How Holmes Cracked the Kos Code & Caught a Killer
Esteemed Detectives,
Nicely done! It’s no surprise that, with your help, Watson was able to settle The Case of the Fickle Fiancé. Miss Dresser and Mr. Ward certainly have some talking to do, but at the very least, there are no longer threats on Mr. Ward’s life.
Keep up the excellent work,
The Dear Holmes Team
——
21 May, 1904
Miss Dresser,
Please accept my compliments. You have demonstrated more than a modicum of detective skill, which has served you and society well. In a short amount of time, you have helped Watson not only decipher the “Kos code” and ensure the safety of your fiancé, but also assure justice for Miss Lillian Newton, who was indeed the victim of a murder.
Your suspicions – that your fiancé was being threatened, and that he was only being partially honest – were spot on. I am told Watson has apprised you of the current circumstances (it is fortunate he was able to alert the police so swiftly). Even so, I surmise you will be wondering how I came to a conclusion regarding this case from afar. The answer is simple: your letters provided me with all the knowledge necessary to see the truth behind your fiancé, Miss Newton, her murderer, and his motivations.
The tale of Mr. Ward’s initial visit to the hospital, which marked the beginning of this investigation, was itself concerning. It was obvious from your first letter that something was making your fiancé ill if not harming him, and although that does not necessitate foul play, his career, the gathering you had described, and your following discoveries, all cast a suspicious light on his sickness.
As you well know, Miss Victoria had hand-fed Mr. Ward something at the gathering, and beyond that, he had spent the afternoon eating food from the luncheon, which most of the guests, as well as his valet, and the other staff, could have accessed with ease. If someone had wanted to poison your fiancé by means of food, they would have had ample opportunity to do so; and in spite of these dubious circumstances, your fiancé claimed to be unbothered. His reaction to your inquiries, and the strange note and golden pin in his hearth, made plain the fact something was amiss. I was able to confirm this with your second letter, which is what first made me consider the possibility that this was, at least in part, a murder investigation.
When you wrote to me on 16 May, you reported your conversation with the editor of the The Daily Mirror, Dennis Hachette. He told you that David MacBain, shortly after the death of his fiancée, had requested to write about your fiancé and his campaign. In that same letter, you wrote that an inspector had visited Mr. Ward, and that Mr. Ward claimed it had been “about some poor woman I barely knew.” The timing of the inspector’s visit to your fiancé suggests the “poor woman” was in fact MacBain’s deceased lover, and upon noticing this, I knew there was more to the supposed “grudge” between Mr. Ward and this reporter. Still, was their conflict the root of your fiancé’s “illness”? Your second letter verified that his illness had been brought on by the ingestion of a counterfeit diamond – this made the case for foul play stronger, though it did not directly support a case against any particular individual.
I first theorised that Mr. Ward was our culprit. If he was somehow involved with the death of MacBain’s fiancée, then perhaps the reporter was seeking evidence of his crimes. Considering your interview with Sonny Mags, it was plausible that he and Miss Victoria were collaborating with MacBain, and that they too knew something unsavoury about your fiancé’s past. On the other hand, I thought, your fiancé and MacBain might have been feigning their rivalry to obscure a plot together. These were only two of countless possibilities at the time, so I focussed on deciphering the coded message until receiving your following missive.
Your third letter, of 17 May, allowed me to finally interpret the “Kos code”, which in turn greatly narrowed the scope of my investigation. With the two new messages in hand, deciphering the code was but a quick exercise. (I will explain further at the end of my letter.) And with all three messages translated, and your account of MacBain’s tormented appearance and demeanour, the case against him seemed all the more likely. The coded scrap of paper you first fished from Dalton’s hearth read: DAVID KNOWS HE HAS GONE MAD COME SOON. I posit that this note was sent by Miss Newton. The other message you found, partially embossed in MacBain’s notebook page, read: LILLY WAIT FOR ME TONIGHT ON BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE DAL. Finally, the short message on the florist’s card in Mr. Ward’s sick room, read: CAREFUL OR ALL WILL KNOW OF L.
At this point in time, I theorised that Mr. Ward had once shared a relationship with MacBain’s now-deceased fiancée, and that this was the source of strife between the two. Mr. Mags, I surmised, was aware of this ongoing drama to some extent, and was threatening your fiancé to protect Club Kos. What eluded me still was your fiancé’s true part in all this, and the extent of Mr. Mags and David MacBain’s connection. Fortunately, any ambivalence I had regarding Miss Newton’s murder ceased when I received your last letter, dated 19 May.
