Solving "The Case of The Mysterious Employment"
Dearest detectives,
We hope that you enjoyed last month’s mystery, “The Case of the Mysterious Employment”. Many detectives mailed in or otherwise submitted their solutions to the case, and we will soon be awarding the best submissions with recognition and a prize. Before we do that, we wanted to share Sherlock’s solution to the mystery, and one more letter to Sgt. Griffiths that adds further clarity to the matter.
Sincerely yours,
The Dear Holmes Team
221B Baker Street
London, England
August 15th, 1900
Dear Sgt. Griffiths,
I have greatly enjoyed our correspondence even if much of it has been one-sided through your writing to me about your rather odd employment situation with Mr. Reyes. I am happy to report that your conscience is clear and there is no need for absolution of any sins.
When you first wrote to me, like you, I suspected something might be amiss with Mr. Reyes; however, I also suggested that you stay in his employ as there is nothing unethical for being eccentric. I did believe that Mr. Reyes was, for some reason, shielding his true identity. I learned in your second letter that Mr. Reyes was a New Yorker. Even though he did travel throughout the United States and was a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, he used the expression, "a button fact" when describing Cy Young as the best baseball pitcher. "Button fact" is an expression almost solely used by New Yorkers. The fact that Mr. Reyes used the expression as part of his natural dialogue leads to the conclusion that he is a New Yorker, for if he had just picked up the expression, he would be cognizant that non-New Yorkers, such as yourself, would not know the colloquialism.
Once I knew from where Mr. Reyes originated, I then had to discern why he was keeping his identity concealed. The appearance of Mr. Trevisan, while leading to more confusion for you, actually led to a clarity for me. The false wall you built was used to prevent any damage to the house itself, a clue that the house was rented. He then caused damage to the false wall as you pointed out. Your background in the cavalry actually did you a disservice in figuring out the purpose of the wall and the thudding noises. You were so focused on the damage being done by a bayonet that you missed the more obvious solution, that the damage was done by knives, throwing knives.
Why would a man be practicing throwing knives in a secluded house in the middle of the country? To stay concealed of course. The spread of the holes you discovered in the wall lead to only one conclusion, the holes were spread out around a small head, a female performer's head. For you see, Griffiths, Mr. Trevisan was working on an act, a knife-throwing act, a rather dangerous one at that. The spread of the holes told me that the female performer would be about five feet tall. Trevisan would throw one knife just to the side of each ear, possibly her left, then her right. For the dimensions you sent me, the girl would move her head down slightly for the final throw so that the blade would end up in her hair, just above her scalp. Precision was key to this performance which is why Reyes was concerned. If Trevisan made a mistake he would indeed be committing murder in front of thousands of witnesses. The different height levels of the knife holes probably meant that Trevisan was making sure he could perform the act at different heights, depending on what Reyes wanted.
Why did Mr. Reyes, whom I shall now correctly identify as Mr. Denham, leave in such a hurry? I will leave that for Mr. Denham to explain in the attached missive. I thank you for your correspondence and wish you much success with your new employer.
With kind regards,
Mr. Sherlock Holmes
Dear Mr. Griffiths,
Mr. Sherlock Holmes wrote to me about your correspondence with him and the great amount of stress that I caused you. Please know that my intentions were never dishonorable. I am a showman, Mr. Griffiths, a vaudeville entertainer. My name is Francis Denham. I travel the country finding acts for my show. As I’m sure you are aware, vaudeville is highly competitive. Everyone is looking for the next great act and once we find it, it doesn’t last long.
Mr. Holmes tells me he’s explained to you that Mr. Trevisan was a performer for one such act. His knife-throwing act has been selling out shows for the last month. It was an advertisement for the show which allowed Mr. Holmes to track me down and tell me your story.
My previous act was stolen from me by Mr. Phinnias Gage, the ginger-haired man I warned you about. The unscrupulous man discovered my act in which a woman dressed as a mermaid escaped from an underwater cell. Gage somehow found out about my show and found another performer to do a similar act. He rushed it along and by the time my act was ready, his had already been going on for a week.
I didn’t want the same thing to happen with Trevisan, so I rented the house in Denver where the man could work in secret. When you told me that Gage had been spotted in Denver, I knew I had to leave as soon as possible. That’s why I packed up without saying goodbye.
You were a great caretaker while in my employ, Mr. Griffiths. I wish you the best of luck with your new employer. Please accept, with my gratitude, the train ticket arriving by courier from Denver to New York. When it is agreeable to your employer for you to take a brief sojourn, please write to me. I will be happy to put you up in a fine hotel and offer you a front row seat to my Broadway show.
With my sincerest gratitude,
Mr. Francis Denham