The Affair of the Coronation Ball: A Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James Mystery by Anna Elliott

Author:Anna Elliott [Elliott, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Amazon: B0CYCMJR98
Goodreads: 210121794
Publisher: Wilton Press
Published: 2024-04-30T23:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

CHAPTER 25

Flynn

The office of The Tatler was on Fleet Street, along with many of the city’s other newspapers.

Flynn knew most of them; he’d pretended to be a paper boy from one newspaper or another often enough. People streamed in and out of the advertisement office of the Daily Chronicle, which stood beside the office of the Daily Telegraph. The World had a bronze statue of Atlas in front of its offices and, located in the same court—which led to St. Brides church—was the office for Punch.

All of those offices meant that this area of London was always busy, especially mid-morning, as it was now. Flynn barely had to think about blending in and staying inconspicuous as he kept the main entrance to The Tatler in sight. He could have been carrying a baton and leading a brass band, and no one would have spared him much more than a passing glance.

He also wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing here. Becky and Lucy had gone off to speak to the Duchess of Derrington, but Mr. Holmes had assigned Flynn to keep watch on the office of the Tatler, and in particular on the managing editor of the paper, a man called Fenshaw.

That was all. Flynn didn’t know whether Mr. Holmes thought Mr. Fenshaw was guilty of something or whether he thought Mr. Fenshaw was in danger of becoming the killer’s seventh victim, after the death of Miss Cavendish yesterday.

Flynn shifted his weight from foot to foot. Fleet Street ended at Ludgate Circus, where at the beginning of Ludgate Hill, the bridge of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway crossed over the road. A train rattled past, showering fragments of coal onto the carriages and the people down below.

Pigeons landed on the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which Flynn could also see in the distance.

“Flynn!”

If Flynn hadn’t had Mr. Holmes’s training to fall back on, he would have jumped at the sound of someone whispering his name right behind him. As it was, he spun around and saw Nellie Bly.

He got his heart working again and asked, “What are you doing here?”

Nellie Bly was wearing a big floppy straw hat that shaded her face and a green and white dress that Flynn recognised as one of Lucy’s. Her eyes were covered by smoked glasses, of the kind that people wore when they were getting over a bout of scarlet fever and too much sunlight hurt their eyes.

“I overheard Mr. Holmes giving you your assignment this morning,” she told him. “So I thought I’d tag along.”

“That’s not what I meant. You’re supposed to be dead!”

“I am. As far as Brasher and whomever he spoke to yesterday on the telephone are concerned. But that doesn’t mean I have to cower inside of 221A Baker Street forever, not when I can help.”

A couple of years ago, Flynn would have told her flatly that he didn’t need any help. He was still temped to, but this time it was probably Becky who was rubbing off on him.

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