Detective Bennet [Comprehensive novel]

Two exclamations, one man and one woman.

Bentley really didn't want to scream out loud, but he was in the burial cave, and there was a strange singing sound in the corridor just now, and at first glance, there was a white shadow rushing towards him.

When faced with an unexpected situation, it is normal to be shocked and lose our composure.

"You, you, are you human?"

Bingley took a closer look, and it wasn't a white ghost that came out of the darkness, but a woman with disheveled hair.

The woman panicked, clutching her chest tightly, panting heavily.

Hearing what Bentley said, it was as if meeting a living person again, and the shock on his face eased a little.She tentatively asked, "Are you human too?"

There were three hurried footsteps in the corridor.

Darcy turned back first, and saw the screaming two standing in place and looking at each other carefully, as if they wanted to confirm that the other was human from the hair strands to the shadows under their feet.

"Where are you from, ma'am?"

Darcy spoke, and finally asked a useful question. "How would it appear here?"

The woman in white clothes saw three more men coming one after another in the corridor, and all of them had shadows, so she relaxed her shoulders in relief.

"Are you also a member of the Society of Bones? The British branch?"

Bones will?

What kind of strange organization is this?

Sherlock glanced at the woman in white, and before speaking, he took a thick towel from his backpack and gave it to her. "Ma'am, if you don't mind, please use it as a temporary shoe."

The woman in white was in her twenties, her hair was messy, her left shoe must have been lost while running, and her thin cotton socks were stained with blood.

"Thank you, thank you so much."

The woman in white excitedly took the thick towel, pulled off the hair tie and tied the thick towel to the soles of her feet, and could vaguely smell the faint incense on the towel.

After a little grooming, the woman showed a decent smile, "Abel Marceau, I am very lucky to meet four gentlemen."

Sherlock briefly introduced the four of them, and asked directly about the Bones Club, "We have come to Paris for an adventure, but we have not been able to find fellow members. Is the Bones Club a club established by adventure lovers?"

"Yes, the Bone Society is a gathering of adventurers."

Marceau said without hesitation, "It is named after the underground cave of thousands of corpses. When new members join, they usually come here to hold a party."

Throwing a party in an underground cave of corpses?

Darcy really couldn't imagine a group of people singing and dancing in the pile of bones.

This young French lady is well-dressed, who would have thought that she would have such weird preferences.

"So, today you are not going to the grave alone."

Kelsey took the initiative to bring up the singing, "We also heard the vague singing before, and today's party includes singing an aria?"

"Yes, a must-sing song for membership——Dance of Skeletons①."

When Marceau mentioned the party, he forgot to be frightened and became excited, "Have you heard it? 'Cuckoo, cluck, cluck. This is the dance of death...'"

"The heels dance to the beat, and the god of death strikes the cornerstone, and slams the notes of the dance in the middle of the night."

Kelsey took it up naturally, even if she couldn't sing the tune, the lyrics were verbatim.

Marceau's eyes lit up when he heard it, and non-lovers don't know the interesting skeleton songs.She no longer doubted that the four were explorers, and hit it off with Kelsey.

"Oh! You've heard the new one too. You must have enjoyed it in your emotional recital. It's wonderful, isn't it?"

Kelsey nodded approvingly to Marceau, and exchanged a look with Sherlock seemingly inadvertently.

Kelsey: "Tom, my clever Tom, today is another day to praise you."

Sherlock handed out a specially scented towel in case Marceau ran away and could track her whereabouts.

Sherlock: "Jerry, my wise Jerry, today is another day to praise you."

Kelsey fluently connects to the lyrics, confirming the setting of the four-person explorer, and it is another perfect cooperation.

The eyes of the two of them split apart as if nothing had happened.

On the side, Bentley couldn't hide his surprise, he didn't expect Kelsey to sing a messy skeleton song.

Darcy turned his head slightly.He should have thought of it a long time ago. It is not surprising that someone is well-versed in bars and casinos and knows some weird songs.Should he be happy?Relatively speaking, at least there is Sherlock, a decent gentleman.

Marceau didn't realize that the atmosphere was complicated for a moment, and she was happy to find a like-minded, so she couldn't help talking about why she was so frightened that she ran wildly just now.

"Did you meet any dancing skeletons along the way? I mean real skeletons."

Marceau felt sick to his stomach and returned to the ground once halfway.After re-entering the cave, she wanted to take a shortcut. She boasted that she could find the right direction after visiting the cemetery three or four times, but she still got lost on the side road.

After getting lost, Marceau could still vaguely hear the direction of the party's singing, but the more anxious he was, the more he couldn't find the right way.

"Then, I accidentally broke into the skeleton field!"

Marceau felt chills down his spine when he remembered that scene, and unconsciously sped up his speech:

"They were dancing, their legs were hanging in the air, and they were twisting their bodies. When I saw the black eye sockets, I was so scared that I smashed the kerosene lamp."

For the next ten minutes or so, it was a wild escape in the dark.

Fearing that the skeletons would entangle her, Marceau tried her best to run towards the possible exit.After a corner, he bumped into the Bentley who had tied up his shoes and got up.

