Peaches came around later that afternoon. �Sorry to hear about the moose, Harry,� she said.

�So what story have you heard?�

�I was told that you bought a moose off Magnum PI, and the moose had a disease, and a lot of people contracted the disease. Mrs. Nanny-Hattinay says she woke up one morning and her feet were horses and she couldn�t feel her legs because the horses took them.�

They went into the living room and Harry showed her the photograph of the trip to Prague. �We�re trying to figure out who these people in the photo are. Do you recognise the two people on Roy�s left?�

�That�s Peaches. I�m Peaches.�

�No, Peaches, on my left,� Roy said. �The other side.�

�Oh right. Ha, they�re not Peaches, ha ha... I think.�

Three hours later, Roy was slumped on the armchair. Barbara and Peaches were sitting on the sofa. Harry was standing behind the sofa.

Peaches was still looking at the photo. �If she�s Peaches� and they�re Peaches� and I�m Peaches as well� who the hell is Peaches?� Peaches said, almost in tears.

Harry slowly paced up and down behind the sofa. He stopped at one end and said, �I think I can solve this one.� He slowly walked to the other end of the sofa and turned around. �It was Peaches... in the library... with Colonel Mustard.�

Barbara put her head in her hands. Roy sighed and reached for an envelope on the coffee table. He slowly opened it and read the letter inside. When he�d finished reading he said, �Well it wasn�t Colonel Mustard.�

�Oh God no!� Barbara said. �I can�t take much more of this. Look, Peaches, just forget everything that�s happened over the last few hours. Look at this photo. See the people I�m pointing to? Do they look familiar to you at all?�

Peaches looked at them for a while and said, �They do look a bit familiar. They remind me of our Uncle Joe�s family. Maybe if you ask Monica; she might know.�

�I haven�t been at her place in years,� Harry said.

�She�s married now. You have to be careful if you go over there. They�re a little odd. They called their kids Patrick and Mary.�

When Harry went to Monica�s house one of her sons answered the door. He took Harry into the living room and shouted into the kitchen, �Ma, there�s someone here to see you.�

�I�ll be out in a second,� Monica shouted back.

�I�m actually a cousin of your mother,� Harry said. �My name is Harry.�

�Nice to meet you. I�m Patrick and this is my sister Mary, and this is my other brother Patrick, and this is my other sister Mary, and this is my brother Mary, and this is my other sister Mary and my sister Patrick and this is my other brother Patrick... Patrick? Are you okay Patrick?�

This younger Patrick was sitting on a chair, staring blankly into space. His older brother shouted towards the kitchen, �Ma, I think Patrick has been drinking ink again.�

The younger Patrick fell off the chair and lay motionless on the ground.

�He�s fallen off the chair!� his brother said. �What do you make of that, Holmes?�

Sherlock Holmes walked over to where Patrick lay on the floor. He bent over to examine the scene and said, �A �falling off the chair� case. How very odd in this day and age. My initial suspicion is that the gentleman in question is called Patrick.�

�Well duh, Holmes,� the older Patrick said. �Even Patrick could have told you that... Patrick, tell him who you are... Patrick?� The younger Patrick still lay motionless on the floor. �Ma, I think Patrick is unconscious.�

Monica came into the living room and she was delighted to see Harry again. They had met briefly at Paddy�s funeral, but it had been a few years since they last got together. Harry took out the photo and asked her if she recognised the people next to Roy. He told her that Peaches thought they might be relatives.

