Sherlock Holmes: Repeat Business. Lyn McConchie

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ looked at my friend. “Three paragons of virtue, or so it seems, Holmes. What have you to say to that?”

      “Merely that even paragons have been known to fall, Watson. Mr. Mannison, for instance, is of an age when some men may fall prey to an attractive woman and commit foolish acts. If, as it appears, Mr. Belden’s marriage is indeed happy, then is he not all the more susceptible to blackmail? And Mr. Ainstruther may have some dubious secret in his past. No, what is apparently obvious at first glance is not always true.”

      He turned to the banker, who was watching us anxiously. “Now, Mr. Holder, this is what must be done to start with. Do you have another false scandal you can use to lure our spy into possible indiscretion?”

      ”Certainly.”

      “Then allow this to be known in exactly three days. On the late afternoon of Monday the 12th you shall allow the information to be overheard. Continue as before; be certain the three speak to no one until they have left the building. You will also allow the three men who bring you my card that afternoon to remain within the bank after your employees have departed. I have no objection to your remaining also, but my men must be permitted to search wherever they will. Do you agree?”

      “I will permit anything you wish. Only discover who is it who betrays us, Mr. Holmes, and I shall be forever in your debt.”

      We waited, Holmes patiently, as was his wont, but I less so since I could not believe that whichever employee was passing information would not be apprehended on this third occasion. Yet so it was. The third ‘tidbit’ duly appeared from the Tattler’s pen and we seemed to be no further along the road to discovery of the spy than we had been. Holmes’ men appeared that evening to report to him, and I listened eagerly.

      “We searched the offices, sir. Mr. Holder, he had the three at a meeting late and bid them go straight home after like, so they never come back into their offices. Me an’ Will an’ Jethro made lists of every single thing in the wastepaper baskets as you suggested. There weren’t nothing but just in case we took any bit o’ paper and put them in this envelope for you along with the lists. We followed our men home and I swear, sir, none o’ them talked to anyone nor passed them anything. I were at Mannison’s shoulder the whole way and I’d ’a seen if he did anything. The others did the same for their men, sir.”

      Holmes was perusing the lists, and I saw his eyes gleam with sudden interest, nonetheless his voice as he replied was calm. “I trust you all, and I am sure that had anything been passed you would have noticed it. Pray continue to watch your man, each of you, and come at once to tell me should anything out of the ordinary occur. I would also have you talk to the maid, valet, or others about the men who might be in a position to know, and ask them this question.”

      With that he recited it and his men and I regarded him doubtfully. It seemed an odd thing to wish to know, however there was no accounting for the actions Holmes would ask for at times.

      I waited until the men had gone then I spoke. “Holmes, it is too bad. I know you have seen some clue, will you not share it?”

      “Why not, my dear Watson? Here,” and he held out to me the lists made of assorted rubbish collected from the wastepaper baskets of the three under suspicion. I read them and was none the wiser. I could see no clue, nothing save—ah! I lifted a crumpled tailor’s bill from the envelope and exclaimed.

      “I have it, Holmes! It must be Belden, despite Jethro’s certainty that he passed nothing. The man is married with two small children and in need of money. Look at what he is being asked to pay for his wife’s clothing, and see here the date, the bill is long overdue. The man is in dire need of money and has chosen this way to obtain it. I am right, am I not?”

      “It is true the bill is both large and overdue, that I cannot deny.”

      “Ah,” my cry was triumphant. “Then how shall you bring this miscreant to book?”

      Holmes’ look was sober. “I fear that may not be quite so easy, I am certain the man is an accomplished spy; this selling of scandal is a sideline.”

      I gasped. “Holmes, you mean that Belden is there to learn what decisions are to be made on the foreign negotiations?”

      “I fear our spy may have that in mind. But before that I have made arrangements with Holder to release a fourth scandal so we may again follow the three under suspicion.”

      “He must be stopped,” I said resolutely. “Tell me what I may do to assist?”

      “I do have a task for you, Watson, I plan to walk the bank’s corridors tonight and study the working background of our spy. It is, however, also essential that I stop all possible rat holes. It is possible that the information is being sent by mail. None of the three men have easy access to a telephone, so that if they are communicating what they learn, then it is most likely to be by letter. I have made arrangements with Lestrade that any letters sent by the men or their families shall be intercepted before they arrive at their destinations. Once these letters are collected, I want you to bring them to me that I may examine them.”

      “You may repose your trust in me, Holmes.”

      His look softened. “I do, my dear Watson. I do.”

      And yet I still felt I had failed him when the letters I had collected showed no sign of anything untoward, but the information still appeared, as we had feared it would. However, to my surprise Holmes did not appear downcast.

      “What is it? Do you believe you have some further clue to this business?”

      “So 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?”

СКАЧАТЬ