In the evening, Wiggins came back and reported that the Baker Street team had been staring at Pearson for a long time and found nothing. He was working at the chemical plant as usual, and there was no abnormal behavior.
Holmes was not in a hurry, and just let the group of brats continue to stare, while he himself began to finish the paper on the impact of profession on hand shape.
As a result, Wiggins hurriedly came to call the door the next day. Mrs. Hudson was baking bread in the kitchen and was startled. Zhang Heng was also awakened by the sound. When he came out of the house, he saw someone downstairs. Holmes was laughing, took seven shillings to Wiggins and said, "One for each person, two for yourself, go to Sheriff Gregson and tell him that Holmes called him to come to 221B Baker Street." Then he looked up. To Zhang Heng coming down the stairs.
"It's done. This case can finally be concluded. If Pearson is caught, the main criminal will not be able to escape."
"Huh?" Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, "You have collected all the evidence."
"That's right," Holmes said, rubbing his hands, "Let's have breakfast first and wait for Gregson. I'll talk about it together then."
About an hour later, Chief Gregson came to 221B Baker Street reluctantly. As soon as he entered the door, he shouted in a loud voice, "I said the case is over, what else do you want from me? Our police work is also very busy. , I couldn’t sleep much last night.”
"Really, what are you busy with, a new case? Still waiting to receive the director's commendation." Holmes smiled.
Gregson's face turned red and he muttered, "After all, I have made a contribution to this city. This case has been in the newspapers for the past two days. It is normal for the director to pay attention to it."
"Yes, yes, but I think it's not too late to celebrate until the real murderer is caught." Holmes said.
"The real murderer?" Gregson was stunned.
"Come with me. It won't take you much time." Holmes said, "By the way, are you handcuffed?"
"I'm taking it with me," Gregson said impatiently. "I'm taking my gun with me too. I'll keep these things with me."
"I don't think we will need a gun. The other party is not a vicious person after all. Besides, we have experts here." Holmes said while glancing at Zhang Heng beside him. It was difficult for him to forget what happened yesterday. His eyes are still open to this. Still a little swollen.
"Come on, gentlemen."
The three of them did not rush to the chemical plant immediately, but first took a carriage to a pawn shop. Holmes said to the owner of the pawn shop, "Someone came to pawn a carpet before. Where is that carpet?"
When the pawn shop owner heard this, his face suddenly showed a nervous look, and he cursed secretly, "I knew it."
"Um?"
"I'm not talking about you, gentlemen, I'm talking about the boy who came to pawn the carpet before. I was suspicious of him at the time. To be honest, I have been in this business for so long and my eyes have seen many people. Dressed like that, it looked like a bitter person. How could he have such a good carpet, and also choose to do the transaction in the early morning, when the door was just opened? I was muttering in my heart, he must not have stolen this thing. Bar."
"Hey, then you still dare to accept it?" Gregson said.
The boss smiled sarcastically upon hearing this.
"How much did you pay him?" asked Holmes.
"Two...two pounds." The boss said, "I thought about the workmanship and materials. If I really want to buy it, it will cost me twenty or thirty pounds at least."
"So you can get ten times the profit just by changing hands." Holmes said, "Come on, don't feel bad. This thing is evidence and is involved in a murder case. Maybe we can return it after we use it. Here you go, now, take us to see it first.”
"Okay... okay."
The boss took the three people to the warehouse where the pawn items were stored. Holmes squatted down and could see the blood stains remaining in the middle of the carpet without using a magnifying glass.
It had obviously been cleaned and wiped, but not wiped clean.
"This doesn't mean anything." Gregson said, but his tone could be heard to be a little shaken. He was also a little panicked at this time, as if to comfort himself, he added, "And the boss also said this. The items were probably stolen.”
"This is the carpet in John Jones's office." Holmes said. "To be honest, I didn't expect it to go so smoothly. I thought he would use a more secure method to deal with this thing."
"Why does this name sound familiar? Wait... Is this the current owner of John's Textile Factory?" Gregson finally remembered where this name came from. "He was the one who received us when we went to the textile factory before. He seems pretty good."
"The female workers in the textile factory don't think so. This is not the first time he has harassed the female workers in the factory." Holmes said, "Although no one wants to talk about it, I still tried to find out how he did it just the year before last. After taking over the textile factory from my father, the female workers here often had unexpected pregnancies, but of course in the end, most of them did not say anything about it and left the textile factory after receiving a severance package."
"This is indeed not a glorious thing," Gregson's attitude softened obviously, and he paused, "Okay, I admit that I may have missed something before, and Mr. John also seems to have some suspicions, but I still want to The kid named Paul is still my number one suspect here, after all, the bloody clothes under his bed are real."
"Don't worry, just listen to me." Holmes smiled.
"On the night of the incident, it was Molly's turn to clean, and she was the last one to leave. The lights in John's office happened to be on at that time, so they were the only ones in the factory at the end, which gave him time to commit the crime. The next day Zhang and I went to visit the textile factory. The guy at the door told us that John was not there. This in itself was very suspicious. After what happened, he should have been trying to calm down the female workers in the factory recently. I took the time. Sneaking into John's office, I noticed that his carpet had been replaced. The new carpet was obviously not the right size. It was probably brought from home for emergency use. There were also faint blood stains on the corner of his impressive desk. It seeps into the wood grain, but like you said, that still doesn’t explain Molly’s clothes under Paul’s bed.”
Gregson's ability to sit in the position of police chief was not a complete failure. Hearing this, he shook his head and said, "Don't tell me that John put the blame on Paul. Since Paul works in the chemical plant next door, John may not Knowing him, secondly, even if he knew that there was a person like Paul, he wouldn't know where the latter lived. The road in the slums could make John dizzy. If a person with his status was too conspicuous when going in and out, he wouldn't know where the latter lived. Maybe no one noticed."
"Yes, that's right, so I believe there is another accomplice in this case." Holmes said.
