Sherlock Holmes Complete Works 2

Chapter 29 Return 5
"This will is very special." He said and handed over the draft.

"Except for the first few lines, the middle sentences of the second page, and the last one or two lines, the rest are illegible, and there are a few places I can't make out," said Remired.

"What is the matter?" asked Holmes.

"What's your opinion?"

"Obviously these words were written on the train. The clear part was written when the train stopped at the station, but the writing was unclear when the train was moving. The most vague part shows that the train is passing by the side road. Experienced experts can It was immediately concluded that these writings were written on a railway line in the suburbs. If he had taken the whole journey to complete this will, it must have been an express train, which made only one stop between Lower Norwood and London Bridge. .”

Raymond laughed.

"Mr. Holmes, but is what you say relevant to the case?"

"It just proves that this will, which was given to us by the young man, was drawn up yesterday by Mr. Oldecke on the train, and that he does not really take it seriously."

"That means he wrote his will and issued a death sentence for himself," Remired said.

"Is that what you think?"

"Don't you think so?"

"Possibly, but I don't know the case very well."

"Unclear? The case is clear enough. A young man suddenly knows that if an old man dies, he will become the owner of a large fortune. What will he do? He will tell no one, make an excuse." He went to visit his client that night. After the third person in the house fell asleep, he killed his client in a separate bedroom, burned his body and wiped out the traces, and then left. Although there were very few bloodstains on the bedroom and walking stick, it may be He thought he wouldn't even leave a drop of blood. Isn't it obvious that he will escape the law sooner or later because there are traces?"

"My dear Raymond, that is too simple," said Holmes. "You lack imagination. If you could put yourself in the shoes of a young man, would you choose the night of your will to kill someone? Don't you feel that making a will and committing a murder are so closely linked that it's dangerous? Also, would you pick a moment when a third party knew you were at the scene of the crime? Most importantly, would you hide recovering the dead body and leaving your staff to prove your crime?"

"As for the cane, Mr. Holmes, we all know that a criminal is always flustered after a crime, and often does something stupid. It is very likely that he will not dare to go back to that room. Give me another reasonable one. Speculate."

"It's quite simple," said Holmes. "You may conjecture, for example, that the young man is looking at the expensive securities given to him by the old man, and the curtains are only half drawn, when a lucky tramp just happens to be peeping out of the window. After all this happened. After the young man left, the homeless man sneaked into the house and saw a walking stick, grabbed it, beat the old man to death, burned his body to wipe out all traces, and ran away."

"What's the reason for homeless people to burn dead bodies?"

"Same reason you said McFarlane did it."

"To cover up the evidence."

"Of course the tramp doesn't want anyone to know there's been a murder."

"Why isn't the table taken by the homeless?"

"That's a document, not cash, and it's not transferable."

"Well, Mr. Holmes, you go to your vagabond, and I imprison my young man. Let time prove your conjectures. And, as far as we know, not a single note has been touched. The murderer There is no need to take away the papers, because he is already the legal heir, and he will get them in the end."

Hearing this, Holmes seemed to have been stabbed with a needle. "I am not denying that the present evidence is in some respects favorable to your speculation," he said, "but that there are other possibilities in this case. Time will tell, as you say. Good-bye! I'll probably go down to Norwood today and see how you're doing."

The detective was gone, and Holmes rose from his chair with the expression of excitement at a task which interested him.

"As I said, Watson, we must first go to Blackheath," said he, hastily putting on his long coat.

"Why not go to Lower Norwood first?"

"In this case where two oddities occurred so closely together, the police authorities made a great mistake in focusing on the second, which happened to be a real crime. But I think that the first incident should be To begin to explain the case, it is necessary to understand the extraordinary will.

"My dear Watson, I don't think you can be of much help this time. I shall have no trouble going out alone. See you tonight."

My friend came back very late.He looked haggard.He played the violin for an hour, the sound of the piano was monotonous and low, and he tried his best to calm down his restless mood.Eventually he puts down his violin and begins to recount his failure of the day.

"It's all wrong, Watson, very wrong. I pretended to be indifferent in front of Ray Mired, but in my heart I thought he might be right this time, and we were wrong. I My intuition points in one direction, and all the facts point in the opposite direction. English juries have not yet reached the level of intelligence that rejects Ray Mired's evidence and accepts my hypothesis instead."

"Did you go to Blackheath?"

"Go, Watson, I soon found out that the dead Oldacre was a villain. McFarlane's mother was at home, while his father went out to find the son. Of course, she did not believe that her son would commit a crime at all, but she neither expressed surprise nor regret at what happened to Oldek. On the contrary, her conversation made her unconsciously support the police because if she had said that about Oldek to her son, the young man would have hated and committed violence. 'Ordek is a vicious and cunning monster,' she said, 'from a young age He's always been a treacherous monster."

"'You knew him when you were young?' I said.

"'Yes, I knew him well. In fact he was the first person to propose to me. But luckily I left him. After I got engaged to Oldek, I was told how he let a cat go. Go into the aviary. I hate this cruelty so much that I have nothing to do with him again.' She found in a desk drawer a picture of a woman whose face was messed up with a knife.'In the picture It was me,' she said, 'and he sent it to me the morning of my wedding, made up like this.'

"'But,' said I, 'he is willing to leave the whole property to your son, as proof that he has now forgiven you.'

