The Inspection of a Curator

DISCLAIMER: All rights belong to Deborah Harkness. Just borrowing the characters for an alternate universe fan fiction story.

SUMMARY: A 1940's Police Inspector gets caught up in the world of rare books when a valuable manuscript is stolen and a murder occurs. Together, with a book curator, this Detective will face obstacles as they traverse the secret world of asylum's, wealth and mystery as well as their blossoming romance.

CREDIT: A huge thank you to Shawna! I wouldn't be the author I am without your editing help, suggestions and ideas!

Chapter TWELVE: "Asylums, Aunts and Kisses! Oh My!"

By: Goode Girl

~TIOAC~

"Chief Inspector Hamish Osborne." Gallowglass heard on the other end of the line.

"It's Sorely. I'm checking in." He announced.

"Report?" Hamish posed. The Chief Inspector never had to stay this late at the precinct, but did so that he could get the intel he needed from the undercover agent he knew as 'Sorely'.

"The package was retrieved safely and delivered to the owner." Gallowglass relayed.

"Injury?" Hamish asked.

"Some, but will recover."

"I haven't heard from you in almost six days. I was starting to worry you'd been found out." Hamish confessed.

"No. But I need to finish a set up before they return. It may be some days before another check in." Sorely relayed.

"Understood. Stay safe." Hamish concluded.

After reporting in Gallowglass knew that he couldn't just walk back into La Pierre without Diana. He went back into the passage where he'd left the gurney and tipped it over in the tunnel quietly before moving to the secret passage leading back into the hospital. He listened intently for any noise on the other side and could hear voices shouting but not what they were saying.

Covertly, he turned the knob on the secret door and opened it the smallest fraction so that it would be visible to anyone who entered the Maintenance room that it had been accessed. Jogging back into the tunnel, he had to appear as though he'd been in a struggle of some sort and proceeded to knock his head against the concrete wall to show a head injury with enough blood that would be believable. He purposefully fell face first to the floor, using his hands to break his fall, about twenty feet from the passage and next to the toppled gurney.

~TIOAC~

"She's going to be out of it from the ECT, but we should check on our patient." Gerbert announced as he and Peter Knox continued to congratulate themselves on their 'achievement'.

"She must know something about that blasted manuscript!" Peter stated as the two men entered his office.

"The fact that her office was broken into and it was stolen is the problem." Gerbert began. "Satu left it with her so she could examine it. You know he wants every detail of it documented." Gerbert added.

"I don't understand why. What is so important about it? That alchemical transformation is a joke that only kitchen witches would believe." Knox teased, smiling at his own joke.

Gerbert smiled sinisterly. "Kitchen witches," he mumbled with a small laugh in reply as Peter offered him some coffee. "Where is Satu?" Gerbert questioned, taking the proffered cup.

"Keeping our other patients in line." Peter stated with finality.

"Gillian is under control then?" Gerbert probed.

"She is now. As well as that other one that was giving us some trouble." Peter replied.

"Which one was that?"

"You said Ms. Durand was poking around too much, asking too many questions and you wanted her taken care of." Peter confirmed.

"Yes. Her infatuation with Detective Inspector Roydon has made her question her loyalties." Gerbert offered. "So, she's here? Locked in a room?" He added.

"No, no. We've done as you suggested as we didn't want her linked to the asylum. As far as anyone knows she's just your patient, so we are giving her a little overdose at home." Peter explained, seating himself behind his desk. "Kit and Louisa are carrying out the task as we speak." He confirmed.

Gerbert nodded his approval. "She was useful, that one. Shame to lose her." Gerbert replied glibly, sipping from his coffee. "We should check in on Ms. Bishop and see if the ECT was effective at all." He added.

"Very well. I'll have William fetch her, -" Knox was interrupted by Gerbert. "No, we'll go to her room." He commanded, rising from his seat with authority and leaving his coffee cup on the edge of Peter's desk.

~TIOAC~

The two men arrived on the fourth floor and headed to the end of the corridor where room 410 was located. Knox started walking faster when he saw that the door was ajar.

