THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT PARKERTON MANOR
First in the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Series

TREATMENT©
      THE UNPLEASANTNESS AT PARKERTON MANOR
      Based on the Novel by Barry S. Brown
     
      LOG LINE: First Sir Stanley, then his coachman are murdered at Parkerton Manor and it will require the ingenuity of Mrs. Hudson, the true sage of 221B Baker Street, to lead her colleagues Holmes and Watson to discover their killer, while fending off headhunters newly introduced into the English countryside by the White Rajah of Sarawak.
     
      Act 1
     
            SIR STANLEY is dead and his widow, LADY PARKERTON, has journeyed from her estate outside Tunbridge Wells to engage SHERLOCK HOLMES to allay or confirm her fears that he did not die of natural causes. If Sir Stanley was murdered, the murderer is almost certainly someone at Parkerton Manor and very likely a member of her own family. At points overcome by emotion, she recounts to Holmes and WATSON that her three children stand to gain substantially from Sir Stanley’s death; her son acquires the Parkerton estate, and all the children will receive large sums from the insurance proceeds she has promised them. But her promise was made before she heard Sir Stanley angrily telling someone he would not modify his will or change his legacy in any way. She reveals as well that, in spite of sleeping more soundly than expected because of her exhaustion from the day’s events, she was wakened several times by persons entering and leaving Sir Stanley’s room on the night of his death.
            What neither Lady Parkerton nor anyone else realizes is that Holmes is in reality the instrument of a greater intelligence. The true master of criminal investigation at 221B Baker Street is the woman who ushers her into the apartments, serves her tea and scones, and will clear her dishes afterward. MRS. HUDSON, nominally the great man’s housekeeper, is possessed of unique powers of observation and analysis, as well as having spent 29 years studying crime and criminals in concert with the late TOBIAS HUDSON, her “uncommon common constable” husband. Relying on those skills, she has founded a consulting detective agency, using Holmes to provide a facade of mannerly intellect and Watson to develop the records used to resolve cases.
            At a dinner meeting with Mrs. Hudson to plan strategy, Watson provides background on Sir Stanley in terms of his having been a medical researcher whose major accomplishment and source of wealth - refinement of the binaural stethoscope - was not seen by co-workers or medical colleagues as properly credited to him.
     
      Act 2
     
            Holmes and Watson travel by rail to Parkerton Manor located in Tunbridge Wells, a town in Kent known for its healing waters. They are disguised as MR. SMYTHE and DR. WESTON, officials of the company that had insured Sir Stanley. The Parkertons’ coachman, CHRISTIAN PETERS, meets them at the Tunbridge Wells station, having come to town to transport them as well as fulfilling his daily chore of obtaining STANLEY JUNIOR’s newspaper. On the ride to the Manor he hints darkly of a knowledge of events surrounding Sir Stanley’s death, but refuses to be more forthcoming.
            At the Manor, Holmes and Watson are each shown to their rooms by the two spouses of the Parkerton daughters, one of whom freely admits to a need for finances while the other jokingly belittles the possibility of murder. Watson pensively looks over the estate from his window where he sees the coachman uncouple the horse from the trap before going to his apartment above the stables.
            At drinks at 7, before dinner at 7:30 in accord with Sir Stanley’s strict schedule, Holmes and Watson meet the three Parkerton children and their spouses as well as the Parkertons’ housekeeper, MRS. COMPTON, and parlor maid, PATIENCE. The men take turns recounting the events of the day of Sir Stanley’s death. In the telling they reveal the extent to which the three families are at each others’ throats. The elder daughter, EMILY, is the wife of DR. WALTER FRISMAN, the physician who attended Sir Stanley and attributed his death to a long-standing heart condition. Stanley Junior, the next eldest and the new squire of Parkerton Manor, is married to SARA, whose exotic appearance and small accent suggest origins far removed from the Kent countryside. The younger daughter, DOROTHY, well along in her first pregnancy, is married to EARNEST CALDWELL whose dandyish appearance and boorish manner place him at odds with other family members.
            Whatever their conflicts in other areas, family members are agreed that Sir Stanley became ill during dinner and died in the night after having the same food and drink as everyone else at the table with no one else showing any sign of sickness. They report as well that only the family was at home throughout that afternoon and evening as it was Boxing Day and the servants were all given a day out. Peters, HENRY, the stableboy, and JANE, the scullery maid, are reported as never having come to the Manor that day while Patience left in the early morning, Mrs. Compton left at midday and MRS. BERSON, the cook, left mid-morning.
            Over dinner, and when the men gather for after-dinner drinks, the conversation becomes still testier as Stanley Junior accuses Dr. Frisman of obsequiously seeking favor - and money - from Sir Stanley, Emily Frisman counters that her brother, Stanley Junior, is simply living off his father’s earnings, and Stanley Junior expresses his anger over Earnest’s late night forays into town with the consequent ignoring of Dorothy’s pregnant condition and needs. The continuing acrimony is interrupted periodically out of deference to Lady Parkerton or as Mrs. Compton enters and leaves the room during serving. Holmes and Watson escape to their bedrooms leaving the family to continue its wrangling.
     
