McConchie - Sherlock Holmes: Found Dead

Table of Contents

Copyright 2018 by Lyn McConchie.

All rights reserved.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

Sherlock Holmes: Repeat Business

Sherlock Holmes: Beastly Mysteries

Sherlock Holmes: Poisonous People

Sherlock Holmes: Catalyst

Sherlock Holmes: Familiar Crimes

Sherlock Holmes: Strange Events

To Bibi Lewis, who very kindly allowed me to use her first name as a character, and to Linda Lefau, an ornament to her profession and her companyVodaphone.

I was reading the newspaper when I heard the sound of an automobile drawing up outside. I glanced out the window and spoke to Holmes, who sat perusing a new book on fossils.

Lord Temberton is calling, I said.

Alone?

A smaller, slighter figure joined our acquaintance on the pavement. No, he has a young lady with him.

Ah, a relative most probably, one with a problem beyond his lordship, thus she is brought to us.

As we discovered, once our visitors had arrived, settled themselves and prepared to explain, Holmes was right.

Temberton began. This is my second cousin, Miss Bibiana Paget. Her mother is my fathers cousin. She has a story to tell you, but first permit me to explain some of the background.

And that he did. Miss Bibiana lived in a small village named Ashwood, near one of Lord Tembertons principal estates. Her family settled there when her father, an ambassador to Persia for some years, returned home on the death of his father, to settle into the life of a country squire. Miss Bibiana, the only child of her parents, had been given her name from a Persian word meaning lady. From the age of five, when the family had returned to their native land, she had been raised to care for the village people, that being the duty of a squire and his family.

In later years this had fallen more and more upon her, since her mother has become an invalid and her father is concerned with her care. Bibi, as she is more commonly known, reads to the housebound, brings delicacies to tempt the appetite of the sick, and generally goes amongst the people of the village helping where she is able. Amongst those whom she visited was a man named Collin Melrose.

Holmes raised an eyebrow. She was permitted to visit a man? Alone?

Temberton grinned. Collin was in his early sixties and dying from a kidney and liver ailment. It was all he could do to move from his bed to a chair by the fire for a few hours each afternoon. Bibi would have been in no danger from him, even was he so inclined.

I studied the young lady. She would be around eighteen or nineteen, dressed neatly and with propriety, but in clothing that looked to be more comfortable than any extreme of fashion. Her eyes were a shade between hazel and light brown while her hair was a medium brown with the gloss of health. She did appear to be generally healthy, in fact, and while she was not above average height, the tendons in her wrists were strong, suggesting that she rode, and possibly that she also, in the course of her ministrations, lifted heavier items quite regularly. I broke in.

Miss Bibiana, do you aid in nursing the sick?

She looked at me. I do. Why do you ask, Doctor?

And do you ride?

A slight flush colored her high cheekbones. I have a hack with which I find it easier in the fine weather to reach the outer areas in the village and to visit the outlying farms. We have a pony trap I use, too, but for some visits its use makes the journey far longer. With George, my horse, I can cut across country.

I sat back. Yes, that explained her look of health and strength. It was likely her family accepted that a sick man could not easilyor silentlyovercome her, even if her unaccompanied travels were a little unusual.

Lord Temberton eyed me with amusement. I should say, he added smoothly, that many of my kinsmans postings over his career sent him to rather wild countries. The lady he married is neither faint of heart nor deeply conventional even now, and they feel that Miss Bibiana should not be taught to be over-nervous in her excursions. When she drives, her nurse commonly accompanies her, and when she rides, her groom is usually available, but on occasion it is true that she does go out unaccompanied, nor does her father object so long as she is circumspect.

The girl spoke quietly. Poor Mr. Melrose was in no fit condition to attack me, if that is your consideration, Doctor. I leave Peter, my groom, outside, since the cottage is small, and Peteris not. A sudden flashing smile lit her face. Indeed, he is also tall, and to enter he would have to bend down, and on the only occasion he did accompany me inside he forgot to bend again when departing and struck his head a stunning blow. Mr. Melrose was deeply distressed, and after that I left Peter outside with the horses.

Holmes nodded. Mr. Melrose was ill?

He was dying, Miss Bibiana said quietly. He was my fathers boyhood friend, the son of my grandfathers gamekeeper. He learned a profession and went on to work in London for many years, coming home to the cottagewhich he earlier inheritedwhen his illness came upon him seven years ago. He had savings and said to me that he was unlikely to outlive them. My father told me that he would see that Collin did not die in want, whatever happened.

Her fingers abruptly twisted against each other.

But his savings out-lasted him, my friend said softly, and you do not think this was quite as expected. You believe his death to have been perhapshastened?

Temberton cut in. That is so. I believe it improbable. There is no motive, no reason anyone should have wanted the man dead. But Bibi He broke off.

But The girl took up his narrative. She does not have any proof, or any specific motive for such an act, yet she believes Collin Melrose did not die from his illness, and there she sticks. I really could not tell you exactly why I believe that there was something unusual in Collins death, but so I think. She faced us, my friend and I, a steely quality in her eyes.

And until I know, I shall not leave this be. I have said nothing to my parents, for it would distress them to think that Collin died other than peacefully, but I will know the truth, nor will I rest until I do. I brought this to my kinsman, knowing he would not brush off my concerns, as he has not. And I could see by the determination on her face that she meant every word.

Holmes glanced across at me and then at the clock, and I nodded, rising from my chair to call down to Mrs. Hudson. Once the afternoon tea-tray was brought up, we ate and drank, uttering mere commonplaces about those in town known to all, about the curious affair of a possible spyyet again in the Naval Officesand about the next archaeological expedition Temberton planned. Once we were done and the tray piled with empty, crumb-strewn plates, I removed that and returned to my chair, waiting for Holmes to speak.

He leaned forward slightly, fixing his eyes on the girl. Begin from when you first met Collin Melrose. Tell me of him, all you were told or learned. He saw the beginnings of a frown and spoke more curtly. In knowing a victim, you may also learn of his murderer. Your village is somewhat isolated, and it is unlikely that someone should travel to it to commit a robbery. You have said nothing of disorder in the cottage or of items missing. Therefore, if murder this was, someone went there specifically to carry it out, for they made no attempt to make it appear to be robbery, believing their act would be unrecognized as murder.

Or it was not a murder, is what you mean, she said in reply. You think me a silly child, seeing phantoms where there are none.