Sherlock Holmes and the Boulevard Assassin (13 page)

‘This is the place?’ said Jupin, seeing my face.

‘I am sure of it! I do not know just what we may find,’ I added. ‘There may be some danger!’

‘Poof !
En
avant
!’

I returned to the front door. Taking a firm grip on my revolver with one hand, I rang the bell with the other. After what seemed an age, the door swung open, and I pointed my pistol at none other than my old friend Georges.

‘Hello, old chap!’ I told him.

‘Monsieur! But what – ’

‘No time for that, now,’ said I, brushing past him and entering the house. ‘Is Monsieur Constantine – or Monsieur Duclos, or whatever he may be calling himself today – is he at home, then?’

‘I regret, Monsieur, he is not. Perhaps you would care to wait, or to leave your card?’

‘Wait? I think not, Georges. No time, you understand? As for a card, well, I seem to be quite out of them. No, this – ’ and I waved my revolver at him – ‘this will have to serve as an introduction. This is Monsieur Jupin, whose reputation may be known to you. He has no card either, but he has his own revolver! Now, is there anyone in the house?’

‘No-one, Monsieur! I assure you – ’

‘No, Georges, it is I who assure you – I assure you that we are going through this house together, the three of us – with you in the lead, in case we should chance upon something unpleasant and unexpected. And I further assure you, my friend, that if I have the least cause to be suspicious of your behaviour, I shall shoot you. And if by some chance I cannot shoot you, why, then Monsieur Jupin will! Is that understood?’

‘Why, why, yes, Monsieur,’ he stammered.

‘I think we might usefully begin with the room in which Holmes – that is, my friend – and I spent so many happy hours,’ and I urged him towards the stairs.

Georges seemed to entertain grave doubts about the whole enterprise, but with the threat of my revolver and the toe of my boot alike I propelled him upstairs until we stood before the door of the room which Holmes and I had formerly occupied. The key was in the lock on the outside. ‘Is the door locked?’ I asked.

‘I do not know, Monsieur.’

‘Stand aside.’ I rattled the handle of the door, which was indeed locked. ‘Unlock it!’ I told Georges.

He did so.

‘Now open the door and go in – but be careful what you do!’

Georges timidly pushed the door open and took a step or two into the room. ‘Why – Monsieur!’ he cried, with every indication of astonishment.

I followed him inside, and was horrified to see Holmes’s inert figure lying, bound and gagged, upon the bed!

‘You villain!’ I cried at the unfortunate Georges. ‘Untie him at once! By heaven, if anything has happened – ’

‘But, Monsieur! I assure you, I know nothing of this! Monsieur Constantine, he gives me the orders, do not unlock – ’

‘Untie him, I say! This instant!’

Georges’ fingers were trembling too much to be of any use, and so Jupin untied Holmes, who sat up with some difficulty and rubbed his arms where the ropes had bitten in.

‘Monsieur Jupin! This is a pleasure! Delightful to see you, Watson!’ said he, with his old liveliness unabated. ‘I will be honest – I had all but given you up for dead!’

‘Takes more than a tap on the head to kill me, Holmes! Let’s get you out of here – we cannot say when this rogue Duclos may return with his cohorts – or his master.’

‘Duclos?’

‘Constantine Duclos, Holmes. That is his name.’ To Georges, I added, ‘You, old friend, must spend some time locked in here, I am afraid, at least until Duclos – or the police – can release you. I shall not, however, tie you up.’

‘But, Monsieur!’

‘That is to say, I shall not tie you up provided that you behave yourself!’

‘Monsieur – ’

I ignored him, and Jupin and I helped Holmes out on to the landing, locking the unfortunate Georges in the room. ‘He may indeed be innocent,’ I told Holmes, ‘but it is as well to be sure.’

‘But how on earth did you know I was here?’ Holmes wanted to know. ‘And, for that matter, how did you find the house at all? And you, Jupin, what part have you in all this?’

‘All in good time.’ I offered him my arm, but he refused, saying that he was well enough.

