[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

One of the theater managers, Monsieur de Buena is dead?

Mary and Irene immediately followed Mr. Poirot to the Paris Opera House. On the way, Mr. Poirot roughly relayed the situation: the body was found in the manager's office.Because the evening performance was about to start, the staff of the opera house came and went, so within 10 minutes after Mr. De Buena died, someone discovered the scene.

And, this time someone saw the "Ghost of the Theater" with their own eyes.

Upon hearing this, Erin took a deep breath.

Mary hastily held her hand. Irene Adler, who always moves forward and retreats slowly and always has a soft smile, rarely showed a serious expression, but she managed to stabilize her emotions after all.

"Go see the situation first," Erin said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he went berserk and killed himself before I went to London. But now that Eric has been taking drugs, he won't do this kind of thing." .”

Irene's voice was so small that Mary didn't know whether she was stating the possibility or comforting herself.

Because of the sudden murder, the whole opera house fell into an unstoppable panic.Mr. Poirot went straight to the manager's office with the two ladies, and entered the scene at the behest of the police.

As soon as Mary entered the door, she saw the dead Debuena manager lying face down on his desk, the blood stained the entire desktop.

This amount of bleeding is estimated to be the same as Joseph Bouquet's death method-puncturing an artery and killing him with one blow.

Mary showed an unbearable expression, and at the same time noticed that apart from the blood, the whole room was messed up.

"Mr. de Buena saw the murderer," said Marie, "and he fought the murderer."

"Yes," confirmed Poirot.

He goes to the body.I wish everyone in the world knew that Mr. Hercule Poirot was a clean freak. He stopped in front of the corpse, carefully avoiding the blood stains on the ground, hesitating slightly.

Seeing this, Mary immediately stepped forward: "What did you find, sir?"

Poirot looked at M. de Buena's hand.

Marie understood immediately, borrowed gloves from the police, opened his curled left hand, and found that the corner of the paper was hidden in Mr. De Buena's palm, which had been stained through.And his right hand—

Mr De Buena wrote a "p" with his right hand before he died.

Mary: "..."

Even if Ms. Agatha Christie's reasoning belongs to classical reasoning, don't be so "classical".Mary, who traveled from the 21st century, was speechless when she encountered this classic scene of the dead writing. According to the routine, the clues written in this way must be misleading clues, just don't believe them.

Just as she was about to complain, she heard a burst of crying outside the office.

"It's a phantom, it must be a phantom, I saw him!"

Mary and Poirot were both taken aback. The voice belonged to Miss Sorelli.

They hurried out of the scene of the crime, and sure enough, they saw Miss Sorelli, who was terrified by the murder before, trembling and crying with the support of her female companion. When they saw Poirot's Miss Sorelli, she was like a drowning woman grasping at a straw. Or, she immediately struggled towards Poirot and grabbed Poirot's arm: "It's a ghost, I saw him, I saw him! I saw him come out of Mr. De Buena's office."

M. Poirot frowned: "Are you an eyewitness to M. de Buena, Miss Sorelli?"

Miss Sorelli: "I, I am not."

"She said she saw a ghost coming out of Mr. De Buena's room," the police officer guarding the office door replied for Miss Sorelli, "but Miss Sorelli didn't dare to open the door, so she went to call someone. .”

M. Poirot: "Who opened the door?"

Mrs. Geary came over with a cane: "It's me."

Fine.

Mary looked around, and basically everyone who Mr. Poirot thought had problems yesterday was present.

If Mary was the main investigator, at this point, she would definitely not be able to hold back what she was thinking.But Mr. Poirot is not Mary who can't hide what's on his mind. He still maintains a pleasant posture, and he speaks kindly to comfort Miss Sorelli, and he doesn't ask until she doesn't look so frightened, "You said, what do you think?" When it comes to the ghost, Miss Sorelli, how can you be sure that it is the ghost and not someone else pretending to be?"

"Yes, it's him."

Sorelli said tremblingly: "I just ran into Mr. Pollini backstage. He said that he hadn't seen Mr. De Buena go out. I said I was going to the dressing room just now, so I might as well call him on the way. Then I came to the office, Just in this corridor, I bumped into one or one skeleton!"

The surrounding young girls all exclaimed.

