The Body in the Bookseller's: A Sherlock and Lucy Short Story (The Sherlock and Lucy Mystery Series Book 21) by Anna Elliott & Charles Veley

Author:Anna Elliott & Charles Veley [Elliott, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wilton Press
Published: 2020-07-28T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11: WATSON

“Please, Mr. Holmes.” Clarissa’s eyes were red and swollen with crying. About ten minutes had gone by since Lestrade and the constables had taken away the body and led her father off to prison, in handcuffs. Holmes and I had been left behind to question her. She had obviously dressed in a hurry: her gloves were unbuttoned, her hair was still uncombed, and she was wearing one black boot and one brown. Sitting on one of the armchairs placed so that shop customers might peruse books in comfort, she put me in mind of a bewildered child.

“Please save my father,” she continued. “I don’t understand anything that’s happened. Who that man was who was killed in our basement and why Günter has run away and—” she swallowed hard, blinking back fresh tears. “I don’t understand at all! But I know my father is innocent. He would never have killed a man who is a stranger to us both. Why should he? But if he didn’t, then it must have been Günter, and I can’t believe—”

“Drink your brandy, Miss Lovejoy.” Holmes spoke with the gentleness he reserved for the innocent, the very old, and the very young. “And we shall see what can be done.”

Clarissa obediently took a swallow of the brandy Holmes had found in a decanter in the back room of the shop, and a little colour came back into her cheeks.

“Now,” Holmes went on. “As you know, Eric Brown was also attacked last night by a woman who shot at him while he was at work across the street in the museum library. The woman who shot him gave her name as Mrs. Arabella Arden. Have you ever heard that name before?”

“No, never.” Clarissa looked exhausted, but her voice was quite positive.

“She is an elderly, grey-haired woman, blue-eyed, and with a small, slender frame. Have you noticed anyone of that description speaking to Mr. Brown? Or observed her coming into the shop?”

“We get a good many customers.” Clarissa rubbed her eyes, clearly trying to remember, but then said, “I don’t think anyone who looked like that has come to our shop. At least, not recently. But if this Mrs. Arden shot at Eric, couldn’t she be the one who killed the man in the cellar, too?”

“Unfortunately, that is not a viable supposition.” Holmes nodded in my direction. “When Dr. Watson discovered the body on your father’s premises, the dead man had only just been killed. He could have been dead only a very few minutes, no more. And at the time he must have been killed, Mrs. Arden was in police custody. So you see, she would have had no opportunity to kill the man Watson found.”

Clarissa’s shoulders slumped as though with defeat.

“Now, Miss Lovejoy,” Holmes went on. “Mr. Brown is still under sedation from the surgery required to remove the bullet from his upper arm. Mr. Richt is missing, having fled the scene of a murder. It is a reasonable assumption that one or both

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.