Collapse Simulator: Raging at the Imaginary Tree

Finally, a few days later, Detective Gregson from the London Metropolitan Police Department wrote to him and invited him to investigate a homicide case.

He breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the case. He was so poor that he couldn't even afford tobacco. Thank you, dear Gregson.

He tidied himself up, put his hat on his head, and was about to leave with his cane when Watson called him.

"Have you received the case yet?" Watson inquired.

"Yes, fortunately I don't have to go out to play the violin, otherwise this would be the darkest moment of my life. Perhaps when I write an autobiography in the future, I can focus on describing the psychological fluctuations at this moment." He replied.

"I'll go with you." Watson rolled up his sleeves, his capable posture like a well-trained...bodyguard?

"Well... in what capacity?" He looked at Watson hesitantly, feeling that the other party would steal his livelihood. What was the matter?

"Your assistant," Watson replied.

"set off!"

He swung his crutch, a look of satisfaction and relief on his face. At least for now, Watson didn't seem to intend to compete with him for this substantial fee.

Of course, as his assistant, he didn't mind giving some of it to Watson.

He is not a money-loving person, but in order to maintain his hobbies, the amount of money he needs is definitely not small.

The two of them rode in a carriage to an uninhabited house at 3 Lauriston Garden Street, and he stopped the carriage about a hundred yards away.

The roads here were muddy due to heavy rain the day before.

Looking at the tire tracks and messy footprints on the road, he frowned slightly, as if he was very unhappy that these policemen did not pay attention to the surrounding environment when handling cases.

Watson noticed his expression as well, but she was just an assistant at the moment.

Soon, the two arrived at the crime scene on foot.

When he saw him, Gregson's face was clearly filled with joy.

"It's great that you can come. My colleague Lester is also in charge of this case."

"Did you come by carriage?" he inquired.

"No, we all came here on foot."

After getting the answer he wanted, he left Gregson aside and walked straight into the house.

"I am Mr. Holmes' assistant." This is how Watson introduced himself.

Then he followed him into the crime scene.

The crime scene was well protected, at least the deceased and the surrounding environment were not damaged.

This made his frowning brows relax a little.

"How is the condition of the deceased?" he inquired.

Just as he entered the room, Lester also came in. Hearing his question, they answered in unison:

"There were no external injuries, and the initial suspicion was poisoning."

"sure?"

"of course."

He nodded, put his head close to the dead man's lips and smelled them, then bent down and rummaged through his body to find seven pounds, and finally looked at his boots.

There were two people's footprints and a lot of blood around. Apart from that, all that was left was "RACHE" written on the wall, which is German and means revenge.

"Almost done, let's carry the deceased to the morgue." He straightened his clothes which were a little messy due to his excessive movements.

Suddenly there was a crisp sound and a ring fell out.

"Hmm? Oh~ that's almost it." He picked up the ring and a look of understanding flashed in his eyes.

"Is there anything else on the murderer's person?"

"Two letters and a business card he had on him."

"Please let me see it." He asked for the possible key evidence without any hesitation.

The two inspectors looked at each other and handed him the two letters.

He just glanced at it lightly and didn't continue.

"Okay, now we roughly know the characteristics of the murderer."

"The murderer was a man, six feet tall, in the prime of life. Despite his height, his feet were slightly smaller, and he wore rough leather square-toed boots."

"The murderer and the victim arrived here in the same carriage, pulled by only one horse, one of whose shoes must have been recently replaced."

"The murderer likely had a ruddy complexion and slightly longer fingernails... These are just my slightest guesses. If you'd like to find more clues, you can start with the new horseshoe and the driver."

He told the two inspectors all the information he had guessed.

Looking at the stunned expressions of the two inspectors, he seemed to be at ease, as if he had just done something not worth being happy about.

"Of course, I will continue to investigate other clues. If you can't find the murderer from these two aspects, I will provide you with an answer tomorrow. By the way, please tell me the location of the patrol officer last night. I have some specific matters to inquire about."

Watching him and Watson leaving, the two inspectors swallowed their saliva. It seemed like he had only been here for less than five minutes, yet he had been able to deduce so much information?

"Watson, you don't seem surprised at all." He sat in the carriage, looking at Watson beside him, thinking he could see her astonished expression.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Holmes, I'm still thinking about why you came to those conclusions." Watson blinked and replied.

"Just between you and me, you can just call me Yun Ling. I like this name." He smiled faintly.

"Yun Ling..." Watson's voice suddenly became a little softer.

"Okay, let me explain. First, we saw wheel tracks and horseshoe prints when we first arrived. I just asked Gregson, and he said they didn't take a carriage. Since the heavy rain just started last night, the carriage tracks are so obvious, which must mean they arrived here last night. And the horseshoe prints left by new horseshoes and old horseshoes on the road are different. The new ones are deeper."

"Judging from the footprints, two people probably walked in last night, leaning close to each other. What do you think this looks like?" He suddenly threw the question to Watson.

"If they are not a couple, then the most likely scenario is that one person is using a weapon to push the other person forward," Watson replied.

"Exactly. That explains why the other guy barely put up a fight. If the knife was held to his neck, it would have been easy to accidentally cut him."

"This also explains why one of the footprints in the house was so messy, while the other was standing still, barely moving. And the person standing still must have taken the 'poison'."

