The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes (11 page)

In Mexico, Persano had been engaged in collecting information about the
Porfiriato
under the dictator, General Díaz.
*

Later Holmes was to explain to me the meaning of the
Porfiriato
and its political implications. After General Díaz had seized power in 1876, the country had been developed economically but at the cost of great human suffering and loss of personal freedom, particularly among the Indian peasants whose communal fields had been confiscated to enlarge the private estates of the Spanish-speaking landowners, encouraged in their actions by the General’s policy of
pan
o
palo,
bread or the club.

It was this aspect of the General’s dictatorship which particularly interested Persano, the Señora informed us. With his own Indian ancestry and his wide knowledge of the South American
indigenous culture, he had sympathised strongly with the sufferings of the landless peasants.

It was for this reason that he had taken Juan Alberdi into his employment, having found the boy starving on the streets of Monterrey.

In the course of his researches, Persano had made many enemies, chief among them Carlos Vicente Gasca, a rich and powerful landowner who was notorious for his ill-treatment of the Indian peasants who worked his estates.

Persano had threatened to expose Gasca in his articles for the Washington newspaper. Gasca, in turn, had vowed to kill Persano.

There had been several attempts on Persano’s life. He had been shot at twice while out riding. On another occasion, a man had broken into their hotel bedroom late one night and had attacked Persano with a knife. Persano had fought him off and the man had escaped.

After each failed attempt, Persano had received a piece of paper on which was drawn a skull, accompanied by a warning in Spanish that the attacks would continue. Persano was convinced that these had been sent by Gasca.

Realising that the next attempt might be successful, Persano had decided to return to England, bringing with him the Señora and Juan Alberdi. He thought that he would be safe in London, where he would have the time and leisure to write his book and his newspaper articles without being under the threat of imminent death.

But Gasca must have followed him and found out where he was living because two weeks before, Persano had received through the post a sheet of paper bearing the skull and the warning.

It was then that Persano had told the Señora that if anything happened to him, she was to contact his old friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, and had given her Holmes’ address.

‘Why did he not come to me himself?’ Holmes exclaimed in some distress.

‘’E was too
orgulloso
; also
tenaz
,’
Señora Persano explained,
which Holmes translated for my benefit as ‘proud’ and ‘stubborn’. ‘’E thought if ’e stay at ’ome and do ’is writing, there is no danger.’

She could give no detailed description of Gasca. Persano had been careful not to involve her in his political activities and she had seen the man only once, at a distance.

From her gestures, I gathered he was tall,
‘alto’,
and broad-shouldered with dark hair,
‘muy
ondulado’
– very
wavy. He also spoke good English – ‘like a milord’.

As Holmes was to point out to me later, it made the task of tracking down Gasca extremely difficult. With a little disguise, such as a wig to cover his dark, wavy hair, he could easily pass himself off as an Englishman.

We then came to the events of the previous evening, painful both for Holmes and for Señora Persano, who frequently broke down in tears, but eventually, after much patient questioning on Holmes’ part, a coherent account emerged.

Immediately after dinner, Persano had retired to his study, his habit on a Friday evening. During the week, his time was spent on his own book but Saturdays and Sundays were always set aside for writing the articles for the
Gazette,
which had to be posted on Monday.

Señora Persano knew nothing about the arrival of the parcel until later. The servant-girl had accepted it from the messenger and Juan had taken it upstairs. She herself had remained in the drawing-room, reading.

At about nine o’clock, she had heard Persano cry out and had gone upstairs to find him in the demented state she had described to us the previous day. When he had shouted out the name ‘Holmes!’, she had run out of the house and had immediately taken a cab to the address in Baker Street which Persano had given her.

And that was all she could tell us.

‘I think not, Señora Persano,’ Holmes said quietly. ‘I believe you went upstairs to the study earlier in the evening to take Isadora a glass containing some kind of beverage in which you mixed a certain powder. I found the paper in which the powder
had been wrapped in the grate. There was also a damp ring on the desk where a glass had stood. What was in that powder?’

Her response was immediate. Flinging herself back against the sofa cushions and covering her face with her hands, she burst into a flood of tears.

‘Nothing!’ she wept. ‘I swear it!’

Holmes rose to his feet, his expression stern and unforgiving.

‘In that case, Señora, you leave me no alternative. I shall be forced to place the facts before Inspector Lestrade.’ When she said nothing, he continued, his voice rising, ‘Do you not realise you risk being accused of causing Isadora’s death? I do not believe you were responsible. But unless you tell me the truth, there is nothing I can do to save you.’

She sobbed helplessly for several minutes while Holmes and I sat by watching, he impassively, I deeply moved by her distress and also seriously concerned about the state of her health.

At last, drawing a deep, shuddering breath, she spoke.

‘The powder is not ’armful. Is made from
guarana
seeds.
*
Is an old remedy, used by the Quaramis, to stop people from sleeping. Isadora buy in Brazil. ’E use it to keep ’im awake when ’e writes ’is stories for the newspaper. I give ’im in warm milk.’

‘When?’ Holmes demanded.

‘Every Friday evening. Then ’e work all night.’

‘And where do you keep the drug?’

‘In there.’

She gestured towards a small bureau which stood against the far wall. Holmes stalked over to it and, jerking open the drawer, revealed a small pile of folded packets, made from the same coarse paper which he had retrieved from the study grate.

Unwrapping one, he showed me its contents – a brownish
powder, similar in colour and texture to that which had been adhering to the folds of the packet found upstairs.

Behind us, Señora Persano was protesting, ‘The one I give ’im Friday is one of those; is the same.’

