Chapter 153 Speechless
It was early in the morning, and it was still dark.
The city of fog had just experienced a night of blizzards, and the frozen soil was now covered with a thick layer of gray snow, as if the gray clouds in the sky had settled down.
The Big Ben, which also had the mission of protecting the Virgin Queen, had just struck six times. Douglas, who had become famous for solving several murders in recent times, yawned and walked into the blackened Sailboat and Tobacco Tavern.
Originally, this case should not have been his responsibility, but since Mr. Grayson had been promoted and Mr. Lestrade was busy with other vicious cases, this murder case that caused a total of thirteen deaths fell on his head - all this was because of his recent achievements in solving murder cases, which attracted some unnecessary jealousy while his reputation was revealed, so those stingy and incompetent guys all recommended him to be in charge of this case.
But Douglas had already heard of the name of the Sailboat and Tobacco Tavern, and he knew that it was the property of the Burton Brothers Gang - it was obviously a vicious fight between gangs.
He walked around the charred corpses and charcoal that blocked his way and took out his newly bought pipe from his pocket. He recently liked the feeling of tasting nicotine with a pipe. It seemed that he could see the essence of things through the smoke as the smoke rose.
Douglas lit a match with his boots, lit the tobacco in the bowl, and took a deep puff of the cigarette holder. The familiar bitter taste of tobacco flowed into his mouth and filled his lungs, which made him feel refreshed.
He narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at the tragic scene in front of him. He immediately noticed the three charred corpses lying in front of the bar. Even though they had been smoked into semi-charcoal-like substances, it was difficult to hide their original strong bodies. It seemed that these were the low-level thugs responsible for watching the scene.
But at the same time, he also noticed the circular bullet holes in the center of the foreheads of the three charred corpses. Even though the three people were standing in different positions and had different heights when they were alive, the bullet holes could always accurately hit the center of their frontal bones.
Douglas didn't even need to use a ruler to measure, he knew that the three bullet holes must be located at the center of the three frontal bones, and the distance between the two ears was almost exactly the same!
"The murderer is a sharpshooter who never misses."
Douglas first made such a judgment, but unfortunately, the current Fog City, as the most advanced and developed city in the world, hides many talented warriors, and there are more masters with such accurate shooting skills than his ten fingers. He couldn't guess which gang the senior thugs were from for a while.
Is it Shelby from the Peaky Blood Gang? It is said that he is a war hero who retired from the army, and it is not surprising that he has such accurate shooting skills.
Or is it Chen's group of killers who don't wear braids? I heard that those guys are from a fanatical organization in the far east, good at burning, destroying, and killing all living things. It is simply an extremely dangerous assassination army!
Or is it the brother and sister of the Black Crow Gang? But I heard that they never liked to use firearms, especially Jacob. It is said that he was cruel and irritable by nature, and he liked to use metal knuckles to break the enemy's bones inch by inch, enjoying the crunching sound.
Or maybe...
Douglas's mind suddenly surged with many suspicious targets. After all, the Burton Brothers Gang had too many enemies in the city, and any gang might retaliate against them like this.
Why should our Scotland Yard care about the fighting between these gang members? ! Wouldn't it be better to let them fight each other and bleed, so that London can become quieter - instead of investigating the cause of death of these gang members, I might as well go back to read the new "London Illustrated News" this week.
But complaining is complaining, work still has to go on - at least the superficial work has to continue - Douglas exhaled two thick green smoke from his nostrils, and then walked towards the source of the fire, the back kitchen of the pub.
As soon as he came in, he smelled the particularly strong smell of barbecue, like the fried and roasted vegetables on the street.
The small kitchen was originally filled with a variety of ingredients, all of which were now roasted, mixed with the stench of corpses, and drilled into his nostrils unscrupulously. Even the aroma of tobacco could not cover up this disgusting and fragrant complex smell.
He looked at the three round black balls-like heads scattered on the ground, and saw that the fracture of the charred neck was unusually flat.
The only way to create such a neat plane incision is to cut it in two cleanly - the murderer is either an extremely strong muscular man or has an extremely sharp weapon.
Douglas is more inclined to believe that the murderer is a burly and strong experienced knifeman with a sharp blade, but if this line of thought is used, it seems that the only suspect left is Jacob of the Black Crow Gang - it is rumored that the other party is good at using all melee weapons, all weapons, whether it is a cane, a battle axe, a scimitar, or even a two-handed sword!
In a certain urban legend, someone claimed to have seen Jacob holding two sharp axes, rushing into a gang stronghold with dozens of guards alone, killing those who were covered in blood. When he walked out of the thick black smoke, he was just like the berserker in Viking mythology who became more and more courageous as the battle went on!
But Douglas had conducted a careful investigation on the matter and found that the source of the urban legend all came from uncertain statements such as "I heard it", "I just saw it from a distance and I'm not sure", "It should be probably like this..." He knew that this matter must be just a simple urban legend - haha, how could someone really kill dozens of guards with real guns and bullets with just two hatchets? Even the fleeting monster I met before couldn't withstand the rounds of shooting by dozens of people, right? ! But if someone can cut off a human's neck with a knife quite neatly - Douglas completely believed this statement. He was born in a blacksmith family and started to help his family make some swords, axes and halberds since he was a child. He once witnessed a mighty customer who easily cut off a tree as thick as an adult's waist when testing the knife. At that time, he was so scared that he hid in his bed and cried all night. After all, he liked to cool off under that tree when he was a child. However, the fact that the customer could accomplish such a feat so easily seemed to be closely related to the weapon he forged himself - the old man seemed to have mastered some secret forging method that had been passed down from ancient times to the present.
Every time he forged weapons for those mysterious customers, he would hide in the secret room alone to complete the important processes of hammering and quenching, and would never allow himself to peek, saying that this was not something that a kid who hadn't even grown all his hair should know - this stubborn old man was even wary of his own son!
Douglas touched his newly grown beard, which felt thick, hard and prickly.
After he thoroughly scanned the scene, he seemed to be unable to find any other suspicious points - the safe upstairs was also forcibly broken open. It was obvious that the murderer had the intention of robbing the enemy while eliminating his opponent.
He went back downstairs and looked at the sparse crowd of onlookers. These were all gamblers without fixed jobs, and they must have been regular customers of this sailboat and tobacco tavern in the past.
Douglas cleared his throat and asked loudly: "Did anyone see the murderer's appearance when the murder happened last night?!"
But after hearing the question, the gamblers turned their heads to look at a guy leaning against the wall with his head down. After getting a nod from him, they said in unison:
"Yes, yes, yes, I saw it last night. The murderer was very tall, eight feet tall, with shoulders four feet wide. His arms were thicker than my thighs, and his hand holding the gun was bigger than my head - he was simply a little giant!!!"
"I saw it too. The murderer was tall and big, and And their skin is as black as coal, they must be those niggers from Africa!!! "
"Bullshit, you are talking nonsense, the murderer is wearing a mask, but I can clearly see that the skin color of his eyes is white - the murderer is obviously a white man!"
"You know nothing, that is the war makeup of Africans, they like to apply some white paint on their faces when killing people, and in ancient times it can be used to scare prey, do you know history? ! ! "
Douglas listened to the nonsense of this group of people, and was speechless in his heart - I might as well go back to read the new "London News Illustrated" this week!
However, the noisy crowd suddenly quieted down, and saw a low-key luxury carriage that obviously did not belong to East London coming from the street.
The four-seater carriage stopped in front of the tavern, and a cold and beautiful lady came out of the carriage.
The gambler with extensive knowledge of history immediately shouted: "Oh my God, it's the great detective Miss Holmes!!!"