Baker Street Irregulars by Michael A. Ventrella & Jonathan Maberry

Author:Michael A. Ventrella & Jonathan Maberry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2018-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

The Affair of the Green Crayon

BY

Stephanie M. McPherson

The soft clinks of metal on metal started at dawn. Dark gray haze from a mid-November sunrise teased through the gnarled remains of the old trees outside my window, mutating their silhouettes into looming monsters. I’d just started brushing my teeth by the dim light of my vanity when the scratches caught my attention.

I approached the entryway, careful not to alert the prowler that I’d caught onto his designs. The noises stopped. I watched the door handle. I imagined the figure on the other side doing the same. Then a shuffling of fabric betrayed the would-be intruder’s intentions to switch lock-picking tools. My chance had come.

I flung the chain off its hook and wrenched the door open.

“Watson!” A tall, angular man looked surprised to see me open my own front door.

“Sherlock!” I replied, extending my arm to welcome him into my home.

“Well done, I suppose.” He strode in, spun himself on his heel, and landed his slim frame hard on the armchair by my fireplace, where he started tinkering with wood and matches. “I had been under the impression you’d be scrubbing away at your teeth.”

“Oh, I was,” I shouted from the kitchen. I emerged with a carafe of fresh coffee and a few warm scones. “I was,” I repeated, settling by the fire. “But, believe it or not, I’m able to distinguish the sound of bristle on enamel from the scraping of metal.”

“Consistently surprising, John.” He bit into the scone, slouched back, and stared at the ceiling.

“Still, though,” I said through a mouthful of crumbs. “I had the chain up. You’d have been out of luck.” He moved only his eyes to look at me as though he pitied my lack of imagination.

Sherlock Holmes and I met five years ago on the first day of term at the prestigious Baker School, a charming private elementary school ensconced in the hills of New Hampshire. I had just been hired as head nurse after years as an army medic capped off with nursing school. Holmes was starting as a fifth grade general education teacher, embarking on his first true profession after years of chasing degrees.

We’d been living down the hall from one another in an old converted mill for the past year. Each morning Holmes tried to break into my apartment by one method or another. Each morning I tried to outwit him. The balance stood in his favor.

“How was your day yesterday?” I inquired. “Any new little problems to solve?” The staff at Baker School had been employing Sherlock’s unique intellect to arrive at speedy resolutions to petty problems around campus, thus avoiding the involvement of the police—or worse, the parents.

“Quite the little drama,” he replied. “Someone stole Bobby Simmons’s green crayon during art class.”

“Oh, you might need to delve deep into your resources to solve this one.”

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