Chapter 15
Watson gasped and stared in horror at the room, before he registered Tennyson tugging on his cape. He looked at the boy who was gesturing towards the door. He nodded reluctantly. There wasn't anything they could do without giving away their own position in this thing, as well as Holmes'. So, he and Tennyson quickly left the building.
After he was reasonably certain they had not been followed, Watson turned to the boy. "I suggest we take a more circuitous route back to 221b. Just to make certain that anyone following us will think we are simply out on a walk."
Tennyson instantly agreed, and pointed out that they could walk past Dr. Canton's office. He had dropped a book there earlier, and the man always worked late into the evening.
"All right then, let us go."
*******************
The sight which met their eyes at the clinic was an incredibly chaotic scene. There were cruisers and forensics teams rushing about without any semblance of order at all.
Watson walked over to the nearest constable and tapped him on the shoulder. The man started to tell him to scram but stopped when he recognized him. His face grim, he answered, "Dr. Canton has been murdered. The press thinks it was Lestrade. But the chief has found other evidence. You'll have to talk with him. He's over there." The constable pointed over by the door of the clinic.
Watson nodded. "Thank you my good man."
He motioned for Tennyson to follow, and walked over to Greyson. "Sir, if I could just..."
"I said no more questions!" Greyson yelled, before turning around and seeing Watson. "Oh, it's you. Well, has Holmes found Lestrade? If she's with him...."
"Er...yes...as far as I know..but he's having a problem bringing her back..."
The chief inspector seemed to sag with relief. "Good. Then this can't be pinned on her. It can however, be pinned on one Professor James Moriarty. We found his DNA all over the murder scene. However," the man paused, seeming to have a difficult time speaking, "he's got a hostage. I haven't...notified her parents yet...can't seem to find any...but..."
Tennyson quickly asked who she was.
"Eh?"
Watson dutifully translated.
"Her name is Deidre O'Halloran, and like I said, we can't find where her parents are..."
"That is because she has none," Watson put in, his voice sounding grim. Moriarty had gone too far this time. It was just as he had thought--the criminal mastermind was behind the whole thing. "I...think Tennyson and I will go now..."
He quickly turned and walked away before the emotion could get the best of him.
*********************
Back at 221b, he and Tennyson paused a moment. What am I going to tell Holmes, the robot asked himelf miserably, it is my fault she went off by herself... He ducked his head slightly, then allowing Tennyson to go before him, walked inside the flat.
"Well it's about time," a familiar voice drawled out.
Watson turned to face Moriarty who was sitting in Holmes' customary chair. Sitting on the sofa, was Deidre, looking apologetic. She instantly jumped up and ran over to them, giving both a hug.
"It's not what you think," the girl stated, before Watson had a chance to call Greyson, "Moriarty didn't do it." Her nose wrinkled, "Though he could care less that anybody thinks he did. It was Gregson. Me and Edith followed him to the clinic. Moriarty was just there. Anyway..."
"Slow down Deidre," Watson commanded. Moriarty still sat in the chair, a smug expression on his face.
The girl did, then explained everything that had happened from the time she and Miss Presbury had split from the rest. "And, I 'ave no idea where she is now...I figured she would have come back to you guys..."
"Well..." Watson began, "she was not able to. Gregson caught her following him, and now they are sending her to be crypnotized."
"And that is where I come in," Moriarty spoke up, "I can get her out of prison before they take her to the crypnosis chamber. However, there is one condition..."
"Of course there is," Watson rejoined, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
"Oh, it isn't that hard. Just tell me everything that you know about this case...I would hate to have to put myself on the line anymore than I have already for something I only have a vague idea about. And just remember," the smug smile grew, "you need my help. I do not need you."
Watson looked at Deidre and Tennyson. They looked at each other and then back at him and nodded. He sighed with resignation and turned back to Moriarty. "I suppose we have no choice."
Interlude
She frowned as she watched James leave with the woman. Not because of the decision she'd made--no that had left her mind as soon as it was taken care of. She was worried that that detective, Sherlock Holmes, had not brought Beth home. Something was wrong. Certainly the man was imperfect, but he was--like herself and Martin--good at what he did in spite of those imperfections.
She had the sudden feeling that she needed to be back at the base. Leaving a quick message for James, she closed up and packed her bags.
Lestrade clutched at her head, groaning as the pain intensified. It abruptly disappeared and she was left feeling boneless. She lay her head against the sofa and let the rest of her body sag. Her eyes were still closed, and she slowly opened them to find the room and its inhabitants extremely blurry. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision, but that only seemed to make it worse.
"Inspector," Wiggins' voice came floating through the fog filled recesses of her mind. Why did he sound so far away when he was right there? "Inspector...are you okay?"
