Sherlock's comfort had an obvious effect, and Hopkins was obviously stunned, and his hands that were rubbing his head in pain suddenly tightened, and he pulled off a lot of hair!

Indeed, according to the date of the murder, the stage actor must have died before the banker, but because she had been hiding alone, not at all under the protection of the Inquisition, and Hopkins had never looked for her again, and even at first, there was some expectation that she would survive this way.

But now, the other two people on the list have not survived, so as the only person who has not yet confirmed her life or death, it seems that her chances of survival are not great.

Immediately, Hopkins forced some spirits and quickly ordered his men to start looking for the stage actor again.

Of course, he didn't really care about the life and death of this person, but thought that if this person was also dead, then he could find some clues about the ripper at the scene of her death.

"Something has to be done with their corpses. 】

At this moment, he finally understood what Sherlock had said at the beginning.

This time, the Third Division of the Inquisition Division and the Ninth Division of the Imperial Royal Investigation Team carried out the investigation.

In fact, compared with the Inquisition, a judicial institution with a strong papal style, the Imperial Royal Investigation Corps is more inclined to the traditional legal violence organs, they can be said to be able to use any trick when their authority allows, and the adjudication department will eventually take into account some of the Holy See's face when violently enforcing the law, even if it kills someone, it will use faith to put on some high-sounding coats for it.

But the Royal Investigation Team will not care about this, their system is more inclined to the military, so most of them will not care about any dignity or style issues, in order to carry out the tasks assigned by the above, they fish for law enforcement, secretly collude with local dark forces, spread informants everywhere, and even use the other party's family to force the other party to defect, sell intelligence, and install undercover agents.

This style of action has led to their extreme efficiency, and if Sherlock wants to find someone to work with, then he will definitely not look down on the Inquisitors who wear noble blue robes all day long.

And just like that, two more days passed

In the past two days, the autopsy report has also come out, and as expected, everything is as Watson said, the deceased was starved to death, or died of thirst, in short, no toxins were found in the body.

And in the two corpses, as always, a small note with the name of the next victim was found.

First, in the cervical canal cut by Pope Beru, the name of the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Imperial Government was written.

Second, it was in the banker's voice that he was writing about a wealthy businessman who was buying weapons parts for the war front.

But the time is almost half a month later, so the list was not immediately informed of the two victims who were about to be killed, too early to let this group of big people who have too much power in their hands know that they are going to die, in fact, it does not give them a better chance of survival, but will cause some chaos.

In Whitechapel's makeshift office, Hopkins poured a full cup of coffee again.

He hadn't slept much since the burial of Pope Beru, and in the office, the smell of coffee and tobacco mixed together, coupled with the worsening dark circles under his eyes, could feel that this guy was about to reach his limit.

Even a third-order contractor, in this kind of high-intensity work, he didn't sleep for more than a week, and he couldn't stay up, but even if he repeatedly stared at the case report on the table day and night, he still didn't think of any breakthrough.

As a genius rarely seen in the Inquisition Court for decades, Hopkins has shown commendable insight in all previous cases, and even if he has seen a monster like Sherlock, he has never doubted his ability to detect.

Because the puzzle that the monster can solve, in fact, can be solved by itself, but not so fast, which means that it is not enough in his own brain, as long as he deduces step by step, he can always get the same answer as Sherlock.

But just after taking up the post of Supreme Judge of the Third Division, after being exposed to the Ripper's serial murder case. He suddenly found that reason and reasoning seemed to be completely useless at once.

Those bizarre murders seem to exude an incomparably absurd smell, this absurdity destroys Hopkins' psychological defense all the time, and he is now even looking forward to the day when his name appears in the murder prediction, at least then he can know how the Ripper killed him before he dies.

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the door of the Whitechapel office was pushed open.

The man who walked in was the equally exhausted Captain Gregson.

"Did you find it?" Hopkins asked, and he asked, of course, the actor who was hiding.

"Found it," said Gregson, "she bought a jar of demonic tranquilizer from a vendor more than a week ago, who happened to like to watch stage plays and know the deceased, otherwise it would have been a little longer before she could be found." ”

Gregerson sat down on a couch and let out a long sigh of relief, his beard, which had not been groomed for days, was already a mess.

There was silence in the office.

In fact, he knew what he should say, but in the past few days, his spirit has indeed suffered a lot, and he subconsciously wants to escape the current problem.

Fortunately, in the end, he still said the sentence that he heard most often in the past few days:

"Death has been confirmed."

Silence continued to permeate the room

"And there are already tentative signs of decay, estimated to have been dead for more than five days."

Of course, this result was also expected, and the death that came as expected was like some kind of curse that could not be escaped.

"If you can find her whereabouts, then the Ripper can find her, at least this murder is still within the understandable range." Hopkins said, as if to comfort the other party and himself.

But when Captain Gregerson heard this, he took off his hat very weakly, buried his face in his rough palm, rubbed it, and sighed:

"Originally, I thought the same thing, and I thought that the ripper had finally left a simpler case.

But when I arrived at the scene of the crime in the morning, I found that I was still naïve.

Because the deceased was nailed alive by several five-centimeter-thick steel nails used in construction.

Nail behind the door of the room where she was hiding.

And that door was pushed in. ”

Hearing this, Hopkins raised his head and looked at the other party with a slight frown.

Captain Gregerson stretched out his two hands, as if to describe the appearance of the corpse, but finally shrugged his shoulders: "Anyway, the corpse is like a seal, sealing the door, obviously, it is another secret room murder, the ripper doesn't seem to want to give us a little respite, I even suspect that he wants to use this impossible murder one after another, to exhaust us to death, I guess this is also a kind of murder method of his." ”

It's a joke. But no one laughed out.

Three deaths in a row cast a shadow on the hearts of both people.

In fact, the Ripper has killed more than 100 people before and after, and when the first clergyman died, the Inquisition had already begun to investigate him, and a month earlier, the Imperial Royal Investigation Team had joined in, and in this time, everyone seemed to have some acceptance of this kind of murder scene.

However, this is no longer the case.

Miss Nightingale's name appeared on the list, if it was said that those clergy died, although it would be infuriating, but they would not be too concerned, after all, there were not a few clergymen, and if one group died, one more group would be cultivated; When the Pope dies, there are also means to temporarily replace the administrator of his diocese; And the death of some important officials can also find a way to recover the losses.

But Miss Nightingale can't, in the whole empire, there is only one Nightingale, if she is really killed, then there will be no room for recovery.

Moreover, the fact that this wandering girl has not appeared for a long time will inevitably cause speculation among the entire people of the empire, which will make it impossible to hide the news of her death forever.

No one wants to know how much of an impact Nightingale's death will have on society, and no one wants to try.

Miss Nightingale must live without any room for negotiation.

But in the past ten days, the unbelievable murders that have appeared one after another seem to be constantly predicting the end of this young girl.

If you do the math, it seems that there are only three days left until the date of her murder notice.

(End of chapter)