Alice was surprised to find Sherlock and John sitting with a client in the living room. Few clients had shown up to the flat in person since Sherlock's return was still considered relatively recent.
"Alice, please meet Hilton Cubitt of Norfolk," Sherlock introduced, pointing to the client sitting in the middle of the room. "He's just married an American who has had some disagreeable associations,"
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cubitt. What's troubling you?"
"It's my wife, Elsie. I'll start at the beginning. I came to London in 2012 in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. It was then I met Elsie- Elsie Patrick. Through some miracle, we became good friends and after a month we returned to Norfolk a newly married couple. We've been married for a year now and have been nothing but happy, but a month ago my wife received a letter," Hilton said as he handed Sherlock a slip of paper with the image of a sequence of stick figures.
"How many of these messages has she received?"
"I don't know. She received the first one a month ago from America- I recognised the postage. Her face turned pale and she threw it into the fire after reading it. About a week ago I found a number of these little figures drawn on the window sill with chalk. Naturally, I washed it off and told my wife about it later that day at dinner. She then begged me to let her see them if I found any more. Yesterday, I found this paper on our sundial in the garden. When I showed it to Elsie, she nearly fainted. Since then, her eyes have been filled with terror,"
"Forgive me, Mr. Cubitt," John interrupted, "But wouldn't it be easier if you asked your wife about these messages?"
Hilton shook his head. "When we got married she said that she had disagreeable associations in her life and that she wanted to forget about them. I promised my wife to never ask about her past, I intend to keep that promise,"
"It's very noble of you to do so," Alice complimented.
"Has there been any talk of interesting strangers in your neighbourhood?" Sherlock questioned.
"We get tourists all the time, naturally an odd one or two will pop up,"
"It's a code," Alice observed, taking a photo of the letter on her phone. "Were there more, other than this one and the two from before?"
"Not to my knowledge,"
"Go back to Norfolk and if there are more send us images of each message in the order they were sent," Alice said as she handed the letter back to Hilton. "If there are any in your house, these images, send us a photo of them as well. Sherlock and John's emails are on the blog,"
Hilton Cubitt nodded and left the flat, thanking them or taking his case.
"What do you think?" Sherlock asked from his armchair as Alice came back into his flat with her laptop.
"It's a message, obviously," Alice said as she began to type. "John?"
"Yes?"
"How far is Norfolk from here?"
"I'd say about two hours drive,"
"Great! Start packing your things boys, we need to be prepared to leave as soon as possible,"
"What?" Both men asked at the same time.
"Remember the case with the Chinese circus? The same type of message,"
"So it's like the book code?" John asked, thinking back to the Blind Banker Case.
"No, but it is a warning for death. My best guess is that it's a substitution cipher. I will need to see more of the messages before I can confirm anything,"
***
Within a week of Hilton Cubitt's initial visit to 221b Baker street, the trio received more photographs of the dancing men. Sherlock and Alice decided that they had enough evidence to dive further into their investigation.
The trio arrived in the town of Ridling in the early afternoon. Hilton was eager to meet them at his house and hastily brought them into his sitting room. Sherlock sat across from Hilton while Alice and John sat on the sofa in between the two armchairs.
"I've seen him!" Hilton blurted out. "The man who draws them. The first thing I saw the morning after I came back from London was a fresh crop of dancing men," He handed Sherlock his tablet with photos of the new dancing men,"
"Excellent!" Sherlock said as he zoomed in on the image.
"Three days later, there was a message scribbled on a piece of paper under a pebble on the sun-dial. The characters were the exact same. Later that night, I decided to stay up and see who was doing this. At about two in the morning, Elsie came into my office to tell me to come to bed but then her face went white in the moonlight,"
"What did she see?"
"There was some sort of figure moving in the shadow of the shed. It was a dark creeping figure. By the time I got out to the shed with my gun, it had disappeared,"
"Did they leave a message?" Alice asked.
"Yes, the same arrangement as before. There was no other sign that the figure was even there. Then this morning, I went to check it again, and more was added to it."
"In addition to the original message, or was it separate?"
"Separate: it was on a different panel,"
"Were there any more messages that arrived before we came today- other than the ones you sent over the past week?"
"No, Miss. It was just those,"
"Thank you, Mr. Cubitt," Alice said, getting up. "We will contact you in the morning,"
"Thank you," Hilton said as he shook the trio's hands.
**
Alice sat on one of the beds in their triple room at the small hotel. Her bed was covered with the images of the dancing men. Each image had the date written on it with notebook paper below it. She had been working on cracking the code since Hilton had first visited them in London.
It was at two in the morning, when her eyes lit up in triumph.
