Zhang Heng and Holmes walked into the living room. As Mrs. Hudson said, 221b Baker Street was extremely lively today.
In addition to a group of familiar faces such as Gregson and Lestrade, there was even a deputy chief of the police station. It could be seen that he was not in a very good mood. He did not even sit down and kept looking at the window. Bian kept pacing. Seeing his boss acting like this, others naturally had no reason to sit down arrogantly.
So a group of people were just fucking in the living room. There was obviously room, but no one sat down. This scene looked a bit funny, but no one could laugh. The Scotland Yard police officers all looked serious.
Seeing Holmes walking in, everyone relaxed a little.
"It seems that you haven't slept well these past few days." Holmes said, "Lestrade, did you have oats and omelettes for breakfast?"
"It's time like this, so don't make fun of us." The short police officer said with a wry smile.
The deputy chief of police raised his head and looked at Holmes like a drowning man looking at the only straw beside him. He strode up, stretched out his hand and said eagerly, "I've heard Mr. Holmes's name for a long time, Reiss." Tradd, Hopkins and others often talk to me about you, saying that you are the most talented and best detective in London and even Europe. In addition, we have not had time to thank you for the case of the unknown female body on the Thames. Your helping hand.”
"It's a trivial matter. It's not worth mentioning." Holmes shook hands with the deputy director and then motioned for the other person to sit on the sofa.
Seeing their superiors taking their seats, the Scotland Yard police officers were finally able to return to their respective positions.
Zhang Heng asked Mrs. Hudson to bring out a few more chairs from the dining room, and he also sat down next to Holmes.
The deputy director seemed to have done a lot of homework before coming to Baker Street. He had already known that Holmes had been surrounded by an Oriental detective recently, so he didn't say anything when he saw this. He couldn't wait to go straight to the topic, looked at Holmes and said, " You must also know the reason why we came here this time.”
"It's about the serial murders in the Whitechapel area." Holmes smiled and took out his pipe again, "I saw the news in the newspaper." He paused and added, "Left-handed, male, Between the ages of thirty and forty, the character is not strong enough and unstable, and the thinking is traditional and conservative.”
"How did you figure this out?" The deputy director was startled when he heard this. "It seems that we haven't introduced the case to you yet, or have you secretly visited the scene before? In fact... the information in the newspaper was The reason why it must be modified is not to cover up the truth, but mainly to worry about triggering unnecessary panic among the people again."
Holmes pointed to the photo of the letter in the newspaper with his pipe, "The report may have been modified, but the photo is always real. The above inference is not based on the description in the newspaper, but on the letter sent to the newspaper. What the handwriting shows.”
"Oh?" Mr. Deputy Director was a little surprised, "Can you tell so many things from the handwriting?"
"Of course, it's like an art," Holmes said. "A good graphologist should be able to see much more than the literal meaning."
Seeing the deputy director's doubtful expression, Mr. Detective made an exception and took the initiative to explain, "I won't mention age. This part is too troublesome. If you really want to know more about it, you can read a paper I published two years ago, Young People and Old People. There are obvious differences in people's handwriting. Theoretically speaking, the age of the writer can be seen in most handwriting. Of course, this ability needs to be trained. Male and female handwriting are also easy to identify, and the aesthetics of different genders There is a deviation. If you are left-handed, it will be easier. Have you noticed the ink stains in the letter? Because you are writing with your left hand, your palm is more likely to rub against the writing, so there is a lot of space in this letter."
"How can you tell that his character is not strong enough, unstable, and his ideological tradition is traditional?" the deputy director asked doubtfully.
"Note that the long letters in this letter are not taller than ordinary letters. You can see that his d is written like a, and the height of i and e are also the same. No matter what environment a person with a strong character is in, the height of the letter will always be Obviously, on the contrary, this is naturally the case now. Similarly, you can see that he writes the letter K in different sizes, which shows that his character is very unstable, but the capital letters in the letter are quite neat, which shows that his conservative mindset."
Holmes said, "The above is the information I found from the handwriting, but your suspicion is not unreasonable. There is no evidence to prove that the person who wrote this letter is the murderer. At this time, it cannot be ruled out that someone fished in troubled waters and caused trouble for the police. possible."
The deputy director seemed very candid, "You have proven yourself more than once that you are a capable person. To be honest, there is a lot of pressure on our police side in this case, not only from the parliament, but also from Her Majesty the Queen. Come, we are asked to solve the case within a time limit, but so far we don’t have many clues. You also know what the East District is. The situation there is very complicated, and there is a mix of good and bad. Gregson and the others have locked in some suspects, but then they started to The suspicion has been ruled out, and now... we have no good solution, so we can only ask you for help. If the case can be solved on time, the police will also be grateful."
"You are too kind." Holmes said politely, "I happen to be very interested in this case myself, and I will take action even if there is no reward."
The deputy director was overjoyed when he heard this, "Great! This is the only good news I heard today. It happens to be almost noon now. I have made a reservation at the restaurant. You and your friends..."
Holmes interrupted the other person, "Once I start working, I will completely forget other things, so there is no need to eat. If possible, let's start now."
"That's better, that's even better." The deputy director nodded repeatedly, "I heard that you and Lestrade know each other, so if you need anything, just tell them. As long as the police are within the scope of their capabilities, they will be satisfied unconditionally. .”
Lestrade and others looked a little embarrassed. They were all outstanding police detectives from Scotland Yard, but now they could only help Holmes. Although they had not asked Holmes for help before, the scene before them was still somewhat embarrassing. It's a bit embarrassing, like a public admission of the incompetence of the London police. Of course, there seems to be some dissatisfaction from the deputy commissioner.
Holmes didn't say anything. He stood up and said, "In that case, gentlemen, let's get started quickly."