�Yeah, I�d say they�re in the family alright,� she said. �They look very familiar. I know I�ve seen them somewhere before, but I just can�t remember exactly where.�

�Yeah, I get the feeling they�re in the family too.�

�Maybe if you go around to some more of the relatives. You�ll surely find someone who knows them.�

�I suppose it�s about time I paid the relatives a visit anyway.�

�I heard about what you did with the moose.�

�Before you say another word, let me tell you the true story. Magnum PI entered the moose in the point-to-point and no one else noticed apart from me, and I agreed to keep quiet about it in exchange for a small sum of money. That�s all that happened.�

�You let Magnum PI...�

�Yes, I let Magnum PI enter a moose ridden by a blind jockey in the point-to-point, but the moose was almost indistinguishable from a horse, and that money was needed for a very worthy cause. It would have been wrong for me to take any other course of action.�

Harry went to visit a few other relatives in the area. They all thought that the people in the photo looked familiar, but no one could identify them. Harry didn�t have time to visit all of the relatives so he decided to organise a party and invite them to it.

There was no sign of the moose rumour dying out. There had been a feature about it at the end of the news on a local radio station, and their version of the story was that Harry took the moose to see Rain Man in the cinema. Harry called up the radio station to complain and they let him go on air to explain what really happened. He told the story about the moose in the point-to-point and finished with the line, ��and so it was really only by chance that I was able to tell that it was a moose in the first place.�

�So basically,� the presenter said, �what you�re saying is� you let Magnum PI enter a moose in the point-to-point, with a blind jockey.�

�Yes, but the money I got went to a very worthy cause.�

�And what was that cause?�

�It was a trip to Prague. Not for me, of course. It was for, ah, some blind kid. I think his name was Archie.�

�And did you go with him?�

�Oh no, I�ve never been to Prague. In no way did I benefit personally from this.�

�Did anyone go with him?�

�Absolutely no one.�

�So you sent a blind kid on his own to Prague?�

�Yes. I mean... yes. But I�m sure he was okay though. He wasn�t really injured when he fell off the bus� No, that sounds bad� He was really just drunk� Look, to be honest, he was really a pig.�

�A pig?�

�Yes.�

�So what you�re saying is, you let Magnum PI enter a moose in the point-to-point, ridden by a blind jockey, so you could blackmail Magnum to get the money to send a blind pig to Prague, and the pig got drunk and fell off a bus?�

�No. The pig wasn�t really blind.�

They had the party in the living room behind the shop and there was a good turnout. Harry and Roy hadn�t met some of the people there in years, like their cousin Dave. Harry poured him a whiskey when he arrived.

�Thanks Harry,� Dave said. �Sorry to hear about that blind kid. I hope he gets his eyesight back.�

Harry was going to correct him, but then he thought it was definitely an improvement on the moose story, so he said nothing. Dave went over to Peaches and said hello.

�Hi Dave,� she said. �How are things?�

�Not too bad at all, Peaches. Although I was at the doctor this week. I was swimming in the sea and it seems I spent too long under water. �Lack of oxygen,� the doctor said. Apparently that type of thing can kill you.�

�Oh no!�

�I was okay after a while though. I wasn�t killed, but the doctor told me I had to start watching what I breathe. Breathing water is a bad idea, he said. �Always breathe air, if you can.� He really emphasised that point. I can�t go around breathing like I did when I was a teenager.�

�I was just thinking, you�re looking a little pale.�

�Really? I�ve been trying to breathe as much as I can, and mostly air too.�

Peaches felt his wrist and said, �I can�t find a pulse.�

�That�s not normally serious though, is it?�

�That is serious. I think you might be dead.�

�Dead? Really?� Dave said, trying to take in the news. �That�s a bit of a blow. I was hoping I wouldn�t be dead, to be honest.�

�I�m sorry to hear about your death.�

�Wait a minute; if I�m dead, and you can still talk to me� doesn�t that mean that you�re dead too?�

�Oh no! You�re right. And I only just bought new shoes,� Peaches said as she looked at her shoes.

�This is a bit annoying really. Everyone around us is having fun and here we are, dead.�

�They�re not really having fun,� Peaches said.

