The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures - Mike Ashley [72]
“Without another word, he began to gather up papers and stuff them into a case. His assistant did likewise.
“ ‘Where are Attenborough’s files?’ I demanded.
“ ‘In the back room,’ he said. ‘They were useless to us. Most deal with murder and blackmail.’
“ ‘Do you object to the police obtaining them?’
“ ‘No. You may do with them as you see fit.’
“ ‘Thank you for the warning. It might have been embarrassing to be found here.’
“When they had gone, I checked the back room and found Attenborough’s files. They seemed a complete record of his blackmail schemes. I also found Attenborough’s body, tucked away behind a filing cabinet. He had clearly been dead for some months.
“ ‘I arranged the body to look as though an accident had occurred – a bookcase had fallen on him – then came out just as you and Lestrade arrived. To the untrained eyes of Lestrade and his men, it will look as though Attenborough suffered an unfortunate accident.’ ”
“ ‘What of Attenborough’s files?’ I asked. ‘Surely they will ruin what remains of Colonel Pendleton-Smythe’s reputation.’
“ ‘That will be handled by the foreign office. Lestrade will uncover the records of the Amateur Mendicant Society, which reveal their wrongdoings in excruciating detail. Their specialty was blackmail and extortion, as we had surmised. The records will be doctored to include, I dare say, the full catalog of murders by Dr Attenborough, as he desperately tried to maintain control of a crumbling criminal empire. The newspapers will, I am certain, find much scandalous material in it – and the colonel will have little choice but to deny his participation and suppress that part of his memoirs, should he still choose to write them. All the Foreign Service wants, at this point, is to maintain the Secret Mendicant Society’s anonymity while contributing whatever small gains it can to the war effort.”
“It would seem, then,” I said, “that everything has sorted itself out remarkably well. You’re fortunate they didn’t try to kill you,” I commented.
“I believe the admiral considered it. However, I do make my own small contributions to the Foreign Office, as you well know. You might say we have friends in common.”
“Your brother for one,” I said.
“Just so,” he said.
“Then we have reached a successful resolution to the case – after a fashion.”
“After a fashion,” Holmes agreed with a half smile. “After a fashion.”
The Adventure of the Silver Buckle
Denis O. Smith
Holmes continued to throw himself into his cases as 1887 progressed and they did not become any easier. There was the loss of the British barque the Sophy Anderson. I have the details of this case but they are not in a sufficient state yet to present to the reader, though they again indicate the intensity of Holmes’s involvement. Soon after this he was involved in the case of the Davenoke family of Shoreswood Hall, a long-unknown case which was identified by the renowned Holmesian scholar Denis Smith, who also rescued the following story. After the Shoreswood Hall case, Holmes investigated the death of Mrs Stewart of Lauder. Although he resolved the murder to his own satisfaction he was not able to find the conclusive evidence needed to convict Sebastian Moran, whom Holmes was convinced was behind the plot. This frustration caused both Holmes’s spirit and energy to flag and Watson again became concerned for his health. It was at this stage that the case of the Grice Petersons on the island of Uffa, referred to in “The Five Orange Pips” occurred. Its facts have been unearthed by Denis Smith, who has produced other stories based on his research which I list at the end of this book.
It was in the late summer of ‘87 that the health of my friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, gave further cause for concern. The unremitting hard work to which he invariably subjected himself allowed little time for recuperation from the everyday infirmities which are the lot of mankind, and from which even Holmes’s iron constitution was not immune. So long as he remained fit, all was well, but earlier in the year he had reached a point of