Chapter Two


Meg: We would like to thank the makers of ice.

Leigh: Yeah. Whoever came up with that recipe really came up with that recipe!

JWJ: You're both insane.

Sarah: A little too much "Whose Line Is It Anyway," I see.

RAEB: Actually, a little too much writing for the both of them.


Toby came to an abrupt halt in front of a large mausoleum in an old cemetery.

"This is it?" I asked Toby. The dog nodded enthusiastically. "Okay... erm, wait here."

I took a torch off the wall of the masoleum and lit it with a match. Then I descended into the blackness.


"Who's there? Tell me, or I'll shoot!"

Basil stepped into the light of the speaker's lantern. "It's just me, Cornell."

Cornell sighed. "I don't like this, Mr. Basil. I don't like all of this sneaking around among the dead in the middle of the night."

"Where's Raleigh?"

"He hasn't come yet. Are you sure that no one followed you here?"

"No, I was not followed," Basil said. "I could ask you the same question."

"Me neither," Cornell said. "Why all the secrecy over some old scandal?"

"We shall see."


"Eh, Boss, who's that?" a low, hissing voice asked.

"Who are you talking about?"

The mouse motioned to a young woman walking down the passage, holding a dying torch. Finally the torch went out. The girl was only visible by the beams of moonlight coming from cracks in the mausoleum floor. She continued down the subterranean passage.

"Oh bloody hell," the other mouse muttered.

His comrade looked at him in surprise. "Who is she?"

"It's that girl who killed Ryu a few months back. Whatshername? Harvey?"

"What's she doing here?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

The mouse hissing voice leaned forward to get a closer look at her. "What do we do about her?"

The other mouse muttered some unintelligible words to himself. He swore under his breath. "You have to leave her alone. Unless..." his voice perked up. "Unless she 'accidentally' gets in the way of your fire. Understand?"

The other mouse grinned. "Of course. Wouldn't want to hurt a pretty little thing like that on purpose now."


There had been a grate in the mausoleum, with little rocks arraigned to create a rough staircase that led into the underground passage in which I currently stumbled along. My torch had gone out, but there was enough light from the cracks in the stone above to light my way.

A few times I had stopped abruptly at strange noises whose sources I could not determine. I could not help but get that unshakeable feeling that someone observed my every move from the privacy of the darkness.


A stone skidded across the ground. "What's that?" Cornell asked, pulling out his revolver in panic.

Basil held up his hand. He paused, listening.

A well-dressed mouse about Basil's age came into the light of the lantern. "Good. You're both here."

"I can't see why we didn't do this somewhere more convenient," Cornell grumbled.

"So we wouldn't be followed. Were either of you followed?" Raleigh asked.

"No," they chorused.

"Good."

"Well, where is it?" Cornell said impatiently.

"Where's what?" Raleigh asked.

"The document!"

"Wait!" Raleigh hissed. Footsteps echoed lightly from the passage he had just come down. "Who's there?"

Cornell aimed his revolver.

"Hold on there, Cornell," Basil said softly. "Mrs. Havers, what are you doing here?"

I timidly came into the light of the lantern. "Well-"

"Mr. Basil, I thought that you weren't followed!" Raleigh snapped.

"I wasn't." Basil looked curiously at me, baffled as to how I came to be there.

"Basil, I thought that Weldon had agreed that there were to be no other witnesses besides you and I," Cornell said impatiently.

"She will be gone in a moment," Basil said. He pulled me to the side. "What are you doing here?"

I knew it would be too hard for me to explain in a way that he would understand in a few minutes, so I just handed him the message. He scanned it, then carefully folded it up and put it in his pocket.

"Where's Dawson?"

"At Baker Street."

"Did anyone follow you here?" he asked.

"Well, I..." I blushed. "I had this strange feeling that I was being watched, but besides that, no, I don't think I was followed."

"Stay close to me," he whispered. "Do you have a weapon?"

"No. I couldn't get one. We had visitors, two men who barged in on us, looking for the message-"

Basil held up his hand. "Tell me later." He strolled back to Cornell and Raleigh. "All right Raleigh. What did you do with him?"

"I... I beg your pardon?" Raleigh asked, seemingly confused.

"Your twin brother. What did you do with his body?"

"NOW!" Raleigh shouted.

Basil turned around and shoved me to the ground as shots rang out over our heads. I looked back at Raleigh. He was also on the ground. The third man, Cornell, was on the ground, his face a bloody mess from where a bullet had ripped through.

"Run Meg!" Basil exclaimed, pulling me up with his right arm.

The detective dragged me past Cornell's body and Raleigh as more shots followed us. "KILL THEM!" Raleigh shrieked.

"How are we going to get out?" I screamed at Basil.

"There's a river this way," he answered between gasps of breath.

"A river? How does that help?"

A dark form wielding a knife leaped out at us from the blackness. He made a jab at Basil, who easily dodged it. The mouse then jumped at me and grabbed onto my skirt. I kicked him in the torso, and he released his grasp.

We ran into a huge, moonlit cavern, and reached a steep downward slope. I tripped on my skirts, causing both of us to tumble to the bottom. As we were disentangling ourselves from my skirts I looked to the top of the slope. A dozen dark figures were right on our tails, sliding down the slope.

"Come on!" Basil urged, pulling me up again. We took off. I felt as if my lungs would burst. My foot was also in much pain from the tumble, so I began to limp. "No! Not now!" Basil barked, unkindly jerking me forward.

More gunshots rang off the rocks. We scrambled behind a larger rock, breathing heavily. "How are we going to get out of here alive?" I gasped.

Basil took out a gun and began to fire back at them.

"That works," I shrugged as cries reached my ears. "But what if we run out of bullets?" The click of the empty barrel reached my ears. Basil grabbed my arm and started to run again. That works too, I thought.

I glanced back, my eyes meeting a score of them rapidly shortening the gap between them and us. Despite the terror the sight instilled in me, the pain in my foot brought out the limp againwas beginning to limp again. "Almost there," Basil breathed heavily.

There only appeared to be a large drop off descending into blackness. "No!" I screamed.

He sprinted to the cliff and we flew into nothingness. Then we began to plummet downward. I was so breathless I could not even scream as we fell.

We hit the water and shot under, and we let go. I waved my arms around, reaching out for anything. Suddenly I felt his hand grip my arm, and Basil kicking towards the surface. I kicked too pushing with my free arm to make the motions necessary to reach the air.


A few minutes later Basil pulled me out of the water. We both collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. My muscles prickled and burned.

"Why, why did he want to kill us?" I panted.

Basil's chest was heaving. "I don't know."

"The message, 'Raleigh has an Esau?' What does that mean?"

Basil started to ring out his Inverness. "Biblical reference. Jacob, son of Isaac, who was son of Abraham, had a twin brother named Esau, who was cheated out of his rightful inheritance."

I stood up and tested my foot. It throbbed a bit, but it did not seem to be anything more serious than a temporary twist. "So the real Raleigh was killed by his brother, who was trying to kill us?" I said in disbelief, as I squeezed water out of my skirt. "Why would someone want to kill his own brother?"

Basil stood up. "That I what I intend to find out."


JWJ: Twins. Figures. Raleigh has a twin.

Emma: Or had, rather. That's sad, he killed his own brother!

Lizz: Yeah. Depressing.

RAEB: (to Meg) Murderer!

Meg: RAEB, these people are figments of my imagination. GET OVER IT!