Holmes watched as the substance in the vial on his workbench turned from a glowing red colour to green.
"I was right! Morphine. Definitely morphine." He declared triumphantly. "Inspector Eber will be most interested in these results. He should be here shortly."
The words were barely out of his mouth when the bell to our front door rang. As if he had prophesied it, Holmes smiled knowingly. "Perhaps that is he now."
To Holmes's disappointment, Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, introduced a well dressed servant. Holmes courteously welcomed him in. "Trouble at the Granville estate?"
"I'm flattered, Mr. Holmes, that you remember me. You are right about the trouble. After that last incident, Sir Granville insisted that I enlist your assistance right away before Scotland Yard has the opportunity to ruin the evidence."
"And what evidence would that be?"
"The family jewels are missing from Sir Granville's wall safe. It appears to have happened last night. No one but Sir Granville knew the combination of the safe, but the safe has no signs of harm."
"I am expecting Inspector Eber of Scotland Yard shortly. Perhaps we should wait for him and go to the scene together."
"I understand, sir, that Inspector Eber and Commissioner Henry should be on their way to the estate as we speak."
"Commissioner Henry and Inspector Eber? Splendid!
I will be able to kill two birds with one stone. I will be able
to inform Inspector Eber of my findings. Furthermore, I have not
had the opportunity to meet Commissioner Henry since the
Home Secretary appointed him as the head of the Criminal Investigation
Department. I shall be delighted to leave immediately." Holmes
started towards the door, but stopped and looked back at his workbench
which was cluttered with the ingredients of his recent experiment.
Holding up a finger, he signalled us to wait for a moment.
Holmes returned to his bench and quickly replaced the hydrochloric
acid, sulphuric acid, and sodium carbonate to their proper storage
locations. His long chemical-stained fingers then wrapped themselves
around the container of iodine crystals. As if he found what he
was looking for, Holmes placed the iodine container into his coat
pocket. Presently we were on our way to the scene of the theft.
When we arrived at the estate, it was already bustling with activity.
"Looks like we're too late," I stated.
We hurried up the front steps, into the grand hallway, up the flight of stairs to the second floor, and passed a small army of idle policemen as we made our way to Sir Granville's bedroom. When we arrived, we were pleased to see that Commissioner Henry was personally in charge of the investigation. As a result, the crime scene was being meticulously photographed. Only one other inspector was carefully examining the room. The wall safe that had contained the jewelry was closed but exposed. The painting that was supposed to conceal it was swung open on its hinges. The safe was an older model, with exposed bolt work and a three-movement combination lock. Despite its age, the workmanship was impressive and its appearance formidable.
"You must be Sherlock Holmes." The commissioner then nodded at me. "Dr. Watson, I presume. Sir Granville said I should be expecting you. You needn't worry this time. We are taking the utmost care in examining the scene, as you can see. We also have an adequate presence to comfort Sir Granville. Unfortunately, it looks like a professional job. We've determined that the yeggman entered through the window. We have located some clear footprints of the perpetrator and we are in the process of making casts of the impressions. The yeggman was wearing gloves. Beyond that, we have nothing."
Holmes extended his hand. "Commissioner, it is a pleasure to shake your hand. Your scientific appreciation of fingerprints and photography will revolutionize Scotland Yard. By replacing Bertillonage with fingerprints, you have already left your mark. Speaking of marks and fingerprints, did the burglar leave any?"
"No. He had climbed the ivy to gain entrance. He then forced the latch of the window open using a jimmy. He left smudges, clearly made by gloves on the windowsill. There are no signs of fingerprints anywhere else."
"Yet, I am certain there are. The cracksman didn't even require any nitro-glycerine to open the safe. Such explosives can defeat the most modern bank safes in only twenty minutes. Even those with seamless screw doors. The only effective deterrent appears to be those safes with electric alarms and that's only because it is easier to hit banks that don't have them. This wall safe probably took only a few minutes for this professional to open. While the safe itself was custom made, its aging tumblers were not and their peculiarities are probably well known to the thief. Still, opening a safe without explosives requires a delicate touch that cannot be achieved through a glove. Hence, there must be some fingerprints."
The commissioner interpreted my friend's blunt statement as criticism and answered defensively. "My man has thoroughly investigated the scene, and I assure you there are not any visible fingerprints."
"If you will permit me some leeway, I would like to first obtain the fingerprints of your Inspectors who have examined this room, Sir Granville, and the servants responsible for cleaning his room."
"Sir Granville has the utmost confidence in your skills. He has requested that you be assisted in every way possible. If you were to ask him yourself, I'm sure he would comply."
Sir Granville was most amused by the request. He found the process fascinating and requested that his staff also participate. Soon, we had the full set of fingerprints and Holmes had the photographer position his camera in front of the wall safe. Having effectively taken over the investigation, Holmes had everybody's full attention.
"I have made a study of fingerprints since the case that Watson has referred to as the 'Norwood Builder.' I am convinced that the full potential of fingerprints is not being realized. Up to now, they have been mostly used to determine the true identity of a criminal who already has been caught. I believe that they can be used to catch the criminal himself. You may have heard of the occasional case where the criminal has left his hand print on newly painted wood or a bloody fingerprint after a murder. Yet, this is the exception, not the norm. I believe that I have discovered a way to change that and to find fingerprints in every case. You may be aware that iodine vapour can be used to find secret writing on paper. I have been using this technique for years and have noticed that the oils left by fingers on the paper can also be revealed. On the surface of the safe, I am certain that every papillary line will appear."
