Family Secrets
An Hope Holmes Adventure Chapter XXV
Faith Robin
The time had come to find out where her father was being held. Hope had been waiting in front of her quarters for half an hour. Granger was still inside. When two minutes had passed the assigned time Granger made her way outside and hailed a cab.
I followed her in my own cab. She led me to another residential area. She paid the cabbie and started to walk down the street. I paid the cabbie and followed her from a distance. She walked around the corner. I followed her slowly. 'What in the world am I doing?' I questioned myself.
'Granger is my friend, should I really be spying on her and betraying her trust?' I wondered. 'But she's the daughter of Moriarty' said that small worrywart voice that had chased me away from my rented room. 'Be quiet you, I need to set aside my fear and just do it' I told myself.
The buzz of the cocaine had subsided. Holmes woke from his drug induced sleep. His muscles ached, he longed to stretch them. Moriarty noticed that Holmes had awoken. Holmes had demanded to see his daughter and Moriarty had refused numerous times. Holmes had begun to start doubting whether Hope was here. Soon Moriarty would have something to prove that Hope was here even if she wasn't. The door to the room was opened. Jenkins poked his head into the room.
"Sir?" Jenkins said from his position. Moriarty stepped out into the hallway and locked the door behind him. He wasn't taking any chances after his last encounter with his daughter. And after that encounter he wasn't taking any chances.
"Yes Jenkins what is it?" Moriarty asked.
"Your Niece is here sir," Jenkins said announcing her arrival.
Meanwhile I had hidden myself under the bushes in the back yard garden. Granger was outside sitting under a willow tree. The pollen from the roses was bothering me. It was taking all the restraint that I could muster to keep myself from sneezing. I crouched there, like a rabbit near a stalking cat. I kept my muscles tense and my hand over my mouth.
'What in the world did they do to those roses? Put sneezing powder on them?' I wondered. The back door opened and Colonel James Moriarty stepped out of the house. My nose was just itching to sneeze. I started to look for possible escape routes in case I had to make a dash for it.
'Come on Hope you twit, Father could hold it for hours than you could,' I challenged myself. The garden wall was high, almost too high. I had managed to slip in behind Moriarty without being seen. 'At the very least I could make it to the greenhouse and hide If need be,' I thought to myself.
"Sally, how are you?" The Colonel asked hugging his niece.
"Uncle James, I'm fine just stopping by to see how things are going," Moriarty said returning the hug.
"No sir, I have not seen this girl check in," the desk clerk said handing the photo back.
'Fye!!!' Mycroft thought to himself, he had dashed over the suspected hotel where Hope was possibly hiding.
"Has there been any woman looking similar to this?" He asked impatiently.
"No sir," the clerk said, "Now if you will excuse me I have to get back to work."
"Of course and thank you for the information," he said paying him. He turned and started for the door. 'Where in the world could she be?' he wondered. Then a young blonde woman dashed down the stairs, like demons fleeing a holy man. She reached the doors quickly; once outside she hailed a cab. 'What was that all about?' The girl looked frightened as if she had been … 'Its Hope!' He thought as he was enlightened. He dashed out the door after her. The cab sped off. 'Blast it!'
Page 4