It had been several weeks since we had arrested the bank robber. It struck Sherlock as strange, her sudden submission. How long she had remained quite under his nose just to expose herself at the last minute. It occured to me how strange that was although I suggested to Sherlock that she was tired of running. He simply shook his head and pushed more of his tobacco into his pipe. Pondering the subject intensely with his fingers clutching at the bridge of his nose as I drifted into sleep.
When I awoke in the morning I found him sitting at the table for breakfast with a new light shining in his eyes. He picked a piece of mail off of the silver tray it sat on and waved it in the air as if he had accomplished some great feat.
"Lastrade just sent this," He said flipping the flap of the envolope and pulling the contents out for me to examine. "It is a search warrent for her ship. It appears that it is her only documented property. Makes you ponder what she did with all her profits, eh Watson?"
"Indeed," I sat down at the table and scanned over the search warrent. "What do you intend to do with it?"
"Search her boat. From what I gather it must have been her main means of transporation. Perhaps it will uncover some clue about where she puts the money she steals. From what we can tell she lived rather modestly, beyond the sometimes extravagent clothes she would darn herself with."
"That can get expensive," I blanched "Opal waiste coat buttons dont come cheap at all."
"No," he agreed "And yet the sum that she stole over the accumulative time would make opal buttons quite affordable."
"Then again," I nodded as I took a bite of toast "I dont pay much attention to the going rate of opal buttons."
"I suppose it doesnt pertain much to your profession." Sherlock nodded "A man's brain is like an attic and if a man fills up his attic with useless information that he has no hope for using then he has wasted his space. An attic's walls dont expand just as the expanse of your brain can not expand."
I sighed and sat back further in my chair and glanced over at the fire crackling the hearth.Sherlock cleared his throat and I looked back over to him.
"If you had no further inclinations would you accompany me along on this venture, Watson." He asked politely standing from his chair.
I shrugged and stood. He smiled at me swung his coat off the hook and onto his shoulders and we started out toward the docks in nine elms where the vessel was docked. We took a coach there and the entire way my companion hummed the tunes from an opera we had seen together the other day.
When we arrived he held the document in front of his face and glanced around at the boats. He pointed to one and strode over to it. It was a sail boat and seemed to be well taken care of. Its wood possesed a glossy finish to it and the sails were crisp and white with no stains from the sea.
We walked along the dock toward the Demon's Pearl and Holmes pulled a rope concealed behind a hanging piece of red velvet that let down the gang plank for us to board. He glanced around it quickly as we walked onto the boat. Our boots clonking on the well scrubbed wood beneath our feet as Holmes strode up a set of stairs toward the back half of the ship to the ornate helm.
Behind the helm on the back of the ship there was a single large skillfully deisgned lantern flanked by two cherubs who carressed it in an almost loving fashion. Holmes examined the steps on the stairs and the handles on the helm then continued down a set of stairs to the decks below. We inspected all 3 before we went into the captain's cabin. Holmes spotted her desk in a corner away from a large dresser and a small bed pad to the right.
He walked over and picked up papers that he began riffling through. He 'mm'ed several times and then sat at the chair with delicate carvings into the dark wood. He spun the papers in his hands around to show me the documents. At a glance they appeared to be reciepts of bank transfers.
"It appears that Ms.Caruso had some sort of backer or benefactor. It seems that she would complete a robbery and transfer what appears to be quite a fair share to a mysterious person or persons." He said glancing over the documents. There seemed to be several of them and as he searched through the drawers of the desk he produced even more.
"But why?" I asked the obvious question out loud. "Why share the profits with anyone?"
"Why indeed." He searched another drawer and drew more papers out with widened eyes "Documents recording passage from country to country. Port records. It appears that she traveled back and forth to China at least...7 times"
"China?" I pondered "What could be there?"
"What indeed. Perhaps she transports opium. Perhaps she transfers other goods." He shrugged, running through the possibilitys in his mind "and yet, who was she paying? All those years? Why keep record of it? Why not burn the evidence of anything and everything associated with the crime. She was much more careful than this. This sloppiness is unfitting. She must have meant for us to find these. Why else save this evidence? Why else put it within reach of any passer by to happen on her ship? Easily accessed as it is?"
He sat back in the chair for a moment when there was a ruckus outside the cabin door. I glanced at Holmes for a sparing moment and then the double doors flew open. Masked men poured into the cabin sprinkling oil around and they took no notice of my companion and I until they reached the desk that we sat behind. Their eyes moved up to ours from behind their masks and they drew their weapons on us until one of them decided the fight wasnt worth it. He tapped the shoulders of the others, lit a match on the side of his boot and threw it down on the ground before Holmes could stop him. With that he ran from the cabin and up the steps.
The flames climbed quickly up the walls devouring beautiful painting of the sea and the wood work the ship itself was covered in. Holmes glanced at me for a hesitating moment then he threw the chair out from behind him as the air grew stiffling and the heat grew close to unbearable. Holmes grabbed the color of my shirt and threw me out of the back of the captain's cabin that was covered in windows. As I fell down to the water I saw Holmes jump in after me.
After we had both resurfaced and started swimming toward the shore did Holmes speak.
"I suppose the only way to answer those questions now," he sighed as he pulled himself through the water "Is to ask the culprit herself."
YOU ARE READING
Sherlock Holmes and the Red Maverick
FanfictionA bank robber is caught under peculiar circumstances and as Sherlock invests further he finds that the bank robber was involved with sinister folk. As Sherlock investigates the strange story the bank robber has to tell he finds that there is much mo...