Thanks to some faint light, the tragedy of the two sides bumping heads was avoided.

"What? Miss Marceau, you escaped?"

Sherlock didn't hide his doubts, "Aren't you a member of the Bones Society? Why are you still afraid of skeletons? A true explorer should face the undead. How can you escape when you encounter a skeleton!"

The corners of Marceau's mouth twitched slightly. She was indeed a fan of spooky events, but she was far from dancing ballroom dancing with the dead face to face.

"This is a predestined fate. How many people dream of seeing the real dance of skeletons."

Kelsey also had a face full of disapproval, "Miss Marceau, are you sure you want to miss this? What a pity, what a pity. I have to take the liberty of asking, can you show us the way?"

Kelsey winked at the two people who didn't express their views, "Gentlemen, talk! We walked for four hours and finally encountered a weird scene. We must not let go of any possible clues, and you can't wait to express that you can't wait to see it." The wish to see the skeleton's true face."

Darcy didn't speak, and at this moment he would rather not understand Kelsey's eyes.Before Caving, he had never committed to the role of adventure enthusiast, so he had the right to remain silent.

"right!"

Bentley also reacted.Although he just got frightened and didn't want to watch the skeletons dance at all, he still cheered cooperatively. "We don't want to miss the real dance of the dead. Miss Marceau, can you show me the way?"

Marceau didn't want to turn back, but she had lost her way, and if she refused, she had to find the exit alone.I could only try to dispel the idea of ​​the four of them finding out, "I ran indiscriminately, and I didn't see the route clearly at all in the dark."

"It can be inferred from your footprints."

Kelsey was quite considerate of Marceau in his words, "You can show us the way and get back your shoes by the way. You must know that a towel can't last long."

Obviously can be judged by footprints, why do you have to keep Marceau?

Of course, to ask about the Bones Council.

What's more, when meeting strangers underground, although I didn't notice the difference in Marceau, I had to be more vigilant.It's better to keep people under control than to let her go easily, which may cause hidden dangers.

When Marceau heard the shoes, her left foot ached.

Comparing turning back to find shoes and finding a way out of a cave to call a car, the latter undoubtedly takes longer, and the towels on the soles of the feet cannot withstand long-distance wear.

"You are right."

Marceau could only accept the only option, tried hard to remember the way, and walked ahead to lead the way.

Without letting Bentley go forward to help, Kelsey took a quick step to hold Marceau's left arm.

"Thank you for leading the way, please allow me to lend you a helping hand."

Kelsey smiled at Marceau.It's not that she wants to compete for the credit for helping others, but just to guard against the possibility of the unsuspecting Bentley being hijacked halfway.

Marceau felt light on the soles of his feet, and now he completely forgot about the remaining reluctance, and began to chat happily again.

"There are very few underground explorers from the UK. British gentlemen mostly hang out in theaters and salons, where they can meet beautiful girls. I really didn't expect to meet four of them here."

"Therefore, it was destiny that led us to meet underground."

Kelsey turned the topic to the Bones Club, "Just now you mentioned that the Bones Club branched out? Excuse my ignorance, but I haven't heard of this kind of club in London? Could you please introduce it?"

"I'm guessing the branch and the like. I don't know the situation in the UK. It's just guessing that the birthplace of "Adventures in the Alps" must have an organization of like-minded people. As for the Bones Club in Paris, it was established five years ago."

Marceau said that the Bones Society is not a strict organization, but a group of adventure enthusiasts.

The great transformation of Paris unearthed many monuments, and by the way, the history of the past was unearthed.

For example, some parts of the underground cave of thousands of corpses are also included in the reconstruction plan, and the buried bones will be transferred to another place underground.

In such a background environment, a group of people who pursue excitement have been bred.

"Fellows met at the ball, fellow college classmates, relatives and friends of classmates, etc., lovers of weird events gradually gathered together."

Marceau roughly talked about the establishment of the Bones Society, "Everyone sometimes gathers to exchange the latest discoveries, and there is no fixed location. However, in the past six months, new members will come to the underground cemetery for a skeleton dance welcome party."

Skeleton dance party.

As the name suggests, a group of members of the Bones Club bring their instruments deep into the ground and perform a small concert surrounded by bones.

"What are the criteria for membership?"

Sherlock even wanted to know if the man who killed the rabbit and the woman who stood on the street came from the Bones Society, "Is there any ceremony to be performed? Such as a sacrificial ceremony or something."

"Ah? Sacrifice ceremony? How could you think of such a bloody content. The theme of the welcome party is singing and dancing. How could the standard for joining the club be sacrifice. All you need is a heart to explore the mystery."

Marceau denied the absurd conjecture, and signaled Sherlock to ask Kelsey, "You might as well ask your companions, "Dance of the Skeleton" sounds a bit scary at first glance, but it is actually a passionate and lively symphony song."

Kelsey nodded slightly to Sherlock.

The song is not actually scary, but at the end it sings: "Shhh, the dance has stopped. The skeletons are running away because the rooster crows and the dawn breaks."