"But there's another puzzling point. If the person standing there knew that consuming the 'poison' would result in certain death, they would surely struggle a bit. After all, that's the human desire to survive. So, why would they choose to consume the poison?"

"Threat?" Watson tilted his head.

"Maybe, but we don't know this guy's relationships yet, so we need to find out more."

"Besides that, there's height. Most people write at a level slightly above their eyes, so based on the position of the handwriting and the depth of the footprints, it's easy to determine the murderer's height."

"This should only apply to you." A hint of helplessness flashed in Watson's eyes.

"Hahaha, I still need a long time to learn this."

After receiving Watson's praise, his cheeks turned as rosy as a happy child.

"If there are no external injuries on the deceased's body, but there are bloodstains at the scene, then the bloodstains can only come from the murderer."

"The amount of bleeding wasn't significant, so I can safely assume it was a nosebleed or something. That's why his face is rosy. Plus, there's the deliberately left "RACHE." Although it's in German, Germans generally use Latin, so the imitation is a bit too crude. There's also a small dent on the wall, probably from putty accidentally scraped off by a fingernail."

"That's all I can guess at the moment." He spread his hands, looking somewhat helpless.

"That's pretty impressive," Watson agreed.

He didn't say anything, just glanced at Watson quietly, then looked at the scenery outside.

……

Chapter 231 Capturing the Murderer

After finding the patrolman, he used the little money he had to exchange for the information he needed.

Well, after all, he disturbed other people's rest, and he is very reasonable.

The patrolman described his situation at the time. He happened to be patrolling on the street and saw the candlelight in the house. He was afraid and wanted to retreat.

But his inner sense of justice made him move forward, and that's when he discovered the body.

He hurriedly blew the whistle and called his companions.

"Was there no one else on the street at the time?" he inquired.

The patrolman recalled carefully and suddenly remembered something.

"Oh right! There was a drunk! I ignored him because we had just found the body. If it were any other time, I would have thrown him in jail for a few days."

"The drunk was very tall, had a red face, and was wearing a brown coat."

"Drunk? Did he have a horsewhip in his hand? Or where did he go afterwards?" he demanded.

"Because we just found the body, we didn't pay much attention to it. There didn't seem to be a horsewhip, and we don't know where he went afterwards." The patrolman scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Alas, you have to use your brain. Congratulations, you missed the opportunity to be promoted to police chief." He sighed lightly.

Then he left with Watson.

"What should we do now?" Watson inquired.

"Then we'll just have to walk into a trap. He'll definitely be looking for something when he returns to the scene, right? Besides his business card and two letters, the only thing left on the deceased should be a ring."

"Write a missing person notice. He'll come over and maybe we can lead him to his accomplices."

"Accomplice?" Watson was a little confused.

"It's impossible for such a large carriage to disappear out of thin air. If that man wasn't the driver, then someone else must have helped him pull the carriage away."

"Even if he's not an accomplice, he can at least provide crucial clues, right?"

He rubbed his cane with his fingers and replied.

He subconsciously glanced at Watson again and didn't continue.

Back at Baker Street, he wrote and mailed a letter, then posted a lost and found notice. He found a ring near 3 Lauriston Gardens and was looking for the owner.

He then prepared another somewhat similar ring and waited quietly for the other party to enter the net.

Sure enough, not long after, an old lady with a limp and a gait found this place.

She said that her daughter accidentally left it behind while watching the circus, and she mentioned a few words about her daughter from time to time.

Seeing that the nagging was endless, he winked and asked Watson to give the fake ring to the old lady.

"Is this it?" inquired Watson.

"Yes, that's it." The old lady saw the ring and nodded without hesitation.

Watson's eyes met his for a moment, and then Watson sent the old lady out.

"It's most likely an accomplice. I'll chase after him and take a look. You can rest first." He chased after him impatiently.

Watson opened his mouth but still said nothing.

Around midnight, he came back, apparently with no success.

"How is it?" Watson inquired.

"He was in disguise, not a cripple. Not long after he left, he hailed a carriage. I secretly followed him from behind, but he unexpectedly jumped off halfway and I didn't catch up."

He seemed somewhat annoyed, probably because he was just one step away from finding the real murderer.

The next day, he got up early in the morning to continue solving the case, and soon, he received a response to the letter he sent last night.

But the door of his house was also pushed open. Although he was a little unhappy, there was nothing he could do.

Gregson said happily that he had solved the case and the murderer was Xia Mingjie, the son of the deceased's former landlord.

Because Xia Mingjie had threatened the deceased shortly before her death.

Moreover, the deceased's assistant was also found dead in another hotel this morning. The cause of death was stabbing and excessive blood loss.

The word "RACHE" was also written on the assistant's face, which clearly showed that the crime was committed by the same person.

He took Watson to the scene, where there were obvious signs of a fight, but an inconspicuous medicine box on the table caught his attention.

There were two pills in the medicine box. He took out the pills from the box, put them to his nose and sniffed them, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

"This is it." He put away the medicine box and carefully examined the condition of the deceased.

No money was taken away, just like the deceased Zhui Bo, and it was not for money, so it was a revenge killing.

"Come on, Watson, let's go back and try it out." He took Watson away from the scene and specially invited Gregson to join them.

There was nothing worth exploring further at the scene.