Further Notes From the Dispatch Box of John H Watson MD (The Dispatch Box of John H Watson, MD)

by Hugh Ashton

  “ I think we require the assistance of at least one of the three fine young men standing outside the door. Would you be so kind as to invite one of them who discovered their mother to come here ? ”

  I left the room and enquired of the three brothers which of them it was who had discovered their mother. Not entirely to my surprise, it was the youngest, David, who told us that he had come across her first.

  “ Be so good as to follow me,” I commanded, using a tone of voice that I had hardly used since my Army days, and which I knew from experience typically achieved the desired results. When we reached the room, Holmes was waiting for us outside the door.

  “ Excellent. Mr. David Griffiths, is it not ? ” extending his hand, which was taken, a trifle diffidently.

  “ You are really the famous Mr. Sherlock Holmes ? ” enquired the Welshman. Holmes said nothing, but nodded in reply. “ Well, I can tell you that my brothers and I are innocent of anything to do with this matter. Our mother has told you that she discovered the body at half past five ? ” Holmes nodded once again. “ At half past five, my brothers and I were landing our boat, and we have many witnesses to prove it.” His tone was angry, almost menacing.

  “ I am not accusing you or your brothers of anything,” replied Holmes calmly. “ However, I believe that you discovered your mother lying on the floor, having fainted after beholding this ghastly sight.”

  “ That is so,” admitted Griffiths.

  “ In which case, I would like you to take up the position in which you discovered your mother.”

  The other looked perplexed, and furrowed his brow. “ You mean that I should lie on the floor in the same position that I discovered my mother ? ”

  “ Precisely. Now, if you would be so good.”

  Griffiths arranged himself on the floor, his feet pointing into the room, lying on his back.

  “ You are positive that this is the position in which you found your mother ? ” Holmes demanded of him.

  “ I am sure.”

  “ But you were not alone when you discovered her ? ”

  “ No, my brother Owen was with me.”

  “ Very good. Watson, be so kind as to fetch brother Owen here. Mr. Griffiths, you may rise and return to your place at the front door.”

  As I walked towards the front door, David Griffiths caught up with me and tugged at my sleeve. “ What is he trying to prove in this way ? ”

  “ He is merely attempting to establish the facts of the case,” I told him, though I had some suspicion that Holmes had already surmised the identity of the guilty party or parties involved. I ordered Owen Griffiths to the fatal chamber, preventing him from speaking with his brother.

  Holmes repeated his request to assume the position in which he had discovered his mother. Without any hesitation, Owen Griffiths placed himself face down, his head towards the room. “ Thank you,” said Holmes, making yet another note in his book.

  As the brother stood up, there was a noise at the door, and shortly afterwards a uniformed constable joined us.

  Obviously intimidated by Holmes’ air and presence, he nonetheless stood his ground and proceeded to do what he saw as his duty. “ I’ve been told who you are, sir, and I have heard of you, but I should let you know that it is more than my job’s worth to let you and this gentleman here,” jerking his head at me, “ into this room.”

  “ Quite right, Sergeant,” said Holmes in a conciliatory tone. “ You have your duty to do, and I will step out of your way.”

  The constable, who had obviously been prepared for some resistance, appeared to back down a little. “ I’m only a constable, begging your pardon sir. I’m sure that the inspector, when he arrives from Aberystwyth, will be happy to hear your opinions on the matter. Excuse me, sir,” turning to me, “ but I believe you are a doctor ? ”

  “ I am indeed.”

  “ Unofficially, Sir, if you wouldn’t mind, have you any idea when this man died ? ”

  “ The heat of the room has prevented me from drawing any definite conclusions on the matter, and I can only say that it is within the last two hours.”

  “ Very good, sir. I hope that you will understand that we will require a statement from you and Mr. Holmes here in the near future ? May I also ask if you or Mr. Holmes have touched anything in this room ? ”

  Holmes answered for us both. “ I confess that we picked up the dead man’s hand to attempt to ascertain the degree of rigor mortis. Other than that, we have touched nothing. All is as we found it.”

