Detective Mary

Chapter 34

Two months ago, Mr. Bentley met Fred Hall at an exposition, and the two men had a good conversation.

Mr. Bentley then invited Editor-in-Chief Hall to be his guest and met Miss Bentley.

When Miss Bentley hears that Fred Hall is the editor-in-chief of Seaside Magazine, which is accepting submissions of novels, Miss Bentley can't help but think of Miss Mary Bennet and her strange and frightening-sounding stories far away in the country.

To be honest, Miss Bingley hadn't forgotten Mary, except that she wanted to find a hole in the ground when she remembered how she had mistaken her for a love rival at Nesselfeld Manor .......

She had been targeted at every turn, and Mary Bennet had either deflected it or taken the opportunity to show it off. At that time, Miss Bentley was angry for a long time, but also look at this dowry is not rich, the status is not too high, but the appearance of the unmarried girl is only a clean standard of eyes.

But before she left, she made it clear that she had no interest in Mr. Darcy.

Miss Bingley is shocked and realizes that not only does Mary Bennet not like Darcy, but the "she" Darcy said he was interested in is not Mary, who is not a pretty girl, but her sister, Elizabeth Bennet!

Mary, however, still looked eager, and asked her to write a letter, but also told her all about her curiosity and admiration for the detective, Sherlock Holmes.

She was honest, but she was trying to make a fool of herself - what kind of a lady is that?

Caroline Bentley couldn't think of her own small-mindedness without feeling guilty and embarrassed, let alone writing to Mary.

So when Mr. Bentley met Fred Hall, the editor-in-chief of Seaside Magazine, Miss Bentley subconsciously thought of Mary and her story, and, thinking about it, told the editor what Mary had inspired her to tell at the time.

It's not accurate to say it was a sincere recommendation, but at least helping Mary would make Miss Bentley's embarrassment-ridden heart feel better.

Right now, however, Mr. Fred Hall himself talked at length with Mary, and within a few words of each other, a very serious problem was keenly apparent.

Mary's present story simply did not square with the synopsis that Editor-in-Chief Hall had at his disposal.

For one thing, because Miss Bingley herself did not like Mary's synopsis, her paraphrase was more or less subjective, and she was unable to retell it all out of memory lapses.

Secondly, Mary had long since revised her version, and the case in the finished version was very far from the idea she had told at the beginning.

In the end, Editor-in-Chief Fred Hall was experienced, and as soon as he heard that the ideas were different, he immediately paused the discussion, "How about this, ma'am, if you're free tomorrow, you can bring the manuscript to the magazine."

"Good."

Mary responded without hesitation.

Not to mention, it's Seaside Magazine!

Unfortunately this world doesn't have Sir Conan Doyle himself, and Mary doesn't get to meet him in person, but in the original story, the future Dr. John Watson also contributes to the Seaside Magazine, publishing his exploits with Mr. Holmes.

Now Mary and Sherlock Holmes were in the same London, which also meant that if she was lucky enough to pass the manuscript, Mary could be a peer of Dr. Watson!

"I will visit the magazine tomorrow afternoon with the manuscript," Mary said with a smile, "I came here specially today, and was going to ask Mr. Bentley about the contract theft."

"I am aware of the matter."

Editor-in-Chief Hall nodded, "Mr. Bentley told me about it, too."

Is that so?...... It seems that the editor-in-chief is indeed someone Mr. Bentley trusts.

Seeing the caution that flickered in the bottom of Mary's eyes, Editor-in-Chief Fred Hall was not angry, and the middle-aged gentleman smiled instead.

He glanced at Mr. Bentley, who was talking enthusiastically with Jane Bennet, and being a man of the past, Editor-in-Chief Hall couldn't help but shake his head.

"It seems," he snorted, "that Mr. Bentley has no time to concern himself with burglaries at present."

"Wh, what?" Mr. Bentley turned around in surprise.

Hearing his name and seeing the derisive look on Editor-in-Chief Hall's face, he then realized what he was saying to Mary. The young man in love coughed a few times, "Regarding the burglary, I do have progress on my side, but I think we should wait until Mr. Holmes is present to discuss it."

Mary's eyes lit up, "So when do we go to Mr. Holmes?"

Mr. Bentley thought for a moment, "Some other time, if we are discussing the case, I'll make sure you are present, miss."

That's fine!

The sky is the limit, and love is the biggest. Mr. Bentley had already been so busy lately that it was hard to find some free time to meet with Jane. No matter how desperate Mary was to track down the truth, she wouldn't let that spoil her sister's time with her future brother-in-law.

And, while she was at it, she might as well discuss the submission with Editor-in-Chief Hall.

The next afternoon, Mary arrived at the magazine office of Seaside Magazine, carrying the manuscript as promised.

The first thing the secretary lady did was to invite Mary to the editor-in-chief's office, where it was obvious that Editor-in-Chief Hall had been waiting for some time. He invited Mary to sit down with immense enthusiasm and took her manuscript.

When he saw the title of the novel, Editor-in-Chief Hall's expression gave a slight lurch, "The Serial Killer's Chess Game ...... Serial Killer?"

If this were the twenty-first century, Mary's novel title would be called simple, crude, and brainless. But there was a reason why she didn't fudge on the title of her novel.

The term "serial killer," which appeared after the 1970s, is a contemporary term of criminal psychology. In Victorian times, such a term would have been confusing.

It's also a way for Mary to use her special status as a time and space traveler to quietly cheat.

"The title is pretty attention-grabbing," Editor-in-Chief Hall eventually commented, "and has me somewhat looking forward to the content."

Mary felt a little nervous.

If another time- and space-traveler came to this world to read Mary's final draft, he or she would not be able to connect her last effort with the real-life Campbell case. Although the murderer and the case were still based on Edmund Campbell, by the time it was actually written, the whole story had changed.

