Chapter 10: The Mystery of Agatha Christie
A/N: HI! Yeah, okay, now both sites are caught up with each other. I think that's it then. Yup. On with the show!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THIS! I only own Raine. Trust me, if I owned Doctor Who, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it.
Loud thunder sounded throughout the grounds as lightening stuck behind the large old mansion. Inside the house, the occupants were sitting down for dinner. Everyone was seated around the table, sipping their soup. The Doctor sat between Raine and Donna, his elbows were on the table and his hands clasped as he looked around.
"Terrible day for all of us... The professor struck down. Miss Chandrakala cruelly taken from us. And yet... we still have dinner," he said. Raine glanced at him before kicking him from under the table. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
"We are British, Doctor. What else must we do?" Lady Edison replied lifting up her goblet, a little shocked by the Doctors statement.
The Doctor sipped his soup before he said, "And then someone tried to poison me. Any one of you had the chance to put cyanide in my drink. But it rather gave me an idea."
"And what would that be?" the Reverend asked.
"Well, poison," the Doctor said simply as he lifted his spoon. "Drink up."
Beside him Raine sighed and shook her head. "When I suggested to try and weasel an answer out of them, I didn't mean threaten them."
"Same thing in my book," he said.
She shook her head, "Doctor..."
He flashed her a small smile, "I've laced the soup with pepper."
"Mmm, I thought it was jolly spicy," the Colonel said, laughing softly as he had some more.
"The active ingredient in pepper is piperine. It's traditionally used as an insecticide," Raine commented as she made lazy circles in her soup with her spoon.
The table stopped eating and everyone looked uncomfortable.
"Oh! Anyone got the shivers?" he asked. Just then, the storm caused the window to break open and blow out all the candles. As soon as the lights went out, everyone began panicking.
"What the deuce?" asked the Colonel.
"Listen, listen, listen," the Doctor asked. Sure enough, the buzzing of a wasp caught everyone's attention.
Lady's Edison's face paled as she whispered out, "No, it can't be..."
Everyone gasped and looked around, wide eyed and confused. Agatha stood up from her chair and said, "Show yourself, demon!"
"Nobody move," the Doctor said giving everyone a look.
Naturally, everybody moved from where they were. Lady Edison moved from her seat, the waiter ran across the room. The Colonel wheeled himself away from the table. Basically, everyone freaking scattered.
"No! Stay where you are!" Raine cried out as the bussing got louder.
Between all the lightning flashes, and everyone panicking, the wasp showed up again. Everyone was leaving the room. Even the Doctor gave up trying to keep everyone there, and ushered Raine, Donna, and Agatha out of the room.
"We'll cover you, Agatha. You've got a long, long life to lead yet," Raine said as she and the Doctor pulled her into a room and shut the door behind them. As she did that, the Doctor ran to the wall and pulled down a sword.
"Well, we know the butler didn't do it," Donna said, flashing him a small smile before she looked back at the Doctor.
"Then who did?" he asked before charging into the room once more, after the buzzing had stopped. Everyone in the room followed him out.
Once they were out of the room, they noticed a few things, one, the wasp was gone, two, Ms Redmond was hyperventilating, and three, well, everyone was still freaking out.
"My jewellery! The Firestone! It's gone! Stolen!" Lady Edison gasped out in shock, as she felt her neck. The heavy necklace that she had worn was gone.
"Roger," the waiter breathed out as he started walking towards the table. Just then, Ms Redmond started to scream. Everyone looked around the table to see Roger face down, with a knife in his back.
"My son..." Lady Edison cried out as she stood from her seat and walked over to him, "My child!"
Agatha and Raine sat on opposite sides of the couch in the sitting room with the Doctor stood in front of the fire place. Each was deep in thought. Aggie jumped a bit when lightening crashed across the sky, and Raine did the same when the door creaked open. She looked over to see Donna, and gave her a small sad smile. Donna returned it and closed the door softly before actually stepping into the room.
"That poor footman!" she said sadly, "Roger's dead and he can't even mourn him. 1926, and it's more like the Dark Ages."
"Did you inquire after the necklace?" Agatha asked, not even looking over at Donna as she sat in the seat between her and Raine.
"Lady Edison brought it back from India. It's worth thousands," Donna said softly, giving her head a slightly shake.
