Chapter 24: Charlotte on the Run

The British have a proverb: "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a beggar."

Even the Duke of Holmes's family cannot escape this rule: bacon slices selected from the back of Berkshire pigs, dark smoked sausages, fried eggs cooked to a medium level, thin toast slices, sweet and sour baked beans in tomato sauce, fried potatoes, black pudding (blood sausage), grilled tomatoes and fried mushroom slices to relieve greasiness... This is their hearty breakfast today.

While Charlotte Holmes was eating, she suddenly had a sixth sense of foreboding, as if something strange would happen next.

She didn't care about chewing slowly, said goodbye to her father and mother, and hurriedly got on a carriage to London.

The ominous and worried feeling in her heart became stronger along the way, and she urged Victor to hurry up.

When she returned to Baker Street and saw that the door of the detective agency was closed, Charlotte knew that something must have happened - as usual, Watson should open the door to welcome customers at this moment.

Could it be... Watson met with an accident? !

She took out the key and pushed the door open. She saw that the house was clean and tidy, and there seemed to be no signs of fighting. On the reception table was a vase pressing a piece of paper, which read:

[Miss Charlotte, I received a message from Evie from the Black Crow Gang this morning, saying that they had found useful clues. I took the initiative to rush there first, and please go directly to the Black Crow Bar later. ]

Huh——Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief, and her hanging heart finally let go.

“So you are going to track down clues... I was overthinking it.”

But it makes sense. Even if Watson is now disabled, there are probably not many people in London who can hurt him...

The female detective locked the door again and hung a sign saying that it was closed today.

“Victor, let’s go to the Black Crow Bar.”

…………

When Charlotte arrived at the Black Crow Bar, there was a familiar face inside wiping the wine glass silently. It was the old Bach who met last night. The other person’s face was still covered with clear purple bruises of five finger marks.

Old Bach, who was busy working, heard the door open and was wondering which old drunkard came so early?

When he looked up and saw that it was the tall lady with a graceful demeanor last night, he remembered the message that Jacob had specifically told him before he left.

"Good morning, Miss Holmes. You are here for last night's commission, right? Your male companion last night came early in the morning. He found out that your target is likely to be hiding near Whitechapel. You should go there next."

"Whitechapel area... Thank you!"

The female detective nodded slightly, turned around and stepped into the carriage, and continued to rush to the next destination.

"Victor, go to the vicinity of Whitechapel."

…………

As soon as they arrived near Whitechapel, they saw thick black smoke rising in the distance, rising straight into the sky and connecting with the gloomy sky, as if it was a stone pillar standing tall.

There were also many passers-by on the street who looked up curiously and talked about it, but this was just a joke during the work. Although it could relieve the daily depression, boredom and dullness, it was not worth too much attention. It was just a small episode at most.

After laughing, the busy workers returned to their indifferent expressions and continued to repeat their monotonous lives.

However, the firefighting operation team in the area, whose duty was to extinguish fires, immediately went out from the fire sentry after observing the fire.

There were three people in the team, wearing firefighting helmets with curved cavities on the top to resist falling objects at the disaster site, working together to push a wooden cart equipped with a water storage barrel and a hand-operated pump engine. This was the backward firefighting machinery of the current era.

Fortunately, it was the working hours of the factory at this moment, and there were few pedestrians and vehicles on the road. The road conditions were good and they could pass smoothly, but the slow speed was really hard to compliment.

Charlotte saw the firefighters falling behind the carriage in a flash. Because of her wealthy family background, she was able to maintain her pure kindness. She couldn't bear to see this and wanted to lend a hand.

She stopped Victor, leaned out of the window and shouted: "Hey everyone, let me give you a ride!"

The three firefighters looked at each other, and seeing the complex noble emblems printed on the wall of the carriage, they were timid and dared not agree. The three heads shook their heads and declined the kindness.

"Thank you for your kindness! But we..."

Seeing that they seemed to want to refuse, Charlotte jumped off the carriage with her long legs, rolled up her sleeves to reveal her snow-white arms, and helped push the heavy fire extinguisher, "Don't hesitate, putting out the fire is important!"

The firefighters refused in every possible way, and it was really difficult to resist the kindness of this beautiful and kind lady, so they had to take the rope handed over by the coachman and tie the fire extinguisher to the carriage.

They had originally thought of letting the fire engine go first, and the three of them would just chase after it, but they didn't dare to share a carriage with this noble lady.

Until Charlotte opened the door and waved and urged, "Hurry up and get in the car, what are you still hesitating about?!"

The three of them got into the carriage reluctantly, and the cushions of the noble carriage were comfortable, softer than the sofa in the captain's house, and these eight legs really run much faster than our six legs!

Charlotte had originally thought of completing this casual act of kindness first, and then going to the nearby representative landmark White Chapel - she believed that Watson should be waiting for her there regardless of whether the search yielded any results.

But she never expected that when she and the firefighters arrived at the courtyard that was burning like a furnace in the scorching sun.

Charlotte's eyes passed through the crowd of onlookers, and she saw a blackened Watson sitting in a corner drinking whiskey alone in a courtyard with lush flowers and plants, and the grass next to it was even more neatly arranged. His pale body was covered with thick blue cloth, as if he were displaying a corpse!

A few morally corrupt people were squatting outside the fence, waiting for an opportunity to peek at the beautiful scenery under the body that could not be covered by the cloth.

"Watson!"

Charlotte jumped out of the carriage before the fire engineers took action. She pushed through the wall-like crowd, rushed to her assistant in three steps at a time, knelt down and asked with concern: "Watson, are you okay? Bar?!"

Watson's face was covered in black ash as if he had just emerged from a coal mine, and there were burn marks on the ends of his hair. His windbreaker jacket had long since disappeared, and his inner clothes were stained with large amounts of dried dark red blood. There was only one firearm left in his gun bag, and he looked like he had just experienced a tragic battle.

Moreover, with the keen eyesight of the female detective, it can be seen that although Watson's face is slightly red due to the influence of alcohol, under the cover of dark ash, the bottom layer of his face is weak and pale, obviously suffering from the pain. Not a minor injury.

Upon hearing Charlotte's inquiry, Watson first sighed deeply, shook his head and sighed:

"I'm fine, it's just Harris—"

He raised his head, a trace of guilt and intolerance flashing across his face.

"Harris has come into contact with forbidden knowledge and has transformed into a monster like Lance!"