Zhang Heng returned to 221B Baker Street at 4 o'clock in the morning. The area around Whitechapel was relatively calm tonight. There were only a few drunkards fighting behind the pub. As soon as the patrol officers arrived, all except the extremely drunk ones dispersed. Nothing else happened.
Zhang Heng sent Laomi back to her residence, and then lay on the bed for three hours, opening his eyes at seven o'clock.
He walked out of the room. Holmes had finished his breakfast as usual and was sitting at the table, smoking his pipe and flipping through the newspapers.
"Morning."
"Morning." Zhang Heng also sat in his usual seat, rang the bell, and waited for Mrs. Hudson to bring his breakfast.
"You seemed to have come back quite late yesterday. How about it? Don't tell me you still have no clue. I have high expectations for you." Holmes said while flipping through the newspaper.
"I did find a very important clue. I probably know how Jack the Ripper chose his targets."
"Oh?" Holmes also showed a look of interest. He finally looked away from the newspaper and looked at Zhang Heng, "Tell me about it."
"Don't forget that we are still in a competitive relationship. If you want to know, go check it out yourself." Zhang Heng said lightly.
Holmes laughed loudly when he heard this, "Are you still angry about me choosing an opera in advance? Well, I take that back, but I did gain a lot. In that case, let's all rely on our abilities. Let's see. Which one of us will find the answer first?"
After he finished speaking, he put down the newspaper in his hand, took off his hat and cane from the hanger, and said to Zhang Heng, "I have to admit, you did put pressure on me. It seems I have to be more diligent."
"I hope you can still catch up with my summary of the case." Zhang Heng replied.
…………
After breakfast, it was 7:15. Holmes had left for a while. Zhang Heng sat in his original position for a while, sorting out his thoughts. He did not talk loudly to Holmes.
He gained a lot last night, especially when chatting with Laomi, he got a very valuable clue. According to the Swedish prostitute, the churches in the East End are not very welcoming to them, except for one called Sacred Heart. In the small church, the priest there treats prostitutes equally. Sometimes some homeless prostitutes who have no place to stay will go there to spend the night. In addition, the priest will distribute bread to them from time to time.
Naomi himself may not realize what the problem is, but Zhang Heng is keenly aware of what this means.
The question he had been searching for all night finally had an answer.
Who can approach these prostitutes openly without attracting anyone's attention? The answer is always right in front of them - that is the priest.
They don't even have to deliberately collect information about these prostitutes, because these prostitutes will take the initiative to find them and reveal all their secrets without reservation during confession.
Zhang Heng glanced at his pocket watch. The reason he didn't leave immediately was because it wasn't yet time for the Sacred Heart Church to open.
So Zhang Heng used the remaining time to briefly formulate an action plan for later, then put back on the equipment from last night, walked out of the house, and called a carriage.
As a result, when the carriage stopped at the door of the Sacred Heart Church, he unexpectedly ran into an acquaintance.
Holmes was standing outside the gate, looking at him with interest.
"It's interesting. It seems that although we have chosen different directions, we ultimately reach the same goal."
Zhang Heng also seemed a little helpless. He had tried his best to race against time and successfully obtained the clues he wanted, but he was unable to control the progress of Holmes.
The abilities of this great Victorian detective certainly don’t disappoint.
"How about, before we go in, should we exchange the information we have on hand?" Holmes suggested.
Zhang Heng thought for a moment and then agreed.
Unlike before, where Holmes directly announced his reasoning and Zhang Heng used it, the two of them now have a short-term alliance. The equal transaction should not affect the final outcome. I just don’t know if the two of them will be together in the church later. Whoever catches the murderer wins, but now that we have reached this point, there is no use thinking about it.
"I'll go first," Zhang Heng said. He briefly introduced his analysis and the information he got from Laomi. He paused and added, "There are also the wounds on the faces of the three previous deceased people. The first person's It's not very obvious, but the knife marks on the second and third victims are on the wrong side. At first glance, I thought they looked familiar. Now that I think about it, it does look a bit like a cross. The murderer may have marks on his body. Religious overtones.”
"Impressive analytical reasoning." Holmes also praised, "I'm glad that your work was very effective yesterday. As for me, it's relatively simple. I went to the newspaper office in the afternoon."
"Newspaper office?"
"Yes, I noticed the letter paper and the red ink on it. As you know, I did do a lot of research in this area. I judged which paper factory it was from the material of the paper, and the ink. The same is true, but the information that can be obtained from the ink is limited, because basically the red ink used in half of London is this type, but the letter paper made my trip worthwhile."
Holmes smiled and continued, "These letter papers are different from the ink. They are not the cheapest. They are quite eye-catching when they appear in the East District. But when I heard who the biggest customer of that paper factory was, I felt... It’s normal for this stationery to appear here.”
"Church?"
"That's right, the church's letter paper is purchased uniformly and then distributed to each church for use." Holmes said.
"But there's more than one church in the East End."
"Yes, but this church is the closest to the three murder scenes, and I also asked around when you were having breakfast leisurely at home. This Sacred Heart Church is the church that prostitutes visit most frequently. .”
Zhang Heng sighed and helped Holmes complete the rest of the sentence, "There are two priests in the church. Among them, Father Matthew is eighty years old and in a semi-retired state. He moved to the suburbs five years ago to retire and rarely cares about the church anymore. , basically just a name in the church, and with his age and physical strength, it is unlikely to be a murderer, so the only one left is Father Jacob. He is just fifty-six years old this year and is still in a strong age. He is also a member of the church. The actual person in charge, the prostitutes would usually come to him to confess, but what they didn't know was that Father Jacob probably had a great hatred for prostitutes who had given birth to children, drank alcohol, and lived with them for some reason. So the secrets they revealed became their talisman."
"As I said, we are now at the same starting point again." Holmes smiled.
