Laurie King - The Beekeeper's Apprentice

"Such as the unfortunate accidents that befell two of the other tutors shortly before you were hired?" I blurted out, unthinkingly letting loose a snatch of remembered conversation. I felt Holmes tighten disapprovingly beside me, and kicked myself mentally for drawing her attention.

"So you heard about that, Miss Russell? Yes, unlucky, weren't they? Still, I had the job I wanted, the job my father had been cheated out of, and I could get on with my hobby. I collected every word written by or about you.

I even have an autographed copy of your monograph on bicycle tyres, one that you presented to the police commissioner.

I assure you, I value it more highly than he did.

Over the years I have learnt everything about you. I located three of your London hideaways, though I suspect there's at least one other. The one with the Vernet is quite nice," she said casually, "though the carpet leaves something to be desired." She waited for a reaction and, getting none, went on in irritation. "Billy was too easy to find, and following him that night you went to the opera was child's play. I had thought of using him against you, blackmailing him concerning certain incidents in his sister's past, but it seemed cheating somehow." Again the pause, again no response. "Yes, there is very little I do not know about you, Sherlock. I know about why Mrs. Hudson's son emigrated so hastily to Australia, about you and the Adler woman after my father's death, about the scar on your backside and how you came to have it. I even have a rather fetching photograph of you emerging from the steam rooms at the Turkish Bathhouse on — Ha! That reached you, didn't it?" she crowed at Holmes' faint exclamation and drove it home. "I even bought the farm up the hill from you several years ago, through an employee, of course, so I might look down upon you, even through your bedroom window."

However, Holmes had recovered from his lapse, and she abandoned the attempt to goad him.

"It took me five years to bring seven of my employees into the area, but I enjoyed every move. And then — oh, the delicious irony of it! — your Miss Russell came to me for tutoring. I could not have asked for a more perfect gift: my own intimate link with the mind of my father's murderer.

Had I taken up residence in the comer of your sitting room I could not have learnt more about you than I did from Miss Russell. It was truly delicious.

"During the summer holidays I generally spend time with the business, just to keep my hand in. This last summer we decided to follow up a rumour that an important American senator was about to place himself in a remote area, so we borrowed his daughter. As you know, we were not entirely successful, but imagine my pleasure when I realised that you too were on the same job, albeit from the other end. It was almost worth the failure, having that piquant extra, a chance to meet, as it were, to work together. From that fiasco came my plan. I decided to kidnap Miss Russell, take her to a place where you would not find her, and play with you, in public, over a prolonged period of time. I laid plans. I bought clothing for her in Liverpool — quite adequate clothing, you will agree, though I gather she did not make use of the things? Pity. One of my lighter-fingered employees removed a pair of shoes from her rooms, mostly to underline the parallelism of the two kidnap cases — ah, I see you missed that point. How disappointing.

I planned to take her at the end of term, so my absences might not cause undue comment."

It was extremely disconcerting, listening to her talk about me in this matter-of-fact manner, but I did not react.

I was disappearing from her sight now, becoming a third- person reference. My right arm throbbed, and the fingers of that hand were tingling mildly.

"Then in late October everything changed. My doctor told me that I should be dead in a year, and I was forced to review my plans. Did I truly want to embark on a complex and physically demanding project, one that might take six or eight months to do properly, and should involve regular travel to some godforsaken place like the Orkneys? I decided, reluctantly, to simplify matters. I could not bring myself to forego the pleasure of a cat-and-mouse game, but I decided at the end of it I should merely kill you all and have done with it. If I could make public your failure to escape me, so much the better. I had little to lose, after all.

"By the end of term everything was in place. I arranged my medical leave, from which I will not return, hired Mr. Dickson, and, just before I left Oxford, laid some of my father's mathematical exercises in front of Miss Russell.

The next few days were marvelous, they truly were, like a complex equation falling into place. I was, as I said, really most annoyed at Mr. Dickson for knocking you about so thoroughly, and had to delay Miss Russell's bomb for a day until I could be sure you were up to defusing it. Then I sat back to see which of your paths I would pick you up on first. I did not need Dr. Watson, though that was amusing, was it not? Doddering old fool. I had a boy watching your brother's rooms all day, and I knew you were there before you went through the door. The next day I gambled, after you succeeded in throwing off my men, but I put my money on Billy, and it paid off. He led us straight to you and carried on a tedious conversation with me until he fell asleep. I was sorry about your clothes, Miss Russell. They must have cost a goodly percentage of your allowance." "The money was mine, actually," Holmes volunteered.

I felt her eyes leave me and return to him.

"Well, that's all right, then. Did you enjoy my little game in the park? Your articles on footprints were most instructive and helpful."

"It was very clever," Holmes said coldly.

" 'It was very clever' —?" she prompted.

He spoke through clenched jaws, to my relief. I had begun to think his anger genuine.

"It was very clever, 'Patricia,' " he spat.

"Yes, wasn't it? But I was most upset when you disappeared on that damnable boat. Really very angry indeed.

Do you know what it cost me to keep an adequate watch on the docks? To say nothing of the other ports? I was certain you would come back into London, and instead, weeks went by without a sign. My managers were disturbed at the expense. I had to get rid of two of them before the others would calm themselves. And the time, my valuable time, lost! Finally you came back, and I could not believe it when my man reported how you looked and behaved. I actually took the risk of coming down here to see for myself, and I admit, I fell for it. I did not think that it could be an act. Oh, on your part, yes, that I would have believed, but I did not expect that Miss Russell was capable of that quality of performance; it's a far cry from dressing up as a gipsy girl and slurring your speech. It was not until you both came through that door that I knew for certain it was bogus."

Her voice had become increasingly hoarse, and the gun had drooped casually to one side as she talked. Holmes and I remained still, he with a look of polite boredom on his face that must have been infuriating, I trying to look young and stupid. The blood had stopped dripping onto the tiles, though my right hand was a bit numb. When Donleavy spoke again her voice cracked slightly with tiredness.

I waited, invisible, for Holmes to make me an opening.

"Which brings us to the present. Sherlock, my dear man, what do you think I've come for?"

His response was uninterested, obedient, insulting.

"You wish to crow over me, like a cock on its dung-heap."

"Patricia." The gun rose in threat.

"Patricia, my dear." His sardonic voice turned it into a sneer.

"To crow over you, I suppose, is one way of putting it. Nothing else?"

"To humiliate me, preferably in some public manner, so as to revenge your father."