The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 203 New Detective Case (25)
"I let Buck go through the formalities," said Holmes. "You may not know Buck, Watson, but he is my most hated rival on the Surrey seashore. So when you mention that tall, dark man I could easily tell you what you didn't mention when I was in the house. He's had some pretty cases, hasn't he, Inspector?"

"Of course he interfered a little," replied the inspector coldly.

"No doubt his methods were as irregular as mine. Irregularity, you know, is useful sometimes. In your case, you have to warn that whatever he says will be used as testimony, but it doesn't compel The rogue confesses."

"Perhaps not. But we have come to the same conclusion, Mr. Holmes. Don't think we have no opinion of the case, and we'll leave it alone. When you intervene in a way which we cannot use, it's a matter of taking the case." You should forgive us our annoyance while taking our honour."

"Don't worry, I won't take your honour, MacKinnon. I promise you that I will never appear again. As for Buck, he did nothing but what I told him to."

The officer seemed greatly relieved.

"Mr. Holmes, please forgive me for my recklessness just now. You have never valued fame and fortune. But we are different. As long as the newspaper raises a question, it will be difficult to deal with."

"True. But they're bound to ask questions, so you'd better have answers ready. For example, when a quick-witted, competent reporter asks what exactly makes you suspicious, and how do you know it's the truth in the end , how do you answer?"

The officer looked puzzled.

"Mr. Holmes, we do not seem to have any evidence of fact at present. You say that the criminal attempted suicide in the presence of three witnesses, because he murdered his wife and her lover. Do you have any other evidence?" ?”

"Are you going to search?"

"Three policemen will be here soon."

"Then you will find out soon. The body will not be too far away, such as the cellar, the garden and so on. It will not take long to dig these suspicious places. The The house is very old, it was built without running water, so there must be an old disused well, try your luck."

"How do you know? What happened to the crime?"

"I'll tell you how it works first, and then I'll explain it to you, especially to my old friend who has worked hard and done a lot. First, I have to let you know the psychology of this man. This man Quite peculiar, so I think his destination is not so much a gallows as a prison for insane criminals. Furthermore, his nature is that of the Italian Middle Ages, not of modern England. He is a perfect miser, he His wife, who could not bear his miserliness, might run away with any adventurer at any time. Then this person appeared, the doctor who was good at playing chess. Amberley is good at chess, Watson, which shows that his intellectual type is philanthropic. Scheming. Like all misers, he was a jealous man, and jealousy drove him mad. Whether it was real or not, he had always suspected his wife of adultery, so he decided to take revenge, and with the devil's The cunning of the man makes a plan. Come here!"

Holmes led us down the passage, looking as confident as if he had ever lived in the house.He stopped before the open door of the vault.

"My God, what a smell of paint!" exclaimed the officer.

"That was our first lead," said Holmes. "You have to thank Watson for his observations, which, though he failed to pursue them, gave me the lead. I thought then that the house had been in disrepair for many years. , weeds everywhere, obviously he is a person who does not like tidiness, but why should he suddenly become diligent and paint the house after suffering a huge blow? What about the smell? Of course he was trying to cover another smell he wanted to cover up—a suspicious stench. Then there was this room with iron doors and bars—a completely sealed room. What conclusion can be drawn from the connection of these two facts? I can only resolve to examine the house for myself. When I examine the box-office ticket at the Glass Theater—another credit to Dr. Watson—it is found that I felt the seriousness of the case when the second row of boxes No.30 and No.32 were both empty at night. This showed that Amberly had lied, and he was trying to cover up something, which aggravated my suspicion. Now The only problem was how I could inspect the house. I resorted to the tactic of sending Watson to accompany him to a remote village most irrelevant to the case, where he stayed overnight before returning. The telegram was taken by me. Well, the pastor's name was taken from my who's who, of course. Have I made it clear?"

"That's brilliant," said the policeman in awe.

