Sherlock Holmes Never Dies - Collection Five: New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries - Second Edition by Copland Craig Stephen

Author:Copland, Craig Stephen [Copland, Craig Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

The Data of the Case

AT THREE O’CLOCK on the Wednesday afternoon, I met Holmes on the platform of Victoria Station. The ride down to Sussex was a pleasant one, through small farms, grand estates, and the stretch of forest south of Crawley. Holmes was carrying a valise that I assumed was stuffed with his ‘data’ and I brought along a copy of Dickens’s collected ghost stories, which I considered quite condign for this adventure.

For the first hour, while daylight permitted, both of us read in silence. It being the final days of November, the sun set early and soon we were compelled to lay down our reading materials. I took advantage of the situation to engage my friend in conversation.

“Very well, Holmes. Yet another penny for your thoughts. What were you able to discover?”

He offered a quick, forced smiled and leaned back in his chair.

“I made quite successful visits to both Scotland Yard and The Times to inspect their files, to the Doctors’ Commons to review past wills of the Musgrave family, and to the West End theater district.”

The first three made sense; the last one not at all.

“The theaters?” I asked. “What was their possible connection?”

“You may recall, my friend, that in the first story you wrote concerning my investigations, the long and overly dramatic one you called A Study in Scarlet, that in your generous but exaggerated way you told your readers that the stage lost a fine actor when I became a specialist in crime.”

“I do indeed recall that.”

“That was very kind of you even if well beyond the bounds of accuracy but there was a short period of time when, as a young man, I turned my mind to strutting and fretting my hour upon the stage. Doing so bequeathed to me a very valuable knowledge of theatrical makeup and disguises as well as a few friendly acquaintances with whom I keep in contact from time to time. Like all actors, these chaps are excessively dramatic in their behavior and interests both on and off the stage and are quite thrilled when I ask them to assist in what appears to be a nefarious and juicy criminal case, as our present one most certainly is. They are all the more eager when I swear them to secrecy, knowing full well that they will not allow an hour to pass after our conversation before rushing to discuss the matter, in strictest confidence, of course, with the first colleague they encounter. And so, since our Uncle Rochester claimed to have spent the past three decades working in the theater, I sought to verify his account and get that item off my list of matters to be confirmed.”

“Really, Holmes. I would have thought you considered him rather trustworthy, given our Dickensian tests for proof of character.”

“He did indeed, but I have learned to follow the advice given recently by an American chap in Chicago who succinctly reminded us to “Trust, but cut the cards.” And so I asked my acquaintances if they knew of this fellow and if his account was factual.

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