The rain outside the window was still pattering, and the night seemed like it would never end.
The candlelight swayed in the shadow of the rain, and the room was quiet and dark.
Lin Sanjiu sat on the ground, her fingertips still trembling slightly; with lingering fear, she stared straight at the woman in front of her - the low-legged table was knocked over by her fright, and after shouting a few times
After still receiving no response, she pulled the sofa away, finally revealing the white-faced owner underneath.
Anne Chapman was still wearing a thick layer of makeup, her bright red mouth was slightly open, and her eyes were trying hard to pop out of her deep eye sockets, as if they were about to burst out.
She looked the same as before, only there was a purple bruise on her neck; the bruise was spread out, and she had to identify it carefully before she could barely tell that it was the print of her hands. The corners of her skirt were wet from the rain and had not yet dried.
, one shoe was lost - Annie's dry and wrinkled bare feet were exposed, and there was mud between her toes.
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but take a breath and turned his eyes away - when he turned back again, Annie's face, frozen by death, was still lying on the ground staring at her blankly.
When did Annie die? How did the body end up at the Dalton brothers' house?
She stared blankly at the female corpse on the ground, her mind turned into a mess for a moment. Just when she didn't know what to do, she heard the door lock click and someone pushed the door open.
"So you're back," the young man said solemnly, leaning in and walking in. When he raised his head again, his eyes fell on the female corpse. His expression suddenly changed, he stepped back two steps, and hit the body with a clang.
After knocking down the coat rack next to the door, the young man pointed at the female corpse on the ground and asked with a trembling voice: "What...what is going on?"
"I didn't kill her!" Lin Sanjiu said hastily, "As soon as I came back, she was already under the sofa."
"Sha, under the sofa?"
The young man was stunned. At this moment, a confusion suddenly appeared on his face, spreading like winter fog; it was as if these four words were a huge puzzle to him.
"Yes," Lin Sanjiu stared at him closely, "Only the four of us can enter this place -"
"I didn't do it!" The young man suddenly became irritable and shouted loudly - which shocked Lin Sanjiu. The anger he felt when he just entered the door gradually returned, and the veins on his forehead were jumping.
: "How could I waste my time doing something like this - I - I -"
His strange look was quickly answered. The young man kicked the coat rack on the ground and said bitterly with the echo: "I didn't expect that I missed Jack the Ripper!"
So that was it, Lin Sanjiu understood immediately.
The place where the dead body was found was not far from the alley where they were chasing Annie; if he hadn't been chasing Annie, he and Lin Sanjiu would have met Jack the Ripper long ago. For this young man, he was afraid that he would never be there again.
There is nothing more significant than this - four people have died in the blink of an eye, and there is not much time left for him.
The young man cursed a few words lowly and angrily, glancing at Anne on the ground from time to time; after a while, he finally forced himself to calm down and began to mumble vaguely.
"There are several carriages next to the dead body," I don't know whether he said it to himself or to Lin Sanjiu: "Yes, that's right... Before I came in, I always thought that Jack the Ripper was a
The corpse found on the road by the famous coachman seemed to have been dead for a while and was not killed tonight. This is exactly in line with my previous guess - he killed someone and stuffed it into the carriage, and he would not be killed.
It is also convenient for him to move the body after discovery. Besides, the coachman is generally very strong and bulky..."
Before Lin Sanjiu could say anything, he grabbed the raincoat on the ground, turned around and walked out the door.
"Where are you going?" Lin Sanjiu hurriedly followed him and shouted to him.
However, the young man didn't even look back, and didn't even respond to a word. He just strode forward. Lin Sanjiu was about to chase after him, but saw Brother Tudou in front of him pushing open the courtyard door at that moment.
Approached hastily.
As soon as the two sides met each other, they both stopped for some reason. The rain came hard, raindrops raining down on the body, making it difficult to open one's eyes. The younger brother wiped his face, then stared at the two of them blankly, and asked:
"...What are you doing standing outside?"
"Nothing to do," the young man replied dully, and was about to walk around them and go out.
"Are you going to chase the murderer?" My brother suddenly asked.
"Um."
"It's too late for you to go now," the younger brother immediately added, "He just arrested another prostitute, but the woman's cry for help was heard, so Jack the Ripper abandoned the person and ran away——"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized that Jack the Ripper failed to kill her, so he naturally changed his next target. When she got closer and looked up, she saw that the young man's face was blue, and he was obviously dead.
Thinking that he had once again passed by Jack the Ripper - "And that woman is dead too," the younger brother looked at his face and continued: "The murderer stabbed her to death before running away, probably
You don’t want people to know what you look like.”
This means that there are now a total of five dead!
