Carpé Diem: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

The Shifting Sands of Time

She sat at the kitchen table and forced herself to drink a glass of water, reasoning that by the time she had finished every drop she might be in a better mindset on what to do. All she could feel at this precise second was a growing sense of panic. Having spent a sleepless night awaiting the return of the intruders, she had eventually taken it upon herself to circumnavigate the house one last time and investigate. The fruits of her search came in the form of a collapsed wall in her cellar, and the unveiling of a decrepit passage behind it. The sight of it almost had her collapse on the floor amongst the debris, so certain was she that this was the way her intruders had entered her home,

Sitting, now, at her kitchen table she couldnt for the life of her understand how the police had not noticed the state of her basement, or thought to ask her about the tunnel leading from it. Surely it hadnt struck them as normal? The thought of it made her shudder, for what must have been the fiftieth time that morning. She couldnt rest with it gaping open down there, inviting who-knows-what into her home. Something must be done and immediately.

A little time had passed since her first discovery, The clock on the oven stated it was almost 09;25, a reasonable time to be out and about, and a reasonable time to ask for help. She pulled on her heavy woollen winter coat and headed out into the courtyard, down the passageway and out into the main street. A little way down the road, a shop was conveniently having some work done, its window having been fired at by an air pistol of some description. Directly outside this shop stood a van, advertising Award Construction. Surely this was the place to start?

An hour later Eliza stood with the builder surveying the hole in the wall of the basement. "And you say you found it this way this morning?" He asked, looking puzzled. "Yes. I told you, I heard a crash in the middle of the night. The police came out and checked but I dont think they noticed this. Unless it happened after they left, but I didnt hear it if it did." The builder knelt down amongst the rubble, surveying the hole in the wall. He pulled a small torch from his pocket and shone it a little way inside the hole. "See, it looks to me... Now dont take this the wrong way, as though this hole has been here a long time. See? Look at the spiders webs across the entrance and this wood and plaster, its all dry and crumbly." Eliza looked at him, aghast. "Mr Ward. That is impossible, why I was in here just the other day and I would certainly have noticed a great gaping hole in my wall. So what can be done? Is it something you can repair?" He scratched his head and surveyed the remnents of bricks on the floor. "Well. I can certainly make it more secure than it is now, but it wont be anything to look at." And so the hole in the basement wall was cemented and secured and Eliza, although a tad wary, could sleep easier in her bed at night.

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The Hansom cab pulled slowly to a halt outside 221b Baker Street. The two weary passengers emerged and quickly dipped inside the smart mid-terrace. "Of course, we must return tonight." The agreeable silence between the two was broken by this musing. "Sorry old cock but I dont see any reason behind it. Clearly that room has not been touched for quite a time, perhaps years" He took off his coat and hat and sat heavily in a tatty brocade easychair. "Hmmm perhaps. Or perhaps not. Why the passage, Watson? Why go to such effort as to burrow deep under the streets, undetected, for such a distance What possible reason could there be? No, I fear this tunnel appears most sinister."

He walked across to the unlit fireplace, tapping the bowl of his pipe on the brickwork. Suddenly, he spun around as though not afflicted from lack of sleep. "We must traverse the route. On foot. Some link in the chain is missing, perhaps only visable from the surface. Come, we can sleep when we are dead, can we not? For right now, this game is very much afoot." Watson groaned and rested his head on the back of the chair. "Holmes, right now I am too tired to go chasing your ghosts. Can it not wait, perhaps a few hours? As your doctor, I demand that you rest."