The Redacted Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2

by Orlando Pearson

When Holmes confronted Mr Windibank with proofs of his cruel hoax, Windibank took to his heels and we last saw him fleeing at top speed towards Baker Street station.

  After Windibank had gone, Holmes said that he would not tell Miss Sutherland what he had discovered as she would not believe him. He forecast that Miss Sutherland, as a consequence of Mr Windibank’s actions, would not talk to another man for ten years and that Windibank himself would end on a gallows.

  I encountered many cases of low deceit during my times with Holmes but this was perhaps the basest. Miss Sutherland was artless and good-hearted. The duplicity of her step-father, abetted by the feckless betrayal of her daughter by her own mother, was viler than many of the more outré events that Holmes and I saw during our collaboration together.

  What I did not foresee was how quickly events would move on after Windibank had left us.

  The events of “A Case of Identity” outlined above are, because of their trite nature, not the sort to make the press. The events that followed were of such extreme grotesqueness and their causality, once Holmes had explained them, so clear, that only the most veiled and incomplete accounts have to date been laid before the public in the press and this is the first time that the full story has been told.

  The merest handful of minutes had passed after Mr Windibank’s precipitate departure from Holmes’s lodgings and Holmes had invited me to join him for supper. As we were waiting for our meal, there was a tap at our door and the buttons entered.

  “Please, Mr Holmes,” he said. “There’s a gentleman to see you. I said you were about to have dinner, but he asked if I would take up his card.”

  “‘Mr Louis J. Westhouse, Owner of W&M Wines,’” read out Holmes. “You had better send him up and ask Mrs Hudson to delay dinner till he has gone,” said Holmes to the boy. After Billy had gone, he added to me “I wonder what Mr Windibank’s employer wants from us?”

  I could see that Holmes had been taken aback by the announcement, but by the time Mr Westhouse had come through our sitting-room door and sat down, Holmes had recovered his normal assured countenance.

  “I will come straight to the point, Mr Holmes,” said Mr Westhouse, a fusty-looking man who I would put at about sixty years old. He bore all the hallmarks of a wealthy businessman with his high-winged collar and his signet ring, which showed the initials LJW. “We are the largest claret importer in London and deal extensively in other wines - Tokay from Hungary and Hock from Germany - but our main line of business is claret from Bordeaux. We have a team of buyers who travel extensively across Europe and buy wines from wine producers and wholesalers throughout the continent. Clearly all of our buyers are exposed to substantial temptation as they hold the power to commit our business for large sums. They may buy wine at an over-valuation or incur substantial expenses for travel and entertaining. Accordingly we keep a close watch on their behaviour. If we see anything to suggest that they live in undue extravagance, it suggests that there is something untoward in their buying decisions or in their way of conducting themselves when they are on company business. One of our buyers, Mr James Windibank is behaving peculiarly. He spends long periods on unauthorised leave outside the office, and he is visibly distracted when he is at work, where he spends hours hunched over a typewriter, looking into the distance or distractedly typing, whereas it is his job to travel and source quality wines. And he has been seen in Camberwell, where he lives, by an employee of the company, escorting a woman who is not only not his wife but also significantly younger than he is. In courting this younger woman, he is reported to have adopted a disguise that could only deceive someone who was either myopic or not overly bright.”

  “Mr Westhouse, what have you come here to ask me about this for? Surely a large company such as yours is audited and has its own internal control procedures to enable you to pick up irregularities yourself?”

  “As a man of the world, Mr Holmes, you would surely not expect us to involve our auditors with this? W&M is a private, family company. We have no outside shareholders. Accordingly we have no need to declare inflated earnings to impress the City. Our only objective in having Turner Brothers as our auditor is to satisfy the legal requirement of having someone put their name to a set of accounts which minimises our stated profits and accordingly, our tax bill. To suggest that we appoint auditors for their investigative skills or commercial judgement is preposterous!”

