Full Fathom Five, or, the Torment. Chapter Thirteen.

[ghislainem70]

Title: Full Fathom Five, or, the Torment. Chapter Thirteen.
Author: ghislainem70
Word Count:  2212
Rating: NC-17
Warnings:  Graphic depictions of violence (entire work), explicit sex (entire work)
Summary:  Sherlock, John and Lestrade are called to solve mysterious disappearances from a Scottish lighthouse.
Disclaimer:  I own nothing.  All honours to Messrs Gatiss, Moffat, BBC et al.
Note:  This fic is inspired by a tweet from Mark Gatiss, noting his love for the film "I Know Where I'm Going!", also a fave of the author''s.


Full Fathom Five, or, the Torment. Chapter Thirteen.

The men departed Dubh Ardath in the company of Ian Campbell, who, honored by their heroic efforts in solving the mysterious disappearances of the lighthouse keepers, insisted upon hosting the men at his ancestral castle of Inverary, just 30 kilometers from Oban.

So it was that Sherlock, John, and Lestrade came to be housed at the iconic Scottish castle of Inverary for the night. Mycroft, in typically covert manner, had somehow found out their plans and appeared the instant they arrived at Inverary, seemingly quite familiar with the castle’s grounds and with numerous members of its household staff.  Mycroft regarded Lestrade's sutured chin and fresh black eye with the merest lift of his eyebrow, but without comment.   Lestrade returned Mycroft's scrutiny with a glint of resentment, even defiance, perhaps; but turned away and walked off, alone.

Mycroft abruptly announced his desire to prepare a full report at once for a Certain Person.

"It will have to wait for morning," Sherlock said with what might have been a twinkle in his eye, such as was only seen when Sherlock felt that he had been exceptionally clever, even for Sherlock, and solved a particularly challenging crime. "We all need food, and rest."

Mycroft evidenced surprise at Sherlock’s obviously including himself among the "we" needing food and rest, but gracefully withdrew, muttering something about the Greek monetary crisis.

The men dined magnificently at the Duke’s table, a true Scottish feast with abundant game, local produce, fresh breads and cakes, and copious quantities of the Duke’s own private whisky. The Duke himself was not in residence. The 18th Duke of Argyll was captain of the Scots Elephant Polo Team, currently competing in the World Elephant Polo Games in Nepal.

It was long after midnight when the men gratefully found their beds. And Sherlock did not wait long before silently making his way down the cavernous, tapestry-lined corridor to John’s own room, and crawling gently in beside him, infinitely careful not to disturb John’s precious sleep.

* * *

The next morning found everyone anxiously awaiting Sherlock’s revelations.  When everyone had breakfasted Campbell led them all to the Saloon, a magnificent chamber, surprisingly light, with gilded moldings, a billiard table, a grand piano and walls covered with priceless portraits of the distinguished Campbell family down through history.

Everyone was seated but Sherlock, who paced as he recited his conclusions regarding the mysterious disappearances at Dubh Ardath.

He first made a list of the six missing men.

"We were asked to discover what happened to the six missing lighthouse keepers on Dubh Ardath. Their names are, or were:

(The Original Keepers)

McMann

Robinson

McQuarrie

(The Relief Keepers)

Ballantyne

MacAllyn

Baird

Sherlock reminded them that the names of the missing men had been provided by the Lighthouse Board, and that the names of the original keepers were all found in McMann’s diary. Whether all of them were using their true names he left to Lestrade to determine from the fingerprints taken from the lighthouse.

"First, the most obvious question, is why did the light at Dubh Ardath fail? The lights are mechanized, and not complex. Yet for more than three months, the three keepers sent to repair the light repeatedly failed to stabilize it, requiring a relief team of an additional three to be sent out to aid the men. What was the cause?

"We now know there was a very particular reason for one of the original keepers, whom I believe to have been McQuarrie, to want an extended period of time with uninterrupted access to Dubh Ardath. Dubh Ardath is in fact the location of Grey Cavern, mentioned in the ship’s log of 1588 of the Galley Tormentor. The Tormentor was among the Tudor navy in the battle of the Spanish Armada, and pursued a Spanish galleon to the shores of Mull. The Spanish ship was carrying the Spanish Armada’s paymaster’s chests, totaling 30 million in gold coinage, pieces of eight.

