The Devil's Grin - a Crime Novel Featuring Anna Kronberg and Sherlock Holmes (11 page)

The waiter
appeared and I got the impression he moved on small wheels attached to his shoes. He glided away with our orders scribbled on his small notepad.

‘
Mr Holmes?’

‘
Hm?’

‘
Any clue?’

Silently,
he extracted his magnifying glass and examined the paper.

‘
Hum… no marks. He used charcoal, very soft material. Unintelligible and smudged…’

Then he straightened
up and sat there for a moment. His eyeballs were moving occasionally, lips twitching, brow furrowing. I was certain he would talk to himself if he were alone. The waiter placed our dinner on the table. Holmes didn’t even notice his getting cold. I had almost finished eating as he seemed to return to the present. ‘Do you think we can hear the Oriole’s call in the Berkshire?’

Hastily,
I swallowed the last bit of pork before inhaling it accidentally, opened my mouth, and closed it again with a snap. After a moment of consideration, I answered. ‘Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum? I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine…’ I shook my head, ‘the place is enormous and well controlled; you need to involve a
lot
of people to keep a breakout secret.’

‘
Yet, the note said B
..…OOR,’ he replied. ‘Both men have been at Chertsey at a time as one of them was seriously sick and very weak. The distance they travelled could not have been more than twenty miles, I dare say. Within a twenty mile radius of Chertsey, we have only four places that start with a B: Bracknell, Bagshot, Brookwood, and Broadmoor, and B..…OOR only fits the latter.’

‘
What if he wrote down a name?’

‘
That is one possibility. But for now let’s assume he had enough brains not to write down the name of a person, as that would be much harder to find than a location. If the two have indeed been in Broadmoor, have contracted Cholera and Tetanus, and broke out without the Yard’s knowledge, then we have an intriguing situation and one should wonder why it has not been reported. Something is being hidden!’

Holmes was all focus and excitement now. His mimics may
have appeared calm and even rigid to the onlooker, but the movements of his entire body were many, very quick, and very small – eyes narrowing a fraction and opening up again, lips compressing, corners of the mouth pulling up or down very slightly, hands gripping the table just a little harder, then letting go again, breath slowing and speeding up, feet shuffling ever so slightly. He vibrated.

What did he just say
?

‘…
additionally it appears that both were victims of medical maltreatment to say the least. Both seem to have been infected with tetanus on purpose, which would be outrageous. I think it is time to pay a visit to Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum together with my old acquaintance inspector Lestrade.’ He leaned back, looking expectantly at me.

‘
When?’

‘
Tomorrow morning.’

‘
I have to work. Besides, you don’t need me there. But I’m very much interested in the outcome, of course. Shall we meet after the raid?’

‘
So it is a raid now,’ he noted.

‘
Sounds more exciting than a mere visit,’ I said pulling one corner of my mouth up.

‘
Let’s meet at my quarters at eight then
. Mrs Hudson will provide us with dinner.’

Chapter
Eight

At eight o’clock sharp I knocked on the dark oak door
and Mrs Hudson opened with a cautious look on her face. Violin music poured down the staircase and I was surprised by the aggressiveness of Holmes’s play. I placed my finger on my lips and Mrs Hudson nodded. Then I walked up the seventeen steps, trying to recall and avoid the ones producing a shy squeal when stepped upon. I settled at the topmost stair and leaned my head against the door. With my eyes closed and my ears wide open I listened to him playing
La Tempesta di Mare
. It was my favourite of Vivaldi’s works and Holmes was playing it with such force that my heart fidgeted like a salmon on the river bank.

He had finished the piece and I rose to my feet, about to knock, when he started the
Presto
. My hand hovering over the doorknob, I did not dare move a muscle. This was the reason for me to stay away from music halls – I would sit on my chair and cry my heart out.

The violin went quiet
again and I heard Holmes groan: ‘
When would you think it appropriate to enter?’

Slowly my hand lowered itself on the knob, turned
it automatically, and opened the door. Just before the fully open door would reveal my face, I rubbed the moisture from my cheeks.

‘
Thank you, that was very enjoyable,’ I
croaked, wondering how the deuce he had noticed my presence.

‘
My pleasure. A
lthough at the end it got a bit laborious.’ Holmes’s flushed face wore a wild expression and his hair was rather ruffled.

‘
The way you play - it must be! I loved it!’ Startled by my own words I looked away and changed the topic. ‘The raid was a disaster?’

‘
Broadmoor is clean,’ he said, setting his violin on the desk, or rather, on top off all the papers. Then
he fetched a Persian slipper that turned out to be his tobacco pouch. In a different situation, I would have laughed. Now I could only frown. He stuffed and lit his pipe and settled down to smoke.

