Ronald noticed that Altamont’s brow furrowed first and Escott’s a moment later.
“Does that description sound familiar, gentlemen?” Ronald asked his fellow Baker Street Irregulars.
“ ‘The Adventure of the Empty House,’ ” Escott blurted out.
“Exactly, Bill. In that story, Colonel Sebastian Moran tries to assassinate Sherlock Holmes with an air gun. The weapon was constructed for Professor Moriarty, Holmes’s archenemy, by Von Herder, a blind German mechanic. In the story, Doyle writes that ‘the revolver bullet had mushroomed out as soft-nosed bullets will.’ ”
“You’re saying Cubitt was killed with an air gun?” Altamont asked incredulously.
“Something like it,” Ronald answered.
“But you were all searched,” Lester said. “How was the gun brought into the house?”
“No one searched you,” Escott said.
Ronald laughed. “No, no, Bill. The butler didn’t do it. The weapon used to kill Hilton Cubitt was concealed in Peter Burns’s cane.”
Burns looked astonished. “I don’t know whether to laugh or get angry, Ronald.” He held out his cane. “Feel free to inspect this as much as you wish. I assure you it’s quite solid.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. What I do doubt is that the cane you are using is the same one you carried on the evening we arrived at Cubitt Hall. I am exactly five foot eleven and you are taller, but when we met outside the front door I looked directly into your eyes because you had to bend down to lean on your cane.”
Burns looked puzzled. “Where is this going?”
“Inspector Baynes is six feet tall, Peter. When we were first questioned in the library I noticed that you were eye-to-eye with the inspector, but it didn’t dawn on me that this might be important until I realized that Hilton Cubitt was murdered with a variant of an air gun. That’s when I realized that there had to be two canes and the one with the concealed gun was shorter. I’m guessing that the real cane was concealed in the lining of your duffel bag.”
Burns looked completely befuddled. “I don’t know what to say. If the gun was in a phony cane I brought here, where is it now?”
“Buried in a bog in the moor along with the Paget,” Ronald answered.
“My God, Ronald, are you insane? I would never destroy that drawing.”
“You would if it was a fake. Bill, Robert, and I have more than enough money to have bought the Paget if it was real. We would have no reason to steal it. And if we did, we would know that our luggage would be searched when we left so we couldn’t get it out of the house. And we would never leave it outside on the moor where it would be prey to some of the world’s most foul weather.
“But none of us would have any compunction about destroying a fake Paget. And that is what you sold to Hilton. He depended on you to verify its authenticity before paying millions to your accomplice, Chester Doran.
“You and Doran assumed that Hilton would keep the Paget in his collection and that he wouldn’t tell anyone about it. If the British government learned that Hilton had a Paget that was stolen from Buckingham Palace, it would demand its return. Cubitt assumed we would ignore the moral implications of obtaining stolen goods in our desire to obtain the most important and rare piece of Holmes memorabilia that ever existed, but you couldn’t take the chance that we would make the existence of the Paget public.
“Hilton suffered huge financial losses and needed large sums of money fast. You must have been terrified when he told you he planned to sell the Paget. Even if the buyer decided to keep its existence secret you knew he would insist on independent verification of an object that valuable and you would be exposed. You didn’t steal the Paget to possess it. You stole it to destroy it.”
“Well, this is an interesting theory but you don’t have this so-called air gun or the Paget so all you do have is a theory.”
“Not quite,” Inspector Baynes chimed in. “The New York police have Chester Doran in custody and he has been granted immunity as part of a plea bargain. When he heard he could be an accomplice to murder it wasn’t hard to get him to cooperate. He’s told us everything.
“Mr. Burns, I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Hilton Cubitt.”
William Escott and Robert Altamont drove back to London as soon as Inspector Baynes released them but Baynes asked Ronald to walk with him on the moor. Ronald explained his reluctance to go anywhere near the treacherous bogs but the inspector assured him it was perfectly safe.
Ronald and the inspector set off along a marked path. As they walked Ronald began to see that the moor could be scary but there was also a tranquil beauty in the lush vegetation and a sense of awe that was evoked by the cold, gray, mist-shrouded, low-hanging sky.
“Before you left, I wanted a chance to tell you how impressed I was by your deductions,” the inspector said. “You’ll probably have to testify at Burns’s trial. When you return to England, perhaps you’ll assist the Yard in solving another case.”
