Holmes and I were spending a quiet day in our rooms at Baker
Street. Everything was calm and peaceful until Mrs. Hudson came into the room
looking very flustered about something.
"Mr. Holmes, sir. I am so very worried. I must tell you of
something which you may be interested in." she gasped.
"Sit down Mrs. Hudson. You look about to fall over. Can I get
you a sip of water or perhaps some tea?" Holmes inquired.
" No, no; well if it would not be too much trouble maybe a
little bit of water." Mrs. Hudson replied still shaking and breathless.
Holmes left the room to get a cup and some water from the bathroom
sink. After he left I said in some concern,
"Mrs. Hudson, you look like you've seen a ghost."
"Well not a ghost but something of the sort my dear Watson.
Thank you for being concerned but I will be fine in a minute or two." Mrs.
Hudson still looked as white as a sheet.
" Here is your water Mrs. Hudson. When you are ready please
do tell me what has troubled you so. Perhaps I can, as you say, help you."
Holmes had returned with the water.
" Thank you Mr. Holmes." Mrs. Hudson took a long drink.
As the color began
to return to her face she proceeded to tell us what was bothering her.
"Mr. Holmes, when you were out last night two strange people
came and asked for rooms. I thought nothing of it at the time because I was not
looking at them or their attire. When I turned around I saw a tall man with a
mask covering his face and a woman behind him with a veil covering her face.
She was carrying a child and her suitcase. The man inquired again for a room. I
quickly brought them to an empty room; they paid me and I left. I went back
downstairs to write down their names in the record book and what room they were
occupying. When I got downstairs I realized I had never gotten their names but
as I was too tired to go back up for names I only put down what room they were
in and went up to bed. The next morning I went up to bring them their breakfast
and found no one in the room. I did not think this strange as lots of my
clients go out early in the mornings; you included Mr. Holmes. When I reached
their dining room I saw something which is the cause of all that I have come to
you for. Laying on the floor in a pool of blood was the lady and her child. The
child was so little and she was sitting near the mother..." Holmes cut her
off.
" The child.. you mean to say that..." Holmes did not
finish for this time Mrs. Hudson interrupted.
"Still alive. Yes, I do. Any way. The child seemed to
understand that her mother was dead and her father had fled. She just sat there
on the floor crying. I brought her to my rooms and put her to bed. Knowing your
methods Mr. Holmes I left everything just as I found.. apart of course from
taking the child with me. I came to you as soon as the child had been cared
for. "
" Well Mrs. Hudson; it sounds like you had a very frightening
morning. If you will lead the way I will take a look into your problem."
Holmes seemed eager to get to the crime scene.
Mrs. Hudson seemed to see that too so we went to the place where
Mrs. Hudson had found the lady and child. Their room was on the floor above our
apartments and three rooms down the hall. This would mean that we could not
have heard anything; even Holmes' finely attuned hearing would not have picked
up any sounds made in this room. As no one occupied the rooms directly to either side of the room no one
else would have heard any of the sounds made during the night either. As we had
been told Mrs. Hudson had not moved anything as if she had she would have
picked up the breakfast tray. It seemed that no one else knew of the death
because no reporters or spectators were to be seen. Everything was quiet and
calm as it had been before Mrs. Hudson told Holmes and I of the awful
happenings of the morning. Life went on as usual for all even Holmes and I were
doing our normal things. Solving a case was as normal as something like eating;
at least when Holmes took the time to eat. Most of the time he did but often he
neglected to eat when he was on a case.
There on the
floor in front of us lay a terrible sight. Laying in her own pool of blood was
the lady. It seemed as though something heavy had struck her from behind for
when Holmes lifted her we could see an awful gash in the back of her head.
Blood was still flowing out of it though its flow was very sluggish and we
could see it had begun to clot.
"What could be the nature of this dastardly deed. I pity the
one who did this for I will not rest until I see this woman's murder
avenged." Holmes murmured softly.
He seemed very deeply moved by the woman's death. I do not think I
had ever seen him so deeply moved on a case; normally he seemed a cold and
calculative reasoning machine with no feeling at all, especially when he was
solving a case. I always knew that
Holmes felt things strongly but he did a very good job of hiding it. Often I did not know how he felt about things,
he covered them so well. He must be very deeply affected to act so moved.
Holmes seemed
to move around as quickly and efficiently as normal and I saw no more of the
unusual display of emotion he had shown earlier.