  “ Thank you, sir. Now if you two gentlemen wouldn’t mind ? ”

  We took the hint, and walked towards the door, the grandfather clock striking the half-hour as we passed it. Holmes pulled out his watch, comparing the time it displayed with that of the clock.

  As we walked past the two brothers on watch outside the front door, David Griffiths grabbed my sleeve once again. “ Does he know who did it ? ” he asked me in a hoarse whisper which must have been audible to Holmes.

  “ If he does, he has not yet informed me of the fact.” I disengaged myself from his grasp, and followed Holmes to our lodging.

  Our landlady, Mrs. Williams, told us that Mrs. Griffiths had gone to the house of her sister, at the other end of the village, but had left word that she was willing to answer any questions that Holmes or I might see fit to put to her.

  “ I don’t suppose you two gentlemen will require any tea after what you have just seen ? ” she concluded.

  “ On the contrary,” Holmes told her. “ I am sorry to say that I have seen enough of death by violence that it fails to upset me. And Watson here has served with the Army in India, and from what he says, he is even more accustomed to such sights than am I.”

  “ Very good. You two gentlemen must have stomachs made of cast iron. From what she was telling me just now, it was enough to make anyone sick.” She bustled out of the room, remarking that she would make a fresh pot of tea.

  “ It worries me that the two Griffiths boys adopted such contrary positions to indicate the attitude of their mother when she was discovered,” I said to Holmes.

  “ What does that suggest to you ? ”

  “ That only one of them actually discovered her. The other did not.”

  “ What if neither of them discovered her ? ” Holmes asked me. Before I could fully consider his meaning and give him an answer, he had placed the warning finger to his lips. Mrs. Williams entered, bearing the teapot.

  “ Well, I hope you have some kind of appetite. I’m sure that I couldn’t manage to eat a thing, after all that I’ve heard.” She placed the teapot on the table with a little more force than was strictly necessary, and left the room.

  Holmes chuckled. “ It seems that she suspects us of being a pair of ghouls or worse. But to return to the original subject of our discussion. What if neither of the brothers actually discovered their mother lying on the floor ? ”

  “ Then who did discover her ? ”

  “ Let us assume that she was never lying on the floor at all.” He paused, sunk in thought for the space of about a minute. Suddenly he sprang up. “ Come, Watson ! We have work to do.”

  “ But the tea ! ” I objected. “ What will Mrs. Williams think of us ? ”

  “ Blast the tea, and blast Mrs. Williams,” he retorted. “ She has already cast us in the worst possible light. I am sure that we can sink no lower in her estimation than we have done so at present. Come ! ”

  He seized his hat and stick, and strode out of the door with me in his wake, ignoring the frantic protests of our landlady. “ To the harbour,” he told me. It was a walk of about five minutes to the harbour, and once there we made for the small shack that served as the office of the harbourmaster. Holmes rapped on the door with his stick, and a surly elderly Welshman answered.

  “ What can I be doing for you at this time ? ” he asked.

  “ My name is Sherlock Holmes,” my friend informed him. “ You may have heard of me.”

  “ Oh yes. The London
police agent.”

  Holmes was obviously irritated by this description of himself, but except to me, who knew him well, this was not apparent in his next words. “ It is true that I sometimes work with the police, but I am not employed by them. However, in this particular instance, it is almost certain that the police will be asking some questions very similar to the ones I wish to ask you now.”

  “ Such as ? ” said the other, suspiciously.

  “ Which boat is the one operated by the Griffiths brothers ? ”

  For answer, the harbourmaster pointed to a white fishing smack close by. “ Why do you want to know that ? ”

  Holmes declined to answer the question, but followed up with one of his own. “ When did it return this evening ? ”

  “ I would say about the same time as usual.”

  “ And that would be ? ” Holmes was obviously, to my eye, having difficulty keeping his temper.

  “ A little before six o’clock. Maybe ten minutes before. They hadn’t caught any fish, I noticed that, so they just tied up the boat and started to walk home.”