"This thing can sting, it can fly. It could wipe us all out in seconds. Why is it playing this game?" Raine wondered out loud as she tugged on a curl, her gaze at the floor.
"Every murder is essentially the same. They are committed because somebody wants something," Agatha said looking over the top of the other couch.
"What does a Vespiform want?" the Doctor asked.
"Doctor, stop it," Agatha scolded as she shifted in her seat. "The murderer is as human as you or I."
Then the Doctor blinked and looked at Agatha, his eyes were alight with excitement as everything clicked in his head, "You're right."
He walked over towards her, trembling with excitement, "Oh, I've been so caught up with giant wasps, I'd forgotten, you're the expert." He sat down on the couch across from her as Rain turned in her seat.
"I'm not, I told you!" Agatha snapped, "I'm just... a purveyor of nonsense."
"Oh, no, no, no, no," the Doctor said as he moved from the couch to kneel in front of her.
"'Cause plenty of people write detective stories, but yours are the best," Raine said as she and Donna switched seats. Raine placed her hand atop on Agatha's knee and gave other a soft squeeze.
"Yes!" the Doctor said giving Raine a grateful smile before turning his attention back to Agatha. "Why? Why are you so good, Agatha Christie?" he paused for a moment before continuing on, "Because you understand. You've lived."
"You've fought; you've had your heart broken. You know about people," Raine butted in.
"Their passions, their hope and despair and anger, all of those tiny, huge things that can turn the most ordinary person into a killer," the Doctor finished, picking up Raine's train of thought.
"Just think, Agatha. If anyone can solve this, it's you," Raine finished softly, giving her a slightly pleading look. Throughout their little speech, Agatha had begun to sound taller as the wheels in her head began spinning, trying to find out who the killer was.
A while later, everyone was gathered in the sitting room, Lady Edison sat where Agatha was sitting previously, the Colonel, behind the table between the two couches, to his left was the Reverend, and to the Reverend's left was empty. Donna sat in a chair behind the empty seat, snacking on popcorn, while Raine and Agatha stood on opposite sides of the mantle.
"I've called you here, on this endless night," the Doctor said from his position in front of the mantle, turning to face the people that were, previously, behind him, "because we have a murderer in our midst.
"And when it comes to detection, there's none finer," he looked over his shoulder and caught Raine's eye, giving her a look before he turned back to the group. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Agatha Christie." He threw out his hand towards her, encouraging her to take his place. The butler who was originally at the back of the room, moved towards the door as he said this.
The Doctor then turned towards Raine's hand and pulled her over to where Donna sat. The Time Lord and Lady sat to either side of their friend. The Doctor leaned forward and placed his cheek on his open palm.
"This is a crooked house. A house of secrets," Agatha said as she took the Doctors place. "To understand the solution, we must examine them all. Starting with you, Ms Redmond."
Everyone turned to look at her, where she sat at the table behind the Reverend. A fake-esque smile crossed her face, "But I'm innocent, surely."
"You've never met these people," Agatha said swiftly. "And these people have never met you. I think the real Robina Redmond never left London. You're impersonating her."
"How silly. What proof do you have?" the fake Ms Redmond asked as she straightened in her seat, the fake smile still on her face.
Agatha straightened up and allowed a small smile to grace her face as she said, "You said you'd been to the toilet..."
"Oh, I know this!" Donna said excitedly, "If she was really posh she'd say loo."
"Earlier today," Agatha said as she bent over to pick up the small black box, "Ms Storm, Ms Noble, and I found this on the lawn. Right beneath your bathroom window." As she said this, Redmond took a sip of her drink. "You must have heard the Ms Noble and Ms Storm were searching the bedrooms, so you panicked. You ran upstairs and disposed of the evidence."
Redmond staffed for a brief moment before setting down her glass, and in a panicky voice said, "I've never seen that thing before in my life."
"What's inside it?" Lady Edison asked after a moment.
Agatha smiled softly as she turned to look at Lady Edison, turning the box, "The tools of your trade, Miss Redmond." Agatha then opened the box, showing the tools for all to see, "Or should I say... the Unicorn?"
Everyone gasped and turned to look at her, shock written on their faces.
