Young Sherlock Holmes_ Red Leech - Andrew Lane [26]
But it looked as though his life was about to be turned upside down.
Again.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mycroft and Crowe started discussing ship timetables and ports of embarkation and disembarkation. Sherlock got bored very quickly. His mind kept attacking the problem, trying to find something that would mean Amyus and Virginia Crowe wouldn’t have to leave England.
‘You still don’t know what the men look like,’ he pointed out after a few minutes. ‘You can track them, but how will you know when you’ve found them? As long as they keep the man with the burn scars out of sight, they’ll just be three men. There’s nothing particularly distinctive about them, apart from their accents, and I’m assuming that once you get to a dock with a ship heading for America there’s going to be a lot of American accents around.’
You can tell me the details of what they look like,’ Crowe pointed out. ‘I’ve already trained you in lookin’ for the small details that distinguish one face from another – the outline of the ears, the hairline, an’ the shape of the eyes. We might even be able to come up with a couple of sketches based on your descriptions. Virginia’s a dab hand with a pencil.’
‘I’m not sure that will be enough.’ Mycroft mused. ‘The recollections of one witness – even one as observant as my brother – can often be mistaken, and affected by stress. It’s something I have long been interested in – the way the human mind can invent details and convince itself that they are true. I suspect there are many innocent men incarcerated in British prisons based on the uncertain recollections of one person. Once you have been told that you are looking for a man with a beard, suddenly all you can see is men with beards. No, whatever Sherlock remembers needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.’
Sherlock was about to protest that he had a perfect recollection of all four men, but something held him back. He sensed that the argument was beginning to swing back in his favour, with Mycroft and Crowe realizing that the problem was bigger than they had thought, and he didn’t want to do anything to disrupt it.
But at the same time that his heart was trying to stop Amyus and Virginia Crowe from leaving, his head was telling him that this was important. Both Mycroft and Crowe were looking as serious as he had ever seen them. He wasn’t sure that he completely understood the potential ramifications of what was going on – how could four men, one of them certifiably insane, affect the politics of an entire nation? – but he could tell that what was at stake here dwarfed his petty problems. It he could help, he should, regardless of the cost to himself.
It was a strangely grown-up thought, and he didn’t like the implications.
‘Matty’s seen them as well,’ he said suddenly, his words only momentarily behind his thoughts.
‘What do you mean?’ Mycroft asked, turning his head.
‘I mean that Matty saw the man who pulled me into the house – the man who might be John Wilkes Booth – and then later, when he rescued me, he saw at least two of the other three men. One of them was unconscious – neither of us got a good look at him. If you want a description but you’re worried about the reliability of my memory, then why not get Matty over here? Between the two of us you could probably get a good description – especially if you ask us separately, rather than together. That way neither of us will inadvertently affect what the other is saying.’
‘The boy has a point,’ Crowe rumbled. ‘Two heads are better than one. Mayhap I could send Virginia to pick the boy up. She knows where his narrowboat is moored.’ He nodded to himself. ‘A sketch based on both their memories would be far closer to the truth than one based on the memories of either one alone.’
Mycroft gazed levelly at Sherlock. ‘I understand that you don’t want Mr Crowe or his daughter to go,’ he said quietly.