A Short Story

Werner涵

       This storyhappened when Sherlock Holmes and I went to a countryside to get something froman old friend of Mrs. Hudson. I am surprised that Sherlock Holmes said hehadn't met the man, but the old friend of Mrs. Hudson wanted to give himsomething and he agreed. I know that Sherlock Holmes isn't a guy who does meaninglessthings. Mrs. Hudson was already there since her old friend was dying becauseshe is too old. Her friend’s last wish is getting answer of the mystery.

       “I hated this weather.” I complained andwalked on the muddy road. By contrast, Sherlock Holmes could walk politely onthe road. “It rained this morning, Watson, be careful to fall into the mud.” “Iwill, how long do we have to go?” “Ten minutes, Mrs. Hudson now live in herfriend’s house, 401 room.”

Wearrived the flat and met Mrs. Hudson on the fourth floor. The first feeling ofthe flat is old and classic, which looked like it was built several decadesago.

Mrs.  Hudson gave us baked cookies and hot tea. Behonest, it is too sweet.

“Anyonecan bring reminder cookies to Mr. Allen who live in 402. He didn’t respond mewhen I went to deliver cookies today.” Mrs.Hudson took a plate of cookies fromoven.

       “I will.” Sherlock Holmes took over theplate.

“Dear,thank you.”

       I knocked the door, no one answered.

       “Borrow your balcony, thank you.” Afterspeaking, he jumped to the balcony of room 402.

“Don'tpiss him off, he used to be a good baseball player.” Mrs. Hudson complained.

SherlockHolmes observed the window and then breaks it. He glanced at me, I know what wouldwe do next.

“Here,Watson, I find him.” Jump to the balcony and walk into the bedroom, an old manand dry blood lay on the floor.

“Whatis happening?” Mrs. Hudson asked from 401 room’s balcony.

“Someonedied here, please call our old friend.”

Westart to observe the died body. The blood on the floor comes from his head andhis face is facing the floor. “He appears to have been struck in the back ofthe head with some kind of blunt weapon, and he bleeds to death in a coma.” Iexpressed my opinion.

“Ihave the same opinion, see that?” Sherlock Holmes points to the left baseballbat in the closet.

“Itdoes look like a murder weapon, but how do you know that? I mean, find itaccurately in those baseball bats?”

“Judgingfrom the maintenance of the paint, his favorite should be the baseball bat inthe middle, but except for that one, everything else is dusty, only the leftbaseball has been wiped.”

“Problemis that…… How did the murderer leave this room? There is no more extra place toleave. The window is locked.”  

SherlockHolmes doesn’t answer my question, he walked through the bedroom and observesthe main doors.

Atthe same time, the alarm bell rang and police came here.

SherlockHolmes took some pictures and tried to open the doors of the entrance. Heunlocked the latch and pulled the wooden door. I noticed that Mr.Allen’sentrance is very strange, an old wooden door that opens inwards and a securitydoor made of iron and the door was a little bit broken. Sherlock Holmes triedto pull and push the safety door but failed, then he grabbed the handle andpushed upwards, pushing the door open.

“Hey,Sherlock! I told you a lot of times. Don’t break the crime scene.” Lestradeshouts.

“Ipossibly know how we can find the murderer. Let your people collect theevidence. The weapon that killed the dead was a baseball bat.” He pointed tothe footprints at the door. “According to the depth and size of the muddyfootprints at the door, he judged that the murderer should be about 1.8 meterstall and about 70-80kg. The way of judging is a very simple formula, which isoften used in criminal investigation.” Sherlock Holmes ignores Lestrade’s complaint.

Mrs.Hudson came out from her room. “Mrs. Hudson, I remember you visited him today.What was the situation?” Sherlock Holmes asks.

“Isaw that the security door was closed, and from the crack of the door I couldsee that the wooden door inside was also locked.”

“Isthere anything weird?”

“Yes,Mr. Allen kicked his son out of the house and His son cursed a few wordsbecause the door was locked and then he had to leave.”

Afterthinking for a while, Sherlock Holmes turned to look at the door and said “Now,Watson, watch out the entrance, what kind of information can you get?”

