The Devil's Grin: Illustrated Edition (An Anna Kronberg Thriller Book 1) (29 page)

‘I had started working at London Medical School, developing vaccines against tetanus. We also had the prospect of a cholera vaccine. But we knew that wouldn’t come without sacrifices.’ I shoved away the picture of the soiled and dying woman. ‘Holmes kept insisting that what I was doing was wrong and I should instead help him arrest my colleagues.’

‘Mr Holmes would never have asked you for your assistance. You are a liar, my dear,’ he declared. A reaction I had anticipated.
 

‘He would have never asked such a thing from just anyone, you are correct. But he and I are made of the same material. He was fascinated by a woman as intelligent as he and equally strong-willed. And I fell for him because I had never met such an observant and sharp man in my life. That is the reason I saved his life in Broadmoor and the reason he let me go.’ And I remembered the kiss, that singular kiss, and turned my gaze away to look out of the small window where night slowly retreated and the sky paled to greet the new day. Would I see the sun? Maybe it did not matter much. I had seen it many times already.
 

I looked back at him and said, ‘I know you want something from me, or you would not have given me time to utter a single word tonight. If you allow me to make a guess — you need a bacteriologist to continue your work. I am your first choice, but you do not trust me. Naturally.’

He smiled again. It was worse than a gun pressed to my head.

‘No, I do not trust you in the least. And yes, I require the services of a bacteriologist. Although you are the best to be found in England, you are also the one bearing the greatest risk. I need to be certain I have your loyalty.’
 

What could I possibly offer? My life? He already had it in his hands.
 

‘Of course, you could choose to be shot right away. But decide quickly now, or I will do it for you.’

I gazed down at my hands, anticipating the moment I would drive a blade into the man’s throat. Slowly, I let go of all the air in my lungs.

‘Am I to isolate pathogens for warfare?’

Another warm smile.

‘You remind me of him,’ I whispered. His stunned expression opened a wide spectrum of possibilities for me. A second later he had blinked the shock away.

‘You have my loyalty,’ I answered.

All I got as a response was a scant nod. ‘Drink your tea,’ he said, filling my cup.

Finally I noticed the peculiar situation — the brute had made tea, the brain served it. I gazed at the two. ‘What else is in it?’

‘Chloral,’ the taller answered lightly.

‘Ah,’ I exhaled. ‘How much?’

‘A few drops.’

I nodded and took the cup. The harmless-looking tea produced circular ripples just before I tipped it into my mouth. The brew carried a peculiar sting. ‘You never introduced yourself,’ I noted.

‘My apologies. This is my friend and trustworthy companion Colonel Sebastian Moran, and I am Professor James Moriarty.’

Slowly, my surroundings unhinged. I looked at the window which seemed unnaturally far off. Had it not been rectangular a few minutes ago?

‘I forgot to mention a small detail,’ said Moriarty, his voice reverberating in my skull, words melting into one another. ‘By the time you regain consciousness, your father will be my hostage. Should you do anything that could jeopardise our work or my safety, he will die immediately and, I must say, rather painfully.’

The world tipped and the table approached with shocking speed.

Find The Fall here

Extras (making-of, historical background, and more)

— credits —

All images and illustrations used in this book are in the public domain, except when stated otherwise. I have made every reasonable effort to locate, contact and acknowledge right holders, but I’m only human. Should you feel that I have infringed upon your rights or the rights of any third parties, or if images have not been properly identified or acknowledged, please contact me at:

www.anneliewendeberg.com

The raven at the beginning of each chapter is a drawing by the author. The scene break is from
The Last Drawing Room. A Novel,
by Alexander Fraser. London, 1886. Credit: The British Library.

— THE DEVIL’S GRIN —

(1) Photo is a courtesy of
Magnus Wendeberg
(copyright protected)

(2)
Cheapside, London,
between ca. 1890 and 1900. Title from the Detroit Publishing Ca., Catalogue J - foreign section, Detroit, Michigan. 1905. Print no 10784. Forms part of: Views of the British Isles, in the Photochrome print collection. Credit: Library of Congress, USA.

(3)
Entrance Gates, Guy's Hospital,
late 19
^th
or early 20
^th
century. From a postcard without further information on its back. Author’s archives.

(4)
Cliveden from below Cookham Ferry.
Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., Catalogue J - foreign section, print no. 10643. Forms part of: Views of the British Isles, in the Photochrome print collection. Credits: Library of Congress, USA

(5)
Hampton Waterworks.
From:
The Illustrated London News,
July 19
^th
, 1884

(6)
Zooloea ramigera 200x (1); Zooloea ramigera 500x (2); Spirillum undula 500x (3).
From:
 
Verfahren zur Untersuchung und zum Konservieren der Bakterien,
by Dr Robert Koch, Volume I Plate II, Figure 1-3. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(7)
The Flower Walk, Regent’s Park.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(8)
Chertsey.
From:
Saint Annne’s Hill. A poem,
by P. Cunnigham. Chertsey, 1833. Credit: British Library, London.

(9)
The amphitheatre in the medical school of Montpellier, France, 1940
.
From:
Edition du Photo-Hall, Montpellier. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(10)
Report on the cholera outbreak in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, during the autumn of 1854, presented to the vestry by the Cholera Inquiry Committee, July 1855,
by Dr John Snow. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(11)
Blackfriars bridge, London
.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(12)
Dudley St., Seven Dials,
Engraving 1872, by Gustave Dore.
From:
 London: a pilgrimage. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(13) Detail of
The Sack-'Em-Up-Man,
by H.Meredith Williams.
 