"What's this!" He called in anger. "She's not here! Gerbert!" He shouted once more as he turned to his friend and colleague.

"Is she still in the ECT room? Fetch William." Gerbert stated menacingly as he moved back towards the elevator.

The two men headed downstairs when they couldn't seem to find William. They could see the ECT room door was wide open and it's a known rule that it's supposed to be locked.

"William wouldn't have left it like this. This isn't like him." Knox relayed inspecting the room before closing the door and locking it himself.

Gerbert started yelling at Knox and berated him for not having better control over the asylum and how things are run. He continued his berating by pointing out that he had to keep the private practice running so as to appear as normal as always, especially with the police popping in unannounced.

"We need to find William, Gerbert. He'll have the answers." Knox tried to reason.

"Then find him." Gerbert stated as his eyes roamed the hallway. "That door is open as well. It shouldn't be." He added with disdain as Knox moved towards it.

Both noted the plaque on the door labeling it 'Maintenance Room'. Pushing the door open fully, Knox saw the passage door ajar.

"Bloody hell!" He shouted moving towards it. "Kit and Louisa must have left this open." Peter announced, casting blame and failing at keeping his anger in check.

"Open it you impudent fucker!" Gerbert stated contemptuously.

They moved down the passage cautiously. Gallowglass could hear them and started to groan as if just waking.

"What's that?" Gerbert queried, pushing Knox ahead of him faster.

When they entered the tunnel, they saw the prostrate form of 'William'.

"William!" Peter called in alarm, rushing to his side.

"They took her. I couldn't stop them." He mumbled, feigning passing out once more.

~TIOAC~

Matthew started with the dinner preparations while Diana led her aunts, Sarah and Emily to the guest room in her apartment.

"I can't believe you're here!" Diana stated in surprise once more, helping Emily with her suitcase.

"Well, we missed you at the holidays and when we read about you in the local newspaper we just had to come." Sarah relayed.

"What do you mean I'm in the newspaper?" Diana queried as they headed back to the kitchen.

"Tea?" Matthew offered, pouring the boiling water into the teapot.

"Yes, thank you." Emily smiled as she, Sarah and Diana took a seat at the kitchen table. They allowed it to steep for a few minutes and then poured themselves each a cup.

"Sarah and Em were just saying they read about me in the paper." She relayed to Matthew.

"Really? What was the story?" He probed, stirring the pasta sauce as it simmered.

Sarah started her tale of the big story that hit their small town of Madison, New York, about the prized manuscript being stolen on 'New Years' from a prominent 'man of leisure', Philippe De Clermont. The article detailed the theft and the murder that transpired and how a local book 'detective', as the article had labeled Diana, was consulting on the case.

"Book detective? Really? I'm a curator." Diana stated, not super pleased with the moniker. "Did they at least mention my business? That is free advertising after all!" She joked.

"They did, 'Second Story' was mentioned in a follow up article after news of two break-ins!" Emily related with dismay. "Why didn't you call and tell us honey!?" She pressed.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't like the place was damaged. Just the lock on the door mostly." Diana explained.

"Sorry to interrupt, but where is your strainer?" Matthew interjected.

"OH!" Diana announced, jumping from her seat to fetch it. "Thank you for cooking, I've left it all on you!" She laughed, pulling the requested strainer from the bottom cupboard.

"I don't mind, really." He smiled as she placed it in the sink.

"Do you two have meals together often?" Sarah queried, looking at Emily knowingly.

"Lately, yes. Working on the case and all has kind of made it a usual occurrence." Diana explained.

"And it's nice to cook for someone other than myself." Matthew added with a smile, his hand running down Diana's back in a gesture of thanks.

Sarah and Emily looked at one another with a meaningful smile at the physical interaction. "Well dinner smells wonderful, thanks for having us." Emily stated.

"We did kind of just drop in on you and we did try calling but there was no answer." Sarah relayed.