"It's so, so scary," Sorelli cried, "The corridor suddenly became dark, and all the lights went out. I only saw a tall shadow walking towards me. When I got close, I Only then did I realize that his face was a skeleton. I was so frightened that I fell directly to the ground, and the shadow just walked past me. It must be a ghost in the theater. He killed Mr. De Buena!"

Just when her last statement fell to the ground, as if to prove that what Sorelli said was completely true, the entire corridor became pitch black in an instant.

This time it wasn't just exclamation, a few timid girls simply screamed.Mary only heard heavy footsteps approaching from the void with anger, accompanied by a man's laughter.

"It's a ghost, it's a ghost!"

Sorelli almost collapsed: "It must be the ghost who came to claim his life, he will kill us all!"

"—Kill all of you!"

Eric's sharp and cruel laughter came from all directions in the corridor, even through the walls, even if he was in the secret passage, Mary could hear the phantom in extreme anger: "Stupid girl, full of heart Only fear but ignore the facts, if I want to kill you, can you still live long enough to say these words?"

Sorelli screamed and fainted from fright.

But Eric didn't let the others go, he smiled angrily: "De Buena himself has misbehavior, he deserves to go to hell! Not only him, but also his colleague Pollini, and all of you! Damn it is the villain who committed crimes in my name, I will personally crush him to ashes!"

After Eric finished speaking harshly, the lights in the entire corridor came back on one by one.Almost everyone looked at the named Mr. Pollini, his face was so ugly.

Why are you here to join in the fun at this time!Mary couldn't help but slander Eric in her heart.

When everyone believed that the murderer was a ghost, he personally ran over and threatened death.The others were not like M. Poirot, whom Irene would easily believe when she said "Eric is saying hello".Mary knew that both the original book and the Phantom in the musical were a paranoid and irritable person, and it would be no wonder if someone committed crimes in his name, so he would explode in anger.

It's just that if she ran out to disrupt the situation like this, once it was really exposed, no matter what Irene did, it would be impossible to save the situation.

Mary can realize this, and so can Erin.

The two girls looked at each other silently, and Mary quietly squeezed from Poirot to Irene while no one else was paying attention.She stretched out her hand to support Irene, and when Mary's fingertips touched Irene's back, Irene didn't say a word, and just like Miss Sorelli, she collapsed on Mary's body.

"Irene? Irene!"

Mary cried out immediately.

The two ladies were stunned for a moment, one was a popular ballet dancer and the other was a popular soprano. Now some managers Pollini are busy.

He immediately directed the staff to replace Miss Solelli with other ballet dancers, and then ordered several girls to carry Irene to her personal dressing room to rest.Only then did Mary feel relieved: Erin said last time that people thought she was alone in the dressing room, but Eric was actually there.It seems that there is a secret passage in her dressing room where you can find the Phantom.

Cooperating with Irene to "faint" is for no other reason than to give Irene a chance to comfort her husband.

"Mr. Poirot," Manager Pollini wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and said nervously, "this is great, there are all the witnesses and physical evidence, and even I am on the death list of the ghost. Do you have to wait until I die before you can be sure that the murderer is a ghost?"

Poirot: "..."

How could it be Poirot's fault?

Just as Mary was about to refute, she saw Mr. Poirot secretly shaking his head at herself.

"Perhaps I am mistaken, Monsieur," said M. Poirot calmly, "perhaps it was indeed the work of a ghost, and then please let me find him myself."

Hearing this, M. Pollini seemed to feel better.

He patted his murderer with lingering fear: "De Buena... Oh, please hurry up and find the ghost, Mr. Poirot, I don't want to die."

What he said was sincere, but Mr. Poirot comforted the panicked manager with good words, and asked him to evacuate other people in front of the scene.After everyone left, the detective turned to Mary: "That piece of paper is the ledger."

Mary: "..."

Just now, Mr. Poirot was consoling and questioning people, and he had to deal with Mr. Pollini's doubts, and even the phantom ran out halfway to interrupt.Mary's attention had already been drawn away by the messy scene, while Detective Hercule Poirot, after finishing everything in an orderly manner, was clearly thinking about the clues they found at the crime scene.

Seeing that Mary didn't respond, Mr. Poirot took the piece of paper they found from the police officer.

