Art in the Blood Read online

  Art in the Blood

  A SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURE

  BONNIE MACBIRD

  Copyright

  This book is a new and original work of fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson, and other fictional characters that were first introduced to the world in 1887 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, all of which are now in the public domain. The characters are used by the author solely for the purpose of story-telling and not as trademarks. This book is independently authored and published, and is not sponsored or endorsed by, or associated in any way with, Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. or any other party claiming trademark rights in any of the characters in the Sherlock Holmes canon.

  COLLINS CRIME CLUB

  An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  Published by HarperColl‌insPublishers 2015

  Copyright © Bonnie MacBird 2015

  All rights reserved

  Drop Cap design © Colbalt C Creative 2015

  Bonnie MacBird asserts the moral right

  to be identified as the author of this work.

  Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

  A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

  Source ISBN: 9780008129668

  Ebook Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 9780008129682

  Version: 2015-08-05

  Dedication

  For Alan

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Preface

  Part One: Out of the Darkness

  Chapter 1: Ignition

  Chapter 2: En Route

  Part Two: The City of Light

  Chapter 3: We Meet Our Client

  Chapter 4: Le Louvre

  Chapter 5: Les Oeufs

  Chapter 6: Le Chat Noir

  Part Three: The Lines Are Drawn

  Chapter 7: Attack!

  Chapter 8: A Slippery Slope

  Chapter 9: L’Artiste en Danger

  Chapter 10: Mlle la Victoire’s Story

  Part Four: Behind the Scenes

  Chapter 11: Baker Street Irregularities

  Chapter 12: Suspension Bridge

  Chapter 13: Mycroft

  Chapter 14: Armed With Lies

  Part Five: Belly of the Whale

  Chapter 15: Arrival

  Chapter 16: Repairs Needed

  Chapter 17: In the Bosom of the Family

  Chapter 18: First Look

  Part Six: Darkness Descends

  Chapter 19: Murder!

  Chapter 20: The Chambermaid

  Chapter 21: On the Ledge

  Chapter 22: A Terrible Mistake

  Part Seven: Tangled Threads

  Chapter 23: Terror Looms

  Chapter 24: Watson Investigates

  Chapter 25: Vidocq’s Story

  Part Eight: The Wash of Black

  Chapter 26: Man Down

  Chapter 27: Blood Brothers

  Chapter 28: The Winged Victory

  Part Nine: 221b

  Chapter 29: London Bound

  Chapter 30: Renewal

  Acknowledgements

  About the Publisher

  Preface

  During the Olympic summer of 2012, while researching some Victorian medical information at the Wellcome Library, I chanced upon a discovery so astounding that it completely altered my course. After requesting several old volumes, I was brought a small, dusty selection, some so fragile that they were held together by delicate linen ribbons.

  Untying the largest, a treatise on the usage of cocaine, I discovered a thick sheaf of folded and yellowed papers had been tied to the back.

  I opened the pages carefully and spread them before me. The handwriting was strangely familiar. Was I seeing clearly? I turned back the cover of the book; on the title page, in faded ink, was inscribed the original owner’s name: Dr John H. Watson.

  And there, on these crumbling sheets of paper, was an unpublished, full-length adventure written by this same Dr Watson – featuring his friend, Sherlock Holmes.

  But why had this case not been published with the others so long ago? I can only surmise that it is because the story, longer and perhaps more detailed than most, reveals a certain vulnerability in his friend’s character which might have endangered Holmes by its publication during their active years. Or perhaps Holmes, upon reading it, simply forbade its publication.

  A third possibility, of course, is that Dr Watson absent-mindedly folded up his manuscript and, for unknown reasons, tied it to the back of this book. He then either lost or forgot about it. And so I share this tale with you, but with the following caveat.

  Over time, perhaps from moisture and fading, a number of passages have become unreadable, and I have endeavoured to reconstruct what seemed to be missing from them. If there are any mistakes of style or historical inaccuracies, please ascribe these to my inability to fill in places where the writing had become indecipherable.

  I hope you share my enthusiasm. As Nicholas Meyer, discoverer of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The West End Horror, and The Canary Trainer said recently for himself, and all fellow lovers of Conan Doyle – ‘We can never get enough!’

  Perhaps there are more stories yet to be found. Let’s keep looking. Meanwhile, sit down by the fire now, and draw near for just one more.

  PART ONE

  OUT OF THE DARKNESS

  ‘I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.’

  Thomas Carlyle

  CHAPTER 1

  Ignition

  y dear friend Sherlock Holmes once said, ‘Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.’ And so it was for him. In my numerous accounts of the adventures we shared, I have mentioned his violin playing, his acting – but his artistry went much deeper than that. I believe it was at the very root of his remarkable success as the world’s first consulting detective.

