Baker Street Charterers

112

Brightly lit study.

The banquet was halfway through, but those who cared found that the two protagonists of today's banquet were not in the center of the hall.Fortunately, there are still other important figures such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his wife and daughter. The temporary absence of the Prime Minister and his wife did not cause much sensation.

Out of courtesy, Mycroft and Holmes did not follow the Prime Minister's courtesy and sat on the sofa opposite him.McCroft rubbed his empty stomach resentfully, eagerly hoping that his younger brother could solve this big problem quickly enough, and there were still a few shiny turkeys waiting for him outside.

The prime minister is sitting on the sofa at the side of the study at the moment, and he is holding a cup of steaming black tea with his eyelids downcast. He doesn't seem to notice the slightly disturbed expression on the face of his wife next to him, feeling the warmth of the heat. Only then did he raise his eyes, staring at the energetic young man in front of him, and said in a deep voice, "Now, your wish has been granted, Holmes, I am listening."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Your Excellency. Believe me, you will never regret your decision this time." Holmes smiled, and he cut to the point sincerely, "Have you heard of the name 'Moriarty'? "

The Prime Minister pondered, "You mean... James Moriarty? The author of Mechanics of Asteroids?"

"Theoretically, yes, that's him."

"What does that have to do with our conversation?" the Prime Minister asked.

"Well, I think Madam may be more aware of the relationship." Holmes was not at all afraid of the meaningful look from the Prime Minister. He seemed to have not considered the consequences of saying this, and his expression was full of Fearless, but his tone is extremely calm, as if he has a lot of iron evidence, "——Ike Hawke, I remember him as one of your few friends, isn't he?"

Not many... Mycroft tsk tsk in his heart.His younger brother offended the most powerful people all the time.

However, the prime minister didn't get angry about it. He squinted his eyes slightly as he thought about it. Many thoughts flashed through his mind, but he remained calm, "What do you want to tell me, young man?"

"The truth. A truth that you may have known but refused to accept."

The prime minister let out a deep laugh, his stone-like eyes couldn't see the emotion, rubbed his rough fingers on the edge of the cup, and said unhurriedly, "Tell me, maybe I can accept your so-called truth ... maybe not."

Holmes really thought about it at this moment. He kept this rare silence for nearly a minute, but the next sentence made his brother gasp for a while, and he was rarely stunned——

"In short, your wife is making a deal with an extremely clever criminal, Iako Hawke is the middleman, and the criminal's name is James Moriarty."

Mycroft, "..." Holmes, what about your etiquette?What about the so-called conversation skills I taught you? !You just summed up all the evidence in one sentence. Do you think that the person sitting in front of you is your little girlfriend who will unconditionally believe your nonsense? !

Sure enough, the Prime Minister laughed quite amusedly. He looked a little surprised, but he quickly returned to normal, and even looked at McCrawford inquiringly. The meaning in his eyes made his brother twitch his eyebrows involuntarily.

"As a detective, Mr. Holmes, I think you should present all the evidence to convince me to believe your inference before drawing conclusions. What's more, the person you are accusing now is the lady sitting next to me, my wife."

The prime minister's doubts are reasonable, no one will accept groundless accusations and questioning, and the prime minister's mild response at this moment is a manifestation of the other party's good education.Holmes nodded. Looking directly into the other person's eyes, he spoke slowly——

"If you need evidence, we can give it to you, but I don't think that is enough to make your Excellency take action. And the evidence that is deadly enough was destroyed by those Mr. Moriarty... forgot to tell you, James Moriarty is a professor of mathematics and a writer - oh, that's all right on the face of it, the fact that I've read him so well, I can't help but wonder why How would a professor who is so smart and good choose to be a terrifying criminal? I think you may have heard of this title - the Napoleon of crime. Unfortunately, it's just another title for a professor, I think what he did, what he actually committed, accounted for more than half of the horrors in Europe in the last five years."

"Sounds very interesting," said the Prime Minister. "To the point, Mr. Holmes."

The focus of what he was referring to was naturally his wife.

But Holmes didn't follow along, but suddenly brought up another topic, facing his brother, "Mike, if I remember correctly, how long is it until the next general election? Two years, or one year?" Year?"

The British general election is held every four years, and this year is the winter of [-]*, and there are less than two years before the next general election.

But this is not the key point, the key point is the following sentence——

"I remember that your Excellency had a strong competitor in the general election, and of course he is still your opponent until now."

William Ewart Gladstone, as he was called Robert Gascoigne-Cecil - the prime minister's greatest rival is well established.This is the second time that the Prime Minister has been elected, and his predecessor is Mr. Gladstone. After the expiration of Robert's first term of four years, Gladstone was elected for the second time. He spent a lot of effort in that year just won a second prime ministership from this opponent...don't expect any friendly rivalry between them, in fact if he wants to succeed then Gladstone will be his third general election The number one enemy of the road.

Regarding the discord, the Prime Minister is indeed a politician who has read a thousand sails, and he immediately understood the stakes.But there was still no wave on his face, he just flicked the rim of the cup and smiled slightly, "Are you accusing my wife of collaborating with the so-called criminal Napoleon to commit the crimes you mentioned? "

Seeing that the situation was not good, McCroft was about to speak when his brother, who had always been restless, said first, "Partially, indeed, sir. I am indeed blaming your wife for having sex with Murray in order to prepare for the next prime ministerial election. Artie teamed up, you are a good prime minister, and elections need money, a lot of money. Moriarty offers money, in exchange for the convenience he needs, as a transaction, everyone may think this is fair, but that is when you are completely Before learning the content of this transaction."