      Act 3
     
            While Holmes and Watson travel by first class compartment to Tunbridge Wells, Mrs. Hudson travels in a second class coach. When her young seat-mate shows a sudden bout of depression, Mrs. Hudson demonstrates her extraordinary abilities, recognizing from the cues she alone grasps that the woman is a school teacher who has been jilted by her fiancé and is now headed home for a brief period of recovery. Her insights prove nearly as alarming as comforting to the young woman.
            In the dining room of the Swan Hotel, where she is staying, she forms an alliance with her waitress based on their shared hostility toward the dining room’s officious manager. Under the pretext of seeking information about service positions at the Manor, Mrs. Hudson learns that Sir Stanley had been a difficult and sometimes abusive employer. The waitress also reports there is a footpath leading from Parkerton Manor to town, a footpath of which Earnest Caldwell makes frequent use in visiting the Raven’s Beak pub and that pub’s barmaid, whom Mrs. Hudson recognizes to be the waitress’ daughter.
     
      Act 4
     
            The next morning begins early for Watson with a summons from Walter Frisman that his medical expertise is wanted. The cause for Dr. Frisman’s concern lies at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Parkerton’s kitchen in the lifeless form of Peters, the coachman. Holmes and Watson now make use of the training received from Mrs. Hudson and determine that the coachman’s death is not the result of a drunken fall as first thought based, in part, on the murdered man’s long-standing drinking problem - or “stopping problem” as it is described by a less than grief-stricken Mrs. Berson. A trip wire had been put in place to snare the unwary coachman. Holmes and Watson reveal to a gathering of the Parkerton family and staff that the coachman was murdered, and reveal as well their true identities, Holmes removing his disguise, to the group’s amazement and the family’s consternation.
            Explanations are interrupted by the arrival of SERGEANT ATKINS of the Tunbridge Wells Constabulary appearing with INSPECTOR LESTRADE of Scotland Yard, who has accompanied his wife to Tunbridge Wells where she is making use of the town’s healing waters. As the Parkertons watch with fascination and Sergeant Atkins with awe, Holmes and Lestrade challenge and engage each other.
     
      Act 5
     
            On the pretext of exchanging train tickets and engaging rooms for the evening, Watson is driven into town by Henry, the stableboy, where he meets with Mrs. Hudson to share with her the events at Parkerton Manor. At the end of Watson’s report, Mrs. Hudson suggests additional areas of questioning for staff and family, and asks Watson to undertake a somewhat delicate mission at the Raven’s Beak pub. To Watson’s surprise, Mrs. Hudson also reveals she has already formed suspicions about the identity of the murderer.
            At the Raven’s Beak, Watson engages MARGARET, the pub’s attractive barmaid, in somber conversation, explaining that he is a physician staying with the Parkertons and understands she shares a friendship with Mr. Caldwell. On that account he tells her their relationship provides cause for concern regarding the young woman’s health and he urges her to take precautions. Watson’s admonitions hit their mark amidst protestations from the barmaid regarding the limits she has placed on her friendship. The exchange is greatly appreciated by the pub’s landlord who has stationed himself in a position to overhear it.
            Watson returns to Parkerton Manor where, together with Holmes, they complete the questioning of the Parkertons and their staff. Little new is revealed other than Sara Parkerton’s description of Sir Stanley in the same unflattering terms as those used by Mrs. Hudson’s waitress. Indeed, Sara describes a frequent need for Stanley Junior to intervene on behalf of staff and even on behalf of Lady Parkerton as they became targets for Sir Stanley’s rage. Sara is a good deal less forthcoming about her own background and marriage. She goes so far as to hint of dangers for anyone who asks about her origins.
      While Holmes and Watson, now removed to a Tunbridge Wells inn, share their disappointment about progress, Mrs. Hudson enjoys a pleasant dinner and her waitress’ “grand news” that a doctor, whom she doesn’t even know, has so alarmed her daughter that she will no longer be seeing a certain married man who had been making improper advances toward her.
     
