‘Well I must say—’ Mrs Hudson began to protest.
‘Goodnight, Mrs Hudson!’ Holmes called, once the door had been slammed shut behind her. I smiled apologetically towards the young couple when I observed their embarrassed exchange of glances, to which, I might add, Holmes was totally oblivious.
I invited our guests to share the sofa, upon which they perched themselves uncomfortably, whilst I picked up my notebook and pencil. Holmes returned his pipe to the mantelpiece temporarily before turning to face them.
The young lady spoke first:
‘I apologize for my brother’s earlier apparent brusqueness, but the embarrassment that we both feel is harder for a man to suppress, with his stronger inherent sense of family pride.’
Holmes waved this aside with the briefest of smiles.
‘Do not concern yourself with the niceties at such a time. The national newspapers have kept Dr Watson and myself well enough informed with regard to the tragic and mysterious loss of the Alicia and for your father to claim to have witnessed this calamity is more than enough for you to bear. Unfortunately the authorities have not seen fit to involve us at this time, so for you to engage us would be something of a feather in our cap and a means to prise open the door that, hitherto, has been closed to us.’
‘It is indeed strange that you have not been consulted upon this matter, Mr Holmes, but please let me explain our involvement and predicament in the hope that both your mystery and ours might yet be solved,’ the young lady offered.
‘That is indeed an excellent idea, for apart from the obvious facts that you are both from Leigh-on-Sea, in Essex, and that someone very close to you, though patently not your brother, is a seafaring man, I know nothing of you whatsoever! Perhaps you might begin by furnishing Dr Watson and his notebook with your names.’
‘Why yes, of course. It is most reprehensible of me not to have done so this far. I am Mildred Lomas and this is my brother Edward.’ Miss Lomas said these words slowly, clearly bemused at the accuracy of Holmes’s observations.
‘Do not look so amazed, Miss Lomas. As the good doctor here will testify, there is nothing miraculous in what I do, only observation, deduction and pure logic. For example, I have yet to encounter a sailor who has not badly scored the insides of his hands with the scars of the ship rope on which he is constantly pulling. Your brother’s palms are as blemish free as on the day he was born. Furthermore, the exquisitely carved shark’s tooth that you wear around your neck as a pendant is an example of work only undertaken by a man of the sea. The fact that this sailor is close to you can be attested to by the quality of the work that has affixed the pendant to the chain. With no disrespect intended, this clearly belies the quality and condition of your other apparel and is, therefore, of great importance to you and was no doubt, a gift from your father. Identifying your home was simplicity itself. The splashes of mud, on both of your boots, are of a colour and consistency unique to the upper reaches of the Thames estuary. No other town along that stretch of the Essex coast can boast of a mooring large enough to accommodate the type of vessel capable of reaching the depths wherein a tooth of that size might be found.’ Without waiting for a reaction to his astounding explanation, Holmes suddenly turned away and reclaimed his pipe, which he promptly relit.
‘Mr Holmes, I now understand why my sister was so eager to seek your help,’ Edward Lomas stated gravely. Without acknowledging this remark Holmes promptly asked: ‘Since you appear to be more anxious to air your thoughts than your brother, Miss Lomas, I should be obliged if you would explain your exact connection with the affair of the missing cutter and why you fear for the sanity of your father.’
‘I will certainly do my best, Mr Holmes,’ Miss Lomas replied. Before beginning her story she took a long grateful sip of her coffee. Her pale cheeks suddenly started to redden with suppressed emotion as she began her narrative.
‘The Alicia was the last of the full-rigged cutters ever to set sail out of the harbour at Leigh. As such she commanded a certain sentimental respect from all who worked at the yard. Every time she put out of harbour, old sailors sitting on the boards, repairing their nets and tackle, would put down their work, for a moment, doff their caps or wave their scarves as she majestically glided by. I mention this, Mr Holmes,’ Miss Lomas clearly sensed Holmes’s growing impatience, ‘because no number of newspaper articles can do full justice to the great sense of deprivation felt by the whole community at the loss of the Alicia.
‘I am quite certain that this popular demonstration of grief has been a contributing factor behind the maltreatment and incarceration of our father. Men who have known my father well over many years have, seemingly, turned against him and even participated in the heckling and ridicule of him on the day that he was led away.’ Miss Lomas was barely able to complete the sentence before she gave way to her emotions and began sobbing uncontrollably.
Despite the gentleness of his earlier treatment of Miss Lomas, Holmes now found it quite impossible to cope with her tearful display of grief. Consequently he waved me, distractedly, towards the stricken woman and I was successful in stilling her by administering hot coffee while her brother applied soft soothing strokes to her forehead with a dampened sponge. After repeatedly blowing her nose and then apologizing profusely, Miss Lomas felt ready to continue with her remarkable tale.
‘Mr Holmes, in view of the tendency that the popular press has towards distortion and embellishment, I think it best that I lay before you the bare facts pertaining to the loss of the Alicia, as they are understood by the local people. You will then better understand why our father’s somewhat differing interpretation of events has caused such a furore within the community.’ Holmes smiled and nodded his affirmation.
‘Because of her age and yet despite confirmation of her continued seaworthiness, the Alicia’s range had been reduced in recent years, to cross-channel runs and occasional excursions to northern Spain. Her last voyage, as it subsequently proved to be, was to have been one of the former. She was carrying a cargo of coke, oil and twine and a small crew mastered by Captain Johnson, a man well used to piloting those waters. The weather was set fair, so a larger crowd than was usual congregated to watch her negotiate the estuary until she disappeared from view and out into the open sea.
‘Mr Holmes, we thought nothing more of her until word came, from Dieppe, that the Alicia had not arrived, in accordance with her appointed schedule. This was inexplicable to us. There had been no wind to speak of, that might have blown her off course. The vessel and her company had made this very journey a thousand times before! There would have been no rocks or other obstacles that she might have encountered along her route; indeed, the size of her hull and the brevity of the voyage would have meant that she would have to have been shipping water not long after leaving harbour for her to have sunk in mid-channel.
‘Consequently, the only reasonable explanation for her inexplicable loss was a collision with another vessel. The recent inclement weather had led to patches of grey mist floating haphazardly over the Channel. Collisions in these conditions are not unknown although, mercifully, quite rare. Therefore the owner of the vessel, Mr Nathaniel Garside, a successful local businessman and communal benefactor, dispatched a small flotilla of local craft with instructions to search along the Alicia’s projected course for traces of wreckage and, the Lord willing, to pick up any survivors. The harbour master at Dieppe dispatched a similar group of craft on the same mission, in fact some craft even converged upon the same mid-Channel location, but, despite all their efforts, all boats returned to their respective ports in empty-handed despair. After this operation was repeated on the following day, with the same unfortunate result, all hope was deemed to be lost. Mr Garside was left distraught at the loss of his vessel and the families of the crew members were rendered inconsolable.