The House Of Silk

thinking it was the very least I could do, but he just walked right past me. A little common courtesy wouldn’t have hurt, but that’s the man we’re up against. He’s with Holmes now, interviewing him. I’d give my eye teeth to be in the room with them, for that would be a battle of wits if ever there was one. As far as I can tell, Harriman’s already made up his mind, but of course it’s all nonsense and so I’ve come here, hoping you can shed some light on this matter. You were there last night?’
    ‘I was in Bluegate Fields.’
    ‘And is it true that Mr Holmes visited an opium den?’
    ‘He went there, but not to indulge in that hateful practice.’
    ‘No?’ Lestrade’s eyes travelled to the mantelpiece and to the morocco case that contained a hypodermic syringe. I wondered how he had learned of Holmes’s occasional habit.
    ‘You know Holmes too well to think otherwise,’ I chided him. ‘He is still investigating the deaths of the man in the flat cap and the child, Ross. That was what took him to East London.’
    Lestrade took out his notebook and opened it. ‘I think you had better tell me what progress you and Mr Holmes had made, Dr Watson. If I am going to fight on his behalf, and it may well be that we have a battle royal on our hands, then the more I know the better. I ask you to leave nothing out.’
    It was strange, really, for Holmes had always thought himself in competition with the police and would, in normal circumstances, have told them none of the details of his investigation. On this occasion, though, I had no choice but to acquaint Lestrade with everything that had happened both before and after the child had been killed, starting with our visit to Chorley Grange School for Boys, which had led us to Sally Dixon and The Bag of Nails. I told him of her attack on me, our discovery of the stolen pocket watch, our unhelpful interview with Lord Ravenshaw, and Holmes’s decision to place an advertisement in the evening papers. Finally, I described the visit of the man who called himself Henderson and how he had led us to Creer’s Place.
    ‘He was a tidewaiter?’
    ‘That was what he said, Lestrade, but I fear he was dissimulating, as in the rest of his story.’
    ‘He may be innocent. You cannot say what happened at Creer’s Place.’
    ‘It’s true that I was not there, but nor was Henderson, and his very absence gives me cause for concern. Looking at everything that has occurred, I believe this was a deliberate trap to incriminate Holmes and to bring an end to his investigation.’
    ‘But what is this House of Silk? Why would anyone go to such lengths to keep it secret?’
    ‘I cannot say.’
    Lestrade shook his head. ‘I am a practical man, Dr Watson, and I have to tell you that all this seems a very long way from the point where we started – a dead man in a hotel room. That man, as far as we know, was Keelan O’Donaghue, a vicious hoodlum and bank robber from Boston, who came to England on a mission of revenge against the picture dealer, Mr Carstairs of Wimbledon. So how do you get from there to the deaths of two children, this business of the white ribbon, this mysterious Henderson and all the rest of it?’
    ‘That was exactly what Holmes was trying to discover. Can I see him?’
    ‘Harriman is in charge of the case and until Mr Holmes has been formally charged, nobody will be allowed to speak with him. They are taking him to a police court this afternoon.’
    ‘We must be there.’
    ‘Of course. You understand that no defence witnesses will be called at this stage, Dr Watson, but even so I will try to speak for him and attest to his good character.’
    ‘Will they keep him at Bow Street?’
    ‘For the time being, but if the judge thinks there’s a case to answer – and I can’t see him thinking otherwise – he will be put in prison.’
    ‘What prison?’
    ‘I can’t say, Dr Watson, but I will do everything in my power on his behalf. In the meantime, is there anyone to whom you can apply? I would imagine that two gentlemen like yourselves must have friends of influence, especially after being involved in so many cases of what you might call a delicate nature. Perhaps among Mr Holmes’s clients there is someone to whom you can turn?’
    My first thought was of Mycroft. I had not mentioned him, of course, but he had been in my mind before Lestrade had begun to speak. Would he agree to see me? He had issued a warning in this very room, and he had been