Free The Devil's Grin - a Crime Novel Featuring Anna Kronberg and Sherlock Holmes by Annelie Wendeberg Page A

perfectly fine for you to burgle houses and hurt anyone who’s between you and the loot, but lying with me without us being husband and wife is wrong?’
    He stared at me, not knowing what to say. It had taken him a while to accept that I did not care to be married. I knew I shouldn’t impose marriage on anyone. Not with me as a wife. I couldn’t even bear children.
    ‘ I never lied to ya!’ He protested.
    I gazed at him until his eyes had lost the brutish glint and then answered: ‘Did I ever lie to you? I never pretended I could give you more. On our first night together I told you I wouldn’t be able to answer all your questions. I told you there are things I can not share.’
    ‘ Ya never tell the reasons,’ he croaked.
    ‘ No, I don’t,’ I whispered, and touched his cheek with my fingertips. He looked hurt and about to capitulate.
    ‘ Garret, you are my best friend. Isn’t that enough?’
    He picked up my hand and gazed at it, kissed my palm, contemplated for a moment, and then growled: ‘No, it isn’t.’
    I was about to push myself away as he, all of a sudden, pulled me closer, wrapped his arms around me, and hoisted me back onto his body. He moulded me onto his chest and fit his mouth onto mine. His helplessness had made him desperate and hungry.

    ~~~

    Half an hour later the door clicked quietly and Garret tiptoed down the creaking stairs. I sat in my bed and could not bear the itch of the wordless peck he had left on my cheek.
    I poured water into the wash bowl and scrubbed my face before washing everything else, then towelled myself off, and pulled the night gown over my head. It fell down to my feet with a rustle.
    I quenched my thirst with the water I had left, fetched the tobacco pouch, a bottle of brandy, and a glass.
    Sitting in my old armchair, I rolled the tobacco into a fragile piece of cigarette paper and flicked my tongue across it, struck a match on the floor, leaned back, and sucked the smoke into my lungs. The rest of it curled to the ceiling.
    Garret would soon have enough of me, I was certain. Our relationship had always been too unidentified for him – it was neither fish nor meat. He had called it “ fucking ” and that irked me. But why should it?
    Yes, why should it.
    I wiped the thought away.
    The brandy burned itself down my throat and my mind wandered to Guy’s hospital. I had worked there since the day I had arrived in London four years ago.
    I smiled at the memories of sweet Mary Higgins. She worked as a nurse one floor above my ward and had been showing me affection for more than half a year without me ever returning it. After a while she had gotten desperate and followed me down to my basement laboratory on a late evening. I had heard her approach from behind and as I turned around it was already too late. She was so close, all she needed to do was to lean in and place a wet kiss on my lips.
    She did taste good, I noticed as I pushed her away, begging her to regain reason. I hated hurting her and wondered if that kiss could land her in jail, too. Probably not, as she did not know I was a woman.
    Living disguised as a man had given me a radically broader view on humanity. Man kind! I could observe men and women in their roles, while adopting the one or the other disguise and enter either world of social restrictions and behaviour. Sometimes I felt the insane urge to tell them all to cross-dress. How would the world change?, I wondered.
    I did wonder rather too much and had always asked too many questions. Maybe my motive for becoming a scientist was to find reason in all this chaos - I never felt I belonged to the human race.
    I rolled a second cigarette and poured another brandy. The night was getting chilly. I hugged my knees and gazed at the ceiling.
    Holmes invaded my calm mind then. How strange the man was, I thought and almost had to snort. Was it not me, who was the oddity?
    I buried my face in my hands as the facts rolled over me: I was a woman who masqueraded