From:
 
The Sack-'Em-Up-Men
, 1928. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(14)
Execution of the notorious William Burke, the murderer who supplied Dr. Knox with subjects.
From a contemporary print, c. 1820’s. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(15)
Asylum for Criminal Lunatics, Broadmoor, Sandhurst, Berkshire
.
From:
 
Illustrated London News.
1867. Volume 51, page 208. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(16)
Wood engraving depicting cramped and squalid housing conditions.
From:
 
Sanitary progress:- being the fifth report of the National Philanthropic Association ... for the promotion of social and salutiferous improvements, street cleanliness; and the employment of the poor : so that able-bodied men may be prevented from burdening the parish rates, and preserved independent of workhouse alms and degradation.
1850. National Philanthropic Association (Great Britain), Second edition Lettering: (No. 4.) No. 7, PHEASANT COURT, GRAY'S INN LANE - Second-Floor, Front Room. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(17)
Institut für Infektionskrankheiten. Robert Koch's Institute.
The old building.
Credit: Wellcome Library London

(18)
Pöppelmannbrücke, Grimma, circa 1890.
From:
Grimma, Archivbilder.
Credit: Stadtbibliothek J.G. Säume, Grimma.

(19)
King's College, Cambridge.
From
:
Le Keux’s Memorials of Cambridge: a series of vies of the colleges, halls, and public buildings, engraved by J. Le Keux; with historical and descriptive accounts by Thomas Wright
. Published by Tilt & Bogue, London, 1841.

(20)
Perspective view of a workhouse for 300 paupers.
From:
 
Annual report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales,
by The Great Britain Poor Law Commissioners, 1835-1847. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(21)
Crowded dark streets full of dead and dying people, bodies are being loaded onto a cart; symbolising an outbreak of cholera.
Watercolour by R. Cooper. Late 19
^th
, early 20
^th
century. Credit: Wellcome Library London

(22)
Plan of the Men's Division at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
1885.
From:
 
Reports upon Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, with statistical tables, for the year 1885.
Credit: Wellcome Library London

— THE FALL —
 

(1)
Detail of “The August Moon” by Cecil Lawson, 1880.
From:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964.

(2)
Neither man or animal is immune to the plague
. Illustrator: Weiditz, Hans. From:
Von der Artzney bayder Glück, des guten und wederwertigen
, by Petrarca, Francesco. Publisher: Augspurg: Heynrich Steyner, 1532. Credit: US National Library of Medicine.

(3)
Kensington Gardens, the fountains, between 1890 and 1900.
 
Title from the Detroit Publishing Ca., Catalogue J - foreign section, Detroit, Michigan. 1905. Print no 1506. Forms part of: Views of the British Isles, in the Photochrome print collection. Credit: Library of Congress, USA.

(4)
Britain’s motorised war car with it’s developer, Frederick Richard Simms, 1902.
Unknown photographer. Credit: Wikipedia.

(5)
Corner of a special bacteriology laboratory in the United States Army Hospital Center Mars-sur-Allier, Nievre, France 1918.
Credit: US National Library of Medicine.

(6)
Van Leeuwenhoek’s protists.
Drawings of the specimens from letters published in 1700. From:
Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his ‘little animals’ Being some account on the father of protozoology and bacteriology and his multifarious discoveries in these disciplines
, Clifford Dobell (1932). Credit: Galerie de l'Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer

(7)
Grosvenor Road, London.
From
:
London City Suburbs as they are to-day. Illustrated
by W. Luker from original drawings. Author: Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald. Published by Leadenhall Press, London, 1893.Credit: British Library, London.

(8)
‘La Marguerite’ leaving Tilbury.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(9)
The Opium Poppy.
From
:
Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz
, by Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé . Published 1885 in Gera. Credit: Wikipedia.

(10)
The Thames, London.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(11) Fig 1:
Blood of a septicaemic mouse; fig 2: White blood corpuscles from the veins of the diaphragm of a septicaemic mouse; fig4: Blood of a mouse affected with anthrax; fig 12: Section of the ear of a rabbit -parallel to the surface of the cartilage.
From:
 
Investigations into the etiology of traumatic infective diseases
, by Dr Robert Koch. Published by the New Sydenham Society, London. 1880. Credit: Wellcome Library London.

(12)
Kensington Palace Gardens.
From
:
London City Suburbs as they are to-day. Illustrated
by W. Luker from original drawings. Author: Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald. Published by Leadenhall Press, London, 1893.Credit: British Library, London.

(13)
The Strand, London.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(14)
A treatise upon the true seat of the glanders in horses, together with the method of cure
, Étienne-Guillaume La Fosse (London: T. Osborne, 1751). Credit: US National Library of Medicine.

(15)
The Thames, Lambeth Bridge
. From:
London City Suburbs as they are to-day
. Illustrated by W. Luker from original drawings. Author: Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald. Published by Leadenhall Press, London, 1893.Credit: British Library, London.

(16)
Bacilli of Anthrax from a culture.
From:
 
A short history of medicine,
by C. Singer.
Publisher:
Clarendon Oxford
 
1928. Credit: Wellcome Library London.

(17)
The Thames at Low Tide. Mortlake, London
. From:
London City Suburbs as they are to-day
. Illustrated by W. Luker from original drawings. Author: Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald. Published by Leadenhall Press, London, 1893.Credit: British Library, London.