In this way, the bone will have nothing to do with the strange blood sacrifice in general, but it cannot be ruled out that a single individual commits the crime.

Marceau introduced the gatherings that had been held before, and members of the Bones Society had been to abandoned hospitals, newly dug ancient ruins, and execution grounds centuries ago.

"In recent months, Bones has a clear goal. We plan to record all the interesting experiences and produce a set of books comparable to the British "Adventures in the Alps". We will also adapt it into a musical, moving Go on the stage and pass it on to future generations."

"I really envy you."

Marceau said that he could not hide his longing, "There are three masters of horror in London, but there is no one who stands by them in Paris."

How to answer this question?

Darcy and Bingley thought of their sister one after another.

The difference is that the well-behaved Georgiana secretly read the entire set of books, regretting that it was impossible to experience it herself, and delighted that she could touch a corner of the dark castle from the book.

Caroline, however, was not interested in the murder of the old castle, and thought that the story of the true and false earls who confused blood should not be publicized, and she didn't know why people would pursue dark and murderous novels.

"Miss Marceau, will you attend every gathering?"

Kelsey changed the subject directly, "I wonder if you can introduce us to some fellow adventurers?"

"No problem, if you have time, you can have dinner together today."

Marceau readily invited, and added that the members of the Bones Society may not necessarily be familiar with each other. "Generally, most of the gatherings are in small groups, and each other chooses like-minded people who are compatible with each other."

Marceau introduced her familiar members and retrieved the lost shoes along the way. "Don't worry, everyone is warm and friendly."

A group of people came to the end of the chaotic trail while talking.

Going forward is the five-forked road.Half an hour ago, in the central open space, Marceau saw a group of skeletons dancing in the distance.

At the moment, four kerosene lamps illuminate the center of the fork.

Indistinctly, five black figures hung their feet on the ground, waving their hands one after another, as if they were dancing a silent dance.

Marceau was mentally prepared, but still took a few steps back and dared not move forward, and said in a low and trembling voice, "The skeletons, the skeletons haven't dispersed yet."

There is no real skeleton dancing in the world!

Sherlock and Kelsey had a serious look on their faces. Just now they guessed that the skeleton dancing must be weird, but the situation in front of them was worse than expected.

I thought it was a few white bones that were suspended, and when the wind blew, they showed dancing movements.

When I came to the fork, I smelled rancid and bloody before I walked in.Moving forward with the lantern, five corpses were hung in the central open space, with hanging ropes on all four limbs, as if they were dancing.

"vomit--"

Marceau took a few steps forward and picked up her oil lamp, and went to check again because of the crowd.

This look made her retch immediately.

terrible!

The five suspended corpses were like being tortured. The corpses were so shaved that no whole piece of flesh could be found, and the white bones were exposed.

"Not five, but six."

Sherlock approached the hanging corpses in a circle, and his eyes fell on the open space at the feet of the hanging corpses.

The mud and sand were stained red with blood.

It was vaguely discernible that a person had been lying on the ground, or it would be more appropriate to say that a corpse had been lying there.

The body was gone now, but blood seeped into the ground, forming a vague, bloodstained human figure.

"The body of the missing body is thin and short, somewhat resembling a woman, which does not match the five hanging corpses."

Sherlock said and squatted down, staring at the traces on the bloody ground.Similar to the ruins of the ancient Roman baths, there are sharp knife marks on the ground here.

There are four places in total, distributed on the upper body of the blood-stained figure, and a few strands of cotton remain in the four small pits.

On the ground of the ruins of the ancient Roman baths, three piercing marks form a straight line.

Here, the four piercing marks are distributed up, down, left, and right, and the proportions are precise to form a cross.

It is not difficult to speculate that the two missing victims before and after were all pierced by sharp knives several times in a state of death or deep coma.The knife was cut so hard that the tip of the knife pierced the ground.

There is another similarity between the two cases.

Near the ruins of the ancient Roman baths, six rabbits were killed in 660, and the blood of most of the rabbit corpses was not left on the scene.

Here, five corpses were hung, but no human flesh was left at the scene.

Just as Sherlock was thinking, Kelsey touched his shoulder lightly, motioning to look up at the hanging corpse.

To be precise, look at the ropes that hang the bones.

Kelsey asked in a low voice, "Does this kind of strong and unbreakable rope look familiar?"

Half a year ago, Dark Castle.

The ropes that suspend the Italian baron and his mistress are extremely strong.

Later, Sherlock tested the poison himself, and Kelsey borrowed that piece of rope to tie Sherlock firmly.

Sherlock got up to look closely, and recognized it quickly.How could he forget his personal experience, "Of course it looks familiar, you used this kind of rope to tie me to the bed."

Obviously the correct answer, but what seems wrong?

Kelsey put aside the language problem.

The question now is, how could the same style of the rope whose source was not found appear in the underground corpse cave in Paris?

The author has something to say:

①In 1874, the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns created a symphonic poem, and the poet Henri Cazali was the original lyricist.