Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

"I seem to have heard this nursery rhyme."

When Kelsey wandered around London, she kept an eye out for the sounds of the streets.Newsboys sang nursery rhymes, some innocent and funny, others quite eccentric, such as "Who Killed the Mockingbird" which clearly had something to do with murder.

Mary's nursery rhymes appearing in this wooden house, at first glance, it sounds like something about Mary's garden.

"Mary, Mary, very rebellious, how are the flowers and plants growing in your garden?"

Silver bells, beautiful shells, and beautiful maids stand in rows. 』

However, if the garden is being described, why not flowers and plants, but silver bells and beautiful shells, and her maids standing in a row?

"It was sung in the streets of London."

At that time, Kelsey was curious about the metaphor behind it, and also attended several club speeches on nursery rhymes. "Some people say that Mary in nursery rhymes refers to Bloody Mary, the queen of the Tudor dynasty."

Mary I of the Tudor Dynasty, nearly 300 years ago.

Although born in the royal family, his parents' marriage failed.During her childhood and adolescence, her father Henry VIII made her live like a maid.

After his mother, Queen Catherine, was expelled from the palace, Henry VIII declared that the daughter was only an illegitimate daughter, and even ignored the objections of his subjects and asked her to be the maid of his half-sister.

Decades of harsh living conditions have created Mary's paranoid and violent revenge character.

After Henry VIII's death, his only son, Edward VI, died of illness less than seven years after he ascended the throne.

Mary joined the Privy Council to launch a coup and imprisoned the heir appointed by Edward, Princess Jane Grey. She became the first queen in England's history.

As a devout Catholic, the queen hated the Protestantism that legalized the divorce of her parents.

After taking power, he resumed the cruel pagan trial and burning, and implemented a strict high-pressure policy on Protestantism.Will once sentenced her parents to divorce, she was the illegitimate daughter of the archbishop, and more than 300 Protestants were burned to death.

Subsequently, Mary I massacred dissidents, and once caused blood to flow in London, and was dubbed the title of Bloody Mary.

Therefore, Mary's garden in the nursery rhyme alludes to the execution ground, and it is the corpses that make the flowers and plants grow lush.

Kelsey, however, did not express these analyzes. A simple Scottish beard shouldn’t know so much. She kicked the ball to the gold-rimmed glasses for cracking nursery rhymes.

"Mr. Sigson, you are engaged in music work, so you must have some insight into nursery rhymes?"

Sherlock seemed to see a big and round iron ball hitting him, as if he couldn't explain why, and he would be exposed as the musician Sigson.

"You are a musician?"

Watson didn't wait for Sherlock's answer, he first expressed surprise, "It's really unexpected, I thought you were also a doctor."

Watson's surprise was well-founded. Musicians in his impression were romantic and casual, rather than rigorous and serious with gold-rimmed glasses.Can this really make music?Will the music played also have the taste of mathematical equations?

“I did drop in on some medical school classes early on, but ended up choosing the music path.”

Sherlock was blind to seeing Watson's slander.He wants to be a different musician. This setting is absolutely no problem. He asked by the way, "Listen to Mr. Watson, are you a doctor?"

"I haven't graduated yet, and I'm still an intern at St. Bartholomew's Hospital."

Watson did not plan to stay in the hospital, "However, you may not be able to find me in St. Bartholomew's Hospital in the future. I think it would be better to be a military doctor than to stay in London."

Kelsey was curious, "Military doctors are going to the front line. Mr. Watson dares to go to the battlefield, your marksmanship must be good, right?"

Speaking of which, "The Sharpshooter Who Loves Roses" is also going to the Alpine Manor.

Watson shook his head again and again, "I don't dare to be, I don't dare to be. More training is needed. Maybe after returning from the battlefield, I can really be called a sharpshooter."

"May God bless you, and let me first wish you all the best you want."

Kelsey thought [-]/[-] out of [-] that he had found "The Sharpshooter Who Loved Roses", so where was "Chocolate Cake"?There shouldn't be such a coincidence, there are three passengers who are going to the dark party in a carriage, right?

Kelsey looked sideways, just in time for her gold-rimmed glasses to look back at her.

If the two look away casually, it seems that they didn't intend to look at each other at all.

"As for this nursery rhyme, I can only say that I have heard it once or twice."

After Sherlock confirmed who the sharpshooter was, he put off guessing the identity of another fellow traveler, and brought the topic back.He sketches the life of Mary I, matching nursery rhymes with their bloody means.

