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It is evident that John Horner has been harassing his wife since his disappearance.

For when Mrs. Horner saw Agatha and Watson, she blurted out to ask who they were, with a wary and even hostile attitude.

It can be seen that she went through some things after her husband's disappearance, but she did not tell Mr. Lestred.

Agatha: "They weren't friendly to you, they even threatened you, didn't they?" ”

Mrs. Horner's eyes met Agatha's, "No, it's all your imagination. ”

Watson said softly, "Mrs. Horner, you need not worry about anything. Since we are willing to accept Mr. Lesterred's commission, we will not leave anything else to chance. In fact, what you are hiding may be crucial to our finding of your husband. ”

Mrs. Horner's expression was a little shaken.

Watson made persistent efforts, "Don't worry, I'm a soldier. You don't have to worry about anything, if there is a real danger, I can detect it, and I can also provide you and your two children with help and protection as much as I can. ”

It was probably the gentle and kind doctor who touched Mrs. Horner with sincerity, and she finally couldn't hold it back, choked up and said: "I didn't mean to hide it, but Mr. Horner was originally charged with theft and has a criminal record with the police." I'm afraid that if I talk too much, the police will think that Mr. Horner is causing trouble because of his bad mind, and I don't want to bother with him. ”

It turned out that John Horner, when he was at the Metropole Hotel, had stayed in the dressing room of the Countess of Moka for more than a quarter of an hour, and in addition to a loose railing in the fireplace that needed to be welded, there was also a railing on the balcony that needed to be welded.

John Horner had gone to the balcony to see what was going on with the railing loose, but he accidentally locked himself on the balcony. The dressing room was empty, and the Countess of Moca's personal maid was called away for a temporary event, and John Horner had to crouch on the balcony and wait for him to return.

While he was waiting, the Countess and the Count, with an angry face, entered the dressing room, and probably suddenly, they did not notice that there was another person outside the balcony, and they began to argue fiercely.

"When Mr. Horner returned, he only told me that he had heard a shocking secret, but he would not tell me what the secret was. It's just that once the secret is told, it's no longer a secret, but it could be a good opportunity for him to make a fortune. ”

Mrs. Horner touched her tears and looked at Watson, "Sir, as you can see, we are an ordinary family, with two children waiting to be fed, and Mr. Horner and I want to give them a better future. Mr. Horner, who had been convicted of stealing, had changed his ways since he married me. His career was on the rise, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to work as a repairman at the Metropole. On the day he disappeared, he told me that he was going to see the Countess of Moca, but he never returned. ”

Agatha listened quietly and did not speak.

Watson: "Is that why you think John Horner was kidnapped by Countess Moka?" ”

Mrs. Horner: "After Mr. Horner's disappearance, Countess Moka published in the newspaper that Angel's Tears was going to be auctioned. Sir, it is hard for me to think that Mr. Horner's disappearance has nothing to do with her. ”

Agatha reminded softly: "Mrs. Horner, Mr. Horner only said that he was going to see Countess Moka, whether he met Countess Moka or not is debatable. ”

Mrs. Horner did not speak.

Agatha asked, "Can you tell us about the people who have been harassing you for the past few days?" ”

"I don't know who they are, and every time they come they ask Mr. Horner where he put his things, but I never see Mr. Horner come back with them. They said that if I didn't get my things out, I wouldn't expect Mr. Horner to come back alive. God knows what it is! ”

Mrs. Horner was frantic when she said this, "I don't know what they were talking about, they went on and on, and yesterday they even coaxed my two children into their carriage, and God knows how broken my heart was the moment I saw the children in their carriage." If I say something wrong, the children will end up like their fathers. Thankfully, they finally believed that I really didn't know what they were talking about and put the child back. ”

There is nothing more useful in this world than to hurt children and coerce others with them.

Agatha's brow furrowed when she heard this, and she asked, "Mrs. Horner, do you remember what those people looked like?" ”

According to Mrs. Horner, there were two men who had been harassing her in the past few days, one tall and the other small, and one of them was a thief-headed rat brain, a little afraid of things, who claimed to be John Robinson. It was the tall man who took the idea, the tall man was a tiger-headed, not very good-tempered, and spoke with a Mexican accent, and Mrs. Horner did not know what the tall man's name was, but heard the little man call him Maudsley.

After Watson and Agatha went to see Mrs. Horner, they went back to the Baker Street apartment.

It had already taken half a day to go back and forth, and when I returned, the sun was about to go down and the sky was full of sunset.

Watson built a simple goose nest for Dabai on the second-floor balcony, and given Mr. Henry Baker's unwavering belief that Dabai could not be his Christmas goose, Dabai, who was in the Baker Street apartment, became either Sherlock Holmes and Watson's Christmas goose, or became the goalkeeper of the Baker Street apartment.

The fate of the stray goose Dabai was uncertain until Holmes returned.

Agatha opened the floor-to-ceiling window that connected to the balcony, and Da Bai swayed slowly into the living room.

Mrs. Hudson, when she learned that the two had returned, went to the second floor to say that she was preparing dinner, and asked Agatha and Watson what they wanted to eat.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw Agatha holding a chubby white goose sitting on the floor in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, with the sunset sky behind her, and the soft sunlight shining on her, which looked like a beautiful and gentle picture.