"'My son and I want nothing from him,' she cried, very solemnly. 'Mr. Holmes, God has punished the villain, and God will prove my son innocent.'

"I tried to think of one or two more clues, but I couldn't find anything that would work for my hypothesis, and something that was just the opposite. So I went to Lower Norwood again.

"This is a large modern villa built with burnt bricks, with a garden lawn in front. The burned log yard is on the right, and there is still some distance between the log yard and the road. Look, here is a sketch I drew The one with the window on the left is Oldek's room. You can see what's going on in the house from the road, you know. Remired is not at the scene, which is the only thing that can give me comfort today, but his The Sheriff did his best. After a morning of searching in the ashes, they found a few discs of discolored metal in addition to the charred organic remains. Upon closer inspection, I realized they were men's trousers Buttons, I also saw the mark of 'Hyam' on one button, this man is Oldec's tailor. Then I checked the lawn all over, but found no marks or footprints. August day Sun, I spent a full hour crawling around on the lawn, but it was as fruitless as before I went there.

"There was nothing in the yard, so I went to check the bedroom, but it was stained with some blood, but the color was very fresh. The cane, which also had a small amount of blood on it, was moved. It was indeed McFarlane's." Canes, and only his and Oldek's footprints on the carpet.

"There was a little hope, but it was gone in a while. I checked the safe, and most of the things had already been taken out and placed on the table. One or two pieces of paper sealed in the envelope were opened by them. But it is not of much value. There is not much money in the passbook, and it does not show how rich Mr. Oldeck is. But I always feel that not all the papers are here. Several of these deeds are clearly mentioned. If this can be confirmed, Remired's statement that no one will steal what he knows he will inherit soon will be self-defeating.

"Finally I turned to Mrs. Luxington. She was short, dark, inarticulate, suspicious, with a squinting eye. She could have said something, but she kept her mouth shut. Yes. , at 09:30 she let mr mcfarlane in, she regretted letting him in, at 11:30 she went to bed. since her room is at the other end of the house, what happened here She couldn't hear anything. Mr. McFarlane put his hat and stick in the hall. The fire alarm woke her. Someone had killed her unfortunate good master. Did he have any enemies? Everyone has enemies, But Mr. Oldacre was not much company, except for those who asked him to do business. The housekeeper saw the buttons and decided they were on the clothes he wore last night. It hadn't rained for a month, and the wood was very dry. So it burned very fast. When she hurried to the lumberyard, all she saw was a raging fire, and she, like all the firefighters, smelled of burnt meat. She didn't know the writing, and she didn't know Oldek Mister's private matter.

"Well, my dear Watson, this is how I failed. But...but...but..." He clenched his fists suddenly, "I know everything is wrong, it must be wrong. The other housekeeper just knows She won't say anything about important situations. But she also knows that it's useless to talk too much. Apart from being able to deliver it to your door, it's very difficult for this case to appear in our case-solving records."

"The jury will be impressed by the young man's appearance," I said.

"No, Watson. Remember that great murderer, Bert Stephens, who wanted us to exonerate him in 1887? How docile he was, a Sunday-school boy!"

"It's true."

"If we don't come up with another convincing hypothesis, McFarlane is screwed. You can't find a single fault in the case against him. Further investigation backfired. Oh, yes. Now, those papers may be the starting point of any investigation. Oldeker's bank book has a small balance, because he has written several large checks to Mr. Cornelias in the past year. Is he related to the case? Nelias may be an intermediary, but I can't find a note to match these large payments. I'll have to go to the bank and inquire about this gentleman. But I'm really afraid the case will end ugly with Remyrad It ends with the death of a young man."

Holmes hardly slept that night, and when I came down to breakfast the next day I found him pale and sad, with dark circles which made his bright eyes seem all the more bright.Cigarette butts and the morning paper litter the carpet near his chair.There was a telegram on the table.

"What do you think this means, Watson?" He threw me the telegram on the table.

The telegram was from Lower Norwood and reads as follows:

New and more important evidence has been obtained. McFarlane has been convicted. Please don't waste your time.

Raymond

"Like the real thing," I said.

"Remy Read has a great chance of winning with this victory," replied Holmes, with a wry smile on his face, "but it is not yet time to give up completely. In any case, the new evidence is a double-edged sword. Maybe it will be beneficial to us. We will see if there is anything we can do later, I need your company and spiritual assistance today."

My friend didn't eat breakfast, he was very nervous.I have seen him faint from malnutrition caused by overexertion. "I don't have the energy to digest food at all right now," he kept saying in response to my medical advice.So I am not surprised that he went with me to Lower Norwood without breakfast.There was a group of curious people around Yougu Manor, as I expected, Remired greeted us inside with a smug look. "Ah, Mr. Holmes, have you proven us wrong? Have you found the tramp?" he said triumphantly.

"At the moment, I'm not sure," replied my companion.

"But now that we have proved that the conclusions we reached yesterday were quite correct, you must temporarily admit that we were right this time, Mr. Holmes."

"The way you look makes me believe that something extraordinary has indeed happened."

Raymond laughed.

"Everybody likes to get ahead of everybody else," he said. "One can't expect everything to be right, can one, Dr. Watson? This way, gentlemen, I think I've managed to convince you of McFarlane." It's the fact that he's the murderer."

(End of this chapter)