Part 19 (1/2)
For all his pretence of annoyance at being treated like aasked to explain his observations, and so was not at all surprised when Hol hand, answered Clarendon's question in full
”It is not beyond reason, Mr Clarendon, to suggest that ahis funds, although the rich brocade of your s jacket and the superior nature of the artwork on display hints that this is a temporary, or at least recent, condition The fact that you have been drafting theatre reviews-” he gestured at the papers strewn around the roo has not recently proven sufficiently re terms in the review topmost of the collection heaped on that occasional table, and I happen to have seen her play the title role in The duchess of Malfi last month She is, as you say, too jejune for the role I surely need not elaborate on the circled job advertisements in the theatrical periodicals I can see all around?”
He waved a hand again to forestall any deluge of praise from Clarendon and was at once business-like
”You told Dr Watson, I believe, that you were in rather a hurry that day?”
”Yes,” the actor replied, ”I was in danger ofthe train entirely so was more put out than usual to be rebuffed not once but twice”
”And you told the good Doctor that the gentlee was entirely muffled and hatted so that no part of his face could be seen?”
”Exactly so, Mr Hol you noticed about hiht enable us to identify themore than athe scene in his , Mr Hol else He was tall, but not unnaturally so, otherwise Ithe carriage to his stretched out when I entered, but there was still plenty of roo abuse and waving those long fingers at ers!” I exclaie from earlier in the day came irresistibly to mind But Holmes, as ever, was one step ahead
”Thank you, Mr Clarendon I would say that little detail - combined with others I have already had laid before hie Fellows and his wife, the victim's sister I expect one will turn on the other quite soon after their arrest - the wife, if I aainst than sinning, after all”
Not for the first time, I stared at h nothing exceptional had occurred He merely shook Clarendon's hand, and informed me as he headed for the door that he would be happy to explain - once we had given Lestrade the last piece of this particular jigsaw
As it turned out, it was the following ether Over breakfast, Hol to which I had not been privy the previous evening
”You an as he held the newspaper out toas it did the headline FAMILY MEMBERS ARRESTED IN RAILWAY MURDER! ”I have been even arding this case In one our separate ways more than is common over the past day or so”
Holmes' smile was such that I could not help but feel that he was toying witheveryone has referred to the location of Miss Williae And of course, it is no such thing The door to a railway carriage is closed tight, of course, but not locked, else there would be no way for passengers to leave in eency - or indeed at their destinations
”Thus, even before I carried out my examination, I had concluded that the e after the train had left the station The carriage door handle merely required a sharp twist, and the killer would be inside I had assuiven the darkness of the tunnel and the closeness of the iron railings to the side of the train, but when you un life as a sweep's boy, and so was used to an to suspect that tunnels offered the perfect cover, at both ends of the journey Finding the e Fellows e to the next while the train was concealed by the railway tunnel, and there killed his victi, respect for Fellows at that point The thought of clinging to the side of a train thundering along in the darkness, and with deadly iron spikes only inches away, filled ht be, he was clearly no coward But Hol
”Initially, I was sure that murder, not robbery, was the motive for this crime - and yet what killer would turn up his nose at a providential hundred pounds? Only one who had expectation of far greater remuneration to come, obviously A wo her peace with her father and rief, after all Mrs Felloould have little need for a mere hundred pounds then Better that her husband leave thesinister could possibly have taken place However, last night you raised an interesting alternative possibility”
My confusion was apparently obvious to hed, ”Mrs Fellows' reluctance to spend any money, Watson! Fraser reed Miss Willia on the assumption that murder had always been the intention and the money left in place to deflect suspicion, but now the very opposite notion gained substance Why would so much care be taken about one hundred pounds before the murder, and so little afterwards?”
