The Devil's Grin - a Crime Novel Featuring Anna Kronberg and Sherlock Holmes (25 page)

Feeling like a queen on her throne, I rode along. These men would all hang, and nothing could have made my day any better. The time of the
Club
was over.

Shortly thereafter we arrived at the local police station.

‘
Put this man into a separate cell, inspector. He was the head of the gang and we must interview him at once,’ said Holmes with a most convincing coldness in his voice. Even the hair on the back of my head believed it and stood erect.

An I
nspector pushed me into a small interrogation room and pressed me down on a stool. He left and locked the heavy iron door behind me. Only a minute later someone unlocked it again. I heard Holmes’s footsteps, heard him bolting the door – which surprised me – and heard him take two swift steps towards me.

Exceedingly careful, he
inspected my head. The cut he had made was irrelevant. The bruise on my forehead did hurt, but it would heal soon enough. He was so focused on probing my superficial wounds with gentle fingers, that he didn’t notice my gaze.

And without thinking I closed my eyes and pressed my face in his palm. He didn’t move away. Time stood still and all was silent. Only the rumbling of my heart was audible. He moved closer then and for a moment I thought he would pull me into an embrace. But his hands went behind my back and the manacles clicked and fell to the floor with a loud clonk.

‘
You broke Nicholson’s nose,’ he noted.

‘
I identified his footprint.’

He straightened up then and opened his mouth to speak as someone knocked and shouted: ‘The brougham is waiting for you, Mr Holmes.’

‘
Come,’ h
e said, picking up the manacles again.

‘
I’ll have to put them back on for the time being. I’m to transfer you to London, Yard’s main quarters.’

I nodded and put my hands behind my back.

Chapter
Twenty Two

The
carriage waited in front of the station, and Holmes shoved me into the small enclosure. The vehicle made a lurch and my back smashed my cuffed wrists against the wall behind me. A few seconds later, my tingling hands were freed and Holmes sat down opposite me and spoke first.

‘
Officially, I’m on my way to the Metropolitan Police headquarters to turn you in. Unofficially, I, Lestrade and another twenty men will take down the other members of the
Club
. The ones residing at Cambridge will be arrested by the local police force there.’

‘
Hm…I figured that much,’ I mumbled, wringing my red rimmed wrists. ‘You didn’t question me as I insisted on being arrested, too. There’s more you know.’

He nodded.
‘You told me the woman had been abducted in Dundee and a doctor from the Medical School was involved.’

I no
dded and probed the cut on my forehead.

‘
Him, I could not find,’ he
added unhappily, leaning his back against the wooden wall behind him. ‘Then I wondered about the involvement of the government. You remember that Standrincks is paid through governmental sources?’

I nodded
again.

‘
Of course you do. So I went to visit my brother.’

‘
You have a brother?’
I interrupted and he answered with a shrug.

‘
Mycroft told me-’

‘
Mycroft? By Jove! Sherlock, Mycroft, what were your parents thinking?’

He star
ed at me big eyed.

‘
My apologies. Pray proceed,’
I said, being probably rather red in my face.

He harrumphed indignantly
. ‘My dear brother is working for the government, but likes to believe he
is
the government. Sometimes I
do
believe there is a truth in that. Regardless. Mycroft did not know of any such activities.’

‘
Y
ou believe him?’

‘
Yes. He is, I fancy, my most trustworthy source.’

I raised
my eyebrows and he explained: ‘When he lies, I know it.’

I had to smile. When does he
not
know when someone lies?

‘
Any clue on who financed the
Club’s
research?’ I asked.

‘
But of course!’
said he, his eyes lighting up, and energy sparkling in his words. ‘What did you think I was doing these long weeks? Sitting on my hindquarters, eating porridge, and picking oakum? The
Club’s
supporters were lawyers, bankers, and men working for the government even, but apparently without their superiors’ knowledge. Even your superintendent Rowlands paid their bills! It is a rather long list of names.’

‘
How many?’
I asked cautiously.

‘
Fifty-four.’

I clapped my hand over my mouth.

‘
I do believe though that the
Club’s
network reached even further than that. Unfortunately we have no information whatsoever on the Dundee part. The question remains how far their tentacles extended.’

