She delicately touched her lips with a small embroidered handkerchief, before replying.
‘The firm is Collins, Brinkblatt and Collins of Cheapside, although our affairs were handled personally by the elder Nicholas Collins himself.’
Holmes indicated that I should make an entry of this in my notebook, which I duly did.
‘Thank you, madam,’ I said. ‘I presume that your husband next conducted a search for a viable alternative for your investment?’ I noticed a glance of surprised approval from Holmes at my subtle prompting of her ladyship for, although there is no indication of it, within my narrative of this interview, each and every word and sentence was laboriously slow and deliberate in its forthcoming. Raising her eyebrow suspiciously in my direction, Lady Beasant continued:
‘Yes, Dr Watson, he certainly did, although it was not until he engaged in conversation with a certain member of his club that his search bore any fruit.’ Lady Beasant paused for a moment while she conducted a barely discernible yet clearly painful struggle with the kind of emotions a lady of her class would have been most loath to expose to anyone, least of all an amateur detective and a common army surgeon. This struggle she clearly lost.
‘Oh! I curse the day that poor Edwin ever encountered the evil genius of Baron Maupertuis!’ she wailed uncontrollably. The effort had surely rendered her breathless for a moment, and I rushed to her side with a glass of her water. Regaining her composure, however, she waved this disdainfully aside and indicated that she was now well able to continue. ‘From the instant that the baron’s malevolent claws were embedded in my husband’s flesh we were surely lost. Through his various business connections, Maupertuis knew of our disposing of the estate in Yorkshire and at once suggested a method of reinvesting our funds.
‘Why Edwin should have trusted such a fellow, heaven only knows. He had only met him a few times at their club and had lost a considerable amount of money to him at billiards, a game at which my husband had never excelled. Yet such a casual and costly acquaintance was soon entrusted with the means for our continued security and quality of life.
‘Within weeks papers were drawn up by which Edwin and Maupertuis were to be co-investors in a complex of supposedly profitable textile mills in Cumberland. Nicholas Collins, coincidentally a fellow member of the Diogenes Club, examined these papers at great length—’
‘I apologize, Madam,’ Holmes interrupted in a state of great excitement, raising himself from the windowsill. ‘You did say the Diogenes Club?’
‘Really Mr Holmes!’ Lady Beasant protested. ‘Such brusqueness is most unseemly. But yes, I did say the Diogenes Club. Do you have knowledge of this establishment?’
Holmes half-smiled to himself, for, as many of my readers might recall, his brother Mycroft was one of the club’s most exalted and long-standing members. ‘Yes, madam, a close acquaintance of mine has been a member for some little time and I am, therefore, aware of its most restrictive and exclusive membership policy. This Baron Maupertuis must be very well-connected.’
‘Of course, Mr Holmes, my husband was hardly likely to play billiards with someone who was not!’
Holmes bowed apologetically for even making that interruption, and resumed his position on the windowsill, where he lit another cigarette. By now he clearly felt the need to bring this interview to an end with all speed, and he continued Lady Beasant’s story, on her behalf, despite her obvious chagrin.
‘By now the conclusion of your tragic tale is most clear to me. Despite your husband’s own financial commitment to the Cumberland project, the baron’s investment was not to be so readily forthcoming. The mills proved to be run down, even derelict and soon your funds were disappearing into a seemingly bottomless well. No doubt the baron subsequently proved to be one of the original owners of the mills and has since disappeared to an unknown location, suitably enriched by the best part of your inheritance. I am equally certain that Nicholas Collins, the elder, is now able to enjoy a most handsome yet premature retirement. If there is any aspect of this affair that has escaped me no doubt you will now enlighten me.’ Holmes concluded hurriedly.
Clearly annoyed and somewhat, bemused by this outpouring of Holmes, Lady Beasant collected her composure before replying. ‘Mr Holmes, you are clearly a most ingenious if somewhat impudent fellow. Yet these cold facts, which you have so methodically reeled off do no justice to the very human tragedy that proved to be my husband’s last weeks in this life. The threat of financial ruin, together with the ignominious effect this would have on our social standing, was more than his weak heart could bear. His strong sense of honour made my own subsequent fate his priority and he passed away full of guilty remorse. Mr Holmes, I beseech you not to let his passing be in vain. Bring this master swindler to justice for his sake as much as for my own. Even if you cannot bring him to make restitution of my estate and I am forced to leave my home, I will accept my fate gladly knowing that this viper will be prevented from sinking his poisonous fangs into another hapless victim.’
There was something about her ladyship’s last few words that clearly ignited a spark within Holmes’s cold scientific heart.
‘Madam,’ he solemnly announced, ‘I will use whatever limited powers and influence I might possess to bring Baron Maupertuis down. Dark rumours have been circulating throughout Europe, though nothing, thus far, has been proved. However the time for reading reports and speculating is now over.’ By now Holmes had moved over to Lady Beasant’s chair and he leant gently over her. ‘Be assured, madam, I shall not rest until the threat of Baron Maupertuis has been removed.’ With a slight bow Holmes strode purposefully from the room, leaving me to clumsily bundle up my notebook and pencil and follow in his wake.
During the course of our return journey to Baker Street Holmes was unusually forthcoming with his views upon the case so far.
‘Watson, as you are aware, my position in society as a criminologist has given me a unique advantage over, say a banker, in being able to observe the various, inherent flaws and weaknesses in the make-up of human kind. My own profession would barely exist were it not for these and, it is equally dependent on those scurrilous individuals who prey upon these weaknesses. Of all living beings we are almost unique in our desire for riches and the accumulation of property. We are the only creatures in our world, who kill when they are not hungry. We are the only ones who experience greed.
‘Had the Beasants not possessed these traits then, I am certain, the temptations held out to them by Baron Maupertuis would have been rendered impotent.’ I was shocked by this assertion of Holmes.
‘Holmes,’ I protested. ‘Surely you are not condoning the actions of Maupertuis on the grounds of the Beasants’ own weaknesses?!’
‘Calm yourself, Watson.’ Holmes smiled. ‘In observing mankind’s frailties, I am not giving leave to the strong to take advantage over the weak. Lord Beasant’s folly should not cause his widow to be made homeless and penniless, nor should it allow this avaricious baron to line his pockets at her expense. You and I will help to put this injustice to rights.’
‘Despite the absence of Moriarty’s malevolent hand?’ I asked tentatively as we pulled up outside 221b.
‘Do not presume too much at this early stage, friend Watson,’ Holmes rejoined enigmatically as we alighted from our cab.
As we began climbing the stairs we were brought to an abrupt halt by the lyrical tones of our landlady, Mrs Hudson.
‘A moment if you please, gentlemen. This message was delivered by an official courier, shortly after your departure.’ She handed us a small white envelope, with the crest of the Foreign Office emblazoned upon it. The note within, which Holmes promptly asked me to read out aloud to him, was as brief as it was forthright.