The Casebook of Inspector Armstrong - Volume 3 by Martin Daley

Author:Martin Daley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sherlock holmes, mystery, crime, british crime, sherlock holmes fiction, sherlock holmes novel
ISBN: 9781787052222
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2017
Published: 2017-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

Nothing to Worry About

The murder seems to have no political connection, although it is significant that the murder occurred in the capital of one of the two states Austria annexed without any regard to the wishes of the other Great Powers of Europe. When the time comes, the death of Franz Joseph [Ferdinand’s father] will let loose or give fresh vitality to that which is now kept in check by the Emperor’s personal influence and authority, and the struggle between Russia and Germany will become keener than ever.

Cornelius Armstrong put down the Carlisle Journal on 30 th June 1914 as his housekeeper Mrs. Isabella Wheeler entered with his breakfast tray. It had been another late night at the station, after helping deal with the numerous arrests.

As Mrs. Wheeler put down the tray, her eye fell on the open newspaper.

“Oh, I was reading that earlier, sir,” she said, “poor young man, and his lovely wife as well, if you please.”

“Yes, there are some terrible people in this world I’m afraid Mrs. Wheeler,” said Cornelius.

“I don’t know what this daft world is coming to,” mumbled the housekeeper, almost to herself as she turned to leave, “thank goodness we’re kept well out of it.”

Isabella Wheeler’s view was representative of the average person in June and early July of 1914; the assassination of a man no one had heard of, more than a thousand miles away registered little as people went about their daily business. They were more interested in the national stories: Ireland, labour unrest, the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

Locally, it was the first of these issues that occupied most of Inspector Armstrong’s professional time. Not so much the political issues on the island itself but its male emigrants who had found their way to the mainland looking for work on the railways, and in the docks of Liverpool and Glasgow. The last four years had been blighted by strike action throughout Britain and Ireland, and as the industrial action affected the big cities, navvies would make their way to Carlisle to escape the trouble and find casual work locally. Irish workers came to the city in their droves, as the national and local on-again, off-again disputes seemed to continue indefinitely.

This cycle of disruption and uncertainty had caused Armstrong and his men plenty of work over the years; the citizens were finding their Irish cousins to be hard workers and even harder drinkers. The pubs of Carlisle had never had it so good as the, many railway navvies, with plenty of disposable income, sought to dispose as much of it as possible in the nearest hostelry.

The problem for Armstrong and his men was that the navvies’ reckless approach to their leisure time would invariably degenerate into drunkenness and violence. The station diary was full of incidents to that effect, particularly in Caldewgate - the Irish quarter of the city - but also in Botchergate, Wapping and Kingstown. The few cells situated at the back

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