"The plucky young girl who helps me out?" Donna repeated the Master's words from moments ago, her tone clearly indicating that she didn't agree with the statement.

There had indeed been a murder. The professor lay on the carpet, blood on his head, obviously stemming from some blunt force. Nobody had a clue and everyone was babbling and screaming and hectic! The Master had to pinch his eyes shut for a long moment to rein back the drums and had then sent them all to the sitting room with a burst of authority no one had expected. He didn't even need to use hypnotism, they just blindly followed the only person who hadn't lost their head in this situation. Which was him, of course.

And, much to her credit, Donna. She watched the whole scene with shock, but stayed interestingly calm and focused. Which was pretty much the only reason he had decided to keep her by his side, rather than shooing her away like the rest.

"No policewomen in 1926," the Master answered late and with a shrug. It never helped to introduce things humans weren't familiar with yet in their time period. "Right now they are so primitive that they need to separate their own kind into every category they can think of."

Actually, now that he had spoken it out aloud, it made a little more sense that humans were so weird about who slept with whom. If you had a compulsion to separate then it was only logical. Especially since they also only ever had a single body and it wasn't that long in human history that they managed to rise above a level of survival that allowed them to put the priority for reproduction behind a little.

Which didn't mean that it was utterly stupid and unnecessary.

Donna snorted. "I'll pluck you in a minute. Why don't we phone the real police?"

"Cause I need distraction? Cause they are dumb as bricks?" He grinned at Donna, already expecting her eye-roll. "It's true. Both," he emphasised happily. "They'd just bury the whole case under paperwork and I'd miss out on all the fun."

"Which means you're going to play the detective? Actually solving the trouble 'nstead of causing it? That'd be new."

"Love me a good puzzle." The Master chuckled. "Also, I do like order. But to get it, you often have to tear down whatever is there and throw everything into chaos, so you can arrange it anew to something… mhm… spectacular." He ended with a dramatic wave of his hand.

It was a true miracle that her eyes hadn't fallen out of their sockets already from all the rolling. Donna stemmed her fist into her hips and assumed a scowl. "If you think you can kill those people one by one, you're in the wrong company, mate. Whatever you plan it better not involve making the situation worse, you hear me? I'll be out otherwise and I will get the Doctor to drag you back to the TARDIS like some disobedient dog. "

The Master burst out into a laugh. What a ridiculous human being! Although… "I would love to see him try putting another collar on me." He gave Donna a wink and knelt down next to the dead body.

But she wasn't shocked. If anything, maybe a little amused. "Again? Okay, okay, I don't want to know what you two've been up to the past years."

"Definitely not what you think." The Master huffed and inspected a small spot on the floor. Didn't he have some tweezers somewhere? Right, pants pocket. He got them out and scratched the spot. This was decidedly better than to think about his non-status with the Doctor right now.

"Maybe's about time you ask'im out then," Donna joked. She obviously couldn't stay away from the topic, even as unknowing as she was. "And whatcha doing on the floor anyway? Come on, let's get the police. I wanted some books, not a disaster."

"Not going to happen." The Master finally got a hold of the gooey substance and drew it out from between the floorboards. He sprang up and held it out to Donna. "Look at that. Morphic residue."

There were two reasons to involve her in his finding. One was to show off, the other was to shut her up about the Doctor. Only the second one had an effect though. She didn't seem impressed at all and only lifted an eyebrow.

"Morphic? Doesn't sound very 1926."

Well, he didn't need her to be impressed anyway. Stupid human.

"It's left behind when certain species genetically re-encode."

There, take this, human! Beg me to explain it!

"The murderer's an alien? And they disguise themselves as one of the guests?"

The Master's face fell. How the heck had she understood this? She wasn't supposed to be smart. Way too human, way too compassionate and way too much into useless gossiping.

Then again, this wasn't the first time that she actually surprised him. The woman had a capability of showing an intelligence that was in stark contrast to her flimsy and loud behaviour. At least this was his own opinion. It seemed that he wasn't really on the right track with that observation. Much to his ire.

"Screw it. Let's ask around and find a subject." The Master did a sharp turn and stormed out of the door, almost running into Agatha, who had waited for them.

"Found anything?" She looked a little shaken, but not as headless as the other guests.

Donna and her would become best friends in no time if the Master would just drop her here. And the thought was very tempting. Especially since she started chatting away again.

"Next thing you know, you'll be telling me it's like Murder On The Orient Express, and they all did it."

Agatha tilted her head. "Murder on the Orient Express?"

"Ooo, yeah. One of your best."

Wrong time, Noble! The Master nudged her and grunted, "Not yet."

"Marvellous idea, though." The writer looked like just made a mental note.

"Yeah. Tell you what. Copyright Donna Noble, okay?"

Abandoning her here was a bad idea, the Master decided. She would bring all of time to a total collapse in the blink of an eye. It was best to keep her away from her new bestie.

"Anyway. Agatha and I will question the suspects. Donna, you search the bedrooms. Look for clues. You know which ones." He winked at her, trusting she would understand the hint. If she managed to be smart in one moment and then fail to be in the very next he would explode from exasperation. For certain.