**
The next day the trio arrived back at the Cubitt's home to find local police surrounding the building.
"Mr. Holmes," The officer in charge said as they got out of their car. "Inspector Martin, I am in charge of this case. H- How did you hear of the crime? It only happened at three this morning,"
"Mr. Cubitt had come to us earlier in the week seeking our services," Sherlock responded.
"Is there anything we might be missing then, Mr. Holmes? We have heard of your achievements here and were deeply saddened by the news of your death two years ago," Martin remarked. "But I should be proud to know that we will be working together, Mr. Holmes,"
"We only have evidence of the dancing men. Alice will explain it to you later,"
"Of course, but how did you hear of the incident?"
"What incident?" John asked the inspector.
"They have both been shot, Mr. Hilton Cubitt and his wife,"
"May we look at the crime scene, Inspector?" Alice asked.
"Certainly," Martin lifted the police tape and allowed the trio to enter the home.
"She shot him," Martin said to Alice as Sherlock and John looked around the foyer.
"What?" Alice asked as she turned to the inspector.
"That's the main theory. She's upstairs in the bedroom with a doctor,"
"And how did you come to that conclusion?"
"There was one pistol found in the room and two of its barrels were empty. Mr. Cubitt was shot through the heart and Mr. Cubitt in the head. We found the revolver on the floor between them," said the doctor who was coming down the stairs. "The bullet had passed through the front of her brain and it will be a while before she can regain consciousness- if ever,"
"Has he been moved?" Sherlock asked.
"We moved nothing except for Mrs. Cubitt. It would have been wrong to leave her wounded on the floor,"
"How long have you been here, doctor?"
"Since four this morning,"
"Anyone else?"
"Just the inspector,"
"And neither of you have touched anything?"
"Nothing,"
"Who sent for you?"
"The housekeeper, Ms. Saunders,"
"Are there any other staff members that were here last night?"
"It was just her and Mrs. King, the cook,"
"Where are they now?"
"I believe in the kitchen,"
"Thank you, doctor," Alice said before walking up to Sherlock and John. "We have some suspects in the kitchen,"
"We sleep in adjoining rooms," Ms. Saunders said as Alice and John took notes. "We woke to the sound of the gunshot, the second one happened a minute later. The door to Mr. Cubitt's office was wide open and he was lying on his face in the centre of the room,"
"And where was Mrs. Cubitt?" John questioned.
"By the window. The side of her face was red with blood. She didn't say much. The hall and the room were full of smoke and smelled like powder."
"Can you show us the office?" Alice asked. Both women nodded and led the way to the crime scene.
The office was small, three of its walls were lined with books while a window occupied the fourth. Hilton's desk faced the window, looking out over the garden.
"Did they fight last night?" Alice asked as she looked around the office. "Or any of the past nights?"
"No, Miss," Mrs. King replied. "They seemed to be very much in love,"
"Thank you," Alice said to the cook before joining Sherlock, who was squatting by the dead body on the ground. "What have you deduced so far,"
"Woken up in the middle of the night based on the state of his dress, the bullet was fired from the front and penetrated the heart. Painless death," Sherlock said, getting up. "There's no powder mark on his hands or dressing gown,"
"According to the doctor, Elsie had stains on her face, but not her hands," John added.
Alice nodded and looked more closely around the room. "Unless the powder from a badly fitting cartridge happens to spurt backwards, one can fire multiple shots without leaving a sign. Did the doctor remove the bullet that wounded Mrs. Cubitt?" Alice asked Inspector Martin.
"She would need a serious operation first. But there are still four cartridges in the gun. Two shots were fired and two wounds were inflicted, each bullet is accounted for,"
"Perhaps you should also account the bullet which obviously struck the edge of the window," Alice said, cocking her head to one side.
"How did you notice that?"
"By looking," Sherlock answered as he grinned at Alice, who gave a slight smile back.
"If a third shot was fired then a third person must've been present," Martin concluded.
"Precisely," Alice commented. "Ms. Saunders and Mrs. King mentioned that they smelled powder when they were leaving their rooms. For that to happen, both the window and the door must've been open at some point. There was a third person here last night,"
"How do you figure?"
"The window was open at the time of the shooting. Any shot directed outside would have hit the windowsill. Now," Alice said as she walked to the desk. "This is interesting," She opened up the small purse lying on the desk and pulled out twenty fifty-pound banknotes from the bag. "A thousand pounds,"
"Fantastic," Inspector Martin said as Alice handed him the money.
"I could use some fresh air," Alice commented.
"How about the garden?" John suggested, catching on to Alice's plan.
"Wonderful idea, John,"
***
This is my first time trying to contemporize one of the cases.
I also apologise for such a long hiatus between chapters