�Do you think so?�

�Oh yeah. Did you ever really have fun with any of them?�

�Not really, no.�

�It�s the same for them. They�re not really having fun; they�re just pretending. I was the same when I was alive. None of them even like drinking. They just do it because everyone else does it.�

�I�ve never liked whiskey. I always hated those endless conversations about furniture too. This dead thing is turning out to be quite nice. I�m sorry I didn�t become dead a long time ago.�

�Me too.�

Harry came over to them and said, �How are ye fixed for drink?�

�Harry, you can talk to us!� Dave said. �It seems as if we�ve both died, so I�m sorry to have to tell you this, but you must be dead too.�

Harry wasn�t convinced. �I don�t remember dying. Here, hold this.� Dave held Harry�s drink as he felt his pulse. �No, I�m definitely alive.�

�Damn! I forgot!� Dave suddenly remembered something. �I�m an idiot! I keep my pulse in my ankle.� Dave handed back Harry�s drink and felt his ankle. �I�m alive! I suppose I wouldn�t have been able to hold your drink if I was really dead.�

�I�ll talk to ye again later.� Harry said as he left Peaches and Dave. They were laughing about the whole death thing as he left, but their laughter soon faded to a sigh.

�I wish I was dead,� Peaches said.

�Me too.�

�Although living isn�t so bad either. When you think about it, living bears up quite well compared to death.�

�Yeah, I suppose it does,� Dave said. �There�s lots of nice things about being alive. There�s curtains. Curtains are nice.�

�Yeah, I�ve always thought that. And chairs; they�re nice too.�

�And cushions.�

�Cushions, yeah. And wine.�

�That�s right. When you think about it, life has a lot to offer.�

�Yeah.�

Roy and Barbara were standing next to the sideboard. Harry joined them. �It�s a good turnout,� he said.

�It is,� Roy said. �There are a few relatives here I�d completely forgotten about.�

�So is there anyone here who looks like the people in the photo?� Barbara said.

�I don�t think so,� Harry said as he looked around.

Sherlock Holmes joined them. �The case appears to me to be perfectly clear. The culprit is Reverend Greene, in the study, with the candlestick.�

Roy opened an envelope and read the letter inside. �No, Holmes; you�re way off.� Holmes walked away.

Harry suddenly noticed something. �Wait a minute, look! Those people sitting in the corner?�

Roy looked to where Harry was looking but he didn�t see anyone there. �What people sitting in the corner?�

�Over there,� Harry said as he pointed towards the opposite corner of the room.

Roy looked again but he could only see two dogs. �Are you talking about the dogs?�

�Yeah. Look at the photo. It must be them.�

Barbara looked closely at the photo and then at the dogs. �Oh yeah, I think it is them.�

�They came with Tracey,� Roy said. Tracey is one of Harry and Roy�s three sisters. They went over to her and Roy asked her if the dogs were hers.

�Yeah. Surely ye remember the dogs,� Tracey said. �This one is Lassie and this is Rex. Do ye not remember the time ye took them to Prague?�

�My memory of the whole trip is a bit hazy,� Harry said, �but now that you mention it, I think I can remember them coming with us.�

Roy opened an envelope and read the letter inside. �You�re right! It was Lassie and Rex, in the kitchen, with the candlestick.�

Tracey explained to them what happened: �Ye took them to Prague and dressed them up in suits to get them through customs. Ye said they were twins who had spent their entire lives working in salt mines, and that ye were taking them to Prague to celebrate their hundredth birthday.�

�Oh yeah. Now I remember.�

�That�s them in the photo alright,� Barbara said. �Why did ye take them to Prague?�

�I remember now,� Roy said. �We told Sherlock Holmes that the dogs had become pen-pals with the real hound of the Baskervilles, who was working as a geologist in Prague. It was just a joke, but Holmes believed it. He paid for the dogs� tickets to Prague, so they could track down the hound.�

Holmes heard this and said, �Ah yes, now I remember. I paid for the tickets of��

�Yes, Holmes. I just said that,� Roy said. Holmes walked away, looking dejected.