Maxim Jakubowski - The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Professor Moriarty

“This is my doing only. Who else would understand the importance of it? I cannot let anyone think I’m entertaining myself with useless pursuits. I worked hard to attain my current position.”

“So why risk it for an old document?”

“An old document?” she exclaimed. “I would never have expected to hear these words from you . Don’t you see its significance? Oh … I see. You just wanted to see my reaction, didn’t you? Good. Now hand it over.”

“I don’t have it on me. I hid it in the lining of my suitcase just after I found it earlier. I have to tear it again. If you’d allow me to use my knife …”

“Good try. First, give me your coat, slowly … And you may do what you propose – without any blades .” Still holding the gun firmly and pointing it at him without ever wavering, she fumbled in her purse with her other hand and then threw him some small nail clippers. “These should suffice. And hands where I can see them.”

While she was searching his coat, finding he hadn’t been lying about not having the manuscript on him, he began to work on the tough lining. It was slow going with the clippers. While he was working at it, he spoke: “You are the new king of the local underworld, aren’t you? Let me pay you my proper respects. But how have you come to it? And why Bolzano?”

“My brother is not a bad philosopher but he’s a hopeless mathematician. He doesn’t understand most of his mentor’s legacy and cares not for classifying and publishing it. He kept it at home for a while. I used to read it, work through the theorems … It was I who helped him with homework and essays when I was still a child and he a student; who taught him so much – and what for? Though I loved the brain-work, I was expected to stay home and devote my time to searching for a prospective husband! I would have loved to become a mathematician, yet you cannot do that covertly if you want to succeed in the academic world. So I found myself another hobby.”

“I understand you saw the importance of the lost manuscript for your … hobby as well as your original passion, but what made you think I would retrieve it?”

“Get on with it,” she said harshly, observing his efforts with her nail clippers with dissatisfaction. “And don’t pretend you’re just a mathematics professor. Your reputation precedes you, Moriarty. Or have you not gained much of your current standing by … let’s say, very unofficial ways? It may have started as a means to pursue your academic career, but it has become much more since then, has it not? You and I seem to have a lot in common.”

The lining was almost done now. “So that’s why you pretended to take a different kind of interest in me? Not just to observe my work, but to get closer to the fellow mathematical criminal, is it so? And may I just say, you need to work on that yet. You were overacting. It was all too obvious.” He shook his head. “You really overdid it today at your brother’s office. You went there to check on my work – whether I had found it already, yes? The excuse itself was believable, but your behavior … I don’t think any lady outside romantic novels would act that way.”

The lady in question sneered in a very un-ladylike way. “Remind me to act properly ambivalently the next time. Oh, wait – you won’t be there for any next time .”

He stopped, hands just above the torn lining. “Are you going to dispose of me? I cannot quite believe you’ve lured me here all the way from England just for one manuscript and then to kill me. That doesn’t make sense if you add the benefits, risks and costs.”

“If you only found the manuscript and learned nothing more, you would return home freely. You must admit you’ve brought this fate upon yourself.”

“But still – I could be a useful asset for your expansion abroad. If you had so high a regard of me and my ability to find the document, why stop with that?”

Eva produced a sad little smile. “We both know the rules of this game. Or, rather, their lack. Sooner or later, one of us would betray the other. Knowing this, we’d both be compelled to be the first to do so. Our collaboration would be brief and unfruitful, if I’m anticipating this right. Well – give me the paper. Let’s not prolong this any more.”

Moriarty opened the lining. There was nothing inside.

Eva’s cheeks reddened with anger. “Fine! Should I shoot you in the knee first for you to suffer?”

“If I tell you where it is, you’ll kill me. If I refuse to do so, you’ll kill me as well, if more slowly and painfully. It seems that if I cared about my well-being in my final moments, I should give you the document. But that would be in case I haven’t anticipated the possibility of this outcome and taken some precautions.”

Given my note got delivered and he would come at this hour …

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

Moriarty risked a glance at his pocket watch. “We should be—”

A knock on the door interrupted his sentence.

“—expecting company,” he finished. “Come in!”

Robert Zimmermann entered and froze just by the door. “Eva?! What’s going on?”

The gun in her hand must have truly shocked him. Moriarty allowed himself a dash of relief that his assumption based on the facts known about them, namely that Herr Zimmermann knew nothing of his sister’s enterprises, had proven correct.

“ Auf Wiedersehen ,” he mumbled as he made a run for the door. Or better not .

She did not shoot; one step and he was behind her brother and then outside the room. He could hear shouts and a hollow thud from there while he was running hard through the corridor and downstairs. An instant later, he heard her running after him. He only gained an opportunity to escape and a very small advance, but he would have to calculate with that.

He burst out of the door. All contingency plans, all calculations of his precise mind suddenly seemed out of reach. He just ran.

A gunshot barked behind him, loud and shocking in the quiet night.

Moriarty urged himself to run faster. He had to, for himself and the work as well …

He had thoroughly familiarized himself with the map of Prague, but now he found himself uncertain where he was heading.

Another shot resonated through the empty street. He ran harder, almost out of breath now. She was a more capable pursuer than he’d anticipated …

Ah, I know it here! There’s the way to the riverbank …

He made a quick turn.

Faster now, faster …

The black water opened before him. On the very edge of the river, Moriarty turned around and ran quickly forward.

Eva Zimmermann was right there, he could almost glimpse her finger closing on the trigger, and then he dodged, less than a second before it was too late …

A shriek cut through the night a fraction before the loud splash.

Moriarty staggered back to the riverbank but could see nothing on the black surface.

Could she swim? Did she resurface somewhere? He couldn’t see.

He couldn’t see …

Two days later, sitting safely on a train approaching London, James Moriarty was reading the newest issue of Prager Tagblatt , a certain valuable manuscript safely tucked inside his jacket’s inner pocket, and a faint smile flickering across his lips. A capable observer would nevertheless notice traces of sadness in his expression.

The very night of the unfortunate pursuit, he retrieved the manuscript from the cache near the railway station where he’d hidden it, and caught the first westbound train. He changed his startling unkempt appearance in Leipzig, and traveled further still to the British Isles without any incidents. In Hamburg, he managed to find and purchase a copy of Prager Tagblatt , and found some news of interest. The disappearance of a young lady and a strange attack on her brother, who claimed to have lost all memory of it, made quite a splash in Prague society. The sudden confusion in the criminal community was less apparent but noticeable from the news if one knew what to look for.