The Case of Mistaken Identity Part 3

~sherlock

Watson stood from his erstwhile wicker seat and reflexively flattened his coat against his stomach with his hands. It was an old habit he developed while in the military when the crispness of the uniform was inculcated as a necessary, mandated decorum. This was, of course, of absolutely no practical value when he had served in Afghanistan. When men had been shot up by muskets and viscera and gore were spattered about the makeshift operating tables, military men were less concerned with how crisp the uniform was. Even less was this a factor when one’s self had been wounded. As Holmes had all ready perceived, Watson had been shot in the shoulder during his service. At the time, his uniform was not his concern.

“I guess I’ll be off then,” said Watson.

The fire screen was in front of the fire hearth, although it was redundant as the tin hearth cover conspicuously adorned the opening below the dark oak mantle. The ornate square was marked in a pattern suggestive of a flower in the center, although near the edges were corner designs that evoked a formal daguerreotype frame. The entirety of the piece was white, and the function it served was supposed to suggest something about the tastes of the owner. As the fire screen was still up, it suggested that the owner was unconcerned with the fireplace societal formalities that the Victorian age demanded. Indeed, Martha Hudson, the landlady, had seen fit to direct the maid to place this gewgaw after it became evident that the last frost had past and that the weather was going to change such that having a fire at night would be imprudent. Though Holmes observed much, he seemed perfectly content to allow the maid to be a maid and for Mrs. Hudson to concern herself with the needs of the property so that he could busy his mind solving other issues.

“Good hunting, Watson,” replied Holmes as the Dr. was half out the door.

Watson made no reply as he knew that Holmes had made the statement as a conclusive remark. There was a kind of crude punctuation inherent in the statements that Holmes sometimes made. One had to spend effort to perceive the unstated grammar, but the implication was that if one was moving out of the door there was no further need to say goodbye since the act of moving through the door was sufficient definition of the act that to announce the intention, was, to Holmes anyway, like shouting the word “fore” on a golf course after the ball had landed near the green. One then did not pause to add any further statement or indicate one had heard the well-wishes. The success of the nature of the hunt would be the triumphant return of Dr. Watson with the asked for tobacco.

Hardly had the door closed and hardly had the detective finished reading the first paragraph on big cat physiology in relation to their track size did a knock issue on the door.

Cat tracks, according to the paragraph, were rounder in nature as opposed to oval. There would be no nail marks, and three lobes would be present on the back heel pad edge. One and a half inches to four inches wide was the size variability between a Bobcat or a Mountain Lion.

Such interruption irritated Holmes, and as he had been engrossed in his study he had not been listening to the footsteps outside his door as carefully as he might. He concluded then, that most likely, Dr. Watson had returned having thought of something else to say.

“Really, Dr. Watson!” began Holmes as rose to open the door. “I should have thought that we...” and here his sentence was cut short as the person standing in the doorway was not at all Dr. Watson but was instead an attractive female. Her height was approximately five feet and four inches, and her gray dress with bustle was made to accentuate the feminine form commensurate with Victorian ideals of beauty. On her lapel was a broach of an umbrella which was gold although outlined with silver. Her hair was pulled neatly back and arranged into a bun. Atop her head sat a hat that was mildly evocative of a 1/4th of a stovepipe hat with a small rim around the edge. In the back there were some feathers, one of which appeared to be from a peacock, and a long flowing ribbon. On the side of the hat was a fascinator that was a small diamond loop meant to draw the eye to a larger peacock feather that jutted out.