Part 4 (1/2)
Further down the platform from us, several clusters of , though some of the dresses looked freshly dyed There were but two of these irievers per coffin, and I realised that these would be the pauper burials and the bereaved were reliant on parish travel warrants to follow their beloved to their rest Unlike our own class, these disparate parties were offered no privacy and were all on the platfores were rather busier, withfro on the journey All were dressed in fresh attire from Jay's outfitters, with only the children exe of full black In some parties, thestood outweeds announcing her status In one party, there was instead a er and I saw the undertakers loading both an adult and a child coffin into their section I was reminded briefly of h Kensal Green
The journey itself was uneventful I watched as the scene beyond our half-lowered blind changed fro to neatly triardens and then fields and woodland Outside the city, a frost still glistened in the shadows and the air was sharper This was a very different journey even fro the Harrow Road in Kensal Rise Certainly, this world was Elysian when compared to the horrors of the old enclosed churchyards in the centre of the city, where bodies had piled so deep that the very height of the ground was raised up to the sills of the houses that overlooked them
The train jolted as ent over the points onto the spur line into the ce this section, allowing any passengers able to raise their eyes a first view of this side the train, so that it did not intrude too egregiously on the landscape Beyond that were gently sloping lawns and curved paths, interspersed not only with recent planting but also with copses of the ancient woodland the ces formed three sides of a square, with the platforside so that the funereal wagons cas, where the platforers dise of the pre, the stationo and took the coffins into the waiting rooms
Throughout, Hol the role of a rief It was a very convincing guise that enabled hi suspicions My disco, for its part, must have looked like a friend uneasy at such a public display
Our coffin was soon taken fro area in the station up a slope to a plot in the conformist section My unease continued as the appointed curate ran through the shortest ceremony we could have chosen, and laid to rest soround To date I had seen nothing untoward or unusual, save our own fraudulent loss
We returned to the south station, where the station wood to feed the fires that burned in every grate His wife, a thin, quiet wo the vitality of her counterpart to the north, was offering a warm luncheon of soup, bread and beer in the bar The train crew stood at one end, nursing their se hunks of bread There was just one other occupant, aalready seated by the fire, alked in Her face was veiled, but her hands trelass of sherry from the table More mourners arrived hard behind us, and the room soon became hot and musky
”Excuse me,” Holmes asked the stationmaster's wife, ”what time does the train return to London?”
”In perhaps another three-quarters of an hour,” she replied
”Would we be able to walk to the other station in that time?”
”Why, yes, if you wish it Soo back to the city? The train don't wait, though If you miss it, you'll need to walk on to the LSWR's station by the village and pay for another ticket”
Holmes thanked her and we set off down the road
Holmes walked in silence, and I kneould not wantevidence, or working through the details he had already seen Instead I admired the sylvan scene around us
”Watson, as a doctor you n a deal of death certificates?” he suddenly asked
”Of course, it is part of our duty to ascertain the person is indeed dead, and what the causes of that death are”
”And no funeral can take place without a certificate?”
”Certainly not Only a medical professional can be certain all life has indeed left a body Without our confirht be possible for someone who has fallen into a deep co buried still alive Tell ? From a reliable witness?”
”Never from a reliable person It is always possible that death could beout the body and waiting for a few days before the funeral prevents any such horrific confusion”
We were approaching the north station, for dissenters and nonconforht air
”Watson, I telegraphed Mrs Perkins last night and told her ould be here today Pray do not show any signs of recognition, as I have asked her to do likewise”
We entered the bar, and looked around Unlike the other station, this one contained a range of different attitudes to death A Ro, wearing crucifixes and holding breviaries A sarb, wide-awake hats still on their heads As at the south station, there were a handful of pauper mourners who sat in a separate section Unlike the other station, there were no employees of the Railway
Mr Perkins was a broad-shouldered man with dark whiskers and rolled-up sleeves As with his wife's falseband around his upper arm and maintained an air of courteous respect He accepted my friend's claim to have walked froht of ourus
The return train was due iroup, asking them to move onto the platform She did her best not to react when she reached us
As the train pulled in, its loco it in reverse back towards the mainline, Holmes' air of distraction increased As I e with the Langhurst name on it, I realised he was not besidethe doors of each co profusely and continuing to the next
”What are you doing?” I asked, taking hi startled responses frorief he was so abruptly interrupting Having disturbed each couide him to our own, and sank back into the corner seat with a smile on his face He pulled our door to and lowered the blinds entirely
”Watson, I think I have it When we get back to the city, I will need you to apply some of your forensic skills to the books of the Necropolis Company”
”But, Holmes, Mr Arrowsmith has already assured us the paperwork is in order”
”I' on that very fact, my dear fellow I need you to look at the names on the death certificates”
”And ill you be doing?” For I had guessed at once that he would not be joining h the papers, but was in one of his adrenaline-inspired enthusias the spare body”
At the London terers for the last six months of funerals The Company had performed some five hundred and sixty-two funerals in that tie of clientele Holmes had tasked me to first look at the records for that very day, to see if any funerals had not been accompanied by hurst: a slu elderly pauper of the rookery at St Giles-in-the-Fields, and an office er of some seven-and-twenty years from the parish of St Saviours, Southwark Both had been confor soul down to the gardens of rest
As Holmes had requested, I noted the naned the death certificates Without sight of such a certificate, the Company would not perfor that they had followed due process I then began to look back through the ledgers to find other funerals without mourners, and to note any where the doctor matched those from today It soon became apparent to me that Dr P- of Lareater proportion of such funerals than any other doctor whose patients chose the Brookwood Necropolis for their final resting place
Before I could speculate on what this pattern h in his cheeks, suggesting he had run part of the way back froled behind him
”Where is Mr Arrowsmith?” he asked
”In his office, I believe What have you found out?”
”In a le name?”
”Yes, Dr P- of Lambeth”
Holmes added the name to the piece of paper in his hand, and bade the boy to race across to Scotland Yard, just across the bridge from us, and deliver it to one Inspector Bradstreet He then hastened er room towards Arrows over some papers when Holmes brushed past his clerk and shut the door
”Well, I had found out why your clerk countedI'm afraid I have had to involve the police to prevent the cri Moreover, I will need to ask the police to interview some of the Company, so I must ask you to remain silent for another hour I hope we can minimise the interest of the press, or at least ensure no censure attaches itself to your Company Have I your word you will tell no one for another hour?”
The ht This had been the very scenario he had hoped to avoid ”Can I at least warn my fellow directors?” he asked
”Absolutely not! I fear complicity in these crimes includes one of the a statement to offer any journalists who ask for your view Come on, Watson, we need to reach Victoria before the hour is out!”
Out on Waterloo Bridge Road, Hol the driver to make haste to Victoria station on the other side of the Thae and turned into Westminster, Holmes explained what he had uncovered