His expression grim, Holmes refolded the paper square and put it away in his pocketbook, remarking to me in a low voice as he did so, ‘I doubt that very much. The drawer is unlocked. Anyone in the household could have opened it and replaced the top packet with another. I propose questioning Juan Alberdi now, Watson, with the Señora acting as interpreter.’

It was at this point that I intervened, disastrously as it later transpired. Had I not done so, a life might have been spared.

‘I cannot allow that, Holmes. Señora Persano is on the verge of a breakdown. As a medical man, I consider it most unwise to press her further. Come back tomorrow, if you wish, to interview the manservant. For the moment, however, I must insist that she is allowed to rest.’

Holmes acquiesced reluctantly and shortly afterwards we left, having made sure that Señora Persano was placed in the care of Mrs O’Hara.

As soon as we returned to Baker Street, Holmes went immediately to the bookcase and, pulling out volume ‘D’ in his encyclopedia of reference, opened it at a certain page and handed it to me silently.

I read:

Holmes meanwhile had flung himself down in his armchair where he sat, his chin propped on his long fingers as he stared moodily into space.

When I had finished reading the passage, he said abruptly, ‘You see the implications, Watson? Someone in the household was persuaded by Gasca to substitute for the packet of
guarana
seed powder which Persano took regularly every Friday evening as a stimulant another packet containing a hallucinatory drug made from the Psilocybe mushroom, which his system was unused to absorbing. All the symptoms were present in his apparent insanity – the ‘berserk’ state, the frenzied expression. Even his leap from the window can be attributed to the effects of the drug, which can induce in the person who takes it the belief that he can fly.’

‘And you think that the culprit was Juan Alberdi, the manservant?’

‘It is unlikely to be the other servants. How would they have access to such a drug? As for Señora Persano, she had nothing to gain and everything to lose by Persano’s death. She is now left alone in a strange country with no protector.’

‘But I do not see why Alberdi should have conspired with Gasca, Persano’s sworn enemy. After all, Holmes, Persano had
saved the young man from starvation. Alberdi had every reason to be grateful to him.’

‘Not if the bribe Gasca offered were large enough. For some people, loyalty is like any other marketable commodity, to be bought and sold at the right price. Or Gasca may have threatened Alberdi in some way. It is also possible, of course, that Alberdi was persuaded that the drug he substituted was perfectly harmless. There is, however, no doubt in my mind that Alberdi was used as Gasca’s tool. You should have allowed me to question him this afternoon.’

‘Tomorrow will be soon enough, Holmes. In the meantime, Lestrade said he would call on you this evening. Why do you not speak to him and ask him to take Alberdi into custody for questioning? I am sure the Inspector could arrange to have a Spanish-speaking interpreter on hand when you interview the young man. That way, Señora Persano will not be placed under further stress.’

‘You are probably right, my dear fellow,’ Holmes agreed. ‘But such arrangements must be made as soon as possible. Gasca must be somewhere in London, no doubt staying at a hotel. I am eager to run him to earth before he has the chance to leave the country. For you may be sure that, once he hears of Persano’s death, he will not delay in making his escape.’

Lestrade arrived about an hour later, more eager to inform us of what he knew, or rather what he did not know, about the remarkable worm than to listen to Holmes.

‘Extraordinary!’ he exclaimed as soon as he set foot inside the room. ‘I have looked up that creature in every book on snakes and reptiles I can lay my hands on and nowhere is it mentioned. It would appear to be unknown to science. Where do you think it came from, Mr Holmes? Some South American jungle or Mexican swamp?’

‘I suggest you try a London park or garden.’

Lestrade stopped short, his mouth open in astonishment.

‘You are not serious?’

‘Indeed I am. Allow me to show you my own specimen, dug up from Mrs Hudson’s flower-border only yesterday.’ Holmes fetched the dish on which the earthworm was lying, adding as
the Inspector backed away, ‘There is no need to be alarmed, Lestrade. The creature is perfectly harmless. I myself painted on the markings with Indian ink.’

It was highly gratifying to see Lestrade’s amazement and to hear him stammer, ‘I don’t understand. Why was the creature sent to Persano if it had nothing to do with his death?’

‘It was a cunning ruse to throw us off the scent. The villain behind the plot intended that the police should waste time following up this false clue, thus giving him the opportunity to leave the country.’

Holmes then gave Lestrade a brief summary of what he had learned that afternoon from Señora Persano and his suspicions regarding Gasca, concluding with the words, ‘You must put as many men as you can spare, Lestrade, on checking the hotels. It will not be an easy task, made more difficult by the fact that Gasca speaks good English and will no doubt be travelling on false papers. All that Señora Persano could tell us was that he is a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark, wavy hair, but that latter feature can be easily disguised. However, as he is rich and is used to having servants to wait on him, I suggest he will have at least one companion, possibly two. As for the boy who delivered the package containing the worm, take my advice and do not attempt to trace him. He is no doubt some urchin whom Gasca paid to run the errand and who will be impossible to identify from among the hundreds like him who roam the streets of our capital. In the meantime, we must return at once to Persano’s house and take Alberdi into custody for questioning. It was he, I believe, who was bribed or coerced in some way by Gasca to substitute one packet of drugs for another.’

But we were too late. By the time we reached the house, Juan Alberdi had already fled. The only information we could learn of his departure was from a very embarrassed police constable whom Lestrade had left on duty at the front door and who told us that the manservant had gone out earlier that afternoon, carrying a letter in his hand as if on the way to post it, and had not yet returned.