The Case of the Private Member's Club

By Richard Saw

Already the toast of Tel-Aviv and Paris, entrepreneur Estaban Masci is about to open a Private Members’ club in London. But someone seems determined to run him out of town and it seems they’ll stop at nothing to ruin the launch party. When key members of staff leave, when suppliers stop deliveries and when One Direction cancels their appearance, he has no choice but to get the police involved. And they in turn know there is only one man in town who can track down the blackmailer.
Since the events surrounding the death of his friend Todd Mitchell, the great investigator Stephen Holmes has started to wonder if his newly domesticated lifestyle with John Watson is affecting his exceptional skills. Detective Virginie Garrigues of the Metropolitan Police has no such doubts though and when this extraordinary case lands on her desk, she knows the only person she can call to help her solve it.
With the ‘must-happen’ launch party just two days away, Holmes is forced to call on all his contacts, all his energy and most importantly, his incredible brain to piece this puzzle together. Could it be the obnoxious PR girl behind a bitchy blog and still harbouring a long-held feud against Estaban? Or could it have been one of Estaban’s ex-boyfriends out to seek revenge after the entrepreneur has done his best to destroy his career? Or perhaps the Arab princeling with too much money and a willingness to fight with anyone who gets in his way of a good time? Or even – with the clock ticking – could it be someone else?
With the ever resourceful Mrs Hudson at the office, John Watson’s beef stroganoff on the dinner table and some old friends holding key pieces of information, will Holmes deduce it all in time to prevent a social disaster of epic proportions? And along the way, there are plenty of questions that need to be answered. What does the blackmailer plan to do to cause havoc at the launch party? How old is the Duke of Orphington? And are the espresso brulée’s from 10 Greek St, really that good?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Saw
• Release date: Oct 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781502964335

Richard Saw

Richard Saw is a long time London resident who fell in love with the city when he fled his native Australia in the vain hope that he’d land a real job. Author of ‘From Breakfast to Whenever: The Eating Guide to Soho’ and a struggling media executive, he started writing the Holmes & Watson novels as a love letter to the city, the men and the lifestyle he’d fallen in love with.

Book preview

The Case of the

Private Members’ Club

A Holmes & Watson Short Story

By Kevin James

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin James

First published as an ebook in 2014

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

That being said, some famous people do turn up in this and subsequent novels to add flavour or perspective.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binging or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.

ISBN-13: 978-1502964335 ISBN-10: 1502964333

Thank you to all those people who got slightly tipsy over lunch with me and told me stories which are included in one way or another in this book. I was serious when I told you …that’s going in my next novel.

Stay in touch with the author on Twitter @authorofholmes, search for Kevin James on Facebook or if you’re looking for something a little naughtier, check out Todd Mitchell’s twitter account @gayjockgeek or the Tumblr account The Erotic Side of Holmes & Watson by searching for ‘authorinsearchof’.

Chapter One

Holmes looked at the paperwork in front of him. There were time-sheets to sign, promotion to approve and caseloads to allocate. All of the documentation was carefully annotated by Mrs Hudson and all he had to do was read the summary and initial in the correct spot but the ease of the task didn’t make him any more excited at the prospect. And just as he was ready to admit defeat, the heavens smiled on him and the phone rang. With a sigh of delight he pushed the papers to one side, picked up the phone and barked his customary, Holmes!

I need you, Detective Sergeant Virginie Garrigues declared.

Holmes was delighted. Obviously a police investigation would keep him away from this boring paperwork and he secretly enjoyed working with the Spanish-born lesbian detective. She was smart, pro-active, possessing of a dry sense of humour and most importantly she wasn’t as needy as Inspector Pomfrett. Most importantly, it had seemed like years since he’d had an investigation to get his teeth into. He’d started to worry he’d become a little too domesticated for his own good.

What’s the problem? he asked.

Do you know someone called Estaban Masci? Virginie asked.

Yes, Holmes responded. He owns a number of private member clubs around the world. He’s opening one in Marylebone called London House. I’m not 100% sure, but I think John told me that our membership has been confirmed. He stopped for a moment. He’d gone off on a tangent. This wasn’t like him at all. He had been away from proper work for far too long! So what’s the problem? He quickly reiterated, turning the questioning back to the detective before she had the chance to wonder if he’d lost his touch.

He contacted us. He told us he’s being blackmailed. He said that he’s had threats about his business for the last couple of weeks but he’s just ignored them. Now though, they have become more serious and that certain things have started to go wrong. And of course he wants everything to be done quietly so we can’t really do the sort of investigation that we’d usually do. Virginie didn’t say anything further. She didn’t really need to but it was obvious that when faced with something like this, she felt she’d no choice but to call in Holmes. He wasn’t sure what her superiors thought, but he’d never failed to resolve a case he’d been involved with, so he was sure that they didn’t complain too much about his unorthodox methods.

Any other reasons? Holmes said, toying with her.

Unlike Inspector Pomfrett, she didn’t try to hide her needs. Well I suspected you would be a member and of course you know he’s gay. And with things like this there’s always an angle that a gay man would see that the rest of us at the Met wouldn’t.

So you admit it. I’m the London Metropolitan Police’s Gay Cultural Liaison Officer, Holmes joked. A few years ago he would have been outwardly furious at this but these days, he considered himself too old and too mature to get upset. It was not an opinion however, that John Watson shared and he was well aware that there was still no lawyer in The City of London that any bank wanted more than him not to be looking into their dodgy dealings. So he considered investigations he assisted Pomfrett or Garrigues with to be fun diversions from his normal life.

Virginie sighed. Are you done? she asked.

I think so. What time are you picking me up?

I’ll be there in 30 minutes and we can go interview Mr Masci together, she stated.

My thoughts exactly, Holmes replied and he hung up the phone without signing off.

***

So what do you know about Estaban Masci? Holmes asked as Detective Garrigues drove along The Strand in the direction of The West End.

I got assigned to the case this morning so I’ve only had a chance to look at a few notes and do a bit of a Wiki-search on him. Up until this morning I’d never even heard his name, she paused and glanced over at her passenger. Is that bad?

Holmes shrugged. Not really, he admitted. These pseudo-society figures aren’t really culturally relevant even if they impact your life in ways you wouldn’t even know. A disputable view regardless. Do you want a brief synopsis?

If it wouldn’t be too much of a pain, she tersely requested.

Where to begin… Holmes mused. As I recall, he first drew our attention several years ago by opening a private members’ club in Tel Aviv and then followed that swiftly with a second in Paris. Both seem to be a raving success – especially since they opened in territories that more internationally successful chains, such as the Soho House Group, hadn’t yet moved into.

But isn’t his club in London called London House? The detective interrupted. That’s hardly original.

Well no, I agree, Holmes admitted. Luckily for him I guess there isn’t too much of a trademark case for calling a private members’ club ‘Something House,’ so he’s got away with it, though it does make you wonder why no one had used it before. Quite probably he believes that if you’re in the private members’ club game and you don’t have a place in London, well you’re no one. And after all, since they were invented here, he’s hardly wrong. But he hasn’t rushed into it. As far as I know he’s been in and about town for a good couple of years scoping things out and planning the launch of London House.

Have you ever met him?

Oh yes, Holmes admitted, Once. And it wasn’t for very long.

Just once? Virginie spluttered. "Will he even remember you? That was the