Sherlock Holmes and the Ghosts of Bly by Donald Thomas

there?”
    â€œThat is what we are here to discover. When do you suggest that Riley would have done that?”
    â€œHe was there last Sunday afternoon. We have all been told that.”
    Holmes relaxed.
    â€œYou know he was there, do you not? So were you, some time before him, I understand. He would hardly try to hide them with someone else present. Did you see him do so? Be careful before you say you did. You do not yet know they were ever there at all. Perhaps someone else hid them before his arrival. Did you see anyone else going into the hut? No? Did you see other witnesses?
    â€œSir?”
    â€œOne other witness, I should say. Mr Reginald Winter.”
    The mention of the headmaster as a witness knocked the wind from him.
    â€œMr Winter?”
    â€œYou did not know that he was there? To be sure you did. He really is most grateful for receiving Riley’s intercepted message chalked on the sanatorium tray. I daresay your friend Mitzi will enlighten us further when we question her.”
    That last promise took the breath from him again. The next ten minutes were an object lesson in cross-examination, never hectoring, always courteous, and terrifying in its unpredictability. This youth had no idea how much Holmes already knew, let alone what the maidservant might say. His confidence was systematically shot through and through. Obnoxious though he might be, Sovran-Phillips made a pitiful figure by the time Holmes had finished, painstakingly stripped of every defence by the masterly bluff of his interrogator. At last his answers were little more than a mumble and a shake of the head. It was visible that he longed to be dismissed, no matter what the result. My friend brought the final silence to an end.
    â€œMaster Phillips, I can spare you a few minutes to make your choice. Please do not prevaricate. Did you entice Patrick Riley to the linesman’s hut on Sunday to settle scores with him man-to-man? Or did you propose to associate Riley with the discovery in the hut of a ten-shilling note and a sixpence, relying upon Mr Winter as a witness? It will be quite useless to pretend you were not there at the time or that you did not ensure the headmaster’s presence. When your plans were thrown into confusion by the approach of the Bradstone stopping train, did you not take the opportunity to start a rumour that Riley had tried to throw himself under the engine, thereby confirming the charge against him?”
    There was a long pause, during which the youth’s facial muscles moved but he remained silent.
    â€œWell?” said Holmes helpfully.
    â€œI was never near the post office that afternoon, sir. I had no exeat permit. Riley must have chanced it without one, He was lucky not to be stopped and asked for it.”
    â€œPerhaps not quite as lucky as a Captain of Boats and prefect of his year who was the last person likely to be stopped. Was he not?”
    â€œI have nothing to say.”
    â€œDo you not? I daresay that is very wise. We have almost done with you, Master Phillips. You will now accompany Dr Watson to your quarters. There you will produce to him the pad of permits issued to you at the start of every term. I believe each of them, when correctly completed and signed, entitles you to make a visit to the village. You did not go to the village on the Saturday in question, according to your own account. We can always ask the petty officer or master-on-duty for confirmation.”
    As if he had lost the power of speech, the youth nodded.
    â€œGood,” said Holmes encouragingly, “In that case, this term there have been two previous Saturdays and one since. Your pad of permits will be complete except for three torn off, will it not? Off you go, then. Dr Watson is waiting.”
    A glance at Sovran-Phillips’s face told me that his mind was fully occupied with the absence of a fourth permit, no doubt faked for use in case of being stopped with the postal order in his