As soon as this thought came to mind, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. She had been confused by this game for a long time and just wanted to get out as soon as possible. However, the only one who relaxed at this time was herself——
The elder brother of the pair of potato brothers cursed "s***", and as for the young man, there was no need to mention it.
"Let's just wait for the game to end now," the younger brother sighed and walked back into the house, somewhat reluctantly: "It's really... this killer moves really fast, it's inexplicable."
Anne's body was in the house——
As soon as these words came to her lips, Lin Sanjiu swallowed them back. Then she suddenly shuddered and thought of something; she rushed forward and stopped in front of her brother.
"Are you the ones who killed Annie and hid her in the house?"
In the rainy night, everything was blurry, and the black shadow of her brother stood straight in front of her, making no sound. The young man was startled and suddenly turned around.
"What are you talking about?" My brother was impatient.
"If you didn't know that Annie was dead, why would you say that you were waiting for the game to end?" Lin Sanjiu didn't know if he was too sensitive, but only one of the four of them could hide Annie.
The corpse was in the house: "——For you, only four people should be dead at this time!"
The two brothers fell silent together, and there was only the sound of rain hitting the dirty and messy courtyard. After a while, the younger brother suddenly said: "Four of us, isn't it quick? I said wait.
It’s normal for it to end.”
Lin Sanjiu was stunned for a moment. At first she felt that what she said made sense, but she vaguely felt that something was wrong. Just as she was frowning and trying to sort out the clues in her mind, she heard the door of the house next to her.
After being pushed away, the round head who had spoken to her before greeted the two brothers with a smile: "Gentlemen! Why are you standing in the rain? Why don't you come and sit at my house?"
He is obviously still working as a pimp for his wife.
Lin Sanjiu glanced at him - in that moment, she suddenly understood what was wrong.
After discovering the body, she met Brother Tudou; it took about half an hour for her to find someone and return. After returning, she met Yuantou at the door, who said, "
"Mr. Dalton just left" - at that time, she only subconsciously thought that the other party was referring to the potato brothers who left this cheap rental house half an hour ago; so there was nothing wrong with using the word "just left" to describe it.
appropriate.
But she almost forgot: in the game, the entire night is only four hours long.
In a four-hour dark night, a person who has been gone for half an hour is at least equivalent to being away for about an hour and a half in real life. It cannot be regarded as "just left" in any case, right?
"After you hid the body, he heard you when you left." Even though this was just a guess, Lin Sanjiu still said to the two brothers in a low voice, leaving no room for doubt.
She intended to deceive them, but unexpectedly, the two brothers suddenly took a step back and sighed: "...Yes, that prostitute was indeed the one we hid under the sofa."
Lin Sanjiu was shocked and had no time to react. He only heard them say again: "We didn't kill him!"
"You didn't kill her, so why did you bother to hide her in the house? Do you know the murderer?"
The two brothers fell silent immediately, seeming to mutter "I don't know" under their breaths, but then fell silent.
The round-headed rickshaw driver stood at the door of his house and couldn't hear their conversation clearly. He just saw that the two brothers were stopped by "Carlo" and couldn't help but become anxious. He grabbed a few old newspapers from the house and covered them.
On his head, he rushed into the yard and pulled his brother's sleeves with great enthusiasm: "It's time for you two to come to my house and sit down! I happened to buy some refreshments and let's eat together -"
Lin Sanjiu turned aside impatiently and let the enthusiastic pimp pass the driver, still staring at the two brothers; he didn't close the door when he ran out, so the door was wide open, and there was light leaking from the room.
The light of the light bulb - as a coachman, he actually installed such advanced items in his home, presumably for the convenience of his wife's guests.
The two brothers looked at each other and then at Lin Sanjiu at the same time; probably in order to get rid of her question, the two of them nodded tacitly and smiled at the coachman: "Okay, let's go in!"
The coachman was overjoyed. He turned around and saw that Lin Sanjiu seemed to be trying to stop her. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Quickly, let's go somewhere else today!" while taking the initiative to block her - the two brothers were already in the way.
Seizing this opportunity, they walked to the neighbor's house; the coachman's plump and white wife immediately welcomed them into the room.
Seeing that the situation was settled, the coachman ignored Lin Sanjiu and ran back, throwing the newspaper on the ground and closing the door.
Lin Sanjiu and the young man couldn't help but follow him, but they both stood outside the door, silent to each other and not knowing what to say.
"Maybe they really didn't kill him," the young man suddenly said in a low voice, "...otherwise there is no reason to only admit to hiding the body but not to the murder."
Lin Sanjiu only stared at the place below her feet and said nothing.
The young man muttered something again, but she didn't hear it because all her attention was on the newspaper at her feet.
The headline of the headline, using old-fashioned English grammar, read "Second victim near Whitechapel", with a row of small letters below: "Fifty-year-old tailor brutally murdered".
