Part 34 (1/2)
The Markinswells owned a fine, large villa on an ele of pleasantries with Mrs Markinswell, Holiven free rein of the house, permitted to look where ished and speak to any of the domestic staff we chose to
In the event, Holmes was interested only in two locations: Jacob Markinswell's dressing rooh the closets, scrutinising Markinswell's suits In the study, he pored over the contents of the desk, turning up personal correspondence, some bills, all of which had been paid before due, and a well-balanced chequebook In other words, nothing of particular interest, until his attention fell on an item half hidden under the ink blotter
”This, now,” he said, holding it up, ”nificance”
It was a playbill for a show that was running all season at the Hippodro from a ventriloquist to a conjuror to a spirit s from the comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan I scanned the list of perfor leapt out atroom, where he asked Mrs Markinswell if she and her husband were devotees of the theatre
”Myself, no,” she said somewhat frostily ”I don't mind a concert and the opera but I' myself to lo entertainment”
”But Jacob is?”
”I believe he has attended at the Hippodrome once or twice On his own, of course He clai He works hard, so I allow hiences, however trivial and mindless”
”Well now, Watson,” Holmes said as we departed ”This all becomes somewhat clearer”
”It undoubtedly does, Holmes,” I said ”I have seen no evidence so far that contradicts the theory that Jacob Markinswell took his own life The facts, indeed, seem to point inescapably to that conclusion”
”What about the lack of a suicide note?”
”That, I admit, is problematic, but then suicide can often be a spur-of-the-moment decision, not premeditated-a sudden and catastrophic descent into utter despondency”
”Quite,” said Holathered from a hawthorn thicket up on Beachy Head while you were in a state of deep repose They are worsted wool, and the fibre ht, the material of Jacob Markinswell's suits, all of which were made by the same tailors, Quiller and Son of Chancery Lane”
”So?” said I ”All that indicates is that Markinsas up on Beachy Head and snagged his sleeve on a twig I would say it bolsters rather than disproves the suicide hypothesis”
”I should have specified that I found the threads inside the hawthorn thicket”
”Ah Is that important?”
”Important? My dear chap, it is crucial”
”How so?”
”In place of an explanation, allow me to treat you to a matinee” He waved the playbill ”What do you say?”
We took our seats in the stalls at the Hippodrome on Seaside Road, just in ti his usual infuriating self, in possession of the key to solving a mystery but loath to share it with anyone-even his old coation-until such time as he saw fit I itched to ask him to reveal all, but knew better than to try I would be leeful twinkle in those wise, grey eyes
I resignedthe revue, which was, in the ood in others The conjuror was i objects appear from where they could not possibly be and disappear into places they could not possibly go The spirit medium, by contrast, was dull, unable to convince that she was in contact with spectral entities from beyond the veil, her pronounceuesswork to sway any but the ullible The conjurorwas fakery The medium, in her cluenuine, caly suspended disbelief, colluding in his illusions With the latter we could not conquer our scepticisers were polished, if a tad a act, in which trained poodles were required to juh hoops and perform other tricks and stunts, descended into inadvertent farce as the animals collectively decided not to heed their master's co down on a scene of canine co to and fro in a vain atteonists and reiirl by the nae pseudonye artistry with sketch routines I have to say she was the star of the show A slip of a thing, with a delightful rounded face, she ran through a series of i than the last Onestoutly across the boards and de cake, ale and wives Next she was Milton's Lucifer, reciting a soliloquy from Paradise Lost with a mixture of terrible hubris and wounded pride She delivered an a fro to be alternately Conservative then Liberal, and showing how narrow a distinction there was between the two parties and their policies Then followed a retelling of the myth of Persephone, told from the point of view of the reluctant wife of Hades and detailing the niceties and drawbacks of domestic life as the spouse of the ruler of hell The whole thing was rounded off by a recitation of Bassanio's soliloquy fro ”Sorendition of the story of Pocahontas, featuring an aria especially coht the house down It wasn't just the speed at which she slipped between roles, passing behind a screen in one costu scant seconds later in another It was the co, the way she could transfor the person with her entire body, every gesture andsomeone else You could believe she was Henry VIII, despite her being of the fairer sex, no less than you could believe she was a fallen archangel, or a puffing popinjay parlia all to win the heart and hand of his lady, or a Red Indian chief's daughter pining for love The audience rose to their feet in approbation, and I don'tthat I joined them
Before the applause had died doith Miss Volteface still taking her bows, Holently ”Let us go backstage”
”Backstage? Why?”
Even as I said this, I had an inkling I was not always as slow on the uptake as Holmes liked to make out
We left the theatre via the e door A silver half-crown froehand as posted there as a rather lacklustre sentry In no ti rooreeted us was not the actress herself but a gruff and disagreeable man with a coarse thick beard and the rowled, fixing us both with a suspicious glare
”To pay our respects to Miss Volteface, naturally,” said Hol voice ”I aue”
”Wonderful stuff,” I enthused, not insincerely ”A remarkable turn”
”Well, you can both-” Here the man invited Holmes and me to leave the premises in an unrepeatably crude fashi+on
”Not even an autograph?” said Holood lady can spare us a moment for that”
A voice came from within, Miss Volteface's, and while I didn't catch her words, the gist was clear
The ru her makeup in the mirror, still in her Pocahontas outfit Close up, she was even e She reminded me in ent forehead, the same flash of wit and hint ofthat I were several decades younger, a single hts, but the sight of an accoirl makes fools of all men, whatever their maturity or marital status
”Miss Volteface,” said Holmes, ”may I be the first to tell you that your skill at imposture is second to none”
”You may tell me that,” replied she, winsomely, ”but you would hardly be the first”
”Oh, I think in this particular instance I am It was a remarkable feat that you pulled off up on Beachy Head the other day You put your talents to the test in a public arena, in the open air, and the results were most plausible”