‘Perhaps a glass of Monsieur Duclos’s excellent cognac would not come amiss, though,’ he added. ‘And some food. I have not eaten or drunk anything since last I saw you.’

I took him into the kitchen, and set some bread and cheese before him. Whilst he began work on that, I took a quick look round the rest of the house, but it was empty – not so much as a parlourmaid could I find. I took a decanter, three glasses and a cigarette box into the kitchen.

‘Ah,’ said Holmes. ‘A cigarette! Help yourself to brandy,’ he added sardonically, as I poured generous measures.

‘I shall, Holmes, never fear! Best thing in the world for shock, you know! If you had given me up for dead, I in turn had no idea what those rogues might have done to you. Indeed, it might be as well if we did not linger too long over our brandy, for we cannot say when Duclos might come back.’

‘I think we have a few minutes,’ said Holmes thoughtfully, ‘for I gathered from what I managed to overhear that some great action is in prospect. Would to heaven that I knew what it might be, and where it is to take place!’

‘You have no idea at all?’

‘They were careful not to say too much, even with me in my helpless state. But you did not tell me how you found me.’

‘It was nothing,’ said I, with what modesty I could manage. ‘Jupin’s doing, in fact.’

‘Ah.’

‘But I have not been idle, Holmes! I found a clue when we were here last, but I did not understand its meaning until just lately. Then there was a girl – ’

‘Ahah!’

‘She led me to the truth, indirectly, Holmes! It was her name which enabled me to work out the clue, so to speak!’

‘Ah. Then everything was for the best, after all.’ Holmes looked at Jupin. ‘You look sceptical, my friend.’

‘Ah, Doctor Watson, he has some strange ideas!’

‘Well,’ said Holmes, ‘I shall insist on the full details later, of course, but the main thing now is to find this mysterious “chief”, and then to see if we cannot deduce what he and Duclos have in mind.’

‘Oh, I quite forgot! The excitement, you know! I myself am convinced that the “chief” is a man called Huret. I am certain of that, although Dubuque and Jupin have some reservations – ’

‘What!’

‘Dubuque and Jupin have some – ’

‘No! I meant, the name of this head of the gang! Huret, you say?’

‘I am certain of it, Holmes.’

‘But how on earth – ’

‘His crest was on a note – a bit of paper, I should say – that I found in the room upstairs. The rest of the note was gone, so I attached no real importance to it.’

Holmes subsided. ‘And you have tried Duclos’s tailor, then? His wine merchant?’ he asked with heavy sarcasm.

‘Holmes?’

‘A note! Part of a note, rather! It is surely a slender clue, Watson! Part of a note from this man Huret to Duclos! If the note had been there, and if it had been incriminating – then, of course – ’

‘You are right,
mon
ami
!’ said Jupin, delighted. ‘I tell the doctor here, no, you are mistaken. Dubuque, he has said the same thing!’

Holmes looked hard at me.

‘Nevertheless, Holmes,’ said I, reluctant as always to abandon my own theory, ‘this Huret knows Duclos! At the very least, he is what Lestrade would call “an associate of known criminals”. If Huret’s butler had been more forthcoming, I am confident I should have made more progress! Still, as things turned out, our friend Jupin here found me, and brought me to you.’

‘And very glad I am that you are here, my dear fellow!’

‘What next, Holmes? It seems to me that we have not got very far after all.’

‘Well, at least I am untied, Watson, so I should have said that you did excellently, old friend!’

I mumbled something appropriate in response to this unaccustomed compliment.

‘For the rest,’ Holmes went on, ‘I agree that we appear to have little enough to work with. We know that something is happening, and this very day – but we do not know what or where. On the credit side, however, we are at liberty – ’

‘And armed,’ said I, showing him my revolver.

‘ – and armed, and we have the run of Duclos’s house, for I do not think there is anyone here save old Georges.’

‘Yes! We must search the place!’

Holmes nodded, and got up. ‘We must.’