  I have been loath to write in detail about Holmes’s artistic nature, lest it reveal a vulnerability in him that could place him in danger. It is well known that in exchange for visionary powers, artists often suffer with extreme sensitivity and violent changeability of temperament. A philosophical crisis, or simply the boredom of inactivity, could send Holmes spinning into a paralysed gloom from which I could not retrieve him.

  It was in such a state that I discovered my friend in late November of 1888.

  London was blanketed with snow, the city still reeling from the extended horror of the Ripper murders. But at that moment, violent crime was not my concern. Married earlier that year to Mary Morstan, I was ensconced in a nest of comfortable domesticity, living at some distance from the rooms I had formerly shared with Holmes in Baker Street.

  One late afternoon found me reading contentedly by the fire when a note arrived by breathless messenger. Opening it, I read: ‘Dr Watson – he has set 221B on fire! Come at onc
e! – Mrs Hudson.’

  In seconds I was hurtling through the streets in a cab towards Baker Street. As we tore around a corner, I could feel the wheels slipping in the mounding snow, and the cab lurched dangerously. I rapped on the roof. ‘Faster, man!’ I shouted.

  We skidded into Baker Street and I saw the fire wagon and several men leaving our building. I leaped from the cab and ran to the door. ‘The fire,’ I cried. ‘Is everyone all right?’

  A young fireman stared up at me, eyes shining from a smoke-blackened face.

  ‘It’s put out. The landlady is fine. The gentleman, I ain’t so sure.’

  The fire captain pushed him aside and took his place. ‘Do you know the man who lives here?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, quite well. I am his friend.’ The captain eyed me curiously. ‘And his doctor.’

  ‘Then get in there and see to the fellow. Something is not right. But t’weren’t the fire.’

  Thank God Holmes was at least alive. I pushed past them and into the hall. Mrs Hudson was there, wringing her hands. I have never seen the dear woman in such a state. ‘Doctor! Oh, Doctor!’ she cried. ‘Thank heavens you’ve come. It’s been terrible these last days, and now this!’ Her bright blue eyes brimmed with tears.

  ‘Is he all right?’

  ‘From the fire, yes. But something, something awful … ever since he was in gaol! He has bruises. He won’t talk, he won’t eat.’

  ‘Gaol! How is it that—? No, tell me later.’

  I raced up the seventeen steps to our door and paused. I rapped loudly. There was no reply.

  ‘Go on in!’ called Mrs Hudson. ‘Go!’

  I flung open the door.

  A blast of cold, smoky air assailed me. Inside the familiar room the sounds of carriages and footsteps were muffled to near silence by the new snow. In one corner, a wastepaper basket lay upended, blackened and wet, with charred paper nearby on the floor and a small area of drapery burnt away, now sodden.

  And then I saw him.

  His hair awry, his face ashen with lack of sleep and sustenance, he looked, quite frankly, at death’s door. He lay shivering on the couch, clothed in a shabby purple dressing gown. An old red blanket tangled around his feet and with a quick movement he yanked it up to cover his face.

  The fire, along with stale tobacco smoke, had filled the study with a sharp acrid odour. A blast of freezing air blew in from an opened window.

  I crossed to it and shut it, at once coughing at the foetid air. Holmes had not moved.

  I knew immediately from his posture and ragged breath that he had taken something, some intoxicant or stimulant. A wave of anger swept over me, followed by guilt. In my newly wedded bliss, it had been weeks since I had seen or spoken to my friend. Holmes had, in fact, suggested we attend a concert together not long ago, but along with married social life, I had been busy with a critically ill patient and had forgotten to reply.

  ‘So, Holmes,’ I began. ‘This fire. Tell me about this.’

  No response.

  ‘I understand that you were imprisoned briefly. What for? Why did you not send word?’

  Nothing.

  ‘Holmes, I insist you tell me what is going on! Even though I am married now, you know that you can call on me when something like … when … if you …’ My voice trailed off. Silence. A sick feeling crept over me.

  I removed my greatcoat and hung it in the old familiar place, next to his. I returned to stand next to him. ‘I need to understand about this fire,’ I said quietly.

  A thin arm emerged from the ragged blanket and waved vaguely. ‘Accident.’

  In a flash, I grabbed his arm and yanked it into the light. It was, as Mrs Hudson said, covered with bruises and one substantial cut. On the transverse side was something more alarming: the clear evidence of needle marks. Cocaine.

  ‘Damn it, Holmes. Let me examine you. What the devil happened in gaol? And why were you there?’

  With surprising strength he wrenched his arm away and curled into the blanket. Silence. Then finally, ‘Please, Watson. I am fine. Go away.’

  I paused. This went far beyond the occasional dark mood I’d witnessed in the past. He had me worried.

  Sitting down in the armchair facing the couch, I vowed to wait this out. As the mantelpiece clock ticked and the minutes turned into an hour, my concern deepened.

