The Feats of Sherlock Holmes by Nick Cardillo

Author:Nick Cardillo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sherlock holmes, mystery, crime, british crime, sherlock holmes fiction, sherlock holmes novel, sherlock holmes short fiction
ISBN: 9781787053885
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2018-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

The Problem of the Slashed Portrait

“Perhaps a doctor’s opinion would be a viewpoint worth taking into account.”

I stirred from the brown study into which I had fallen as I gazed out the rain-streaked bow window into the street which was conspicuously free of both foot traffic and carriages; most of London seeming to have taken refuge indoors and out of the tumult outside. Sherlock Holmes’s voice had broken the silence which had fallen over the both of us for the better part of an hour, and I turned to him where he sat at his chemical workbench, the latest post near at hand.

“I would, of course, be happy to assist you with anything which may be on your mind,” I said.

Holmes tossed across an opened envelope. “That letter has come from Mr. Thomas Fraser,” he said, “the junior partner in the firm of Moorland and Fraser. The name will doubtlessly strike your ear as a familiar one?”

I nodded in the affirmative.

“He writes to me fearing for the sanity of his wife, Lucy Fraser.”

Holmes stood from his seat and moved to his usual chair before the fire, reaching for his pipe and proceeding to fill it with tobacco from the toe of the Persian slipper which sat perched on the end of the mantelpiece.

“What has she done that prompts concern from Mr. Fraser,” I asked.

Holmes struck a match and settled into his armchair. “Mrs. Fraser has taken a knife to a recently completed portrait of herself.”

I arched an eyebrow in some surprise as Holmes blew a ring of bluish smoke about his head.

“Mr. Fraser writes about the whole ordeal in his letter,” he said, “but let me save you the trouble of reading his correspondence for the time being. I’ll go through the thing myself; see what details I can recall from memory before he arrives here to keep us up-to-date. Now then, I suppose I ought to begin with the Frasers. From what I understand - my finger is hardly on the pulse of such matters - the couple is the envy of high society. They are both in their early thirties and are happily married. Blight came to their marriage only very recently when Lucy was diagnosed with an anemic wasting disease which has confined her to her bed for some months.

“As to the portrait, it was being painted by Mr. Neville Devlin whose reputation precedes him in certain circles. He’s a well-regarded artist, of the variety who caters to the elite, though somewhat derided for his Bohemian eccentricities - eccentricities which are no doubt no more unconventional than the majority of artists working in London, but warranting raised eyebrows and flared nostrils from the ruling class nevertheless. Devlin’s studio is situated on the top floor of a building on The Strand and, despite her weakness, Mrs. Fraser always insisted on traveling there for her sittings while he painted her portrait.

“The incident which incited Fraser’s writing to me occurred yesterday morning. For some weeks, Lucy Fraser’s condition has been deteriorating and she has grown feebler by the day.

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