A New Mystery at 221 Baker Street

Chapter 52: Three Bullets

Alice stood in the garden with Sherlock, John, and Inspector Martin. The flower bed extended to the office window. Some of the flowers in the bed were trampled and there were footprints in the soil.

"You were correct," Sherlock noted as he picked up a small brass cylinder. "The third cartridge,"

"Fantastic!" Inspector Martin commented as Sherlock placed the cylinder in a small evidence bag.

"Now, has anyone heard of a person named Nathaniel Abe Slaney?" Alice asked the group.

"I recall that there's someone with that name staying at the Elrige Inn," Martin answered, "Why do you ask?"

Alice handed him a folded letter. "Give this to him and when you bring him in don't tell him anything about Mrs. Cubitt's current condition,"

Inspector Martin nodded and called for one of his officers. "How did you do it?" he asked Sherlock and Alice as they all gathered in the living room.

"All it took was a quick internet search," Alice replied nonchalantly.

"But the code, how did that lead you to Slaney?"

Alice took out the photograph of the original sequence of dancing men. "First, I concluded that the symbols with flags marked that it was the end of a word. The letter 'E' is the most common letter in the alphabet. Out of the fifteen symbols in the first message, four of them were the same. I marked it down as an E. Now for the fun part: figuring out the rest of the letters was a challenge. In the messages, Mr. Cubitt sent us, there was a single word," Alice pulled out the other photo on her phone.

"Fantastic," Martin commented, taking a closer look at the first cipher.

"In this message, there are two 'E's. I figured it was Mrs. Cubitt's first name: Elsie. This gave me the symbols for L, S, and I. Another message that was found gave me C, O, and M. After testing out a few more letters, I figured out the first message: Am here Abe Slaney. After solving the first cipher the rest became easier. This one is: At Elriges," Alice slid another photo forward. "It isn't far fetched to assume that Nathaniel Abe Slaney is an American. The letter from America started this whole mess after all. Mrs. Cubitt had made Mr. Cubitt promise to never ask about her life in the US; that must mean she had a criminal background. I called one of my former coworkers in the FBI and he mentioned that Nathaniel was of the most dangerous men in Chicago. The last message that was given to the Cubitts reads: 'Elsie prepare to meet thy God',"

"Can we hire you?" Inspector Martin asked Alice.

Alice smiled and shook her head and looked at Sherlock and John. "I'm sorry, my services are already under a long term contract,"

"And here he comes," Sherlock said as the car pulled up.

As soon as Nathaniel Abe Slaney entered the house, Martin's men arrested him.

"Did Elsie set up this trap? I got her note," Slaney demanded.

"Mrs. Cubitt was seriously injured last night," Alice said as she approached Slaney.

Slaney was silent for a couple of minutes. His face was ridden with despair. "I have nothing to hide. The man shot at me so I shot at him. But if you think that I would have hurt that woman then you are wrong. There was never a man in this world that loved a woman more than I loved her,"

"But she found out what kind of man you were," Sherlock said, taking another step forward. "She fled from America to avoid you and she married an Englishman. You followed her here and made her life miserable in order for her to abandon her husband and fly home with you. You murdered an innocent man and led his wife to suicide. You will answer to the law, whether English or American. I am certain of that,"

"I don't care what happens to me if Elsie dies,"

"What happened in Chicago?"

"We met when we were kids. Over time I became more invested in the business; her father was the boss. He was clever, it was he who invented the code. When Elsie learned about our ways, she left and moved here. If I had taken another job, we could've been married with kids by now. I found out where she lived, and I wrote to her in our code. She never replied,"

"So you came to England and wrote your messages where she would see them," Sherlock concluded.

"Yes. She even wrote a reply once. Then my temper got the best of me. I began to threaten her. She said to visit her and that we would speak through the window in her husband's office. She brought money with her and tried to bribe me to leave her alone. I was angry and tried to pull her through the window. Her husband came in at that very moment. He fired at me and I at him, he fell to the ground shortly after. I ran away after that,"

A police car had arrived while Nathaniel was talking. Inspector Martin touched the prisoner's shoulder. "It's time to go,"

"Can I see her first?" Nathaniel asked desperately.

"You can't, I'm sorry," Alice replied, "She isn't conscious,"

Nathaniel lowered his head in grief. "I'm sorry, for everything,"

The trio watched as Nathaniel was taken away.

"I believe if we leave right now, we can be back in London in time for dinner," John said as he looked at his watch.

"Sounds good to me," Alice said as she walked outside and into the fresh air. "You know, I've missed this,"

"What?"

"Solving crimes with you two,"

Sherlock let out a happy sigh and put his arm around the small American. "I've missed you,"

***

Alice lied awake in bed thinking about their most recent case. Elsie's past followed her to England, and it seemed the same was happening to her. Mycroft hadn't mentioned anything about Magnussen since their last meeting after the holidays but she was still on edge. She quickly got out of the bed, careful to not wake Sherlock and walked down to her old flat and to her closet. Alice reached for a small velvet jewellery box on the top shelf and removed the false bottom, double-checking that the small flash drive was still there and intact.