Free Sherlock Holmes Murder Most Foul by Gordon Punter

Brady Street from where both men had come. Her legs were slightly apart and her skirt had been raised. The two men had crouched, touched her hands, agreeing that she felt cold. Neither of them detected breathing. Concerned that they might be late for work, they decided to leave the body and report its location to the first policeman that they might encounter. To preserve the modesty of the woman, Cross had pulled down her skirt and walked off with Paul towards White’s Row. At the junction of Baker’s Row, Hanbury Street and Old Montague Street, Paul and Cross had met and reported their find to Police Constable Jonas Mizen who, allowing both men to continue their journey to work, had hurriedly strode off to investigate their find.
    At about 3. 45 a.m., seconds after Cross and Paul had left to find a policeman, Police Constable Neil had entered the street, also from Brady Street, and had found the woman for himself. He saw that the throat of the woman had been cut and that blood still trickled from the wound.
    Some fifteen minutes later, Police Sergeant Kirby arrived to assist Neil and had immediately knocked on the door of New Cottage, the first house adjoining Brown’s Stable Yard. The occupant of the house, Mrs Emma Green, had informed Kirby that she and her family of two daughters and a son had heard nothing, even though the body lay to the side of her ground-floor street window. At 4 a.m., having been roused by Constable Thain, Dr Rees Llewellyn arrived and, after making a quick examination of the woman, pronounced life extinct, placing the earliest time of her death at about 3. 30 a.m.
     
    ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
     
    Amid the pouring rain, a hansom cab slows to a halt beside the kerb of a wide pavement in Whitechapel Road. Opening its two front folding doors, Holmes leaps from the vehicle and strides across the wet pavement to the arched entrance of an alleyway sandwiched between a shabby pawnbroker’s shop to the left and a butcher’s shop to the right.
    Hopping out of the cab and seeing Holmes disappearing into the alleyway, Watson tosses a coin to the cabby seated in his sprung seat, above and behind the vehicle.
    Quickly removing his [92] billycock hat, the cabby catches the coin in it, “Much obliged, guv’nor.” He indicates the alleyway, “’E’s in a bleedin’ ’urry, ain’t ’e?”
    Agreeing with his remark, Watson wearily smiles, “Yes, rather.”
    Turning on his heel, he hurries after Holmes.
    Taking the coin from his hat, the cabby shouts, “Oi, d’yer want me t’ wait fer yer?”
    Ignoring the question, Watson dashes across the pavement, enters the dismal alleyway and, confronted by near total darkness, abruptly halts.
    He squints, peering into the gloom, “Holmes?”
    Ahead, but unseen, Holmes quietly replies, “Yes, Watson, this way.”
    Watson begins to perspire, “I think our response to your fanciful premonition has gone a bit too far, Holmes.”
    Holmes whispers, “Hush, Watson, restrain yourself, walk towards me.”
    Watson shivers and groans, “I abhor confined spaces, Holmes, especially those that are dark. They make me feel entombed.”
    Holmes whispers again, “Please, Watson, time is but short. Put aside your fear, summon your courage and, as the crow flies, walk forward in a straight line.”
    Nervously placing the palm of his hand upon a piece of slimy brickwork and fingering its contour, Watson inches his way through the darkness and, emerging from the murkiness of the alleyway, spots the shadowy figure of Holmes, standing up ahead by the steps of a short cast-iron foot-bridge.
    Watson hurries forward, “My fears can be insufferable at times, Holmes.”
    Holmes places a comforting hand on his shoulder, “We, all of us, harbour demons of the mind that are there to be conquered. You did well, Watson.”
    Watson calms and indicates the foot-bridge, “Curious width, Holmes. Wide enough for a [93] costermonger’s barrow.”
    With the tip of his walking cane, Holmes quietly