The House Of Silk

be here?’
    ‘Mr Holmes approached me and asked me to come, Dr Watson.’
    ‘You believed in his innocence!’
    ‘I never doubted it from the start. And when I looked into that matter at Coppergate Square it soon became clear that there was something crooked about the affair. Inspector Harriman said he was on his way from a bank robbery on the White Horse Road, but there was no such robbery. I looked in the report book. I visited the bank. And it seemed to me that if Harriman was prepared to lie about that in court, he might be prepared to lie about quite a few other things too.’
    ‘Lestrade took a gamble,’ Holmes cut in. ‘For his first instinct was to return me to the prison authorities. But he and I know each other well, whatever our differences, and have collaborated too often to fall out over a false accusation. Is that not true, Lestrade?’
    ‘Whatever you say, Mr Holmes.’
    ‘And at heart, he is as eager as I to bring an end to this affair and to bring the true culprits to justice.’
    ‘This one is alive!’ one of the police officers exclaimed. While Holmes and I had been talking, they had been examining our two assailants.
    Holmes crossed over to where Bratby lay and knelt beside him. ‘Can you hear me, Bratby?’ he asked. There was silence, then a soft whining like a child in pain. ‘There is nothing we can do for you but you still have time to make some amends, to atone for some of your crimes before you meet your maker.’
    Very quietly, Bratby began to sob.
    ‘I know everything about the House of Silk. I know what it is. I know where it is to be found … indeed, I visited it last night but found it empty and silent. That is the one piece of information which I have no way of discovering for myself and yet it is vital if we are to bring an end to this business once and for all. For the good of your own salvation, tell me. When does it next meet?’
    There was a long silence. Despite myself, I felt a surge of pity for this man who was about to breathe his last even though he had intended to kill me – and Holmes with me – just a few minutes before. For all men are equal at the moment of death and who are we to judge them when a much greater judge awaits?
    ‘Tonight,’ he said. And died.
    Holmes straightened up. ‘At last fortune is on our side, Lestrade,’ he said. ‘Will you accompany me a little further? And do you have at least ten men with you? They will need to be steadfast and resolute for, I promise you, they will not forget what we are about to reveal.’
    ‘We’re with you, Holmes,’ Lestrade replied. ‘Let’s get this over with.’
    Holmes had my gun. I had not seen when he had retrieved it, but once again he pressed it into my hand, looking me in the eyes. I knew what he was asking. I nodded and together we set off.

NINETEEN
The House of Silk

    We returned to the highest reaches of Hamworth Hill, to Chorley Grange School for Boys. Where else could the investigation have taken us? It was from here that the flyer had come and it was obvious now that somebody had placed it under the mattress of Ross’s bed for the headmaster to find, knowing that he would bring it to us, drawing us into the trap at Dr Silkin’s winter fair. It was, of course, always possible that Charles Fitzsimmons had been lying all along and that he was part of the conspiracy, too. And yet, even now I found that hard to believe, for he had struck me as the very model of propriety with his sense of duty, his concern for the welfare of his boys, his respectable wife, the anguish with which he had greeted the death of Ross. It was hard to imagine that all this had been no more than a masquerade and I felt sure, even now, that if he had been drawn into something dark and evil, it had been against his knowledge or inclination.
    Lestrade had brought ten men with him in four separate carriages that had followed each other, silently climbing the hill that seemed to rise endlessly from the northern edge of London. He was still carrying a revolver, as were Holmes and I, but the rest of his men were unarmed, so that if it was the case that we were preparing for a physical confrontation, speed and surprise would be of the very essence. Holmes gave the signal and the carriages stopped a short distance from our target, which was not the school itself, as I had imagined, but the square building on the other side of the lane which had once been a coach-builder’s factory. Fitzsimmons had told us that it was