"You came to this house with one sole intention, to seal the Firestone!" Agatha said.
The Unicorns eyes flickered for a moment, as if contemplating the consequences of her actions before she said, "Oh, all right, then. It's a fair cop..." She stood from her seat and walked over towards the Colonel, "Yes, I'm the bleeding Unicorn. Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think."
She pulled the necklace from the top of her dress, "I took my chance in the dark and nabbed it. Go on, then, you nobs. Arrest me. Sling me in jail," she tossed the necklace to the Doctor, who was now standing Next to Agatha, and caught it.
"So, is she the murderer?" Donna asked as the Doctor sat down on the couch in front of her.
"Don't be so thick. I might be a thief, but I ain't no killer," the Unicorn said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Quite," Agatha said, sparing a glance to Donna before she looked at the group, "There are darker motives at work and in examination this household... we come to you," she looked at Lady. Edison before looking straight at the Colonel, "Colonel."
The Colonel looked distraught for a moment as he looked at his wife, who was looking at him in shock. "Damn it, woman. You with your perspicacity. You've rumbled me," he stood from his chair.
Lady Edison gasped, "You, you can walk! But why?"
The Colonel looked at his wife sadly, "My darling, how else could I be certain of keeping you by my side?"
"I don't understand," Lady Edison said.
"You're still a beautiful woman, Clemency. Sooner or later, some chap will turn your head. I couldn't bear that," he took her hand; "Staying in the chair was the only way I could be certain of keeping you."
He then turned to look at Agatha, "Confounded Mrs Christie! How did you discover the truth?"
"Um, actually I had no idea. I was just going to say that you were completely innocent," Agatha said innocently.
"Oh," the Colonel said shocked. Agatha gave a small shrug, "Sorry."
"Uh, shall I sit down then?"
"I'd think you better had." The Colonel nodded and sat down.
"So he's not the murderer?" Donna questioned.
"Indeed not," Agatha said. "To find the truth, let's return, to this," the Doctor leaned forward and handed Agatha the necklace back. She held it up for all to see. "Far more than the Unicorn's object of desire. The Firestone has quite a history. Lady Edison," Agatha said, turning to look at her.
"I've done nothing," she said.
"You brought it back from India, did you not?" Agatha asked. "Before you met the Colonel. You came home with malaria, and confined yourself to this house for six months, in a room that has been kept locked ever since. Which I rather think means..."
"Stop, please," Lady Edison said as she placed her hands over her mouth.
"I'm so sorry, but you had fallen pregnant in India. Unmarried and ashamed, you hurried back to England with your confidante, a young maid, later to become housekeeper, Ms Chandrakala," Agatha finished.
"Clemency, is this true?" the Colonel asked.
Lady Edison nodded and looked down at her hands, "My poor baby. I had to give him away. The shame of it."
"But you've never said a word!" The Colonel exclaimed.
"I had no choice," she said, "Imagine the scandal. The family name. I'm British, I carry on."
"And it was no ordinary pregnancy," the Doctor said.
Lady Edison froze and loomed at the Doctor, scandalized, "How could you know that?"
"Excuse us Agatha, this is our territory," the Doctor said as he stood and held his hand out for Raine to continue.
She sighed softly before looking at Lady Edison, "When you heard that buzzing sound in the dining room, you said, 'It can't be.' Why did you say that?"
"You'd never believe it," Lady Edison said shaking her head.
"The Doctor and Raine have opened my mind to believe many things," Agatha said as she sat next to Lady Edison.
"It was 40 years ago, in the heat of Delhi late one night. I was alone and that's when I saw it, a dazzling light in the sky," she said. "The next day he came to the house. Christopher, the most handsome man I'd ever seen. Our love blazed like a wildfire. I held nothing back."
She paused for a moment to sip her drink, "And in return, he showed me the incredible truth about himself. He'd made himself human, to learn about us. This was his true shape. I loved him so much, it didn't matter. But he was stolen from me. 1885, the year of the great monsoon, the river Jamuna rose up and broke its banks. He was taken with the flood. But Christopher left me a parting gift, a jewel like to other. I wore it always, part of me never forgot. I kept it close... Always." Lady Edison blinked the years away from her eyes.
"Just like a man. Flashes his family jewels and you end up with a bun in the oven," the Unicorn said harshly.
