Without My Boswell: Five Early Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (From the Dispatch Box of John H Watson, MD)

by Hugh Ashton

  “ Those floggings that I witnessed were terrible affairs,” I said to Holmes. “ I never knew any good to come of them. Usually the culprit went from bad to worse, and often ended up being hanged.”

  “ And so it was here,” said Holmes. “ But I leap ahead of myself. As I explained to the others, I intended to use the borrowing of some tobacco at least to gain a glance at the interior of his room. I had another object in mind, which I did not reveal at the time.

  “ ‘ What about the maid Minton ? ’ asked Lestrade. “ ‘ Well, what of her ? ’ I asked.

  “ ‘ She is the only one of the servants to speak ill of the late Mrs. Grimshaw,’ pointed out Ruddle.

  “ ‘ Perhaps Mrs. Grimshaw had reason to speak ill of her. I have strong suspicions by now,’ I replied. ‘ But I will know more when I have returned from the local public house.’

  “ ‘ What ? ’ exclaimed Lestrade. ‘ What will you do there, in heaven’s name ? ’

  “ ‘ I intend to spend my time enjoying a pint or two of good Lancashire ale to accompany the tobacco that I am now about to acquire,’ I told them, and left the house to make my way to the stables.

  “ Deegan opened the door to my knock, and was affable enough in handing over a screw of tobacco, but there was a look of wary caution hidden behind the smile he gave me. While the door was open, I was able to see one or two items which were of great interest to me. As I took the offered tobacco, I remarked that I had heard good things about Lancashire brews, and asked if he could recommend a local hostelry where I might sample them. He appeared very willing to oblige me in this matter, and directed me to the Legh Arms, a little outside Tarleton, towards Stockport, an establishment which he told me he frequented often enough, and could recommend from his experience. This was not, by the way, the inn in which Lestrade and I were expecting to stay. By a strange coincidence, I would have to pass through a hamlet by the name of Holmes to reach it.

  “ I set off on my quest, and found the inn as described. The bar was full of talk of the murders, a few rumours of which had escaped and were being talked about in hushed whispers. Happily the more bloody details were absent. When it was learned that I was from London, it was immediately assumed that I was a newspaper reporter, a misapprehension which I did nothing to dispel.

  “ The purchase of a few drinks loosened some tongues, and words were soon flying about Jimmy Deegan and his late employer. As I had surmised, there was a lot of salacious talk about the parlour-maid Lily Minton and Grimshaw. Apparently he had the reputation of having had a roving eye, and it was widely put about that not a few of the younger members of the Tarleton population were his offspring. Talk had been going around for some time about him and the maid.

  “ ‘ And that really annoyed Deegan, that did,’ my in- formant told me, drinking the beer I had bought him. ‘ He came in here one night, fighting mad, and said that his Lily had tried to fight off Grimshaw, but he had forced himself on her. Deegan reckoned Lily was his girl, you know that ? They were saving up to leave this town and go and live quietly somewhere. He told me one evening some things about his past. He said he’d done some bad things in his time in India when he was a soldier, and the feelings still came over him sometimes, but he was now trying to lead an honest and God-fearing life, and with the help of a good woman, he’d get things right.’ I have to admit that, based on my observations of Minton, I would not describe her as a ‘ good woman’, but I let that pass.

  “ ‘ Why did she not leave the household ? ’ I asked.

  “ ‘ She wanted to stay with Deegan, he said.’ The old man shook his head. ‘ Women,’ he said bitterly. ‘ I don’t think we’ll ever understand them.’ I laughed at his words, and nodded my agreement before leaving the tavern and making my way back to Tarleton.

  “ By now, as you will have surmised, I had the solution to the case. Deegan was undoubtedly the murderer, and he had almost certainly been assisted by Minton, seeking revenge for the outrage perpetrated on her by her employer.” “ I can see that Deegan had the motive,” I said to Holmes, “ but I cannot see how he managed to lure the family downstairs in their nightclothes and then proceed to butcher them.”

