Moriarty

‘I am sure they tried to reason with him. They gave him a glass of sherry and it was when he proved adamant — doubtless he threatened them — that Mr Abernetty took out his revolver and shot him. Snowden dropped the sherry, spilling it on his shirt, but much of the stain was, of course, concealed by his blood.’

Jones had listened to all this with something close to distress etched on his features. ‘It all seems quite clear to me, Mr Holmes,’ he said. ‘But I still cannot see how you worked it out.’

‘It was the three monarchs that gave the game away. Mr Abernetty needed a reason to kill a young man who — he could at least pretend — was a complete stranger to him. Simple enough to say that he was a burglar. But why would any burglar choose a house that was in such disrepair and which would clearly contain nothing very much of value? That was his dilemma.

‘His solution was ingenious. He would rob two more houses in the same terrace and he would do so in such a way that the police could not fail to assume that mere larceny was the motive. Why did he choose number one and number five? He knew that the Dunstables were away in Torquay — that much Mrs Abernetty told us herself. And he was also aware that Mrs Webster, with her laudanum and camel-hair pillows, was a heavy sleeper and unlikely to wake up.’

‘But why the three figurines?’

‘He had no choice. There was nothing worth stealing in his own house and he did not have the necessary skills to open Mrs Webster’s strongbox. He knew, however, that all three houses happened to contain the same jubilee souvenir and that created a perfect diversion. You may recall that my housekeeper, Mrs Hudson, abandoned the tea because she was distracted by a dancing dog, and very much the same principle applied here. Mr Abernetty correctly assumed that you would worry so much about these wholly inoffensive objects that you would never question whether a real burglary had taken place. He was just unfortunate that on this occasion you chose to bring the matter to me.’

‘I presume he left the footprints on purpose.’

‘Indeed so. I did wonder why we had a burglar who was so keen to mark out his method of entry. It was, of course, Mr Abernetty, wearing Michael Snowden’s shoes, who took care to leave footprints in the flower beds. However, he unwittingly left a fold in the dead man’s sock as he dragged one of them off. I remarked upon it in the mortuary.’

‘Mr Holmes … I am beyond words.’ Jones got to his feet but it seemed to me that he did so only with an effort and I was reminded that he had displayed the same infirmity when we were at Hamworth Hill. ‘You will forgive me if I leave you,’ he continued. ‘I must make an arrest.’

‘Two arrests, Inspector, for Mrs Abernetty was clearly an accessory to the crime.’

‘Indeed so.’ Jones examined Holmes one last time. ‘Your methods are extraordinary,’ he muttered. ‘I will learn from them. I must learn from them. To have missed so much and to have seen so little — I will not let it happen again.’

A short while later, I learned that Athelney Jones had become ill and taken leave from the police force. It was Holmes’s opinion that the dreadful business of the Abernettys might have played a part in his decline and so, out of respect to the poor man, I made the decision not to publish my account but instead to place it with certain other papers in the vaults of Cox & Co. in Charing Cross, affording him the same confidence that I would to any of my own patients. Let it be made public at some time in the future, when the events I have described have been forgotten, allowing the inspector’s reputation to remain intact.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

One of the UK’s most prolific and successful writers, Anthony Horowitz may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His most recent novel, The House of Silk, was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller and sold in more than thirty-five countries around the world. His bestselling Alex Rider series for children has sold more than nineteen million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War ; other TV work includes Poirot and the widely acclaimed mini-series Collision and Injustice. Anthony has recently joined the board of the Old Vic and regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines. In January 2014 he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature. Anthony Horowitz lives in London.