Due to your diligence, we were then in possession of the newspaper story about Miss Newton’s death, which mentioned neither suicide nor her supposed fiancé David MacBain. MacBain’s editor said he assumed their engagement and Newton’s suicide, mostly, because he had seen the suicide note, however, knowing that the note was written on yellow paper – like that of MacBain’s notebook – and that it consisted of nothing more than a short part of a Robert Burns poem, I found it difficult to overlook the The Daily Mirror’s “star reporter”. As for your fiancé, I do not doubt his present loyalty to you, but I do maintain the position that he is not telling all as it concerns his past with Miss Lillian Newton.
Mr. Ward must have either received her note too late, or decided not to come to her aid for fear of another scandal in his life, but in either case, it appears he bears guilt for Miss Newton’s death. The fact he burned her note rather than tossing it strongly suggests there was more than a passing dalliance between the two, but I fear that is a territory you must navigate with Mr. Ward yourself, Miss Dresser. With regard to MacBain, it is clear he was envious of your fiancé, and of his past with Miss Newton. I believe he used the note you found traces of in his notebook to lure the unfortunate Miss Newton to Blackfriars Bridge on the evening she met her death. Now blinded by grief, guilt, and jealousy, MacBain blames Dalton for Miss Newton’s death.
Returning to Mr. Sonny Mags, I believe he was caught in the same quandary as you and I. He knew that Dalton Ward was implicated in Lillian’s death in some fashion, probably because Dalton and Lillian were observed spending time together in Club Kos — perhaps in intimate situations. It didn’t matter to Mr. Mags if Dalton’s spurning of Lillian Newton caused her to commit suicide or if he murdered her to keep their relationship from being revealed publicly. Any news of their romance would have ended Dalton’s campaign and engagement to you. Mags attempted to use this knowledge to blackmail Dalton and keep him from moving ahead with his “March for Decency” to Club Kos’s front door. Although plans for the march were hardly a secret, I suspect Mags learned of Dalton’s plan from MacBain too. I say this because you reported that Miss Victoria mentioned someone tipping her off about the counterfeit diamond, and referencing the tipster as “Davey”. MacBain had a good reason to cast aspersions, if not suspicion, on Dalton. Mags cleverly attempted to pressure Dalton by sending lilies — the flower of choice for funerals and one that echoes the dead woman’s name.
Now let me honour your request that I reveal how the clever Kos code was broken. As you know, this code omits spacing and punctuation. That, together with utilising three or four-letter blocks, makes it extremely difficult to guess words — which is part and parcel of deciphering a substitution cipher. However, this does not eliminate trial-and-error guessing.
At the risk of boring you with the minutiae of my process, I initially focussed my attention on the beginning and end of each of the three coded messages, because communications often begin or end with the name of the person to whom the message is being sent, or the name of the person sending it. As it turned out, this was true in two of the notes – the one MacBain used to lure Lilly to the bridge – he signed it Dal, and the very first note on the charred scrap began with the same two symbols. I guessed those letters might be D and A in Dalton or David. So, I had fortuitously decoded two letters, and once I had deciphered twelve or thirteen of them, I began guessing words to try and interpret them all.
As I previously relayed, the first thing to observe about any code is letter frequency — the most commonly used letters being “E”, followed by “T,” “A,” and “I.” Then once again, focussing on patterns, l would suggest looking for “double-letters” — the most common being LL, followed by EE, SS, and OO. After this, I searched for frequent two and three-letter patterns that normally appear more than once. For example, TH as in “The” and “These”; SH as in “Share” and “Shine”; and RE as in “Remind” and “More”. Bearing this in mind, short words – especially those like OF, TO, and THE – will begin to appear after some trial-and-error. This was an arduous process, but given my circumstances and the information at hand, it yielded fairly adequate results. The code comprises three different “symbols”, each of which can be rotated 7 different times to represent a new letter in the English alphabet. I will include a table at the bottom of this letter.
Since arriving at my conclusions, I have turned over the letters you sent to Scotland Yard so that they may have the three coded messages you transcribed. However, do hold onto the originals. They will surely be needed in the forthcoming trials. In a related context, I have no doubt the truth about this case will come out in the inquest and subsequent trial. Mr. Ward’s reputation and political career may not rebound from such a sordid ordeal, but I do hope he is able to continue on his better path. For your part, Miss Dresser, I am confident you will have no trouble rising from these ashes. As it is wont to do, life can take hold and crush our hearts, but in time the pain will ebb, and you will be consoled by the truth of who you are: a strong, courageous person.
Well done, Miss Dresser.