I assumed the question was rhetorical, but Holed helplessly and waved a butter knife at hio on
”Two different aims, Watson! Mrs Fellows expected a robbery only, and wanted as much of the hundred pounds to rereed, but I very much doubt that Mrs Fellows intended her sister to die, or knew that her husband had a syringe full of poison with hiinal intention was for a quick robbery-in and out in the first tunnel, where in the darkness Miss Willianise her assailant as her brother-in-law But one hundred pounds was not enough for George Fellows-not when there was an inheritance to step into”
”Is that the entirety of your evidence, Hol, I re victim and was determined that he paid the full price for his cri at my perceived lack of confidence, he was content to explain in further detail ”No, not at all, Watson, and you are quite correct to ask, for this was a clever and subtle criht never even have noticed had it not been for the wholly coincidental presence of the man Aberdeen I fully believe that the Felloould have escaped justice entirely had it not been for that, and one other unforeseen complication
”Mrs Fellows did not expect to bump into Bill Fraser, nor was she prepared for the fact that her sister would so quickly find coround with the man and invite him to ith theether, with no other close witnesses, so that Mrs Fellows could ensure that as little uide her sister to a solitary train compartment But Fraser prevented that, and neither she nor her husband were cunning enough to exte
”Mrs Fellows tried to shake Fraser off by feigning illness, but when it became clear that Miss Williams was happy to be escorted by him to the station, she made her excuses and, I suspect, rushed hoinal intention was presumably that Mrs Felloould acco no other passenger boarded before the train left She would then tell her husband that the coast was clear-for how else could he be sure that there would be no witness? The chancewith Bill Fraser put paid to that plan, which is why the footprints on the train door were s no word froainst the door while he checked his sister-in-laas the only occupant, rather than swinging over and through in one movement
”As I say, I cannot prove one way or the other whether the initial intention was murder or simple robbery, but I believe I can say what actually transpired Having coe Fellows cale while the train traversed the second tunnel-the one leading into the ter before anyone noticed that the quiet young lady sitting in the adjacent carriage was dead”
There was a ghost of a smile on Holmes' face, as he sipped his tea ”And of course I did send word to Lestrade yesterday evening to check on Fellows' recent movements! You will not be surprised to learn both that his company is in severe financial difficulty-the sort that even one hundred pounds will not fix-and that he spent thea ticket for the same train as Miss Williams You may bea set of cufflinks, engraved with the letters JH” beneath: obviously a present fro He says that his wife gave them to him; she says she has never seen the before one or other of them attempts to come to some sort of deal with the police”
Holmes paused for a second in contemplation ”Which means that, in this minor matter at least, I was incorrect Miss Williams remained constant in her affections to the end That may be of some consolation to the family”
And with that, Holmes turned his attention back to his newspaper, and his boiled eggs I intended to write up the case for publication, but no etsuitable for an audience of my peers But now, as the third decade of what I still consider the new century beckons, it seems a foolish delicacy on my part to remain silent and rob my friend of his success
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stuart Douglas has worked in a toy shop, a zoo, a chocolate factory and on a fare to appear in Doctor Who he will, therefore, have fulfilled all of his childhood ambitions
THE TRAGIC AFFAIR OF THE MARTIAN AMBassADOR
BY ERIC BROWN
There co cases that ate since the arrival on our planet of the Martians ten years ago
We were relaxing in our rooma that came to be known as ”The Mysterious Affair of the Rosebury Dia The Ti over one of a dozen to Cross Road
In 1906, shortly after the establishment of the Martian presence in London and other capitals around the world, uage of the Red Planet Alence and exceptional powers of memory, he was practically fluent in that notoriously coht himself a complete set of the Encyclopaedia Martiannica
Now I set aside lanced across at Hol his pipe
”What are you reading about now, Hole ”A voluical history of the Martian race,” said he ”Fascinating Did you know, Watson, that the gestation cycle of a pregnant Martian female is a little over three Terran years?”
”I norance in that area,” said I
”And were you aware,across at the
The spring sunlight had been occluded suddenly, as if by a storm cloud, and as we strode across the room and stared out we beheld the reason A Martian tripod, fully a hundred feet high, stood in the street outside
”Curiouser and curiouser,” Hol fro upon it was a Martian
Now, for all that the Martians occupy our planet in their hundreds of thousands, it is not an everyday occurrence that one of their nuular three-legged transportation devices ht ubiquitously prowl the capital from Richmond to East Ham, and from Barnet to Croydon, but the creatures themselves show a distinct inclination towards privacy
Not, however, this individual-for it stepped from the platform and trundled on its many puckered tentacles across the road and on to the paveht ”Why, I do believe, Watson, that the Martian isa beeline towards 221b!”