Sherlock Holmes 03 Adventures Beyond the Canon by David Marcum

Author:David Marcum [Marcum, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Belanger Books
Published: 2018-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

A Ghost from the Past

by Nick Cardillo

The case of “The Illustrious Client”

resonates with new implications . . . .

During the innumerable occasions in which I have picked up my pen to chronicle one of the adventures of the great detective, my friend and colleague, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have never seen occasion to make public the reasons for my friend’s sudden retirement from professional life. There were those at the time who considered my friend’s decision to give up work as a detective and retire to the countryside as an odd one. He was, after all, rather young to be settling into a tranquil existence on the Sussex Downs, and his decision could not have conflicted with his zealous nature more. I alone knew of the reasons which prompted his action, and I now have taken it upon myself to make a record of those events – truly one of the darkest hours which Sherlock Holmes and I ever saw together.

My marriage in 1902 took me away once more from 221b Baker Street and by extension my friend and colleague, at whose side I had the opportunity to witness firsthand mental acuity truly unrivaled in any other human being. However, there came a distance between the two of us when I took up residence in Queen Anne Street and re-opened my practice, and I do believe that there were times in those days when Holmes ambled about his rooms by himself and quietly resented my actions. I did my utmost to quell these feelings within him, and on the occasions when I did stop in at Baker Street, I found my friend in singularly good spirits.

It was one evening in the autumn of ‘03, and I had read of my friend’s involvement in no less than four high-profile investigations. I decided one evening, after finding a particularly heavy rain inhibiting most of my patients to venture out-of-doors, that I might shut up my surgery early and pay a visit to Sherlock Holmes. Doing so, I found the deluge had halted all traffic and my journey across the city became an arduous one. I didn’t arrive on my old, familiar doorstep until day had given way to night. I let myself in with my old key which I still habitually kept on my person, and was surprised to find that Mrs. Hudson was not to be found in her kitchen. I mounted the seventeen steps to our old rooms and, easing open the door, found Sherlock Holmes totally absorbed in work at his chemical apparatus. Catching sight of me, he leapt from his seat and clapped me heartily upon the shoulder.

“It does me good to see you, Watson,” Holmes said as he motioned for me to take my old seat before the fire just as I had done in the days of old.

“And I you,” I replied. I gestured towards his workbench. “You have been keeping yourself occupied?”

“I daresay that I would have been unpleasant company this day,” Holmes replied. “I

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