Zhang Heng did not know where Holmes had gone, but he did find some prostitutes who had a good relationship with the previous three victims. From them, he was able to reconstruct the victims' activities before they died.
Zhang Heng finally locked his eyes on a man named Mark Cohen.
He was a Jewish doctor active in Whitechapel, but he was not a qualified doctor registered by the Central Medical Council. Of course, qualified doctors rarely served prostitutes.
There was no need to talk about the pampered internists. Internists had always been the first among the three major classes, and they boasted that they were gentlemen. However, with the rise of surgeons and pharmacists, internists were constantly losing their leadership, especially when pharmacists gradually transformed into general practitioners. They were working together with surgeons to actively promote the reform of the British medical system and fight for more rights and benefits … However, even if there were general practitioners, there were not many of them in the East End, let alone those prostitutes who were at the bottom of the hierarchy.
It was precisely because of this that people like Mark Cohen were able to survive in this world.
In a sense, his role was a bit similar to that of a general practitioner. He basically treated all kinds of diseases, and he was also responsible for delivering babies and some gynecological diseases. This was also why Zhang Heng focused his attention on him.
The prostitutes' evaluation of him was more complicated. On the one hand, his fees were very low. Although he was not a miracle doctor, he more or less played a role. However, many prostitutes also said that they felt very uncomfortable when they were with him, especially his eyes. When his gaze fell on them, they felt like they were being stared at by a snake.
Zhang Heng inquired about Mark Cohen's residence and arrived there before sunset.
The smell here was not very pleasant. There was a pigsty not far away, and chicken manure could be seen everywhere on the road. A woman was washing clothes by the sewage, and a few men with blackened faces, probably the boiler workers of a nearby factory, were walking from a distance.
It did not take Zhang Heng long to find the prostitute doctor's apartment, but when he knocked on the door, no one answered.
Zhang Heng looked at the lock on the door and found that it was the simplest kind, basically only able to prevent the entry of a gentleman. So Zhang Heng glanced around again, and seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he quietly picked the lock with a knife.
The smell inside the door was even worse than the smell outside. It was a mixture of sweat and rot. Zhang Heng frowned and pulled out the revolver from his waist.
After taking two steps, he saw a pool of blood on the ground. There was hardly any furniture in the apartment, only a bed, a wardrobe, and a dining table. Socks and dirty clothes were strewn everywhere. Zhang Heng followed the trail of blood to a curtain, and through the gap below the curtain, he saw a pair of boots.
Instead of pulling the curtain open, Zhang Heng stabbed it with the knife in his right hand. The blade easily tore through the fabric, but there was nothing behind the curtain.
Was it a false alarm? The boots were still on the ground, so it seemed like they were placed there by their owner.
Zhang Heng quickly pulled the curtain with his other hand and saw a place that looked like a simple consultation room. There were two stools and a small workbench. Among them, the most eye-catching thing was undoubtedly a bloody organ on the workbench.
The blood on the ground and the stench came from here, and at this moment, a swarm of flies was feasting on it.
Zhang Heng's first reaction was to find the missing part of Bernice's uterus and abdominal flesh in the third murder case. With that, he would be able to lock onto the murderer. The next moment, when he walked to the table and took a closer look, he found that the thing on the table did not look like a human uterus. Instead, it looked more like an animal's.
Zhang Heng thought of the pigsty he saw on the side of the road.
Other than that, he also saw a notebook on the table. Zhang Heng opened it, flipped through two pages, and found that the contents were fragmented. Most of them were trivial matters, and some were medical research. However, when he flipped to the end, the content changed. It was obvious that the person who wrote it was getting more and more impatient.
Not only did the handwriting become more and more illegible, but the content also began to change. It had more to do with the prostitutes. He was complaining about how little money he earned and that the prostitutes always pretended to be pitiful to him. According to the notes, he seemed to have had a conflict with two prostitutes a month ago. One of them had stolen his pocket watch while he was seeing a doctor. Mark Cohen chased after her, but was tripped by another prostitute and fell to the ground, losing a tooth.
Zhang Heng was about to continue reading, but he heard the sound of the door opening behind him. Zhang Heng stuffed the notebook into his arms, and the person who came opened the door. From the sound of footsteps, it seemed that there was more than one person, but two.
This surprised Zhang Heng, but it did not affect his plan.
Zhang Heng could jump out of the window and leave, but when he cut the curtain with a knife, he had already ruled out this option. Once Mark Cohen found out that his residence had been touched, he would definitely run away immediately, not to mention that Zhang Heng had even taken his notebook.
So, Zhang Heng simply chose to catch the target here and send him to the police station.
He hid behind the curtain, listening to the approaching footsteps. At the same time, he calculated in his heart, waiting for one of them to reach out and lift the curtain. Zhang Heng could see the shock on the target's face and the fear in his eyes. Fortunately, Zhang Heng stopped at the last moment.
The other police officer also drew the pistol at his waist.
Zhang Heng raised his hand and threw away the weapon in his hand, indicating that he meant no harm.
… …
An hour later, Holmes also arrived at the police station. He tapped the floor with his cane and looked at Zhang Heng with interest. "They planned to let you out half an hour ago, but I asked them to lock you up for a while so that you can experience what I felt."
"Did you tell the police to arrest Mark Cohen?" Zhang Heng asked.
"Yes. In fact, before you went to the prostitute doctor's house, he had already been arrested by the police. The two police officers were there to collect evidence," Holmes laughed. "It seems that I won the bet this time. I can finally think about what I want to watch in the opera."
"I don't think so," Zhang Heng looked at Holmes and said leisurely, "You arrested the wrong person."
"Arrested the wrong person?" Holmes raised his eyebrows.
"You haven't interrogated Mark Cohen yet, right?"
"Yes, but I heard from Lestrade that he admitted to being the murderer as soon as he was pinned down by the police."
"It's useless for him to admit it." Zhang Heng took out the notebook from his arms and shook it. "If you interrogate him, you will know that he is insane."
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