      Act 6
     
            The following morning Holmes and Watson are again wakened early by yet another crisis at Parkerton Manor. Henry has come to take them back to the Manor, explaining that Stanley Junior and Sara have disappeared. They direct Henry to take them first to the Swan where they meet secretly with Mrs. Hudson to advise her of this latest turn of events and seek her direction. She urges them as a matter of life and death to seek out clues to Sara’s origins in her rooms. At Parkerton Manor, they find that Sergeant Atkins, Lestrade, and a CONSTABLE SMATHERS, have preceded them. Holmes makes effort to reassure a distraught Lady Parkerton of his confidence, born of his briefing by Mrs. Hudson, that things are not what they seem regarding Stanley Junior’s apparent flight from the Manor.
            In the private session he requests with Holmes, Lestrade, with Sergeant Atkins’ eager support, expresses his conviction of Stanley Junior’s guilt. To his Sergeant’s dismay, Constable Smathers, in near apologetic tones, offers argument in defense of Holmes’ position. Holmes and Lestrade place themselves in competition to find the murderer which Lestrade has equated with finding Stanley Parkerton.
            Holmes searches the grounds for clues related to the Parkertons’ disappearance. Watson questions Dorothy Caldwell who was awakened in the night by noises outside her window facing the roadway. She describes foreign looking men who helped the Parkertons into a waiting carriage before hurrying them off. Dorothy reveals the men were small in stature, dressed unlike any other men she’d ever seen, and at least one of them seemed to have a knife sheathed at his waist. She reports that through her partially opened window, she could hear one man saying what sounded like “Pray, get in,” to each of the Parkertons.
            As they had been directed by Mrs. Hudson, Holmes and Watson proceed to search for clues to Sara’s origins in the rooms of the Parkertons and of their two daughters. They select a variety of clothing, walking sticks, parasols, beadwork, a stamp collection, dolls, animal carvings, puzzles and shells; and carry their ambiguous treasure back to Baker Street to join with Mrs. Hudson in its examination.
     
      Act 7
     
            The carved animals are seen by Mrs. Hudson a having an especial significance. The animals depicted, the wood, and the style of carving are all sufficiently unusual to suggest a trip by Holmes to the London Zoo to put names and habitats to the animals while Watson and Mrs. Hudson make a study of the remaining articles. Holmes returns with his mission fulfilled. Having been given access to the collection of drawings, stuffed animals and skeletons provided the Zoo by its founder SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES, Holmes is able to identify the carved animals as native to the Malay Archipelago. Mrs. Hudson and Watson go him one better. In examining Sara’s stamp collection, they find a stamp from the Malaysian state of Sarawak placed on its own page and surrounded by a thick black border. The stamp shows a picture of SIR JAMES BROOKE, whom Watson identifies as the WHITE RAJAH OF SARAWAK, as Sir James was known to the officers at Pashewar where Watson was recovering from wounds received in Afghanistan.
            The story was told of Brooke being commissioned by the SULTAN OF BRUNEI to put down an insurrection by a tribe of headhunters and being awarded the State of Sarawak upon his success. Sir James was believed to have married a daughter of the Sultan who later gave birth to a daughter, although both the marriage and the child were never acknowledged by Sir James. While Watson regards that story as “scuttlebutt,” Mrs. Hudson finds it “all fittin’ too neatly” to be rejected. The story, Sara’s exotic appearance, her creation of a “portrait” of Sir James, and the need to keep that portrait and her own history hidden, suggest to Mrs. Hudson that Sara and Sir James are related.
            A newspaper report providing Sara’s identity makes it urgent they find Stanley and Sara before Lestrade or whomever it is the Parkertons fear can find them. A notice is placed in the Standard, which they remember from their ride with Peters is read daily by Stanley, asking the Parkertons to meet with Smythe and Weston as those names will only be known to them.
            Holmes visits his brother MYCROFT at the Foreign Office, where he is introduced to MARTIN FUTTERMAN whose knowledge of the Malay States and its people allows him to explain that what Dorothy heard as “Pray get in” was in reality the word “Pengiran,” a Malay honorific. Holmes then goes to the office of CATHCART JONES, Stanley’s solicitor, but gets no further than his forbidding and unhelpful clerk.
     
