Chapter 487 Hurry up and Solve the Case

It was already dusk when the four-wheeled carriage arrived at the salvage site of the female body.

Gregson left two men there to look after the body, and they draped the poor child with a blanket from the boatman, so that she would not be exposed to the eyes of the idlers around, and now they could do nothing. That's all.

The three got out of the carriage, and Gregson noticed that a guy who looked like a reporter had already arrived in the crowd, fiddling with a big camera.

"These guys are like fleas and can't be shaken off." Gregson muttered, looking unhappy, but so far there are no clues in this case, maybe we can try to let the newspaper find the victim family members, so he walked over to the reporter.

On the other side, Holmes did not rush to lift the blanket, but first chatted with the policeman who found the corpse, and then wandered around for a while before walking to the corpse in a leisurely manner.

Zhang Heng was already covering his nose and silently checking.

The smell of the Thames River is not very good. Before the 19th century, the river here was clear and there were groups of fish and shrimps. However, after the Industrial Revolution, with the expansion of the city, a large number of factories were built along the river, and there was a steady stream of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage. The influx has drastically deteriorated the environment on the Thames River, coupled with the floating garbage on the water surface, it has become a veritable stinking ditch.

However, the government is obviously aware of the problems, and built an intercepting underground sewage system and a sewer parallel to the Thames River in an attempt to transfer the pollution in the urban area to the downstream as much as possible. It must be admitted that this method has indeed played a role. effect.

Zhang Heng looked at it for a while, and like Gregson, what he could see from the corpse was limited.

What Sherlock Holmes said is good, and his observation ability is also very good, but he needs to have enough knowledge to support the subsequent reasoning link. Apart from the fact that Zhang Heng does not have the case library in his brain like Holmes, the biggest problem lies in his understanding of Victoria. In this era, knowledge of the city was limited to books and movies, or one or two BBC documentaries.

This knowledge may be enough as a layman watching the show, but it is obviously not enough to use this knowledge to solve the case.

For example, Sherlock Holmes can judge the brand and origin of cigarettes a person is smoking from the ash on his clothes or on the ground. Zhang Heng may also be able to notice these details that ordinary people cannot notice, but he has no idea that there are cigarettes in this age. What brand of cigarettes, naturally, can not complete the next step of reasoning.

Zhang Heng realizes that it is not an easy task for him to complete the main task. The most unfavorable thing for him is that he is in the opponent's era in the competition between him and Sherlock Holmes. It was so dangerous before, but the actual difficulty was the biggest dungeon he had ever experienced.

Fortunately, he has more than enough time to meet the challenge.

Holmes squatted on the ground and examined the corpse carefully. During the period, he took out a magnifying glass and focused on examining the lady's palms and hair. He didn't even miss the cracks between the nails. At this moment, he no longer looked as lazy as before. , looked like a well-trained hound, at the end he almost stuck his whole body on the corpse, face to face with the female corpse, his eyes moved all the way down, and finally paused for a moment on the latter's neck .

After that, he stood up again, patted the dust on his clothes, and asked Zhang Heng, "What did you see?"

"Well, it should be murder. The victim is a woman, 15 to 16 years old. She seems to be weak. She may have a disease. The cause of death is not drowning, because she suffered a severe blow to the head. In addition..." Zhang Heng paused , "The victim is likely to have been violated before his death."

"Not bad." Holmes smiled. "You are not a forensic doctor. It is not easy to see so many things. Take your time."

He was talking about Gregson on the other side finally finished dealing with the reporter, took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and walked over, "It's already been negotiated, that's the reporter of the "Echo", let him Let’s take a photo and post it on the front page, so that if the child’s family sees it, they should come to the police station to find us, by the way, how are you doing here.”

"I don't know the child's name yet," Holmes said leisurely.

Gregson's emotions were a bit complicated. Hearing the words, he seemed to be both disappointed and faintly grateful, and said, "Ah, this is something that can't be helped. In fact, I did everything I could do before, but the victim didn't even have clothes. There are none left, it is too difficult to find clues, it seems that we still have to wait for the letter from the newspaper."

"That's not necessary." Holmes looked amused, lit his own pipe, took a deep breath, and dispelled the smell from the river.

The sheriff was stunned when he heard the words, "How do you say that?"

"If I were you, I would send someone to investigate the John Textile Factory one mile upstream from here, where the child worked. In addition, the murderer was a man, and he was an acquaintance of the child, but he had always been suspicious of the child. Unrealistic, six feet tall, strong, with scratches on his body, especially on his arms."

After Holmes finished speaking, he resumed his lack of interest, and said to Zhang Heng, "Let's go, our work is done, and it's getting late, how about having dinner together? Let's go to Hou Ben's restaurant. The ham there has always been my favorite."

"Being obedient is worse than being respectful," Zhang Heng said.

"We call the carriage ourselves, so I won't bother you to take us there again, Sheriff." Holmes then said to the dumbfounded Gregson, "Why are you still standing, since you have obtained the clues you want, Now, hurry up and solve the case."

…………

Half an hour later, Zhang Heng and Holmes were already sitting at the table in Houben's restaurant.

The waiter poured the pre-dinner red wine for the two, and the tragedy that happened on the Thames before was also diluted a lot by the gentle sound of music.

Holding the wine glass, Holmes looked at the opposite Zhang Heng with interest, as if he had discovered something interesting, and said after a while, "You are really calm, I am more and more interested in you , but it doesn't matter, there is still some time before the food is served, if you have any questions, feel free to ask, I will know everything, and I will talk endlessly."

"Then I'm not polite. How did you deduce where the girl worked, and how did you know the general characteristics of the murderer?" Zhang Heng finally asked.