Chapter Sixteen: Mysteries Solved

The Doctor, the plucky ladies, Agatha, and Greeves huddled together in a sort of corner just outside the dining room.

"Not you, Agatha!" The Doctor took a sword from the wall and brandished it. "You've got a long, long life to live yet." Rose pulled Cassie behind her in an act of motherly protection.

"Well, we know the butler didn't do it," said Donna, motioning to Greeves.

Cassie turned to Donna from behind her mother's shoulder. "Then who did?"

They went back to the dining room, and found everyone else there. Colonel Curbishley's wheelchair was overturned, and the room was in absolute disarray.

Lady Eddison touched her neck and gasped. "My jewelry. The Firestone, it's gone! Stolen!" Tears formed in her eyes.

"Roger…" Davenport's voice was heartbroken, and the Doctor, Donna, Cassie, and Rose instantly realized the footman's true affections towards the man whose face was in his soup bowl, a large knife in his back. Robina screamed.

"My son… my child," Lady Eddison sobbed.


Cassie, Donna, and Rose entered the drawing room, where Agatha sat on the sofa, and the Doctor stood in the corner, both solemn. Rose walked over to the Doctor, who pulled into into a comforting embrace, Cassie leaning on the wall next to them.

"That poor footman," said Donna as she sat down next to Agatha. "Roger's dead and he can't even mourn him. 1926? It's more like the Dark Ages."

"Did you inquire after the necklace?" Agatha asked, not hearing (or perhaps purposefully ignoring) Donna's comment.

"Lady Eddison bought it back from India," said Cassie, walking over to the sofa and leaning over the back. "It's worth thousands."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "This thing can sting, it can fly. It could wipe us all out in seconds. Why is it playing this game?" He looked at Rose, knowing that sometimes she had little sparks of ingenuity and insight, but she shook her head.

"Every murder is essentially the same," Agatha mused, she too furrowing her brow in deep concentration. "They are committed because somebody wants something."

"But what does a Vespiform want?" Cassie and the Doctor spoke simultaneously.

"Doctor, Cassie, stop it," said Agatha. "The murderer is as human as you or I." Cassie and Donna shared a knowing smile; Rose squeezed the Doctor's hand.

The Doctor had a burst of realization. "You're right! Oh, I've been so caught up with giant wasps that I've forgotten. You're the expert." He walked over to the little coffee table in front of the couch and bent to lean on it, Rose just behind him.

"I'm not. I told you. I'm just a purveyor of nonsense." Agatha sighed, once more suffering an attack of low self-esteem.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," the Doctor replied, coming closer. "Because plenty of people write detective stories, but yours are the best. And why? Why are you so good, Agatha Christie?" Agatha shook her head slightly.

Cassie jumped in at this point. "Because you understand. You've lived, you've fought, you've had your heart broken. You know about people. Their passions, their hope, and despair, and anger. All of those tiny, huge things that can turn the most ordinary person into a killer. Just think, Agatha. If anyone can solve this, it's you."


The whole party gathered in the drawing room, and the Doctor began to speak. "I've called you here on this endless night, because we have a murderer in our midst. And when it comes to detection, there's none finer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Agatha Christie." He took a seat next to Donna.

"This is a crooked house," Agatha began. "A house of secrets. To understand the solution, we must examine them all. Starting with you, Miss Redmond."

"But I'm innocent, surely?" Robina's expression was clearly confused.

"You've never met these people, and these people have never met you. I think the real Robina Redmond never left London. You're impersonating her."

"How silly. What proof do you have?" Robina replied instantly. Cassie knew immediately that this was an act of nervousness.

"You said you'd been to the toilet," Agatha began.

"Oh, I know this," Donna interrupted. "If she was really posh, she'd say loo."

Agatha picked up the locksmith's case. "Earlier today, Miss Noble and I found this on the lawn, right beneath your bathroom window. You must have heard that Miss Noble and the Doctor's other companions were searching the bedrooms, so you panicked. You ran upstairs and disposed of the evidence."

"I've never seen that thing before in my life," Robina laughed nervously.

"What's inside it?" Lady Eddison asked.

"The tools of your trade, Miss Redmond. Or should I say, the Unicorn." Gasps rang out from around the room. Only the Doctor and Cassie were unsurprised. "You came to this house with one sole intention. To steal the Firestone."

Robina sighed, and when she spoke, she had a Cockney accent. "Oh, all right then. It's a fair cop. Yes, I'm the bleeding Unicorn. Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think. I took my chance in the dark and nabbed it. Go on then, you knobs. Arrest me. Sling me in jail." She pulled the necklace out of her dress and tossed it to the Doctor, who caught it easily, noting to himself that, given where in her dress she had stored the necklace, he'd best clean it off before giving it back to Lady Eddison.

"So, is she the murderer?" Donna asked.

