Chapter 513: 513

Chapter 513 Autopsy

After the visit to Sherlock Holmes, the Deputy Commissioner hurriedly left, dealing with pressure from the media and the parliament . The other officers returned to their jobs, too, leaving only Lestrade in the apartment .

Although solving Whitechapel’s serial killings had suddenly become the police task force’s top priority, it certainly didn’t mean they could abandon all their other duties and cases . As the largest city in Europe and the world, police work was challenging, to say the least, not to mention how it was now an eventful season for the city . Whitechapel’s homicides spurred a flurry of copycats, serving to rile up potential criminals tempted to commit evil . Coupled with the growing panic among its citizens, the entire London police force was forced to cancel their vacations and return to work .

Lestrade had been following up with the Whitechapel cases since the first murder appeared . He was also the person who knew the case best . Naturally, he was the best candidate to stick around and help the two sleuths .

The three got out of the carriage, and there was a morgue not far away . So far, three women had been killed, all ranging from ages 34 to 50 . The first two victims’ bodies had been returned to their families for their final rites, and the third victim was killed two days ago . No family came forward to claim her body, and it was still there as a result .

When Sherlock Holmes was about to enter the morgue, he was stopped by Zhang Heng . ]

“Can you give us some time?”

Lestrade gestured politely with his hands, stepped aside, and waited patiently .

“For this case… I hope the two of us can work separately,” said Zhang Heng to Holmes . “Oh?” Holmes asked with a curious look, “…why?”

“I would simply like to verify what I have learned during this time . ”

Holmes looked into his eyes, leaving Zhang Heng to wonder if Sherlock Holmes had seen through him . However, in the end, Holmes just smiled, saying, “Fine . The more, the merrier . Your joining only serves to makes this matter more interesting . If that’s the case, let’s bet on who catches the murderer first . The loser is doomed to supply two tickets to an opera at the Queen’s Theater . ”

“Are grand plays a new addiction of yours?” Zhang Heng didn’t hesitate and agreed to the

bet .

The conversation between the two took less than a minute . They then called Lestrade back, and the latter started to introduce the case .

“The deceased was called Bernice, a 46-year-old woman . Like the two previous victims, she was also a prostitute living in the East End’s worst parts . Her body was found at the fence behind the cheap apartment where she lived . She was first discovered by a coachman who went by the name of Slater . We can technically rule him out as a suspect . ”

The stumpy police officer lifted the shroud covering the body and continued . “Our pathologist estimates that she was killed was around five in the morning . Her neck was slit by a sharp knife, hence the cause of death . The modus operandi is similar to the other two murders that we encountered before this . After she died, the murdered mutilated her body . When the coachman found her, a section of her bowels had been thrown over her right shoulder . ”

As he explained the gruesome murder, Lestrade passed some photos of the scene to Holmes and Zhang Heng .

“The difference is that part of her uterus and abdomen had also been cut away . This piece of the puzzle baffles us . I simply can’t imagine why the murderer would go to this end . . what was his purpose?” Lestrade went on, unable to stop a hint of concern and anxiety from seeping through his composed nature .

Holmes’s eyes lit up, but he did not rush to say anything . Instead, he asked Zhang Heng, “You go first, or me?”

“You go first . ” Zhang Heng was still studying the photos, including that of the two previous victims . He looked hard, sifting through them, trying not to miss out on even the slightest detail . At the same time, he was interested to know how his inferences compared to those of later generations .

It wasn’t that Zhang Heng didn’t realize how unrealistic beat Sherlock Holmes by relying on his Lv . 1 criminal investigation skills . He hadn’t the slightest room for faults this round, not to mention how letting Holmes go first was actually a strategic move so he could observe where he placed his attention .

On the other hand, Holmes wasn’t the least bothered by the fact that he had to go first . He immediately took out the magnifying glass he often used from his pocket and walked to the body . Suddenly, Holmes seemed to transform into this incredibly sharp hunting hound, sniffing around the corpse in excitement . He even put his face up to the rotting body, although the putrid odor is emitted . Five minutes later, Holmes put away the magnifying glass with a look of satisfaction on his face . It was now Zhang Heng’s turn .

As if the start of a boxing match, Zhang Heng inhaled sharply as he closed in on the corpse . In the past few months of tailing Holmes, he had gained heaps of valuable knowledge, where he made significant progress in anatomy, forensic anthropology, and wound inspection . All these meant that the body in front of him was now a treasure trove filled with clues, and he was equipped with the right tools to harvest them .

He first noticed a foul stench of alcohol in the air and later found the deceased’s skin to be reddish, suspected to be caused by telangiectasia . Combined with the smell of alcohol, this indicated that the victim had a long-term drinking habit . Later Zhang Heng also noticed the fatal wound on the neck . It wasn’t clean-cut and straightforward, but the murderer had brutally sliced and butchered the neck to the point her head was almost severed .

Other than the apparent wounds, noticeable strangulation marks were also apparent on the neck . Zhang Heng frowned . Those were the marks of a rope or a hand . It looked more like a handkerchief caused it . Zhang Heng remembered a rumor that claimed Jack the Ripper to a woman, but such a conclusion was too premature with only a handkerchief as evidence .

Zhang Heng remembered Holmes’ warning that detectives were required to be absolutely rational and objective when handling a case . One couldn’t afford to have preconceived ideas . This sort of reasoning involved using clues to eliminate irrelevant evidence, eventually leading to the indisputable answer . If one was subjectively biased when gathering evidence, it only served to stray them further away from the truth .

So Zhang Heng set aside all the clues he’d found so far and continued examining the body . In addition to wounds on the victim’s lower abdomen and neck, there were injuries to her neck and face .

“It can be seen that the murderer has a real disdain toward prostitutes,” Lestrade, who was leaning against the wall, sighed . “Otherwise, he wouldn’t have done anything like this to her . I have been an officer for so many years, and I have never seen anyone treating another person like this . ”

Zhang Heng did not respond, turning to look at the scratches on her face in silence . He then looked down, before finally, his eyes locked onto her abdominal cavity . The uterus is an extraordinary organ, the origin of life . A human fetus is conceived here . It could be seen that this serial killer had a special liking for this organ unique to a female . In the first murder, the victim’s throat was slit, and there were a dozen stab wounds on her body . As for the second victim, her abdomen was slit open, and her uterus was also stabbed . For the third victim, the serial killer went one step further and cut off half of the uterus . Like a prospective miner, the demented killer had just strolled into an endless goldmine, digging out their innermost desires from the depths of her very bowels .

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