‘
But the most important question is
why
,’ I answered.

‘
I thought that was clear from the beginning?’

Slowly,
I shook my head. ‘I believe the vaccine tests were either pretence or only part of their goal. I dare say the latter.’

‘
What goal precisely?’ h
e asked, leaning forward.

‘
You asked me how I had got Bowden to trust me.’

Holmes nodded and said
: ‘You convinced him you had no scruples.’

‘
Yes.
’ I dropped my gaze onto the muddy tips of my shoes. Images of the dying women and my hand holding the ether soaked cloth invaded my mind.

‘
I had this crazy idea,’
I said quietly, ‘about using deadly bacteria for warfare.’

Holmes sat erect like a stick, all tension and awareness.

‘
Bowden’s eyes lit up. But not in surprise, Sherlock,’ I said warily.

‘
He was already on it?’
His voice was tainted with shock.

‘
I cannot tell. But the plan existed, I am certain.’

We stared at each other and after a while I added softly: ‘The crime is not solved.’

‘
No,’ h
e said, leaning back again, and closing his eyes. Then his throat produced a deep growl: ‘Someone sits at the centre of this. We will find him in due course.’

I noticed the
we.
Some other day it would have possibly made me proud. ‘I will leave London,’ I answered quietly.

His eyes opened abruptly and he pulled himself up again. After some consideration he said: ‘Yes, it does make sense. It is obviously the only reasonable thing for you to do. Otherwise, you may be bait.’

I gazed out the window, feeling empty.

‘
This is not the reason for you to leave?’ he asked doubtfully.

I shook my head.

‘
You sent me a letter a day before you fell sick with cholera.’

I nodded.

‘
You euthanized her?’

I nodded again.

‘
I will not arrest you for that!’ he cried out, throwing his hands up, as if I had said something utterly ridiculous.

I gazed at him then and smiled bitterly.
‘It doesn’t matter. Jail or no jail, it doesn’t change what I feel. I killed the woman. I should at least have tried to help her.’

‘
That is absurd, Anna! How could you have got her away from that place? And even if you could have, they’d found another one!’

‘
Yes. And you know why?’ I asked just to answer my own question a short moment later: ‘Because of
me
. They delivered her to me and no one else.’

‘
So you decide to run away from yourself,’ he declared.

‘
Yes. And from a corrupt medical establishment that abandons an entire sex. I run away from the man at the centre of the
Club
, from the police, and…’ I forced my throat to unfold again, ‘…and from you.’

His grey eyes flickered. He looked hurt and I held on tight to my hands as not to grab his to comfort him.

Instead I explained myself
: ‘I run away from you because I cannot live next to you while not living
with
you. Whenever I stoke your emotional side it hurts and weakens you and I am very sorry for that.’

‘
You must understand that I have no tendencies to romanticism,’ he said and his voice sounded as if he had swallowed glue.

‘
I know who you are
,’ I whispered.

Now it was
he who stared out the window. He seemed to argue with himself. I had cut his time short. After a while he asked: ‘How did you plan your escape?’

‘
Well, quite simply, I will overpower you.’ I smirked and saw the corners of his mouth twitch a little.

‘
Do you plan to hide in St Giles? I don’t think it is-’

‘
No, you are right, it’s not safe. I have a place far away from London.’

‘
Where?’

‘
I will not tell you.’

He waved his
hand impatiently. ‘You know my abilities!’

‘
Don’t waste your time, Sherlock. You won’t find me.’

I had bought the cottage usi
ng a different name and had paid cash. Nothing would link my old identity to my new home.

‘
That is ridiculous!’

‘
No, it isn’t. As long as the greatest detective can not find me, no one will.’ I didn’t mention that if I did tell him where I lived, I would wait for him to walk through my cottage door. Every single day. My brain knew he wouldn’t but my heart disagreed.

Silence fell ag
ain and after a while I added: ‘Promise me that when this case blows over, you place an advertisement into the
Times
, asking for Caitrin Mae. I’ll find you then.’

I noticed his
slight grin and added: ‘No, this is not the name I used to buy the place. I just made it up.’