  Mr Westhouse paused and took a large pinch of snuff to calm himself before continuing.

  “Our internal investigations have also revealed nothing untoward and I was minded to close the matter for want of evidence. But then on my way home this evening, I saw Mr Windibank emerge from your front door and flee towards Baker Street Station as fast as I have ever seen a man run.”

  Westhouse paused, as though waiting for Holmes to speak, but my friend looked on impassively.

  “Mr Windibank’s behaviour in running from your front door in this way is not something I would associate with the client of a private detective, and if Windibank had committed a serious crime, I assume he would not have emerged unescorted from your door at all. I accordingly believe that you have uncovered something private about Mr Windibank of a nature that we have been unable to.”

  Holmes continued to stare straight ahead impenetrably.

  “So, as the proprietor of W&M, I would like to commission you to investigate Mr Windibank.”

  There was another long pause and I wondered whether Holmes was going to respond at all, but he finally said:

  “Mr Westhouse, I extend absolute confidentiality to my clients and I extend that confidentiality to you now insofar as you have petitioned me for help. I can confirm that you are right to infer from the conduct you have seen that Mr Windibank is not a client of mine. Accordingly I owe him no duty of confidentiality, but beyond that I will have to consider my position on whether to help you in this. I owe you no obligation and your request amounts to you asking me to tell you something that I have already established as part of an investigation in which you have no personal interest. As our landlady is about to bring us our supper, I suggest you return here tomorrow morning and we can discuss whether I am prepared to help you or not, and if so, how.”

  Mr Westhouse left us and Mrs Hudson brought in our meal. As we sat eating, Holmes outlined his thoughts.

  “This is a nice moral question, Watson,” he said, as he sipped from his glass. “While I have investigated many things, I have never investigated anyone to see if they have committed a crime without having any idea of what that crime is.”

  “But Holmes,” I protested. “When you uncovered Mr Windibank’s secret alias as Hosmer Angel and the staged courting of his step-daughter, you threatened to use a horse-whip on him! Do you not think you owe it to Miss Sutherland, whom he so cruelly abused, to damage him personally? It would be putting into action opinions you have already expressed.”

  “I said that if I told her that her step-father had been her suitor, she would not believe me. Any obligation I had to her is at an end. I will have to tell her that I cannot find Hosmer Angel and, as I have already indicated to her, that she should forget him in the fullest sense possible.”

  “But surely you also have a duty to defend the public? Mr Westhouse says that Windibank is behaving peculiarly, and that he has a lifestyle beyond his means. This is precisely the sort of situation you uncovered with Mr Carr and commented that such behaviour should have attracted the attention of the authorities.”

  “But in this case I can explain the behaviour. Windibank lives beyond his apparent means because of Miss Sutherland’s money and because of the cash received for the sale of the business that Miss Sutherland’s mother used to run. His erratic conduct is due to his cruel deceit of his step-daughter. There is therefore nothing to investigate although these are not facts I could put to Mr Westhouse.”

  “So how are you going to explain your refu
sal to act to Mr Westhouse?”

  “I do not propose to explain my decision at all. As I have already indicated to him, I am not obliged to act for anybody,” remarked Holmes. “And if I choose not to do so then that is my privilege. Mr Westhouse has an internal business problem and it is his responsibility to resolve it.”

  I thought this had put an end to the matter and we enjoyed a convivial supper.

  The next day the final visit on my morning round was to a patient in St John’s Wood and my route back towards Paddington took me through Baker Street. I was unable to resist the temptation to drop in on Holmes and by chance I arrived at the same time as Mr Westhouse. Our client had chosen a completely different method of formulating his problem.

  “I would ask that you disregard the personalised questions and comments I made to you yesterday evening, Mr Holmes,” he said. “Please regard this commission as an investigation into a potential fraud like any other such investigation you might undertake. Our office is in Fenchurch Street, so perhaps it makes sense for you and Dr Watson to start the enquiry there as that is where our accounting documents are kept.”

