"You think so?"
"Yes. And now, good bye, Sir. Be sure we'll get our hands on the murderer soon."

"I'm happy to hear that, Mr Holmes. Say, may I have the cigar back."
"If you really want it you'll get it back after a few tests."
"No. Now!", Mr Amberson shouted, but then caught himself, "I mean, I need it now. I haven't been to the official police force with it now. And I think they won't believe me without any kind of evidence."

Mr Amberson took the cigar and left us.
Holmes just sat back with a grin and continued to work on the music- sheets.

A while we just sat there, he with the sheets in his hand and I looking at him, but then I had to say something:
"Holmes. Why did you sent him away. What makes you sure that Mr Eideard won't try to kill him, after his first attempt failed?"
"You'll understand it after the case is solved."

"But, Holmes. This young man was calling for help. He's like a small ship in a storm, and I don't think the storm will stop till the ship sank."

Suddenly Holmes stiffed. Then he quickly took the sheet we thought to be one of the firsts and read it again.

"So Watson, you think I'm ignoring his S.O.S. ?"
"If you want to put it that way."
"You're a genius, old man. That was exactly what I needed now."
"I'm sorry, but I can't follow."
"Look at this sheet again."
"I see a lot of notes."
"What kind of notes?"
"All kind of notes, quarter, half, 1/8 and so on."
"No, Watson, look. The time signature of this music is 4/4. So for example these two 1/8's with the bow become a Quarter. I think we can easily say that the whole piece consists of Quarter, 1/8 and whole notes."

I blinked astonished at my colleague: "But what does that tell us?"
"Take the 1/8's as short signals, the Quarters as long ones, what does it bring you?"
"You...you mean, this music is actually..."
"A letter written in Morse-code? Yes, Watson. And in fact, it seems like a blackmailing letter."
"Blackmailing?!", I sat up in quiet a shock, "And...who do you think who's the victim?"
"The letter seems to start with 'I GOT YOUR GIRL. IF YOU CARE FOR HER AND THE PIANISTS DO WHAT I WANT. THE LONGER IT TAKES YOU TO ANNOUNCE MY BROTHER' that's all we got. I'm sure the sentence continues with 'as the winner' or something like that."

"Then... Mr Eideard is the victim of a blackmailer?!"
"Seems so. That might also be the reason why he has been so rough."
"So he's in panic. But then why did he tried to kill Mr Amberson?"
"He never did Watson. You remember how he reacted when I wanted to keep the cigar for further tests?"
"Of course. He wasn't happy with that idea it seemed."
"Because it was a normal cigar."
"But, why did he lied to you?"

"Isn't that obvious, Watson?" In this moment Mrs Hudson brought us a telegram from Inspector Mayburn. Holmes read it quickly and sighed.

"What is it, Holmes."
"Another murder, Watson. Ms Juditka Svoboda, a young Czech was found in bed with her head chopped off."

Proceed to Part Eight