Sherlock Holmes: Repeat Business. Lyn McConchie

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СКАЧАТЬ you both know, I am senior partner in the private bank of Holder & Stevenson. Our record of confidentiality has always been unimpeachable—but I have reason to fear that this may be so no longer. It is not for any trivial reason that I approach you, Mr. Holmes. When first I suspected something was amiss, I hired a large firm of private detectives to follow those of the bank who might be involved. This they have done for several weeks.

      “I know information may be being passed to a foreign power, and yet I can see no way in which this is being carried out. My suspicions were originally aroused when Lord Calverton told me that it would be our bank that would be the middleman in certain negotiations. Only two days later I had a conversation with the ambassador of a certain power who seemed to know without a doubt that our bank would be involved.”

      Holmes pressed the tips of his fingers together and nodded. “I see, and of course with foreign negotiations shortly to be begun between the power you mention and our Foreign Office, you would wish to be certain of your security.”

      Alexander Holder started up in horror. “You know of this?”

      “Calm yourself, sir. One of the principals—on our side of course—has already done me the honor of mentioning some of the aspects of the negotiations while asking my advice.”

      The banker sank back into his chair with a sigh of relief. “Ah, you relieve my mind, Mr. Holmes. Since you already know something of the background, I can speak more freely. Yes, that we should confirm certain aspects of our security was the suggestion of my partner, Mr. Radford Stevenson. Knowing that our bank is to be intimately involved in the negotiations, he suggested that we should examine the trustworthiness of our employees, since the three who are senior must of necessity know some small amount of what it is that is discussed and decided. This I agreed to do, and together we concocted a ruse that we believed would serve.”

      His brow furrowed in distress. “To be brief, we invented a small but unpleasant scandal involving one of our accounts. As you know, it is rare for a private bank to hold accounts for ordinary people, but in some cases it is done, and we ourselves do have some two dozen accounts of such a type as are normally dealt with by my partner and myself only. In this case, the account—I need hardly say—was fictitious, as was the supposed foreign personage whose account it was. We permitted word of this scandal to be overheard by our senior employees and the results were immediately obvious.”

      Here he brought out his wallet and produced a newspaper clipping that he showed to us. It was from a newspaper specializing in prurient and salacious gossip, and from a still more obnoxious column entitled ‘Tidbits from the Tattler,’ and we read—

      “It was revealed today that the Count of Esslin was being sued for his seduction of a Miss Jasmine Reddingford of this country. The lady in question claiming that marriage was offered and accepted, and that it was on this foundation the Count was permitted certain personal liberties.

      “We have just heard, however, that the Count, (being reluctant to have his affairs exposed to public scrutiny in an English court) has settled privately and instead—for a sum which should keep the young lady in comfort for the rest of her days. How useful it is to be rich.”

      Holmes made a moue of disgust. “Really, Mr. Holder.”

      “Forgive me, sir. But it was necessary to provide something that engendered a temptation to gossip if any of our senior employees were so inclined. The worst of it is,” here he passed over a report from the detective agency. “Because of the very short space of time it took for this information to reach the newspaper and appear, it is virtually certain that the person who informed them of the scandal is indeed one of our senior employees.”

      Holmes was perusing the first reports, and he looked up. “So it would appear. Please continue, Mr. Holder.”

      “It was clear to Radford and me that we must give our spy a new scandal, so that this time the agency could follow those involved from the beginning. Accordingly, we waited a week, then provided new information which was again likely to be known only by senior employees.”

      With that he proffered a second clipping, which informed its readers that a certain foreign nobleman had suffered huge losses at baccarat tables in London and was privately selling some of his heirlooms to replenish his account with cash. It suggested with a sneer that such was the lot of foreign noblemen who—with very few exceptions—were rogues, fools, or wastrels.

      “As you can see by the reports, while only three of our employees could have known this information, my partner and I made certain (by means of a meeting) that none spoke to other employees before they departed work. Once the three left the bank after junior employees had all departed, teams of private detectives followed each of them. I tell you, Mr. Holmes, none of them could have betrayed our confidence—and yet, betrayed we were. This item appeared only twenty-four hours later.

      “The agency could not even suggest any possible way in which those followed could have evaded their surveillance and passed information. Nor can they promise that it will not continue to happen, therefore I have come to you.”

      “Very wisely, if I may say so,” I congratulated him. “I am certain that my friend will be able to discover your spy and explain the method by which he communicates.”

      Holmes nodded kindly to me. “I shall do my best. Now, Holder, I know the agency you hired and they are an honest and thorough firm. What of their reports on the three employees?”

      These too were produced and I can list them as follows.

      “Mr. Robert Beldon, married, wife Ethel (nee) Masters. Two children, both too young as yet to be in school. One maid, Janet Wadel, currently walking out with the butchers’ boy. Valet, John Stample, a man of fifty-six with an impeccable record and reputation. Beldon is a careful man who lives within his income, treats his servants well, and is generally liked and trusted by those who know him. Beldon began at the bank as a boy of eighteen and has worked his way up to a senior position. His wife can be a little extravagant in her own dress, but he himself is frugal—and of recent weeks has always taken the ’bus to his home once his day’s work is done. His hobbies are cricket and the writing of Rudyard Kipling. His holidays are often taken at home, but when he can, he also enjoys tramping over some of the areas that appear in the works of Kipling.

      “Mr. Gerald Ainstruther. A bachelor of thirty-two who lives in a set of rooms. He has lived there for the past five years and his landlady speaks very highly of him as a man of quiet manners and discriminating tastes. Lives within his income, sole hobby being collecting foreign stamps, and pursuant to which he occasionally dines with fellow collectors or visits their homes. No known female associates. Ainstruther joined the bank at the time he moved to London from Guildford five years ago. However, he has excellent references from the Countries and Midland Bank and upon inquiry they assured me that he was always the soul of discretion. Ainstruther takes a hansom home on some nights and the ’bus on others, but on fine evenings he sometimes walks since his house is not at a great distance from his place of employment.

      “Mr. Andrew Mannison. Mannison was originally an officer in the paymaster’s office in India and joined the bank twelve and a half years ago. He is a widower of forty-nine with two adult daughters, Ethne, married to Major Alan Homesby, and Jane, married to Mr. Alan Forester. Neither marriage has children as yet, although Mrs. Homesby is expecting a child in the New Year. All live within their incomes and are well regarded. Mr. Mannison has no live-in servant, but a local couple, Mrs. Culbart and her husband, come in daily. Mannison has no known female associates, lives quietly, and regularly arranges for parties from the bank to attend Shakespearean plays at reduced rates for social groups. His hobby is Shakespeare’s plays on which he is regarded as substantially knowledgeable. СКАЧАТЬ