The Twisted Blackmailer by T. L. Garrison

Author:T. L. Garrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sherlock Holmes, mystery, crime, british crime, sherlock holmes fiction, sherlock holmes novels
ISBN: 9781787050259
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2016
Published: 2016-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

On the way out the door, I asked why Blackwell was being targeted, if she wasn’t the source of the blackmail-able offense. Sure, Eva herself had asked, but maybe Sherlock would actually tell me.

Sherlock pulled her gloves on, stretching the soft leather as she moved her fingers around. “She gave none of the usual stressor indicators for lying. There is a certain amount of cold sweating and fidgeting one does even imperceptibly if one has done wrong and is now sorry for being caught, as opposed to the offense in question. But I do know why she was targeted. She has more to lose than her husband, probably. She’s not just a clerk. That second desk out front is not for general office business, or another staffer - it is for her own secretary. That much was evident when I rifled through the drawer.”

“You are like... dangerous-smart. Just so you know.” I was smart. I qualified for every Advanced Placement class the school offered. Sherlock was like a razor blade. She thought faster and concluded faster than I could process a situation and ask a question. I knew when I had met my better.

“Careful, Watson. You will inflate my ego.”

I zipped the sweater all the way to my chin. “More than it already is? I’m afraid you’ll explode like an overfilled balloon if I go much further.”

“A risk I am not willing to take. Only tell me how extraordinary I am in small increments.”

The SUV was at the bottom of the driveway, parked on the street, a respectable distance from the office. “So, what did you tell Toby about why we went to the senator’s office?”

Sherlock looked at the time on her phone. “He doesn’t ask.”

“Is he like your bodyguard?” I waved politely as we walked down the sloped drive to the vehicle.

Sherlock glanced over to the car. “Toby? No. He’s more of a driver-cum-Jiminy Cricket. He used to try to keep both of us on the straight and narrow. Now he just tries to keep me from ending up in jail.”

“Both of us?”

Sherlock’s eyes locked with mine, wide and a little glassy. She swallowed, like her stomach was churning. “Nothing. Never mind. What I mean is - he has given up on most of those things and just tries to keep me in school and not expelled.” She chuckled. “I suppose as far as drivers go, he’s done a poor job of it. But, well, it was just that once. It’s not like expulsion happens every day.”

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jacket. “Seriously? Somehow I can’t see you getting expelled only once. I have a feeling you got tossed out of preschool.”

Sherlock grinned again, that mischievous thing that went all the way from her lips to her eyes, when so many of her smiles did not. “No, no. But I did get someone else held back a year. I got him to eat the paste.”

“And he got held back for eating paste? Who didn’t eat paste? I thought that’s what the paste was there for.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.