"Don't be so thick. I might be a thief, but, well, I ain't no killer."

"Quite," said Agatha. "There are darker motives at work. And in examining this household, we come to you, Colonel.

"Damn it, woman. You with your perspicacity. You've rumbled me." The Colonel then stood up from his chair.

Lady Eddison gasped. "Hugh, you can walk! But why?"

"My darling, how else could I be certain of keeping you by my side?" Cassie felt a rush of pity for the poor man.

"I don't understand!"

"You're still a beautiful woman, Clemency." He took his wife's hand. "Sooner or later some chap will turn your head. I couldn't bear that. Staying in the chair was the only way I could be certain of keeping you. Confound it, Mrs Christie, how did you discover the truth?"

"Um... actually, I had no idea. I was just going to say you're completely innocent." It took great effort for Cassie to stifle her laughter.

Curbishley looked quite sheepish. "Oh… oh."

"Sorry." Agatha's tone was quite apologetic.

"Well. Well, shall I sit down then?" The Colonel was clearly still processing the fact that Agatha had no clue about his not being a cripple.

"I think you better had," said Agatha.

"So he's not the murderer," Donna said for clarification.

"Indeed, not," said Agatha. "To find the truth, let's return to this." She took the Firestone from the Doctor and held it up. "Far more than the Unicorn's object of desire. The Firestone has quite a history. Lady Eddison."

"I've done nothing," said Lady Eddison. Tears were forming in her eyes.

"You brought it back from India, did you not? Before you met the Colonel. You came home with malaria, and confined yourself to this house for six months, in a room that has been kept locked ever since, which I rather think means-"

"Stop, please," Lady Eddison begged.

"I'm so sorry." Rose was reminded strongly of the Doctor, as were Cassie and Donna. "But you had fallen pregnant in India. Unmarried and ashamed, you hurried back to England with your confidante, a young maid later to become housekeeper, Miss Chandrakala."

"Clemency, is this true?" Curbishley was shocked.

"My poor baby. I had to give him away. The shame of it." Lady Eddison began crying yet again.

"But you never said a word!"

"I had no choice. Imagine the scandal. The family name. I'm British. I carry on." Lady Eddison took a sip of her drink.

"And it was no ordinary pregnancy," the Doctor said softly.

"How can you know that?" the lady asked.

"Excuse me Agatha, this is our territory," said Cassie. "But when you heard that buzzing sound in the dining room, you said, 'it can't be.' Why did you say that?"

"You'd never believe it." Clemency shook her head vigorously.

"The Doctor has opened my mind to believe many things," said Agatha.

"It was forty years ago, in the heat of Delhi, late one night. I was alone, and that's when I saw it. A dazzling light in the sky. The next day, he came to the house. Christopher, the most handsome man I'd ever seen. Our love blazed like a wildfire. I held nothing back. And in return he showed me the incredible truth about himself. He'd made himself human, to learn about us. I loved him so much, it didn't matter. But he was stolen from me. 1885, the year of the great monsoon. The river Jumna rose up and broke its banks. He was taken at the flood. But Christopher left me a parting gift. A jewel like no other. I wore it always. Part of me never forgot. I kept it close, always."

"Just like a man," said not-Robina. "Flashes his family jewels and you end up with a bun in the oven." Both Cassie and Donna glared at her.

"A poor little child," said Agatha. "Forty years ago, Miss Chandrakala took that newborn babe to an orphanage. But Professor Peach worked it out. He found the birth certificate."

"Oh, that's maiden," said Rose. "Maiden name."

"Precisely."

"So she killed him?" Donna asked.

"I did not!" Lady Eddison was indignant.

"Miss Chandrakala feared that the Professor had unearthed your secret. She was coming to warn you."

"So she killed her," said Donna.

"I did not!"

"Lady Eddison is innocent. Because at this point, Doctor-"

"Thank you," said the Doctor. He stood up, taking Cassie with him. "At this point, when we consider the lies and the secrets, and the key to these events, then we have to consider it was you, Donna Noble."

"What? Who did I kill?"

"No, but you said it all along," said Cassie. "The vital clue. This whole thing is being acted out like a murder mystery, which means it was you, Agatha Christie."

"I beg your pardon?"

"So she killed them?" Cassie rolled her eyes. Yet another thing on the list to talk with Donna Noble about.

"No," said the Doctor. "But she wrote. She wrote those brilliant, clever books. And who's her greatest admirer? The moving finger points at you, Lady Eddison."

"Don't. Leave me alone." Lady Eddison began crying again.

"So she did kill them," Donna said.

"No," Cassie rolled her eyes again. "But just think. Last Thursday night, what were you doing?" She looked at Lady Eddison.

"I was… I was in the library," said Lady Eddison. "I was reading my favourite Agatha Christie, thinking about her plots, and how clever she must be. How is that relevant?" She looked very confused.

