The Knot He Should Not Know

Inside the barge there was only an iron box and a wet coat. No letter in the pocket, only a theatre stub. The seat had never been used. The time was tomorrow. Holmes held the stub to the lamp. The edge had been rubbed soft on purpose. "He left a seat for the living, and a rope for the dead."

Footsteps crossed the bridge, unhurried, like someone who knew the road. Watson whispered that they should step behind the pillar. Holmes shook his head. "That is not the killer. A killer does not walk beside his own knot. He steps around it, so nobody can see that he recognises it."

The steps stopped at the gunwale. A woman's voice came down through the fog. "Mr Holmes, what my husband left is not a puzzle. It is a ticket he had not finished tearing."

❦ To be continued.