Mike Ashley - The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures

We all stared at Holmes. Lord Eversden said: "But this is not credible, Mr Holmes. There is nothing to suggest that such a thing happened." He turned a troubled look to Mycroft, who, alone in the gathered audience, was nodding, with an amused smile of understanding on his face.

Count Balinsky snorted derisively: "Do you think my Government will accept such a story, such a transparent fabrication?" He rose to his feet. "Excuse me, Lord Eversden, but I am obliged to telegraph the Czar's cabinet." He took a step or two across the room, with a smile of malicious satisfaction on his face, when Holmes took a long stride and barred his way.

"My dear Count," he said severely, "I strongly advise you to sit down. The story I have given you may be preferable to your Government – and to you – than the alternative I am able to offer." The Count glared at Holmes, but slowly his expression changed to one of hunted suspicion. Holmes returned to the spot at which he had been standing, while the Count remained standing for a few moments. The whole room was tense. Slowly, the Count resumed his seat.

"The difficulty with this case was the absence of a motive, other than the obvious one in the case of an assassination by agents of the Turkish Government," said Holmes. "The foolishness of such an undertaking, especially under the present political atmosphere, suggested that murder by a Turkish agent was extremely unlikely. Such a crime could not possibly have served the aims of the Turkish Government – in fact, quite the reverse – so I dismissed it as a real possibility from the outset. However, this does not mean that the murder could not have been committed by a Turkish person for non-political reasons. This, too, seemed unlikely, since such a person committing such a crime would be perfectly aware of the political interpretation that some people would put upon it.

"Therefore, my working hypothesis was that the crime was not committed by either of the Turkish guests. Orman Pasha, in any case, was not under suspicion, since he was with Lord Eversden at the time. But Colonel Yusufoglu was found kneeling beside Simeonov and Count Balinsky accused him of the murder. On the other hand, the colonel appeared to be unarmed but, had he been the murderer, he would not have had time to dispose of the weapon, unless he shot Simeonov, rushed away to dispose of the weapon and then, perversely, returned to place himself in the incriminating position of kneeling beside the man he had shot.

"The other confusing aspect of this case is that I had started with the assumption that Simeonov's murderer and the man who assaulted him some weeks ago were one and the same. At least, it seemed reasonable to assume that the two events were related. My investigations revealed to me that they were not and that was the clue that solved the mystery."

Holmes turned to Lord Eversden. "Someone in this room killed Simeonov, but he is no murderer. The only murderer among your guests was Simeonov himself!"

Except for Mycroft, we all gasped with astonishment. Count Balinsky sat forward in his chair and his expression looked more hunted than ever. Leonticles looked paler than usual. Colonel Yusufoglu covered his face with his hands.

"Yes," said Holmes, looking in turn at the Greek Consul, the Turkish Colonel and the Russian Count. "You know the truth of this. When ColonelYusufoglu said that Count Balinsky knew the truth, he was speaking the truth, was he not Count?"

"You dare to accuse a member of the Czar's Government of killing -" he began, rising to his feet.

"Control yourself, Count," said Holmes, harshly. "No one has accused you of killing Simeonov. Your crime is far more diabolical." The Count opened his mouth to reply, but all eyes turned towards him, and no sound came from his throat. He sat down, his face working.

"When the colonel said that Count Balinsky knew the truth, he meant that he knew that Simeonov was a murderer. Count Balinsky understood this very well, but preferred to pretend he did not, for reasons that will become clear presently. In fact, Simeonov was shot as he was about to commit another murder. His intended victim was ready for him and the tables were turned. The revolver lying on the ground was the one with which Simeonov intended to commit murder, not one that he drew out to defend himself.

"When I examined Simeonov's belongings, I discovered a small box containing what appeared to be greeting cards. So they were – of a kind. I hope I will be forgiven for distracting attention by pretending to see something through the window, but it was necessary for me to extract them without being seen to do so. Each card had the letters vmro on it." Holmes drew one out of his pocket and held it up. The letters were very large and were easily visible across the room. Holmes turned to Count Balinsky: "You recognize these symbols of the notorious Balkan anarchist organization with no name, do you not, Count? I imagine everyone else in this room does as well. However, only three people here present knew about Simeonov's murderous past and of his membership of that organization. When Watson and I broke into Simeonov's house, I discovered three other cards, each with the letters IMRO printed on it. Imro is a rival anarchist organization, bitterly opposed to the first. One card had the following written on it in Bulgarian: "Death is near.You have been warned." My translation was kindly confirmed by Orman Pasha when I showed it to him yesterday. The card also bore the December date on which Simeonov was assaulted in the street. His would-be assassin on that occasion was a member of the opposing criminal group.

"Understanding this helped me to understand the rest. Baron Nopchka overheard Mr Leonticles urging ColonelYusufoglu to act, but the colonel was urging restraint. The Baron was worried by this because he thought that Mr Leonticles may have been referring to a planned murder of Simeonov, but he was wrong. Mr Leonticles wished to expose Simeonov for the criminal he was, whereas the colonel was probably urging Mr Leonticles to wait until they were at a meeting in London, where the building would be guarded by policemen, making it difficult for Simeonov to escape once he was identified. Count Balinsky barged noisily into the room while the colonel was speaking, but it is my belief that he had overheard enough of the conversation to understand its significance. He then told Simeonov what he had heard and Simeonov determined to take matters into his own hands.

"It was Mr Leonticles who recognized Simeonov. He was in Thessaly when Colonel Yusufoglu was serving there as the Governor's Deputy and they were both involved in quelling the riots instigated by vmro. As soon as he recognized Simeonov as one of the criminals who were condemned to death, but later escaped, he told Colonel Yusufoglu.

"We come now to the question of why Count Balinsky told Simeonov of Mr Leonticles' recognition of him. The Count is, as we all know, determined to start another Russo-Turkish war, from which he believes Russia would benefit. The Count was

well aware that, if he told Simeonov that Leonticles knew of his past, Simeonov would try to silence him. If a Greek is murdered during this meeting, suspicion would immediately fall upon the Turks. If Simeonov was killed, suspicion would still fall upon the Turks. Either way, he could use the event as an excuse to forment trouble and urge the Czar to declare war against the Sultan. His plan could not fail. He waited downstairs outside the library so that he would be able to rush upstairs when someone else appeared – in the event it was Baron Nopchka – in order to ensure himself an alibi."

"Mr Leonticles was armed with a revolver, when he heard Simeonov creeping up behind him. He shot him first and ran to the other end of the corridor to hide the weapon temporarily behind the large armchair in the corner. I have no doubt that he disposed of it efficiently later. The colonel heard the shot and rushed out of his room; he may have seen Mr Leonticles hiding the weapon, but he then went to the dying man, perhaps to hear what he had to say. When I interviewed the colonel yesterday he as good as told me that he knew Mr Leonticles killed Simeonov. I asked him whether he knew who murdered Simeonov and he did not say 'No', but replied: 'I did not witness the killing, how can I know who killed him?" His avoidance of the word 'murder' was also revealing."