      Act 8
     
            After several days in which the newspaper notice goes unanswered, they are visited by a heavily cloaked Stanley and Sara who enter the Baker Street lodgings after the rooms and its inhabitants have been thoroughly searched by the armed Malaysian bodyguards who accompany them. Sara reveals she is indeed the granddaughter of Sir James Brooke and, while she seeks no claim on Sarawak, she likely has greater rights than its current ruler, SIR CHARLES BROOKE, the nephew of Sir James.
            Stanley and Sara report that Sir Charles will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat of Sara to both his own continuing sovereignty and his son’s inheritance of his title. To prove her point, she provides a history of the events that have befallen Sir Charles’ enemies real and imagined, and her awareness of a man in continuous pursuit of her on his behalf. Stanley reveals he has learned from Walter Frisman that there are now foreign looking men, similar to those described by Dorothy, living rough in the woods near Parkerton Manor.
            Based on the plan devised by Mrs. Hudson, Holmes assures the Parkertons that the situation lends itself to quick resolution. Stanley and Sara return to where they are hiding with their Malay protectors.
     
      Act 9
     
            The following day Holmes and Watson travel by rail to Sir Charles’ estate in Cirencester, his home in England whenever he returns from Sarawak. Independently, each takes the precaution of arming himself, and Holmes leaves two letters with Mrs. Hudson. The coachman they hire at the station regales them with tales of savages from Sir Charles’ kingdom living on his estate.
            On their arrival, they are met by Sir Charles’ Malaysian servants dressed more primitively than the protectors of Stanley and Sara Parkerton. Holmes provides one of them with his calling card, on which he has written Sara’s name, correctly judging this will lead to Sir Charles’ willingness to see him. Sir Charles joins them in a drawing room filled with a mix of objects, both obscure and sinister, that are drawn from his travels. Holmes questions his motives in seeking information about Sara during a heated exchange between the two. The verbal sparring takes place amidst a backdrop of formal tea service and patrolling armed bodyguards.
            Sir Charles asks Holmes and Watson to leave, reluctantly pausing only long enough to answer a few questions from Watson in the hope of creating a climate that will allow Sara to meet with Sir Charles. When Sir Charles slips and reveals his true motives toward Sara, he demands his guests leave, threatening their lives and pointing out that the two men who have entered the room with their long knives drawn are of Sarawak’s Dayak tribe, headhunters who would like nothing better than to return to Sarawak with two new trophies for their huts.
            Holmes and Watson face down their adversaries drawing the revolvers they have brought with them. Gaining the upper hand, they force Sir Stanley into an agreement such that he will refrain from any future threats to the well-being of Sara and anyone in her family, in exchange for her agreement never to challenge the authority of Sir Charles or of his son and heir apparent. Holmes reveals that to protect against any backsliding by Sir Charles (including risk to himself or Watson), he has prepared two letters to be opened should there be any such disagreeable occurrence. One is addressed to Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard and the other to Mycroft Holmes at the Foreign Office. Defeated, Sir Charles agrees to Holmes’ conditions and to the withdrawal of his henchmen from the woods outside Parkerton Manor.
            Holmes and Watson must still walk a gauntlet of taunts and threats from armed Dayak to reach their coachman, himself being challenged by the Malay servants. He loses no time getting them back to the train station and requests they not hire him if they choose to return.
     
