Chapter 374: I still give him money every year?

Holmes provided a photo of little Meinhard; the photography technology of that era was just so-so, and unless you went to a photo studio to adjust the lighting and the setting, the clarity of the photos taken outdoors was not high. This photo only showed that little Meinhard was a young man under 30 years old, with two small mustaches on his lips - which was also a common habit of German men in that era.

As for other facial details, there are none at all.

"Are you sure it's him?" Lin You studied the photo. "This person has no sense of existence at all. Whether his father cooperated with Moriarty or Moriarty assassinated his father, he never showed up. He seemed to be in college at the time?"

"Humboldt University of Berlin," Holmes added sarcastically. "One of the broken clues is related to a professor of chemistry at Humboldt University."

It was the presence of Irene Adler at the scene that made Holmes restrain himself; if anyone else dared to question the results of the investigation to their face, the famous detective would have argued with them relentlessly about the difference between genius and mediocrity.

To simply interpret the psychological activities, it is roughly: Who are you to dare to question the genius detective?
However, under the reproachful gaze of "that woman", Holmes could only drink in silence and then explain in detail reluctantly.

"Erin told me that gods cannot directly interfere with or change the fate of mortals. I don't know what the principle is, but let's just reason according to this standard. If the other party wants to hand over the biochemical technology to Moriarty, then he must use other humans to complete the whole process."

Lin You nodded, agreeing with Holmes's statement. In fact, the real reason was not that "gods cannot interfere with the fate of mortals", but that such interference would leave too many traces; doing so in other small story worlds would be fine, but doing so in the big world would inevitably conflict with the monitoring and locking capabilities of the quill pen, and thus be discovered by the writer and forced to correct it.

It can be inferred from this that when Ares and Patrick Morgan created reverse information infiltration through Moriarty, they must have adopted some method to circumvent the quill pen monitoring.

The best way is to use other mortals. Although it is troublesome, it makes the least noise and is least likely to be discovered. When every participant is unaware that there is a supernatural power involved, the twists and turns caused will naturally be reduced.

"It's not easy to find little Meinhard. Many clues were not directly related to him when they were interrupted. For example, the chemistry professor, although we are in the same university, little Meinhard's major is not chemistry, but history." Holmes continued to explain his reasoning process, "The other clues are similar, so before I took over, your people couldn't find any connection points at all."

Although it sounds like an excuse for Irene's subordinates, it is actually still the famous detective's self-boasting; it means: It's not that your subordinates are too stupid, but that your opponents are too smart, so you can only rely on me, a smarter genius detective.

This is Sherlock Holmes. Even if he brags in front of you, you still need a certain level of intelligence to decipher it.

Irene rolled her eyes and threatened, "Char-Locke?"

"OK, let's get back to the point." Holmes was so frightened that he spoke much faster. "In fact, the biggest flaw lies in the transaction between Moriarty and old Meinhard. When purchasing the shares of the Heilbronn Arsenal, Moriarty was very generous and paid real money - which is completely inconsistent with his usual style of plundering. If he wanted to, he could use various means to lower the price and get more shares. But he didn't do that. Instead, he paid the money and finalized the contract in a hurry without doing any small moves. Why?"

"Because he had planned to kill Meinhard long ago. Since the other party was destined to die, there was no need to go to great lengths." Irene said matter-of-factly, "Just like when he dealt with me and the plastic surgeon, a bomb or a poison dart could solve the problem. Why waste time?"

"No, dear; Meinhard's death will only disperse the shares of the arsenal to his children and relatives, which will be more detrimental to Moriarty's plan to control the factory. Moriarty is in a hurry to buy the shares, which means that there are things in the arsenal that he thinks are extremely valuable. He is afraid that more competitors will emerge if the time is too long." Holmes smiled and denied Irene's guess.

"The situation in Europe is tense, and all the major countries are preparing for war. There are more than just Meinhard arsenals. The guns, ammunition, artillery and machine guns produced by Heilbronn are just common goods, nothing surprising. What can make Moriarty nervous... biological and chemical weapons technology?" Lin You tentatively analyzed. In terms of IQ, he is not smarter than Irene, but he has a deeper understanding of the international situation and the level of development of weapons technology in this era, and he also understands how advanced Dr. Poison's biological and chemical weapons technology is compared to this era.

Historically, poison gas shells that could be fired from artillery did not appear until World War I. However, they now appeared in the Heilbronn arsenal more than 20 years earlier, and were put into mass production.

This shock was no less than the appearance of the Tiger and Panther tanks in World War II during World War I, and on this basis, an armored army with complete systems and mature tactics was formed.

Once this kind of weapon technology that is almost capable of dimensionality reduction strike appears, competitors will not be limited to other visionary businessmen; it will inevitably attract opponents that even Moriarty cannot contend with - such as governments and militaries of various countries.

That's why Moriarty was so anxious and paid the money very quickly. Of course, this quickness did not affect his later assassination of old Mehad.

"That is to say, the biological and chemical weapons technology was not handed over directly to Moriarty, but was passed on through old Mehhard. Even before old Mehhard, it had been passed on countless times. At least, young Mehhard must have been one of the key links." Lin You was quite convinced, "It is indeed something Patrick Morgan would do."

Holmes had sharp ears and heard Lin You's mumbling clearly. "You mean Morgan? I do know that there is a Morgan family in the UK. They are aristocratic, but they have been in decline for a long time."

"It's not the same thing." Lin You was too lazy to explain, "Then the key to the problem is little Mehhad; where is he now?"

"He should be going to America. He bought the ticket a month ago, saying he was going on a trip. I checked, and more than one person can confirm that he boarded the ship on time. The United States also sent back a telegram that the ship arrived at the port on time. If he didn't jump into the sea halfway, he should be somewhere in New York or Boston now."

Having investigated to this point, the detective's mission had been completed, and how to deal with little Meinhard next had nothing to do with him; Holmes lazily drank the wine in the glass, and then went up to Irene and asked for a refill.

"Going to the United States, a month ago?" Lin You seemed to be thinking about something, and he said to himself, "Maybe not just New York and Boston, maybe the Rocky Mountains, or Yellowstone Park?"

"What did you say?" Holmes' ears were still sharp, even when he was flirting with "that woman".

"Nothing." Lin You was still too lazy to answer, "Have you checked the whereabouts of little Mehad in the past few years? Have you found anything unusual?"

Finally, it was Irene's turn to answer the question: "We paid attention to him for a while after we took over the Arsenal, but his behavior was completely like that of an ordinary young man in college. Every day he went to class, made friends, drank, found women, gambled, and took all kinds of risks. He liked all the things that rich young people liked, and most of the people he interacted with were rich young men.

He has the inheritance left by his father, and the annual dividends from the Arsenal stock are quite a lot, enough for a single young man to splurge in a big city."

"In other words, this little Mehad, as the biggest suspect, has not only been hiding under our noses, but we also give him money every year?" Lin You had a strange expression on his face, and seemed to be grinding his back teeth when he spoke.

(End of this chapter)