The paper in the bag was stained with blood, but the writing was still visible—a series of numbers, with a printed border.

"Such borders," said M. Poirot, "should belong to the ledger in which the accounts are filled."

Marie and Poirot entered the scene of the crime again at the police's behest.Hearing Poirot's words, the young policeman begins to search for the existence of the ledger.And Poirot continued: "And the letter written by M. de Buena, Miss Marie, what do you think?"

"I don't think that means anything," Mary replied.

"And your reason?" demanded Poirot.

"Firstly, it may be drawn by the murderer with his finger after Mr. De Buena's death," Mary recounted calmly, "Secondly, I know that the initial letter of phantom is p, but Mr. Poirot yours The first letter of the surname is also p, which doesn't mean anything at all."

Since ancient times, in any case of writing some letters before dying, this clue is either misleading, useless, or not at all what the detectives thought.

Evidently M. Poirot thought so too.

"What's more," said Poirot, "yesterday we just confirmed that someone deliberately spread the rumor that the murderer was a ghost, and today someone saw the 'ghost' with his own eyes."

Also.

And Mary felt that the murderer knew Eric quite well.Knowing that he has a short temper, the first time he let go of the rumors, he could ignore them because they were endless, but this time, Miss Sorelli swore that she saw him with her own eyes.Eric went to battle in person and made threats, almost confirming that he killed the person.

This shows that someone is going to pour dirty water on Eric.

Moreover, in the original novel of "The Phantom of the Opera", "Ghost" Eric is indeed a "monster" with a terrifying appearance like a skeleton, and Sorelli's description is quite in line with the original description.But Eric was gone from the musical, he never showed up, and Mary didn't know if Sorelli was telling the truth.

"Then," said Marie thoughtfully, "the greatest connection between Joseph Bouquet and Monsieur de Buena is that they both work at the opera house, and who would benefit the most from the death of two staff members?"

Joseph Bouquet was very talkative and unpleasant, and it was only natural that some people would hate him.But Monsieur de Buena... as far as Marie saw him twice, the manager, although a little... short-sighted, was not a bad guy.He was also polite to outsiders like Mr. Poirot and himself, and couldn't figure out who he could offend.

Just when Mary was lost in thought, the little policeman who was rummaging through the ledger made progress.

"Monsieur Poirot!"

The young police officer found the ledger from the corner of the carpet in front of his desk: "I found it!"

Mr. Poirot's eyes lit up: "Tresbien (great)!"

He put on his gloves, took the ledger, and after a quick scan, suddenly realized.

Mary: "What's wrong?"

Without further ado, Poirot handed the blood-stained ledger to Mary.

Mary: "..."

She couldn't help feeling dizzy when she saw all the bookkeeping - although Mary had gradually developed the habit of keeping books because she moved out.But how can her personal living expenses be compared with an entire opera house?Mary glanced at the numbers, and simply gave up struggling: "Please tell me what you see, sir."

Poirot replied firmly: "There is something wrong with the accounts."

Seeing that Mary didn't seem to understand, Mr. Poirot patiently pointed out all the problematic points of each month: "Look here, here, and here. There is a vague expenditure every month, at two thousand francs. Between five thousand francs, which is not a small amount. And M. de Buena had torn off a corner of the account book before his death, and the account book itself was hidden under the rug in a panic. It seems to me that perhaps the manager He was arguing with people about the ledger before he died."

Mary thought for a moment, and vaguely remembered that in the original story of "The Phantom of the Opera", Eric did threaten the theater manager and asked them to pay money every month.

But he is not pure extortion, not to mention anything else, it should be the responsibility of the theater to cultivate singers, and Eric helped the theater to cultivate Christine—that is, the name of Irene Adler Famous soprano in Europe.Not to mention that he himself composes music and is a musical genius.

Although it is said that the theater manager is "threatened" to arrange the performance, in fact, it is not known how much the theater itself has taken advantage of.

If the unaccounted money really went to Eric...

Mary probably had an idea.

"Let's look for Mr. De Buena's letter," she said. "The manager is not the owner of the theater. If there is a financial problem, he has to find a way to explain it to the investors."

And Mary was right.

She found several letters in Mr. De Buena's drawer. There were no envelopes, and the letters were not signed, but they clearly ordered the two managers to report every theater expense within two months. No excuses are allowed.

