Sherlock Holmes and the Queen of Diamonds (15 page)

It wouldn’t budge. He tried harder. But the knife still wouldn’t move. Worse, Liggett realized his hand was now stuck between the bottom of the rail and the ballast under it.

He heard Jesse’s boots crunching closer, looked up and saw the man from Missouri standing over him.

‘Give it up,’ Jesse growled. ‘It’s over.’

Liggett spat at him and made one final effort to pull his hand loose. When that failed he said: ‘Go ahead, then, you sonofabitch. Shoot me.’

‘I’d like to,’ Jesse said. ‘More’n anythin’. But I gave my word to Holmes and I never break my word. You’re goin’ back home to hang for what you done to Ma and—’

He broke off as he heard a rumbling in the distance.

Liggett heard it too.

A train was coming.

Liggett became saucer-eyed with fear. Panicking, he struggled to pull his hand loose. When it wouldn’t come, he begged: ‘Help me, Jesse! Help me!’

Jesse heard the train coming closer and felt the ground tremble underfoot.

‘Sorry,’ he said coldly. ‘I gave my word not to shoot you. But I never said I’d help save your life.’

‘Jesse, for God’s sake,’ Liggett pleaded. ‘You can’t let me die like this!’

‘Archie never asked to die the way he did, either. But that didn’t keep it from happenin’.’

The rumble of the approaching train was louder now. And the trembling of the ground increased.

Liggett saw the cold, flinty look in Jesse’s light blue eyes and knew he was a dead man. Teeth gritted, he continued trying to pull his hand free. It was hopeless.

He closed his eyes and started blubbering.

‘Damn you!’ Jesse said. Kneeling beside Liggett, he grabbed his arm and pulled. Nothing happened. He pulled again, hard as he could. Again, nothing.

Just then the headlight of the fast-moving train came sweeping around a curve in the tracks. It flooded over the two men.

Liggett screamed for Jesse to help him. Jesse tried
frantically
to pull the hand loose, but it was impossible.

He jumped to his feet and stood in the middle of the tracks, waving his hands for the oncoming train to stop.

But the driver didn’t even see him and the squat,
ugly-snouted
locomotive continued to thunder down on them, smoke from its stack flattening out against the tunnel roof and then spilling back down the soot-stained sides like ink spiralling through water.

‘Get me out of here!’ Liggett blubbered. ‘For God’s sake, Jesse, please, I’m beggin’!’

But it was too late.

The onrushing train barrelled toward them, hauling a long line of produce-filled freight wagons behind it.

Jesse, realizing he couldn’t even
hope
to save Liggett, went to step off the tracks.

Before he could, Liggett’s free hand grabbed Jesse’s ankle and jerked him off his feet.

‘If I’m gonna die,’ he hissed, ‘you’re comin’ with me, you pig-suckin’ Confederate bastard!’

Jesse tried to pull free, but Liggett had a death grip on his ankle.

The train thundered closer, almost on them now.

Jesse desperately kicked Liggett in the face, but the
one-time
Pinkerton grimly held on.

This was how it ended, then. Liggett would die, but so would he.

Then two hands grabbed him by the shoulders and jerked him backward, freeing him from Liggett’s grasp. Jesse quickly rolled over on the ground, to the safety of the narrow pedestrian walkway.

An instant later the train thundered over the spot he had just occupied.

The spot Liggett
still
occupied.

His ungodly, agonizing scream was lost in the roar of the speeding train.

Jesse, heart thudding, turned and found himself staring Holmes in the face.

The train was making too much noise for Jesse to be heard, but Holmes was able to lip-read the single word:

‘
Thanks
.’

CHAPTER 22

The Queen of Diamonds

B
y the time Watson and the police arrived, Jesse had faded into the mist. Neither he nor Holmes made any reference to the man from Missouri in their subsequent statements. Acting upon the information they
did
supply, however, the police quickly descended upon the Poacher’s Pocket and obtained the names of Desmond O’Leary and Olwenyo Wadlock from the landlord. Both were well-known to the men of K Division, and were arrested at their lodgings within the hour. They were charged with the robbery of the City branch of Crosbie & Shears, and by the time the police finished searching their rooms, along with those of Alfie Adams and the barge upon which Cage and Jack Liggett had been living, most of the stolen money was recovered.

Jesse emerged from the shadows as Holmes and Watson came out of Bow Road police station and the three men went in search of a cab. It took a while, even with Watson blowing his cab-whistle at regular intervals, and by the time they all eventually returned to Montague Hall it was well after midnight.

The ride in the cab was a quiet one. Though there was obviously plenty to talk about, words seemed inadequate to describe all that had happened and none of them was willing to break the silence.

Elaina was waiting up for them in the sitting room. When she saw Jesse’s bruised and battered condition she threw herself unashamedly into his arms. Although he, Holmes and Watson were exhausted from the events of the evening, she insisted that they celebrate the end of Jesse’s vengeance-quest with a glass of champagne, and asked Fordham to fetch a bottle from the cellar.

When their glasses were filled, she toasted: ‘To friends … coming back safely.’

Jesse and Watson raised their glasses to drink, but Holmes, whose attention was focused on the champagne bottle, had other ideas. ‘To diamonds,’ he remarked softly.

Elaina gave him an odd look and for a moment seemed disconcerted. But she quickly regained her composure and, fingering the diamond necklace at her throat, smiled and said: ‘Why, Holmes, what a splendid idea! I’ll drink to diamonds any day.’

‘Even the ones hidden in your wine cellar?’ he asked.

For once Elaina was caught off guard. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Though it was wiped prior to serving,’ Holmes explained, ‘there is still a fine patina of
Erysiphacae
– more commonly known as powdery mildew – to be seen upon this champagne bottle.’