She shook her head--or tried to anyway. Of course she wasn't okay. She was going blind and deaf, and who knew what else was wrong with her. She tried to talk, to tell him to get Holmes. Holmes could make it all better. He always did. But her mouth wasn't cooperating either. It wouldn't even open. Instead, a small whimper built up in the back of her throat.
And then there were the voices. They were talking to her, telling her they hated her. That everybody hated her. Hadn't it been proven? Then, they came to get her, those voices. She tried to scream, to run away, but her body wouldn't work. The whimper continued to build as the voices lifted her up and carried her away. Holmes. Where was Holmes? He could make them stop. "HOLMES!"
She had done it. She had called out to him. She relaxed, and allowed herself to fall asleep, knowing he would come to save her.
Holmes hurriedly placed the files back exactly as he found them, and was just about to walk out the door when Higgins walked back in, followed closely by Marcus. Higgins impatiently waved the young man away. While the doctor wasn't looking, Holmes nodded, and Marcus left, looking relieved.
"Sorry it took so long," Higgins said, "But that idiot set a bush on fire. It is so hard to find good help these days you know?" The man's lips suddenly curved into a grin. "I think I will have to try harder not to be an idiot for my....boss."
"Uh huh. You uh...you said you had something to tell me?"
Higgins nodded, seeming eager to get whatever it was off of his chest. "Yes. Twenty five years ago, I was in a genetics class with a young woman. We were partners. We were the best in the class at what we did. Please, hold your questions until I'm done...I...don't know if I can get through it otherwise. I've told noone else. Not even my master. Anyway, our professor, a man by the name of Kristov Vansky decided to allow us to participate in an experiment. However, he said that we would have to split up to do so. To cut a long story short, he raped the young woman, and she became pregnant. We left the university with our degrees, after threatening a law suit.
"Ha! As if mere money could change what was done, or turn back time. Serena was a lovely woman with a wonderfully sweet personality, despite the fact that she was illegitimate. However, she had been changed emotionally by the deed. She withdrew into a shell that she only let me into. We got married, and I promised her I would accept the child as my own. She seemed happy.
"Two months later, Vansky came back in a drunken rage while I was working on an experiment. He beat Serena, and knocked over several sensitive chemicals that caused an explosion. Serena had got out alive and unscathed, though the beating had killed the unborn child. I however, came away with this," he pulled off an elastomask, revealing the twisted features Holmes had become used to seeing on Fenwick, and a voice synthesizor.
"Not pretty eh," Fenwick continued in his normal French accent, "Serena didn't care. And neither did I. However, her already unstable emotional state became completely unbalanced by the loss of her baby. She began to obsess about perfection, saying that she and I and everyone else were imperfect.
"Two years later, she and I had created a child through genetic engineering. The perfect human being. At least physically. She had the best of both our genes. We didn't know if some of the modifications would work but...that did not matter. At least not to me. It did to Serena though, as I soon found out when she said she had given our baby away, so as to test the experiment. She explained how much better off she would be there. How much she would grow and learn. Until the day when she could destroy the man who had caused her parents so much pain.
"I...agreed with her, and began experimenting with illegal cloning to make us money to get by. Sometime during that, I found that Serena had left me. I tried to locate her by following her trail. But the only thing I found was a cave containing a veritable gold mine of DNA. The perfectly preserved body of Professor James Moriarty. For something to take my mind off of Serena and my baby, I began to try and clone him. The first few times failed miserably, and I could not figure out why. Then, two years ago, I finally figured out what went wrong. And the same thing would go wrong with my child if I didn't find her soon.
"The chromosomes would begin to unravel inside the cell before mitosis was taking place, and would burst the nucleus, then the cell itself, instantly killing it. In the clones, this would happen simultaneously as soon as I tried to give it life. In my daughter, it would not happen for several years, according to my calculations. I tried to locate Serena, and when I did, she did not allow me any chance at talk, or to explain what might happen, but immediately involved me in this baby stealing plot." Fenwick stopped there and looked relieved to have finally told his story.
Holmes looked at him a bit suspiciously, though it was only an act on his part as something Charles Johnson would do. He had most of the story, now all he had to do was find out why Serena would want to frame her own daughter. "And why, Dr. Higgins, are you telling me this?"
Fenwick smiled and opened his mouth to respond. A feminine voice interrupted.
"Because, Mister Johnson, you are a neutral person. You do not know him or anything. And, according to him, your wife is a basket case. Like me. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to you. Oh Marty," she said, her voice changing, "I already figured that thing out. I have the solution too...but I was going to make her forget the bad things that have happened to her. Now, Holmes is off somewhere keeping her from me."
"HOLMES!"
Holmes ignored the other two when he heard Lestrade scream. He had never heard anything like that in her voice before. He jumped up and ran towards the room they had been staying at.
