The story so far: Tempus has altered the timeline by ensuring that Jack the Ripper kill Lois' ancestor, Charlotte Dodgson, before Charlotte ever gave birth. With Charlotte's death, Lois ceased to exist. Clark and H. G. Wells have travelled back to Victorian England three days before the murder is to occur in order to try to rectify the situation. They have enlisted the aid of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson to try to find Charlotte in time to prevent her murder. All of the aforenamed characters and the Baker Street Irregulars spent a day making enquiries, but no one was able to discover anything related to Charlotte.
The Case of the Flying Man (4/7)
From the notebooks of John H. Watson:
I had been most astonished by Holmes’ actions. He almost never discussed an ongoing investigation. Moreover, although he always accorded his clients a professional courtesy, and even displayed a certain solicitousness to the more distraught ones, it was highly unusual for him to give his clients the respect he might give to an intellectual peer. It was unheard of for him to collaborate with his clients in the manner which I had just seen. When I drew his attention to his actions, his only reply was, “There is more to Mr Kent than a casual observer would realise. He has some singular, remarkable peculiarities. In fact, I might even venture to say that the world has never seen the likes of him before. I believe that, although they are different, he has strengths that are in every measure equal to my own." He refused to elaborate on what those strengths might be, or what could possibly give him such singular notions. There certainly seemed nothing remarkable about Mr Kent to me, aside, of course, from his being from the future.
Holmes and I spent the remainder of that day in the seamier areas of London showing the sketches to everyone who would speak with us; all to no avail. Apparently the time travellers had met with no better success. It was with heavy hearts that we met our clients the following morning.
Holmes decided to try another approach. “Perhaps we could learn more of Miss Dodgson if we were to know more about your wife’s ancestors. Mr Kent, please tell us all that you may know of her lineage.”
A rueful expression flitted across our client’s face. “Lois doesn’t have a good relationship with her family, so she never concerned herself with genealogy. Her parents are Sam and Ellen Lane. I think Ellen’s maiden name was ‘Baker’. She has a sister named ‘Lucy’. That’s about all I know…Oh wait a minute! I once asked Lois how she came by her first name. She mentioned Ellen’s great grandmother ‘Louise Carroll’ had been an actress and singer who had become famous in the time of King Edward. Ellen wanted to name my wife ‘Louise’ after their ancestor, but Sam refused. He had said that the name sounded too much like “wheeze,” and he didn’t want to give his daughter a name that sounded like a symptom he might treat. They compromised by changing the name to ‘Lois’.”
Holmes jerked to attention at the name ‘Louise Carroll’. “I am an idiot, Watson! Curse me for seven kinds of a fool! I should have realized the situation as soon as I heard the name ‘Charlotte Dodgson’. In what profession would a clumsy or ugly sounding name be a hindrance? Acting! Many actors change their names to something more mellifluous. And actors are often highly literate individuals who possess a love of word play. Surely Charlotte Dodgson would recognise the similarity of her name to that of Charles Dodgson, the real name of the man who wrote ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. She could not resist the humour involved in changing her name to be similar to his pseudonym of ‘Lewis Carroll’. It was Louise Carroll whom we should have been seeking all along.”
Holmes proceeded to leaf through the current edition of the newspaper to ascertain in which show Louise Carroll might be playing that evening. Unfortunately, she did not appear to be engaged in any programme at the moment. Neither Holmes nor I had seen any of her performances, so we did not know what she looked like. But at least we now knew the appropriate name of the person we sought.