"A lot has happened." Diana replied. "I haven't been home for a few days. Busy with the case as it were." She was trying to delay having to explain to her aunts her recent kidnapping but there was no getting around it.

As they all sat around the dinner table eating quietly, Sarah finally spoke up and asked Diana what had been going on.

Both she and Matthew went back and forth as the details were explained and the discoveries found through their investigation.

"Are you saying that there is an MI6 agent at that asylum now?" Emily asked. "And you know him?" She added.

"Yes." Matthew and Diana replied in unison.

"Thank goodness for that! Who knows what could have happened to you if he wasn't there!" Sarah announced in alarm.

"Don't remind me." Matthew replied sullenly. Sarah and Emily looked at Matthew sadly. They could tell he was blaming himself and probably still was.

"I'm sorry." Diana cried.

"Sweetheart, it wasn't your fault. You know that!" Matthew tried to reason, running a reassuring hand along her back.

"It feels like it is. We knew there were secret passages in that library, but I still sat with my back to that wall!" Diana argued in reply.

"It doesn't matter if you were facing that secret passage or not." Matthew paused. "They were there for you." He stated, finishing his final words in a more hushed tone and a small pause between each word.

Matthew didn't want Diana to feel this was her fault but clearly, she was harboring these feelings.

"You can't change what's happened honey." Emily tried to calm. "You can only move forward and hopefully catch the people that did it in the first place." She added.

"Em is right, Diana. We want to help. Maybe there's something we can do." Sarah added.

"For the most part, we're waiting on the evidence to be processed." Matthew explained.

"There's quite a few fingerprints to examine and that takes time." Diana offered.

"Maybe you can help though." Matthew started, an idea coming to him. "We've been looking at the evidence so closely and at a small pool of suspects that maybe there's something blatantly obvious that we're missing." He explained.

"You think they can look at the evidence and draw their own conclusions?" Diana pressed.

"Well not the evidence directly, as it's being examined, but the crime scene photos and all my notes on the investigation." Matthew relayed. "I've gone over them so much; I feel like I'm missing something that's been right in front of me the whole time."

Sarah and Emily looked at one another with a smile before turning back to Matthew and Diana. "We accept your challenge!"

~TIOAC~

Matthew and Diana refused to let Emily and Sarah help them with dinner clean up and pushed them out of the kitchen to the living room where they were set up with a fresh pot of tea and some broadcast show on the television they seemed to enjoy.

"I like them." Matthew stated, drying the final plate and placing it back in the cupboard.

"Em and Sarah? Yeah, they're great." Diana replied. "I don't know what I would have done without them after Mom and Dad were killed." She added sullenly.

"Hey, are you okay?" He urged.

"I'm scared, Matthew." She cried, finally breaking and letting the tears come. "What if they come for me again." She added fearfully.

Matthew pulled her into his arms, holding her as she cried. Her own arms came around his waist.

"I know Love. I'm sorry I let them take you in the first place. I should have been with you in that library." He confessed.

"All the shoulda, coulda, woulda's won't change what happened though." She reasoned.

"I know it won't. But it can change where we go from here." Matthew stated, pulling back from their embrace and gently brushing the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs.

"I'm not worth all this fuss. Really." She tried to pull away.

"Don't say that." He refuted. "Diana," He called quietly to get her attention.

Diana turned back to face him. Matthew took her hands in his. "You're worth it to me, sweetheart." He confessed.

Diana closed her eyes at his words as the last remnants of tears trickled out of the corners of her eyes.

"I thought we couldn't because of the case." She stated before finally opening her eyes to look into his.

His gaze was piercing. As though by staring into her eyes, he would find every answer to every question he'd ever asked.

"No, just that we shouldn't. But I think we're past that, Diana." He reasoned. "I'm falling for you and I don't want to stop." He confessed, pulling her into his arms and pressing his forehead to hers. His eyes searched her face for an answer to his declaration. But it didn't seem like he even knew what the exact question was.

"I know I've fallen for you, Matthew." Diana tilted her head up and found him smiling down at her.

