The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures (30 page)

“I bit my tongue and began the arduous business of going through the records of tickets sold during the relevant period. Needless to say, I discovered nothing – as if, I told myself, the brothers would have booked tickets under their own names!”

“I returned to the unfriendly clerk and requested to see the manager. The woman looked up and smiled at me. ‘I am the manager, Mr Holmes,’ said she.”

“In that case I would like to ask you a few questions, Madam.”

“For the next ten minutes I managed to extract answers from this impertinent soul – an operation as onerous as attempting to draw blood from a stone. For my pains, I learned that the brothers had not bought tickets from the Madras Line since the Christmas before, when they had taken their customary week’s holiday with friends in India.”

“I thanked the manager for her estimable courtesy and stepped out into the street.”

“I was about to return to the waiting trap, with little accomplished, when I noticed across the street the boarded up windows of a building upon which a faded, painted sign advertised passenger ships to various destinations around the Indian sub-continent and Malaya.”

“I entered the shop next door, a bicycle repair establishment, and asked how long the shipping office had been closed. The owner considered and duly answered that the business had gone into liquidation six months earlier.”

“Do you have any idea as to the whereabouts of its erstwhile manager?” I asked.

“ ‘He is working as the deputy-manager at the Post Office,’ I was told, and to these venerable premises I duly made my way.

“There, an ancient Tamil identified himself as the one-time proprietor of the shipping office. He proceeded to regale me with a catalogue of his mercantile misfortunes, until I could redirect his conversation towards more germane matters.”

“I would surely have recalled if either of the Atkinsons had bought a ticket,” he said, “especially in light of subsequent events.”

“As I suspected,” I murmured to myself. “Thank you for your time.”

“However,” he went on. “I do recall an occasion when someone from the Atkinsons’ estate purchased two one-way tickets for Calcutta. I thought nothing of it at the time, though since I have wondered if it were at all relevant …”

“Can you describe this person?” I asked.

“He shook his head with an affect of great sadness. ‘I am an old man, and my memory for faces fails me … However, I do recall that it was a young Sinhalese, and I wondered at the time now an estate worker might come by funds enough to purchase two such tickets.’ ”

“Can you recall the departure date of these tickets?” I asked.

“Now let me think,” said the old man, rubbing his bristled chin. “Perhaps, if my memory serves me, around the middle of February.”

“The middle of February, I mused: just two weeks after the disappearance of the brothers Atkinson.”

“I thanked this veritable sage for his information and made my way to the waiting trap, confident that at last my enquiries were bearing fruit.”

“More news awaited me upon my return to the estate. It was late afternoon and Trevor was seated upon the verandah with the first drink of the day at his elbow. ‘Will you join me in a sundowner, Holmes?’ said he. He despatched a boy with orders to fetch a second drink. “And how went your inquiries?’ ”

“ ‘As well, if not better, than expected.’ I told him about the tickets purchased by the worker from this very estate.”

“ ‘In that case the affair is solved!’ Trevor cried. ‘The brothers left upon the boat bound for Calcutta!’ ”

“I rather think not,” said I. “You see, Sergeant Mortimer had men checking all the ships leaving the island for two weeks after their disappearance.”

“Then what the deuce became of them?”

“We sat in silence for some minutes before Trevor recalled that he had news to impart. ‘By the way, Holmes, you’ll be glad to learn that the Anya girl gave birth at noon today. Mother and child fit and well. A little boy, so I’m told.’ ”

“I lowered my drink. ‘I would like to pay them another visit,’ I said.”

“Trevor stared at me. ‘I didn’t have you down as a sentimental type, Holmes!’ he laughed.”

“ ‘I assure you that my interest is purely professional,’ I said. ‘I suggest that we make haste.’ ”

Trevor eyed me dubiously. “Very well, Holmes. If you insist.”

“He called the boy to ready the trap, and five minutes later we were rolling down the hillside towards the hospital bungalow.’ ’

“I took the opportunity to broach a rather delicate issue. ‘Trevor,’ said I, as my friend manhandled the reins and we rounded a sharp bend. ‘I learned today that the brothers were in debt, and moreover were rather partial to an occasional flutter.” ’

“I recalled my friend’s reaction, the day before, when I observed that their card games involved the exchange of money. ‘I put it to you that you played the brothers at cards for more than mere pennies.’ ”

“Trevor stiffened. He would not even glance at me. ‘You’re right, Holmes. I should have known better than to hope you might not find out …’ ”

“How much did you win from them over the course of your encounters?”