"When the Spanish galleon sank in Tobermory Harbour, the captain of the Tormentor immediately set men to salvage what gold they could, and decided to hide it, undoubtedly to be retrieved after the war. The log states that the men hid 30 caskets of gold in Grey Cavern.

"So far as is known, no one ever discovered the location of Grey Cavern and it was unknown whether the hidden gold was ever recovered by the captain of the Tormentor or his men. Mull and the surrounding islands are rife with legendary caves, which were used by pirates in their day. So it was, until McQuarrie, a local man, apparently something of a treasure hunter, and whose family were hereditary keepers of Dubh Ardath, somehow discovered that Dubh Ardath was the site of Grey Cavern.

"The present Duke of Argyll has legal rights of salvage over this wreck to this very day; and therefore, McQuarrie had to proceed with extreme secrecy. Also, Dubh Ardath has no beach or landing place for any boat. And an offshore boat of salvage divers anchoring near Dubh Ardath for any period of time would be extremely conspicuous. McQuarrie went to Dubh Ardath, undoubtedly by night, and sabotaged the light, causing the Lighthouse Board to send a team of keepers, including himself, to repair it.

"How did he know that the Lighthouse Board would include him on the team? It was well known that the men in McQuarrie’s family had been keepers on Dubh Ardath for more than 50 years, and he was a local man. He volunteered, and it made sense, no one questioned it in the slightest. The other two were also local men, Robinson and McMann, known to McQuarrie, and whom he believed he could handle.

"McQuarrie had to make sure to buy as much time as he could. He could not raise the treasure himself, it required state of the art salvage diving. McQuarrie therefore recruited three other men, Ballantyne, MacAllyn and Baird, to his cause. All three were experienced marine divers from the North Sea oil rigs. And McQuarrie began sabotaging the repairs of the light at Dubh Ardath, to buy time. At length McQuarrie, who was the head engineer of the keepers, asked if he could arrange for relief keepers to assist, and the Lighthouse Board permitted McQuarrie to choose his own men: Ballantyne, MacAllyn and Baird.

"But something went wrong. One of the three original keepers, McMann, began to suspect that McQuarrie was sabotaging the light. But he could not have been certain, otherwise he would have found a way to report it to the Lighthouse Board. So, an unverified hunch or suspicion that he confronts McQuarrie with. McQuarrie decides that McMann must die. And our killer hit upon a brilliant strategy. The McMann and Robinson were both local men, and had been passing the time by telling local ghost stories, including stories of the fetch.

"McQuarrie decided to terrify the men into staying within the lighthouse by having one of his confederates, probably MacAllyn or Baird - as Ballantyne was most often across the strait on Jura keeping watch through his telescope. McQuarrie caused MacAllyn or Baird, or both, to walk the rocks of Dubh Ardath at night, knocking at windows and doors, while wearing their black rubber deep marine drysuits.

"These suits are equipped with heavily weighted boots and gloves to help the diver remain stable while working in deep sea dives. The heavy iron weights and stiffness of the rubber drysuits resulted in the men having a strange manner to their movements; the sound of their feet on the rocks and their hands knocking at the door must have seemed uncanny. In the storm and the mist, McMann and Robinson were easily impressionable and became convinced that what they were seeing was the fetch, come to take their lives.

"And we must not forget Ballantyne, Ballantyne alone on Jura for much of this time. Ballantyne had discovered that a local marsh plant on Jura, the water dropwort, was blooming abundantly and killing the sheep that ate it. Unlike nearly every other known poisonous herb, this herb tastes sweet and pleasant rather than bitter. It left the animals with frighteningly contorted carcasses, and the local men were claiming it was a curse. I saw some of these carcasses myself on Jura. Water dropwort is a very deadly poison which produces almost instant death after painful wracking convulsions causing a uniquely horrific expression to the face - known as risus sardonicus, the killer smile.