"A poor little child," Agatha said. "Forty years ago, Most Chandrakala took that newborn baby to an orphanage. But Professor Peach worked it out. He found the birth certificate."
"Oh, that's maiden. Maiden name," Donna commented.
"Precisely!" Agatha said.
"So, she killed him."
"I did not!" Lady Edison snapped.
"Ms Chandrakala feared that the Professor had unearthed your secret. She was coming to warn you," Agatha said.
"So, she killed her," Donna exclaimed.
"I did not!" Lady Edison cried out.
"Lady Edison, is innocent," Agatha said. "Because at this point... Doctor, Raine."
Raine and the Doctor looked shocked before the Doctor hopped you from his seat and held his hand out to her. She groaned and took his hand, following him up to in front of the mantle.
"Thank you!" the Doctor exclaimed. "At this point, when we consider the lies and the secrets that are the key to these events, then were have to consider it was you, Donna Noble," he said pointing a finger at her.
"What?" Donna said shocked, "What did I kill?"
Raine rubbed her forehead and gave the Doctor a small glare before turning to Donna. "No, but you said it all along, the vital clue, that this whole thing is being acted out like a murder mystery."
"Which means, it was you, Agatha Christie," the Doctor said, turning to Agatha.
Agatha blinked and straightened you in her seat, "I beg your pardon, sir?"
"So, she killed them?" Donna asked, again.
Raine shook her head, "No, but she wrote. She wrote those brilliant, clever books and who is her greatest admirer?"
"The moving finger points at you..." the Doctor said as he bounced his finger over to Lady Edison, "Lady Edison."
"Oh, leave me alone," Lady Edison pleaded.
"So, she did kill them," Donna said.
"No!" the Doctor and Raine snapped at her.
"But just think. Last Thursday night, what were you doing?" Raine asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Uh, I was, uh, I was in the library," she said looking down at her hands. "I was reading my favorite Agatha Christie, thinking about her plots and how clever she must be. How is that relevant?"
"Just think. What else happened on Thursday night?" the Doctor asked. Everyone then turned to look synthesis Reverend.
"I'm sorry?" he asked.
"You said on the lawn this afternoon. Last Thursday night, those boys broke into your church," Raine said crossing her arms.
"That's correct. They did," the Reverend replied. "I discovered the two of them. Thieves in the night. I was most perturbed. But I apprehended them."
"Really? A man of God against two strong lads? A man in his 40s? Or should I say, 40 years old? Exactly," the Doctor said.
"Oh, my God!" Lady Edison exclaimed.
"Lady Edison, your child, how old would he be now?" Raine asked softly.
"Forty! He's 40," she said softly.
"Your child has come home," Raine replied, looking at the Reverend.
The Reverend laughed, "This is poppycock!"
"Oh?" the Doctor asked. "You said you were taught by the Christian fathers, meaning, raised in an orphanage."
"My son! Can it be?" Lady Edison gasped out.
"You found those thieves, Reverend, and you got angry. A proper deep anger for the first time in your life," Raine said softly as she walked forwards, "and it broke the genetic lock."
"You changed," the Doctor said as he stepped forwards. "You realized your inheritance after all these years. You knew who you were."
The Doctor bent over and picked up the necklace, "Oh! And then it all kicks off. 'Cause this isn't just a jewel. It's a Vespiform telepathic recorder. It's part of you, your brain. Your very essence."
"When you activated, so did the Firestone. It beamed your full identity directly into your mind," Raine said as she walked over to the couch where the Doctor was standing.
"And at the same time, it absorbed the works of Agatha Christie directly from Lady Edison. It all became part of you. The mechanics of those novels re-templated in your brain," The Doctor said as he walked around the couch.
"You killed in this pattern, because that's what you think the world is. Turns out, we are in the middle of a murder mystery. One of yours, Dame Agatha," Raine said placing her hand on her shoulder.
"Dame?" she asked looking up at her.
"Oh! It's all right, not yet," the Doctor said, giving Raine a small smile.
"So he killed them? Yes? Definitely?" Donna asked.
"Yes."
"Well... This has certainly been a most entertaining evening. Really, you can't believe any of this, surely, Lady Edison?" the Reverend said, buzzing slightly.
