Aidan McGuire, to explain why he had run away even though he was not guilty, opened a door to the patio. In the doorway stood Mariana Huntley-Jones, dressed in an elaborate purple lace and flowered Victorian gown. Her blonde hair was piled up on her head with curls in the back and matching flowers.
Huntley-Jones stood up in shock. "Mariana! What…how…" He couldn't speak. Danzer and Jenkins looked shocked too.
The woman spoke: "Aidan is the only person who helped me. At my birthday celebration, someone must have put something in my drink. I was feeling very ill and retired to my bed chamber. Later, I was indeed given an accidental overdose of a medication by my husband. I swooned after ingesting the medication and my husband and the other servants that were allowed to see me thought I was dead. I recovered enough to hear what was said by everyone in the room, but I could not speak or move. I heard Jenkins and Danzer speaking of the plot to blackmail my husband and take my jewels. They had purposely recommended an overdose of the medicine which my husband administered to me earlier.
"The medicine given me was purposely too strong; Malcolm did nothing wrong, even accidentally. As for the jewels, some of them are very rare, brought back from darkest Africa and the West Indies. They are priceless. Jenkins quickly took me to the woods where he threw me in a ravine, hoping the wolves would get me." Mariana glanced at Jenkins with a look of anger. "Thankfully, he didn't bury me as my husband had requested, not in ill will of course. Malcolm was too upset to watch the burial; he was weeping when Jenkins carried me out."
Mariana walked over to her husband and embraced him, then sat down beside him. "Aidan was currying one of the horses that night when he happened to see Jenkins carrying me out to the woods. He followed surreptitiously, then when Jenkins had left, he came down into the ravine to see what had happened. I had partially recovered, enough to tell him about Jenkins and Danzer's plan to blackmail my husband. Aidan was afraid that they would try to kill me and perhaps succeed the second time if I stayed at Ivy Hill, so he took me to an inn a distance away from the estate. He was riding back to Ivy Hill when he was apprehended by Jenkins and the other servants. Jenkins had spread the rumour that Aidan had stolen the jewels. If it were not for Aidan, I would not be alive."
Mariana went on: "Aidan escaped from the outbuilding where he had been confined and came to bring me news and stay at the same Inn where he had secured me in a room locked from the inside, so I couldn't be harmed. It was at that point that Mr Holmes spoke to him at the pub downstairs in the Inn and Aidan was not forthcoming with him at that point. But when I spoke to Aidan later, I encouraged him to tell Mr Holmes all, hoping he could unravel this for us and allow me to return safely home."
Molly, who was standing next to her fiancé, squeezed his hand and smiled at him for being so brave.
"There are two other pieces of the puzzle," said Holmes. "What is the real purpose of the mechanical woman? The KAOS agents could have simply killed Mrs Huntley-Jones and taken off with her jewels. They would not even have had to kill her, seeing as they had created a vortex in time in which they could come and go, stealing what they will from many times and places and taking it back with them..."
Everyone looked rather blank at this statement, save for the KAOS agents. Holmes, knowing they would not be forthcoming with the details of their plan, continued. "If I am correct, robots built in ths age, and there are some mechanical men and women who have been built as of late, although not as detailed and perfect as this one, are generally programmed to be truthful." He directed a question to the robotic Mariana. "Mariana, please tell us the purpose for which you were built."
In a voice devoid of any emotion the robot said: "I am built by the great organization KAOS to report on the happenings in this place and time. I am to become friendly with all of the wealthy families of the area and help my organization KAOS to remove all jewels, money and valuables from the possession of the criminals who have amassed this wealth."
Holmes spoke: "When she says 'crimnals,' she is of course referring to your friends and relatives, Mr Huntley-Jones."
Malcolm Huntley-Jones stood up and pointed to the robot, saying in a voice frought with emotion: "Remove this abomination from me!"
"Yes, indeed, Sir…" said Lestrade. The two KAOS agents and the robotic woman were led away by several of the uniformed policemen.
Then Huntley-Jones walked over to Aidan McGuire and shook his hand heartily. "I apologise, dear boy, for falsely accusing you; little did I realize you had become my wife's protector in this sordid affair. My heartiest thanks for all you have done for her. I should like to present you with a gift of enough money for you to marry Molly. I would ask you to please stay on in your present job and I shall be adding to your monthly salary."
Aidan smiled and thanked his employer.
Holmes and Watson accompanied the Inspector back to London, but before leaving, Holmes said there would be a cab sent for the Smarts shortly.