"Ballantyne brought the herb to McQuarrie, and they decided it was the perfect way to murder McMann. McQuarrie brewed a tea poisoned with water dropwort and fed it to the unlucky McMann, who had been threatening to report McQuarrie for sabotage. It immediately had the desired effect, but worked too well. The other keeper, Robinson, had been terrified by the fetch for days. Being a simple and superstitious man, Robinson believed that McMann, by terrible grimace on his face in death, had been killed by the fatal gaze of the fetch. Robinson ran up the light tower and jumped to his death in the height of the storm, rather than face such an evil fate himself."

Here Lestrade and John silently recalled the terrible sardonic grin of the dead man. Without his medical training John, too, might have almost have believed it to be the face of a man who had looked upon the relentless fetch.

"This is the reason for the abandoned meals - the poisoned man dropped dead at the table after drinking the poisoned tea, presumably after some strategic knocking and other haunting by the drysuited Baird and McAllyn. McMann had time to wash and dry the teacups to dispose of remnants of the poisoned tea. But he was surprised when Robinson rose from the table, abandoning his meal as well, and fled up the tower. Where he jumped to his death.

"Now McQuarrie had not one, but two bodies to conceal. But he believed he had time. He called up his compatriots, MacAllyn and Baird. They made their way out onto the rocks from the concealed cavern entrances to the rear of the lighthouse entrance. They lifted Robinson’s body and threw it into the sea. Because the storm was becoming very dangerous, they did not at that time try to dispose of McMann’s body, but temporarily hid it in the locker in the light tower, from which they undoubtedly intended to remove it as soon as the storm lifted and cast it as well into the sea. I believe it is also likely that they simply could not bear to look upon its face and that this was another reason for concealing it in the locker.

"These men had been working covertly in the underground caverns of Dubh Ardath, searching for the treasure and using their equipment only when the waves and storms were at their highest, to drown out the sound of their machinery. With the two keepers dead, there was now nothing to stop them from drilling in earnest. They brought out their heavy equipment and explosives. There was no reason to suppose that the men’s deaths would be discovered any time soon. But, McQuarrie had made a mistake.

"In the confusion of the two deaths, McQuarrie forgot that the Lighthouse Board had been notified of the Queen’s yacht’s itinerary, and that the yacht was scheduled to pass by Dubh Ardath that very night. Since the light was not in fact broken at all, it should have been a simple thing to make certain it was functioning on the night Her Majesty’s vessel was to have sailed near Dubh Ardath. But, McQuarrie forgot in the haste of disposing of the bodies. The light was left switched off by mistake, until it was too late -- and the Queen’s ship foundered.

"Now, the men’s plans were interrupted by inquisitive officials, first from local police, then from our party. It was either abandon the site altogether, or try to buy time by preventing us from discovering their lair, by whatever means necessary. And as happened, they very nearly killed Lestrade and John.

"And we know that two of the men, MacAllyn and Baird, were drowned in the cavern. McQuarrie and Ballantyne decided to abandon them and block the cave so that Lestrade and John would drown. They were so close to their goal, they most likely decided that MacAllyn and Baird were now expendable. Perhaps they had planned to kill them all along after they had served their purpose, and keep a larger share of the gold for themselves."

Lestrade explained that a manhunt was on for McQuarrie and Ballantyne, but no sign of either man had been found yet.

"But where is the gold?" Campbell asked what everyone was thinking, imagining those legendary caskets of gold.

Sherlock held up a single bright golden coin and presented it to Campbell. "This is all that was found. If there is more down beneath the rocks of Dubh Ardath, it will have to be salvaged in the same way that McQuarrie and his gang were attempting."

"By my calculations, in looking at Ballantyne’s own notes, the men were just within 24 hours of uncovering Grey Cavern and the lost caskets of gold," Sherlock said.

The men were all silent. No one liked to think of the black rock of Dubh Ardath being disturbed from its haunted solitude any further.

To be continued . . .

Listen to Bach Cello Concerto No 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPY7xL1JItQ

Back to Chapter Twelve:  Next Chapter: (Fourteen) Where it All Ends: .