HOLMES' SUDDEN SOLUTION
A Clear Case of Self Defense
"Do you suspect that lovely Mrs. Fabersham of cold-blooded murder, Holmes?" I asked.
"I don't know, Watson. Perhaps; perhaps not. But all is not as we have been told in the death of Mr. Fabersham," Holmes replied.
"What makes you think that, Holmes?"
"Two things, Watson. I was first suspicious when I saw the remarkably confined arrangement of the bullet entry wounds. The clustering would have been the envy of even an accomplished marksman; scarcely the pattern one would expect from a frightened woman firing wildly as she fled for her life, do you think, Watson?"
"Hmmm," I nodded.
"But the most telling evidence lay in the glass fragments," Holmes continued.
"There were fragments everywhere — from the shattered door panel."
"Yes, Watson, everywhere. Even where there should have been none. Do you recall that everyone I asked insisted that Mr. Fabersham's corpse had not been moved and lay just as it had fallen? Well, there were shards of glass lying on top of the body, even directly over the bullet wounds. Even if some fragments had clung to Fabersham's clothing when he charged through the door panel, those fragments would have either been dislodged by the force of the bullet impact, or at least driven into the wound by the bullets themselves. No, Watson, I fear that the door was smashed after Mr. Fabersham's body lay dead upon the floor. This was done in an attempt to set a scene of violence and impending threat to Mrs. Fabersham, which might justify Fabersham's sudden and violent liquidation. I do not know if Mrs. Fabersham is the sole perpetrator of a premeditated murder. I rather suspect a male accomplice — perhaps a lover — who is a marksman in his own right. If Lestrade will follow my advice and question Mrs. Fabersham further, I feel sure that the truth will emerge in the end. I fear that one of my character weaknesses emerges, Watson. I would tend to add this case to those already in our chronicles in which my sympathies lay more with the perpetrator than with the victim."
(For bragging rights, can you name some Canonical cases in which Mr. Holmes' sympathies lay with the perpetrator?)
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