung his head on a tree at the back door of the veterinary clinic. It was really scary."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. The Slicer is alone, there are four of us, and there are four more next door."

Colleague A said fearlessly, "Does the dismemberment man dare to appear again? Last night, we were unprepared and did not catch him when we heard footsteps outside the window. It is impossible for him to be so rampant today that he dared to come blatantly."

Colleague B echoed, "Yes, yes. Now everyone knows that there are dismemberers, and he dares to walk recklessly and make footsteps, not afraid of being surrounded and beaten? He must be walking furtively."

Colleague C simply bet, "I bet on a lunch, if there are still such loud footsteps today, I will invite..."

Before the bet on the treat was finished, the faces of the four of them froze suddenly.

Old time, old place.

In the darkest hour before dawn, outside the window, on the street that should have been dead, came the sound of 'Step!tread!tread! 'The sound of unusually loud footsteps.

Yesterday, the four of Harding couldn't recall the specific situation when they took notes, but now they heard the footsteps again, and they were activated the memory of the same period yesterday.

The feeling became clearer and clearer. The sound of footsteps that appeared in succession for two days was a unique sound of footsteps.

How to describe it?

This kind of footsteps is not as sharp as women's high heels, but it is not like the sound that men can make with normal leather shoes.

It's louder, like the heel of a shoe is tossed up a little and then dropped back to the ground.

'Step-step-step--'

The footsteps continued, and it could be heard that they were walking from the street to the corner without haste.

The four of Harding looked at each other and took a step back involuntarily.

Why did this strange and abrupt sound of footsteps reappear? !Is it a dismemberment maniac who is bold and outrageous, or is it a ghost who is not a human being?

Hesitating, shrinking, and finally dawdling to the window.

Cautiously opened the window and looked towards the street corner where the suspicious man was found yesterday.Under the street lamp, there was indeed a figure from behind.

"Uh, it doesn't seem like yesterday's person?"

Harding asked uncertainly, "What do you think?"

The other three shook their heads hesitantly, and now they could only see the back of the man under the street lamp, and his clothes were still "gentlemen's hat + windbreaker".

Because of the limitation of distance and lighting, they can't clearly identify people under the street lights in the distance.

At this time, the biggest doubt of the four people was why they heard the same footsteps at the same time and place for two consecutive days?

'Knock knock! '

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

The four of them shivered at the same time.

what happened?Obviously did not hear other footsteps, who is outside the door?

Looking far away again, the man under the street lamp is still facing away from the window.

Colleague C was the closest to the door, and he felt pressured, so he could only ask calmly, "Who is it?"

No one spoke outside the door.

The knock on the door still rang rhythmically.

Colleague C took the courage to open the door because there were three other people in the room.

Of course only one crack was opened.

"what--"

Colleague C screamed out in fright. Through the crack of the door, he caught a glimpse of a man in a "gentleman's hat + windbreaker" standing outside.

This is a man or a ghost, why is it so similar to the figure under the street lamp?Could this person move instantly?

"Mr. Quinton, we just met yesterday morning. Now I want to check with you what we saw yesterday."

Sherlock did not continue to remain silent, and the results of today's experiment can be basically confirmed from the reactions of the four people in the room.

Sherlock: Very good!The experiment was successful, and the Jerry version of Sherlock Holmes managed to confuse the four people in front of him by pretending to be real.The theory of footsteps is further verified.

Four people in the house: #$^%@$!

I don't know if I can say XX, which normal person would come to verify the testimony at 03:30 in the morning!

"Please forgive me, only by letting the four of you listen when you are not mentally prepared during the same time period can you most truly restore what happened yesterday."

Sherlock took off his hat and apologized, and immediately got to the point, "Did the footsteps you heard yesterday be the same as today?"

The four nodded helplessly.

Sherlock asked carefully, "Can you describe it in detail?"

"Um……"

Harding recalled his childhood memories, and he knew where the strange footsteps were. "It sounded like a child walking in adult shoes, and it sounded abnormally loud."

now it's right.

Sherlock is sure Kelsey's hypothesis is correct.

The murderer made the sound of footsteps on purpose last night in order to make Harding and others witness the back of the male suspect under the streetlight.

How to make footsteps loud enough?

The murderer's own feet were a few sizes smaller than the leather shoes, and as long as the stuffing in the shoes was temporarily removed, the sound of the heel landing would naturally increase because the leather shoes did not follow the feet.

In other words, the murderer was not Brown, but a smaller man who wanted to pretend to blame Brown.

Who is this guy?

Sherlock thanked Harding and others for their cooperation, and asked the four of them to sleep peacefully. He walked to the intersection to meet Kelsey under the street lamp.

"Tom, looking at your expression, my guess is right."

Kelsey reasoned on the basis of the shoe size deviation. Who would want to frame Brown by murdering Zapata?Either for profit or for revenge.

There are many doubts about Zapata's death scene:

For example, he took sedative drugs before he was beheaded, for example, his house was unusually clean, for example, there were no traces of forced entry into the house, etc.;

For example, the fingerprints on the murder weapon and ax match Brown, for example, the shoe prints at the scene are the same as the leather shoes Brown often wears, and so on.

These lock the killer within a certain range.

An acquaintance committed the crime, and Zapata was defenseless against the murderer.The killer was very familiar with both Zapata and Brown.

Now add another clue, the murderer himself has small feet.

Combined with Yvonne's habit of tidying up the room by herself, her ability to easily capsize and climb walls, her old friend and lover relationship with Zapata, she and Brown have been married for 22 years.