"Lady who?" the Doctor asked.
"Lady Edison..." the Reverend buzzed.
"Little bit of buzzing there, Vicar," the Doctor teased.
"Don't make me angry!" the Reverend snapped.
"Why?" Raine asked. "What happen then?"
"Damn it! You humans worshipping your tribal sky gods..." the Reverend buzzed. "I am so much more. That night, the universe exploded in my mind. I wanted to take what was mine!"
Agatha gasped and jumped back.
"And you, Agatha Christie, with your railway station bookstall romances... What's to stop me killing you?" he shouted as he started to glow purple.
"Oh, my dear God. My child!" Lady Edison cried out as she made towards the Reverend.
"What's to stop me killing you all?" The Reverend cried out as he changed forms.
"It's me..." Lady Edison cried out.
"No, no. Clemency, come back..." the Colonel said as he pulled her back. "Keep away. Keep away, my God!"
"No! No! No more murder! If my imagination made you kill, then my imagination will find a way to stop you, foul creature," Agatha said as she held the Firestone above her head. The she turned and ran from the room; Donna followed her out of the room. Raine and the Doctor shared a look before following them out as well, the wasp followed them out.
"Run! He's chasing us!" Donna cried out as they turned a corner.
Raine and the Doctor pulled the doors shut after them. Behind them, Agatha had started a car and was driving away, as she paused in front, she honked the horn. The three of them looked at each other before running towards the car.
Just then the doors burst open and the Wasp burst out.
"Come here! Come and get me, Reverend!" Agatha cried out.
"Agatha, what are you doing?" the Doctor cried out.
"If I started this, Doctor, then I must stop it!" she cried out as she started the car again and took off down the drive.
"C'mon!" Raine cried out as she turned and ran towards the other cars. The wasp looked between them and Agatha before choosing to go after Agatha.
The three of the climbed into another car, the Doctor sat behind the wheel.
"Are you sure you know how to drive this?" Raine asked as Donna climbed into the car.
"I fly the TARDIS, don't I?" he asked she climbed in.
Raine snorted and looked for something to hold onto as the Doctor started the engine, "More like the TARDIS flies you."
The Doctor put the car in drive and took off down the road, following Agatha's car, and the giant wasp.
"You said this is the night Agatha Christie loses her memory?" Donna asked from the backseat.
"Yeah, but time is in a flux," Raine said, glancing back at her. The Doctor gave a stiff nod, "For all we know, this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life and history gets changed!"
"But where is she going?" Donna asked.
Ahead of them, Agatha was speeding down the road, swerving to avoid the wasp behind her. She glanced over to see a sign saying 'Silent Pool', she turned her car down that road, the wasp following.
As they came near the same sign, Raine glanced over, "The Lake! She's heading for the lake! What's she doing?"
Agatha pulled her car on to the grass, parked it and climbed out. With the Firestone above her head, she cried out, "Here I am, the honey in the trap." As she said this, the Doctors car pulled up beside her own.
"Come to me, Vespiform," Agatha said. The necklace in her hand began to glow a pale purple.
"She's controlling him!" Donna cried out as they started to climb out of the car.
"His mind is based on her thought process," the Doctor said as he ran towards Agatha.
Raine started to follow him, she glanced over at Donna and said, "Basically, what he's saying is, they're linked."
"Quite so, Raine. If I die, then this creature might die with me," Agatha said forcefully.
"Don't hurt her!" Raine cried out as she and the Doctor stepped in front of Agatha. The Doctor held his hand out in a stopping motion and said, "You're not ment to be like this. You've got the wrong template in your mind."
"He's not listening," Donna said. Then Donna made a spilt decision. She grabbed the Firestone from Agatha's hand and pitched it into the lake. Behind her the wasp hissed and then followed it into the lake.
The four of them stood by the lakeside, their eyes wide with shock. When the Firestone had fallen in, the water glowed purple, and it started to bubble. The two Time Lords, and Agatha, looked at the lake with a sad expression. Donna was the first to recover.
"How do you kill a wasp?" she asked softly. "Drown him, just like his father."
"Donna," Raine breathed out turning to look at her friend, "that thing couldn't help itself..."
