The Adair Murders by Anna Elliott & Charles Veley

Author:Anna Elliott & Charles Veley [Elliott, Anna & Veley, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wilton Press
Published: 2023-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Watson

Sunday, November 4

“I still don’t know why we’re haring around like this,” said Lady Adair.

She sat inside the Adair’s carriage, calling out through the open window, muffled with a coach rug against the cold. Holmes was up on the driver’s box, guiding the horse. I sat beside him.

We had arrived at Fanshaw from London before noon, and had urged Lady Helen to remain in the Hall. But she would have none of it. She had said, with a twinkle in her eye, that she didn’t want to miss the chance to see Sherlock Holmes in action.

“I believe something will suggest itself,” Holmes replied.

Our mission, he had said, was to recreate the circumstances of the triple murder, by driving to the railway station and returning just as the Earl and his wife would have done when their train arrived at 5:05 PM. However, Holmes had consulted his almanack, and determined the precise time when we should leave the railway station in order to maintain the same lighting conditions as had pertained on 23rd October, the day of the murders.

The time the light would be the same at the station today, Holmes had said, was 4:55 PM, thirty minutes after our sunset.

Holmes had his watch with him. My own watch gave the time as 4:20, and the sun would set, as the almanack had predicted, at 4:25. We had thirty-five minutes until we needed to reach the station and set out on our return journey.

The horse took us slowly away from the Fanshaw carriage barn and onto the circular gravel drive that marked the entrance to the Dower House.

Lady Helen’s voice came from inside the carriage. “The bodies were here.”

Holmes stopped the carriage. “You observed them, Lady Helen?”

“I did. Directly here, in the southwest quadrant of the drive.”

Which tallied with the police report, I recalled.

Holmes drove the horse once more around the circle. Then we moved onto the long straight track that led to the outside gate of the estate. We made slow, steady progress. We reached the gate. I climbed down from my seat beside Holmes and swung the gate open. Ahead of us lay another long straight road, this one darker due to the tall yew-trees on either side. The road, I knew, extended to the main village road and the railway station.

“This is your land, Lady Helen?” Holmes asked.

“Our private roadway. The land is public land, so we do not have to pay taxes, thank God. But we have easement privileges. No one else uses it unless to come to the hall.”

We resumed our ride.

The sun’s rays shone golden through the trees, dappling the yew-limbs on our left with their light, and also shining onto the rough dirt road, casting long shadows onto the rocks and furrows. I saw the orange-red ball transform itself into a half-circle. Finally it was obscured beneath the horizon. The dusk would come soon, I knew.

We had gone only a few yards more when our horse seemed to stumble. It crouched down, then leaped up and forwards, straining against its harness.

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