The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures - Mike Ashley [25]
“Can I help you gentlemen?” he stuttered.
“Yes, you can,” I assured him. “You can bring me the garment that you are holding for Colonel Sebastian Moran. I think you will find that it is a heavy riding cloak or one of those new style long, loose coats which, I believe, is called an Ulster.”
The attendant returned my gaze in bewildered fashion.
The chairman pushed forward.
“Good God, sir, what do you mean by it? Colonel Moran is a respected member of this club. Why are you presuming to ask for his coat?”
The Duke of Cloncury was looking at me with a frown of disapproval.
“You’d better have a good explanation, young Holmes,” he muttered.
“I believe that you want the return of your toilet case?” I asked blandly.
“Gad, you know I do.”
I turned to the attendant.
“Have you been on duty for the last half an hour?”
“That I have, sir.”
“A short while ago Colonel Moran knocked on the hatch from the wash room side and asked if you could pass him his coat for a moment. Is that correct?”
The man’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
“It is, sir. He said he wanted to comb his hair and had left the toilet items in his coat. And the coat was, indeed, one of those new style Ulsters, sir.”
“I believe the colonel then came around from the wash room, into the cloak room, in order to hand you back the coat?”
“That is exactly what he did, sir.”
I turned and smiled at the astonished company, perhaps a little too superior in my attitude.
“How the hell did you know that?” growled the chairman.
“Now, my man,” I said, ignoring him, but speaking again to the attendant. “Would you fetch Colonel Moran’s Ulster?”
The attendant turned, picked down the garment and handed it to me in silence.
I took it and weighed it carefully with one hand before reaching into the inside lining. There were several large pockets there as was the fashion with such garments. The leather box was tucked neatly into one of them.
“How did you know?” gasped Cloncury seizing his precious box eagerly.
“Know? I merely deduce from facts, sir. If you will open the box and check the brush? I think you may find that in the brush are some strands of dark black hair. The colour of Colonel Moran’s hair, which is easy to spot as it is dyed.”
It took the duke but a moment to confirm that I was right.
“I think the colonel is someone given to seizing opportunity. A chance taker,” I told them. “He followed His Grace into the wash room when His Grace had already entered the toilet. He saw the leather case there. He knew it had great sentimental value for His Grace. Perhaps he thought he might be able to blackmail Cloncury for its return, probably through an intermediary of course. He seized the opportunity, asking for his Ulster to be passed through the hatch in order to conceal the box in order to get it out of the club. He chanced that members would not be searched …”
“It would be unthinkable that a member of this club would be searched,” muttered the chairman. “We are all gentlemen here!”
I chose not to comment.
“He could not carry the box out of the wash room into the cloak room without observation. When I saw the hatch I knew that he had only to ask for his coat to be passed through, place the box in his pocket unobserved, and the theft was complete.”
“How did you know it was an Ulster or a riding cloak?” demanded his grace.
“He would have to be possessed of a heavy coat such as an Ulster or riding cloak with large enough interior pockets to conceal the box in.”
“Why not pass the coat back through the hatch once he had hidden the box in the coat?” demanded Mycroft. “Why do you think that he came out of the wash room door, into the hall and then into the cloak room to return the cloak to the attendant?”
“Moran was cautious. Passing it back through the hatch might cause the attendant to feel the box and become suspicious, especially after Cloncury raised the alarm.