"Wait...there are no charges against me, Inspector?" asked Huntley-Jones of Lestrade as the inspector was leaving. Mariana put her arm around Malcolm.
"No, Sir. Although you were not forthcoming, the crime was not intended and indeed, the lady is alive and well and the jewels have been found."
"Well, I guess that wraps it up," said Max. He started for the door.
"Wait, Mr Smart," said Huntley-Jones. "I'm sorry I was so rude to you before, I am grateful for you and your wife helping to sort out this sorry affair….I am grateful for the happy ending…"
"You're most welcome," said 99, smiling.
"Is there anything I can give you as a reward?"
99 started to say, "No…" when Max interrupted her.
"I just love that sword," he pointed to the one he had used in the sword fight with Jenkins.
"It's yours, if you wish, Mr Smart. A small price to pay for getting my beautiful wife back."
"Why thanks, sir, I'll take good care of it." Max whipped it about and accidentally slashed a fancy velvet curtain in half. "Oops, sorry about that…"
Huntley-Jones looked irritated for a moment, then forced a smile. "I'll have the servants take care of that. Why don't you take the scabbard too, Mr Smart?"
99 smiled this time. "Thank you, Sir."
Then the Smarts made their farewells to the Huntley-Joneses and they went outside to find the cab just pulling up.
After settling down in the cab, Max said smugly, "Well, that was a great case and we cracked it in record time!"
"Max," said 99 chidingly, "We found a few clues, but Sherlock Holmes did the rest! He solved the case!"
"99, Holmes doesn't exist. Remember, he's just a fictional detective, a creation of Arthur Conan Doyle's mind…he couldn't possibly have solved the crime if he doesn't exist! So we must have done it. And you're forgetting that I was the one who got hit in the head with the secret door over and over!" said Max, pouting.
"Yes, love, that's true, you did take a bit of punishment. I'm just glad that Mrs Huntley-Jones is safe and sound and that she wasn't killed." She paused. "But it makes me wonder…what do you suppose Lestrade is going to do with Danzer and Jenkins?"
"Lock them up, 99. Jail is where all KAOS agents should be to keep the world free of nastiness and evil!"
"You're right, Max, but they're time travellers, just as we are. I wonder if a jail will be able to keep them. There was talk of a time vortex, that must be how we got here too…"
"That can't be right, 99, we weren't riding on a giant turtle to get here!"
"Not a tortoise, Max, a vortex! A passageway through time..."
"Oh."
When they reached 221B Baker Street, Max and 99 ascended the steps. No one was about. The rooms were quiet. Holmes and Watson must have just stepped out. The Smarts retired to their upstairs suite.
In the morning, Mrs Hudson knocked at the door and brought them breakfast. There was still no sign of Holmes or Watson.
"Mrs Hudson, do you know where Holmes and Watson have gone?" asked 99.
"No, Ma'am, I do not. They are probably gallivanting about on some new case."
"I see. Well, thank you for the breakfast."
"You are welcome, Ma'am."
Then Max's shoe phone began to ring.
"Max, where are you?" came the Chief's voice.
"Same place, Chief. We're still in London. We're staying with Sherlock Holmes, you know."
"What are you talking about Max?"
"Just what I said."
"Max, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective…"
"I was trying to tell 99 that, but she wouldn't listen." He cupped his hand over the phone's mouthpiece and turned to 99. "See, I told you so! The Chief is siding with me!"
"Max, Max…" yelled the Chief from the other end of the phone. "I need to know when you are coming back! I know you and 99 wanted to extend your vacation, but there was no need to make up such an elaborate story…"
"Let me talk to him, Max," said 99, reaching for the shoe phone. "Chief, we are still in London, and we would have come back except that, as we mentioned before, we seem to have become entrenched in a time vortex. We are still in the year 1892."
99 could picture the Chief, in desperation, pulling out the little hair he had left on his head. "99, when will you be back? I can't run my agency without my top agents!"
"Our best guess is 82 years, like we mentioned before." 99 paused. "How are the kids? Who is watching them?"
"When you first told me you weren't coming back right away, I contacted your mother whom you said was sitting with the kids. Larrabee has helped her out when she needed a break. The kids are fine, but asking for you both."
"Chief, isn't there someone at Control who can help us out? Some scientist who understands time vortices?"
"We'll check into it for you, 99." The Chief sounded subdued and the Smarts felt a let down after the excitement of the case. They wondered, where was Holmes?
