'What have I done?' An angry buzzing races through my brain.
I couldn't tell if listening to my guilt is worse than listening to Basil fume at the fact that I have bungled the investigation thus far.
What I could tell was that the sleuth is furious about young Olivia Flaversham's disappearance as soon as I found him dangling from a doll's pull string. However he is not just dyspeptic that Fidget had escaped from us -with the girl- he is extremely vexed that I had lost her. He will regret bringing me along.
On second thoughts, he already regrets it. I can tell by the way he has lost his temper at me. I turn away in shame from the still heated detective to avoid him seeing tears forming in my eyes.
"I say, Dawson, old chap?"
"Oh, that- that poor girl," I sniff miserably. "I should have watched her more closely."
Not long before the events here, before meeting Basil and even before finding Olivia, I had just returned from Afghanistan with the horrible memories of soldiers dying on out on the battlefield and in the field hospitals where I was stationed as surgeon … I shuddered inwardly. The dear girl might witness her father -or worse, end up herself- becoming a victim of Ratigan's pet cat Felicia, whom the detective had told me about on the way to the human toy store, which was where we were now. I have no wish to find Olivia becoming a young murder victim of Mousedom's Napoleon of Crime.
Never have I made such a big mess in my entire life. I now feel very guilty, like I had done In Afghanistan seeing many of my friends and comrades suffer and die, whilst I was alive and more or less in good health.
"Don't worry, old fellow- it's not entirely hopeless."
But I feel my shoulders sag in despondency. I deserve to feel guilty about it all. If Basil chooses to see me as a failure, then so be it. I wouldn't think less of his abilities.
'This is my fault…' I thought feeling tempted to sob at failing sweet, innocent Olivia.
Suddenly, a hand rests gently on my shoulder. I turn round to see Basil giving me a kindly look, something I thought I would never see.
"We'll get her back." he says, quietly but confidently.
All of my doubt and fears dissipate and I feel a new sense of hope arise within me. I sniff and manage to smile at my eccentric companion.
"Do- do you think there's a chance?" I ask, with newly ignited hope.
"There's always a chance Doctor. As long as one can think." He answers calmly, striking a match against a doll's nose and lighting his pipe, before pacing the floor in thought.