"Yes. Yes, the woman did not go without a struggle. It would
seem that the assailant pinned her to the floor; she has a lot of bruises on
her arms, the gash in her head of course, and.... Watson! Quickly. Look at
this; on her arms there are strange punctures; as if some sort of needle went
in here and here. What do you make of it Watson?" Holmes had suddenly
jumped and pulled me over to the body.
"I don't know Holmes. It looks to me like puncture from some
sort of needle." I replied.
" Exactly. I have done some studying on needles used for
different things. One of the needles makes a puncture mark exactly like this
one. No other needle makes a mark like it. Watson, the interesting thing is
what it is used for. This needle Watson was used as a way of injecting poisons
into a person in small; or large amounts to form immunities to the poison. It
has now been outlawed in England because of the many criminal purposes which it
has been used for. This needle may still be around. Let us check carefully
Watson. It may be an important clue to our case." Holmes' voice shook with
carefully contained excitement. " The needle looks a bit like a syringe
Watson."
Holmes took a quick but careful sweep of the room.
" Ah, here it is. It still contains a fair amount of liquid.
It is about half way full. The assassin must have put most of it into those two
puncture marks. Next we must check the body for any clue to the woman's
identity."
As he spoke
Holmes was checking the body for clues. Mrs. Hudson and I stood in the room
watching him with the intensity of a raptor's gaze. Suddenly Holmes raised his
head.
"Watson. Watson, I...I know this woman. This is her card. I
found it in her shirt pocket. This woman is Miss... I mean now she is Mrs.
Lucille Browning. I once solved a case for her. She was in one of the worst circumstances
I have ever seen; I admired her though, for in those terrible circumstances she
seemed to be unshaken. As far as I knew she had had no more troubles once she
was married. But to find her like this...Watson, it is really quite
unnerving." Holmes' voice was a sea of emotions.
I could not
help but see that he was deeply affected. Mrs. Hudson sensed it as well and immediately
excused herself so we could be alone.
In a few
moments Holmes was seemingly back to normal. I knew he still felt strong and
deep sadness at the sudden death of a friend but he was only concealing his
pain from those who did not know him well.
" Well Watson, I believe that we will find some answers to
our case once I analyze the data from the syringe and the finger prints on the
body. Some of the finger prints were
visible but there may be other latex prints which will need special attention
to see them. But I believe it will be very productive to do a finger print
search in this case." Holmes had carefully used a pair of gloves to pick
up the syringe so none of his finger prints would be confused with the
assassin's.
After Holmes
and I or rather Holmes checked the site for clues we went back to our rooms to
work on the problem of analyzing the data we had collected. Holmes seemed very
eager to get to our apartments and so we hastened to climb down the stairs and
walk to our rooms.
As soon as we
got there Holmes began to put the poison in the syringe into different liquids
to see what it would. Once it reacted to some chemical he would be able to
determine what type of poison it was. Holmes has been known to do some
dangerous and unpredictable things and I hoped that he would be able to figure
out the type of poison without testing it. Holmes tested and tested for several
hours. Finally he turned to me.
"Watson, it will not respond to any chemicals I have used on
it. It is a new kind of poison and I do not know if it is more or less
dangerous than what we have around in England at this time. I know that as a
doctor you would not and won't allow this but...." Holmes quickly and deftly swallowed a little
of the remaining poison before I could stop him.
"Holmes! Are you mad? What are you thinking? Would you throw
your life away just to find out what a new poison does? If you would you are
crazy." I cried.
As Holmes took the poison I was afraid he would die before my
eyes. But nothing happened; Holmes remained standing with a funny look on his
face.
"What is it Holmes.. I will help in any way I can." I
was frightened half to death that Holmes; one of my very close friends might
die. It was not a pretty thought. Holmes suddenly burst out laughing.
"What a fool I have been Watson. The "poison" in
this syringe was a red herring to give us the slip. It contains chicken broth.
He used the needle to put the two punctures there on her arms so that we would
think he had poisoned her and then hit her with a blow intended to kill her if
the poison did not. It is a dirty piece of work Watson but they were ingenious
in their plan whoever they were. As for the finger prints I put a request
through to Lestrade requesting permission to use their new finger print scanning
device. Lestrade quickly sent me a wire telling me to come at one and to go
ahead and use the scanner. We have fifteen minutes to get there and we will be
right on time. I assume you will be going with me?"