‘
So what now?’ I enquired.

‘
Nothing; I dropped the case,’ he
replied, producing a cloud of blue smoke with each word.

I
watched him for a moment and could not believe his words. He was angry, not bored, nor disappointed. ‘Tell me, Mr Holmes, did you play Vivaldi because you did not know how to produce the lie so that I would believe it, or because you had a problem lying to me? Forget the latter, it was a stupid assumption.’

Slowly he
tore his gaze off the ceiling and glued it onto my face.

‘
That is
a strong accusation!’

‘
You tell me I a
m mistaken?’

‘
Certainly!’

‘
Be careful
, Mr Holmes, I may end up throwing your possessions out the window.’ I was joking, but it didn’t have the desired effect. All he did was to narrow his eyes and lean forward.

‘
I thi
nk it is time to go home now, Miss Kronberg.’

I noticed the omission of my title.

‘
I think it is time to go to Broadmoor
, Holmes.’

‘
Do what you see fit,’ he said
casually, leaning back and looking at the ceiling again.

‘
I usually do. See you in the Berkshire,’ I said, opening the door a crack. Suddenly he leaped off his armchair and a second later slammed the door shut. I was trapped inside.

‘
You are hindering my investigation and I must insist you leave Broadmoor to me.’
It was as if he had opened another door to let me see the danger lurking behind his calm façade. I had just poked a stick into the jaguar’s cage.

‘
How do I hinder your investigation? So far I helped
in bringing it forward.’

‘
You didn’t. Any suggestion, clue, or deduction you made, I had made earlier. I let you believe you had anything to add to the case.’

‘
Why?’

‘
It amused
me,’ he said coldly and I could feel my fingertips tingle.

‘
And now you are tired of the clown?’

‘
Quite so.’

He didn’t move.

‘
Should I scream for the police?’ I said bored.

‘
Please do that. I may reveal
interesting details about you.’

‘
I don’t believe
you,’ I whispered.

‘
It
is about time you get to know me.’ He stood there unmoving with superiority seeping out every pore. He was a good actor.

‘
How curious,’ I said softly,
gazing into his face. There were only inches between us now. ‘I had the impression I knew you inside and out. I thought I could touch your soul.’ I dipped my fingertips into his shirt, there where the heartbeat was. His gaze flickered, his hand released the door, and I slipped away.

~~~

At home
I had a quick snack, dressed in my rough wear, sturdy boots, packed a little provision plus a blanket for the night, and was off to catch the last train to Crowthorne. But not before paying a quick visit to Garret to fetch a rope. He was rather puzzled when I told him I needed it to climb a tree.

It was close to midnight when I reached the Berkshire. Clouds covered a moonless sky, making it the perfect night for a burglary. I had noticed Holmes as I got off the train in Crowthorne and his presence didn’t surprise me. He kept his distance and left me in peace, neither of us acknowledging the other.

It took me fifteen minutes to reach the edge of the pitch dark forest. I slipped into the woods, took cover behind a large tree, and listened. Quiet footfall announced Holmes. Quickly, I took my shoes and socks off and stuffed them into the rucksack, which I now strapped tight onto my back. Any noise coming from things moving within had to be avoided. I rolled my trousers up to my knees. Holmes was dangerously close behind me now. He could probably touch my shoulder if he stretched out his hand.

I ducked and started running. Behind me I heard him growl a quiet “
Anna!
” I had to smile, for he stood no chance against me here. I grew up with trees surrounding me, knew how to climb the slickest of them, and had learned to run barefoot through the woods, quiet and quick as a cat.

After roughly ten minutes, the canopy lightened and the intimidating outer wall of Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum looked down on me. I ran along it and found a tree that suited my purpose - a mighty oak, split in two by lightning, with one half still alive. One of its thick branches reached over the wall.

I climbed up and nestled close to its torso with my legs hugging the thick branch.

The entire asylum stretched like a small city below me. I knew this place well. One of my first assignments as an epidemiologist had been the annual hygiene inspection of Broadmoor.

To the left I saw the main building Holmes must have visited today. It was the oldest and now had the function of the lowest security block. It housed harmless cases such as female petty thieves with a depression or a nervous tick. Further to the right were the five male blocks built a year after the first. Most of these inhabitants were harmless, too.

And then far to the right were the two high security blocks, one for women, and one for men. Many of these inmates were insane murderers who got their daily ration of groats pushed through a hatch at the bottom of a heavy iron door. Well away from me stood a chimney which stuck up like a scorched tree trunk—the central heating facility. I started wondering whether this building could be used as a hiding place during the summer months.