Sherlocksuddenly asked me a question, this also inspired my curiosity. “First, thiswooden door is locked by a latch, but just now we came out from the inside, thelatch was inserted, but the side door frame clearly saw that the latch wasinserted inside. Then there is this security door. The lock is broken. There isonly a handle inside the door. It cannot be opened from the outside. The dooris hard to open outside because a part of it is stuck in the ground.”  

“Youhave caught the problem, carefully observe whether there is a little sawdust inthe groove leading to the long axis, and whether there is also sawdust in thecrack of the safety door stuck on the ground. When Mrs. Hudson saw it, bothdoors can be opened. There is a wooden block under the safety door, and thelatch is only stuck in the groove.” Meanwhile, Lestrade comes over to say thatluminol has found a bloodstain reaction on the baseball bat.

“Whatis luminol?” I asked.

“Luminolis an efficient blood detector. Even if 1 microliter of blood is dissolved in 1liter of water, the blood signal can be captured by luminol.” Sherlock Holmesanswered that.

A cop said that they found someone downstairsthat fit the footprints, Sherlock frowned and followed Lestrade to see thatperson. He is a resident downstairs from Mr. Allen, called Werner. He is 1.8meters tall and weighs 74kg. He said he just came back here yesterday. WhenSherlock Holmes entered the gate, he said Werner was not the murderer.

Lestradeasked him why, Sherlock Holmes said look at the shoes at Werner's door, thereis dry mud on the shoes, the footprints at the door of Mr. Allen's house aremuddy, it's raining today, and a stranger won't know the lock on Mr. Allen'shouse So clear, so Werner can't be the murderer.

Igot the point, “Therefore, the murderer should be person Mr. Allen knows and appearin Mr. Allen’s flat.”  

I asked, “how to make sure know who killed Mr.Allen? ”

“Thefingerprints on the baseball bat.”

“Ifthe murderer wear gloves?”

“Subjectidentification.”

“Subjectidentification?”

“Subject identification is based onevery subject instance has a unique, unchanging identity. Forensic doctors caninfer some useful information from what the object is composed of and whatsubstances or elements it carries such as blood. In common situation, subjectidentification can be used as an evidence to find out the criminal. We cannotfind any wooden things to prop up the security door, therefore, he must bringthem when he left the room. The forensics will use Gas Chromatography-MassSpectrometry to detect whether is any sawdust in his belongings.” Sherlock explained.

        “These Forensic detection method are really useful.”

       Sherlockadmitted and supplemented “The results obtained by most of these methods can beused as evidence to convict the murderer.”

       On the wayhome, Sherlock said that he was here today because of Mrs. Hudson's friend, sheused to be a forensic doctor and has a wealth of experience using these methodsto solve crimes. When he took over the note from Mrs. Hudson’s friend, he wasvery delighted like a kid.

       Two dayslater, Lestrade came and told us the whole situation.

    Mr. Allen's son Mike had already planned tokill Mr. Allen because of his dissatisfaction. He had begged Mrs. Hudson theday before that his father wanted to eat the cookies she baked. He said hismother made cookies for him and his father when she was alive. Then the nextday, putting his father into a deep sleep with sleeping pills, used the woodenblock trap to exit the door, and waited for Mrs. Hudson to go out to buyingredients for cookies. Showing Mrs. Hudson the illusion that he is locked outthe door, let her be his alibi, waiting for Mrs. Hudson to leave, then open thedoor to kill him, take the wooden block and close the door.

       The fingerprint was fit and the sawdustin his pocket also matches the sawdust in the crack in the door.

       I'm still curious how he managed to lockthe door with a block of wood, and Sherlock seemed to see my doubts and showeda picture on his phone. I observed carefully and found that the latch was notfully inserted into the groove,  butextended to the edge of the groove. Sherlock Holmes was only subconsciouslypulling out the latch, and Mrs. Hudson, who was outside, only saw that thelatch was close to the groove and thought that is locked.

       Lestrade said he didn't understand whyhis father wasn't given more sleeping pills to pretend to be suicide, and Mikewas reluctant to talk about anything else after admitting the crime. Sherlockonly said the word "mother". Lestrade seems to have rememberedsomething, showing an expression of realization. Mike's dissatisfaction isbecause his mother was killed by his father with a baseball bat, and he carriedout this revenge plan.

冰玺

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