  “ He did no such thing,” Holmes replied. “ Let me tell you of the remainder of the tale, and I can then explain how it was that the crime was committed. It was a crime of some ingenuity and much emotion and had been some time in the planning, though the timing of the execution was dependent on other events. I returned to the police station where I had arranged to meet Ruddle and Lestrade, and I placed my findings before them. At the end of my explanation, they both agreed that Deegan should be arrested immediately without further delay.

  “ ‘ You will need several burly constables,’ I warned them. ‘ He is a strong man, and a desperate one.’

  “ ‘ Will you join us ? ’ asked Lestrade.

  “ ‘ I would prefer not to be present at the arrest. If you feel my presence would be valuable when he is brought in, I will be with you.’

  “ They left in the company of three or four constables, and returned about thirty minutes later, bringing with them a handcuffed and struggling Deegan.

  “ Lestrade called me into the room while he was formally charged with the murder of the Grimshaw family, and his statement was being taken. At the sight of me, his face convulsed with rage and hate. I have never seen a face turn almost black with anger, save on this occasion, and I confess to being frightened. I was in no physical danger, you understand. Deegan was handcuffed, and supported by two large well-trained constables. I was on the other side of a large deal table, and I am well able, as you know, to defend myself. No, what was frightening was the over- whelming impression that I was in the presence of a force of almost elemental evil.

  “ He freely admitted to the slaughter of the family, and it was no consolation to me at all that my deduction of the case corresponded point for point with his description of the events of that terrible night. He told his tale with a kind of fierce glee, seemingly proud of the evil he had wrought, spitting out his words with a proud defiance.

  “ At one point, when he laughingly told of the mutilations he had carried out on the children and their parents, I could no longer restrain myself. I stood up and went close to him, raising my hand to strike him down. I do not believe Lestrade or Ruddle would have stopped me. They, too, were horrified and shocked by what they were hearing. However, I stayed my hand, and I did something which was in many ways worse than merely striking him, and for which I have never been able to fully forgive myself.”

  He paused, and mopped his brow, seemingly overcome by the memory. “ What on earth could you do ? ” I asked. “ I spat at him. Full in the face, several times. It was an abominable thing for me to do, even to a man such as Deegan. Immediately I had done it, I knew I had done wrong, but I could find no words to apologise. Instead, I simply turned and walked out of the room, and out of the police station to the inn where Lestrade and I were booked. I collected my bags, and caught the first train back to London, away from that terrible town.

  “ And that, Watson, is the tale of my part in the Tarleton murders. The whole truth of the matter was never made public.”

  “ But how did you solve the case ? ” I asked.

  “ Oh, that was absurdly simple. I was slow and careless in my thinking.”

  “ It was at the start of your career,” I reminded him.

  “ There are no excuses for incompetence, Watson. There were so many clues. First of all, it was assumed that the family had been murdered in the room where the bodies were found, and that they had entered the room of their own accord. Obviously, that was not the case. None was wearing a gown or wrapper over their night clothes, and none was wearing slippers, though it was a cold night, and the floor of the hallway was composed of stone flags. In any event, what could have brought them together in one room like that ? ”

  “ I have no idea,” I said.

  “ The answer is who it was who brought them together, not wh
at. Let me reconstruct events for you. When Minton left the house, she went, not to her relative’s, but to her lover living above the stables.

  “ The whole affair grew out of Grimshaw’s assault on the girl, then ? ”

  “ Indeed it did. It transpired that she was with child. It was this fact that saved her from being hanged following her arrest and trial. She claimed that the unborn child was Grimshaw’s. When she told Deegan of her condition, his anger, never far from the surface, began to rise up, but it was a cold calculating kind of anger – the most pernicious kind.