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Watson gasped and stared in horror at the room, before he registered Tennyson tugging on his cape. He looked at the boy who was gesturing towards the door. He nodded reluctantly. There wasn't anything they could do without giving away their own position in this thing, as well as Holmes'. So, he and Tennyson quickly left the building.
After he was reasonably certain they had not been followed, Watson turned to the boy. "I suggest we take a more circuitous route back to 221b. Just to make certain that anyone following us will think we are simply out on a walk."
Tennyson instantly agreed, and pointed out that they could walk past Dr. Canton's office. He had dropped a book there earlier, and the man always worked late into the evening.
"All right then, let us go."
The sight which met their eyes at the clinic was an incredibly chaotic scene. There were cruisers and forensics teams rushing about without any semblance of order at all.
Watson walked over to the nearest constable and tapped him on the shoulder. The man started to tell him to scram but stopped when he recognized him. His face grim, he answered, "Dr. Canton has been murdered. The press thinks it was Lestrade. But the chief has found other evidence. You'll have to talk with him. He's over there." The constable pointed over by the door of the clinic.
Watson nodded. "Thank you my good man."
He motioned for Tennyson to follow, and walked over to Greyson. "Sir, if I could just..."
"I said no more questions!" Greyson yelled, before turning around and seeing Watson. "Oh, it's you. Well, has Holmes found Lestrade? If she's with him...."
"Er...yes...as far as I know..but he's having a problem bringing her back..."
The chief inspector seemed to sag with relief. "Good. Then this can't be pinned on her. It can however, be pinned on one Professor James Moriarty. We found his DNA all over the murder scene. However," the man paused, seeming to have a difficult time speaking, "he's got a hostage. I haven't...notified her parents yet...can't seem to find any...but..."
Tennyson quickly asked who she was.
"Eh?"
Watson dutifully translated.
"Her name is Deidre O'Halloran, and like I said, we can't find where her parents are..."
"That is because she has none," Watson put in, his voice sounding grim. Moriarty had gone too far this time. It was just as he had thought--the criminal mastermind was behind the whole thing. "I...think Tennyson and I will go now..."
He quickly turned and walked away before the emotion could get the best of him.
Back at 221b, he and Tennyson paused a moment. What am I going to tell Holmes, the robot asked himelf miserably, it is my fault she went off by herself... He ducked his head slightly, then allowing Tennyson to go before him, walked inside the flat.
"Well it's about time," a familiar voice drawled out.
Watson turned to face Moriarty who was sitting in Holmes' customary chair. Sitting on the sofa, was Deidre, looking apologetic. She instantly jumped up and ran over to them, giving both a hug.
"It's not what you think," the girl stated, before Watson had a chance to call Greyson, "Moriarty didn't do it." Her nose wrinkled, "Though he could care less that anybody thinks he did. It was Gregson. Me and Edith followed him to the clinic. Moriarty was just there. Anyway..."
"Slow down Deidre," Watson commanded. Moriarty still sat in the chair, a smug expression on his face.
The girl did, then explained everything that had happened from the time she and Miss Presbury had split from the rest. "And, I 'ave no idea where she is now...I figured she would have come back to you guys..."
"Well..." Watson began, "she was not able to. Gregson caught her following him, and now they are sending her to be crypnotized."
"And that is where I come in," Moriarty spoke up, "I can get her out of prison before they take her to the crypnosis chamber. However, there is one condition..."
"Of course there is," Watson rejoined, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
"Oh, it isn't that hard. Just tell me everything that you know about this case...I would hate to have to put myself on the line anymore than I have already for something I only have a vague idea about. And just remember," the smug smile grew, "you need my help. I do not need you."
Watson looked at Deidre and Tennyson. They looked at each other and then back at him and nodded. He sighed with resignation and turned back to Moriarty. "I suppose we have no choice."
She frowned as she watched James leave with the woman. Not because of the decision she'd made--no that had left her mind as soon as it was taken care of. She was worried that that detective, Sherlock Holmes, had not brought Beth home. Something was wrong. Certainly the man was imperfect, but he was--like herself and Martin--good at what he did in spite of those imperfections.
She had the sudden feeling that she needed to be back at the base. Leaving a quick message for James, she closed up and packed her bags.
Lestrade clutched at her head, groaning as the pain intensified. It abruptly disappeared and she was left feeling boneless. She lay her head against the sofa and let the rest of her body sag. Her eyes were still closed, and she slowly opened them to find the room and its inhabitants extremely blurry. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision, but that only seemed to make it worse.
"Inspector," Wiggins' voice came floating through the fog filled recesses of her mind. Why did he sound so far away when he was right there? "Inspector...are you okay?"
