Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

After a sudden review of the cleaners, he confessed that he regularly resells the waste paper he has collected for a week every Saturday morning.

Last Saturday, the morning of the incident, he sold a box of waste paper to the restaurant.

After thorough investigation, there was indeed only one box, which was exactly the one that Adler bought from a nearby restaurant.

This time, Kelsey successfully found the outer packaging of the golden rose bouquet.

Two blank sheets of crumpled letter paper, and a London newspaper.

According to the traces of the flower thorns and the smeared ink marks on the letter paper, the flower giver first wrapped two pieces of letter paper around the flower branch, and then superimposed a layer of newspaper on the outside.

The newspaper is last Thursday's "News Times", which is the newspaper with the largest circulation in London, and it is sold at various newsstands every evening.

The golden rose died around [-]:[-] last Saturday night, so the flower giver will only appear on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

The waste paper sold by the cleaners is used as toilet paper. The cleaner it is, the higher the price.He is used to choosing relatively clean paper, even if it is a newspaper with melted ink, try not to get other stains.

The guest room where Stephanie lived was not in order, but it was not dirty either. The three outer packages were basically kept as they were when they were sent.

However, it is a pity that the letter paper and newspapers did not leave any special traces.

Limited by the current printing conditions, as well as the humid weather in London, the ink adhesion on newspapers is very small, and it is easy to stain your hands when reading.

For those who are fastidious, the housekeeper will iron the paper when the newspaper is delivered to ensure that the ink is dry before letting the owner read it.

Most gentlemen and ladies are used to wearing gloves outside. If you buy a newspaper on the street, it is impossible to leave fingerprints in most cases.

This piece of newspaper has not been ironed, there are a few traces of mimeograph smudged, and no effective fingerprints are left.

It is normal that it is difficult for newspapers to extract effective fingerprints, but no additional fingerprints were found on blank letter paper.

Align two blank letter papers above the mouth of the test tube containing iodine, and the alcohol lamp heats the bottom of the test tube, and soon the iodine vapor will smoke out several fingerprints on the white paper.

After comparison, the fingerprints belonged to Stephanie and the cleaner respectively, and there were no unfamiliar fingerprints of the person who packed the bouquet.

The flower shop does not provide the service of sprinkling gold dust, the gold dust on the rose must be added by the giver.

London florists wrap their bouquets in newspapers.Are the two extra pieces of letter paper in front of you used by the giver when they sprinkled gold and repacked them, or are they just used by the florist?

The flower shop owners wear gloves to avoid being stabbed. The givers either personally or arranged for their staff to pack the flowers, but they all wore gloves and did not leave fingerprints.Is this a habit, or is it intentional to leave no trace?

What makes Kelsey more concerned is the source of the letter paper, which is not a piece of London paper.

'Buckle, buckle, buckle—'

There was a rhythmic knock on the door, one of Sherlock's little pleasures when he was in a good mood.

"There are results."

Kelsey opened the door, and she saw that Sherlock was in high spirits. "It's a lot faster than I thought."

"I don't deny it, there is a bit of luck."

Sherlock was straightforward and frank, "The list of poisons you gave excludes the poisons I have tested in the past, and puts the possibility of mixed poisons behind, starting with a single rare poison."

Sherlock made a "four" gesture.Among the dozens of poisons, he chose castor bean as the fourth one at a glance, and he was lucky to get the result of matching the source of the poison on the eighth day after the incident.

"Luck, and sometimes a part of strength, allowed me to determine Castor Bean in a short time."

Castor bean is native to Africa, and after being introduced to Asia, it was then introduced to America from Asia.

It circled the earth, and then spread to Europe from the Americas.Nothing more than Watson did not listen to this plant.

"The few plant seeds for the experiment were not found in London. Balck asked someone to buy them from a French botanist after several rounds."

Even Sherlock has not yet seen castor beans on the black market in London.Stephanie died from ricin, and the person who poisoned her had deep knowledge in poisonology.

Thinking of this, Sherlock stared at Kelsey.

Kelsey obviously only knows a general idea about poisons, so how did he get the list of poisons given to him?It can be confirmed that there are several unheard of poisons on it, and who discovered it?

Kelsey just pretended not to notice the gaze on her body.She somewhat retains some professional habits, such as not doing mutual profiling out of respect among team members.

Even with instinctive doubts, he kept a minimum of silence instead of getting to the bottom of everything.

"Castor bean is extremely poisonous."

Sherlock skipped personal doubts and turned back to the time of Rose Gold's death, "From the results of Ms. Toby's autopsy, the toxin stayed in her body for nearly a day."

That is, the poisoning last Friday night, followed by the poisoning on the next day and last Saturday.

Kelsey motioned Sherlock to look at the newspaper and letter paper on the workbench, "The poisoning time is consistent with the time given in the newspaper. However, castor bean seeds cannot be found in the market in London, and the source shown on the letter paper is not London."

Sherlock held up the letter paper and saw the dark seal "AS.RO" clearly through the light.

"spolenossruenímo mezenm or spolonossruenímobmedzenm."

Sherlock said the full name of SRO, which is the abbreviation of a limited liability company in Czech or Slovak, and the A in front should be the initials of a certain company. "This is letter paper from the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

Today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Kelsey pointed out that the texture of the stationery is not too delicate. "A medium-priced stationery made in Central Europe. I haven't seen it in London. How about you?"

Sherlock shook his head, "Letter paper is a rarity in London just like the source of the poison."

