“And you underestimate my investigative powers,” Holmes flashed back. “I also uncovered your option to sell the shares of C&S Bank at yesterday’s price. The crash in the share price caused by news of the gold theft would have made your profit far greater than what it would have been on the bullion alone. Mine is a skilful business and through my craft I have organised a rushed purchase of the shares of C&S Bank. When the stock market opens in the morning, C&S Bank shares will no longer be listed and your option will have ceased to be valuable. I think you will read in your prison cell of a triumph for Northern Bank in its attempts to increase its corporate footprint in the London banking sector.”
Clay’s spirit left him at this revelation and he fell silent.
“And does this mean the trial I have been going through for the last year is finally over?” quavered Joseph Carr’s voice from the ground. Holmes reached out with his hand and pulled Carr to his feet.
“You, Mr Carr, will have to bear the consequences of your improper conduct, first as a trader and then as Company Secretary of your bank, but I think it is fair to say you have not behaved criminally and so will not face prosecution.”
“Oh sir, it is such a relief to have this matter off my shoulders! Mr Clay was blackmailing me about the deal we struck over a year ago. I had to leave comfortable quarters and the enjoyable society of my friends to come and live as a lowly tenant here in Prague Square.”
“Did no one at your bank query why you were living in accommodation so obviously out of keeping with someone in your position?”
“I was Company Secretary,” said Carr with an air of defiance, “and in charge of internal controls. So of course no one raised the matter with me, but I did feel that when I was arrested in the set-up Clay and Merryweather had devised that it was as if justice itself had seen the extent of my indebtedness to Clay and was going to take its course with me.”
“Perhaps you will tell us the whole story, Mr Carr.”
“Indeed, sir, since you seem to know most of it already. I am thirty-one and a German resident of London of many years’ standing. I was originally called Josef Karr but changed my name to Joseph Carr. Until just over a year ago, I worked on the trading desk at the C&S Bank. While working there, the man you call Mr Clay took out an option of a size well over my authorised limit to buy gold. Entering into a deal which we were not supposed to, and which we did not fully understand, was not so unusual, or indeed considered particularly wrong at a bank as hungry for profits as we traders were hungry for commissions. It was, however, unusual for our counter-party to find out about it. When Mr Clay discovered my secret, he started to blackmail me. I found the only way to deal with the pressure was to write down my feelings as a narrative. Mr Merryweather is the chairman of the bank and the person to whom I report. I have always dabbled in writing and Mr Merryweather has always shown an interest in it. When I described myself as feeling as though I was caught in a trap, without telling Mr Merryweather to what I was referring, he said it was almost as if I had been arrested for an undisclosed crime, a phrase which I incorporated into my writings.”
“But how did you become Company Secretary?”
“My position as trader became more and more invidious and it was with huge relief that I saw the position of Company Secretary come available and, in an attempt to escape from my problems, I applied for it. Even though I had not a shred of the relevant experience, I got the position after I made a presentation on corporate governance which was very well received by the board and by Mr Merryweather in particular. Two days later, I was arrested here in my room in Prague Square by some unknown officials and found myself subject to a process of persecution in which I feared for my life. All of this went into my narrative, which Mr Merryweather read, commented on and made amendments to. I also read it out to my neighbour, Miss Brusher.”
Carr paused as though waiting for us to say something but we were all engrossed in his narrative and no one said a word as we waited for him to continue.
“As well as his interest in my writings,” he finally went on, “Mr Merryweather would often talk about the secret of the password to the vault that we now shared. He had one half and I had the other and he would often make jokes about how much power we held between us and how much the secret was worth to someone who could prise it out of both of us. I was always uncomfortable about his jests, but as I reported to Mr Merryweather as Chairman of the Board of Directors, I kept quiet about it. The blackmail and the process of the trial wore me down, but I was determined to keep going as I knew Carr’s option would lapse tomorrow. I would not have shouted out the password now had I not had a knife to my throat. The shame of having done so will live with me forever.”
“Why did you choose ‘Like a dog’ as your password?”
“Sir, when you have just been promoted out of your area of expertise, are being blackmailed so that you have to stop almost all of your outgoings and are subject to what appears to be arrest and investigation when you have committed no crime, your life feels little better than that of a dog. It seemed an appropriate phrase to use when on becoming Company Secretary I was required to enter something with eight characters that was easily memorable as my half of the password to the vaults.”
Jones had by this time summoned a passing constable and between them they took Clay and Merryweather into custody. Carr went with them as a witness while Homes and I returned to Baker Street. Dawn was breaking and Holmes was transformed from the morose presence of the last few weeks. He played some Bach on the violin before we sat down to an early breakfast.
“So Watson, are there points you would like me to clarify, as I assume you will chronicle ‘The Trial of Joseph Carr’ even if Carr produces his own version? I suspect Carr will be somewhat elusive about what his trial was about and may exaggerate some details while downplaying others. His version will probably stick to the formula of his typescript - describing his arrest, persecution and the apparent attempt on his life - while remaining silent about how close he was to bringing the banking system down. He may not even mention the motivations behind the actions of the leading players in this drama and will, like a Government investigative report, avoid finding evidence of any systemic failings in the regulation of banks. If he makes it obscure enough, it may keep professional literary critics, whose ranks I have no wish to join, in work for years as they try to deconstruct it. Your version, I am sure, will be more revealing though the Government may embargo it as it reveals its failure to regulate the city and a lack of commercial understanding at the head of a major bank. I would observe from my work as a cleaner that such failings are not confined to County and Suburban Bank.”
“What did Carr mean by the authorities being attracted by guilt when he was not in fact guilty of any crime?”
“It is worth bearing in mind that in German the words for ‘guilt’ and ‘debt’ are the same. The blackmail ‘debt’ from which Carr was suffering when he was arrested and which resulted in him living in such straitened circumstances should have been quite sufficient to attract the attention of the authorities.”
“Why does everyone from the conspiracy apart from Clay and Merryweather claim to know almost nothing about what is going on? Surely some of them must have had a deeper involvement in the plot?”
“I think that Clay and Merryweather were playing for a big prize and they wanted to keep it for themselves. They were prepared to pay the price to have top actors performing the parts required to give Carr the sense of conspiracy against him. The advantage of doing this was that the actors were highly unlikely to ask difficult questions about the parts they were playing. I suspect that the actors were instructed to make regular professions of ignorance to Carr as a defence mechanism against any probing questions. Someone playing a part does not want to depart far from a set script and saying to Carr they knew very little about the process involving him forestalled further questions.”
“What
do you think will happen now to the leading players in this drama?”
“The authorities can already bring Clay to trial for his previous break-in attempt at C&S Bank. They will probably be most reluctant to prosecute Merryweather for fear of drawing public attention to the inadequacies of some of the people running banks. Merryweather will almost certainly co-operate fully with the authorities and then undergo a Pauline conversion to the merits of good governance in banking. He will probably end up being given a peerage as a final flowering of his career in the city.”
“And Carr?”
“In theory Carr can go back to his work as Company Secretary for the bank. With his combination of pusillanimity and greed allied to his ability to work in very different roles, it is hard to predict what he will transform himself into next.”
“You seem to have an answer for everything and to have saved the world single-handedly from a banking crash. I fully intend to write an account of this adventure and your renown will spread and live on even if the truth has to wait to emerge until long after we are all gone.”
Holmes stretched out silently and puffed out more smoke rings. But a smile ghosted across his face and I sensed he was pleased to think that his fame might outlive him.
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The Redacted Sherlock Holmes, Volume 3 Page 17