How Sherlock Solved October's Mail-based Mystery

Esteemed detectives,

Thank you for helping us to solve October’s Mystery, “The Phantom Highwayman”. Sherlock’s solution to the mystery is below. I hope you’re enjoying your exciting November mystery, and well on your way to solving it. For your chance to be our “Featured Detective” next month, submit your solution to the next mystery here.

Sincerely yours,

The Dear Holmes Team

P.S. Is your membership expiring soon? Renew your membership today to keep the mysteries coming.

——                       

221-b Baker Street

London, England

Dear Mr. Collingsly,

I am pleased to have this letter delivered to you via the very hand of your brother, who has managed to return from the dead. The attempted coach robbery played out exactly as I anticipated, and your phantom highwayman, who was not the ghost of your brother, nor any other ghost, is in the hands of authorities. The perpetrator of the carriage thefts, the supposed death of your brother, and your mysterious illness, was your lead carpenter, Mr. Brightman. I will say, he was motivated by the death of his mother, and his attempts to communicate with her, but that does not excuse his actions.

He had convinced your brother to work on a device to try to reach her in the spirit world, and with the help of Charles, he thought he could actually could do so. However when his funds were exhausted, and your brother was dismissed, he was desperate, and he came up with a scheme to acquire the funds and ensure your brother’s continued help. It was a multi-layered plot that involved him kidnapping your brother, with himself being the only witness to tell the story, that he saw Charles taking the coach and running it off the cliff to his death.  Once he held Charles as a prisoner, he persuaded him to continue working on the spirit communication device by slipping a small amount of poison in your tea every day, and promising to stop, only when the device was finished. Your brother was working desperately on it, only to get him to stop poisoning you.

Mr. Brightman had come up with a plan to steal the funds he needed by creating the phantom highwayman. He took a daguerreotype of your brother, and using an opaque projector similar to the megascope that was invented by the French scientist, Jacques Charles, he projected the image on an artificial fog of the type that is used in the Globe Theater, for stage effects. You mentioned him receiving correspondence from Henry Morton of America. Mr. Morton is noted for his work on opaque projectors. The phantom highwayman provided an alibi and a distraction to the drivers, but he still had to get his hands on the chest of money. To do that he utilized your brother’s theft-proof coach, that he had built, but not yet shown to you or anyone else. Your lead carpenter, who had helped build it, was the only person familiar with it.

The design was ingenious actually. When you mentioned it was taller than the others and had two additional brake levers, I immediately suspected a trap door to a false bottom in the coach. It could be activated by the levers from the forward seat. The driver was so distracted and scared by the phantom, he never noticed Mr. Brightman pulling the lever to drop the chest into the false bottom of the coach. When it arrived at its destination, the chest had vanished from a locked coach. Since he had the keys to the stable, and typically worked late, after the coach had been returned, he could remove the chest at his leisure. He had an accomplice operating the fog machine near the place where your brother supposedly died, so the setup was perfect.

But there were several clues that gave him away. Your brother was right-handed, but his image was pointing with his left hand. That indicated, that he was forced to pose for the image. There was the correspondence from Henry Morton on projectors, and the distinctive smell of the mysterious fog. I suspected his ruse, and using a disguise, I was your replacement driver today. The unusual gun I brought with me, was a compressed air device that disrupted the fog as well as the image of the ghost. I was able to take him by surprise when he tried to drop the chest into the false bottom. When he realized his game was over, he confessed to everything, and then led me to where your brother was being held prisoner. Mr. Brightman was truly crushed when he realized he would never be able to finish his communication device to talk to his deceased mother.

The remaining funds have been returned to the company from which they were stolen, and your brother is alive and well, and from what he said, is anxious to return to his former position, if possible. I am sure after his adventure as a phantom highwayman, he will be more focused on his work, so I would hope that his getting his job back has more than just a ghost of a chance.

Sincerely,

Sherlock Holmes

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