[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

With Mr. Mycroft's help, Mary knew that the elder Mr. Holmes would be able to track down Blackwood's whereabouts, but she did not expect it so soon.

What is the concept of helping government departments audit accounts in the nineteenth century?This is the Victorian era, and the world has just entered the second industrial revolution!This means that there are no computers, no electronic documents, and no tools for auxiliary calculation and recording. The accounts of all departments are stored and calculated in paper and manual forms.

Sherlock Holmes claims to never be modest and low-key, but his understatement of "my brother is good at mathematics" can be described as low-key among low-key.

Mary knew that the Sherlock Holmes family were all geniuses, but she still underestimated the extent of their genius.

Even without any computer assistance, Mr. Mycroft still wrote out a list of members of the Illuminati according to the abnormal fund flow of various government departments at the fastest speed.

It cannot be said that 100% of the personnel have discovered it, and [-]% of them have.

According to the flow of funds of these members-especially the expenditure of bank deposits, Blackwood's whereabouts were quickly discovered.

With devil's heels circulating between the slums, coupled with bloody studies and cult rituals, Blackwood had become London's most wanted man the moment he escaped.Right now, the entire city of London is under martial law, and it is impossible for him to leave London by land and hide in the countryside.

The only way is to go by land and sea.

According to the clues provided by Mr. Mycroft, the police detectives of Scotland Yard have captured many members of the Illuminati, and those high-ranking officials who have been listed on the suspect list and are not active are secretly giving away their property. Transfer to European countries.

Just last night, Mr. Mycroft suddenly discovered that a certain Chancellor of the Exchequer who was listed on the suspect list of the Illuminati suddenly wrote a huge check that day, but he had no intention of going out, and the whereabouts of the check was also unknown.

So it is almost certain that Blackwood is going to sail abroad.

Sherlock Holmes, who got the news, almost immediately asked Lestrade to send people to keep an eye on the major ports in London.While deploying personnel, Inspector Lestrade did not forget to take the time to visit Serpentine Avenue in person and told the matter to several ladies who were waiting for news.

After listening to Inspector Lestrade's narration, Mary was silent for a moment, and then suddenly asked, "Is there anyone still in Blackwood House?"

"I left a few policemen there," Lestrade rubbed his forehead wearily, he hadn't had a good rest for a long time in order to pursue the case of the Illuminati, "in case someone breaks in by mistake, especially the underground altar , How long did it take him to fix it? My manpower is already small, and I have to help Blackwood watch the scene."

Inspector Lestrade who said this was extremely upset.

Mary pursed her lips, "Thank you, Inspector."

Lestrade: "As long as you catch that bastard as soon as possible, it won't be hard work. Why do you ask this—"

Halfway through speaking, Inspector Lestrade suddenly came to his senses.

He glanced up and down at Mary with a shocked expression: "You still want to go back to that ghostly place?"

The implication is that even he, the policeman who just broke in to arrest people, was disgusted by the situation in the underground altar and the prison, and Mary, who was almost insane and died at the hands of Blackwood, wanted to go back. She had no psychological shadow ?

Mary naturally understood what Lestrade meant, and she explained calmly: "I am not returning to the underground altar, Inspector, but there may be something we need at the Blackwood House."

Exactly what Ms. Irene Adler needs.

Now that there are police officers stationed there, Mary is relieved.After sending the detective away, she took Irene straight to the Blackwood House.

Before discovering the underground altar, every time Mary came to this luxurious and quaint mansion, it was either a banquet or a salon.The huge Blackwood Mansion was full of singing and dancing, full of excitement, and gathered noble ladies and insightful people from the upper class. It can be said that if anyone becomes Sir Blackwood's guest, it is a matter of honor.

But now, the mansion that has been cordoned off has lost the breath of all living people in an instant. It was so prosperous in the past, but now it is so bleak. Except for the police officers in charge of guarding, even the housekeeper and maid have been sent home. Mary He and Irene walked into the hall under the leadership of the police, the footsteps of the two ladies echoed in the air, it was like a haunted house.

"What are you looking for, Miss?" asked the police officer walking ahead.

"A prescription," Mary replied.

"prescription?"

The policeman was surprised, but he couldn't help reminding: "It's hard to find, Miss Mary, Blackwood Mansion is so big, where can I find a prescription? Besides, Sir's secret experiments are all held in the underground altar... I don't suggest you Back underground."

Mary didn't intend to go down either.

After so many days since leaving the underground altar, Mary's fear finally calmed down.But she doesn't think she has the courage to go back to the journey of the day.

As soon as Irene heard that she might have to return to the altar, she immediately said, "Look for it if you can. If you can't find it, it won't be too late until the police clear up and collect the evidence."

——Mary took the initiative to mention that she came to Blackwood Mansion just to fulfill Irene's long-cherished wish of coming to London, to find the devil's heel prescription researched by the Illuminati.

But she has always been optimistic, at least more optimistic than Irene.Mary has seen the condition of the underground prison and the altar with her own eyes. It is indeed secret, but the air is humid, and it is not suitable for storing any paper products.Experiments may be conducted underground, but it only makes sense that the materials should be stored above ground.