  “ Thank you,” Holmes told him. “ You have been most helpful.”

  “ Aren’t you going to ask me any more questions ? ”

  “ Maybe later, but not at present,” smiled my friend.

  We walked away from the harbour, and were turning into the road containing the house where we were lodging, when I directed Holmes’ attention to the figure in the road ahead of us. “ It is the Griffiths daughter, Gwen ! ”

  “ We must hurry,” was his response, quickening his pace to overtake the young girl.

  When we caught up with her, it was obvious to my eye that she was in some kind of shocked state. Her face was pale, and her breathing was irregular.

  “ What do you two gentlemen want ? ” she demanded of us defiantly. “ I had nothing to do with it, I tell you.”

  “ My dear young lady,” said Holmes smoothly. “ No one is accusing you of anything. Please put your mind at rest, and answer two simple questions for me, if you would.”

  “ I’m not going to say anything that’ll put anyone else in trouble. If you want to know where I’ve just come from, I’ve been with Dai Edwards, and he and his mother and father will tell you the same.”

  “ I wouldn’t doubt you for the world,” Holmes told her. “ Thank you for answering one of my questions,” he smiled.

  “ What was the other one, then ? ”

  “ I was just going to ask you what time you left your house to visit Mr. Edwards.”

  At this, the girl looked sulky. “ Don’t know exactly. I don’t have a watch, you know.”

  “ No matter. May I give you a warning ? ”

  She looked at him through narrowed eyes. “ What ? ”

  “ When you go back to your house, you will find that a very unpleasant event has occurred. I would advise you not to go straight back home, but to visit Mrs. Williams at her house, or preferably, your mother is with her sister, I have been told. You may prefer to visit her there. But I would strongly advise that you do not go straight to your house.”

  “ You know something that you are not telling me, don’t you ? ”

  Rather than replying directly, Holmes simply repeated his advice that the girl should make her way to her aunt’s house, rather than her own. She thanked him for this, though her puzzlement was obvious, and turned to go in the direction from which she had first come.

  “ And what do you make of that ? ” I asked Holmes.

  “ I’m certain that she was with her sweetheart,” Holmes replied. “ I think it would be instructive for us to pay a visit there.”

  We made enquiries as to the whereabouts of the house of Mr. Dai Edwards, and a walk of a few minutes found us outside his door. However, an older man, whom we took to be the father of the sweetheart of the young girl, steadfastly refused to answer our questions. Indeed, we had no way of knowing whether he understood us at all, given that he showed no signs of comprehension, and responded to our queries only in Welsh.

  “ Highly frustrating,” I grumbled to Holmes as we trudged our way back to the main street of the village.

  Holmes started to reply, but suddenly held up his hand and we stopped. The noise of footsteps behind us grew louder, and a young man, of Herculean build, came running to meet us.

  “ Excuse me, gentlemen, but I heard that you were talking to my father. I am sorry, but he hardly understands any English at all, and he is not well disposed towards strangers. Maybe I can be of assistance ? ”

  “ Thank you very much for your offer,” Holmes said. “ I believe you are engaged to be married to Miss Gwen Griffiths ? ”

  The young man twisted his hands in some embarrassment, and his handsome face flushed red. “ I would not exactly say that we were engaged to be married, but there is an understanding between us, you might say.”

  “ It is nothing to be ashamed of,” Holmes reassured him. “ We were talking to Miss Williams a little while ago, and she told us that she had visited you at your house.”

  “ That is correct.”

  “ May I ask at what time she arrived at your house ? ”

  The other’s face flushed an even deeper red, which I had not believed to be possible. “ I cannot answer that question,” he mumbled.

  “ Cannot, or will not ? ” asked my friend, but despite his words, there was no malice in the tone.

  “ I cannot,” Edwards stated in a firmer tone. “ I gave my word to Gwen that I would not say that to anyone, unless I was under oath in court.”

  “ Your loyalty does you proud,” said Holmes. “ I will not press the matter further. Thank you for your candour in this.”

