152 – Standing still (3)
It would be a lie if Jane Watson said she wasn’t surprised by Holmes’ notification that the bodies of the torso incident, which has recently been causing an uproar in London, will be able to be examined. .
She, of course, had heard stories from Holmes all along, and knew that her friend was right next to her, with unusual connections.
However, if most of the work up to now had been something Holmes had investigated ‘personally’, this time it felt like he was coming into contact with something that was not easily accessible and was literally related to state secrets.
Watson told her courtiers that she did not yet have a medical license, but her own friend did not hear this.
In fact, she did not think to herself that Watson was really lacking in skills, but that she was just using it as a courtesy to express her humility thanks to her social education.
She was arrested a few months ago on suspicion of smuggling corpses, but she also participated in quite a few dissections under the professor in charge of transporting numerous corpses.
Although her own friend, her Holmes, sometimes overly neglected her Ron Watson herself, it was clear that Jane Watson was her skilful doctor.
Of course, the reason Holmes was willing to accompany her to her autopsy was because of her trust in her friend, but she was confident that at least her Watson would be able to easily find out the truth even if she hid it. Although it was.
But while Watson waited for the work to proceed, she had to spend time with Holmes at her cafe. Those were anxious days for her.
The hot summer was slowly approaching London.
People used to flock to cafes to avoid the sun, and everyone was eager to enjoy the days of summer under clear skies, which are one of the few times of the year.
And while everyone was feeling the happiness of everyday life, Watson had to smile awkwardly while listening to the grumbles of his eccentric friend.
It wasn’t something Watson himself would have thought, but he couldn’t help but think that his friend Holmes was indeed similar to an addict.
She was the idea of a gambler handing over to a drug addict, but she certainly wasn’t wrong.
No matter how much Mycroft Holmes promised that he would soon secretly participate in the investigation, it was an unofficial promise and could not come true soon.
At first, Holmes seemed like a child complaining, so he went to Mycroft’s mansion again and made a picture of a heart-shaped gun hole on the wall, urging his brother to do so.
However, Mycroft, who had now become accustomed to his younger brother’s grumbling, simply ignored him and told him to wait, and so, unable to do anything for several days, Holmes had to irritate Watson.
Since Watson himself was at Mycroft’s mansion, he had to accept his friend’s complaints. He was never afraid that his friend’s blind gun might be pointed at him.
“I’d rather…” “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to investigate the newly discovered body?”
“Watson, Watson. Think, think! Why are you carrying your head? Could it be that Watson’s brain is located in his chest and not in his head? That might be true, seeing as I’ve gained weight again recently. No, now that I think about it, Watson might be full of fat instead of brains? What do you think, is it okay if I dissect it?”
“Ho… Holmes! “Don’t play around!”
“I’m serious. It must be one of the wonders of London, Watson. How long will your two useless lumps of fat continue to expand? I’m getting scared now. “Even if you want to remain rational, fear takes precedence.”
At his friend’s sharper reaction than usual, Watson unconsciously trembled like a pig being dragged to the slaughterhouse, but he couldn’t help it.
Investigation.
Yes, the investigation was also a problem.
After visiting Dorian Gray, bodies of similar shapes continued to be found in the Thames, as if mocking the people of London and Scotland Yard. Still, no, new bodies were being discovered every time, so people couldn’t help but become more and more interested.
Even now, if you listen closely, everyone is discussing to find out the identity of the criminal or the rules for the victims who went missing and were found with torsos.
These were all things that if one’s friends had heard, they would have been sarcastic and started a fight.
My friend also enthusiastically participated in the investigation at first. However, at some point, he gave up and just grumbled and disparaged Watson’s limp body like an opium addict addicted to boredom.
Watson looked around, lowered his voice, and cautiously opened his mouth.
“Ah… Shouldn’t we start all over again with Lord Dorian Gray?”
“Why?”
Watson was aware that he was also a member of this investigation, so he presented his opinion after much deliberation for his friend, who seemed to have reached a dead end in his own way.
No matter how much Holmes did, there was no way he could often find all the paths.
However, Watson could not help but be taken aback when his words were answered as if he were asking how he could be a human being and only think like that.
Still, he took the trouble to express his opinion, so he cleared his throat and continued speaking.
“That… If we couldn’t properly investigate that person because of his or her status……. Couldn’t we just sneak in like we did at Milverton? Huh?”
“Watson, did gambling lead to kleptomania? Don’t talk nonsense. The reason I stopped paying attention to Dorian Gray was because he was, after all, an idiot who knew nothing. “He was a rotten idiot, and if you cling to that, you can’t get closer to the truth.”
“… Didn’t you promise Miss Adler? “You said you would avenge Sibyl Vane’s death?”
In fact, Watson couldn’t help but feel a little mixed. Although he had no personal grudge against Dorian Gray, he regarded the story he heard from Irene Adler as his own during his investigation.
Holmes might have sarcastically called Watson overly sentimental. But it was proof of Watson’s goodness.
Holmes responded coldly at first. Of course, I noticed Watson’s thoughts along the way without realizing it, and continued speaking a little softly.
“Ha, why are we talking about that woman? Interested in the first place… No…… Hmm… …. hahahaha, Watson, you have to be rational when you do things like this. Unjust death? Well, it may have been suicide in the end, but yes, it may have contributed to ending her life. “He’s definitely not a good person.”
“So—”
“Do you think it would be good for a guy like me to walk around society unharmed? I hate idiots, but I don’t want good idiots to suffer the consequences. But, Watson, what are you going to do? Let’s overlook the fact that he knows nothing about this matter. But there’s no evidence to accuse him, no evidence. It’s like math, if you can’t prove it, it’s worthless. So let’s focus on bigger problems. “If we can catch that person, the teacher, and prove that he is a villain, we can solve all the secondary problems.”
“Sorry, I was distracted.”
“There is no need for an apology. It wouldn’t be Watson if he didn’t act like that. It’s a similar reason why we stopped investigating the other bodies. “I assumed wrong from the beginning.”
“You did something wrong?”
Holmes opened his mouth, reaching for the newspapers on their table. On the first page of each, there was a novel and some facts about the Torso murder case.
However, Holmes secretly revealed the second side.
“Arson of Alexandra Palace. It was suddenly destroyed by fire three days after completion. But even these incidents are being buried thanks to the insidious Thames Killer. I heard from Mycroft that it was clearly arson, but they were hiding it intentionally. “The culprit is an anarchist.”
“What?”
“Trying to find common ground between the victims, as people are saying now, was my wrong prejudice and playing into the teacher’s prank, Watson. In the first place, we are not eliminating victims based on certain commonalities. Just as smoked herrings are used to ward off hunting dogs, these torsos were acting as smoked herrings. Maybe this fire incident was the original purpose. Or not… “Maybe you were aiming for something else.”
“Then…” “What should I do?”
“We have to go back to the beginning. Not about the victims, but about the person who created these victims. Of course, no matter what route you take, you still have to catch the person in charge. In that sense, it is important to look at the torso itself. “I hope Mycroft can do some work quickly.”
Two days later, Mycroft Holmes secretly summoned his brother and his friend to the morgue at the London General Hospital.
There, I was able to encounter many terrible corpses. Even Watson unconsciously closed his eyes for a moment at the sight of the gruesome corpses, but Holmes alone had no choice but to focus on the wounds on the bodies, as if they were used to drain blood for preparing meat.
A wound intentionally intended to collect blood.
And they were marks made by something sharp, like a razor blade.
