Sherlock Holmes and the Lyme Regis Trials by David Ruffle

Author:David Ruffle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sherlock Holmes, mystery, crime, british crime, sherlock holmes novels, sherlock holmes fiction, sherlock holmes short fiction, lyme regis, lyme regis trilogy, lyme regis horror, lyme regis legacy
ISBN: 9781780923208
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The news of the attack on John Legg which had filtered down the whole length and breadth of the town had obviously now come to the attention of Holmes for he arrived at Jacobs’s Monmouth Street house and surgery just some twenty minutes after Miss Beth Markey’s arrival. He neither disturbed Miss Markey’s vigil nor examined Legg, but took me to one side in order to listen to my account of how we found the constable.

Succinctly as I could I apprised Holmes of the afternoon’s events leading up to the discovery of the unfortunate man and the nature of his injuries.

“Have you questioned him as regards the attack?”

“He is no state to be questioned nor will he be for some while yet I fear. Sergeant Street has asked Josey Farmer what she remembers about the man who gave her the message, but to no avail, she barely seems to have noticed him at all. I did find these at the scene of the crime,” I said, and handed Holmes the cigarette ends I had gathered up.

Holmes took these over to the light and examined them closely, pausing only to bring each one to his hawk-like nose. Satisfied with whatever these remnants had told him, he promptly threw them on the floor. I duly picked them up not wishing to incur the wrath of Sarah Jacobs who I reckoned would not take to kindly to having her floor used as some kind of receptacle for the detritus of Holmes’s evidence. I knew Holmes had made a special study of cigar ash, tobacco and cigarettes, indeed he had written a monograph upon the subject so I was tolerably sure that these fragments had yielded something of their origin to his trained eye.

“What do they tell you?”

“The brand of cigarette is one that goes by the name of, ‘ Wincanton ’ for it was in that town that it originated. The banding and

flavour is quite distinct. Its distribution is not nationwide however and tends to be confined to an area spanning the east of Devon, through Dorset to Wiltshire. It is perhaps an acquired taste rather like the area’s cider!”

“Can you deduce anything regarding the smoker?”

“If I was truly a wizard that your readers may imagine me to be after devouring your embellished tales all these years, then I would no doubt be able to furnish you with the man’s age, his height, his weight, his shoe size and more importantly, his whereabouts. Alas, I can do none of those things except tell you that he uses ‘Parisienne’ cologne which is hardly a surprise to either one of us.”

Holmes swept into the surgery proper and with a cursory glance at Miss Markey, he proceeded to spread out Legg’s clothes on the floor and ran his fingers through the pockets and folds of his uniform.

“What have we here?” he cried to himself as he withdrew a slip of paper which had been in the inner pocket of Legg’s jacket.

“Why don’t you bring it

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.