"This case is very interesting. It happened in London, England, and the victim came from Milan, Italy. The golden bouquet presented by a mysterious lover was wrapped in Czechoslovak letter paper."

Kelsey points to a hand-drawn map on the wall, a string of locations that circles over Europe. "What's more, the source of the poison is very rare in Europe."

The scope of the case this time was too large, Jin Meigui paid great attention to privacy and never kept a diary, and the mysterious lover did not leave a greeting card when she sent flowers.

Kelsey has a bad intuition, don't look at the clues appearing one by one now, but the real culprit may not be easy to catch.

She quickly concealed her intuition, and she could rely on evidence to handle the case, and asked Sherlock, "Have you determined the method of poisoning?"

"It's either taken orally or injected."

Sherlock talked about a little scab on the instep of Stephanie's left foot, "The size of the scab matches the needle hole. I looked at Stephanie's shoes, which are boat-shaped high-heeled shoes. The needle only needs to pierce the thin cotton Socks can be easily injected into the feet."

"It should be this sock."

Kelsey quickly opened the evidence carton and took out the stockings in the kraft paper bag.There is a snag on the instep of the sock.

"The sock was not washed after wearing it. It now appears that it was not Ms. Toby who accidentally scratched the sock, but that it was punctured by a needle."

New problems appeared again.

Stephanie couldn't just stand around and get stuck with a needle.

"We know that last Friday night there was a performance, and Ms. Toby never left the theater. The only time she came into contact with outsiders was at ten o'clock at night when the show closed, until the theater was locked at midnight."

Kelsey made sure to the troupe that Stephanie didn't let her supporters into the guest room.

"Next to the changing room in the backstage, there is a reception room. For nearly two hours, Ms. Toby will leave one or two supporters and chat with them there."

Today, major newspapers in London have published reward notices for the mysterious flower-giver who appeared last week.

Please also ask the supporters who chatted privately with Stephanie Jin after the performance last week to come forward and provide clues.Have any of them met the golden rose alone, or met a mysterious person who sprinkled golden roses.

"One possibility is that Ms. Toby and the mysterious man were alone in the reception room. It is not difficult to explain why she allowed the other party to prick the back of her foot."

Of course, Kelsey felt that Jin Meigui's defense was still low.If it were her, she would be a bit skeptical about the needling by doctors in hospitals in this era. After all, the current society abuses drugs without knowing it.

Sherlock added another possibility, "If they hadn't been alone, and even if it wasn't the Mysterious Lover himself who sent the flowers, the Golden Rose could have been poisoned involuntarily and unconsciously."

If it was the latter case, it would mean that the poisoner took advantage of Stephanie's unpreparedness and waited for an opportunity, so precise timing and extremely fast hand speed were required.

"Why choose the instep?" Kelsey was puzzled by the choice of the injection point. "Injecting the instep with a syringe in hand must bend down completely. It is an eye-catching action, and it does not conform to the routine of taking it unawares." condition."

This is also where Sherlock finds it strange, "The best time to take advantage of people's unpreparedness is when there are too many people in chaos. That is when the golden rose just walked to the backstage, and the crowd gathered around to talk to her."

Could it be the poisonous needle hidden in the sole of the shoe, pretending to accidentally step on Stephanie?Or the moment he deliberately fell, he stabbed Stephanie in the back of her foot?

But if the poisoner had agility, why didn't he just give Stephanie an injection in the arm when he passed by?

How many factors contributed to the killing technique of sticking needles on the back of the instep?

"Having to sort out what happened backstage last Friday."

Sherlock signaled Kelsey to leave immediately, "Go to Scotland Yard and ask if anyone has a certificate."

After the reward was published in the newspaper, Scotland Yard had an extremely lively three days.

Many enthusiastic people came to provide clues, and a bunch of true and false news made Lestrade and Gregson's heads almost explode.

"Oh! You came just in time!"

Lestrade was not as quick-sighted as before, and he left all the work of taking notes for witnesses to Gregson.Looking at the two of them from a distance, he ran out of the reception room first.

As if to prove that he was not avoiding tedious work, Lestrade said with a straight face: "I still want to go to you. I just received a telegram from Italy. The mysterious lover of the golden rose has been confirmed."

"It's Baron Vittorio, his wife sent a telegram to report this."

Lestrade said that the death of the golden rose has spread throughout Europe, and the reward for the mysterious flower-giver three days ago became widely known soon.

Stephanie is the principal of the Italian Opera House. She is even more famous in Italy, and it is normal to get clues from Italy now.

"The baroness found out the baron's flower purchase record for more than a year, and the orange roses that the housekeeper gave to Ms. Toby, who will sprinkle gold powder on the flowers.

In addition, the baroness also asked a private detective to take photos of the private meeting between the golden rose and the baron.However, Baron Vittorio could not be the murderer. "

Lestrade paused, and it was a rare opportunity for him to ask a question, "The two of you may wish to guess the reason."

Sherlock and Kelsey looked at each other.

Jin Meigui wants to retire, so she has to pick and choose, she can't just be a mistress, right?But Italy believes in Catholicism. Divorce does not exist at all nowadays. If you want to remarry, you can only be widowed.

Now the baroness took the initiative to send a telegram, and mentioned the investigation of a series of evidence that the baron had an affair with the golden rose, so Baron Vittorio could not be the murderer, maybe there is only one reason.

"he died?"

"he died?"