Deduction is a very important part of a detective’s life. Any post mortem, murder mystery or thievery requires deductions to be made. As the world’s only consulting detective, I present to you
some very important facts about deduction if you might need them in some occasion.
You can tell a lot from the walking stick left by an unknown visitor or a watch worn by your best friend. You can tell if the man who owns the stick lives in a city or countryside just by looking at its bottom. Worn out bottom with scrapes of paint sticking out with a faint smell of the earth can only mean that this man is from the countryside for it only tells us of the rugged adventures of this man. The quality of the stick can definitely tell you the economical state of the man. Furthermore, any scratches or grooves at the bottom can only mean the owner owns a dog which has tugged and bitten the lower end of the stick. Looking at the watch you can definitely deduce thus. Scratches on the dial of the watch can only mean that the owner is careless for he has kept the watch along with other hard materials like coins, keys or mobile phones. Scratches around the key can only mean that he is a drunkard and while setting the time, his hand has slipped multiple times. You can all see these things if you look for those.
A short message is enough to tell the whereabouts of a person. The quality of the paper suggests the class of a person. Bond paper only means an economically high person for a man never uses bond paper to write letters. Quite possible that he is a politician or an aristocrat. The quality of ink used tells us where the person had been living or what his hobbies are. For instance a man using Indian ink can only mean that he has lived in India for some time. Rugged writing with splashes of ink on some letters and no ink in some words mean that he is not used to the pen probably a new one or one from a hotel. If the message contains words cut out from a newspaper, it only he means that he is on to you and that he wants to conceal his Identity by concealing his handwriting. If the letter is printed, it makes the matter easier. You can definitely tell the quality of the printer and the type of ink used. Furthermore, it will surely have the fingerprints as the man definitely has to insert it into the printer and retrieve it so chances are high that at some point of time, he would have definitely touched it. If it is taken from a cyber café, find the owner with the fingerprints and interrogate him.
When you are interrogating a murder mystery, you can always decide what had happened just by observing the surroundings. If the whole thing has happened outdoors, then you can tell from where the man walked by looking at the footprints. You can tell if the man waited for a while just by observing if traces of cigarette ash have fallen around. Impatience of the man can be concluded from multiple footprints present at a short distance in random directions. You can tell if the man is cautious if only the tip of his shoe is seen meaning- he is walking on tiptoes. You can always tell if he has been running judging by the long distance between the two footprints. The only conclusion is that he has either been trying to meet or call out for someone whom he has seen or running from the pursuer. Then another set of footprints can definitely be seen at a distance. So following that can lead us to our man.
When you are suspecting a man, make a note of every word he says for if he is incognito, he is bound to slip out something of his true identity. For example, a man claiming to be British says cell phone instead of mobile phone means something is being kept from you. Or a man talking about him being a school teacher at Yorkshire or a professor in Oxford is a clue for you to investigate in that place.
There is always one thing that is very important in deduction.
When you rule out the impossible, whatever remains has to be true no matter how improbable it is.
– Sherlock Holmes 221B Baker Street London, England.