Holmes' flattery mixed with questioning caused the Prime Minister to show an unbelievable expression. He stared at Holmes with a half-smile, with a hint of exclamation, "You know that you say such things in front of me without evidence, Will there be consequences, young man?"

"I know, sir. But I also know very well that you will listen to my unsubstantiated statement."

The prime minister leaned forward slightly with great interest, caught a glimpse of his wife's pale face from the corner of his eye, paused, and said softly, "The reason?"

"In investigating all these related cases, it is inevitable that we will need the help of several friends." Holmes said calmly, meeting his eyes without fear. "In my expectation, the process of waiting for the result should be very It was difficult and costly, but beyond my expectation, my friends are all very good, although it took a lot of effort, but in the end I stood here and proved something."

"Oh? Let's hear it."

"Someone is helping us." Holmes' tone was very firm. "I can imagine how people like Moriarty invade your government and use what means to coerce those who are willing or unwilling to become his use. Tool, in this regard, I admit that he is much better than me, an excellent executioner. I have foreseen the tragic ending after we become opponents, but in fact, the participation of an invisible ally has made this matter much easier -"

The lady who had been standing silently by the side seemed to have thought of something, and cast her unbelievable eyes over.

The Prime Minister kept smiling and said softly, "Really?"

"Miss Amanda, one of my friends, was previously forced to leave London due to some incidents, but someone tried to do some dishonorable things on this journey and almost succeeded, but luckily, she was saved. Come down, settle in an unknown place, only recently returned here, and deliver news for us... What a coincidence, isn't it?"

"There is also the respectable Mr. Button, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service. To be honest, this is not a good position in front of Moriarty. But it is such a coincidence that Mr. Button has repeatedly opened the door for us , has benefited us a lot. Not to mention my brother--"

Holmes looked sideways. Mycroft coughed and looked up at the ceiling.

"—My brother, if it weren't for his natural laziness, with his ability, I'm afraid the head of the current British government would have changed a long time ago. To be honest, I never thought he would be so patriotic, turkey and bread It's what he loves the most, but he will come to the person he hates the most—his brother for a Moriarty."

Mycroft, "..." That's too much.

"I believe that there are no more than three people in this country who can force McCroft to obey orders, and one of them is standing in front of me."

Holmes looked directly at the Prime Minister, then bowed slightly and saluted him, "Thank you for your help, Your Excellency."

"Robert..." the lady murmured.

The Prime Minister, who seemed unmoved by this speculation, put down his teacup. He looked at the young man, seemed to ponder for a while, and suddenly asked a question, "You thought it was me before, didn't you?"

This sentence came for no reason, but everyone present understood it.Holmes touched his nose uncomfortably, "That's just speculation..."

"I admire your intelligence, but not your courage." The Prime Minister said this sentence, "You are right, I do know Moriarty, I also know what he did, even Better than you, including the deal he made with Mary."

The madam shivered and held her skirt tightly.

"He is indeed very smart, but his methods make me disagree. Even though I have been in this position for so long, I still cannot agree with some of his actions. I know very well that once people become selfish, even their own kind can kill, but Those are innocent people who have no money, no power, or even enough to eat. Many people think they are the garbage of the empire and should be cleaned up, but in my opinion, those are the losers of life, other than that, It's not that different from ours."

Even Holmes was shocked to hear these few words from the other party's own mouth.

Sitting before him is indeed a man who should be respected, one of the few politicians with a conscience.

"But sitting in my position, there are too many things that I can't do in person. Every pair of eyes is staring at me, trying to tear a trace of skin flakes from my body, using my decision to refute me, and my Kick away. I think you understand, don't you, Holmes?"

He was silent and nodded slightly.He really understands this involuntary feeling.

"I let him go for a long time because I have more important things to do. And now that things are done, it's not too late to clean up." The Prime Minister smiled lightly, turned his head, looked directly at his wife, and said softly Say, "Yes, Mary, I always knew."

His wife's face was as pale as a wet butterfly in the rain, and she whispered tremblingly, "But why...why didn't you stop me...you..."

The Prime Minister was silent for a moment.

"I can understand your original intention." The feeling that has always existed at Oxford University has now settled into an inseparable family relationship. He can fully understand his wife's good mood for him, but the means are slightly biased. Fortunately, there is still a chance Fix it in time.

His wife finally couldn't help covering her face, sobbing in a low voice in front of everyone, "I know this is wrong, Robert... At first I just wanted to make a deal, I didn't want to hurt anyone... But it was different later Yeah, he grabbed me and threatened me...I can't let you get scandalized, it will ruin you...I didn't want to hurt those people..."

The Prime Minister sighed, "Since you can't reverse the situation you caused, then try to make it up, understand, Mary?"

Mycroft, who had a keen eye, understood the Prime Minister's voice-over. He immediately took Holmes' arm and saluted, "In this case, we will retreat first. Good night, Your Excellency."

The Prime Minister smiled slightly, "Goodbye, Holmes."