The detective was gnawing his moustache. He was silent for several minutes trying to see the tragedy in this new light.
‘But the threats Knight made?’ he inquired finally.
‘Has he explained them?’
‘Oh, he said something about the girl being ill and wanting to go home, and he urged her not to. He told her, he says, that she mustn’t go, because he would have to do something desperate. Silly explanation I call it.’
‘But I dare say it’s perfectly correct,’ commented The Thinking Machine. ‘Men of your profession, Mr Mallory, never believe the simple things. If you would take the word of an accused man at face value occasionally you would have less trouble.’ There was a pause, then: ‘I promised Mr Knight that he would be free by midnight. It is now ten. Suppose you run down to the Teutonic and see Count Tortino. He will hardly deny anything.’
****
Detective Mallory and Hatch found the Count in his room. He was lying face down across a bed with a bullet hole in his temple. A note of explanation confessed the singular error which had led to the murder of Eleanor Oliver.
It was three minutes of midnight when Sylvester Knight walked out of his cell a heartbroken man, but free.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to thank Ion Mills, Claire Watts, Clare Quinlivan, Lisa Gooding, Hollie McDevitt, and Ellie Lavender at Oldcastle Books for their help while I was compiling this book, and for their hard work in bringing it into print and putting it into the hands of readers. Thanks also to Elsa Mathern who has created just as eyecatching a cover design for the book as she has done for my earlier anthologies. Jayne Lewis has once again demonstrated her brilliant copy-editing skills in making my original manuscript much more readable and error-free and Steven Mair proved, as always, an exceptionally sharp-eyed proof-reader. As always, I am grateful to family and friends for their encouragement while I have been engaged in reading hundred-year-old crime stories. Particular mentions must go to my sister, Lucinda Rennison, my brother-in-law, Wolfgang Lüers, my nieces, Lorna and Milena Lüers, my mother, Eileen Rennison, and to David Jones, a close friend for more than forty years. Finally, I would not have finished this anthology without the love and support I receive each day from my wife, Eve.
ALSO BY NICK RENNISON
Freud and Psychoanalysis
Peter Mark Roget – The Man Who Became a Book
Robin Hood – Myth, History & Culture
A Short History of Polar Exploration
Bohemian London
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
The Rivals of Dracula
Supernatural Sherlocks
More Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock’s Sisters
noexit.co.uk/nick-rennison
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
(Author Photo: David Lawrence)
NICK RENNISON is a writer, editor and bookseller with a particular interest in the Victorian era and in crime fiction. He is the editor of six anthologies of short stories for No Exit Press: The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The Rivals of Dracula, Supernatural Sherlocks, More Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock’s Sisters and American Sherlocks, plus A Short History of Polar Exploration, Peter Mark Roget: A Biography, Freud and Psychoanalysis, Robin Hood: Myth, History & Culture and Bohemian London, published by Oldcastle Books. He is also the author of The Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to Crime Fiction, 100 Must-Read Crime Novels and Sherlock Holmes: An Unauthorised Biography. His crime novels, Carver’s Quest and Carver’s Truth, both set in nineteenth-century London, are published by Corvus. He is a regular reviewer for both The Sunday Times and BBC History Magazine.
noexit.co.uk/nick-rennison
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Copyright
This ebook edition first published in 2021
by No Exit Press
an imprint of Oldcastle Books
Harpenden, UK
noexit.co.uk
@noexitpress
Editorial Comment © Nick Rennison, 2021
The right of Nick Rennison to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN
978-0-85730-439-1 (Paperback)
978-0-85730-440-7 (Ebook)
Ebook by Avocet Typeset, Bideford, EX39 2BP
For more information about Crime Fiction go to @crimetimeuk
American Sherlocks Page 37