"The garden is a metaphor for the execution room, and the silver bells and shells refer to certain instruments of torture. As for the rows of maids, they are rows of corpses burned at the stake."

Sherlock added rigorously, "However, this is just the most mainstream speculation. After all, there is more than one Bloody Mary in history, and it does not necessarily refer to Mary I."

Not good news for any Mary.If someone really followed Bloody Mary's example, according to the leftover death mask in the basement and the nursery rhyme under the refurbished floor, there may have been a massacre in this log cabin in the woods.

"Maybe, we shouldn't think about the bad."

Watson tried to remain optimistic.Although he had dissected corpses and was used to seeing life and death during his internship in the hospital, he had never stepped into the scene of a murder.

Watson felt that his luck would not be bad this time. "If the cast is made directly from the face of the corpse, the wet plaster is directly pasted on the face. After it dries, the mask is removed, and some facial hair will inevitably be pulled off the inner side close to the skin.

But you have also seen that these masks have no hair left, and they are probably imitations of the general process, not death masks. "

"As for the engraving on the wooden board, it is easy to explain. There are children present during the construction of the adults, and the naughty children just draw it at will."

The more Watson said, the more he felt that it made sense, and his back, which had just felt cold, returned to normal body temperature. "From a skeptical perspective, we think the wooden house is very weird. But from another perspective, the wooden house is just a place for art processing. The hunters process their prey here and do some small business along the way."

In the end, Watson concluded: "Being a person should not be too suspicious, suspicious, everything is dark. What do you two think?"

In this question, Watson really didn't imply anything else, and he didn't even say that the gold-rimmed glasses were too cautious.

Kelsey and Sherlock felt that an arrow had been shot in their chests. Suspicion seemed to be an instinct engraved in their bones.

"Hahaha, you are right!"

Kelsey can be suspicious, but Beard cannot. "No matter what happened in the past, no one has patronized this place for a long time. It's useless to think so much. Right now, we need to live comfortably. Compared with what happened in the past, finding a water source to fetch water before dark is the most important thing."

By the way, on the way to find the water source, observe whether there is any suspicious situation around.

Sherlock also wanted to observe the surrounding area as soon as possible to see if there were any signs of burial of human bones. "Let's go separately, whoever finds it will come back first."

Watson was left to guard a pile of supplies, and by the way, another room was replaced to fill up the leaky windows for the three of them to live at night.

And so it was evening.

The two people looking for water finally came back with two large buckets of water.

"Sorry for the lateness." Kelsey explained the scouting along the way as an unintentional detour. "The woods are a bit winding, and the stream is a bit far away. It will be much faster to fetch water tomorrow."

Rather than a tacit understanding, it is better to say that they are on their own defenses.

As soon as they got out of the cabin, Kelsey chose to walk with the gold-rimmed glasses at two ends, avoiding the other party's detection throughout the whole process, but failed to find any signs of danger in the woods.

"There are no wild animals around, and most of them are probably hibernating."

Sherlock also found nothing, not to mention human corpses, not even a piece of cloth.

"Are you really suspicious this time?"

"Are you really suspicious this time?"

The two couldn't help but think of Watson's words, maybe those who doubt it really are suspicious.

In any case, you must be more vigilant during the two days of your temporary stay, and no one can say whether you will encounter suspicious people sneaking into the wooden house.

However, two nights passed without incident.

Even the journey behind is smoother than before.

The coachman borrowed the car and came back, and the sky turned out to be clear.Without the interference of rain and snow, they arrived in Leo Town three days earlier than originally predicted.

There are still six days until Christmas.

The town of Leo at the foot of the Alps is bustling, and most of the townspeople who are outside go home, rushing to the last market of the year to purchase Christmas necessities.

In this season, there are few foreign visitors, and only one hotel is still open for business.

"Richard House"

The signboard of the hotel is a bit old, but it has been wiped very clean.

Richard, who is nearly [-] years old, is checking the accounts behind the counter. When he sees the guests, he warmly welcomes them.

"Good afternoon, three gentlemen. It's hard work to travel before Christmas. How long do you want to stay? How many rooms?"

"For three days, please give me three rooms."

Watson replied, but he did not expect that after getting out of the carriage, all three of them walked towards the hotel.

Originally guessed that the gold-rimmed glasses arrived in Leo Town and then returned to Germany, and the bearded man went to the vicinity of Leo Town to find relatives, but neither of the two guessed correctly.

