Chapter 26 Investigator Charlotte Holmes
Chapter 26 Investigator Charlotte Holmes
The night was as dark as ink, and the street lights in East London were always on.
A lantern illuminated the dirt road in the courtyard under her feet. The shallow traces that were difficult to observe during the day were now uneven in the interweaving of light and darkness.
Unfortunately, after being trampled by firefighters, medical staff, greedy people who intended to search for valuables... and her own comings and goings, it was difficult to distinguish useful clues on the dirt road.
The white gloves pressed on the charred door panels, and immediately stained them with a layer of stains that were difficult to wash off.
The bridge joints of the door panels that were baked and cracked in the fire made a crackling sound, which startled several mice that were attracted by the faint smell of meat in the ruins and screamed and fled.
The air was filled with a strange smell that was both smelly and fragrant, like barbecue and coal, like red wine and oak, and more like rotten flowers and fruits.
Leather boots stepped on the wooden floor, and the light of the lantern illuminated the way ahead.
The light of the light orange hitting the flames and smoke could not completely cover the original brass, reflecting the cold and golden light.
That was the bullet shell that Watson usually used.
The female detective squatted down and carefully observed the distribution of the shells. Perhaps the high temperature caused the air expansion to stir up the wind and waves, or perhaps a detective assistant who did not tell the truth concealed the specific details of the incident... The position of the shells had shifted, and because of its uneven distribution range, it was not logical and common sense.
But she could still infer from it where the shells fell roughly.
The female detective stood up and hunched her back, as if her back spine had just been injured and could not stand up completely. She stretched out her right arm and held her hand in a virtual grip as if holding a gun.
The index finger was bent inward, the thumb was pulled down, the arm was slightly raised, and the shoulder was slightly moved back, as if she really held a gun in her hand and was firing.
No, no... The female detective shook her head gently. She shouldn't stand still at this time. The target wouldn't stand there and get hit. Watson also specified that she would fight while walking, not wasting any time.
She slowly moved left and right as if dodging, and her body swayed through the trajectory that only existed in her imagination - that was the trajectory of the projectile she deduced based on the fragments of objects scattered on the ground under her feet.
The arm holding the gun also swung accordingly, bending the index finger from different directions as if pulling the trigger, and turning the wrist to fire eight rounds in a row. The virtual shells jumped out of the imaginary revolver magazine and fell to the ground with a non-existent ding-ling sound.
It was as if a tall and thin figure overlapped with the female detective. She followed his movements and seemed to be able to feel what he knew and think what he thought!
After a while, the female detective stopped the simulation, and a large number of virtual shells derived from her consciousness fell all over the ground, which seemed to be highly consistent with the position of the little yellow light on the floor... If this was true, it seemed to prove Watson's statement.
But she also had doubts. There were so many shells. If she only held the gun with one hand, it would take a lot of time to change the magazine... And how could the deformed Harris miss such a good opportunity?
The female detective looked at the huge headless four-armed charred corpse lying on the ground in front of her. The other party's head seemed to have been buried by the collapsed wall. Wherever her eyes went, she scanned every corner but could not find any trace.
Next to the headless corpse was a broken stone fireplace and the remains of a broken dining table. Even though the dining table was cracked by the flames, there was still a relatively complete table board covering the triangular area between the fireplace and the wall... According to Watson, he was squatting inside to avoid the thick three-finger-wide dining table.
She looked around to find the deadly weapon... or it should be said that Watson's last resort weapon - two cavalry swords, but she didn't find anything after searching the ruins. Perhaps it had been picked up by treasure hunters.
She lay on the ground close to her cousin's body, the light of the lantern shone on the cross section of the broken neck, the charred flesh at the cut was slightly uneven, but upon closer inspection, it was found that the cut surface was like a staircase with different heights, which seemed to be well-proportioned but at least each step was flat.
The female detective seemed to see the figure slashing down with one knife after another, and finally beheaded her cousin with great effort.
At present, it seems that... the fatal injury is indeed as Watson said, because Harris kept struggling, he swung several times before successfully cutting off the head.
As for other injuries, the female detective's eyes penetrated the cut wound on her cousin's belly that seemed to have been torn. The wound was so deep that it went straight into the abdominal cavity, and the wound was so wide that half of the large intestine fell out. Because of the desperate struggle before death, the intestines were thrown far away, just like the broken string of a kite.
After a rough preliminary autopsy, it seems to be almost the same as Watson's statement, but... why is the wound on the neck so close to the shoulder, and the cross-section is almost in line with the shoulder?
If Harris was struggling and rolling at the time, shouldn't he aim at the middle area to swing the knife to ensure a better hit rate?
Did Watson swing the knife again afterwards to create such injuries, or was it really as he said... The female detective didn't know, and it was difficult to restore the scene of the fire, so she couldn't infer it!
The female detective was actually struggling in her heart. On the one hand, Watson was her assistant and had saved her life in the Lance case. She shouldn't doubt him for emotional and logical reasons.
But she was born with a strong desire to pursue and explore the truth of things, which was her nature that she could not change or suppress.
Innate rationality and acquired sensibility, trust and suspicion... These opposing qualities and thoughts seemed to set off a fierce battle in her mind, and the aftermath of the battle seemed to tear her spirit in half like a blade attack.
She thought that the investigation scene would calm down her disputes, but when she saw the evidence that seemed to be consistent with and contradictory to what Watson said, the two voices in her head became more and more noisy, and the arguments seemed to overturn her skull. .
"Isn't this similar to what Watson said? Even if there is a slight discrepancy, it is logical. How could Watson lie to us?"
"This scene is full of doubts! Watson must be hiding something! Even this seemingly reasonable scene is very likely to be fabricated by him later. He is simply fabricating! Destroying evidence! Covering up the truth!! !”
…………
The female detective frowned and fell into deep thought.
At this time, she suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the shadows behind the house. She immediately turned her head and looked alertly. The light beam of the lantern also shone through, and her other hand was already on the firearm at her waist.
"who!"
The light illuminated a familiar face and two particularly eye-catching pearl necklaces.
"Don't get excited, Miss Holmes, it's me - Natalia."
A special investigator from the Anti-Suppression Bureau walked out of the shadow of the trees behind the house. Her pupils reflected the light, but seemed to shine brighter than the light.
Natalia glanced at the fat, charred corpse on the ground and said worriedly:
"It's another supernatural incident. It's only been less than a week."
"Miss Holmes..." She raised her head and looked at the female detective she met at the scene of the incident for the second time, and said, "I really don't know whether you are lucky or unlucky, but you have frequently come into contact with people related to the mysterious world in a short period of time. The events associated with it—that’s not a good thing.”
"It seems that you have established some inexplicable connection with the bizarre things, like the mutual attraction between magnets. Perhaps you will never be able to escape the influence of the mysterious things in the rest of your life. "
The female detective was about to retort, but what you said was not accurate enough. Magnets only have positive and negative poles that attract each other, while like poles repel each other.
But Natalia Long then said:
"Why don't you just join our Anti-Suppression Bureau? With your intelligence, you will definitely be able to help us uncover the mysterious clouds that have been shrouding London!"
"I do!"
Unexpectedly, I was eliminated in the first round...