"Neither could I," she said looking at her. They looked at each other for a moment before turning to look back at the still bubbling lake.
"Death comes as the end and justice is served," Agatha said softly.
"Murder at the Vicar's Rage," the Doctor said softly.
Donna turned and gave him a scandalized look. Oh, if she happened to mention a book before it's time, she got told off for it. But it's okay if he spills the beans? So not cool.
He looked at her and shrugged slightly, "Needs a bit of work."
"Just one mystery left, Doctor, Raine," Agatha said as she turned to look at them. "Who exactly are you?"
Before they could say anything, Agatha cried out in pain and started to crumple to the ground. The Doctor and Donna, who were standing in either side of her, caught her and helped her down. Raine, who was standing on the other side of the Doctor, scurried over and knelt next to Agatha.
"Oh, it's the Firestone!" she cried out as she placed her hand on Agatha's forehead.
"It's part of the Vespiform's mind," the Doctor said, as he held Agatha in his arms. "It's dying and it's connected to Agatha!"
As he said this, Agatha glowed purple, she exact shade the water was, before she passed out in the Doctors arms.
Raine blinked shocked as she looked over at the Doctor and Donna, "He let her go. Right at the end, the Vespiform chose to save someone's life."
"Is she all right, though?" Donna asked.
"Oh, of course, the amnesia," the Doctor said, "Wiped her mind of everything that happened, the wasp, the murders..."
"And us. She'll forget about us," Donna said softly.
"Yeah, but we solved another riddle," the Doctor said excitedly.
"The mystery of Agatha Christie," Raine said with a smile. "Her car'll get found here in the morning."
"She shows up at a hotel in Harrogate with no memory of what just happened," the Doctor said with a small shrug.
"What about Lady Eddison, the Colonel, and the staff?" Donna asked.
"Well," Raine ruffled her hair, "They won't talk about it, too British. They'll act like nothing happened."
"And the Unicorn can never say she was there," the Doctor said, "But, she does a bust back in London."
"What about Agatha?"
Raine smiled wide, "Oh, she meets a man, gets married, travels the world. And she just wrote, and wrote, and wrote."
"She must've spent all those years, wondering if her books were any good," Donna sighed softly.
The three of them walked back into the TARDIS after they dropped Agatha off. The Doctor shrugged off his jacket and tossed it, it landed perfectly on the TARDIS Y-Beam. Raine shook her head at his antics and picked up the jacket and held it close.
"Thing is though, brilliant mind like that, things kept bleeding through. There was stuff she could have used, like Ms Marple," The Doctor said as he kneeled on the grating.
Donna sighed as she sat next to him, "Should've made her sign a contract."
He gave Donna a small smile as he lifted up the grating and pulled out a trunk; an honest to goodness trunk. Raine bit her lip as she tried to keep herself from laughing as she sat next to Donna.
"Let's see..." the Doctor muttered as he started riffling through the box. "C... C for Carrionites, C for Cybermen." he picked up a marble head and threw it with the rest of the junk that laid forgotten on the open lid.
"C for Caesar?" Raine questioned as she picked up the head and raised an eyebrow. He flashed her a small before he reached into the trunk and pulled out a small book, "Ah, here it is, C, Christie, Agatha."
He turned the book around so that both red-heads could see the cover. "Death in The Clouds" and on the cover was a bedroom and a wasp.
Donna gasped softly as she reached out to take the book, "She remembered..." Raine smiled fondly, she had a copy of that one too.
"Somewhere, in the back of her mind, it was still there. But that's not all, read the copyright rage," she pressed.
Donna looked at her before she opened the book, "Facsimile edition, published in the year," she gasped, "five billion?"
"People never stop reading books. Five billion years into the future, and she's the most published novelist of all time," the Doctor said with a grin.
"But she never knew," Donna said with a sad smile.
"Maybe that's what kept her writing. Because it's not what we do that matters, it's how we're remembered. Not knowing, maybe that was why she kept writing," Raine said softly.
"Maybe, it's the same thing that keeps me traveling, because Raine's right. It's not what you do, but how you're remembered, you just hope for the best," the Doctor said to his companions. They sat the there in a comfortable silence for a bit before any of them spoke.
"Onwards?" the Doctor asked softly.
The two women looked at each other before nodding. "Onwards."