From the iodine container, Holmes took iodine crystals and distributed them on a tray that he had positioned under the brass knobs of the safe. Soon, the iodine began to sublime, and within five minutes had revealed numerous fingerprints around the knobs. As the iodine would similarly evaporate from the safe, Holmes had the fingerprints quickly photographed. Despite this apparently successful demonstration, Holmes did not look pleased. I asked him what was the matter.
"I am stunned," he confided. "I was certain that we would find the fingerprints of the safe cracker, yet from what I observed, all the fingerprints appear to be of Sir Granville. The maid had done an effective job of wiping off the old fingerprints when she cleaned earlier in the week. We should have had a clear picture of all the fingerprints. Perhaps I missed one. Otherwise, I must conclude that the yeggman was wearing gloves when manipulating the tumblers. Seems improbable. I know of no yeggman who would do such a thing."
I laughed. "How many times have you said 'When you eliminate the impossible, whatever you have left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.'?"
Holmes lit up. "Precisely. You have again given me an idea. We must repeat our experiment over a wider range."
By this time, the Scotland Yard officials were beginning to be impatient with this amateur investigator. Some had overheard our conversation, and instead of being impressed by the demonstration, began to speak of the process with contempt. When the process was repeated over the remainder of the wall safe area, a strange outline of several concentric curves appeared. This time, Holmes was ecstatic.
"An ear! I have mentioned to you before that, like fingerprints, each human ear is unique. I believe we have found our safe cracker."
The commissioner, who was nearby, asked "How is that? We have no index based on ear prints."
Holmes was not discouraged. "I believe that you initiated the standard photographing of the right profile including their ear, when you make an arrest. Furthermore, the ear we are interested in has several peculiarities. First and foremost is its shape. It is circular. Perhaps this is what gives our yeggman the keen sense of hearing that is required to determine the proper position of the tumblers. One day, I intend to investigate the effect of ear shape on hearing."
I asked, "Holmes, we all have rounded ears. What is so unusual with that?"
"I didn't say rounded. Oval shaped ears are by far the most common ears. Six or seven out of ten people have oval ears. Almost everybody else has triangularly shaped ears. In contrast, the number of people out of a hundred with either circular or rectangular ears could be counted on a single hand. This ear was clearly circular. That narrows the field of suspects considerably. Of course, Watson, you noticed the other peculiarities?"
"No." I replied, tempted to say more. Despite being a medical man, I did not have my friend's amazing power of observation to notice the subtle differences in ears. For example, Holmes had used singularities in the ears to solve the case of the Williams sisters some five years earlier. The Williams sisters were identical twins who would impersonate each other so that they both would have witnesses who would swear to their location while one was actually free to do whatever she wished elsewhere. When they tried this switch in Holmes's presence, he immediately detected the subtle change in ear shape.
Once again, his attention to details was illustrated as Holmes continued. "The ear print on the safe had a circular mark at the top of the ear helix. Most likely a mole. Also, the print showed a ragged white line on the lobe. Almost definitely a scar mark from when an earring was pulled off his ear during a fight. This ear will uniquely identify our man."
The commissioner was not impressed. "It wasn't that long ago when we used Bertillonage as the index and stored fingerprints with the records. It was useless in cases in which only the fingerprints were known because we would have to search through thousands of criminal records. Similarly, you will not be able to find this ear!"
"But we are not looking for just any criminal. I have already noted that it is extremely unlikely that a yeggman would crack a safe without leaving fingerprints. It is precisely this oddity that makes the case solvable. Why would our thief be so concerned with fingerprints? The thief must have had his fingerprints used against him."
"I don't think that this theory narrows the search at all, based on the indexing," the commissioner stubbornly persisted.
"On the contrary, as you are aware, there is only one incident in which England has effectively used fingerprints. At this year's Epsom Derby you made fifty four arrests on various accounts. You took fingerprints and rushed them to Scotland Yard. There, you were able to match up the criminals to their previous convictions, and thus were able to get much longer sentences for several of them. I propose that our yeggman is one of those who were arrested at Epsom. Our criminal has gone to extraordinary lengths not to leave any fingerprints. I cannot believe that this man was just one of the thousands whom you routinely fingerprinted. He must have had them used against him, or someone close to him. If it is one of the former, we have less than fifty records to examine."
"Very well. I still believe it is like finding a needle in a haystack. I'll assign someone to go over the records with you."
"I have another case to discuss with Inspector Eber about. Perhaps he?"
"That's fine."
Holmes and Inspector Eber went to Scotland Yard. I returned to Baker Street. Late that night, Holmes made his appearance. I could not tell whether or not he had been successful in determining the perpetrator.
"I was able to identify the yeggman. As I had expected, he was one of those arrested for a minor incident at Epson. He was acquitted, but knew that Scotland Yard had identified his previous crimes via his fingerprints. His circular ears and earring scar were clearly visible in the photograph in his records. Scotland Yard arrested him a couple of hours ago, and found most of the stolen jewellery in his possession."
"Congratulations Holmes!"
Holmes sighed. "I was able to redeem myself
after the embarrassment of not finding his fingerprints. This
is one of those times where my flair for the dramatic worked against
me. I am not convinced that they will use my technique as part
of their regular crime scene investigation. I have been experimenting
with an interesting technique of using silver nitrate to find
fingerprints on silk shirts and other fine cloths. Perhaps I'll
write a monogram on the subject and send it to Commissioner Henry."
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