This tone...whether it comes from a lawyer, secretary or investor, it always makes it clear that Mr. De Buena and Mr. Pollini are in trouble now.

At this point in the investigation, Mary and Poirot looked at each other, and they had already delineated the approximate suspect in each other's minds.

Leaving the scene of the crime, they came to Irene Adler's dressing room.Irene, who had just "passed out" in the corridor, was sitting in front of her dressing table, and there was no one in the room except her.

"What's the matter?" Seeing the two coming, Irene stood up immediately, "Did you find any useful clues?"

Surrounded by Mary, Irene's room has no dead corners, no shadows, and no possibility of hiding.

She was a little disappointed. Although it might not be a bad thing not to see Eric, he is still a tragic hero who has broken the hearts of countless girls—as well as her best friend's husband. It is only natural to meet a real person and say hello.

Of course, the most important thing right now is to help Eric get rid of his charges.

"The murderer has been basically identified, Miss Irene," Poirot said solemnly, "but there is no conclusive evidence now, so I don't think it should be a warning. In order to prevent him from continuing to commit crimes or create panic through other means, I will temporarily acquiesce to the murderer in the theater." It’s the ghost, and no longer openly pursue who started the rumor. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up on pursuing the truth.”

Mary: "Miss Sorelli said she saw Eric with a skeleton face. Is that true, Erin?"

Irene laughed out loud: "Where would someone have a skeleton face? He's not a real ghost. Eric... I do have flaws in my face. The evil ghost skeleton that Sorelli saw was far from it."

Well, it seems that this phantom should be in the shape of a musical.

Tall and mysterious, even though most of his face was destroyed, he had to wear a mask.However, for most girls, this is obviously a bonus item, okay? Such Eric and Irene Adler are a natural match in all aspects.

Think about the scene of two people standing together, it is a scene that only exists in shoujo manga.

Mary breathed a long sigh of relief and continued: "Miss Sorelli has a problem. She said yesterday that the ghost was holding a knife, but she didn't see the ghost or the body of Joseph Bugay at that time. How could that be? Do you know he was stabbed to death?"

Irene froze: "You mean, Sorelli knows who the murderer is?"

Poirot: "Even if she didn't know the murderer, she didn't tell the whole truth."

Erin: "..."

The always gentle Irene put away the smile on her face.

Even though Ms. Irene Adler was lovely, gentle and virtuous, when she frowned deeply, the firmness and toughness in her eyes were enough to reveal a bit of an untouchable aura.

"I see," Irene said, "Leave this matter to me, and I will make Sorelli tell the truth."

"Don't worry!" Mary couldn't help exhorting.

Irene turned her head to the side, and seeing Mary's worried look that she was afraid of doing something bad in a hurry, she finally hooked her mouth: "Don't worry, Mr. Poirot has already said not to startle the snake, and besides, Sorélie was really scared and fainted." Now, even if I want to force out the truth, I have no chance."

The investigation ended here, and Mr. Pollini made up his mind not to cancel tonight's performance, but because of the murder case, Irene couldn't attend the Earl's salon party.She simply went to the manager and asked for a private room with an excellent location for Mr. Poirot, in order to make up for the cancellation of last night's performance and the missed appointment tonight.

"You are very kind, Miss Irene."

Mr. Poirot, who got the receipt of the private room, said with great emotion: "Of course there is Miss Mary. It is my honor to be friends with you two in Paris."

Mary smiled and said, "You have said 'honour' several times, sir. Since we are friends, why are you so polite."

Poirot: "That's true."

He looked at Mary for a moment, and couldn't help adding: "With all due respect, Miss Mary, I really can't think of how a lady like you can get together with Holmes."

Mary: "..."

So in the eyes of Mr. Poirot, what kind of image is Sherlock?Mary couldn't laugh or cry: "I know that Sherlock is informal and pays too much attention to rational logic. He is indeed not a person who can... easily win the favor of women. But I think since you have known each other since childhood, you should know that he is not mean by nature, isn't it? "

It is true.

Mr. Poirot looked at Irene, then at Mary, and concluded: "No wonder you two are friends, ladies. Although you have different nationalities and personalities, at least one thing is the same. It is that you can look beyond the surface and see The soul of a true gentleman."

