I was inspired by "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is attributed the creation of the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.


The Adventure of the Watchmaker's Daughter

Chapter 1: Sophia Dollarhyde

When a daughter gets engaged her father is supposed to feel happy for her. This is not the case of Sophia Dollarhyde. The case came to Sherlock Holmes and I in 1884, it was a Saturday if I can recall properly. Me and Holmes were having breakfast, me as usual was reading the paper, when Mrs. Hudson came to us, saying that a young lady was calling for Holmes downstairs. Holmes told her we would be there in a minute and Mrs. Hudson departed. I asked Holmes if he thought if this lady was one of his clients, and he answered me that there wouldn't be any other reason for someone requesting him. We finished breakfast and went down.

"Good evening, Miss," said Holmes when he saw her, "I am Sherlock Holmes and this is my colleague Dr. Watson, whom you may speak in his presence confidently."

Holmes and I took a seat in the chairs surrounding the young woman.

"Thank you, Mr. Holmes, for seeing me." said the young girl with a soft voice. "I hope I'm not coming on a bad time."

"Oh no," said Holmes, "you are coming on a perfect time. So tell me, miss, what is your name and what brings you here in this lovely evening?"

"My name is Sophia Dollarhyde, the daughter of William Dollarhyde, the Watchmaker from Fleet Street."

"Yes, I am familiar with your father's work. I actually happen to be having with me right now one of your father's precious watches." Holmes showed Miss Sophia Dollarhyde his wrist where rested one of William Dollarhyde's watches.

"Yes, my father makes fine watches and they are very popular. But this is not why I came here to talk to you."

"Please forgive me, ma'am. Continue with your story."

"I come today here to you because I'm scared, Mr. Holmes, scared about my father. You may ask waht kind of harm can a watchmaker do, but I assure you that much. He happens to be very rich, his watches are so popular that he has ammassed an impressive sum of money for the last years. But not all of this money could save my mother, who happened to die two years ago."

"Forgive my interruption, ms. Dollarhyde, but how did your mother die?"

"Her heart stopped. But that is not important for what I am to tell you. So anyway, my father is very rich and very powerful, what makes him very dangerous. He has very dangerous contacts, people that can harm badly. This people are the ones that scare me. I happen to be engaged to a wonderful man since a month ago. My father seemed to be understanding, he even seemed happy for me. This was until two nights ago, when I went down to the kicthen to have a glass of water and I found my father, he was drunk. I told him it was late and that he should go to bed. His answer was different from the one I expected. I had expected him to tell me to go away and to leave him alone. No. His answer was 'Sophia, you know I love you. but I'm afraid if you marry this man I will have to kill you and him'. I got scared. I left him and went to bed. I first thought it was the alcohol talking, but the next morning he approached me. I thought he was going to apologise, to tell me that he hadn't meant what he had said. He said 'Sophia, what I told you last night should not have been said, but now that it is I think the words are real. Don't you marry this man, or I fear that the consequences I have said last night will be applied.' After that he left. I was scared, I did not know what to do. Last night, while I was in my bed, I remembered how a friend of mine told me how you had helped her, and I thought to myself 'if this man can help her, he can help me.' I took a cab here this morning, in the hopes that you could help me. Please, I need your help. I am very afraid of my father. He is a dangerous man, who is capable of murdering his own daughter."

I listened to Miss. Dollarhyde's story carefully. It was a sad one, I could not believe how a father would do that to his daughter. I thought to myself if I ever had a daughter I wouldn't do anything to her like that.

"Where do you live, Ms. Dollarhyde?"

"In a big house, a couple of kilometres outside from London. But if you are planning to visit I suggest strongly not to. My father, as I have said, is a very dangerous man, and you would not want to be his enemy."

"What kind of connections does your father have?" I asked. "Are simply common killers? Or are connections with the police that may help him in the case that he murders someone?"

"As far as I know only common criminals, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had connections with the police to cover him. I do believe that he has murdered someone before, and that he had never been even suspected. Besides of murder, I am sure that he has commited other crimes. I have heard rumours that he beat a man, almost killing him, and then stole his money. My father being a thief, I do not know, but I know that he is capable of doing such things."

"Don't you worry anymore, ma'am, we will help you." said Holmes. "I think we should be meeting your father some day, to know with what kind of man we are dealing with. Apart from that we will protect you of every danger you may be in, and your fiancé too. Who is your fiancé? I did not have the chance to ask."

"His name is Edward Kingsley. He works for my father. I fear that this working connection will be more dangerous for him that it already is. He may be just going to work one day and he finds one of my father's assasins."

"That will not happen, Ms. Dollarhyde, because we will see for your safety."

"Thank you, Mr. Holmes, thank you."

After ms. Dollarhyde had departed Holmes looked at me and said:

"Watson, we're going to meet Mr. William Dollarhyde."