Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock's comfort had an obvious effect. Hopkins was obviously startled. The hands that were rubbing his head in pain suddenly tightened and pulled out a lot of hair!

Indeed, based on the date of murder, the stage actress should have died before the banker, but because she had been hiding alone, she was not under the protection of the court at all, and Hopkins I never looked for her again, and even at the beginning, I was somewhat hopeful that she could survive by this method.

But now, the other two people on the list have not survived, so as the only person whose life and death have not been confirmed, her chance of survival seems not to be great.

Immediately, Hopkins forcibly cheered up and quickly ordered his men to start looking for the stage actor again.

Of course, he didn't really care about this person's life or death, but he was thinking that if this person died, he would be lucky enough to find some clues about the Ripper at the scene of her death.

[Something has to be done with their bodies. 】

At this moment, he finally understood what Sherlock said at the beginning.

This time, the whereabouts tracing was carried out by the Third Division of the Inquisition and the Nine Division of the Imperial Royal Investigation Team.

In fact, compared to the Tribunal, a judicial institution with a strong papal style, the Imperial Royal Investigation Team is more inclined to the traditional legal violence agency. As long as their authority allows, it can be said that they can use any method to make decisions. When Si is violently enforcing the law, he will still take into account the face of the Holy See. Even if he kills people, he will use his faith to put some high-sounding cloaks on him.

But the Royal Investigation Team won't care about this. Their system is more inclined to the military, so most of them don't care about dignity or style issues. In order to carry out the tasks assigned by their superiors, they fish for law enforcement and secretly collude with local governments. The dark forces spread informants everywhere, and even used the other party's family members to force the other party to defect, betray information, and install undercover agents.

This style of conduct makes them extremely efficient. Anyway, if Sherlock wants to find someone to cooperate, then he will definitely look down on the judges of the Inquisition who wear noble blue robes all day long.

Just like that, two more days passed

In the past two days, the autopsy report has also come out. As expected, everything is as Watson said. The deceased was starved to death, or died of thirst. In short, no toxins were found in the body.

And inside the two corpses, as always, a small piece of paper was found with the name of the next victim.

One is that in the cervical spinal canal cut off by Pope Bellu, there is the name of an imperial government finance minister.

Second, it was written in the banker's voice that he was a wealthy businessman who purchased weapons parts for the war front.

But the time was almost half a month later, so the list of the two victims who were about to be killed was not immediately informed. It was too early to let this group of big shots with too much power know that they were going to die. In fact, it was not If you don't let them survive, they will have a greater chance of surviving, and it will cause some trouble.

In the temporary office in Whitechapel, Hopkins once again drank a full cup of coffee.

Ever since Pope Beru was buried, he hasn't had much sleep until today. In the office, the smell of coffee and tobacco leaves are mixed together, and coupled with the increasingly serious dark circles under his eyes, you can feel that this guy is about to die. It's reached its limit.

Even a third-level contractor can't stand up to such high-intensity work without sleeping for more than a week. But even if he stares at the case report on the table day and night, He still didn't think of any breakthrough.

As a rare genius in the Inquisition for decades, Hopkins has shown very commendable insights in all previous cases. Even after seeing a monster like Sherlock, He has never doubted his ability to detect cases.

Because the puzzles that the monster can solve can actually be solved by myself, but not as fast. This means that my brain is not insufficient. As long as I reason step by step, I can always get the same results as Sherlock. s answer.

But after he had just assumed the post of Supreme Judge of the Third Division and came into contact with the Ripper serial murder case, he suddenly discovered that rationality and reasoning seemed to have suddenly lost their effect.

Those weird murders seem to exude an extremely absurd flavor, and this absurdity is destroying Hopkins' psychological defenses all the time. He is even looking forward to it, if one day, in that murder notice, , it would be nice if my name could appear. At least that way, I could know how the Ripper killed me before I died.

At two o'clock that afternoon, the door of the Whitechapel office was pushed open.

The person who walked in was Captain Gregson who was also exhausted.

"Have you found it?" Hopkins asked, and of course he was asking about the hidden actor.

"Found it," Gregson said. "She bought a can of demon sedative from a supplier more than a week ago. It happened that the supplier liked watching stage plays and getting to know the dead. Otherwise, she might have to wait a while longer. It will take time to find her trace.”

Gregson sat on a sofa and breathed a long sigh of relief. The beard that had not been taken care of for several days was already messy.

There was a moment of silence in the office.

In fact, he knew what he should say, but in the past few days, his spirit had indeed suffered a lot, and he subconsciously wanted to escape from the current problem.

Fortunately, in the end, he still said the sentence that he heard most these days:

"Confirmed dead."

Silence continues to fill this room

"And it has already shown initial signs of decay. It is estimated that it has been dead for more than five days."

This result is of course expected, and the death that comes as scheduled is like some kind of curse that cannot be escaped.

"Since you can find her whereabouts, then the Ripper can also find her. At least this murder is still within the understandable range." Hopkins said, seeming to comfort the other party and himself.

However, after Captain Gregson heard this, he took off his hat very weakly, buried his face in his rough hands, rubbed them, and sighed:

"Originally, I thought so too. After thinking about it, the Ripper finally left a simpler case.

But when I rushed to the scene of the crime in the morning, I found that I was still naive.

Because the deceased was nailed to death with several five-centimeter-thick steel nails used in construction.

Nailed behind the door of the room where she was hiding.

And that door is pushed inwards. "

Hearing this, Hopkins raised his head and looked at the other party with a slight frown.

Captain Gregson stretched out his hands, as if he wanted to describe the appearance of the corpse, but finally shrugged: "In short, the corpse was like a seal, sealing the door. Obviously, it was another secret room murder. , The Ripper doesn’t seem to want to give us a chance to breathe. I even suspect that he just wants to use these impossible murders one after another to exhaust us to death. I guess this can be regarded as one of his murder methods."

This is a joke. But no one can laugh.

Three consecutive deaths cast a shadow on both people's hearts.

In fact, the Ripper has killed more than 100 people. When the first cleric died, the Inquisition had already begun to investigate him. A month ago, the Imperial Royal Investigation Team also joined in, and this Over time, everyone seems to have become somewhat accepting of this kind of murder scene.

But things are different now.

Miss Nightingale's name appears on the list. If those clergymen die, although it will make people angry, they will not care too much. After all, there are many clergymen. If a few clergymen die, another batch will be cultivated. When the pope dies, some means can be used to temporarily replace the administrators of his diocese; and when some important officials die, methods can also be found to recover losses.

But Miss Nightingale can't do it. There is only one Nightingale in the entire empire. If she is really killed, there will be no room for recovery.

Moreover, the long-term absence of this world-traveling girl will inevitably arouse speculation among the people of the entire empire, which will make it impossible for her death to be concealed forever.

No one wanted to know the impact Nightingale's death would have on society, nor could anyone want to try.

Miss Nightingale must live, there is no room for negotiation.

But in the past ten days, the bizarre murders that have occurred one after another seem to constantly foreshadow the outcome of this girl.

Doing the math, it seems that there are only three days left before her murder notice date.