Erin and Mary smiled at each other.

Mary said curiously: "I would like to know how you get along with Sherlock, sir? From what you have said, it seems that you are not good at dealing with Holmes."

Poirot: "Who is good at dealing with Holmes?"

Speaking of the detective from Belgium, he couldn't help laughing: "Especially Sherlock Holmes. He is a few years older than me, and he has a proud personality. I am fine, but my brother has suffered a lot."

When he said this, Irene also became interested: "So, Mr. Holmes was still a naughty boy when he was young."

Poirot cleared his throat, and said seriously: "I didn't say that."

As to what happened, that was what the ladies thought, but it was not he, Hercule Poirot, who spoke ill of Sherlock Holmes.

"However," after teasing, Poirot still kindly excused his old friend, "a clever child is always more difficult to manage than an ordinary child. Even if an ordinary child refuses to obey the words of his elders, he will be afraid of adults." But smart children will question authority, let alone as smart as Sherlock Holmes. For his peers, few people can follow in his footsteps. Even if they can, it is inevitable that they will suffer into doubt."

"It seems that you are the one being questioned." Mary laughed.

"Fortunately," Poirot smiled wryly, "you know Holmes, Miss Mary, and you can naturally understand that for his friends, these doubts will not affect their feelings. I really admire the mothers of the two Mr. Holmes, old man People must like you very much."

"Varied--"

Startled by Mr. Poirot's sudden change of subject, Mary said hastily, "I haven't, haven't...uh, haven't seen..."

M. Poirot understood at once.

"You haven't seen the Sherlock Holmes family yet?" he asked.

"I have seen Mr. Mycroft," whispered Mary.

"Mycroft is more talkative than Sherlock." Seeing Mary's nervous expression, Poirot comforted him, "Don't worry, Miss Mary. Mrs. Holmes has a very good temper. From what I know about her, she must have known I know you exist, and I will definitely like you."

It doesn't matter if you don't comfort her. As soon as she comforts Mary, Mary's face immediately becomes hot when she thinks of the scene of "meeting the parents".

Although I have known Sherlock for a long time, strictly speaking...it has only been a few months since the end of the Illuminati case. In the 21st century, this is only a few months of dating!She always felt that she was not in a hurry to talk about marriage—anyway, she couldn't run away, and she wasn't in London right now, so Mary didn't have to worry about her reputation being damaged, which would affect the marriage prospects of her two younger sisters.

The point is, why are everyone around me so anxious.It never occurred to Mary that this was the point of meeting her parents.

Mr. Poirot's casual mention made Mary blush so much that she went home with Irene.

After running around for two days, not only Mary, but also Irene was a little tired.As soon as the two of them got home, they heard Catherine and Lydia chattering to Anne.

"Later, Detective Luther relied on these clues," Catherine said to Annie, "and concluded that the forgery check was a lady."

"What?! It's a lady!"

Annie was dumbfounded: "And then? Miss Kitty, what happened next?"

Catherine smiled immediately when she saw Mary came back: "Then you have to ask the author what he thinks."

As she spoke, she raised the magazine in her hand, and Mary took a closer look. It was a sample of the new issue of "Beach Magazine".

From preparing to go abroad to traveling all the way, it has been more than a month.It will take some time to mail the magazine sample from London to Paris. Mary thought about it carefully. If the sample arrives in Paris tonight, readers in London may have read the second issue of "The Lady with a Check" earlier than she did. .

She ran into Catherine's Amway scene.

"The author himself?"

Annie didn't seem to understand what Catherine said. She followed her gaze to look at Mary, and then at the smiling Catherine. She turned her head slightly and realized something immediately.

You must know that Miss Mary has been busy investigating the case after running around with Miss Irene these days.

The little maid stared wide-eyed: "Mary, Miss Mary is Philip Luther!"

Catherine: "That's right, you said that you can't read and write English well, it doesn't matter, let the author tell you the story of the second issue."

The author has something to say: there is another update before going to bed!Girls wait for me!It's still the same, if there are bugs and bugs, please feel free to mention them, I'll modify them together later!

Mary Tucao today: The victim wrote letters before dying?Heh, the letters written by you classical and natural reasoning are basically not real!