  “ The timing of the atrocious deed was determined by the news that an axe-wielding lunatic had escaped from the local asylum. This news no doubt also determined his modus operandi to some extent.

  “ Before Minton left the house, she had used the laudanum previously stolen from the cook to drug the family’s evening meal. It is quite possible that the dose administered in their food was a fatal one. Curried mutton would disguise any taste of the drug. The family retired, and entered a heavily drugged state. Possibly death ensued as a result, especially in the case of the children, but in any event, the family members would be comatose and close to death.

  “ You will remember that I had remarked that the blood was less than I would expect ? In other words, the axe wounds and mutilations were carried out on corpses, or on near-corpses. Once the family had been drugged, Deegan carried them down the stairs, one at a time, and placed them in the drawing-room. He freely admitted to having carried the other maid to the kitchen after she fainted, after all. His strength was easily up to the task.”

  “ But how did he enter the house ? Through the window ? ”

  “ Yes, but I could not work out why at the time. Lestrade told me, though, that in Deegan’s later statement he added that he had carried a sack of coal to start the fire in the fireplace, and it seemed more discreet if this entrance was carried out through the window before his confederate, Minton, slipped into the house through the back door, to which she had been entrusted with a key. Once he was inside and the fire was started, she unlocked the door of the room from the outside, and Deegan was free to carry the dead or dying bodies of the family to the drawing-room. He then did his horrible work, which was in part revenge for the wrongs that he felt he had suffered at the hands of his employer – he provided a long list of such in his statement – partly as a way of ensuring that the victims were indeed dead, and not merely in a drugged state. And partly, of course, to lead the investigation in the direction of the escaped madman.”

  “ And the purpose of the fire ? I had previously noted during your account that a fire seemed to have been left alight after the family had retired for the night. This was the point that you noted when Lestrade first gave you the report in London ? ”

  “ Well done, Watson. Yes, that was the point that struck me. As to the purpose of the fire, it was twofold, at the least. First, he wished to dispose of the grisly remains of his butchery. This is as certain as it may be. No trace of those parts removed from the bodies has been discovered. Also, he wished to dispose of the axe he used, which could easily be traced to him. When I called on him for the tobacco, I noticed a set of tools hanging on the stable wall, precisely arranged, with an obvious gap in the arrangement. The way that the paint had faded in parts exposed to the sunlight showed me that the missing tool was a hatchet. There was also hanging there, by the way, a broad-bladed bricklayer’s trowel, which could have been used to open the window. It is also possible that even a murderer such as Deegan wished to provide for his own comfort and that of his lover. It was a cold night, after all.”

  “ I take it that the strange ash that you discovered in the grate was from Deegan’s tobacco ? ”

  “ Naturally. As you know, I have made a study of the subject, and have contributed a monograph where I clearly identify the differences between one hundred and forty types of ash. By obtaining a sample of his tobacco for myself, I was able to confirm that it was he who had entered the room. In addition, by the by, I observed standing on a table in his room, a photograph of Minton. It was clear to me, even before my visit to the Legh Arms, that there was some kind of relationship between the two.”

  “ The door locked with the key on the inside ? I can see that Deegan may have escaped through the window, but the maid, Lily Minton ? ”

  “ What we were told is that, as you say, Deegan left the room through the window. Minton then fastened the window, and left the dreadful chamber through the door, locking it behind her and pocketing the key. She left the house through the back door, locking that also, and returned to the room above the stables where she passed the key to her lover.

  “ He was almost certain to be called to break down the drawing-room door, and it was the work of a moment for him to slip the key into the lock on the inside, after he had broken into the chamber, and the scullery-maid had fallen senseless at the sight of the mutilated bodies.

  “ As to my actions in the police station, I am almost inclined to show leniency in the case of a murderer whose victim has provoked him or her, and who has killed in a sudden flash of rage. But for killers such as Deegan and Minton, who plot and plan, and execute their plans ruthlessly and with a deadly efficiency... Ah, I have no words I can use. Perhaps it was the fact that I could not express my feelings that caused me to behave as I did.