  In retrospect, and knowing now the extreme horrors that awaited us as the events that follow unwound, I do not know how much foresight and foreboding lay behind Holmes’s wearied expression as he replied “Very well, Mr Westhouse. But, more than in any case I have ever investigated, I do not know where this will lead us.”

  Before we set off, Mr Westhouse told us a little more about his employee.

  “Windibank joined us from a firm of lace importers about five years ago. He lives in Camberwell as many of our employees do, as our firm used to be based there before we moved to Fenchurch Street. Windibank was used to travelling to Brussels to buy lace from the manufacturers there. We employed him because he persuaded us of his excellent negotiating skills and of his ability to speak French, which is of paramount importance in the wine trade and very rare among the British commercial class. Since he has worked with us, until his recent spell of unusual behaviour, he has been a model employee. He has built solid relations with the wine traders and buys wine of good quality at competitive prices. He is happy to be away for long periods on company business. He got married three years ago and invited some of his colleagues to what I understand was a very happy day, though some of my staff commented that his bride, a widow called Mrs Sutherland, was old enough ... well, at any rate, old enough to know better. He has sent a message via one of his colleagues who lives in Camberwell to say that he is sick today so he will not be in the office. We need therefore fear no disturbance from him.”

  I sent a message to my wife to tell her that I had decided to spend the rest of the day helping Holmes. Westhouse talked further about Windibank on the way to Fenchurch Street although without telling us much we did not already know and we soon arrived at W&M’s prestigious offices. Here he introduced us to his Financial Comptroller, Mr Charles Connors, a tall, thin man with a cadaverous expression and a pair of keen eyes that, although encased behind a pair of thick-lensed glasses, stared out piercingly. Westhouse then excused himself and we were left alone with Mr Connors.

  “Of course I know your name, Mr Holmes, from the sensational writings of your friend Dr Watson,” said Mr Connors in a slightly nasal Mancunian accent. “But what Mr Westhouse is asking you to investigate is a strictly financial matter calling for financial expertise. This is not some trivial court case and I fail to see how a part-time detective and a retired army doctor can help us when I, as a chartered accountant, have investigated Mr Windibank’s affairs and found all is in order.”

  “Clearly I don’t have your formal qualifications, Mr Connors,” said Holmes in the calm tone he adopted when an interlocutor was proving reluctant to co-operate. “But it may be that I can apply some methods of investigation that will be new to you and which will throw a fresh light on Mr Windibank’s activities.”

  “I have no reason to believe that to be so, Mr Holmes!” snapped Connors. “I was a prize winner in the examinations for the Institute and we are audited by one of the most prestigious firms of auditors of whom I am also proud to be an alumnus. I have implemented a rigorous system of internal control here. We examine the import documentation of our wines closely before we accept delivery and when paying out expenses to our employees any sums disbursed are checked precisely against underlying documentation which is all cast and cross-cast with additional controls to ensure that any expense incurred is in line with what is allowed under corporate policy. We are well-resourced in this company so that we have controls in place to make fraud exceedingly unlikely. I fail to see what you can find out that we cannot.”

  “As you are obviously so well-qualified,” said Holmes, leaning back in his chair, “it is probably not surprising you are a man with many demands on your time which I am anxious not to waste.”

  Mr Connors nodded and smiled as though he felt his position was being understood.

  “And I note,” continued Holmes languidly, “that you have an interview for a new position this afternoon, so I would not wish to keep you from that.” Connors started and gave Holmes a stunned look, but Holmes went on. “My dear Mr Connors, it is all really rather elementary. Two or even three brand new items of ensemble might be worn on the same day as a matter of chance, but your whole outfit - shoes, suit, shirt, cuff-links, tie and that extra gloss on your hat - all are brand new and I note that your hair is freshly cut. Why, you have even gone to the length of removing the moustache that adorned your upper lip in the photograph from W&M’s office Christmas party which I see behind you. I expect you feel that a moustache does not convey the sobriety that is proper for a man in the position to which you aspire. When I see from the diary that you have open in front of you that you have a private appointment at four pm - well, where else may you be going if not to an interview for a new position to further your career?”