Now, Watson began to suspect that the three of them had the same destination, waiting for Earl B's attendants to pick them up the mountain.

"The three upstairs, please."

Richard fetched the keychain, "Please excuse me, the three of you, the man is home for the holidays, and I will be alone in the store, and no meals will be provided for now."

Richard smiled again and gave a suggestion, "However, you can go to the "Little Richard" restaurant two streets away, which is owned by my youngest son Heller.

If you want to buy some warm clothes, there is also the "Little Richard" tailor shop opened by my second son nearby.Tell me if you have any needs, and I can help them deal with them. "

"Ok."

Watson noted it down, but they probably wouldn't go shopping now.

I saw that the beard and the gold-rimmed glasses were surprisingly consistent. One was yawning, the other was rubbing between his brows, both of them looked like 'I'm tired and want to rest'.

Watson thoughtfully asked the two to rest quickly, without asking further about the future arrangements.If we go up the mountain together in three days, we will have time to chat again.

Although he didn't quite understand, the three of them were on their way together, why were these two suddenly tired?Even before arriving at the destination, everyone was still in high spirits.

Kelsey: It's exhausting.He doesn't want to admit that the "chocolate cake" in his fantasy is gold-rimmed glasses, he only has boring German rigor.

Sherlock: I'm tired.If he doesn't want to admit that the "Apep" he appreciates is bearded, he will smile innocently.

The two said silently: My last stubbornness, I can still have a little fantasy before the steward who came to greet me announces the name of the guest.

The next day was another sunny day.

It was nearly noon, and Watson was awakened by the rustling downstairs, but he didn't sleep until dawn.

This room is directly above the boss Richard's bedroom.It was dawn, and heard the sound of arguing downstairs. It should be that Richard's two sons had returned.

In the drowsiness, I didn't hear what the three of the father and son were arguing about. It was vaguely "the guys are going home and they are still opening the shop, no one wants someone to help", "let us do all the hard work, let the big brother do it if you have the ability." .

At this moment, there was no sound of arguing, but the sound of dragging and rubbing moving furniture was quite ear-piercing.

Watson could only get up, ready to eat lunch and take a stroll around Leo Town.He knocked on the doors of the two rooms next door, but no one answered.

"Okay, the two of you should go to bed early and get up early to be healthy, so you have already gone out to look for food."

Watson went downstairs alone and scanned around. The lobby was empty and there were no other people in sight.He turned back to Richard's room, "Shopkeeper, I'm out."

There were still rustling noises in the room, but Richard did not respond.

Strange, how could Richard ignore the guests?

Watson went to knock on the door in doubt, and as soon as his hand fell on the door, he pushed open the door that was not closed tightly.

I saw two strong men with blood on their hands and stains on their faces. They were cleaning the blood on the ground with mops and rags.

"What are you doing?!"

Watson rushed into the room alertly, and saw Richard being put on the bed.His eyes were wide open, a bloody hole was punched out of his forehead, and he was already out of breath.

Richard is dead.

The murderers are destroying the corpses!

Watson's drowsiness was completely blown away. For the first time in his life, he directly crashed into the scene of the crime.

He blocked the door to prevent them from escaping, and shouted, "Come on! Richard the shopkeeper has been killed!"

"You, who are you?"

The shorter burly man threw away the rag in his hand with a loud yell, "Stop talking nonsense, who killed someone!"

The taller burly man picked up the mop in surprise and anger, "Get out of the way! Who told you to meddle in your own business!"

Watson guarded the door steadfastly, never letting the two major suspects leave.

The three of them had a stalemate, and the nearby townspeople came one after another.

Not long after, the mayor arrived in a hurry. "Heller, Dick! What are you doing? What's the matter with old Richard?"

Heller?

Watson was a little confused when he heard it at first. This is not the name of Richard's youngest son.Looking at the two strong men again, they look alike, and they also have a bit of Richard's shadow.

In other words, Richard's two sons are cleaning up the blood?And Richard had a hole in his head and was killed?

What a messy direction this is.

Heller put down the mop after being called by the mayor.With a weeping face, he explained: "Mayor, it was a misunderstanding. This guest saw us cleaning up the blood and thought we had done something bad.

The fact is, Dick and I came to the store to find Dad and found him lying on the floor with a pool of blood around him.I went up to find out, and found that my father had hit his head and was not breathing. "

"That's it."

Dick, who was still nervous just now, also had red eyes, "This guest didn't listen to our explanation, so he yelled that he killed people, and we were all dumbfounded."