“Trevor huffed and puffed for some time, before muttering, ‘Some £500, all told.’ ”

“Very well. That is all I wished to know. You obviously had an agreement, and after all the game was conducted between gentlemen.”

“We continued the ride in uneasy silence. In due course we arrived at the hospital and hurried inside. The elderly doctor showed us to Anya’s bed, beside which was a crib bearing the newborn baby.”

“One glance at the infant was sufficient to confirm my suspicions. Beside me, Trevor gasped. ‘Good God, man! I never thought …’ ”

“The sleeping child had skin a tone lighter than his mother’s, though that was not the clincher. The boy also possessed a fine head of luxuriant blond curls.”

“From the bed, Anya was staring at us, tears falling from her massive eyes.”

“ ‘Bruce,’ I asked her, ‘or William?’ ”

“It was some minutes before she could master her emotions and bring herself to reply. ‘Young master William,’ she said. ‘We were in love. He promised that when our baby was born, we would go away, far from here, and start a new life together.’ ”

“She broke down in another fit of tears, and I glanced at Trevor.”

‘But does this have any bearing on their whereabouts?’ he asked.

“ ‘I think perhaps it might.’ I turned to the young girl. ‘I take it, Anya, that you conducted your affair with William elsewhere than the house?’ ”

“She nodded, sobbing. At last she said, ‘We met every second day, at six, at the bungalow on MacPherson’s Hill.’ ”

“ ‘To MacPherson’s Hill at once!’ I said to Trevor.”

“Anya grabbed my arm. ‘William, Mr Holmes! Do you think … ?’ ”

“I feared the worst, but of course did not inform her. ‘We can but hope and pray,’ I told her without conviction.”

“We lost no time and hurried from the hospital. Trevor drove us at breakneck speed across the estate, each passing minute taking us higher and higher into the green-clad hills.”

“ ‘I wish you’d tell me what you fear and suspect, Holmes!’ he cried. ‘I am almost beside myself with worry!’ ”

“ ‘I cannot be certain,’ I told him, ‘but I rather think that all is far from well.’ ”

“We came upon a rise, and Trevor indicated a small timber bungalow situated a hundred yards further along the ridge. He whipped the horse to greater speed and seconds later we careered to a halt outside the bungalow. We jumped down and made our way into the building.”

“I looked about the tiny sitting room, while Trevor reconnoitred the adjacent sleeping chamber. ‘Holmes!’ came the sudden cry.”

“I hurried into the bedroom and beheld, placed upon the counterpane in the centre of the bed, a hastily scrawled note.”

“I picked up the note and read it. ‘Much as I supposed,’ I said to myself, passing Trevor the paper.”

“He read aloud: My Dear Anya – make haste to Master Trevor with this note. Trevor – for Godsake help us! We were taken by bandits three mornings back. They hold us in the hills, demanding a ransom of some £500, to be left beside the well on Chatterjee Hill. If constables are present, they threaten to kill us. Trevor, I implore you – pay the ranson and we will reimburse you in due course. Please look after Anya until our release.’ ”

“Signed, William and Bruce Atkinson.”

“ ‘But of course,’ said I, ‘the day after the brothers disappeared, Anya fell ill and could not make the usual rendezvous.’ ”

“ ‘Good God, man,’ Trevor cried. ‘What tragedy. They might lie dead with their throats cut as we speak. But what now? Do I go ahead and deliver the ransom?’ ”

“ ‘I rather think that it is too late in the day for that,’ I said.”

“The kidnappers have despatched them already?”

“I refrained from answering him, but strode outside and climbed into the trap. Trevor rushed after me.”

“I said, ‘You mentioned yesterday that six months ago, shortly after the brothers disappeared, you locked the outbuildings on the eastern fringes of the estate – ’ ”

“This I did. But I hardly see …”

“Get your men to open every one and search them thoroughly. Time is of the essence.”

“We returned to the house, and Trevor ordered his men to do as I willed. He distributed keys, and we once again boarded the trap and made for the eastern sector.”

