Alphabet Soup

by Crinklybrownleaves

This is an A to Z of tiny stories and drabbles, all too short to stand alone. Involving lots of Dr Blake characters, but most will have Lucien and / or Jean in (well, what else would you expect from me!). All different times and moods, the only thing that holds them together is that there is one for each letter of the alphabet.

24. X Ray

An example of Alice playing Jean's usual role, when she discusses the case with Blake. X was always going to be the trickiest letter to write for, but this gave me an excuse to write about Alice. I'm hoping for more Alice in series 5!

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Blake had hoped to finish with the painting before anyone discovered what he was up to. Still, at least the intruder was Alice. She could be relied on to keep quiet if necessary, and she had the sort of mind needed for this work. Perhaps she was just what he needed right now.

Of course, their banter was all part of the game. She accused him of dissecting a painting, he showed off unnecessarily by calling it a pentimento.

She didn't rise to the bait. She was a Classicist, so her language skills were better than he might expect. She could have replied that it was Italian for repentance, and referred to a painting that had been altered in some way. But she knew Blake was trying to be clever with her, and sometimes it was better to let him think he was winning.

She followed the trail he had left, comparing pictures of the two paintings to the image on the light box. But why would someone do that? This was what Lucien appreciated in Alice; she saw straight to the main issue. She still managed to have a sly dig at his (and his mother's?) tendency to try to annoy everyone. But their friendship was a confident one now.

From the moment she walked through the door, expecting to find a body, she had kept up with him, asking the right questions, not at all uncomfortable with the unfamiliar problem. She treated the whole thing as she would a corpse - a puzzle to be solved.

And she didn't hesitate to suggest the next course of action - speak to the woman in the painting. Alice obviously didn't recognise Agnes Clasby, but she was right. The solution was in Agnes' hands, and later she would delight in telling Lucien what she and his mother had done to outwit his father and Michael Tyneman.

For now Alice smiled conspiratorially at Blake, and left quietly. This evening's 'patient' had been more intriguing than most.