Watson recovered from his confusion, but he was not involved. "I won't listen to the explanation? God can see, who's father died, and the first to close the door to clean up the blood?! Isn't this suspicious!"

"Give it up, let it go."

At this moment, a fat woman got in through the crowd.

Regardless, he rushed to Dick's side, looked in with his probe, saw Chad's death, and immediately turned his head away.

The fat woman's complexion was a little pale, but she put her hands on her hips imposingly, pointed at Watson and questioned, "You said my Dick killed Richard? Blind your eyes, compared to a son killing his father, I think you more suspicious.

Apart from Richard, the only residents in the store are strangers.Who knows if someone saw the money and ran away if they wanted to grab a fortune?Maybe you pushed someone first, and later planted the blame on us. "

The fat woman spat on Watson, and hurriedly said to the mayor, "This man is still wandering around at Christmas, who knows if he is a fugitive. Mayor, don't you trust Dick and Heller, but an outsider?" ?”

Hearing what the second sister-in-law said, Heller also turned his gun, "That's right! Even if this person didn't do it, there are still two residents in the store. Who knows if they had a conflict with his father, causing him to fall and die. "

It's unreasonable!

Hua blushed with anger, who was calling for the thief? "It's simply bullying. No matter how much you argue, do you dare to ask the police to investigate?"

The fat woman choked back immediately, "This is my hotel, what are you, you want to check it if you say it?!"

"Enough! Shut up!"

The mayor slapped the table heavily, "If someone is killed, how can we not investigate clearly. However, this guest, you said that you want to find the police, I am afraid there is no way to achieve it. The nearest police station will have to travel for two days, so that the public security in the town Check it out."

"Mayor, I'm afraid this is inappropriate."

There was objection from the crowd, "Dick has a good relationship with the chief and deputy captain of the security team, what if something happens to cover up?"

"That's right, Richard is a good man, we can't let him die in an unclear way."

"It's better to rush to the police station to report the case, that is, to wait for two more days."

The mayor also had a headache when he heard the discussions. How could such a thing happen in Leo Town when Christmas came.

At this moment, the sound of wheels moving slowly came from the direction of the hotel.

People looked around and stopped talking about Richard's death for a moment.What came was a luxurious carriage, which can be described as wearing gold and wearing jade.Hanging coat of arms, showing that its owner is some great person.

The carriage stopped by the hotel, and three people got out of the carriage.

One is a middle-aged man in a manager's uniform, and the other two have beards and gold-rimmed glasses.

Seeing the commotion and chaos in front of him, the steward quickly asked the mayor what happened.

"It is unfortunate that a murder should have occurred. However, I am sure that the three guests invited by the count will never be criminals."

The mayor could only nod along. The townspeople in this area have never heard of Earl B's reputation. How dare he question the steward. "Yes, you are right."

"I won't make things difficult for the mayor. I will give you two days to investigate the case. Two days later, I will pick up three guests up the mountain. I can't delay the count's banquet."

The steward could not refuse the time limit, "As for how to investigate, I believe the mayor will deal with it fairly. In fact, the three guests can also prove their innocence. You can send another trusted assistant."

The mayor nodded again and hurriedly agreed.

Aside, Watson was a little confused.

The bearded man and the gold-rimmed glasses said that they got up very early, and when they were wandering around the town, they met the carriage of the Earl's Mansion, and chatted with the steward by the way.

The steward said that he would go to a town farther away to pick up visitors from other countries, and then come to Leo Town in three days.

"It turns out that there is more than one meeting point in Leo Town."

Watson wondered for a moment why the guests were so divided, but he was more concerned with another matter.

"In this way, only the three of us came from the UK. According to the editor-in-chief, two other authors have received invitations."

Speaking of these, Watson had just witnessed the murder scene and suffered another unreasonable slander. The depression dissipated.

"No wonder we took a carriage. It turns out that we have the same goal from beginning to end."

Watson asked excitedly, "Mr. Adair, are you a chocolate cake? Mr. Sigson, are you Apep? I am so happy that I can communicate with the two of you face to face. I have been wanting to ask you for advice, how can I do it?" Learn the reasoning logic in the two stories. By the way, why not start with the case in front of you."

For a while, no one answered Watson, and the atmosphere was strangely quiet.

Kelsey: Watson, how do you judge that I'm a chocolate cake?

Sherlock: Watson, where do you see that I am Apep?

The two shook their heads. Someone dared to say that he should learn logical reasoning. Who gave him the confidence?