Search the place we did, but with only mixed success. There was nothing that might be called incriminating, or even mildly suspicious. Even in a room which Duclos evidently used as a study, there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, in the study we did find several letters – all innocuous, invitations and the like – addressed to a ‘Monsieur Constantine Duclos’.

Holmes nodded at Jupin. ‘He called himself “Monsieur Constantine”.’

‘And “Constantine” is indeed his first name. Simple, but effective, is it not?’

‘Indeed.’

‘One thing bothers me, though, Holmes,’ said I. ‘I can see why there is nothing here that might tie him to the gang, that is clear enough, he wants to keep up the façade of respectability.’

‘And he has succeeded – and would still succeed, Watson. We have found nothing here; Dubuque, were he to search, would find nothing.’

I nodded. ‘That is all very well, Holmes. But then why did this – Duclos, as we now know him to be – why did he risk giving the whole game away by bringing us, two anarchists, for all he knew, back here?’

‘Ah, but then he was flustered, Watson! He had just seen me kill three policemen, you remember! He might, it is true, have taken us to the
bistro
, the regular meeting place, but it was evening, Jean-Paul and the rest would not be there. No, this Monsieur Constantine Duclos decided to hide us here, thinking that we would be gone next day – as we were – and that we could never discover his real identity. And he was almost right – but he had not reckoned with Doctor John H Watson! Or with Monsieur Arsène Jupin!’

Two compliments in one day! I was so staggered that I was obliged to take another glass of brandy. ‘We might question Georges,’ I said.

‘Oh, I think that would be pointless. Georges is a servant of the old school, trained to turn a blind eye to his master’s little secrets and indiscretions. You could interrogate him for a week without learning anything of any value.’

‘You may be right, Holmes, but it is surely worth – ’ and I broke off as there was a loud knocking at the front door. I looked at Holmes. ‘Duclos?’

‘It may be. Are you ready?’

I nodded, and took out my pistol. We made our way to the door, and Holmes looked a question at Jupin, then at me.

We nodded, and Holmes pulled the door open. There stood Dubuque, with a couple of uniformed
gendarmes
.

Dubuque looked at me, then at Holmes, and finally at Jupin. ‘I had expected to find Doctor Watson here,’ said he, ‘but to find Monsieur Holmes as well – that is an unexpected pleasure! And – of all people – Monsieur Arsène Jupin!’

‘Dubuque!’ said I. ‘How did you find us?’

‘I returned to the apartment with my news, but you were not there. I think, where can he be? Monsieur Holmes, Doctor Watson, they are not the only ones who can reason things out,
n’est
-
ce
pas
? Dubuque, he too can make the deductions. I say to myself, the Doctor has promised not to go to Monsieur Huret’s house, he has sworn not to disturb Monsieur Huret, so that is undoubtedly what he plans to do!’

‘I don’t see – ’ I began.

Dubuque waved this aside. ‘Very well! I go to Monsieur Huret’s house. I see the butler – has a man of such-and-such a description been there? Of course, Monsieur, but he has left! I think furiously,
mes
amis
! Tell me, I ask the butler, does Monsieur Huret perhaps know another gentleman, a Monsieur Constantine? He looks at me. He frowns. Does Monsieur perhaps mean Monsieur Constantine Duclos? All is clear! I think – Constantine Duclos! Constantine! The mysterious Constantine, at long last! I tell you, my friends, I had my doubts as to this Constantine’s very existence, but now I believe everything! I ask the butler – the address? He tells me, and I come here at once.’

‘Well,’ said Holmes, ‘I am delighted to see you. Watson here has told me something of what has happened, although I must confess I am not absolutely clear as to all the finer details. But I understand that Watson has a suspicion that this man Huret is somehow involved. We must do two things, I think. First, we must set men here to wait for this Constantine Duclos, for we know for a fact that he is involved – these men of yours can do that, Dubuque. And second, the four of us must return to Huret’s house at once and confront him, get him to give some account of himself.’

‘I regret, Monsieur Holmes, that that will be impossible,’ said Dubuque, with some evident embarrassment.