Luckily, she seemed to catch on." Oh yes, of coooourse. The usual absolutely human clues someone would leave behind. I'll make sure to find them all, mister detective." Smiling, she strode away and the Master let out a sigh of relief.

"Right then. Let's get to the real fun, shall we?"

"How like a man to have fun while there's disaster all around him," Agatha commented in a cynical tone.

"Oh, you have no idea how right you are with that statement." He chuckled and ignored her accusing look.

"I'll work with you, gladly, but for the sake of justice, not your own amusement."

Ah, there it was again. The moral. His fingers twitched, the drums pounded. It would be such a fun to show this human in her small, insignificant world she knew that reality was more than only stories. But oh well, stories were the very thing he had come here for, after all. Breaking her neck would only take them from him.

In the end he only shrugged and settled for a little teasing. "Same outcome to me. Be glad I'm on your side for once."

"My side? What would be the other?"

Oh, she was fun. The Master smirked, making sure his expression verged on predatory as he slowly showed his teeth.

"The one of the murderer."

.

Interrogating the suspects turned out to be rather interesting. Most of them had a good portion of respect for him, a few others smelled of fear. Good for them. Their instincts were telling them who the real threat in the room was. But that wasn't the point here. Neither was that every single one of them was lying.

"No alibis for any of them." Agatha looked up from her notebook, the pen tapping against the paper. She hadn't spoken to him ever since his comment in the hallway. "The Secret Adversary remains hidden. We must look for a motive. Use ze little grey cells."

The Master chuckled. "Mhm, little grey cells. Poirot." He cocked his head to the side and regarded Agatha with a pointed look. "Are you testing me?"

Now it was on her to smile. "Maybe. You seem like an odd person, but really not much like a detective. You never even said you were one, but everyone just assumed. Isn't that funny?"

"Humans can sense when there's a real predator in front of them." The Master tapped his nose. "It makes them obey and behave. But sadly, it does not make them tell the truth."

"You noticed. Good. However, you missed a big clue."

"What, that bit of paper you nicked out the fire?"

Agatha squinted her eyes at him. "You were looking the other way."

Which didn't mean that he hadn't seen it. Humans and their narrow senses, they would never be as effective as him.

"The bookcase," he explained rather smugly and added, "Glas -" as if that would explain anything. Maybe it did. He wanted to test some too.

And really, the writer's eyes widened just a little and the smile did as well. "The reflection. You crafty man." She got up from her chair and showed the Master a charred piece of paper. "This is all that was left.'

He took it and rotated it in his hands, trying to make out the word that was written there. It said -aiden. The first letter was illegible. Could be… "N or M? Could be both."

"It's an M, I think. The word is maiden."

"Still not helping. Could be just a word or a name."

"Yeah, we're still no further forward. Our Nemesis remains at large." There was a twinkle in her eyes, despite the focus on staying on moral ground. But she did enjoy the hunt. A little.

"Seems so. Let's see if Donna has found anything."

.

"When I say giant wasp, I mean giant wasp!" Donna flipped her hands upwards, very obviously not happy about the little insect. "If that thing would sting me, I'd be dead!"

"If you're allergic to them I'm not going to carry you back to the TARDIS," the Master drawled. "Now stop making a fuss. Have you found anything useful? I thought I could count on your nosy nature."

"Nosy? Are you kidding me, mate! I'm not nosy! And that creature was bigger than me! Just for the record. Want to see you wrestling with that thing. Look at its sting!" Her hands moved again, fluttering around before landing in a pointing gesture near something black and pointy sticking out of the door.

The Master groaned. "You should have shown me that immediately instead of screaming around. Get out of the way, human."

"Charming companion you've got there," Agatha remarked towards Donna. "Whatever you see in him, get yourself something better."

"Oh this is not what you think it is. This piece of flippin' arrogance should be stashed away and forgotten like a bad book!"

"Who is charming now?" The Master snickered, but his focus remained on the sting. There was a gooey substance leaking from it, poison probably. "I can think of at least thirty-two different amorphous insectivorous lifeforms, but none in this galactic vector. So… who is it?"

"I think I understood some of those words." Agatha shook her head. "Enough to know that you're completely potty."

"That he is," grunted Donna. She pointed at the sting. "The wasp should be defenceless now, though. Lost its sting."

"On the danger of you hating me even more… I'm pretty sure a creature of that size can just grow a new one. Most of them can. It's only the small ones that are so utterly useless."

"Can we return to sanity? There are no such things as giant wasps." So much for the creativity of writers. Of all humans in this mansion, shouldn't she be the one to accept the circumstances the easiest?

"Well, you and the Doctor aren't exactly from around either."

"But we have the means to travel. A distance like this isn't hopped so easily. Not for any of the species I'm aware of."

"Then maybe you're not as smart as you think."

The Master glowered at Donna. Be glad the Doctor would never forgive me for killing you, he thought and took a deep breath. "Well, there is only one way to find out what this is all about." And only one way to keep his thoughts far away from the Doctor. The Master grinned at the women and clapped his hands together. "More distraction!"

.

A/N: I promisse, I won't drag this on fr too long. Just one more chapter ;P