7. The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction

Complete story — includes the ending

Joan's new client wants to find out about her sister, Jessica Holder, who disappeared five years before. The smell of nutmeg was detected at the site of Jessica's disappearance and those of others. Noah Kramer, a married lawyer with whom Jessica was having an affair, told her that his client, Raymond Carpenter, was guilty of several murders; she was going to tell the police. In Sing Sing, Carpenter admits that he outsourced her murder, but the killer is now dead. A new crime scene with the scent of nutmeg is found. The murders are connected only by the same cleaner being employed to dissolve the bodies, who masked the odors of the cleaning concoction with nutmeg. At an institute which offers certification in cleaning up crime scenes, Sherlock spots a lurid mural featuring nutmeg. The artist, Conrad Woodbine, is the cleaner, but refuses to identify any of his clients and is himself murdered and cleaned. Carpenter's youngest son was Woodbine's apprentice. He killed him on Carpenter's orders. Sherlock and Joan promise that if Carpenter calls his son and tells him to work with the police, they will make sure that he is put in a safer prison. Carpenter agrees.