In Mary's story, the murderer still turns himself in, but he does not confess to his crime. Instead, he takes a provocative stance and waits for the detective, who is the protagonist, to unearth all that he has done.

In this way, the murderer's behavior of turning himself in is barely in line with the analysis of serial killers in criminal psychology - some murderers like to show off their presence by publicly displaying their victims, as if signing their names to the case.

Turning himself in, on the other hand, is because the process of committing the crime is so perfect that it's surprising that no one realizes that the victim was killed by him.

The killer's "signature" wasn't seen, so he couldn't brag about it, couldn't satisfy his sick mind.

So the murderer looked for the famous detective, sat down on the opposite side of the detective, declared war on him: I killed a man, the first half of a case I have completed, the second half of the detective part, it is up to you.

The detective, on the other hand, is a common image in the twenty-first century detective novels or episodes: cold, hard, decisive, smart and clever at the same time, even in the style of some rough. It is a man of nature, but also has its own sharp side.

When the killer openly questions the authority of the law, he takes up the challenge without saying a word.

Mary breaks the whole process of solving the case into three parts, the murderer's modus operandi is more familiar than once, and the detective pursues the clues to find the victim first when his initial method is rusty, then when he is skillful, and finally when the murderer thinks he is invulnerable, smugly says to the detective, you can't find it, your intelligence is not as good as mine, and unveils the final mystery, and delivers justice to the victim.

The entire text is not long, more than 50,000 words. Thus Hall's editor read it quickly.

He put down the manuscript, "This is a little better than I thought it would be."

Mary was instantly energized, "Is it?"

The middle-aged gentleman raised his eyes to Mary and laughed, "When Miss Bentley told me the story, before she even opened her mouth, she put on a frightened look herself, and I thought it would be some kind of horror story. Seaside Magazine isn't going to publish that type of fiction just yet."

...... really isn't surprised at all!

The popular literature of the nineteenth century in England was still a gothic novel with horror and grotesque as its main focus. Even the many romantic works that were passed down to later generations were more or less influenced by them, so it was expected that Editor-in-Chief Hall must have read a lot of similar style works during this time.

"But fortunately not."

He praised, "The story is brilliant, the criminal's viciousness and superior intelligence, but the detective is always better. Instead of being scary, a few games between the two had the urgency of watching a master play chess."

These words were high praise enough coming from an editor-in-chief. But Mary didn't rush to cheer, she carefully scrutinized Editor-in-Chief Hall's expression, and when she saw that he was calm, she understood roughly.

"But?" Mary asked.

Editor-in-Chief Hall burst out laughing.

"You're a keen young lady," he said, "but portraying criminals so vividly, I'm worried about any bad publicity, the least of which would be some negative comment that your story would make more people commit crimes or something."

Knew that was the case.

Long before she put pen to paper, Mary had anticipated this kind of feedback. As much as she had tried to be mindful of that, it was inevitable that she would not be able to control herself when writing about her passions.

"So," Mary spoke carefully, "do you need me to revise it again?"

"No, no need."

Editor-in-Chief Hall took the manuscript and shook his head, "The game between the detective and the murderer is really exciting, and that tension would be greatly reduced if the portrayal of the bad guys were cut - and besides, it's still the detective who wins in the end, isn't it? "

The implication of such a statement is that ......

Until then, Mary's heart poofed as she revealed an expectant look, "So, what you're saying, sir, is that my manuscript is ready to be published?"

"Of course!"

The editor-in-chief placed the manuscript on the table, "I can't guarantee a response, so I can't give you much for the initial fee. A fifty thousand word novel published in four installments will give you twelve pounds, what do you think?"

Twelve pounds, this was beyond Mary's expectations!

You know Conan Doyle's first book, "A Study in Scarlet", the fee is only twenty pounds, and Mary's piece is only half the word count of "A Study in Scarlet", for the first time to submit a newcomer to the manuscript, it is a "huge amount of money"!

"Really?"

Mary asked, taking a deep breath and forcing down her fluttering emotions.

"It won't cause any trouble for the magazine, will it?"

"What in heaven's name is England," said Editor-in-Chief Hall, teasingly, "if there is not room for one detective story? If anything goes wrong, the magazine will take the blame itself, but ...... I wouldn't advise you to publish a novel under your real name, miss."

This Mary understood.

Though writing novels was not uncommon for Victorian ladies - even if there were no Jane Austen or Agatha Christie in this world, there would be other female writers. But Mary was writing a crime novel after all, and the reputation of a female writer might be subject to unwarranted questions and accusations, and in the unlikely event ...... just in the unlikely event that something bad came out of it, it could affect Mary's and her family's reputation as well.

Editor-in-Chief Hall's advice was conservative, yet came from a place of genuine concern for Mary.

Mary herself didn't care about fame, but she had to think about her loved ones. And since the editor-in-chief had good intentions, she couldn't refuse to her face, "Okay then, let's use a pseudonym."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"How about just John Smith?"

"......"

Editor-in-Chief Hall burst out laughing, "That's your pen name, ma'am, and John Smith is a bit too perfunctory!"

With that, he looked at the manuscript once more.

"Since you've chosen to write in the first person," the editor-in-chief suggested, "why don't you publish the piece under the name of the detective in the text. Philip Luther, that's a really good name for the detective's tough, determined character."

It was a great idea!

Mary didn't anticipate that, and was pleasantly surprised when she said, "Maybe some readers will get the wrong idea about this, that these are true stories!"

"Then let them misunderstand it that way," Editor-in-Chief Hall took off his glasses and spoke sincerely "I'm already looking forward to the reaction to this work, ma'am."