It was already dusk when the carriage arrived at the site where the woman's body was recovered.

Gregerson had two men left there to look after the corpse, and they had draped the poor boy with a blanket from the boatman, so that she would not be constantly exposed to the gaze of the idlers around her, and that was all they could do now.

The trio stepped out of the carriage, and Gregerson noticed that a reporter-looking guy had arrived in the crowd, fiddling with a large camera.

"These guys, like fleas, can't shake off." Gregerson muttered, not pleased, but there were no clues in the case so far, and perhaps he could try to get the newspaper to look for the victim's family, so he walked over to the reporter.

On the other side, Holmes did not rush to lift the blanket, but first chatted with the policeman who found the body, and then wandered around for a while, and then walked to the body unhurriedly.

Zhang Heng was already covering his nose and checking silently.

The smell of the Thames River is not very good, before the 19th century, the river water here was clear, there were schools of fish and shrimp, but after the Industrial Revolution, with the expansion of the city, a large number of factories were built along the river, and the continuous influx of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage made the environment on the Thames deteriorate sharply, coupled with the garbage floating on the water, it has become a veritable stinky ditch.

But the government is clearly aware of the problem, and has tried to divert urban pollution as much as possible downstream by building an interception system of underground sewerage and sewers running parallel to the Thames, which must be admittedly effective.

Zhang Heng looked at it for a while, and like Gregson, what he could see from this corpse was also limited.

Sherlock Holmes is right, his observation skills are also excellent, but in the subsequent reasoning link needs to be supported by enough knowledge, Zhang Heng in addition to not having a brain case library like Sherlock Holmes, the biggest problem is that his knowledge of the city in the Victorian era is limited to books and movies, or one or two BBC documentaries.

As a layman, this knowledge may be enough, but it is obviously not enough to invoke this knowledge to solve the case.

For example, Sherlock Holmes can tell what brand of cigarette a person smokes and the place of origin by clothes or cigarette ash on the ground, Zhang Heng may also be able to notice these details that ordinary people can't notice, but he doesn't know what brands of cigarettes are in this era, so naturally he can't complete the next step of reasoning.

Zhang Heng realized that it was not an easy thing for him to complete the main quest, the competition between him and Sherlock Holmes, the most unfavorable point for him was that he was in the era of the other party, this round of dungeons did not seem to be as dangerous as before on the surface, but the actual difficulty was the biggest one in the dungeon he had experienced.

Fortunately, he had plenty of time to rise to the challenge.

Sherlock Holmes squatted on the ground and carefully examined the corpse, during which he also deliberately took out a magnifying glass, focusing on the lady's palms and hair, even the fingernails did not let go, at this moment he no longer had the lazy appearance before, he looked like a well-trained hound, and finally his whole body was almost attached to the corpse, face to face with the female corpse, his gaze moved all the way down, and finally paused for a moment on the latter's neck.

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

"Well, it should be murder, the victim is a woman, 15 to 16 years old, her body seems to be a little weak, she may have a disease herself, the cause of death is not drowning, because she has suffered a heavy blow to the head, and ......" Zhang Heng paused, "The victim may have been violated before he died." ”

"Not bad." Sherlock Holmes smiled, "You're not a forensic doctor, it's not easy to see so many things, take your time." ”

As he was talking, Gregerson on the other side finally finished dealing with the reporter, took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and walked over, "It's already talked, that's a reporter from The Echo, wait for him to take a picture and post it on the front page, so that if this child's family sees it, they should come to the police station to find us, by the way, how is it going on here." ”

"I don't know the child's name yet." Sherlock Holmes said leisurely.

Gregson's emotions were a little complicated, and he seemed to be both disappointed and faintly happy when he heard the words, and said, "Ah, this is also something that can't be helped, in fact, I have done everything I can before, but after all, the victim doesn't even have clothes left, and it is too difficult to find clues, it seems that I still have to wait for the letter from the newspaper." ”

"Not necessarily." Holmes looked amused, lit his pipe, and took a deep breath to dispel the smell wafting from the river.

The sheriff was stunned when he heard this, "How do you say this?" ”

"If I were you, I would send someone to investigate the John's Textile Mill a mile upstream, where the child worked, and besides, the murderer was a man, and an acquaintance of the child, but he had always thought of the child, who was six feet tall, strong, and had scratches on his body, especially on his arms."

After Holmes finished speaking, he regained his lack of interest, and said to Zhang Heng, "Let's go, our work is done, it's not too early, how about going to have dinner together?" Let's go to Hou Ben's restaurant, where ham has always been my favorite. ”

"It's better to be respectful than to obey." Zhang Hengdao.

"We'll call the carriage ourselves, and we'll not bother you to send us there, sheriff." Holmes then said to the stunned Gregson, "Why are you still standing, now that you have got the clue you want, now, hurry up and solve the case." ”

…………

Half an hour later, Zhang Heng and Sherlock Holmes were already sitting at the table in Houben's restaurant.

The waiter poured pre-dinner red wine for the two of them, and the tragedy that had happened on the Thames was diluted by the sound of music in their ears.

Sherlock Holmes held the wine glass and looked at Zhang Heng opposite with interest, as if he had found something interesting, and said after a while, "You can really calm down, I'm getting more and more interested in you, but it doesn't matter, there is still a while before the food is served, just ask if you have any questions, I must know everything, and I will say everything." ”

"Then you're welcome, how did you deduce where the girl worked, and how did you know the general characteristics of the murderer?" Zhang Heng finally asked.