Sherlock Holmes: Repeat Business. Lyn McConchie
I believe, Watson. As I have said before, eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
“But what is that truth, Holmes? The three we suspect have been watched by men you trust, and before that other reliable men watched them. They have not left the information behind them in the bank. They have not communicated the information by letter or telephone. They have passed nothing on the ’bus or to a hansom-cab driver. They have met with no one. They have not left their homes that night, nor has any member of their family. They lead blameless lives: they, their families, their servants, and their associates. How in heaven’s name, Holmes, can any of these men be passing information? They are ordinary men, and yet they are baffling the finest brain in England.”
“Perhaps because one of them is not an ordinary man, Watson.” He said, leaning back and surveying my bewildered countenance. “Consider, my dear fellow. We have here a private bank that every few years may be intimately involved in negotiations with foreign powers. Why? Because Lord Calverton heads the Foreign Office, and this is the bank he and his family have used and trusted for several generations. But the agents of foreign powers are as aware of that as I am. Would it not be a coup for them to have an agent in place awaiting further negotiations?”
“I can see that it would.” I said slowly. “So you believe that it is this man who is passing gossip to the newspaper? But, surely, that would be folly?”
“I think it more likely to be simple greed. He has the system in place or perhaps he is using another, but with the same idea behind it. Either way he will be making some profit on his additional activities, and it may be that he has need of the money. Perhaps for some reason he dares not tell his true employers.”
I considered this thought, and raised my head. “Could it be that he is in debt, some form of that which—if known to the bank—would have him dismissed from his position, the position in which he was so carefully placed?”
Holmes surveyed me with approval. “Exactly so, Watson. That was one of my thoughts, and I have already set Jack and his friend to making inquiries on the subject, along with a further possibility.”
“What is that, Holmes?”
“That some pastimes do more than pass the time.”
I could half-catch at the meaning of that, but I was uncertain, so—not wishing to seem foolish after my acumen had been once applauded—I said no more. However, I continued to think about the three men under suspicion, and at length I came to the conclusion that I was right and it was Belden who was the spy. Perhaps his wife had been deliberately led into temptation so that he might be the more entangled.
I was less sure of my theory when Holmes next spoke to me. “My dear fellow, can you do me a small favor?”
“Of course.”
“Then will you go to the railway station, engage a hansom to be waiting for you there. I want you to meet a man who is coming from Guildford in Surrey to give me information.”
My thoughts at once turned to the one of our three suspects who had worked in that town previously. Of course, I had been blind while my friend had seen clearly. Gerald Ainstruther lived in a set of rooms with a landlady who would see nothing which might deprive her of one of her best tenants. Nor did she have any personal reason to question his comings and goings. He had lived there for only five years, and where had he been before, but in Surrey working at the main bank there.
My mind leaped to another possibility. Was the man the London bank knew as Gerald Ainstruther even the original worker so well liked in Guildford? Could the real man have been murdered by a foreign power while the counterfeit Ainstruther took his place? Ainstruther collected foreign stamps. He must write to obtain them, perhaps his letters were in code and went to foreign agents?
It must be that the man I was meeting had once been a colleague of the real Ainstruther. He would be brought face-to-face with the suspect and would denounce him. After all, Gerald Ainstruther had no family, no female associates, and that surely was befitting for the life of a spy? I went eagerly to the railway station, met the man as requested, and brought him back with me to the rooms in which my friend awaited us.
To my mild annoyance there was no discussion. It was near the close of business and we left again in a hansom to wait on the street near the bank’s main exit. Promptly and on time all three men exited the building.
Holmes turned to the man with us. “There—is that the man you know?”
“It is indeed, sir.”
“Thank you, you have been of inestimable help. Allow me to defray your expenses in coming all this way at my request.” He passed over a sealed envelope and turned to me. “Come, Watson. We will allow this gentleman to return to his home while I lay my hands on the final pieces in the puzzle. I confess I have been somewhat astray for a while in this case. It was not all of a piece, but two similar deeds overlapping, both committed by the same person, but for different motives and in slightly different ways.”
I was surprised that the man appeared to know Belden, but reflected that perhaps it was under some other name that he had done so. This then would support my theory that the real Belden was not the man we knew by that name and who was employed in the building before us.
“Where are we going now?” I asked.
“Home, Watson. But the morning shall tell a different tale. Holder informed the suspects of two things this afternoon; one was further scandal, a very unpleasant tale about the King of Herzegovina. The other information was of certain recently scheduled dates on which some of the planned negotiations shall be carried out. The foreign power involved would like to know those in advance so as to have more time to prepare their case.
“If you have some time to spare, you shall be in at the kill. I have requested Holder to bring the three suspects together with his partner to a side room at ten o’clock. You and I shall attend with our assistants, Jack, Will, and Jethro. There we shall have the men into the main boardroom in turn and I shall reveal the spy in our midst.”
Holmes’ man, Will, met us as we alighted. Speaking quietly, he gave my friend a clumsily written report. I could make no sense of it but the information ran as follows. ‘Belden has his tea with no milk and one sugar. Ainstruther likes milk and two sugars, while Mannison don’t use milk and likes two sugars too.’
We entered the bank and were escorted quietly along the seemingly endless passage. At once Holmes halted to look at a notice-board which bore a piece of paper asking for all to sign below who wished to attend the performance of As You Like It in Covent Gardens the following Saturday evening, with a second ruled piece beneath for the signatures. Needless to say my heart was racing when at last we were ushered through the waiting room and into the boardroom. It was clear to me, as we passed them, that the three men knew some crisis was upon them, and all looked to be thoroughly nervous as to what might befall them. Belden was called in first and Holmes addressed him quietly.
“Sir, it has come to the bank’s notice that you owe a large debt which is long overdue, suggesting that you are finding some difficulty in paying.” He placed the bill before the clerk. “Can you explain this?”
I saw the man heave a sigh of relief. “I can, sir. My wife is young and can be foolish. She ordered these dresses and could not pay from the money I allow her each month, but she was afraid to tell me of it. At length, finding her repeated requests for payment ignored, my wife’s dressmaker brought the bill to my attention and I have paid it.”
“It was a large sum?”
“That is so, sir. But by making small economies of late I have been able to pay it in several installments. I have scolded my wife and I am convinced she will not be so foolish again.”
My mind went back to the report. It fitted. Belden had recently begun to use the ’bus rather than a hansom even when the weather was very bad. The man was—alas—married to a young and sometimes extravagant wife, but he was an honest man. Then my second suspicion must be the correct one? The spy was Ainstruther, real or