Repeat Business by Lyn McConchie

Author:Lyn McConchie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sherlock Holmes, Elementary, mystery, British, Sherlock
ISBN: 9781434442642
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2014-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

A LIE ONCE TOLD

Holmes and I were sitting rather late over the breakfast table in the opening weeks of what I feared was to be a particularly long and cold winter, when he spoke. I had been sitting thinking, and so in tune with my thoughts were his comments that at first they made no impression upon me, but instead I merely replied absent-mindedly and returned to my thoughts before registering his words.

“Yes, I fear a number of doctors will lose elderly patients from amongst the poorer people.”

I nodded. “I saw Mr. Jackson Benfell late last night to treat another bout of his bronchitis, and he is no better and not like to be. How indeed should he improve? His room is icy and he can afford little fuel to keep it warmer, so that I fear he may not survive this winter.”

“You did not charge him a fee then?”

“How can I?” I said in a sort of despair, my mind still on the old man who coughed his life away in two tiny rooms. “He is nigh on eighty, has no family to support him, and all his income is only a tiny pension from the railway. He can afford food or fuel, but not enough of both, and in that case it is the fire that loses out. A fine thing it would be if paying the doctor shortens his life still further, for the money he gives me cannot be used to buy the fuel he needs for his fire.”

I looked up to see Holmes regarding me kindly. “We do not always treat our old folk well in this country, perhaps, Watson; but still we do better than in many other lands.”

“I know, but as a doctor there are times when it is a hard thing for me to see.” I suddenly recalled the beginning of this conversation and gave a start. “Holmes, you have been following the train of my thoughts again.”

“Really, my dear fellow, it was not so difficult. You sat staring fixedly at the window, then you shivered. This room is warm, so that your shiver was not caused by the cold. But outside the snow is falling again and I believed I knew the direction of your thoughts. My belief was confirmed when you next stared at the calendar that shows a winter scene. You glanced at the picture of your father, and immediately thereafter turned your gaze towards the advertisement that arrived in yesterday’s post. That is from our local undertaker, and I could see you reflecting that in this weather his business would be doing well. You nodded twice to yourself as you looked at it, agreeing with your own thoughts and fears.”

I smiled. “It is always so simple when you explain it.”

“It is for that reason that I infinitely prefer not to explain,” Holmes said dryly.

I was about to speak again on the subject when I heard sounds and turned towards the door. “Is that—?”

“Yes, Watson. I think we are about to have a visitor.

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