From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 21:

A Woman of Mystery...

While ensconced on the escarpments of the clock tower, Lady Dorrington, left a five-pound note secured to one of the clock's huge hands. As her ascent remains a secret, the eventual discovery of the fiver by workmen when the clock is next cleaned will create a mystery. The  precise opposite of Lady Dorrington's usual riddle solving modus operandi.

As to solving the mystery of the found money...  my lips are sealed. 

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War... 

Go to Part 20 "Never Wager with a Woman..."

Order "Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead" on Amazon

From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 20:

Never Wager with a Woman...
 

Tasha never ceases to amaze me. When she claimed that she could scale any structure in London, I scoffed and said in jest, "Why don't you climb Big Ben!" She asked, "Day or night?" I replied, "night,"  never dreaming she'd consider the wager genuine. I now owe her dinner at Simpsons...  perhaps not a bad bargain at that.

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War... 

Go to Part 19 "A Bicycle Built for One..."

Order "Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead" at Amazon

From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 19:

A Bicycle Built for One...

Mr. John Kemp Starley's perfection of the safety bicycle was a boon to all, providing cheap and healthy transportation regardless of social status or gender. 

There is no more enthusiastic nor capable proponent of this means of mobility than the exceedingly athletic Lady Natasha Dorrington. When on a case in the country, Tasha often either takes her bicycle or rents or borrows one.  Where once dependent on long walks or the availability of a horse and carriage, she - like so many other men and women - has found a new and vigorous independence.

When in the country a few weeks ago, one ruffian, making the mistake of stealing a gentleman's bicycle in the presence of Lady Dorrington, discovered, to his chagrin, just how swift her cycling could be - and how capable she was with solid right to his jaw. She returned to town on her bicycle, the felon made the trip, unconscious, on the floor of the police wagon.  

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War...

Go to Par 18: Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside

Order "Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead" at Amazon

From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 18:

Oh, I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside...

The Fatal Bathing Machine was constructed with all the skill a master of legerdemain could contrive. The homicidal performer, disguised as a bathing machine operator, lured the unsuspecting into his trap, which used the principles of magical illusion to vanish his victims from sight.

Lady Dorrington however, was quite familiar with the conjurer's arts. Using herself as bait, she brought down the curtain on this murderous magician. His final performance at the gallows will no doubt earn him far more of the publicity that she thus denied to him onstage.

Before the lethal contrivance was wheeled away as evidence, Tasha posed for her scrapbook in the company of a local constable.

Go to Part 17: What is a Holiday Without a Corpse?

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War...

Order "Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead" at Amazon

From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 17:

What is a Holiday Without a Corpse?

 

This is one of my favorite photographs of Lady Dorrington, taken and hand-tinted at Elliot & Fry's celebrated studio (oddly situated on Baker Street... an address all too familiar to those of us at Scotland Yard).

She had just returned from a summer holiday in Brighton. Her relaxed and contented countenance was not due, as one might expect, from the charms of sea-air, but the successful conclusion of the "Case of the Fatal Bathing Machine."

The unwary victims entered and were never seen again. Tasha ended the deadly career of this diabolical contraption and the sinister inventor who created it.

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War...

Go to Part 16 "The Gang's All Here"

Order "Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead" at Amazon

From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 16:

The Gang's All Here!

One of the officials at Pentonville Prison noted the number on inmates enjoying their enforced stay courtesy of Lady Dorrington.  He invited her to pose for a photograph - placing himself in the center - with this reluctant and ill-humored assembly.    Here they are, though only one figure in the photograph seems to be enjoying the occasion. 

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War...

Go to Part 15: ... Is much more accurate than a man's certainty....

Order:Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead" at Amazon

From the Private Files of Scotland Yard Commissioner Rushworth Ramsgate - Part 15:

...  is Much More Accurate Than a Man's Certainty...

Lady Dorrington,  examining the crime scene found evidence of  another set of footprints indicating an unaccounted third man at the crime scene. The footprints offered subtle indications of  a recoil, intimating that a weapon had been fired.  

There was a Canadian also staying at the Inn, claiming he was visiting for sport hunting. His boots matched the footprints. She secretly examined his shotgun and deduced he was indeed the culprit.

As it turned out, he was a distant and forgotten relation to the family.   Traveling under an assumed identity, he had framed the young peer for murder - a hanging offense - with the scheme of coming forth after the demise of the parents to claim the inheritance.

Go to Part One: The World on the Brink of War...

Go to Part 14: A woman's guess...

Order Lady Sherlock: Circle of the Smiling Dead at Amazon