  Some time later Mrs Hudson entered with sandwiches, which he refused to acknowledge. As she puttered around mopping up the water left by the firemen he shouted at her to leave.

  I stepped with her on to the landing and closed the door behind us. ‘Why was he in gaol?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t know, Doctor,’ said she. ‘Something to do with the Ripper case. He was accused of tampering with the evidence.’

  ‘Why did you not call upon me? Or upon his brother?’ I asked. At that time, I knew little of the considerable influence in government affairs that Holmes’s older brother Mycroft commanded, and yet my sense was that some help might have been offered.

  ‘Mr Holmes told no one, he simply vanished! I am not sure that his brother knew for a week. Of course he was released right after, but the damage was done.’

  I learned much later the details of this horrific case and the ill-directed trials it put my friend through. However, I have been sworn to secrecy on this account, and it must remain a matter for the history books. Suffice it to say that my friend threw considerable light on the case, something that proved most unwelcome among certain individuals at the highest levels of government.

  But that is another tale entirely. I returned to my vigil. Hours passed, and I could neither rouse him, engage him in conversation, nor get him to eat. He remained unmoving and in what I knew to be a dangerous depression.

  The morning drew into afternoon. While placing a cup of tea near him, I happened to notice what appeared to be a crumpled personal letter lying on the side table. Unfolding the bottom half silently, I read the signature: ‘Mycroft Holmes’.

  I opened it and read. ‘Come at once,’ it said, ‘the affair of E/P requires your immediate attention.’ I folded the note and put it into my pocket.

  ‘Holmes,’ I said, ‘I took the liberty of—’

  ‘Burn that note,’ came a shrill voice from beneath his cover.

  ‘Too wet in here,’ I said. ‘Who is this “E slash P”? Your brother writes—’

  ‘Burn it, I say!’

  He would say nothing further but remained buried and unmoving. As the evening wore on, I decided to wait him out and remain there through the night. He would eat – or collapse – and I would be there, as his friend and his doctor, to pick up the pieces. Valiant thoughts indeed, but shortly after, I fell asleep.

  Early the next morning, I awoke to find myself covered with that same red blanket I now recognized from my old rooms. Mrs Hudson stood over me with a tea tray and a new letter – oblong and rose-tinted – resting on the edge of the tray.

  ‘From Paris, Mr Holmes!’ said she, waving the letter at him. No response.

  Glancing at Holmes, and the unfinished food from yesterday, she shook her head and threw me a worried look. ‘Four days now, Doctor,’ she whispered. ‘Do something!’ She placed the tray next to me.

  From the rumpled figure on the couch the thin arm waved her away. ‘Leave us, Mrs Hudson!’ he cried. ‘Give me the letter, Watson.’

  Mrs Hudson departed, throwing me an encouraging look.

  I snatched the letter from the tray and held it away. ‘Eat first,’ I demanded.

  With a murderous look, he emerged from his cocoon and slammed a biscuit into his mouth, glaring at me like an angry child.

  I held the letter away and sniffed it. I was rewarded by an unusual and delicious perfume, vanilla, perhaps, and something else. ‘Ahh,’ I said in pleasure, but Holmes succeeded in snatching the letter from my hand, immediately spitting out the biscuit. He examined the envelope thoroughly, and then tore it open, extracting the letter and scanning it quickly.

  ‘Ha! What do you m
ake of it, Watson?’ His keen grey eyes were shaded by exhaustion, but lit by curiosity. A good sign.

  I took it from him. As I unfolded the letter I noticed that he was eyeing the teapot uncertainly. I poured him a cup, added a splash of brandy and handed it to him. ‘Drink,’ said I.

  The letter bore a Paris postmark with yesterday’s date. It was written in bright pink ink and on fine stationery. I glanced at the delicate handwriting.

  ‘It’s in French,’ I stated, handing it back. ‘And hard to read even if not. Here.’

  Impatient, he snatched the letter and announced, ‘Writing – most definitely female. Scent, ahh … floral, amber, a touch of vanilla. I believe this is a new scent of Guerlain, “Jicky”, in development but not yet released. The singer – for this is how she describes herself – must be successful or at least very much admired to have obtained a bottle in advance.’

  Holmes moved to better light near the fire and began to read with the theatricality I have come to enjoy at times, and tolerate at others. His fluent French made translation simple for him.

  ‘“My dear Mr Holmes,” she says, “your reputation and recent recognition by my government has led me to make this unusual request. I seek your help in a highly personal matter. Although I am a concert singer in Paris, and as such may perhaps be considered by you to be of lower “caste” – caste, an odd choice of word for a chanteuse – “I beg you to consider helping me.” Ah, I cannot read this; the ink is so pale!’

  Holmes held the letter to the gaslight over our fireplace. I noticed that his hand was shaking and he looked unsteady. I moved behind him to read over his shoulder.