"Good." He murmured, cupping her face in his hands as his lips descended to hers.

Diana moved her hands along his arms and up over his shoulders until they found purchase in his hair, tugging him closer. She snaked her tongue out and he opened his mouth willingly, as his tongue dueled with hers. Their lips molded to one another's as though they were long lost puzzle pieces that had finally found their match. They were lost in one another as their lips danced and their bodies pressed together wantonly. Diana was the first to pull away as the need to breathe won out.

The echo of their heavy breathing was the only sound in the room.

"I should probably head home. Let you have the evening with your aunts." He murmured, his forehead resting against hers for a moment before she cuddled into his chest.

"Right, they're here." Diana replied in a daze. Matthew laughed lightly.

"Forgot about them already did you." He teased, still holding her in his arms.

"Diana!" Sarah called shocking them out of their moment. "Are you two joining us?" Emily called after.

"Be right there!" Diana replied.

"I'll say goodbye before leaving. Don't want them to think I'm rude." Matthew stated before gathering his coat and hat.

Matthew hugged Sarah and Emily both and relayed that it would be best if they looked at his notes and the photos at his house. With the break-ins at Diana's office, it wasn't safe to bring them here. But he relayed that there had been no attempt for a break-in on Diana's apartment.

"I'll walk you out." Diana stated. "Be right back." She added. Sarah and Emily waved her off, their attention seemingly back on their program.

They trudged down the stairs with Diana's hand securely in Matthew's. Once they reached his car he tossed his hat in, before turning back to Diana and taking her hand in his once more.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He smiled brushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"I'll miss you." She replied, leaning forward. Matthew met her half way and pressed his lips to hers.

Diana waved at the back of the car as he drove out of sight a contented smile on her face. When she looked up at her apartment, she saw her aunts in the window. When they saw that Diana had spotted them, they tried to drop out of sight. Diana just laughed as she headed across the street and back into her building.

"No privacy." She mumbled, traipsing up the stairs.

~TIOAC~

Peter and Gerbert had gotten Gallowglass to Peter's office where they cleaned his wound and got him to drink some water. They were anxious to hear what 'William' went through but knew he needed to collect himself.

"I was getting Diana out of the ECT room to take her back to her room, like you'd asked." Gallowglass started, looking at Peter. He nodded in reply.

"I was just past the 'Maintenance Room' with Diana on the stretcher when I couldn't remember if I'd locked the door so, I went to check it." He began. "These damn keys are attached to my belt and the key got stuck in the lock. I didn't even get it locked when someone pulled the gurney into the maintenance room and closed the door." He regaled.

"Go on," Gerbert urged.

"I figured, they're not going anywhere, it's a small room." Gallowglass laughed sardonically to himself. "Fooled me. I opened the damn door and they were gone!"

"Bloody hell!" Knox murmured.

"By the time I got that secret door open and followed 'em, they were running off with her. But I caught up." He paused. "The other one must have been waiting behind me on the other side of the passage because something hit me wicked fierce on my head and I was out."

"Fuck. Did you see who it was?" Gerbert pressed.

"No sir. I'm sorry. The next thing I knew you both were there." He finished, rubbing at his head for effect, but it wasn't really bothering him.

"Thank you, William." Peter stated. "You should head home and get some rest." He added.

"If it's all the same to you Dr. Knox, I'd rather stick around and get the bastards that took her!" He replied in feigned anger. "What's so blasted special about this woman anyway that people are wanting to abduct her from a hospital!?" He added once again in fake outrage.

Gerbert smiled. "Very well. We could use your help then. You see, this woman has seen something that is very important." He began.

"We believe that she has information about it." Knox interjected. "Locked in her mind." He added after thinking on how to phrase his comment.

"Right, so what is this information about?" Gallowglass questioned.

Gerbert and Knox continued to give Gallowglass every bit of information they had on the manuscript. They purposefully left out that it was the manuscript that was stolen on New Years from the De Clermont Manor house. But they did let some bits of information slip that they may not have intended.