"Why don't you go to the study first?" The police officer suggested.

Mary recalled the scene when the old woman had hypoglycemia that day, and shook her head: "Blackwood usually doesn't work in the study, this is what his housekeeper told me."

The police officer was taken aback: "Then..."

Mary thought for a moment: "Let's go to his bedroom first."

Fortunately, because the activities of the Illuminati were basically concentrated on the underground altar, even though Scotland Yard sealed off the Blackwood Mansion, they did not move much of the internal objects, especially the bedrooms.

The two women came to Blackwood's bedroom, looked at each other, and then automatically divided the tasks without saying a word: one went straight to the desk, and the other stopped in front of the bookshelf.

"If there's any research on the Illuminati," Mary said, "it should have eyes or a Chagat, or a triangular frame if it doesn't work."

"I know." Erin replied.

Mary took the gloves from the policeman and rummaged through the drawers, while Irene went through the rows of books.The two moved extremely fast, especially Mary.

Blackwood's desk is extremely tidy, unlike Mary's messy desk with a typewriter and countless scraps of manuscripts, all his items are displayed in an orderly manner, and it doesn't look like someone has used it for a long time.Mary ran through the drawers quickly and found something in the last drawer.

When she opened the last drawer, she felt the weight was subtly wrong.Since she found a secret passage in the study of the Blackwood Mansion before, she had experience first, so without further ado, Mary felt around the inside of the drawer, and she found a secret compartment.

Just knew it was so!Mary pursed her lips and removed the hidden compartment hidden under the drawer.

There was a thick sheepskin book hidden inside. When Mary opened the first page, another page full of eyes fell into her eyes.

"..."

The scene in the hallucinations of the past whizzed by in an instant, hitting his head directly.Mary closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned to the second page after she calmed down completely.

This is Blackwood's own log.

A log of all drug research, to be precise.In the underground prison, Mary saw with her own eyes that Dawson lost his mind quickly after drinking the potion. She did not dare to watch the death scene, but learned from the autopsy report of Scotland Yard that he had dug out his own tongue and died of blood loss. .

Mary's heart was still heavy at the thought of Dawson's death, but now was not the time to be sad.

When the priest in black was arrested, Mr. Sherlock Holmes defrauded him of key information—Blackwood’s research has been unsuccessful for a long time. .Now it is unknown what kind of "sacrifice" he wants, and Wickham was not given the potion, which is enough to prove that what Blackwood is researching is the potion that can produce hallucinations.

Blackwood detailed all versions of the potion in the journal, and Mary quickly glanced over and found that the drug used by the Illuminati in the first place wasn't even the devil's heel.It was almost a year ago, almost when James Moriarty began to illegally monopolize the overseas cotton raw material market, that the Illuminati found this remote medicinal herb.

In the beginning, their research method was to suppress the nerve excitement and make people fall into a state of drowsiness or emptiness, hoping to "clear" the souls of the sacrifices in this way, so that the souls of the Outer Gods would descend.

But they failed.

Of course, regardless of the existence of the so-called "outer gods" - those alien creatures, how could human sacrifices attract their attention?Blackwood's plan did not succeed, so he decided that this method was wrong, and turned to research on the method of making the sacrifice mad and touching the Outer God.

Seeing this, Mary probably understood why Professor Moriarty said that the Illuminati had medicines to heal the spirit.

According to Irene Adler's account, her lover should be suffering from mental illness.Mary didn't know much about mental illness other than to speculate that it made patients manic and aggressive.

And similar diseases, such as mania, such as schizophrenia, the drugs used have the effect of calming the nerves. Judging from the effects of the drugs described in Blackwood's log, the direction of the early research of the Illuminati is indeed in line with what Irene needs Drugs are right.

but……

Mania can also make a person aggressive, as can schizophrenia.Although medications for various psychiatric disorders often overlap, they are not identical.

Wouldn't it be worse if the wrong medicine was used, or if the disease could not be cured or alleviated except for sedation?Psychotropic drugs have a great impact on the human brain, and Victorian medicine, especially psychiatry, was a mess.

Mary was afraid that Irene finally got the medicine, but hurt her lover.

"Mary?"

Just when Mary was hesitating, Erin came over: "What did you find?"

Mary: "Ah, look."

She stood up and gave the log to Irene: "I found Blackwood's research log, which contains the prescription you need."

This should have been a good thing, but Irene frowned upon hearing this.

"The Blackwoods are gone," she said, "without taking the research log?"

"It should be something he doesn't need."

Mary helped Erin turn the diary to the end, and anyone can find that the diary is only half recorded.

"You see, the log hasn't been updated after he decided to change the direction of research and development. Presumably this is something he doesn't need."

And other research directions are "useful research" in Blackwood's eyes.He left the diary where it was, probably because it was considered waste, and it was not easy to throw it away. It would be a waste of effort to destroy it, so he hid it in the secret compartment of the bottom drawer.

But he felt that it was ruins, and for Irene, it was indeed the only hope at present.

"so."