Based on the above, the suspect who murdered Zapata is ready to emerge.

"What about the motives for murder and blame?"

Here is where Sherlock can't explain it fluently. Assuming that Yvonne concocted the murder, there should be a set of logical chains behind it.

Kelsey thought of the "I hate David" on Zapata's scratch paper, and Brown's self-effacement when asked about David.

"Yvonne, Zapata, Brown, the relationship between these three people may be more complicated than they show. Not only Brown married Yvonne, but Yvonne married her former neighbor Sapa 22 years later. Tower made a lover."

What is the secret here?

On this issue, Brown is still secretive, looking for a breakthrough from his son Wendy.

The two detectives discussed in low voices, walking further and further away.

Hearing the footsteps disappear, Harding finally breathed a sigh of relief when he witnessed the foursome.

Terror Maker is finally gone!You can rest assured to sleep.

Secretly speaking, the way some detectives investigate the case makes the frightened index of the forced participants soar. This scene is more terrifying than witnessing the murderer.

After Kelsey and Sherlock conducted the footstep experiment in the early morning, they did not get any more breakthrough clues in the following day.

Until Wendy Brown rushed home after hearing the news of her mother's death.

"I thought my mother was back to health and she was going to be fine."

Wendy came out of the police morgue, and after seeing Yvonne's body, he threw a big thunder as soon as he opened his mouth.

Julian didn't understand what it meant for Yvonne to recover.

"Since my father raised a mistress outside, my mother has been in a bad mood. Five years ago, she was in a very bad state."

Wendy told a little-known story. After he went to study in Leeds, he received letters from Yvonne frequently for three and a half years.

That feeling is suffocating.

Yvonne failed to stop her husband from constantly changing mistresses, and Brown was tired of quarreling and simply lived in his mistress's house for a long time, which made Yvonne focus on her son.

Wendy once hated his mother very much. He was glad that he lived on campus and tried not to go home during the holidays.

"My mother pays close attention to every detail of my life, and also tries to let me report everything to her. I don't think my mother has any malice towards me, but her mental state may have something wrong."

Yvonne was mentally disturbed, but she couldn't tell Brown the truth.

Wendy didn't believe in her father's character. If Brown sent Yvonne to the so-called nursing home, she would be mad even if she was not sick.

"In fact, my mother has always been very kind to me. I try to be patient with her weekly letters."

Wendy said that things changed a year ago, "During the Halloween holiday of my freshman year, I traveled to York City and met Dr. Hawley, and with his help, my mother's condition was gradually controlled."

The two detectives keenly grasped the key word—York City.

Could it be that the postmark fragment Yvonne found at the foot of her bed came from this Dr. Hawley?

Kelsey pressed, "Mr. Wendy, what do you know about Dr. Hawley?"

"Oh! Dr. Hawley has done a great job of curing mental illness."

Wendy eloquently cited Holly's treatment cases, needless to say other people, Yvonne is the best example. "Last Easter holiday, I asked Dr. Hawley to come to Derby to see my mother. After eight months, I went home again on Christmas, and my mother's condition was almost recovered."

Sherlock confirmed, "You mean, during Ms. Yvonne's treatment, she was in unilateral contact with Dr. Hawley, and you did not follow up?"

"This is Dr. Hawley's suggestion, and it is inconvenient for me to participate in it. Because the key point for my mother to recover is to let her change her excessive concern for me."

Wendy didn't think there was a problem, "My mother and I didn't completely cut off contact. My mother would also send me letters to tell me about her mood changes. You can see that her mood is no longer depressed."

Is the real situation as beautiful as Wendy imagined?

If Yvonne's mind is stable, how could she be suspected of killing Zapata and framing Brown?

About those letters, about Dr. Hawley, that will be investigated later.

Kelsey asked Wendy a perplexing question, "Do you know 'David'?Have you heard from your father or mother, who mentioned this person? "

Wendy was slightly taken aback when she heard the words, and then gave an affirmative answer.

"Yes, I've heard of David. About ten years ago, my father had his first mistress, and my mother and father had a violent argument. I heard my mother call my father 'David'."

At that time, Wendy was ten years old.He eavesdropped on his parents' quarrel, but he couldn't hear the specific content of the quarrel too clearly. Now he only remembers that the quarrel was caused by his father raising a mistress outside.

"However, I always remember my father being called 'David'."

Wendy was impressed because of Yvonne's tone, "My mother almost gnashed her teeth and shouted out the name, and her exact words were, "David, I hate you for marrying me".I never quite understood that David was not an alias for my father. "

For ten years, Wendy has not heard anyone else address her father David.

He also asked his parents before, but he was vague and perfunctory, so he didn't persist in asking.

Wendy didn't need to ask more questions, he left the police station after finishing the record.

However, the two detectives could not let go of any doubts.

When Zapata wrote that he hated David, did he mean that he hated Brown?

As Yvonne's lover hates her husband, this kind of hatred has certain logic, but it needs to be based on deep feelings.

Zapata has just returned to Derby for three months. How deep can his relationship with Yvonne be?

Suddenly, Sherlock had a flash of inspiration and thought of a possibility.

He threw a bet to dear Kelsey, "Mr. Bennet, we haven't had a prize quiz for a long time. I thought of an explanation for "David", would you be interested in taking a gamble?"

Within three seconds, if you give the same explanation it is a draw.Conversely, if I guess right, please promise a reward, how about it? "

Kelsey smiled: How much do you want to dig a hole for me?Only three seconds, Sherlock, do you dare to make it shorter?