“Fifteen minutes later we heard a cry from a native worker not 200 yards distant. He was standing with a crowd of other men outside the open double-doors of a storage shed. They stared into the dark interior, seemingly too fearful to enter.”

“We hurried across and approached the shed, and the noisome stench that assailed my nostrils confirmed my gravest fears. Covering our lower faces with ‘kerchiefs, we cautiously entered the storage shed.”

“Two bodies, dressed in tropical garb, were sprawled out across the floor. The heat of the shed had advanced their decay past the point of easy recognition. Trevor gagged and retched and hurried outside.”

“ ‘I swear,’ he said at last, ‘I swear to bring to justice the dogs responsible for this!’ ”

“ ‘Look no farther than the two men lying dead,’ said I.”

“ ‘What!’ he cried.”

“Trevor, my friend –
there were never any kidnappers,
except in the wily imaginings of the brothers’ minds. This is indeed a tragic business.”

“ ‘Do you mean to say …’ he gestured at the corpses of his erstwhile friends, speechless.”

“ ‘They manufactured the whole sorry business, Trevor,” I said. ‘They had gambling debts; their estate was failing … they took the cowards” way out and came up with this disastrous plan to extract from you the £5,000. Of course they would never have reimbursed you – they planned to take the money and leave behind them their debts and the failed estate, leave in disguise by the ship to Calcutta and start a new life with their criminal gains. Of course, they were thwarted by ill-luck: they were not to know that Anya would fall ill, or that you would happen by this shed and inadvertently lock them inside. These buildings are sturdy constructs; they had no hope of escape.’ ”

“ ‘Good God,’ Trevor cried, stricken. ‘Their cries! Those banshee wails reported by the workers …’ ”

“ ‘It was this detail that made me suspicious,’ said I. ‘I am a man of science, Trevor – I have no truck with ghosts and ghouls and such. Taken together with all the other small details of this case, the brothers’ gambling debts, the failing estate, the tickets booked for Calcutta, and Anya’s unforeseen illness … I began to see what tragedy might have occurred.’ ”

“I left him pondering these terrible circumstances and made my way to the trap. At length Trevor hurried after me. ‘But one thing puzzles me,’ said he. ‘You said that two tickets were booked for Calcutta – and yet Anya says that William promised that together they would head for India to start a new life …’ ”

“I paused in the process of climbing into the trap, and stared Trevor directly in the eye.”

“ ‘There are two scenarios we can deduce from the facts as we know them,” I said. “One, that William would indeed honour his professed love for Anya: once they had picked up the ransom money, Bruce would leave the island by some other means, and William would spirit Anya off to India – ’ ”

“And the other?”

“ ‘The other,’ I said, ‘is that William and Bruce were not the gentlemen you assumed; that they booked tickets for the two of them and planned to leave Anya here while they escaped with your £5,000.’ ”

“ ‘And which’, asked Trevor, ‘do you suppose is the truth?’ ”

“I made a hopeless gesture. ‘I would like to think, for Anya’s peace of mind, that William intended to take her with him …’ ”

“Trevor stared into the heavens, his countenance racked by anguish. ‘Whichever,’ said he, ‘the company cannot have the truth of the matter spread far and wide! Why, the scandal … You must promise me, Holmes, that your lips are sealed.’ ”

“ ‘My friend,’ said I, ‘you have my assurance that I will breathe a word of the matter to no one.’ ”

Mr Sherlock Holmes paused to refill his pipe. “There the matter ended,” said he. “And, but for this letter, the details of the case might never have been known.”

“What did Trevor tell the company?”

Holmes inclined his aquiline head. “I advised him to destroy the spurious ransom note, and concoct a tale whereby the brothers went one morning to check the storage shed, were bitten by a snake or somesuch, and succumbed before they might summon help. Their bodies were accidentally locked in the shed and thus the tragedy went undiscovered for six long months.”

“And what became of Anya?” I enquired.

“Ever the romantic, Watson!” Holmes smiled at me. “When I returned in ‘94, Anya was working for Trevor on his estate, and her son was a fit and healthy six year old. I even, you will be astonished to learn, left a certain sum in trust to go towards the upbringing and education of the boy.”

His eyes twinkled at me as he reached for the bottle.

“Would you care for another brandy, Watson?” he asked.

The Adventure of the Fallen Star

Simon Clark