Consulting Detective Vol 1 by Ron Fortier (ed)

Author:Ron Fortier (ed)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: anthology, detective, illus, mystery, Sherlock Holmes, victoriana
ISBN: 9780615963761
Publisher: Airship 27
Published: 2014-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

“Is there any way we might get word to your brother?” opening them. He was not long for this world.

“What will happen?” he said at last.

“Why, nothing. Nothing at all.” Holmes replied, placing a hand on

the man’s bony shoulder. “A crime of murder has been committed and someone has paid for it. Justice is served all around.” “You- you would do this for us? After I called you here to gloat with my last breath on how we had beaten the great Sherlock Holmes!”

“No. Watson and I will remain silent because you loved your mother and there was no one to come to her aid in her desperate hour of need. God speed, Everett Hopkins.”

We left him then and back in the cab we discussed the extraordinary events of the morning.

“If I may be so bold, Holmes. You mentioned your suppositions to the condemned, but how did you know Lucius Hopkins still lived?”

“I shall answer your question with some of my own. We came late to this affair, did we not?”

“We did.”

“The police investigation had been stymied?”

“It had.”

“Then why was Everett Hopkins still hidden away? He’d had ample time and opportunity to flee after the initial uproar had died down. Yet he spent his last weeks in a lavish drawing room under the river. Why is that?”

“I cannot hazard a guess.”

“As a consumptive, what did Hopkins have to look forward to?”

“A slow cessation of breath in a sick bed or hospital ward,” I replied.

“Would these accommodations be equal to the lair in which we discovered him?”

“Hardly.”

“There you have it, Watson. It was understood between the two brothers from the beginning that Lucius would commit the crimes and the terminally ill Everett would face justice for them. To that end he was provided palatial accommodations where he had only wait to be discovered while wanting for nothing in his last days. The rest was all smoke and mirrors. His feeble attempt at flight when we’d caught him was orchestrated to cement his guilt in order for his brother to go free. Douglas Gavin’s reluctant help was a ruse, but the best kind of ruse because it contained an element of truth. His part in the affair was to lead whoever came close to reasoning out the matter to his master. As he cares deeply for Hopkins, his hesitant Judas act came across as a reluctance to implicate his master and was utterly convincing. For my part, I was the final instrument in which the master plan was carried out. Everett Hopkins aimed my intellect at his breast as one would aim a pistol. And the plan succeeded. That is what he brought us to Newgate to witness. Everett has been convicted and Lucius is a free man. I must confess that this Lucius Hopkins strikes me as a fascinating fellow and I confess to some curiosity concerning his past actions. Perhaps our paths will cross one day. There is still the murder of the lamp-lighter he must answer for.”

“Well, Everett Hopkins has beaten the hangman’s noose,” I offered.

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