The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes (29 page)

I have discussed the whole matter with both Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes and we have come to the conclusion that someone must have paid an experienced criminal to perpetrate the deed.

It was Mycroft Holmes who suggested that Hugo Callister might be behind the burglary. I consider this a little far-fetched on Mycroft Holmes’ part and that he has become obsessed with Hugo Callister’s attempts to discredit the Government. It may be naïve of me but I find it difficult to believe that a Member of Parliament, who is distinguished by the title of ‘Honourable’, should behave in so discreditable a manner and I am more inclined to see in the attempt to tamper with my papers the grubby hand of the gutter press.

However, as I am in no position to judge these matters, I have been forced to accept Mycroft’s explanation and to acquiesce in his handling of the situation.

From his Whitehall office, Mycroft has put a rumour into circulation among the West End clubs, the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, the more exclusive Turkish baths and the dinner-tables of the most distinguished society hostesses – anywhere, in short, where people of influence and power are likely to gather – which purports to be the true account of Maurice Callister’s death. By making sure that this story is supposed to be strictly confidential and must under no circumstances be repeated, he has guaranteed its widest dissemination.

Mycroft’s version of the events is as follows: Maurice Callister had unlawfully smuggled into this country a French circus performer, a young man with a most disreputable past, whom he had kept concealed in ‘The Firs’ and with whom he was conducting an unnatural relationship. Blackmailed by his lover and fearful of his own good name and his family honour, Maurice Callister had committed suicide by jumping from the top of the lighthouse.

As a final touch, Mycroft Holmes, who shares with his brother Sherlock a rather strange sense of humour which I have remarked on elsewhere,
*
added a detail about the cormorant,
embellishing his tale with a description of how Callister made his death-leap carrying in his arms his French lover’s favourite pet, a tamed seabird, which symbolised for him his own entrapment in the tragic relationship.

Mycroft Holmes also prevailed on me to include a cryptic reference to this account in ‘The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger’, coupled with the threat of its exposure. This was directed specifically at Hugo Callister with the intention of dissuading him from pressing for an official Parliamentary inquiry, Mycroft being of the opinion that, as the popular press would soon lose interest in the story of Callister’s death and would pass on to other scandals, his chief adversary in the affair was the Honourable Member for Dowerbridge.

Mycroft Holmes’ assessment of the situation was perfectly sound.

Shortly afterwards, the attention of the editor of the
Daily
Planet
was directed towards a most regrettable rumour concerning His Majesty, King Edward VII, and a certain countess who shall be nameless, and the reports on Maurice Callister passed from its pages.

As for Hugo Callister, the threat of the publication of the so-called ‘true’ account of his brother’s death and the subsequent scandal it would cause was sufficient to make him withdraw his charges of a Government conspiracy and the whole matter was discreetly forgotten.

However, Holmes and I have been seriously troubled by the deception, necessary though it may have been for the security of the realm; I on the grounds that any untruth, even from the very best of motives, is not the manner in which His Majesty’s Government should conduct its affairs.

Holmes’ concern is of a less narrowly political nature. Despite his deep patriotism, his sympathies have become more and more engaged by Maurice Callister’s belief that all knowledge, particularly that concerning research into weapons of war, should be openly discussed at international level. His argument runs that if all nations shared the same information, it would be futile for any individual country to develop its own weapons, the armaments race would therefore become
unnecessary, war unlikely, and the huge sums of money thus saved could be spent on more peaceful research for the good of mankind.

It is in this belief, he avers, that true patriotism lies.

He expounded his theory for several hours only yesterday evening as we sat together by the hearth in the sitting-room at Baker Street, Holmes’ austere features lit up not only by the firelight but by the warmth of his convictions.

‘But what can be done?’ I asked.

It was then that Holmes made the suggestion which I referred to at the beginning of this narrative.

‘Write up the true account of the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant,’ said he, ‘and deposit it in some safe place where no one can gain access to it. Although its publication is out of the question for the foreseeable future, let us hope, my dear Watson, that attitudes will change and that a saner generation in years to come will have cured itself of this madness and that the true story can at last be placed before the public.’

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J
UNE
T
HOMSON
, a former teacher, has published over thirty novels, twenty of which feature her series detective Inspector Jack Finch and his sergeant, Tom Boyce. She has also written seven pastiche collections of Sherlock Holmes short stories. Her books have been translated into many languages. June Thomson lives in Rugby, Warwickshire.

T
HE
S
HERLOCK
H
OLMES
C
OLLECTION

The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes

The Secret Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes

The Secret Journals of Sherlock Holmes

Holmes and Watson

The Secret Documents of Sherlock Holmes

The Secret Notebooks of Sherlock Holmes

The Secret Archives of Sherlock Holmes

THE
J
ACK
F
INCH
M
YSTERIES

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