Mrs. Hudson shook her eyes for a moment, and thought to herself that it was no wonder that Agatha could be Sherlock's fiancée, even if she did nothing and sat quietly there, it was a moving portrait that was pleasing to the eye.

It's human nature to love beauty, even if it's a genius of reasoning like Sherlock Holmes.

Agatha heard the movement and looked up at Mrs. Hudson.

Mrs. Hudson came to her senses and asked, "I'm going to prepare dinner, what do you want to eat?" ”

Watson, who was at the bar, came out and said to Mrs. Hudson, "No need to prepare my dinner with Sherlock, Mrs. Hudson. ”

When Holmes returns from the Metropole, they have to make a trip to the Alpha Bar to find out where the Christmas goose came from.

Mrs. Hudson asked Agatha instead, "What about you?" Dear Agatha, what do you want for dinner? ”

Before Agatha could speak, a deep voice rang out behind Mrs. Hudson—

"It's okay to eat anything, but pay attention to check your intestines and scabs, and don't eat anything you shouldn't eat in your stomach."

Mrs. Hudson was startled, and then turned away in dismay.

Behind her, is Sherlock Holmes, dressed in a black trench coat and wearing a hat.

Mrs. Hudson glared at Holmes, "Can you not always be silent behind people's backs?" ”

Holmes took Mrs. Hudson by the shoulders and let her into the house, and he entered, hanging his trench coat and hat on the coat rack.

He winked at Mrs. Hudson, "There is an old Chinese saying, I wonder if you have heard it?" ”

Mrs. Hudson: ???

Sherlock Holmes: "I don't do anything bad in my life, and I don't be surprised when I knock on the door in the middle of the night." ”

Mrs. Hudson gave Holmes a hard look, "When you beg me to cook, you say that again." ”

Holmes was amused by the lovely lady.

Mrs. Hudson departed, and Holmes sat down in his armchair, habitually took out his clay pipe, put it in his mouth, and was about to light it, when suddenly he remembered something, and took it again.

Watson had already come out of the bar and sat down on the couch across from Sherlock Holmes.

He told Holmes what he had received from Mrs. Horner.

"Agatha and I both think that Mrs. Horner knows nothing about her husband's disappearance, and cannot say anything other than to insist that it has something to do with the Countess of Moka."

Agatha also went to the sofa on the other side and sat down, and Dabai followed her step by step, and when he saw her sit down, a snow-white snowdrift formed at her feet.

"But in the days that John Horner went missing, someone went to harass Mrs. Horner." Agatha looked at Holmes and whispered, "According to Mrs. Horner, those two men have been asking Mrs. Horner where she put her things. But Mrs. Horner always insisted that she Mr. Horner did not take anything back that did not belong in the house. ”

Holmes asked the two companions, "Do you think it is possible that Mrs. Horner was lying?" ”

This question......

Watson was silent for a moment, "She doesn't look like she's lying. ”

"It doesn't look like a lie." Sherlock Holmes repeated Watson's words, and then said with a smile: "John, such specious inferences are unnecessary. ”

Watson sighed, and was about to say that he was not 100% sure that Mrs. Horner had lied, when Agatha suddenly said—

"She's not lying."

Watson looked at Agatha.

Holmes also looked at Agatha with some curiosity in his eyes, "How can you tell if she's not lying?" ”

Agatha thought back to the look on Mrs. Horner's face when she spoke to them, "Her eyes were fixed on me as she began to hide that the two men were harassing her. When a person lies, looking directly at others does not mean that she is at ease, but that she wants to make sure that what she says is not trusted by the other party. Later, she confessed to us that when she talked about those things, her eyes cut off communication with us for a while. ”

Holmes couldn't help but smile, "Perhaps her eyes interrupted communication with you, maybe because she had a weak heart." ”

"It's not." Agatha's tone was firm, "She interrupted eye contact because she was thinking back to the details of the two people harassing her, including their gestures and accents. ”

Holmes was noncommittal, just looked at Agatha with amusement.

Agatha was a little annoyed by him, in fact, she had long known that Holmes might not believe these words, in this world, although psychology has emerged, but what she understands has no scientific basis at this time, and she cannot explain the research results of micro-expressions and behavioral science to a person in the late nineteenth century.

But Agatha didn't want to give up on convincing Holmes of her conclusions.

She pursed her red lips and calmly met Holmes's gaze, "If you have doubts, you can do experiments at any time in the future." Aren't you the one who likes to do experiments? ”

Holmes was silent, then corrected her with a smile, "My dear Agatha, what I like to do is not a lie detector experiment, but a chemistry experiment. ”

Agatha didn't speak, she reached out and touched Dabai's head, looking a little lost.

Holmes looked at her, and said, "But you are so sure that Mrs. Horner is not lying, and I have no reason to doubt it." ”

Hearing this, Agatha's eyes suddenly lit up, and she asked in a happy tone, "Do you really believe me?" ”

The smile was bright, and the joy in his tone could be felt even by a fool.

It didn't matter much to Holmes whether Mrs. Horner was lying or not, he just asked casually.

But in the face of Agatha's eager gaze, Holmes weighed it a little, and felt that a white lie was also very necessary, so he nodded his head.

"Really."

"Pearls aren't so real."