Mike Ashley - The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures

"We returned to the house, and Trevor ordered his men to do as I willed. He distributed keys, and we once again boarded the trap and made for the eastern sector."

"Fifteen minutes later we heard a cry from a native worker not 200 yards distant. He was standing with a crowd of other men outside the open double-doors of a storage shed. They stared into the dark interior, seemingly too fearful to enter."

"We hurried across and approached the shed, and the noisome stench that assailed my nostrils confirmed my gravest fears. Covering our lower faces with 'kerchiefs, we cautiously entered the storage shed."

"Two bodies, dressed in tropical garb, were sprawled out across the floor. The heat of the shed had advanced their decay past the point of easy recognition. Trevor gagged and retched and hurried outside."

" 'I swear,' he said at last, 'I swear to bring to justice the dogs responsible for this!' "

" 'Look no farther than the two men lying dead,' said I."

" 'What!' he cried."

"Trevor, my friend – there were never any kidnappers, except in the wily imaginings of the brothers' minds. This is indeed a tragic business."

" 'Do you mean to say…' he gestured at the corpses of his erstwhile friends, speechless."

" 'They manufactured the whole sorry business, Trevor," I said. 'They had gambling debts; their estate was failing… they took the cowards" way out and came up with this disastrous plan to extract from you the £5,000. Of course they would never have reimbursed you – they planned to take the money and leave behind them their debts and the failed estate, leave in disguise by the ship to Calcutta and start a new life with their criminal gains. Of course, they were thwarted by ill-luck: they were not to know that Anya would fall ill, or that you would happen by this shed and inadvertently lock them inside. These buildings are sturdy constructs; they had no hope of escape.' "

" 'Good God,' Trevor cried, stricken. 'Their cries! Those banshee wails reported by the workers…' "

" 'It was this detail that made me suspicious,' said I. 'I am a man of science, Trevor – I have no truck with ghosts and ghouls and such. Taken together with all the other small details of this case, the brothers' gambling debts, the failing estate, the tickets booked for Calcutta, and Anya's unforeseen illness… I began to see what tragedy might have occurred.' "

"I left him pondering these terrible circumstances and made my way to the trap. At length Trevor hurried after me. 'But one thing puzzles me,' said he. 'You said that two tickets were booked for Calcutta – and yet Anya says that William promised that together they would head for India to start a new life…' "

"I paused in the process of climbing into the trap, and stared Trevor directly in the eye."

" 'There are two scenarios we can deduce from the facts as we know them," I said. "One, that William would indeed honour his professed love for Anya: once they had picked up the ransom money, Bruce would leave the island by some other means, and William would spirit Anya off to India -' "

"And the other?"

" 'The other,' I said, 'is that William and Bruce were not the gentlemen you assumed; that they booked tickets for the two of them and planned to leave Anya here while they escaped with your £5,000.' "

" 'And which', asked Trevor, 'do you suppose is the truth?' "

"I made a hopeless gesture. 'I would like to think, for Anya's peace of mind, that William intended to take her with him…' "

"Trevor stared into the heavens, his countenance racked by anguish. 'Whichever,' said he, 'the company cannot have the truth of the matter spread far and wide! Why, the scandal… You must promise me, Holmes, that your lips are sealed.' "

" 'My friend,' said I, 'you have my assurance that I will breathe a word of the matter to no one.' "

Mr Sherlock Holmes paused to refill his pipe. "There the matter ended," said he. "And, but for this letter, the details of the case might never have been known."

"What did Trevor tell the company?"

Holmes inclined his aquiline head. "I advised him to destroy the spurious ransom note, and concoct a tale whereby the brothers went one morning to check the storage shed, were bitten by a snake or somesuch, and succumbed before they might summon help. Their bodies were accidentally locked in the shed and thus the tragedy went undiscovered for six long months."

"And what became of Anya?" I enquired.

"Ever the romantic, Watson!" Holmes smiled at me. "When I returned in '94, Anya was working for Trevor on his estate, and her son was a fit and healthy six year old. I even, you will be astonished to learn, left a certain sum in trust to go towards the upbringing and education of the boy."

His eyes twinkled at me as he reached for the bottle.

"Would you care for another brandy, Watson?" he asked.

Holmes was never comfortable in the company of women. There is no evidence that he spent any social time with Watson and his wife after their marriage except for the very occasional call forced upon him by business. Only once did Holmes meet a woman whom he believed was his intellectual equal, and that was Irene Adler, whose case is recounted in "A Scandal in Bohemia".

It was after this case that Watson became closely involved with Holmes again, suggesting that either the gloss of his marriage had started to dull, or that Mary Morstan was remarkably understanding. For a period Holmes was involved in a number of small cases many of which he felt were important but lacked interest. Some were clearly bizarre. He refers to the Dundas separation case in which the husband had developed the habit of hurling his false teeth at his wife after every meal. None of these cases appear to have been written up, either because Watson was not around or Holmes rapidly lost interest in them.All that is, except one,"Th e Adventure of the Fallen Star". This began as one of those minor cases, which Holmes almost overlooked when he became wrapped up in "A Case of Identity", but soon after events unravelled themselves which presented Holmes a singularly unusual case. Its facts were unearthed by Simon Clark.

"My dear fellow, you are puzzled; admit it," demanded Sherlock Holmes, as we sat side-by-side in the four-wheeler being briskly driven through the maelstrom of foot, hoof and wheel that is the Strand on a Friday noon.

"Indeed I am, Holmes." I held up the stone, no larger than a grape, that he'd not two moments before handed to me. "You pass me a little pebble and ask me what I make of it."

"Yes."

"Well, I confess I make nothing of it." I smiled and shook my head. "Nothing at all."

"Ha! That's because although you look, you do not observe. Remember, Watson: detail, detail, detail."

"It has, I take it, a bearing on a case you are currently investigating?"

"Only partly. But he's a curious fellow, isn't he?"

"The stone?"

"Yes, the stone, lying there in the palm of your gloved hand." Holmes, in a playful mood, gave a devil of grin. "Come on, play the game, Watson. Read the stone. See its appearance, the markings upon its surface. Feel its weight. Gauge its constitution. If it pleases you, describe to me any clairvoyant vibration that may emanate from its stony heart."

"You are teasing me, Holmes."

"I am. Yes."

I raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Forgive me please, Doctor; I am teasing you, for the case I have taken is, if I'm not mistaken, nothing more than a tease, a practical joke, a whimsical prank."

"Then I am all in the dark."

"Ha! But soon all will be clear as day."

"What possessed you to accept such a case?"

"Normally, I wouldn't have glanced at it twice. However, I am acquainted with the gentleman involved."