Ch.118Chapter 118 – The Hound of the Baskervilles (6)

“Miss Holmes.”

“……..”

“I’m scared…”

A few dozen minutes after Issac Adler discovered a threatening message in his room.

“Should I leave the mansion even now?”

“………”

“I’m so anxious I can’t possibly stay sober. Miss Watson, could you give me a glass of brandy…”

“…Would you please shut up.”

Charlotte, who had gathered with Zia Lestrade and Rachel Watson in Adler’s room after receiving his call to examine the letter, whispers coldly to Adler who had been fidgeting beside her.

“……..”

“…My goodness. A threatening letter is quite serious, isn’t it?”

As Adler shrinks with a dejected expression, a new voice comes from the side.

“After receiving something so terrifying, wouldn’t it be truly dangerous if you continued to stay here?”

“……..”

“So why don’t you hurry up and get out… vacate this place?”

Helen Baskerville, the heir to the mansion, was pressuring Adler with a voice much sharper than a few days ago as she walked by with her hands behind her back.

“Ah, Miss Helen. I’m very sorry about your relative…”

“I don’t particularly want to hear that from you when I’ve already heard it dozens of times just this morning. So, what do you think of my suggestion?”

“…Of course I’m scared, but I’d feel even more uneasy if I left now.”

Reading the subtle atmosphere, Issac Adler began a tense exchange with her again, his voice tinged with amusement.

“I want to find out what kind of person was so bothered by my stay at this mansion that they would do something so mean and childish before I leave. That would satisfy me.”

“…It sounds like you’re suspecting me, no matter how I think about it?”

“Oh my, did it sound that way?”

Watson and Lestrade look puzzled at the sight of Adler, unusually for him, confronting a woman.

“…Don’t worry, Mr. Adler.”

In the increasingly awkward atmosphere, Charlotte Holmes, who had been scrutinizing the letter, places it on the desk and speaks.

“That letter wasn’t meant for you.”

“…What?”

“What do you mean, Holmes?”

When Lestrade and Watson react with more confusion than Adler to those words, Charlotte taps the desk gently and begins her explanation.

“If it had simply said ‘Value your life,’ I too would have assumed it was meant for Adler.”

“B-but?”

“However, this letter says ‘life and chastity.'”

Upon hearing this, Watson and Lestrade begin nodding as if they’ve realized something.

“If we were to name one person in London, no, in all of England, for whom protecting their chastity would be most meaningless, eight times out of ten the vote would go to Issac Adler.”

“That’s too harsh…”

“Of course, it could be some code that only Issac Adler would understand. But if that were the case, given his personality, he wouldn’t have brought it to us in the first place.”

Adler protested with a sullen expression, but Charlotte continued her deduction without paying him any mind.

“Then who was this letter meant for?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Turning her gaze quietly to Helen Baskerville, who had been listening silently, she answers her question.

“The recipient of this letter is you.”

“…What?”

“You’re the one who received the threatening letter.”

For a brief moment, silence falls in Adler’s room.

“Miss Helen. Who was originally supposed to stay in this room?”

“…I was. I was supposed to stay here originally, but Sir Charles, my great-uncle, made the arrangements on his own.”

“I thought so.”

In that silence, Charlotte Holmes looks down at the letter with a slight smile.

“The sender of the letter didn’t know that and delivered the letter secretly. So they unintentionally frightened Adler.”

“But who, and why…?”

“Since I didn’t send it, I don’t know the details.”

She looks at Helen and speaks.

“The recipient is someone with higher education who subscribes to ‘The Times’ magazine, is quite close to you, but is not a member of this household.”

“…How can you know all that?”

“It’s just very simple deduction.”

Satisfied with Helen’s surprised reaction, Charlotte begins her explanation.

“To my eyes, the neat 9-point font of ‘The Times’ magazine looks quite different from the text of a cheap weekly newspaper. In fact, it’s basic knowledge for a crime expert.”

“Ah…”

“And although they tried to disguise their handwriting, the fact that they subscribe to ‘The Times’ already suggests higher education. Also, they’re close enough to know you were supposed to stay in this room.”

“………”

“But they don’t seem to be from this household. They didn’t know about the family matter that Adler had taken your room instead.”

Having finished her explanation, Charlotte asks Helen, who is staring at her with a stunned expression.

“By now, hasn’t the range of possibilities narrowed considerably?”

“………”

“You must have one person in mind? Don’t you?”

At that, Helen Baskerville nods quietly with a pale face.

“There is… one person.”

“Good, then. All we need to do is search their trash for the paper scraps where the letters were cut out from.”

Charlotte immediately stands up and urges her.

“What are you waiting for? Lead the way.”

“…Amazing, Miss Holmes~”

“…Be quiet.”

She responds coldly to Adler’s smooth voice from behind.

“You knew all along it wasn’t meant for you.”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ha.”

As Adler continues to tilt his head and deny it, Charlotte glances at him and mutters as she begins walking with Helen Baskerville, who has just risen from her seat.

