Part 4 (1/2)

Lestrade took one look at the body 'This would indeed see and Lestrade glanced at him sharply 'How did you come to find him?'

'It was absurdly simple I knew, thanks to the brilliance of your own inquiries, that he had returned on the train to London Bridge Since then,the area and two of theh to come across hi to that gang of urchins you have at your beck and call I'd keep ood will come of it They're all thieves and pickpockets when they are not being encouraged by you Is there any sign of the necklace?'

'There seen of it no But then I have not yet had a chance to search the roo just that'

Matching his actions to his words, Lestrade examined the room carefully It was a fairly dis carpet and a bed that looked ht have atte on one wall A washstand stood in the corner with a soiled basin and a single, misshapen lump of cast-iron soap There was no view Thelooked over a narrow alley to a brick wall opposite, and although it was out of sight and some distance away, the River Thames had permeated the place with its dampness and smell Next he turned his attentions to the dead man as dressed as Carstairs had first described him, in a frock coat that came down to his knees, a thick waistcoat and a shi+rt buttoned to the neck All of these were saturated with blood The knife that had killed hi the carotid arterty My training told me that he would have died instantly Lestrade searched his pockets but found nothing Now that I was able to scrutinise him more carefully, I saw that the eway Hall was in his early forties, well built, with thickset shoulders and un to turn grey Most striking of all was the scar which began at the corner of hishis eye He had come close to death once He had been less fortunate the second time

'Can we be sure that this is the same man who imposed himself on Mr Edmund Carstairs?' Lestrade asked

'Indeed so Carstairs was able to identify him'

'He was here?'

'Briefly, yes Sadly, he was compelled to leave' Holmes smiled to himself and I recalled hoe had been compelled to bundle Edmund Carstairs into a cab and send hilih to send hi fit and I had understood how hehis experiences with the Flat Cap Gang in Boston It may be that he had the same sensitivity as some of the artists whose works he displayed It was certainly the case that the blood and grime of Bermondsey were not for hiestured at a flat cap, lying on the bed

Lestrade hadon a table nearby He exae '

'Manufactured, I think you will find, by Goodwin and Coarette at Ridgeway Hall'

'Did you now?' Lestrade let out a silent exclamation 'Well,' he said, 'I suppose we can discard the idea that our Ah there have been plenty of those in this neighbourhood, and it is always possible that this fellow returned to his roo the place A fight ensued A knife was drawn And there's the end of it '

'I think it is unlikely,' Holreed 'It would seem too much of a coincidence that a man who arrived recently in London and as clearly up to no good should suddenly meet his end in this way What happened in this hotel room can only be a direct result of his activities in Wimbledon And then there is the position of the body and the angle at which the knife was driven into his neck It see for him beside the door in the darkened roo here e arrived He walked in and was seized fro at hi after himself But in this instance he was taken by surprise and killed with a single blow'

'Theft ht still be the motive,' Lestrade insisted 'There are the fifty pounds and the necklace to be accounted for If they are not here, where are they?'

'I have every reason to believe you will find the necklace in a pawnbroker on Bridge Lane Our man had just come from there It would certainly appear that whoever killed hiest that was not the primary reason for the crime Perhaps you should ask yourself what else was taken from the room We have a body with no identity, Lestrade You would think that a visitor froht have a passport or letters of introduction, perhaps, to recommend him to a bank His wallet, I notice, is absent You knohat na the hotel?'

'He called himself Benjamin Harrison'

'Which is of course the current American president'

'The American president? Of course I are of that' Lestrade scowled 'But whatever nahue, late of Boston You see the mark on his face? That's a bullet wound Don't tell ue with that!'

Holun wound,' I said I had seen hanistan 'I would say it is about a year old'

'Which ties in exactly hat Carstairs told me,' Lestrade concluded, triumphantly 'It seems to me that we have cohue was injured in the shootout at the Boston tenement At the saland on a e That much is as plain as a pikestaff'

'To my eyes, it could hardly be less plain if a pikestaff had been used as the murder weapon,' Holmes demurred 'Perhaps you can explain to us, then, Lestrade: who killed Keelan O'Donaghue and why?'