Once they'd concluded, Gallowglass asked that he be able to go search the tunnels for clues, knowing they ran for miles.

"What sort of evidence?" Knox posed.

"Well, they went in one direction." Gallowglass started. "That tunnel has to end somewhere." He finalized.

Both men agreed and left him to it. Unbeknownst to Knox and Gerbert, Gallowglass headed straight for Matthew's to tell him his new discovery.

~TIOAC~

Matthew gathered all his notes and placed them on the kitchen table to review once more. He was to wound up to sleep and had just poured himself a few fingers of whisky when a familiar knock sounded on his kitchen back door.

After pouring Gallowglass some whisky, he asked about his head injury. Gallowglass gave him a summary of events but stated he was there because Knox and Gerbert had revealed something they had not known for sure but had suspected.

Throughout the investigation, they had toyed with the idea that there was a third perpetrator.

"From what these arseholes told me tonight mate, they were hired to do this." Gallowglass explained.

"What? Hired by who?" Matthew questioned in surprise.

"Andrew Hubbard." Gallowglass stated. "He was never a patient of Gerbert's, but was checking in on how things were going. It's why he was giving Diana tasks like the auction and business to find other manuscripts. To keep an eye on her. They all knew she'd seen it in the past and I'm starting to wonder if they had a hand in killing Kelley in the first place. Or maybe Hubbard did." He explained. "He was trying to set them up so he'd look like the 'fool' that lost out or couldn't afford the manuscript at auction. Like he didn't know any better when he was really behind it all."

"Wait, that doesn't make sense though. If he could afford it, why cap his bidding and not just outbid Philippe?" Matthew reasoned.

"Because he's a damn bastard who's cheap. He'd rather spend a few thousand on hiring Knox and Gerbert to steal it for him, than spend hundreds of thousands for the manuscript itself."

"We've believed him to be so innocent but he's the mastermind." Matthew spoke. "Is there any way to get evidence of this?" He added.

"The way Knox and Gerbert were speaking; they have letters somewhere detailing everything. And I mean everything, down to where to place people and when." Gallowglass replied.

"Place people where, you mean the De Clermont's?" Matthew queried.

"Exactly. Their New Year's party, I bet that Chamberlain woman was picked to be there and somewhere in these letters is her name, along with others."

"Fucking hell, they really wrote everything down?" Matthew asked in surprise.

"Well Knox is not the brightest tool in the shed. While they were telling me all of this, quite a few times, Gerbert told him to shut up. He was the one giving away too much. But I played stupid and just told them what they wanted to hear."

"We need to find those letters." Matthew stated.

"No shit." Gallowglass laughed, chugging back the whisky. "There's one more thing mate." He added.

"What?" Matthew asked.

"I think I know who the dead body was in the De Clermont house."

"Who?"

"The orderly I replaced at the asylum, Matthieu Beny."

"So, he's not missing. He's dead. The hospital would have a record for him, right?"

"They do. I was fingerprinted and card is kept in my file so there has to be one for him too." Gallowglass explained. "I might be able to get it but, -" Matthew cut him off.

"No, we can use that. I can go to the asylum and say we think we've found the body of an orderly who worked there and ask for them to hand it over." Matthew explained.

"Ahh, yes. Good idea mate."

~TIOAC~

Matthew had just crawled into bed and gotten comfortable. He inhaled deeply as the bed he was in were the sheets that Diana had slept in last and they smelled of her. On the cusp of falling to sleep, the shrill ringing of his phone woke him with a start.

"For fuck's sake…" He mumbled, climbing from the bed to respond to it.

"Hello?" He answered sleepily.

"Matt, sorry to wake you but it's Hamish. We have a problem." He stated ominously.

"What's going on?" Matthew questioned, thinking something else had now happened to Diana.

"There's been a body discovered. It's one of our own." Hamish relayed. "I don't think it was an accident. I think it was murder." He added.

"Who's the victim?" Matthew urged.

"Juliette Durand."

~TIOAC~