  “ The fear and loathing that I continue to experience when I recall the Tarleton murders is not just directed at the crime and its perpetrators. It is, if I am to be honest with you, partly directed at myself, and those parts of my nature that perhaps I have no wish to acknowledge.” He sank into a moody silence which lasted for a good ten minutes, during which time I sat silently. “ Forgive me, my friend. I have said too much, and it is unjust of me to lay my burdens upon you in this way. It is good of you to be so patient with a fool such as myself.”

  I protested that he was no fool, and in being with him and hearing his thoughts I was doing no more than discharging my duties as a friend.

  “ Be that as it may, Watson,” he said, cheering a little, “ perhaps some music would serve to settle our spirits ? Forgive my bungling of the Chaconne from Bach’s Second Partita.” So saying, he took up his Stradivarius, and with a dreamy half-smile on his lips, brought forth sublime music, his previous troubles seemingly forgotten.

  -o-

  The Case of Vamberry the Wine Merchant

  “…one night as we sat quietly sipping a fine old brandy ; a gift, he told me, from a certain European family of international renown, the head of which he had recently assisted in a matter of great delicacy.”

  Editor’s Notes

  This adventure of Sherlock Holmes before he met John Watson seems to have various links to the canonical stories as published by Watson in his lifetime. Certainly, the French detective Le Villard appears in A Study in Scarlet. The case of Vamberry is mentioned in “ The Musgrave Ritual”, of course, and it is now quite certain, from Watson’s note, that the extra income to which Holmes refers in this tale is the result of work undertaken for the British government at the behest of Mycroft. It is also likely that this adventure formed the basis of Holmes’ closer relationship with the French police, as mentioned in “ The Golden Pince-Nez”.

  Because it is Holmes himself telling the story, the observation and deductions that mark Watson’s recounting of the cases are largely absent. As Watson remarks, Holmes is typically modest about his abilities. Nonetheless, we do gain some idea of the younger Holmes – an accomplished linguist, in French at least – with a love of disguise, and a sense of dramatic timing that is apparent in many of the “ Watson” cases. Also of note is Holmes’ ability as a connoisseur of fine wine. Though we have previously been aware to a certain extent of Holmes’ appreciation of good food and drink, this is a slightly new twist to our knowledge of the character of the great detective.

  -o-

  It was not Sherlock Holmes’ custom to take an ostentatious pride in his successes. Indeed, I became aware of ma
ny of his more interesting cases only after some time, and it is quite possible that he was a participant in many adventures of which I am still unaware.

  At the time that he related the case which I have recorded as “ The Musgrave Ritual”, he mentioned the re- cords of a few other cases that he had stored in an old tin box. Among these was the story of Vamberry, the wine merchant, a tale which is of considerable interest, though the circumstances were in no way as dramatic as those of some of the other cases in which he was involved.

  He related it to me after dinner one night as we sat quietly sipping a fine old brandy ; a gift, he told me, from a certain European family of international renown, the head of which he had recently assisted in a matter of great delicacy.

  “ I can never see such a bottle of fine Napoleon brandy,” he remarked, “ without being reminded of the events surrounding the wine merchant, Vamberry. It was a case before your time, Watson, when I was still learning my trade, and dividing my time between the British Museum’s Reading Room to gain a better theoretical understanding of those matters pertaining to my trade, and walking the streets of London to improve my practical knowledge.”

  “ Ah, yes,” I answered him. “ I seem to remember your mentioning the case in the past, but you never provided the details.”

  “ That was because I was under an obligation not to divulge them while the principals in the case were still alive. I saw in the newspapers last week that the last of them had now died, and I am now at liberty to entertain you with the case, if you should so wish.”

  “ Of course I am curious about the matter,” I said, and poured a little more of the noble amber liquor into our glasses.