CHAPTER 11: MORIARTY’S LIST

THE HAUNT OF BASKERVILLES

CHAPTER 11

When I returned from the wedding, I found Jim pacing up and down the room, deep in thought. He looked like a man possessed. He kept mumbling under his breath and making weird gestures with his hands.

“You should learn to smoke, Jim. It will ease your stress.”

“I am not a coward to bury my worries under some medication.” he retorted, “Get me a pen and paper, will you?”

I promptly gave it to him, not wanting to irritate him any further. He frantically scribbled a few things on to the paper. Then he handed it over to me along with a bundle of money. I stared at the list. It made no sense at all.

“A lady’s perfume?” I asked. So he was already buying gifts for her?

“Don’t ask any questions, Seb. Just buy it.”

“Which one? Atleast, give me a name.”

“Do you think I have any expertise on the matter? If I had got the idea earlier, I would have asked Beryl what she personally preferred. But I believe any perfume will do.”

If the first item on the list puzzled me, the second one left me shell shocked. A room for two in Mexborough Private Hotel! What the hell was he thinking? I wanted to hit him on the face. I was his partner not his -. I controlled my anger.

“You do know this woman is married, don’t you?”

He gave me a long stare. Whether it was sad or angry, I could not say. All that I knew, was that I made a grave mistake.

“Do you really think I am an adulterer, Seb? I would never think of breaking the commandments!”

I wanted to point out that he already broke the fifth but I knew what his reply would be. ‘I didn’t kill Sir Charles. He died of a weak heart. Had he more faith in his Lord, he wouldn’t be afraid of such superstitions.’ So I held my tongue and proceeded to the next thing on the list. Though this too was a strange request, it was not as outrageous. It seemed to be some petty makeup equipment complete with a false beard. But the fourth one was the strangest of all four requests. A nice sum to one Warden Thomas Banks.   

“You are bribing an officer?”

“You know that this mission is bound to be dangerous, so I felt a small backup plan was necessary in case things went awry.”

“Who is Thomas Banks and what does he have to do with all this?”

“He is a warden at Princetown. He will be providing us with a scapegoat.”

“A scapegoat?”

“You do remember Mrs. Barrymore’s brother who is undergoing a sentence for a murder, don’t you?”

“You mean, Selden?”

“Yes. Where do you think he will go, if he escapes from prison?”

“To his sister?”

“Naturally. So who will they suspect if something unpleasant were to happen to Sir Henry?”

I understood at once. I immediately left to carry out the task entrusted upon me. When I returned I found Jim cutting the Times and forming some sort of a message on a paper.

“What are you doing?”

“Just leaving a message to our friend.”

Jim went out with the paper and I did not give the matter much thought as I had a late night card game at the Club. I returned late that night.

By the time I woke up next morning, Jim had already left. I spent the day reading the translated version of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and came to the realization that most of my favorite novels came from the other side of the Channel. But my thoughts on the matter were cut short by a knock on the door.

I opened the door to find an elderly man with a most remarkable beard staring at me with a smug smile. I could have sworn that I had never seen this man before but he walked right into the room as if he were walking into his own.

“Stop right there!” I barked.

The stranger turned around and pulled off his beard, to give me a most pleasant surprise.

“Now, you do see why I needed the make-up, don’t you?” asked Jim with a wide grin.

“What is all this make-up for? Did they put you in a play?”

“Yes they did!”

“And what was your part?”

“The one and only Mr. Sherlock Holmes” said Moriarty with a beaming face. 

CHAPTER 12 : WHEN THINGS WENT AWRY