Evil Sherlock Holmes: The World's Greatest Killer

Chapter 3

Watson was shocked at the state of the office of CID's Detective Superintendent. He'd even go so far as to say it was scandalously messy, with stacks of papers and files littering every surface, and piles of manuscript and newspaper as high as a man in almost every corner. Add to that various trophies and knick-knacks scattered about the room, along with the multitude of overflowing ashtrays on his desk, and one could say the man had no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order.

DSI Sherrinford sat behind his large mahogany desk, eyeing Watson and Lestrade calmly, his hands steepled in front of him. He was a slender man with a tall gait and sharp, piercing eyes that did nothing to calm Watson's nerves over the situation he found himself in.

"Murder!" cried Lestrade. "We found him hanging in his apartment, bloody suicide note clear as day, and this tosser declares it murder!"

"Because that is what it is, Inspector," Watson replied, doing his best to refrain from name calling, despite how he felt.

"Over twenty years I've been a policeman," Lestrade said. "Twenty bloody years, and I've seen me enough murder to know when someone's been killed, and when they've killed themselves. This is a clear case of suicide if I ever saw one, and you're trying to make it something it's not!"

"And in my expert medical opinion based on years of study and practice, I can say, with utmost certainty, that this man was deliberately killed by a hand other than his own."

Lestrade looked at Sherrinford, raising his arms in disbelief, his eyes begging the Superintendent to step in and put the doctor in his place. Sherrinford sighed and leaned back in his chair, the wood of it creaking as he did so. "Doctor... Watson, is it?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, sir."

"What makes you so sure this man did not kill himself?"

"During my autopsy I noticed a number of ulcerous abrasions on the lining of the victim's stomach," Watson explained. "This would suggest that some type of corrosive substance was ingested prior to death."

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Lestrade asked. "Maybe the man suffered from ulcers?"

Watson sighed and took a breath. "At the Royal College of Surgeons, I studied a great number of instances of poisons and the effect they have of the body," Watson said. "I've seen similar symptoms in cases of Aconitum poisoning."

"Aconitum?" Lestrade asked.

"More commonly known as wolfsbane," Watson replied. "It is an undetectable poison that causes death by asphyxiation."

"If it's undetectable, how did you detect it?" hissed Lestrade.

"A fair question, Inspector," said Sherrinford quietly. "Is there a test you can run to prove this man was poisoned, Doctor?"

"If there was, I'd have done so by now," Watson replied. "Aconitum is used as a poison by murderers specifically because it is untraceable. The only way to know for sure it was used is through the effects it displays in the killing of a victim."

"So your theory is that Lestrade's suicide victim died from asphyxiation via Aconitum and not a noose," Sherrinford said.

"What better way to cover up the use of the poison than by staging a death that would have similar effects?" Watson replied. "Strangulation by hanging would have the exact same effects as asphyxiation by Aconitum, and there are a great number of details in this case to support my theory."

"Such as?"

"One, the victim was left-handed, yet the noose was constricted on the right hand side," explained Watson. "Two, from the lack of teeth marks on the victim's tongue, I must conclude that his mouth was open when he died, which would have been impossible from the way his jaw was pressed against the noose."