'Well, the most obvious suspect would be Edmund Carstairs himself'

'Except that Mr Carstairs ith us at the ti been witness to his reaction on discovering the body, I really don't think he would have had the nerve or the willpower to strike the blow hi As far as we know, nobody at Ridgeway Hall had that information for we ourselves were only told at the very last ht also ask you why, if this really is Keelan O'Donaghue, he has a cigarette case arette case?'

'It is on the bed, partly covered by the sheet That would doubtless explain why the killer missed it, too'

Lestrade found the object in question and briefly exahue was a thief,' he said 'There is no reason why he ht not have stolen this'

'Is there any reason why he would have stolen it? It is not a valuable item It is made of tin with the letters painted on'

Lestrade had opened the case It was empty He snapped it shut 'This is all the merest moonshi+ne,' he said 'The trouble with you, Hols I sometimes wonder if you don't do it deliberately It's as if you need the crih for it to be worth solving The ht He was seen once in the Strand and twice in Wimbledon If he did visit this pawnshop of yours, then ill know him to be the thief who broke into Carstairs's safe Froh to construe what took place here Doubtless O'Donaghue would have had other criminal contacts here in London He may well have recruited one of them to help him in his vendetta The two of them fell out The other pulled a knife This is the result!'

'You are certain of that?'

'I am as certain as I need to be'

'Well, we shall see But there is nothingthe matter here Perhaps the owner of the hotel will be able to enlighten us'

But Mrs Old in the small office that had formerly been occupied by the Boots, had little to add She was a grey-haired, sour-faced woman who sat with her ar would contaminate her unless she could keep herself as far away as possible fro a sh I shuddered to think what animal had provided it nor how it had met its end Starvation seemed a likely option

''e took the roouinea An Aentleman, just off a shi+p at Liverpool That h not much more It was 'is first time in London He didn't say so, but I could tell for he 'ad no idea 'ow to find 'is way around He said there was soet there ”Wimbledon,” I said ”That's a posh area and plenty of rich Americans with fancy ho fancy about hie, his clothes were tatty, and then there was that nasty wound on 'is face ”I will go there to and I mean to collect it” Froood and I thought to myself then and there whoever this person is,trouble, but what can you do? If I turned away every suspicious-looking custo at my door, I'd have no business at all And now this American, Mr Harrison, is murdered! Well, it's to be expected, I suppose It's the world we live in, isn't it, where a respectable wo blood on the walls and corpses spread out on the floorboards I should never have stayed in London It's an 'orrible place Utterly 'orrible!'

We left her sitting in misery and Lestrade took his leave 'I'ain, Mr Holmes,' he said 'And if you need me, you knohere to find me'

'If I should ever find myself in need of Inspector Lestrade,' Hols will have come to a pretty pass But let us step into the alleyway, Watson My case is complete and yet there is still one small point which must be addressed'

We went out of the front of the hotel into the main street and then entered the narrow, litter-strewn alleyway that ran past the room in which the American had met his end The as clearly visible about halfway doith a wooden crate set just beneath it It was evident that the killer had used this as a step to gain entrance Theitself had not been locked and would have opened easily froround in a perfunctory way, but there seeether we followed the alley to the point at which it ended with a high wooden fence and an empty yard beyond From there, we returned to the ht and I could see the unease in his pale, elongated face

'You reht that there was so back'

'And now I a, he had a clear view of both the hotel and the alleyway, the end of which, as we have both seen, is blocked The killer can only have entered, therefore, froht of who it was'

'He certainly see, Holmes, why did he not tell us?'

'Because he had soht These boys live on their wits every hour of their lives They ht that there was money to be made, he would take on the devil hi here that I don't understand at all What is it that this child could possibly have seen? A figure caught in the gaslight, flitting down a passageway and disappearing froht, perhaps he hears a cry as the blow is struck Mo away into the night Ross remains where he is and a short while later the three of us arrive'

'He was afraid,' he said 'He mistook Carstairs for a police officer'

'It was rip of so close to terror, but I assuainst his brow 'We ain and speak with hirave miscalculation'