They spent a good part of the day looking through some of Holmes' books; he had shelves of books on many subjects. 99 found one on the subject of time travel. They paged through the whole book, but it was of no use; it was a book on how to build a time machine and it looked quite theoretical.
Finally, after hours of perusing the books, they took a walk and visited some of the nearby shops. They walked nearly the whole day and returned in time for another of Mrs Hudson's suppers. After that, the Smarts decided to call it a day and retire to their apartment above Holmes' rooms. Neither Holmes nor Watson made an appearance.
The next morning, Max and 99 dressed and came down to Holmes' rooms. There was still no one was there. They had dressed in their own clothing, in the hopes that they would be able to return to their own time. Max returned the suit and hat to the place where he had found them and 99 did the same with hers.
99 sat down by the window. She felt depressed, missing the children and her mother very much. She idly glanced out the window. Suddenly, she jumped up excitedly.
"Max, look out the window!"
"What is it, 99?" he asked after looking out. "What's so strange about that? I just see autos and people dressed normally and …99! Where are the horses and buggies?"
"That's just it, Max, I think we're back in 1974!" 99 turned around suddenly and almost walked into the robot Mariana Huntley-Jones. It was standing near the doorway. "Max, how did the robot get here?"
The robot looked as if it had been in the place for 80 years; it looked a bit worse for wear.
"99, let's get out of here and see if we can get home!"
The two Control agents opened the door and Max almost ran into some tourists coming into the room. They ran past the tourists and took a cab to Heathrow Airport, where they were able to buy tickets to fly back to Washington, DC.
Epilogue
Upon returning home, the Control agents fell back into their normal routine. One day, when visiting the library on a whim, 99 decided to re-read some of her favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. She checked out several of the books and was perusing them at home when she came upon a story she had never heard of before: The Case of the Mechanical Wife. Intrigued, she read the story that told about a strange mechanical woman that was created to replace a murdered real woman. There were time travellers involved and 99 knew that she and Max had lived the story. With interest and amazement, she recognized all of the characters in the story as ones she had met in their odd trip to Victorian times. But she had never heard of the story before…
"Max! Look what I found…I can't believe this…"
99 showed Max the strange story, unknown to her until reading it this very night. Max read it too and when he finished, he put the book down.
"That was a good story, 99. Sir Arthur could sure write a great mystery…"
"Didn't it sound a bit familiar, Max?"
"No, why, 99?"
"Max, we just came back from London…don't you remember the case that Sherlock Holmes solved there?"
"Well, yes, but as I said before, 99, Sherlock Holmes was just a fictional detective…"
"Max! Stop harping on that and just listen…don't you remember the robot woman…you said she reminded you of Hymie…"
"Eh, yes…"
"And the American woman and her husband in the book…don't they sound familiar?"
"The woman, tall, willowy and dark-haired, with lovely blue eyes and a soft voice…" read Max. He stopped reading and snapped his fingers. "You're right, she sounds familiar, I might even know someone like that…"
"Max, it's me that is being described! We were in the story!"
"Really?" said Max turning the pages. "Where am I?"
"Right here…" said 99 pointing to a description: "…loud and strangely awkward little man…"
"99!" said Max, chidingly. "That's not me, what are you talking about? Don't you remember…I played Holmes' brother… "
99 laughed. "Here's something else interesting, Max...it says that KAOS had discovered a time vortex could be made by a machine that they created. That's how they travelled back in time!"
"What about us? We didn't come in a time machine..."
"No, but the book explains that the time machine created some unexpected vortices in time. Apparently one was in Mr Holmes' parlour and we must have walked right into it. It doesn't explain how we were suddenly dressed in the Victorian clothes, but I think the vortex, because it extended back into our own time, kept the channel open for the Chief to receive our calls."
"So it looks as if KAOS has the way to go back and forth between time..." He paused. "99, Control will have to invent a time machine too!"
"Well, it looks as if Dr Danzer and Mr Jenkins are stuck in the past, Max. It says Sherlock Holmes discovered where the machine was and destroyed it! That's certainly good news!"
"Well, 99, I was looking forward to going back and forth in time...it would be fun..." He paused. "99, will you pay me the penny IOU that you promised when I was thinking? And add another on to it..I'm thinking very hard at the moment, too. "You know, if Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective, how did we end up in one of his stories?"
"I don't know love, that's a good question. Maybe there is no answer to it." 99 put her arms around Max's neck from behind. She kissed him on the cheek. "Never mind, love. It was fun while it lasted, wasn't it?"
Max smiled and nodded. He kissed her back.
THE END