"Just think, everyone." said the Doctor. "What else happened on Thursday night?"

Rose thought for a minute, and then she remembered something. "I don't see how this has anything to do with anything, but, Reverend, you said that those boys broke into your church."

"That's correct. They did. I discovered the two of them. Thieves in the night. I was most perturbed. But I apprehended them," the reverend said calmly.

"Really? A man of God against two strong lads? A man in his forties? Or, should I say forty years old, exactly?" As the Doctor said this, it all became quite clear to Rose. (Donna was still a bit clueless.)

Apparently, Lady Eddison got it, for she gasped, "Oh, my God."

"Lady Eddison, your child, how old would he be now?" The Doctor looked down at Lady Eddison, a somber expression on his face.

"Forty. He's forty." Tears began to form in her eyes.

"Your child has come home," Cassie said solemnly.

"Oh, this is poppycock," the reverend said with scorn.

"You said you were taught by the Christian Fathers," Rose jumped in, "meaning, you were raised in an orphanage." The Doctor looked over at her, quite proud of his very clever Rose.

"My son. Can it be?" asked Lady Eddison.

The Doctor continued on. "You found those thieves, Reverend, and you got angry. A proper, deep anger, for the first time in your life, and it broke the genetic lock. You changed." He paused for a moment, hoping that one of his girls would jump in.

"You realised your inheritance. After all these years, you knew who you were," Rose said softly, putting all of the pieces together. The Doctor once again beamed with pride. Oh, how he had missed having his brilliant Rose with him. Not just because he loved her deeply, but because she really was a great partner on missions.

Cassie spoke up this time. "Oh, and then it all kicks off, because that-" she pointed at the Firestone "-isn't just a jewel. It's a Vespiform telepathic recorder. It's part of you, your brain, your very essence. And when you activated, so did the Firestone. It beamed your full identity directly into your mind. And, at the same time, it absorbed the works of Agatha Christie directly from Lady Eddison. It all became part of you. The mechanics of those novels formed a template in your brain. You've killed, in this pattern, because that's what you think the world is. It turns out, we are in the middle of a murder mystery. One of yours, Dame Agatha."

"Dame?" Agatha looked confused.

"Oh. Sorry, not yet," said Cassie.

Donna grinned at the fact that Cassie had screwed up this time, and then confirmed, "So he killed them, yes? Definitely?"

"Yes," said the Doctor. Cassie nodded.

"Well, this has certainly been a most entertaining evening," Golightly laughed nervously. "Really, you can't believe any of this surely, Lady Edizzon."

"Lady who?" Rose asked, smirking triumphantly. Caught, she thought.

"Lady Edizzzzon." The reverend buzzed yet more as he spoke.

"Little bit of buzzing there, Vicar," Cassie grinned.

"Don't make me angry!" the man snapped.

"Why? What happens then?" The Doctor's voice was steely calm.

That was it. "Damn it, you humanzz, worshipping your tribal sky godzz. I am so much more. That night, the universe exploded in my mind. I wanted to take what wazz mine. And you, Agatha Christie, with your railway station bookstall romancezz, what'z to stop me killing you?" He began to glow purple.

"Oh, my dear God. My child." Lady Eddison, the poor woman, had finally reached her breaking point.

"What'zz to stop me killing you all?!" He transformed into the giant wasp.

"Forgive me," Lady Eddison sobbed, coming towards the creature.

"No, no, Clemency, come back. Keep away. Keep away, my darling." The Colonel pulled her away from the wasp. Everyone backed away.

"No. No more murder. If my imagination made you kill, then my imagination will find a way to stop you, foul creature!" Agatha ran from the room, carrying the Firestone, the Doctor, Donna, Cassie, and Rose close behind her.

"Great, now it's chasing us," Donna said to Rose as they ran from the room.

They ran for the driveway, and Agatha got into her car, honking the horn. "Over here! Come and get me, Reverend!"

"Agatha, what are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"If I started this, Doctor, then I must stop it." She drove off in the car, the wasp chasing her.

"Come on!" The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and ran for another car. They piled into the car and chased Agatha and the wasp.

"It's all my fault, it's all my fault, it's all my fault," Agatha sobbed as she drove.

"You said this is the night Agatha Christie loses her memory," said Donna.

"Time is in flux, Donna. For all we know, this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life and history gets changed." Cassie began to softly cry. She had grown to like Agatha and didn't want to lose her new friend.

"But where's she going?" Rose asked. Tears formed in her eyes as well.

Agatha passed a sign for Silent Pool. "The lake. She's heading for the lake. What's she doing?" The Doctor was quite confused.

They reached the lake, where Agatha was holding up the now-glowing Firestone. "Here I am, the honey in the trap. Come to me, Vespiform," she intoned.

