Brought to you by Novel 2 Ebook. Click to visit our website.
But I could not see my gender so maligned and said, “Oh, now, now, Mrs Houston, women may be immoral too.”
“Not ladies,” she replied conclusively.
Holms tapped the table with his long fingers. “But it is obvious our suspect is not a lady. She is an immoral strumpet who has taken this young man from his club, his nation and his adoring fans.”
“A veritable Mata Hari,” I commented.
Still, Mrs Houston seemed unimpressed. “A suitable challenge for you then, Mr Holms?”
“Perhaps. But I shall best her yet.”
“You are so confident? What if she has disappeared with her prey? She stood up, assuming the interview was concluded, but I could not bear the thought of her having the last word. “Then Holms will track her to the gates of hell and beyond.”
Mrs Houston coiled up the cable of the vacuum cleaner. “I'm sure she's quaking in her boots. Well, I'm sure I can't stand here discussing kidnapping when there's windows to be washed.”
Holms stopped her as she was about to leave. “One last question, Mrs Houston. What motive would you ascribe to a young man eloping with an older woman if not that suggested by Dr Wilson?”
Mrs Houston looked at me again as if I was a son of Satan, ready at any moment to throw her to the floor and ravish her. “That's the thing with you men. You're obsessed with matters below the belt. Do you never think of love, Mr Holms?”
And saying that she left our rooms, leaving Holms stroking his chin and me longing for a gin and tonic.
“Love, love, one of the few areas where I am no expert. I must rely on you, Wilson,” the great detective said.
“I am yours to command,” I offered.
Holms regarded me with an amused eye. “You are something of a legend where romance is concerned, my good Doctor.”
“Modesty forbids,” I replied.
“Come now, was there not some incredible tale from your military years?”
I could wait no longer and went over to the sideboard to pour myself a drink. “Ah yes, you mean the time I liberated that village in the Afghan mountains?
“I do not recall the precise details of the adventure,” Holms confessed I took my G&T and resumed my seat. “Well, not much too it, actually, militarily speaking. Buggers all ran away when I marched up. But the thing was the local women assumed I was some mighty warrior and as their men had all been killed in the fighting, they demanded that I give them children.”
Holms lifted an eyebrow. “Indeed.”
“Well, about a week later, after I'd obliged half of them, a translator turned up and told me that what they actually wanted was for me to start an adoption agency.”
“How unfortunate, and what did you do?”
“What could a chap do? I shot the interpreter.”