Free A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King Page B

Lestrade, I bowed beneath the concerted authority of the only two people in the world, aside from my sovereign, who have any influence over me, under the insistence that Scotland Yard ought to be given a chance to prove themselves capable of hunting down the murderers of Dorothy Ruskin. I have told you who they are. You need only find them." He turned imperiously away from the near-frantic police detective, shot me a glance that was perilously close to a wink, and dropped to the floor amidst his papers, his right knee tucked under his chin.

    Lestrade looked torn between tearing his thinning hair in despair and storming angrily out. I relented and explained what he had seen but not truly observed.

    "They were looking for a piece of paper, Inspector Lestrade. When they didn't find it amongst her things, they came here, possibly assuming that she was bringing it to us."

    "What sort of paper?"

    "That, we don't know yet."

    "Then how do you know it was a piece of paper?"

    Holmes made a rude noise. I ignored him.

    "The way they searched, both here and in her hotel room. The books were shaken out before being dumped, the pictures taken from their frames, carpets pulled up, our various files carefully gone through and a number of pages stolen."

    "But you said she left you some papers?"

    "A single manuscript page, but it's made of papyrus. It wouldn't have fit into a book without being folded, which would damage it."

    "Would they have known that?"

    "Lestrade," exclaimed Holmes from his nest of débris on the floor, "that was a most perceptive question. Russell, I do believe a cup of tea would come most welcome to all concerned and that Mr Ellis is finished in the kitchen. Would you be so good ..."

    I accepted my charge and waded out to the kitchen, where I scraped a handful of tea leaves and some sugar from the floor, found a kettle, though no lid, and four mostly unbroken cups. By the time I had found the bread under a saucepan and trimmed the grimy outside from a piece of cheese, the situation was beginning to amuse me. I hunted for an unbroken jar of relish or pickle, discovered triumphantly a large bottle of pickled onions, and thus assembled a rather strange but quite edible meal.

    "Holmes?" I called.

    "Yes, Russell."

    "I'd like to get this cleared up before Mrs Hudson returns. She'll be back tomorrow, you said?"

    "Yes."

    "Shall I ring Tillie and see if she can send over a pair of her girls to help? Or would you prefer to keep this out of the mouths of the village gossips?"

    "I'd rather, if you think we can do it ourselves."

    "Probably a good idea. I could ask Patrick to come over with Tillie tonight for a while. That might help, and they wouldn't talk."

    I poured the boiling water over the leaves, ignoring a few stray sultanas that clung to the tea, and took the tray into the sitting room. I didn't like the look on Lestrade's face, and I glanced quickly at Holmes for confirmation.

    "Yes, Russell, the good inspector has his doubts."

    "Now, Mr Holmes, that's not entirely true. If you say there's something in this, I'll believe you. What I said was that I'm going to have trouble convincing my superiors that there's a case here. An old lady has an accident and your house is turned upside down, but deliberate murder? It's a damned awkward— pardon me, Miss Russell— it's an awkward way of committing murder, with a car. Takes some explaining to do."

    "I say, Lestrade, you are coming along nicely. That's twice in the past half hour," Holmes began, but I smothered his words with anger.

    "Somebody killed her, you can't deny that, and drove off."

    "Oh yes, no doubt about that, and that's where it'll lie unless I can take it further. Look, it's like this. We're badly overstretched at the moment, and we've had no fewer than three cases in the last year that have cost us the earth in time and money, with nothing to show— one turned out to be suicide, one an accident, and the third we finally just had to let go for