"She's controlling it!" Rose exclaimed as the four of them got out of the car

"Its mind is based on her thought processes," Cassie explained. "They're linked."

"Quite so, Cassie. If I die, then this creature might die with me." Agatha seemed completely unafraid. Rose pulled her daughter in close, trying to comfort her.

The Doctor stepped towards the wasp. "Don't hurt her. You're not meant to be like this. You've got the wrong template in your mind."

"It's not listening!" Donna shouted. She snatched the Firestone from Agatha and chucked it into the lake. The wasp dove after it. The water bubbled purple as the Vespiform died. "How do you kill a wasp? Drown it, just like his father."

"Donna, that thing couldn't help itself," the Doctor chastised.

"Neither could I," Donna argued.

"Death comes as the end, and justice is served," Agatha said softly.

"Murder at the Vicar's rage," the Doctor mused.

"Needs a bit of work," Cassie replied.

"Just one mystery left, Doctor," said Agatha. "Who exactly are you?" Suddenly, she doubled over in pain, similar to when the Doctor was poisoned.

The Doctor and the others ran to catch her. "Oh, it's the Firestone. It's part of the Vespiform's mind. It's dying and it's connected to Agatha." Once again Cassie began to cry. But then Agatha glowed purple, as did the water, and then closed her eyes, asleep. "He let her go," the Doctor murmured. "Right at the end, the Vespiform chose to save someone's life."

"Is she alright, though?"

"Oh, of course. The amnesia. Wiped her mind of everything that happened. The wasp, the murders." The Doctor grinned as he realized what happened.

"And us. She'll forget about us," Rose said softly.

"Yeah, but we've solved another riddle. The mystery of Agatha Christie. And tomorrow morning, her car gets found by the side of a lake. A few days later, she turns up in hotel at Harrogate with no idea of what just happened."


The TARDIS materialized outside the hotel at Harrowgate, a few days later, following the course of history.. The Doctor, Rose, Donna and Cassie watched as she walked up the stairs towards the hotel.

"No one'll ever know," Rose murmured.

"Lady Eddison, the Colonel, and all the staff. What about them?" Donna frowned as she remembered poor Davenport, unable to mourn his lover.

"Shameful story," Cassie explained. "They'd never talk of it. Too British. While the Unicorn does a bunk back to London town. She can never even say she was there."

"What happens to Agatha?" Rose looked up at the Doctor curiously.

"Oh, great life. Met another man, married again. Saw the world. Wrote and wrote and wrote." He gave Rose's hand a reassuring squeeze, kissing the top of her head.

"She never thought her books were any good, though. And she must have spent all those years wondering." Donna put an arm around Cassie's shoulder, both of them uniquely sad for Agatha's loss.


"The thing is," the Doctor said, back in the TARDIS. "I don't think she ever quite forgot. Great mind like that, some of the details kept bleeding through. All the stuff her imagination could use. Like, Miss Marple."

"I should have made her sign a contract," Donna joked. Cassie rolled her eyes.

"And, where is it, where is it, hold on. Here we go!" He opened up a panel in the floor and pulled up an old wooden chest. "C. That is C for Cybermen-" he pulled out a piece of a Cyberman's body "-C for Carrionites-" he removed the green ball where he had trapped the Carrionites all that time ago with Martha.

"C for Caesar," Rose noted as he pulled out the head of a statue.

"And Christie, Agatha. Look at that." He showed the others a paperback edition of Death in the Clouds, a giant wasp on the cover.

"She did remember," Donna grinned.

"Somewhere in the back of her mind, it all lingered. And that's not all. Look at the copyright page." He flipped the book to the copyright page.

"Facsimile edition, published in the year five billion!" Rose exclaimed. "Wonder if your namesake read it." She winked playfully at her daughter.

"How would she hold it?" Cassie asked. "No arms! But anyway, people never stop reading them. She is the best selling novelist of all time."

"But she never knew," Donna mused.

"Well, no one knows how they're going to be remembered. All we can do is hope for the best. Maybe that's what kept her writing. Same thing keeps me travelling. Onwards?" asked the Doctor. He wrapped an arm around Rose's shoulder.

"Onwards," Donna replied. And the four of them sat there, quietly, all silently vowing to never forget the story of the Unicorn and the Wasp.


Hey everyone! That's the end of Unicorn and the Wasp! It took so long, but it was so worth it! Hope you guys liked the end!

It's almost time for the Super-Duper Cross with TFTH! A quick explanation of how that'll play out. Cassie is going to take a VERY brief hiatus until I catch up in TFTH. After I begin the cross in TFTH, I'm going to continue the story here until the end of Journey's End, not updating TFTH until that's over.

As always, lots of love and thanks to my friends Rachel and Jubilee, as well as everyone who's stuck with me here!

Love,

Kate xxxx