A Half Moon Walk

Sherlock and Watson are invited to the Baker Street Irregular’s annual secret dinner. Watson is not very inclined to go and does not understand why Sherlock likes the little untrusty children. Sherlock on the other hand is quite excited with the invitation. While preparing to leave, Wiggins arrives in panic asking for Sherlock’s help. Leighton Chapman, his brother, was arrested accused of murdering two men. He was taken to the Yard and beaten by the cops. Wiggins is afraid that his brother will be hanged without any crime investigation. Watson proposes that Holmes helps the children and they agree to meet Wiggins back at the crime scene at Half Moon Street.

 

Arriving at Half Moon Street they meet Constable Marrow that is guarding the scene and is prompt to indicate that they have all necessary material to close this case: the murderer, the murder weapon and solid statements. The victims were both shot - Brian Vercotti and Kenneth Butler.

 

Witnesses:

                Constable Marrow – was on duty at the Half Moon Street

                Ryan Turner – Lives in the flat at the end of the street

                Polly Powel – Flower seller that was over at the far side of the street

 

Testimonies:

                Constable Marrow: He was standing at the north side of the Half Moon Street. He saw the two victims enter the street and shortly after the fireworks started (in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday). A few minutes after that he saw Chapman rushing towards him and running into Half Moon Street. Suddenly he heard a woman’s cries and police whistles on the other side of Half Moon Street. When he rushed over there he saw the two dead bodies on the ground. When he reached Whitechapel Street he saw that Chapman had already been caught by two police constables. He did not heard the shots because of the fireworks. He did not saw anything but rats in the Half Moon Street. He did saw that Mr. Turner’s window was opened but there was no light and no one at the window.

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                Mr. Turner: He was in bed when the fireworks started. Moments after he heard clearly the two gun shots from outside. He grabbed the lamp from his nightstand and rushed towards the window. He saw the two bodies and a men with a gun standing nearby Kenneth Butler’s body. He did not noticed Mr. Turner and rushed towards Whitechapel Street. That was the only person he saw on the street. The shots were consecutive and with a short pause between them. Also they sounded differently, the second shot sounded louder than the first one. He stayed close to the window until the policemen came from Whitechapel.

 

After deducting that the testimonies from Constable Marrow and Mr. Turner are contradictory, Holmes questions again Mr. Turner. He asks Mr. Turner again if he stayed by the window and when he confirms Holmes confronts him with Constable Marrow’s testimony. Mr. Turner tries to justify saying that probably they missed each other in the middle of the commotion. Holmes ask to see the view of the window from where he witnessed the murder. They both go upstairs. Mr. Turner seems to live very modestly. Holmes opens the window to see the view that Mr. Turner could witness. He sees Kenneth Butler’s and Brian Vercotti’s bodies, concluding that Mr. Turner had a perfect view of the crime scene.

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Analysing the kitchen’s table, Holmes identifies pieces of shredded paper scattered all over the table as well as a kitchen knife that was used to cut it. At the fireplace Holmes finds pieces of paper that are illegible but he can deduct that they were thrown into the fire just a short while ago.

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Analysing the book shelves it seems that Mr. Turner was trying to find something leaving the books a mess. Holmes finds a walking stick and when he attaches the wood piece found near Kenneth’s body he founds a perfect match. It is clear that Mr. Turner broke his stick when it became stuck between the cobblestones, but he never mentioned being so close to the bodies.

Using his projected mind, Holmes sets up a sequence of events to determine what happened. He determines that Mr. Turner used a book to hide an object found in Kenneth Butler’s body. Searching the books Holmes sees some prints from greasy fingers identifying the book used to hide the object. Inside Moby Dick he discovers a precious jewel, a bracelet with a unique ram’s head design, a distinctive feature of Ancient Greecian artifacts, probably of the Hellenistic era.

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Holmes confronts Mr. Turner revealing that he knows about his right leg injury and that makes it impossible for him to run which means that he could have most likely missed something in tonight’s events. Once again he catches Mr. Turner in a lie and shows him the bracelet. He confronts him with his vision of the events: Mr. Turner saw Chapman and a glittering object near Kenneth’s body, so he went downstairs to see what was glittering. He grabbed the bracelet and hurried back when he heard the whistles and that is when he broke the stick in the cobblestones. The reason why Constable Marrow did not saw Mr. Turner was because he was climbing up the stairs returning to his flat at that time. When he arrived he hid the bracelet inside the book. Holmes does not believe that Mr. Turner is a criminal so he will not take him to the authorities but he will take the bracelet to return to its owner.