From the Ship of Fools to Earl of Wugang

Chapter 90 [Four Signs] Detective's Case

The inspector reluctantly sat down in the hall with the two men, took out his identification and a file from his pocket, and introduced the identity that Dionysus had prepared for him.

"Inspector of the London Police Department, and a pile of unprocessed files." He showed off his credentials expressionlessly. "Looks like Dionysus thinks I should switch cities to continue working."

[The teammates have assembled; the story begins.]

The rain streaks outside the window once again hinted at the plot's progression, and Rebecca put down her teacup.

"Now that everyone is here, let me first explain what I know about the situation."

Rebecca began to recount the case in a crisp and concise tone.

"My character in this play is named Mary Morstein, and her profession is a governess. Her father disappeared ten years ago, and the case in the play is related to that."

She took out six boxes of similar size but different styles from her handbag. Then she took out wrapping paper, string, and letters received that day that she had kept over the years, and laid them out on the table by year.

As the three carefully examined the odds and ends, she opened the first box.

The firelight from the fireplace fell on a large black pearl inside the box, and a layer of cold green light rose from the surface of that rare gem.

"Mary's father, Captain Edward Mostain, returned to London from an overseas prison island ten years ago. Upon arrival, he checked into a hotel and sent a telegram to his daughter, stating that he would first visit an old colleague, Major Alfred Schoert, before meeting her."

:

Rebecca then handed a box to Edmund, who used a magnifying glass to examine the pearls closely.

"That night, Captain Mostan disappeared. He had only paid for his room until the next day, but all his luggage was left at the hotel. When the police questioned Major Sholto, he insisted that Mostan had never come to the hotel and offered no explanation for the mention of his name in the telegram."

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Douglas frowned and asked, "No signs of conflict were found in the hotel?"

"No. Mary was a minor back then, and there were very few things she could do afterward," Rebecca continued.

Four years after Mostan disappeared, Major Sholto died of illness. Just a week after his death, Mary received her first pearl. Every year on the same day thereafter, a package would be delivered to her without fail for six years.

""

She opened the remaining boxes one by one. Six black pearls were lined up on the table, slightly different in size, but very similar in luster and color.

"These pearls are quite valuable; they must have been taken from a string." Conrad picked up one of the boxes to examine it. "If the sender only wanted to compensate Miss Mostan, they could have simply left the money. This method seems to have another meaning."

"Today's letter is the first to explicitly mention that Mary has suffered injustice." Rebecca pushed the letter to the center of the table. "The sender is willing to tell her the truth about her father's disappearance and allows her to bring one or two trusted companions to the designated location."

Edmund put down the pearls, put on thin gloves as he remembered them, and began to examine the packaging from the earliest year.

The handwriting on the outside of the six packages varied greatly, ranging from messy to neat, and the sender addresses were located in different districts of London.

The wrapping paper ranges from cheap newspaper to thick printed paper, and at first glance, they have almost nothing in common.

But to be honest, the image of Mostan with six pearls felt too familiar. He felt like he could already guess what would happen next.

Edmund held one of the threads in his palm, untied it, and then picked up another year's cord to compare.

“These things on the outside are misleading,” Edmund said. “The handwriting, address, and packaging change every year, indicating that the sender intentionally used different agents. However, the thread inside the box uses the same knot.”

Douglas leaned closer for a look: "A regular double knot."

"It wraps around half a loop, with the end pressed to the inside, making it easier for warehouse staff to check the seal without cutting the thread. This is a common knotting method used in military supply depots."

With the answer in hand, Edmund was able to work backwards from his detective memories with remarkable ease.

He used a knife to scrape off a few crumbs from the edges of each of the six pieces of sealing wax, which fell into a white porcelain dish. He then moved the dish to the firelight.

Extremely fine blue specks can be seen even in the dark red debris.

"The sealing wax contains a small amount of copper powder, so it should be from the same batch of sealing materials." Edmund put down his knife. "Although these six gifts were sent by different people, they all originated from the same person or the same warehouse."

Douglas smirked. "The sealing wax and the sealing tape—what does that prove? Was it sent by the same person?"

Edmund crossed his arms and leaned back in his armchair: "This means someone has changed agents and mailing locations for six consecutive years, but has always used the same internal packaging methods. This person is cautious and doesn't want to be confronted, but is also straightforward in their actions."

Rebecca looked at the silk thread on the table and added thoughtfully, "Today, this letter didn't follow the usual procedure; it was dropped directly into the mailbox of the household where Mary works."

She picked up the letter and laid it horizontally. The lines in the letter varied in length, and there were gaps between some words that were not in accordance with writing conventions.

"In fact, the Mary in my memory would mark a number on the same day of the calendar every year after receiving the pearl. By arranging the six numbers by year and then using them to re-divide the letter, we can obtain three sets of valid information."

Rebecca wrote down the answers on a blank sheet of paper with a pencil.

"8 p.m., Lessime Theatre, third column on the north side."

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She then pointed to a slightly wider-spaced sentence at the end of the letter: "One more request: do not alert the police station."

The inspector, arms crossed, looked rather pessimistic: "Asking a victim to avoid the police usually means the other party knows what they did."

"Or maybe he's just afraid of the police." Edmund glanced at him. "It doesn't make much difference to tonight's plans."

Although he couldn't be sure what kind of drastic changes Dionysus would make to the script, he already had some guesses about the plot.

The discussion lasted for some time. Douglas insisted that Mary should not go alone, and Rebecca had no intention of using her security to verify the sender's sincerity.

The conclusion reached was that the sender's permission to bring a companion indicated that the sender had at least anticipated vigilance and protection; if the police had been brought to the colonnade from the beginning, the sender would likely have disappeared immediately.

Ultimately, everyone decided that Conrad and Edmund would accompany her to the meeting first, while Douglas returned to the police station to get reinforcements, changed out of his uniform, and followed her a street away.

If the three people ahead of you do not leave the theater by the agreed time, the police will block the nearby exits.

As it approached 8 p.m., the streets were illuminated by gas lamps after the rain stopped.

The area in front of the Lyceum Theatre was filled with carriages, and audience members in formal dresses and long gowns walked between the carriage doors, making it much easier to follow them.

Edmund and Conrad sat on either side of Rebecca as the carriage headed toward the theater along the agreed route. Douglas's hired carriage would lag behind by a block, while several other policemen followed further away.

After some time, the carriage stopped on the north side of the theater. The three people inside blended into the still crowded flow of people leaving the theater and walked along the outer corridor toward the third stone pillar.