"I wouldn't miss it for the world, Holmes." I replied as
I picked up my coat.
Holmes was
already out the door as he had forgotten to remove his coat and hat in his
haste to test the "poison". I followed as quickly as I could as I put
my coat on. I reached the coach and climbed in. Holmes shouted to the driver to
go to Scotland Yard. The carriage began to move and we were on our way. As we
went Holmes filled me in on some of the details.
" I believe that Mrs. Browning's murder was done by a woman.
Whoever it is who killed her forgot to wear gloves when they killed her. If
they were smart they would have used gloves to keep finger prints off the
syringe and the body in case any thing happened that the body were found or in
this case both were found. We are in great luck that the murderer forgot this
important fact." Holmes had just finished filling me in on what I did not
know when we arrived at Scotland Yard. Lestrade came to meet us and showed
Holmes and I to the finger printing machine. Holmes and Lestrade placed the
finger prints underneath the microscopic scanner and the computer began
searching all their finger print files. Suddenly the computer began to beep
loudly. We had found a match. On the computer screen was the picture of a woman
named Susanna Blakely. Sure enough Holmes had been right; a woman had killed
Mrs. Browning. It showed that the woman had been released but the day after her
release she had been arrested for a car accident and was being held for a week
at Scotland Yard.
Once we knew
this Lestrade took us to the woman's cell. She was a pale and pretty black
haired girl and it was a pity to see her in a cell like she was.
" Ms. Susanna we are here to inquire into a case which me and
my colleague, Dr. Watson are investigating. We have been led to believe that
you murdered the late Mrs. Browning. We require a straight answer. Did you do
it?" Holmes asked as gently as he could for he could tell that she was in
a bad emotional state.
" I won't lie to you Mr. Holmes. I did do it. Mrs. Browning was the reason I was arrested
the first time. She never liked me much. She wanted to shame me publicly as I
had once done to her accidently. Her wound over that never healed. She made up
a story about me breaking into her house and had me arrested for it. She pulled
it off so that I had come to dinner that night and I had knocked on the door so
my finger prints were on the handle. When I got inside I was told not to take
my shoes off. They were all muddy and I did not understand why she wanted them
in the house. She said their dog made a muddy mess any way so it was not a big
deal. She told me not to bother wiping them. She showed me her whole house and
soon I had muddy foot prints all over then we ate dinner. After dinner I left,
but before I left she gave me a present of a diamond ring and a ruby neclace.
When the police arrested me I tried to explain. By then it was to late and I
realized why she had told me not to bother with my shoes and why she had given
me the neclace and ring. She wanted my foot prints all over and she wanted the
police to find her ring and neclace in my house with me. When I got out of jail
I had a chance to get my revenge so I killed her. I knew it would get me a life
term in jail if I was caught but I did not care. I was going to give myself
away to the police and tell them what I did because by then I felt guilty for
doing it and I knew that to confess was the only way to take away my guilt. But
on the way home I hit another car. It seemed to materilize out of the mist. I
tried to swerve but I still hit it. I was arrested and brought here. When I
tried to tell the police what I'd done they thought I was nuts and would not
listen. You are the first person to listen without calling me mad and making
fun. Thank you Mr. Holmes. I want to serve a life sentence it is the only way
for me to ease my concience. I must accept the concequences of my
actions." she answered.
" Thank you for telling us this and I am afraid that it will
be life for you miss." Holmes replied.
Holmes and I
returned to Baker Street to relax. The next day we saw in the newspaper that
Miss. Susanna had been convicted of first degree murder and would serve a term
for life. Holmes smiled.
"It is a shame to see her go to jail for life. She seemed
like a very nice young woman. She would have made someone very happy if she got
married. It is a shame that I had to put her into jail for life. But she did
seem to want it." Holmes glanced in my direction.
" What are you saying Holmes." I asked.
"Mmm. Oh nothing." Holmes replied settling deeper in the
chair. " A good conclusion to a baffiling case wouldn't you agree."
" Oh, well yes it was. Your ingenious mind got us all the way
one hundred percent." I replied.
"Pure deductions Watson. Only deductions based on the
evidence." Holmes remarked.
I grunted. He seemed like some magical being at times. Pure
deductions, more like pure ingenious but I said nothing and Holmes continued to
enjoy his newspaper.
