48 Hours a Day

It was dusk when the quadricycles arrived at the retrieval site for the female corpse.

Gregson left two men there to watch the body, and they put a blanket on the poor kid that came from the sailor, so she wouldn't have to keep it in the eyes of those idle people around her, and that's all they can do now.

The three of them stepped out of the carriage, and Gregson noticed that a reporter-like guy had arrived in the crowd, messing with a big camera.

“These guys, they can't shake off like fleas.” Gregson mumbled and didn't seem happy, but so far he had no clue about the case, perhaps trying to get the newspaper to look for the victim's family, so he walked over to the journalist.

Holmes on the other side was not anxious to lift the blanket, but first talked to the police officer who found the body and then wandered around for a while, which did not slow down to the body.

Zhang Heng has covered his nose and looked in silence.

The taste of the river Thames is not very good. Before the 19th century, the river was clear and the fish and shrimp flocked, but after the industrial revolution, with the expansion of the city, a large number of factories were built along the river, and industrial wastewater and domestic sewage continued to pour in, causing a dramatic deterioration of the environment on the Thames River, coupled with the floating garbage on the surface of the water, has become a real stinking ditch.

However, it is clear that the Government is also aware of the problems involved in the construction of intercepted underground sewerage systems and sewers parallel to the Thames River in an attempt to divert urban pollution as downstream as possible, and it must be acknowledged that this approach does have some effect.

Zhang Heng looked at it for a while, just like Gregson, and there were only a few things he could see from this corpse.

Holmes is right and his observation skills are excellent, but in the reasoning that follows, there needs to be enough knowledge to support it. Besides not having a case bank like Holmes, the biggest problem is his knowledge of the Victorian era, which is limited to books and movies, or one or two BBC documentaries.

This knowledge may be sufficient as an outsider to see the crowd, but it is clearly not enough to try to use it to solve a case.

Holmes, for example, can judge a person's cigarette brand and origin by his clothes or ashes on the ground. Zhang Heng may also notice details that ordinary people cannot notice, but he has no idea what brand of cigarettes are available in this era, and naturally cannot complete the reasoning for the next step.

Zhang Heng realized that it was not easy for him to complete the main task. The most unfavourable thing about the competition between him and Holmes was that he was in the age of the other party. This round of copies appeared less dangerous than before, but the difficulty was actually the biggest copy he had ever experienced.

Good thing he has plenty of time to meet the challenge.

Holmes squatted on the floor, carefully examined the body, during which he purposefully pulled out a magnifying glass, focused on the woman's palms and hair, and didn't even let go of the nail stitches. At this moment, he no longer looked like a lazy dog before, he looked like a trained hunting dog. At the end of the day, he almost put the whole person on the corpse, the woman's face facing her face, her eyes moved down, and finally paused on the latter's neck for a moment.

Then he stood up again and patted the dust on his clothes and asked Zhang Hengdao, "What do you see? ”

“Well, it should be murder, the victim is a female, aged 15 to 16, appears somewhat frail, may have an illness of its own, the cause of death is not drowning, as she has suffered a severe blow to the head, and…" Zhang Hengton, “the victim is likely to have been assaulted before he died. ”

“Not bad.” Holmes laughed, "You're not a forensic doctor. It's not easy to see so many things. Take your time. ”

He was saying that Gregson on the other side was finally done with the reporter, took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his forehead, and walked over, "It's already been agreed, that's Echo's reporter, let him take a photo on the front page later, so that if the kid's family sees it, they should come to the police station, by the way, how's it going with you guys? ”

“I don't know the child's name yet.” Holmes said softly.

Gregson's emotions were a little complicated, and the rumors were disappointing and seemed to have a kind of hidden pleasure, and he said, “Ah, that's something I couldn't do. In fact, I did everything I could before, but after all, the victim didn't even have any clothes left. It was too hard to find a clue, so it seemed to wait for the letter from the newspaper. ”

“Not necessarily.” Holmes looked funny, lit his pipe, took a deep inhale and dispersed the smell of the river.

The sheriff stunned there, “How can you say that? ”

“If I were you, I'd send someone to investigate the John textile mill a mile upstream, where the kid works, and the killer is a man, and he's an acquaintance of the kid, but he's always wanted to be six feet tall, strong, with scratches on his body, especially on his arm. ”

After Holmes finished, he restored the lack of pleasure, to Zhang Hengdao, "Let's go, our work is done, it's just in time, why don't we go to dinner together? Go to Houben Restaurant, where ham has always been my favorite. ”

“Respect is better than order.” Zhang Hengdao.

“We'll call the wagon ourselves, and you'll have to send us back, Sheriff.” Holmes then turned a blind eye to Gregson Road, "what are you still doing standing there, now that you've got the clue you want, go solve the case. ”

…………

Half an hour later, Zhang Heng has sat at the table with Holmes at Houben Restaurant.

The waiter poured pre-meal red wine for the two of them, and the previous tragic incident on the Thames River was much dimmed by the slow music in his ear.

Holmes held the glass and measured Zhang Heng across the street with interest, like he found something interesting, a moment later said, “You really can calm down, I'm getting interested in you, but it's okay, there's still some time left to serve, ask me any questions, I must know all about it, endless words. ”

“How do you deduce where that girl works and how do you know the general characteristics of the killer?” Zhang Heng finally asked.