      Act 10
     
            On the train ride back to London, after taking brief pride in their recent accomplishment, Holmes and Watson review the stories of each of the Parkerton suspects in an effort to identify the murderer of Sir Stanley and the coachman. They are unable to decide on a guilty party or even rule out any but the pregnant Dorothy among family, and Henry the stableboy and Jane the scullery maid among staff.
            While Holmes and Watson are in Cirencester, Mrs. Hudson takes steps to put the last pieces of the puzzle together. At the telegraph office, pretending she is acting on behalf of her employers, she sends messages requesting a luncheon for Watson with a former classmate, and specifies information to be gathered by Constable Smathers in Tunbridge Wells and sent to Holmes.
            Mrs. Hudson travels by horse car to St Marelybone Cemetery as she does bi-weekly, to visit the grave of Tobias Hudson. She spreads a blanket beside him and shares her thoughts about the consulting detective agency, Mr. Holmes, Dr. Watson, and the Parkerton murders while she tidies and smoothes his grave.
            Mrs. Hudson arrives home in time to cook a special dinner to celebrate what she is certain was her colleagues’ successful trip. Between the fatigue of their long day, and the stimulating effects of a fine hock, Holmes and Watson become quite festive before collapsing into sleep without Mrs. Hudson, herself a teetotaler, having opportunity to tell them of the telegrams sent in their names or the plans for the next day.
            While recovering from the excesses of the preceding evening, the members of the consulting detective agency receive a visit from Cathcart Jones, Stanley’s solicitor, who informs them that the strange men who had been living in the wooded area adjoining Parkerton Manor have gone and Stanley and Sara are in process of returning to the Manor. Shortly thereafter, telegrams arrive from Constable Smathers affirming Mrs. Hudson’s suspicions and from Watson’s medical colleague agreeing to lunch with him at the Strand.
            Arrangements are made for Holmes and Watson to return to Tunbridge Wells to meet with Lestrade and Sergeant Atkins at the Swan Hotel. At that time Holmes will share his thinking - which will, of course, be Mrs. Hudson’s thinking - about the identity of the murderer of Sir Stanley and his coachman.
     
      Act 11
     
            The following day, in a hotel sitting room, Holmes describes to an increasingly impressed Lestrade, and increasingly distressed Sergeant Atkins, the evidence that led him to the murderer. Holmes, employing a suitably dramatic delivery, provides the careful analysis he heard the evening before delivered in Mrs. Hudson’s Cockney accent. He indicates the key to unmasking the murderer is in understanding why the killer of Sir Stanley felt it necessary to do away with Peters, the coachman. He indicates that, as Watson could see when he was first settled in his room, Peters had an unobstructed view of the back door and saw something on Boxing Day that he wasn’t expecting - Mrs. Compton returning to the Manor after having left for her day out. Knowing the Manor’s rigid schedule for drinks and dinner, she could sneak up from her cottage during cocktails to poison the health drink Sir Stanley had with every meal, a sip of which he always shared with Lady Parkerton. Holmes reminds them of her report that she slept especially soundly that night, a result of the small amount of chloral hydrate she’d received. When Peters tried to blackmail her, she knew he was too unreliable to be trusted, arranged to meet him in the kitchen at night and set up the trip wire.
            Sergeant Atkins reveals that, in spite of the request to secure Parkerton Manor such that all the suspects would remain on site, he has permitted the murderer to abscond. Compounding the problem, he has allowed the murderer to have access to the material witness who could attest to supplying Mrs. Compton with chloral hydrate for her supposed sleeping difficulty.
            In the midst of their planning to deal with the dramatically changed situation, they are interrupted by the knock of the assistant to the manager of the Swan Hotel expressing, in the strongest possible terms, his displeasure with Constable Smathers who remains downstairs in the reception area, unwilling to interrupt the detectives’ conversation, and terrifying the hotel guests as he is shackled to a most unwilling prisoner. As the detectives discover, Constable Smathers is indeed shackled to Mrs. Compton, and is the focus of intense interest, if not alarm, by hotel guests.
            Invited to join the others, the Constable explains the reasons for which he suspected and ultimately arrested Mrs. Compton, and reveals that he found the material witness alive, although in need of medical care for which he has already made all necessary arrangements. The captured Mrs. Compton challenges Holmes to explain what motive she could possibly have for the Parkerton murders whereupon Watson reveals that he has learned from lunch with his medical friend that Mrs. Compton’s father was the co-worker denied money and recognition in association with the medical research Sir Stanley declared as his own. The evidence is all too much for the suspect and, after damning Holmes and belittling Sergeant Atkins, Mrs. Compton admits to the murders of Sir Stanley and the coachman.
     
      Act 12
     
            Five days later, Holmes, Watson and Lestrade gather at 221B Baker Street to partake of Mrs. Hudson’s tea and scones, and to reprise the Parkerton case. Watson reviews the current and happier state of the Parkerton family. Lestrade reveals his plans to bring Constable Smathers to Scotland Yard and describes a surprising empathy for Mrs. Compton. As Lestrade prepares to leave, Holmes has a final opportunity to share the credit he has been given by the Inspector with his two colleagues, who wait with keen interest for his response. Holmes makes a sweeping motion to show the resolution of the Parkerton murders was a group accomplishment, but Lestrade has already turned to go. The effort is not lost on Mrs. Hudson who brings Holmes another scone and a large dollop of strawberry jam.