Mike Ashley - The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures

"What were they saying?" I asked.

"Yet more superstitious claptrap," Trevor said. "They claim that six months ago, just after Bruce and William vanished, they heard the waiting of their spirits in this benighted sector. Complete rubbish, of course."

"In due course we took our leave and drove east, towards the town of Trincomalee. 'The estate spreads over some five square miles,' Trevor informed me. 'The easternmost area, bordering the town, is where the locals have their abodes. The Atkinson's housekeeper is interned in the hospital bungalow.' "

"Presently we came upon the hospital, but to grace the rude timber construct with such a title was optimistic in the extreme. It was little more than a shed occupied by four beds, only one of them taken. The doctor, an Indian in his eighties, showed us across to the girl, one Anya Amala. 'Two minutes only, sirs,' he said. 'The girl is most seriously weakened.' "

"She was a small thing barely out of her teens, with a sheen of perspiration laid across her dusky brow. She eyed our approach with something like apprehension, and as I took a seat beside the bed I was at pains to put her at ease."

`I wish only to ask a few simple questions,' I began. 'I will not detain you for long.' "

"She glanced like a frightened animal from the doctor, to Trevor, and finally back to myself. She nodded, licking her lips nervously."

" 'How long have you worked for the brothers?' I enquired. "In a whisper so soft it was almost inaudible, she said, 'I have

worked for William and Bruce almost two years, sir. They have been good and kind employers. I am most very upset when they disappear.' "

" 'Workers on the estate are of the opinion that the brothers are dead, Anya. What do you think on this matter?' "

"She shook her head, and the movement dislodged tears which fell from her massive eyes and rolled down her brown cheeks. 'I… I – oh, I cannot imagine this terrible thing!' "

"I patted her hand. 'There, there. We are doing all we can to resolve the situation.' "

`The doctor gestured that the girl had had enough, and after thanking her for her time we took our leave.'

"We returned to the house and had lunch in the shade of the verandah, after which I retired to my room and slept in the heat of the day. Dinner that night was a formal occasion attended by a few local planters and their wives. The case, of course, was the main topic of conversation, and a dozen wild and extravagant theories were proposed to explain the state of affairs."

" 'It is quite obvious to me," said one dowager, the wife of a retired planter, 'that the Atkinsons were facing a financial crisis and decided to abscond. They left like thieves in the night, and might at this very moment be enjoying the high life in Kuala Lumpur."

" 'Stuff and nonsense,' someone responded. 'All the boats from the island have been investigated. The brothers were upon none of them' "

"But you do concede, do you not, that the brothers were capable of such duplicity?"

"An uneasy silence descended upon the gathered company. It is always unsettling to have suspicion pointed at erstwhile friends of hitherto impeccable reputation."

"Presently the conversation turned to matters colonial, and I excused myself and retired to my room."

"The following morning after breakfast I told Trevor that I wished to visit Trincomalee, and he arranged a trap and driver to transport me there."

"Trincomalee is a small town with stone-built, colonial buildings dominating the main street, and ruder constructions comprising the outskirts. I stepped down from the trap on the main street, which follows the length of the ridge for some hundred yards. I decided that my first port of call should be the Colonial Police headquarters, an imposing building difficult to miss. After negotiating the interminable bureaucracy that maintains in such institutions, I was finally shown into the office of one Sergeant Mortimer, the officer in charge of the Atkinson investigation."

" 'Mr Holmes,' he said, rising from his desk to shake my hand. 'I heard that you were on the case. I must confess that I should be most grateful for any light you might shed on this dreadful matter I don't mind confessing that the affair has me baffled.' He dealt me a penetrating look. 'Might I ask how your investigations proceed?' "

"I told him that I had been on the island just over one day, and that thus far I had learnt little. 'I would be pleased to hear your opinions on the case,' I said. 'There is a rumour doing the rounds that the Atkinsons' estate was falling, and rather than face the wrath of the owners, the brothers fled the country.' "

"The Sergeant pursed his lips in contemplation. "Well, the estate was not doing that well – that much I can attest: But to be perfectly honest I could not see the brothers' taking the cowards' way out and absconding. To cover that possibility, I had men posted at all the ports for two weeks following their disappearance."

"Have you in the course of your investigations looked into their financial situation?"

"Of course. I made comprehensive enquiries at the local bank. They were overdrawn to the tune of some £1,000. The brothers… how can I put it?… the brothers were rather fond of an occasional flutter, shall we say?"

"By that I take it that they played, and lost, at cards?"

" 'So I have heard,' Seageant Mortimer said. 'But I enquired as to whether they had outstanding gambling debts, and so far as I could discover, such was not the case. The whole affair baffles me, Mr Holmes.' "

"Might they have been taken from the house and murdered by enemies?" I suggested.

" 'If they had enemies,' the Sergeant said, 'then I might entertain the notion. But I knew the brothers well, and aside from their predilection towards gambling, they were as moral a pair as could be found. They did not have a detractor in the world."

"We discussed the matter further, but I discovered no more details relevant to the affair, and in due course I thanked the Sergeant and took my leave."

"I decided to look in on the offices of the Madras Line, situated in a nearby weatherboard building. A harassed female clerk in a bright red sari barely glanced up at me as she busily copied out invoices. I introduced myself and stated my business. She was most brusque in her reply. 'The ledgers are piled over there,' she replied in the sing-song English of her people. "Why don't you look for yourself?' "

"I bit my tongue and began the arduous business of going through the records of tickets sold during the relevant period. Needless to say, I discovered nothing – as if, I told myself, the brothers would have booked tickets under their own names!"

"I returned to the unfriendly clerk and requested to see the manager. The woman looked up and smiled at me. 'I am the manager, Mr Holmes,' said she."

"In that case I would like to ask you a few questions, Madam."

"For the next ten minutes I managed to extract answers from this impertinent soul – an operation as onerous as attempting to draw blood from a stone. For my pains, I learned that the brothers had not bought tickets from the Madras Line since the Christmas before, when they had taken their customary week's holiday with friends in India."

"I thanked the manager for her estimable courtesy and stepped out into the street."

"I was about to return to the waiting trap, with little accomplished, when I noticed across the street the boarded up windows of a building upon which a faded, painted sign advertised passenger ships to various destinations around the Indian sub-continent and Malaya."

"I entered the shop next door, a bicycle repair establishment, and asked how long the shipping office had been closed. The owner considered and duly answered that the business had gone into liquidation six months earlier."