She shook her head--or tried to anyway. Of course she wasn't okay. She was going blind and deaf, and who knew what else was wrong with her. She tried to talk, to tell him to get Holmes. Holmes could make it all better. He always did. But her mouth wasn't cooperating either. It wouldn't even open. Instead, a small whimper built up in the back of her throat.
And then there were the voices. They were talking to her, telling her they hated her. That everybody hated her. Hadn't it been proven? Then, they came to get her, those voices. She tried to scream, to run away, but her body wouldn't work. The whimper continued to build as the voices lifted her up and carried her away. Holmes. Where was Holmes? He could make them stop. "HOLMES!"
She had done it. She had called out to him. She relaxed, and allowed herself to fall asleep, knowing he would come to save her.
Holmes hurriedly placed the files back exactly as he found them, and was just about to walk out the door when Higgins walked back in, followed closely by Marcus. Higgins impatiently waved the young man away. While the doctor wasn't looking, Holmes nodded, and Marcus left, looking relieved.
"Sorry it took so long," Higgins said, "But that idiot set a bush on fire. It is so hard to find good help these days you know?" The man's lips suddenly curved into a grin. "I think I will have to try harder not to be an idiot for my....boss."
"Uh huh. You uh...you said you had something to tell me?"
Higgins nodded, seeming eager to get whatever it was off of his chest. "Yes. Twenty five years ago, I was in a genetics class with a young woman. We were partners. We were the best in the class at what we did. Please, hold your questions until I'm done...I...don't know if I can get through it otherwise. I've told noone else. Not even my master. Anyway, our professor, a man by the name of Kristov Vansky decided to allow us to participate in an experiment. However, he said that we would have to split up to do so. To cut a long story short, he raped the young woman, and she became pregnant. We left the university with our degrees, after threatening a law suit.
"Ha! As if mere money could change what was done, or turn back time. Serena was a lovely woman with a wonderfully sweet personality, despite the fact that she was illegitimate. However, she had been changed emotionally by the deed. She withdrew into a shell that she only let me into. We got married, and I promised her I would accept the child as my own. She seemed happy.
"Two months later, Vansky came back in a drunken rage while I was working on an experiment. He beat Serena, and knocked over several sensitive chemicals that caused an explosion. Serena had got out alive and unscathed, though the beating had killed the unborn child. I however, came away with this," he pulled off an elastomask, revealing the twisted features Holmes had become used to seeing on Fenwick, and a voice synthesizor.
"Not pretty eh," Fenwick continued in his normal French accent, "Serena didn't care. And neither did I. However, her already unstable emotional state became completely unbalanced by the loss of her baby. She began to obsess about perfection, saying that she and I and everyone else were imperfect.
"Two years later, she and I had created a child through genetic engineering. The perfect human being. At least physically. She had the best of both our genes. We didn't know if some of the modifications would work but...that did not matter. At least not to me. It did to Serena though, as I soon found out when she said she had given our baby away, so as to test the experiment. She explained how much better off she would be there. How much she would grow and learn. Until the day when she could destroy the man who had caused her parents so much pain.
"I...agreed with her, and began experimenting with illegal cloning to make us money to get by. Sometime during that, I found that Serena had left me. I tried to locate her by following her trail. But the only thing I found was a cave containing a veritable gold mine of DNA. The perfectly preserved body of Professor James Moriarty. For something to take my mind off of Serena and my baby, I began to try and clone him. The first few times failed miserably, and I could not figure out why. Then, two years ago, I finally figured out what went wrong. And the same thing would go wrong with my child if I didn't find her soon.
"The chromosomes would begin to unravel inside the cell before mitosis was taking place, and would burst the nucleus, then the cell itself, instantly killing it. In the clones, this would happen simultaneously as soon as I tried to give it life. In my daughter, it would not happen for several years, according to my calculations. I tried to locate Serena, and when I did, she did not allow me any chance at talk, or to explain what might happen, but immediately involved me in this baby stealing plot." Fenwick stopped there and looked relieved to have finally told his story.
Holmes looked at him a bit suspiciously, though it was only an act on his part as something Charles Johnson would do. He had most of the story, now all he had to do was find out why Serena would want to frame her own daughter. "And why, Dr. Higgins, are you telling me this?"
Fenwick smiled and opened his mouth to respond. A feminine voice interrupted.
"Because, Mister Johnson, you are a neutral person. You do not know him or anything. And, according to him, your wife is a basket case. Like me. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to you. Oh Marty," she said, her voice changing, "I already figured that thing out. I have the solution too...but I was going to make her forget the bad things that have happened to her. Now, Holmes is off somewhere keeping her from me."
"HOLMES!"
Holmes ignored the other two when he heard Lestrade scream. He had never heard anything like that in her voice before. He jumped up and ran towards the room they had been staying at.
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