Master of Murder
Chapter 14
Conclusion
Chirp, chirp.
Putt, putt, putt, putt….
Chirp, chirp.
Reginald slowly registered the sound of a bird somewhere close by and the putt-putt of some sort of motor, almost cartoonish sounding. He was laying on his back somewhere, still groggy rousing from sleep mode, he didn't open his eyes. There was an uncomfortable stinging feeling in his left arm. He was unable to register quite what was going on yet.
Chirp, chirp.
There it was again. Bird? No, not a bird. What was it?
Putt, putt, putt…
He forced his eyes open a bit. White ceiling tiles. Bright lights. He turned his head slightly to the left. A nurse was adjusting an IV bag of clear liquid. A tube trailed down from the bag into an IV pump. Blurry spots on its touch screen were blinking.
Chirp, chirp.
It was the IV pump alarm with the pump motor providing the putt-putt sound.
The nurse glanced down at him. "Oh, you're awake! Do you know where you are?"
He lifted his head slightly trying to survey his situation. White sheets, bed rails, hospital room. He tried lifting his right arm. Clinking sound and a cold metal feeling. Handcuffs…he was handcuffed to the bed rail.
"Hospital?" he said weakly.
"That's right, do you know why?"
He dropped his head back on the pillow, still a little groggy and disoriented. "No," he answered.
"You let your blood glucose level get too low and passed out," the nurse explained. "You were a thirty-five when the medics got to you. If you hadn't eaten that jelly roll when you did you could have gone into a coma."
Exhausted, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
—Ɵ—
ONE WEEK LATER:
Molly nibbled on a piece of teriyaki chicken. Sherlock had surprisingly invited her over for dinner. Even if it was just Chinese take-away, she had jumped at the chance to be with him. John was there too, so it wasn't exactly a "date," but it was good enough for her.
Taking a sip of coffee, she asked, "So they're closing the case of your cousin's murder?"
Sherlock finished a bite of General Tso and wiped his mouth with the corner of his napkin. "Lestrade is satisfied that Reginald Morris and Leonard Tumbleson are guilty of the murder and has suspended further investigation at this time," he said.
As he dipped the end of a spring roll in soy sauce, John said, "The two are also charged with the kidnapping and assault of Mycroft plus there are numerous charges regarding the theft of government funds. There's enough evidence to put both of them away for a long time."
"Yet not every question in the affair has been answered," murmured Sherlock.
"Oh really, how so?" said Molly, taking another bite of her chicken.
"Morris and Tumbleson were merely stooges," said Sherlock. "I'm convinced that they, indeed, did murder Penelope. However there are too many loose ends for the entire incident to be limited to two persons. For example in the case of Mycroft's kidnapping, Morris had to dispatch the dummy vehicle in addition to the real one. That would leave Tumbleson to either drive the dummy vehicle or incapacitate Mycroft when he got in the back, not both. There had to be at least a third person involved."
Sherlock paused to take another bite of General Tso. "Also," he continued, "in the matter of the financial transactions, Morris submitted the requisitions and Tumbleson processed them, but the actual transfer of funds appears to have been handled by a third party with much more savvy than either of them possess. The money simply disappeared without a trace."
"But they don't know who they were dealing with," said John.
"That's correct," said Sherlock. "Tumbleson doesn't know who the driver was in the kidnapping, but has confessed to chloroforming Mycroft when he got into the car. Morris admits to talking with someone several times about setting up the requisition scam, but they never actually met and no names were used."
"So someone else was definitely involved," said Molly.
"Yes," said Sherlock. "Someone with a spider's touch, a master of murder to the final degree. There is one further piece of evidence that I haven't shared with anyone until now."
John and Molly both looked at Sherlock expectantly.
"Two days after Penelope's death I received this text," Sherlock explained as he pulled out his mobile phone. He tapped on it a few times and then turned the screen around so that they could read the text.
SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS
JAMES
John and Molly looked at each other. "Moriarity," they said in unison.
"Yes," said Sherlock, "I believe that is probably correct. If so, he has undoubtedly covered his tracks in his usual efficient manner. I will have to be content with Morris and Tumbleson for now."
THE END
—Ɵ—
Author's Note: I suppose some of you will be angry at me for ending things at this point, my wife is. As a result of my recent health issues I find it difficult to concentrate and work on the story. After two weeks in the hospital I lost interest in continuing the story and decided to wrap things up as neatly as I could rather than make everyone wait for an extended period of time for me to develop additional chapters. I do plan to get back to writing on another story eventually, but it may be a month or two since I'm still slowly healing from surgery.