In this way, no matter what happens to the Illuminati or Blackwood, they have nothing to do with Irene Adler.She came to London and asked Sherlock Holmes for help in order to find a medicine that could cure her lover.

Now she has found it.

Irene, who got her wish, looked calm, if it weren't for the pair of eyes that suddenly lit up, it would seem that she was completely unmoved by the prescription in her hand.

Mary was inexplicably relieved to see that she was not ecstatic.

"The medicine needs to be symptomatic, Irene," Mary warned, "Even if you get the prescription, it may not be able to cure your lover."

"I know."

Irene nodded, her expression was calm, but her hands were shaking.

"Blackwood used this prescription to summon the so-called 'God'," Irene said with a self-deprecating smile, "I'm not eager enough to give this medicine to my lover. There are also many chemical scientists who are keen on research. Home, Mary, don't worry."

That's good.

Mary breathed a sigh of relief.

She watched Irene carefully put away the diary, thinking that it was over, but after packing up, Irene said unhurriedly: "We have to go to the port."

Mary: "What?"

Erin: "Come and see."

After putting away the diary, Irene Adler gently took Mary's hand, and led her to the bookcase in Blackwood's bedroom, and pulled out a simple book from it. After she opened it, it was empty.

Books are just shells, which contain letters one after another.

Mary randomly picked up a letter, the letter paper was filled with incomprehensible words and sentences, and what was inside was a secret letter!Seeing that Mary understood, Irene immediately took out one from the bottom: "Look at this."

The signing of the last secret letter, the date is very new, it is new... At this time, Blackwood has escaped from the underground altar!

The letter came after the city was locked down and Blackwood sneaked home during that time!

Mary was not as calm as Irene. She immediately picked up her skirt and turned to look at the guarding police officer: "Please help us stop a car, sir, we have to go to the port to find Mr. Sherlock!"

The two ladies put away the journal and a whole box of secret letters, went out and boarded the carriage, urging them all the way to the port.

Fortunately, before Inspector Lestrade left, he roughly explained the search plan of the police station, especially the whereabouts of Holmes and Watson.So Mary and Irene didn't have much trouble finding them.

Mary, who trotted all the way over, was out of breath. She didn't care about her appearance, so she simply forgot to say hello, and directly pushed the box containing the secret letter into Holmes' hands.

The detective glanced at Mary in surprise, glanced over the box, and paused suddenly: "You went to Blackwood Mansion?"

Mary nodded.

Now there is no time to ask Mr. Holmes how he deduced the whereabouts of Mary and Irene, Sherlock Holmes quickly clarified the situation: "Yes, the research on the devil's heel should still be at the Blackwood Mansion, Miss Irene needs those. This is your extra gain, what is it?"

Mary: "Secret letter."

Holmes grimaced, and immediately opened the box.

After seeing the latest secret letter that Mary specially placed at the front, there is no need to explain the rest of the matter.The detective frowned, flipping through the other letters quickly, lost in thought.

Watson looked at a loss: "What kind of secret letter is it, Fu—"

Holmes raised his index finger: "Hush."

He ordered silence, who would dare to speak?

The port of London is buzzing with people and rubbing shoulders. In the extremely noisy environment, time seems to be infinitely elongated as Sherlock Holmes thinks. Mary feels that every minute and every second is like a century. torment.The police haven't found Blackwood yet, he may escape the carpet search anytime and anywhere, and leave London!

Just when Mary was about to lose control of her nervousness, Holmes suddenly put down the secret letter.

"What time is it, Lestrade?" he asked quickly.

"what?"

Detective Inspector Lestrade was asked unexpectedly, he took out his pocket watch: "[-]:[-], what's the matter?"

"Sail at twelve o'clock," said Sherlock Holmes, stepping straight ahead. "Block the eastern pier!"

There are two 10 minutes!

Almost at the next moment, the entire squad of police followed Holmes straight to the east.Under such circumstances, Mary and Irene were almost useless. Mary thought about it, and instead of following the police team, she did the opposite. She told Irene to leave the port together.

They came to the shipyard near the port.

Time was running out, and facing the overseer's obstruction, Mary took out a gold coin and threw it to him. She almost broke into the shipyard, climbed to the high place of the shipyard, and found a window facing east.

This was not far from the pier to the east. From a height, they could clearly see the police quickly blocking the entrance to the pier, and Sherlock Holmes ran ahead of all the police and blended into the crowd.

"Did you see where Blackwood is?" Erin asked eagerly.

"I won't miss him."

After the underground altar, Mary would never forget his figure and back even in her dreams.

People come and go in the port, but Mary, who is overlooking from a high place, did not miss a single detail.She searched for it, and said calmly: "At three o'clock, did you see it, Irene?"

Erin glanced at her and took out her gun.

Mary took a deep breath and called out to the window, "Blackwood!"

——People have an instinctive reaction to their own name.

Even if he knew that the police were chasing him, even if he knew that the port was blocked, even if he knew that he should not answer, but when Blackwood's name suddenly sounded behind him, a tall figure still stopped suddenly at the pier and turned his head .

The next moment, Irene Adler pulled the trigger without hesitation.