Men and women passed through that cursed door every minute, each one contributing to another round of young screams. Knuckles whitened around my sword cane. I longed to declare myself, longed to put a stop to everything those vermin did.
I could not, however. Not yet. Not without possibly putting a child in more danger. We had agreed on a time, and I would keep it. Going alone would let these animals escape. I need only wait another few minutes.
A few long, interminable minutes. Another scream sounded inside, accompanied by a small shadow running past one window. A larger shadow followed not ten feet behind. Soon.
Now. The clock tower finally announced the top of the hour, and I started moving before the echo died. Shadows came alive on every side of the manor as dozens of officers lunged from bushes and alleyways. Two men broke away to cuff a man and woman just leaving, but the rest of us stormed the doors.
Thin wood slammed against the wall beneath the force of an inspector's foot. Three constables followed the inspector, each sparking a fresh round of cruelty changed to arrogant pleading, then four sergeants entered just ahead of me.
Chaos met my arrival. Shapes ran this way and that, some difficult to distinguish as officer or target in the candlelight. A large man resisted two constables in the far corner. A young sergeant used one knee to pin a scantily clad woman in the middle of the floor. The snake-like man in the corner slyly tried to bribe himself out of jail time. I instantly lost track of Holmes. He would go after the blackguards running the place, but I cared far more about finding and protecting the children we knew hid somewhere in this house. I needed only a moment to identify the room where I had seen that shadow.
The high-pitched scream said I had chosen correctly, and I sped up, dodging two constables on my sprinting path to the far door. A young girl, no older than ten or eleven , frantically tried to escape a short, burly man. I made no effort to silence a roar.
"Get away from her!"
Wide eyes looked on in amazement as I slammed into the man from behind. He ended up pressed firmly against the wall, my forearm on his neck. Thick fingers weakly tried to push me away.
"Need an officer in here!"
I could have kicked myself when she flinched and disappeared, but two sergeants followed my call. I ensured only that they had him secured before I scanned the room.
There. A small foot did not quite hide behind a quilt rack in the corner. My bag gently thumped the floor.
"My name is Doctor Watson. I will not hurt you."
A whimper answered me from another corner just before the girl loudly thumped the wall then changed quilt racks. So that was their plan. I moved to kneel beside the door, in full view of both children.
"I am sorry for yelling. I did not mean to scare you."
Silence answered me for a full five seconds, then the girl slowly peeked between the quilts. Sorrow lurched in my chest at the sight of haunted eyes sunken into hollow cheeks.
"Go away."
"My friends and I are here to put Fernsby in jail," I replied softly. "We will not let him hurt you again."
She hesitated, casting a wary glance toward where the other child still hid. "Rest of them?"
"Unhand me, you—" A woman's voice rose above the general clamor, describing at least two officers with a range of extremely creative insults I would not have wanted my own child to know, much less say. I forced a small smile.
"Does that answer your question?"
Any other young one would have giggled at that, but the tension merely drained from her small shoulders.
"It's over?"
"It's over," I promised. "They will not hurt you again. You're safe now."
She wavered for another moment, then vanished into the corner. I had just started to wonder if I would have to coax her out again when she crawled out of a hole on the other side of the room. They must have a series of tunnels threading through walls and beneath furniture.
"Max, you can come out."
Max?!
Only concentrated effort kept me kneeling in front of the door. How could Max Thatcher have been kidnapped again? Had his parents traced this house yet? How long had he been here?
Rustling sounded in the wall, then a boy of about four peeked out a small hole. Whatever he might have said became a silent refusal when he saw me, but my sharp burst of urgency eased. This was not the same Max. While he certainly needed to leave this despicable excuse for an orphanage, we did not have to worry about frantic parents joining the raid.
"Police found us," she told him, gently taking his smaller hand. "We might even get to go home. Real home." The quick clarification painted a heartbreaking picture of how long these children had been here. "With parents. Remember I told you about that?"
Max noted me again then wiggled his hand free, disappearing back into his hole with a murmur I could not discern. I would have preferred to lead them to the Irregulars, but they were safe for the moment and apparently uninjured. I needed to get back out to the main house.
"Young lady?" She tensed slightly. "If you want to hide with him, I can send someone after the officers are done."
She refused, though a tilt of her head also ensured I came no closer. "He can hide for now, but I have to find the others. Most of them don't know what police are. Okay, Max? I'll come back and get you."
The boy must have agreed, as she pulled herself to her feet. Instead of following me out the door, however, her small frame disappeared into a different corner. She obviously intended to take the back way to the "others."
Which left me free to rejoin the mayhem outside. Stationing the first constable I saw in front of the door, I passed knots of officers in various stages of subduing several men and women. Many of the prisoners had their clothes in disarray, but I saw no signs of the children they must have been caught abusing. We would have to search the house once the Yard took the other adults away.
We could not yet, however, and a thick silence drew me to what was supposed to be a kitchen. Holmes stood in front a tall, wiry man, hands away from his sides in a clear promise of no weapons. Relief flashed when he spotted me.
"Let her go, Fernsby."
I froze just inside the doorway. Fernsby stood in the middle of the room, counters and kitchenware sprawled in a way that Holmes could not easily come closer. A barricaded door to Fernsby's right had evidently become his hope of escape—though I did not understand why—and a young girl whimpered in front of the Haven's leader, held in place by the blade poking her side. One thrust would prove instantly fatal.
"Now why should I do that?" I did not need to see Fernsby's face to hear the sneer. "This young blood's my key to freedom. None of you will touch me as long as I have her, and I can restart somewhere else."
"I think not." Holmes' hand twitched to bring me slightly closer and three steps to the right, then slowly forward. I hoped the child in the stove stayed quiet. "This entire mansion is surrounded. There is no escape."
Lestrade and two sergeants appeared in the far door to prove him correct, but the blade merely dug deeper into her side. Her quiet squeak did not cover the distinctive click of Lestrade's cocked weapon.
Any villain would rather die than go to jail. Lestrade's wordless threat only tightened Fernsby's grip, but Holmes quickly twisted the situation back in our favor.
"Did you know," he started conversationally, "that a well-placed bullet to the shoulder can nick the artery, be extremely painful for the rest of your life, and still not kill you?"
Lestrade took the hint, shifting his aim. Fernsby's obvious plan to run for the door halted yet again. Another few steps…
"Of course," Holmes continued, "you could choose to release the girl, in which case you would avoid the bullet wound."
"But not the prison time," Fernsby snarled. "Or the rope. I'm not stupid."
Perhaps not, I wanted to say. He was definitely vile, however. Holmes' expression said he agreed.
It also gave me a clear go. I changed my next step into my hardest rugby tackle, slamming into Fernsby with everything I had. Holmes lunged simultaneously to grab the child, and Fernsby and I hit the ground a tangle of arms and legs.
As always, thank you to those who reviewed last chapter. Hope everyone's enjoying the story :)