  “I shall put my chief clerk at your disposal, Mr Holmes. I shall see to that immediately.” And in a few minutes we stood with Mr Marwood, with Mr Connors in close attendance. Holmes started with Windibank’s wine purchases.

  “How do you know that Mr Windibank’s purchases are at a fair value for what they purport to be?”

  “We receive documentation from the producers and merchants, most of whom we have known for many years. They tell us what they are sending over and we match the description on the documentation against the barrels of wine or occasionally the bottles of wine that are supplied. We also compare the prices our buyers achieve against each other and also compare them with what is available amongst our competitors. Finally we have a wine taster, who checks that the wine that comes is of the type and quality that it is supposed to be.”

  He handed over the documentation relating to a number of consignments bought by Windibank on behalf of W&M.

  I could see Holmes carefully going through the paperwork, which bore every evidence of thorough examination by several layers of responsible officials. He handed it back, saying “I can see nothing wrong in your procedures. Of course, most of the documentation relating to your purchases is from established third parties.”

  Connors’ face bore a satisfied smile and he said:

  “I am pleased you find everything is in order, Mr Holmes. Reviewing Mr Windibank’s expenses should be easier as they are far more about facts on subsistence and accommodation costs incurred than about judgements on reasonable prices for wine. I would stay with you, but I have a number of more pressing matters to attend to.”

  When Holmes, Marwood and myself were on our own, Marwood kindly explained to us the company’s expenses policies.

  “In essence, sir, we will reimburse our employees for any expenses reasonably incurred in the pursuit of company business. In the case of Mr Windibank, he needs to travel repeatedly to our offices in Bordeaux as do several of our employees. He travels there to meet wine growers and traders, to negotiate purch
ases and to review the quality control of our bottling plant. He normally takes the Flyer to Dover, the ferry to Calais and then travels by train to Paris and on to Bordeaux. The travel is booked by the company, but he has a float to meet his outgoings in France, which he tops up against his expenses when he returns to London. The journey to Bordeaux takes twenty-six hours and Mr Windibank will be gone for a week or more. When he returns, he will claim for his hotel, his meals, his entertaining and his incidentals such as cabs and any other means of travel he adopts to take him to vineyards and wine dealers. Mr Windibank submits his expenses to Mr Westhouse, who authorises them, as he does the expenses of all our travelling buyers.”

  “And how do Mr Windibank’s expenses compare to those of his colleagues?”

  “His expenses routinely run at the highest level of our buyers, but in his position he needs to travel more often than his colleagues, so that is to be expected.”

  “And what hotels does Mr Windibank stay in?”

  “The company has a roster of business hotels in the centre of Bordeaux and has agreed rates with these. Normally, however, Mr Windibank stays outside the town in one of the beach hotels, Hotel L’Océan, Hotel de Mere or Hotel de la Plage. He says he prefers the air outside town and he can get into the centre of Bordeaux within the hour. Because these are hotels with a predominantly tourist rather than a business clientele, he often changes between them during a trip as these establishments prefer holiday-makers who will stay for a full week or a full two weeks starting on a Saturday. As the rate per night Mr Windibank pays is below our roster rate, this is quite in order for us.”

  “You make yourself very clear,” said Holmes. “Could I trouble you to give me Mr Windibank’s expense claims for his last six visits to France?”

  Mr Marwood passed over the claims. Holmes turned over the front sheet of the claim form to look at the underlying documents which were covered with a veritable forest of ticks, initials and casting marks to confirm that the prescribed authorisational and arithmetical checks had been carried out on them. In some cases small amounts had been disallowed on bills.