The Secret Notebooks of Sherlock Holmes by June Thomson Read Free Book Online

had an assistant; how agile the man might be whenit came to a pursuit; what obstacles lay between the counter and the door; and how easily the door opened on to the street.
    ‘I deliberately strolled past the shop and, glancing in through the glass panel in the door, saw Bartlett in animated conversation with the shopkeeper. They even shook hands on parting! It was then I realised what I was witnessing was an arrangement being made for Bartlett to call again at the shop on another day, in the company of his wife, to inspect some of the more valuable rings for her to choose from. In other words, the jeweller was unwittingly collaborating in the plan to steal his own property!
    ‘I was convinced of the accuracy of my theory when, stepping into the shelter of a doorway, I watched Bartlett as he left the shop and saw him at closer quarters for the first time that morning. He was normally clean-shaven and never wore spectacles but on this occasion he was wearing gold-rimmed eye-glasses and a neatly-clipped brown moustache, the disguise he evidently intended wearing on the day the planned robbery would take place. These prior inspections of the proposed scenes of the crimes were an aspect of the case which Lestrade had not mentioned to me, either because he considered them of no importance or because the shopkeepers themselves had not mentioned them, which suggested they had not been interviewed by the police with sufficient vigour.
    ‘I there and then resolved that whenever I had toquestion witnesses I would spend as much time and effort as I could in drawing out of them even the most trivial-seeming facts to help with my investigation. Knowledge is everything, Watson. Even the smallest detail can be crucial in bringing a criminal to justice. 7
    ‘In the meantime, Bartlett had walked to the end of the street where he met up with his sister Rosie as well as Whitey Johnson and, having conferred together briefly, the three of them parted, Johnson hailing a hansom and driving off on his own, the Bartletts taking a separate cab. The reconnaissance was over and everything was now set for the actual robbery, which I was convinced would take place the following Saturday afternoon at about half past six.’
    ‘What made you so sure, Holmes?’
    ‘That was exactly the question Inspector Lestrade asked me when I called on him at Scotland Yard on Monday morning. My answer was to refer him to the facts. It was exactly at this time that Whitey Johnson and the Bartletts had made their survey of the territory with, I believed, good reason. As well as the premises they intended robbing, they would also wish to examine the neighbourhood in general. It was a busy commercial street containing a number of shops selling provisions in addition to the lines of market stalls set up along the kerb, a significant factor, I concluded. Now, manyworkmen are paid their wages on a Saturday evening, in consequence of which they and their wives have money in their pockets to spend on food for their families as well as ale for themselves in the public houses, of which there were three in the immediate vicinity of Mr Greenbaum’s shop. The pavements would therefore be crowded with people which would make Bartlett’s escape that much the easier.
    ‘As I have pointed out to you before, people, criminals included, are creatures of habit and all the other robberies had taken place late on a Saturday afternoon, a point which Lestrade himself made when he was discussing the cases with me. However, he failed to grasp the full significance of this fact, dismissing it as a mere whim on the part of the Bartletts, like the wearing of a lucky charm. But there was nothing superstitious in their attitude to thieving. They were professionals through and through, and therefore the choice of day and time was as deliberate as all other aspects of their strategy, from their use of disguise to the selection of their victims.
    ‘It took some persuasion on my part to convince