Mike Ashley - The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures

"The explanation for your partner's conduct may be straightforward. Drink can corrupt a man more quickly than any other

vice." Holmes glanced briefly at me as he spoke and I guessed that his own occasional lapses were passing through his mind. "Yet I fancy that the problem may be more complex than it appears at first blush."

"Have you been able to form an opinion upon the basis of the information I have provided to you?"

Holmes shook his head. "With no disrespect to you, I sense that I have yet to be presented with a complete picture of events. I need to make further enquiries."

"By all means, Mr Holmes, but where would you wish to start?"

"Perhaps by speaking to your man Bevington, as well as to John Abergavenny himself."

Dowling flushed. "Certainly you may talk to my clerk. As for John, perhaps you would bear in mind the need to be circumspect. Although my intentions are entirely honourable, I would not wish him to think that I had recruited you to spy on him."

"You need have no fear. I shall be discreet. If it is convenient, perhaps Dr Watson and I can accompany you back to your office in the hope of determining where the truth lies."

A cab took us to Essex Street. Sombre skies contributed to the air of mourning which hung over London. Barely two weeks had passed since the death of the Queen and the sense of grief among her subjects was still as palpable as a dockland fog. Our journey passed almost wholly in silence. I realized that Holmes was turning over in his mind the facts that the solicitor had placed before him and seeking to draw the different threads into a pattern that satisfied him. For my own part, the conclusion seemed obvious enough. John Abergavenny was suffering a mental breakdown. It was a case for a doctor rather than a detective.

The firm of Dowling and Company occupied the ground floor of a building close to the Embankment end of the street and after we had spent a couple of minutes warming ourselves in front of the fire in Dowling's room, the solicitor returned accompanied by his clerk.

"Please would you repeat to the two gentlemen here the facts that you reported to me the day before last concerning your encounter with Mr Abergavenny in Lincoln's Inn."

"But Mr Dowling – "

"Bevington," the solicitor said gently. "You and I have known each other for a long time, have we not? I realize that you are unwilling to be a teller of tales and your attitude does you credit. I simply ask you to bear with me. I will leave you with these two gentlemen for a few minutes and I know that you will be as frank with them as you were with me."

Thus entreated, Bevington gave us his account. It did not differ in any material respect from Dowling's summation. The old clerk was stooped and short-sighted, but after listening to him for a few minutes, I was convinced that the report he had made to his principal was tainted neither by malice nor by a mistake as to the identity of the man who had been carousing with the street-walker. Bevington was, I felt sure, not blessed with an imagination vivid enough to have enabled him to embellish his tale. He was cautious and exact and he would have made a compelling witness at any trial. After he left us, I said as much to Holmes.

"I agree. Now we must – holloa!" The door was flung open and a man burst in. He was perhaps thirty years of age, middle-sized with a beaky nose, thick curly fair hair and a moustache. There were dark rings beneath his eyes and his cheeks were flushed with temper.

"Mr Sherlock Holmes?"

My friend bowed. "Allow me to introduce Dr Watson," he said in his suavest tone. "And you, I presume, are Mr John Abergavenny?"

"I am familiar with your legendary powers of deduction," the lawyer said tersely, "and in other circumstances I might be glad to pick your brains. What is wholly unclear to me today, however, is why you have come to these offices to listen to tittle-tattle from a member of staff who is old enough to know better. I can only assume that for reasons wholly unknown to me, your express purpose is to destroy my reputation so as to enable Mr Dowling to expel me from this practice."

"I can assure you that I have no reason whatsoever to believe that my client's motives are in any wise dishonourable. He simply seeks the truth."

"So you admit that Dowling is your client! He has engaged your services behind my back to spy on me! By God, sir, this is intolerable!"

He took a step forward and for a moment I believed that he was about to strike my friend. I tensed and so did Holmes, but then Abergavenny paused and uttered a hollow laugh.

"You will have to forgive me, gentlemen. For a moment I was about to cast legal caution to the wind." He gave Holmes a hard look. "I remembered in the nick of time my professional training – and also the fact that you once fought with McMurdo. Besides, fisticuffs will solve nothing. I would simply say this to you – a few errors at work, even an instance of professional negligence, none of these matters justifies the campaign of persecution to which I am currently being subjected. There is nothing worthy of your talents here, Mr Holmes. Good day, gentlemen."

With that, he turned on his heel and left the room. For a little while the two of us sat there in silence, Holmes stroking his jaw reflectively.

"What do you make of that?" I demanded at last.

"I recognize the symptoms of over-work," my friend said softly. "Curiouser and curiouser."

The door opened again, this time to admit Matthew Dowling. His face had crumpled in dismay.

"Mr Holmes, I think I may have achieved the worst of all worlds. John Abergavenny has just given me verbal notice to terminate our partnership with immediate effect. He said that since I preferred to believe gossip to his word of honour, the bond of trust between us had been irreparably damaged. He said he would finish the relationship between us himself rather than wait for me to do so on spurious grounds."

"Did he tell you where he was bound?"

Dowling shook his head. "He has rooms above the tailor in Lamb's Conduit Street, but I suspect that his first recourse may be to a den of infamy. I dread the thought that he might take some precipitate action at a time when he is clearly very disturbed."

He took a deep breath and made a visible effort to collect his thoughts. "Thank you for your time, Mr Holmes. This unfortunate outcome is not your fault. You will, of course, let me have a note of your fees in early course."

"You regard my investigation as concluded?"

"With respect, I do not see what else you can do."

"Does it not intrigue you that, for no obvious reason, your partner's behaviour should have changed so suddenly and in such a deleterious fashion?"

"It dismays me, but Ido not know what else I can do. I cannot see rhyme or reason in it."

"Precisely. I still have the distinct impression that in this case, all the cards are yet to be put on the table. I would like to speak to the court usher you mentioned and also to your partner's brother, Hugh. Would you be willing to write me a note of introduction to the man Stewart?"

Dowling readily agreed to Holmes's request, although he was plainly unconvinced that any good would come of further

enquiries. We walked directly to the Law Courts in the Strand and were able after a short wait to see Stewart and hear about his encounter with Abergavenny at Blackfriars Bridge.

"Do you believe he meant to kill himself?" Holmes asked bluntly.

"I hesitate to say as much," said Stewart with care. He was a desiccated fellow, as dry and dusty as a tome of Blackstone's

law reports. "Ican add nothing more to the conversation I had with MrDowling, save to make the obvious point that I would not have troubled him with an account of the incident had Inot thought it a matter which needed to be drawn to his attention as senior partner of an eminently respectable firm."