  So saying, we shook hands with young Edwards, who returned in the direction of his house, and we resumed our path to our lodging.

  “ If the young lady required him to make that promise, including the exception that if he was under oath in court, then we must believe that something is being concealed.”

  “ And what would you believe that something to be ? ” Holmes asked me in return.

  “ Despite the fact that the Griffiths brothers seem unable to account for the disposition of their mother when they discovered her, the evidence of the harbourmaster and all the other fishermen who saw their boat return must make them innocent. Having seen young Edwards, and listened to his story, can we believe that it is any other than he ? Consider, Fuller was probably paying his unwelcome attentions to Miss Griffiths. Edwards calls at the house, maybe by appointment, or maybe the visit was unannounced. In any case he witnesses what he sees as an unforgivable act committed against his beloved. He knows the house, having been a constant visitor. He knows a place where he can remain concealed, and he waits till his victim is seated and unsuspecting before he falls on him with a jack-knife and in a fit of passion repeatedly stabs him, before making his escape, taking Miss Griffiths with him. Mrs. Griffiths brings in the tea, sees the gory scene before her, and falls in a faint until she is revived by her returning sons, who not unnaturally are confused about the details of the discovery.”

  “ Well, well, Watson. I must applaud you on your application of logic to the facts that you have observed.”

  “ Then I am correct ? ”

  “ No, you are completely in error. You have failed to observe several very significant facts, the presence of which serves to completely overturn your idea. But,” observing my crestfallen face, “ you have come to your conclusion, incomplete though it may be, in a most workmanlike and competent manner at a speed which greatly exceeds that of the average police blockhead. Had you only taken the trouble to look a little more carefully at certain objects in the room, no doubt you would have reached the correct conclusion.”

  “ In other words, the conclusion you have reached ? ” I asked, more than a little bitterly. Sherlock Holmes, though he was not always aware of the fact, was sometimes more than a little cutting in his criticism of others.

  On this occasion, however, my tone of voice r
egistered with him. “ I apologise, Watson. Your analysis is indeed excellent as far as it goes. The fact that it did not go far enough is more a matter of my habits than any deficiency of yours. Fear not, all will be explained soon enough.” He clapped me on the shoulder in a friendly fashion, and it was hard for me to maintain my resentment, given his conciliatory attitude.

  On our arrival at our lodgings, we discovered a small portly man in an ill fitting bowler hat waiting in the drawing room. He introduced himself as Inspector Evans, and greeted Sherlock Holmes coldly enough.

  “ I think that we have solved this case, thank you very much, Mr. Holmes,” were almost his first words to us. “ It’s the girl’s sweetheart, Dai Edwards. Jealousy at her flirting with the sophisticated visitor. We’ll have him arrested and in court within the hour.”

  “ How very interesting that you should think that way,” Holmes said to him. “ Dr. Watson here was saying much the same thing.”

  “ How gratifying to have London confirming my deductions,” said the policeman.

  “ This part of London finds your deductions to be completely in error,” Holmes answered him. “ If you arrest young Edwards, you will be a laughing stock all the way from Harlech to Cardiff.” These words seemed to take the inspector aback.

  “ Then whom do you suspect ? ” he asked, obviously less sure of himself than he had been previously.

  “ I suspect no one,” Holmes answered equably, putting a slight emphasis on the word “ suspect”. “ I am positive that I know the identity of the murderers.”

  “ If you are thinking the Griffiths lads are guilty of the crime, then I have to tell you that you are mistaken. They were out at sea in their boat when the murder was committed.”

  “ On the contrary. They were in the room when the murder was committed, because they were the ones committing the murder,” asserted Holmes. “ I take it you have examined the scene of the murder ? ”

  “ Of course.”

  “ You observed the spots of blood on the tablecloth ? ”

  “ I did indeed.”

  “ Did you also observe that some of those spots lay under the rim of the plate, in such a location that they could not have been made when the plate was in that position ? I remember one of the bloodstains being half under the plate. There is no way that that could have occurred unless the plate had been placed over the bloodstain after it had been made.”