"Without fear of being disturbed, I broke into the house. If I had to change careers, I would choose night burglary, and I would definitely become a professional expert. In the corner I found the gas pipe. It ran along the The corner of the wall goes up and extends into the safe. The opening ends in the rose window on the roof of the safe, so you can’t find it if you don’t pay attention to it. Anytime you just turn on the switch outside, the room will be full of gas. In the door and window It's impossible for anyone locked in a hut to stay awake after 2 minutes with the switch closed and the switch wide open. I don't know what dastardly method he used to lure them into the hut, but once inside the door they You have to listen to him."

The officer inspected the pipe with interest. "One of our clerks mentioned the smell of gas," he said. "Of course the doors and windows were open and the walls were painted. According to him, he had started painting the day before it happened." Mr. Holmes, what's next?"

"Oh, then something happened that I didn't expect. Early in the morning, as I climbed out of the pantry window, I was caught by the collar by a hand, and a voice said, 'What are you doing here, rascal? I struggled to turn my head and saw my friend and counterpart, Mr. Barker in dark glasses. The adventure made us both laugh. He seemed to be hired by Dr. Ray Ernest's family to investigate, Also came to the conclusion of murder. He had been watching the house for several days, and followed Dr. Watson as a suspicious person who had been here. He could not arrest Watson, but when he saw a When he crawled out of the room, he couldn't help it. So I told him the situation at that time, and we worked on the case together."

"Why with him and not with us?"

"Because I was ready to carry out this experiment with such good results. I was afraid you would not do it."

The officer smiled.

"No, probably not. It is my understanding, Mr. Holmes, that you wish now to drop the case and pass on to us the results you have obtained."

"Of course, this is my habit."

"Well, I thank you on behalf of the police. The case is as clear as you can tell, and there will be no difficulty in finding the body."

"I will turn you to some more solid facts," said Holmes. "I do not believe that even Mr. Amberley himself has been aware of this. You should put yourself in your shoes, Sergeant, when you are exploring conclusions. If you were the person concerned, you would How to do it. It takes a certain amount of imagination to do it, but it is necessary. Let's say you are locked in this small house, you only have 2 minutes to live at most, and you want to get in touch with the outside world, and even want to go outside the door. Maybe you are mocking Your devil revenge, what will you do at this time?"

"Write a note."

"Exactly. You want to tell people how you died. Not on paper, it will be seen. If you write on the wall it will get people's attention. Now look here! Right above the skirting boards There are traces of purple pencil drawing: 'We are-' only these few words."

"How do you explain that?"

"It's clear enough. It was written while the poor man was lying on the floor dying. He lost consciousness before it was finished."

"He was trying to write 'We were murdered.'"

"I think so too. If you find purple pencils on dead bodies—"

"Don't worry, we'll be looking. But what about the bonds? It's clear there was no theft at all. But he does have them, and we've checked."

"He must have stashed the bonds in a safe place. When the whole elopement was forgotten, he would suddenly find the property and announce that the guilty man or woman had a conscience and sent back the stolen goods, or rather they dropped them on the ground. gone."

"It seems that you have indeed solved all the problems," said the inspector. "He came to us as a matter of course, but I don't see why he should come to you?"

"Pure show!" replied Holmes. "He thinks himself so clever and so self-confident that no one can do anything to him. He can say to any doubting neighbor: 'Look what I have done. Well, I not only called the police, I even consulted Holmes.'”

The officer smiled.

"We will agree with you to use the word 'even', Mr. Holmes," said he. "This is one of the most original cases that I know of."

Two days later my friend threw me a copy of the bi-weekly North Surrey Observer magazine.Under a string of bombastic headlines beginning with "Haunted House" and ending with "Remarkable Detectives by the Police Department," there was a whole column devoted to the case.The paragraph at the end of the article is evident.It reads:

Police officer McKinnon deduced with his extraordinary keen observation that the smell of paint might be to cover up another smell, such as gas; Dead bodies were found in the abandoned well.All this will go down in the history of criminology as a model of the ingenuity of our professional police.

"Haha, McKinnon has done a good job," said Holmes with a tolerant smile. "Watson, you can record this case in our files. One day we will tell the truth."

(End of this chapter)