Sherlock Holmes 01 and the Baker Street Dozen: A Collection of Thirteen Short Stories by Val Andrews

Author:Val Andrews [Andrews, Val]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780947533410
Google: 7YcMAAAACAAJ
Publisher: Breese Books
Published: 1997-12-14T22:00:00+00:00

The South Downs Railway Mystery

‘Just down your street, Mr Holmes, a mystery concerning an enigmatic written message and some numbers written upon the back of a postal card.’

Inspector Lestrade dropped the postcard onto the breakfast table of my friend Mr Sherlock Holmes. He was an early visitor although the breakfast had been dealt with and cleared away by the bustling Mrs Hudson. Holmes poured some steaming coffee into an extra cup, which the good lady had thoughtfully supplied, and passed it to our colleague, saying, ‘Suppose you tell us the whole story, my dear Lestrade, before you tax me with the message on the postcard. It is early, early enough so that caffeine and nicotine have not yet sent their tiny darts into my grey matter; at least not to the required degree.’

Lestrade grunted, ‘It is nine and forty, with half the day gone already, but then I know you have strange habits. As you suggest I will start at the beginning. We have in custody a certain Ronald Carstairs, suspected of having taken the Carradine jewels, the theft of which you are doubtless aware.’

Holmes nodded. ‘Of course, and I am also familiar with the background of safecracker Carstairs. You are reasonably certain that you have your right man?’

Lestrade took out his cigarette case and as it was filled with Turkish cigarettes we forsook our pipes for once and we each accepted one. Lestrade lit a vesta from which he and Holmes lit up, leaving me to find my own matches. This was not through any kind of thoughtlessness upon Lestrade’s part; he knew that I observed the army superstition concerning three from one match. He replied to Holmes’s question, ‘Reasonably certain? Why, I am positively so! Not only did the job have all the hallmarks of his style but he could not account for his movements for the time in question. All we can do is hold him for a few days more until we can hopefully prove something against him. I have bullied and pleaded in turn but he will say nothing. There is no loot to be found at his address but he was about to post the card when we arrested him. We believe, my colleagues and I, that the message on the card refers, possibly through a code, to the place where the jewels are secreted.’

At length Holmes studied the card, then asked, ‘Has Carstairs made comment upon the card?’

Lestrade replied, ‘Says that it is just a message to a friend concerning a bet on a horse race. We are also holding the man to whom the card is addressed but, as you can imagine, we will be able to hold him for an even shorter period than we can Carstairs.’

Holmes remarked, ‘Take care, Lestrade, that you keep both of them apart in case the message should be given verbally and the second man slips through your fingers.’

The inspector grunted, ‘We are not quite idiots you know, that’s why we are holding them in different institutions.

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