“…Why do you always seem to be trying to stall for time in my eyes?”

“………”

“Well, I’ll play along for now.”

Finally, as she stands at the door and sighs, about to conclude her words.

“After this case is over, you’ll have to take responsibility for those actions…?”

“I’m coming with you.”

But when Adler, who had somehow approached right behind her, whispers cheerfully with a bright smile, Charlotte’s expression quickly sours.

“…I wasn’t going to say this, but honestly, you’re one of the main suspects in this case. And yet you want to meddle?”

“Hehehe.”

Adler gently interlocks his fingers with hers and smiles brightly.

“This isn’t something you can get away with using such a foolish smile?”

However, a few minutes later, Charlotte was walking across the moor with her head bowed, holding hands with Adler.

“…You let me get away with it?”

“Shut up.”

.

.

.

.

.

“Excuse me…”

“”……….””

“I have one question.”

Helen Baskerville, who had been guiding Adler and Charlotte as they held hands with slightly awkward expressions, finally couldn’t hold back and asked them.

“…Are you two in a romantic relationship?”

“My accompanying Issac Adler right now is not for such a foolish reason. It’s purely to keep a close eye on one of the main suspects…”

– Smooch…

“…Ugh.”

As she was answering coldly, Adler suddenly kissed her neck, causing her to stumble over her words and stop speaking.

“So the rumors circulating in England recently were true…”

“No, my current girlfriend is Miss Zia Lestrade?”

“…You mean the person who was desperately trying to accompany us but ended up guarding the mansion that doesn’t need protection after being outmaneuvered by Charlotte Holmes?”

“Exactly.”

Helen Baskerville, who had been muttering quietly watching this scene, glances at Adler with contemptuous eyes as he responds with an amused voice.

“Trash bastard.”

“…Haha.”

“I despise people like you more than anything in the world.”

Adler looks at her with an awkward smile, his eyes colored black on one side and gray on the other.

“…….”

Helen clicks her tongue at the sight and notices that Charlotte’s eyes, which are coldly staring at Adler, are tinted gold.

“…Why do you like such trash?”

“Excuse me, I can hear you…”

After staring blankly at the scene for a while, she cautiously approaches Charlotte and asks.

“He’s recyclable trash.”

“…I heard human trash can’t be recycled.”

“That’s because he’s not human.”

“Ah.”

Hearing Charlotte’s ambiguous answer, Helen nods quietly as if she’s gained some insight and walks ahead again.

“Everyone actually likes me…”

“…Please just shut up.”

“…….”

They continued walking silently across the moor for a while.

“…It’s here.”

After some time, as a solitary cottage in the middle of the moor came into view, Helen Baskerville pointed ahead and spoke.

“I can hardly believe they would send me such a message, but this person is the only one who fits Charlotte Holmes’s deduction.”

“…Who lives there?”

“Julia Stapleton. An entomologist and educator who had a close relationship with my great-uncle. Of course, she was also close to me.”

Hearing this, Charlotte quietly tilts her head.

“…Why are you doing that?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s go in first.”

But soon she sighs quietly, steps forward, and begins knocking on the door.

“Are you there? Miss Stapleton?”

But for some reason, the owner of the cottage remains silent.

“…Miss Stapleton must have very poor hearing.”

“Really? She didn’t seem that way…”

“…Should I try calling her?”

As Charlotte was grumbling quietly and making a skeptical expression at Helen’s puzzled words, at that very moment.

“…Miss Holmes.”

Adler, who had turned toward the window, quietly spoke with a smiling eyes.

“You should come over here.”

At those words, Charlotte and Helen Baskerville moved to the side, and their faces began to harden.

“……..”

“S-Stapleton… is…”

Julia Stapleton, the prime suspect who had sent the letter to the mansion, was lying on the blood-soaked floor, growing cold.

“…This puzzle is quite unusual, isn’t it?”

After staring at the scene for a while, Issac Adler whispers softly into Charlotte’s ear.

“Whatever your scheme is.”

To that whisper, Charlotte Holmes responded with an increasingly sensitive voice.

“…Was this why you were trying to divert my attention, even using a doppelganger?”

“Ah, I’ve been found out.”

The moment those words ended, Adler, who had been muttering cheerfully beside her, dispersed into the air with a puff of smoke.

“…Inspector Lestrade.”

Sighing quietly in the smoke, Charlotte Holmes issues an order to Lestrade, whom she had secretly stationed there without Adler’s knowledge.

“Arrest Issac Adler immediately on suspicion of murder.”

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Meanwhile, at that time.

[Probability of imprisonment: 100%]

[Should I congratulate you?]

“As expected, she noticed.”

Not far from Stapleton’s cottage, in the moor, Issac Adler mutters in a dejected voice as he withdraws his doppelganger.

“…I’m really going to be locked up, aren’t I?”

“…Urr?”

A black-haired girl with messy hair, who was having her head patted by Adler, quietly tilts her head and looks up at him.