Elaina gave a nervous little laugh. ‘Forgive me,’ she said. ‘I’ll speak to Fordham. It will never happen again, I assure you.’

‘You miss my point,’ Holmes continued doggedly. ‘Your cellar is damp, Countess, due no doubt to the Hall’s close proximity to the Thames.’

Again Elaina laughed nervously. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘Merely that I observe smudges of exactly the same mildew upon the hem of your dress, and also upon the heel of Mr James’s right boot. My feeling is that having taken Mr James into your confidence, you have perhaps already shown him your ill-gotten collection of jewels … in the cellar?’

‘Cellar?’ she stalled. ‘I don’t under—’

‘Inspector Rosier is already on his way,’ Holmes went on bleakly. ‘If you’d prefer, Countess, we can wait until he arrives before you hand them over.’

She feigned puzzlement. ‘Hand
what
over? Holmes, I’ve no idea what you’re talking ab—’

‘Lady Darlington-Whit’s teardrop earrings,’ he snapped. ‘The gold diamond pendant belonging to Baroness Alcott. Countess Broughton’s pearl bracelet. Lady Bingham’s mourning necklace … and of course, the Star of Persia, which Mr James so kindly stole for you not twenty-four hours since.’

‘That’s a lie!’ Elaina said, scandalized. ‘I think you’d better leave –
now
!’

‘If it’s all the same to you, Countess,’ Watson said politely, ‘we shall await the arrival of Inspector Rosier.’

Elaina turned to Jesse. ‘Aren’t you going to
do
something?’

‘Like, what?’ he asked.

Elaina looked at Holmes, at Watson, then at Jesse again.
Her deep topaz eyes suddenly hardened. ‘
Kill
them,’ she hissed.

Watson drew a sharp breath.

‘You sure ’bout that?’ Jesse said. ‘I mean, Holmes is a friend of yours, ain’t he?’

‘A “friend” who intends to hand me over to Scotland Yard,’ Elaina said bitterly. Then: ‘Do it. Now!’

Jesse studied her for a long beat and then went to the portrait of Rupert Montague hanging beside the fireplace. He unhooked it to reveal the wall-safe behind and deftly worked the combination.

Elaina stared at him, wondering how he could possibly have known the combination, until she remembered that he had been refreshing his drink when she’d opened the safe earlier that evening; he must have watched her reflection in the mirror.

Jesse took out the derringer and tossed it to her. ‘Here …’

‘What’s this for?’

‘Ellie, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,’ he drawled, ‘but I reckon it’s time you did your own dirty work.’

Elaina looked at the weapon and a strange, twisted smile tightened her lips. He was testing her, she realized, making sure she really had what it took to be an outlaw’s mate. Well, that was just fine. He certainly wouldn’t find her wanting.

‘Gladly,’ she said. She aimed the tiny gun at Holmes, adding: ‘I really didn’t want it to come to this, but you’ve left me no choice.’

Watson quickly stepped in front her target. ‘No!’

Touched by his loyalty, Holmes reached out and gently forced him aside. ‘Thanks, dear friend. But it will not be
necessary.’ Then to Elaina: ‘This is not the first time you have taken a life, is it?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The rumours are correct, are they not? You
did
kill your husband.’

Her jaw clenched. ‘You know better than that. It was an accident, plain and simple.’

‘Come now, Countess,’ Holmes mocked, ‘Give me more credit than that.’

‘Scotland Yard believed me. So did the coroner’s office.’

‘They had little choice,’ put in Watson. ‘There was no evidence to support the alternative.’

‘Until now,’ Holmes said.

‘What do you mean?’ Elaina said uneasily.

‘At the request of Sir Ashley Danvers-Cole, and latterly the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis,
Lieutenant-Colonel
Sir Edmund Henderson, I have been keeping a very close eye upon you, Countess, for one very specific reason. Since we could not arrest you for the murder of your husband, which we knew full well you had committed, we resolved to bide our time and make sure we could arrest and prosecute you quite successfully for the next crime you committed. All we were waiting for was the evidence.’

‘You’re bluffing,’ Elaina said, not as convincingly as she’d intended.

‘There’s an easy way to find out,’ Jesse said. ‘Give him your gun. If you’re innocent, like you claim, you got nothin’ to worry about.’

‘’Cept to lose everything I’ve got.’ She gave an ugly laugh. ‘No, thanks, gentlemen. I’ve worked too hard, eaten too
much crow, taken too many risks to end up behind bars.’ She turned back to Holmes, the derringer aimed at his chest. ‘You’re right, as usual. The earl was a means to an end. That’s all he ever was to me.’

‘And Mr James, here? He was a means to an end, too, wasn’t he? The only man with nerve enough even to
attempt
the theft of the Star of Persia.’

Elaina did not say anything, but her silence condemned her.

‘But what happens now that he too has reached the end of his usefulness? Can he expect the same fate as the earl?’

The derringer in Elaina’s hand wavered and lowered a little. Her lips were tight but tremulous. She was, Holmes thought, a woman trying to summon the strength to pull the trigger; a woman unable to, a woman in defeat.

But he was wrong.

In the next instant she raised the little gun and pulled the trigger, causing Holmes and Watson to flinch instinctively.

The room was filled with a soft, metallic
click
!

Elaina quickly pulled the trigger again.

And again:
click
!

She stared at the derringer as if it had betrayed her.

Then she heard a clinking sound and, looking up, saw Jesse toying with the two shells in his free hand.

‘Sorry, Ellie,’ he said.

‘
What
?’

‘I emptied the gun right after Holmes called on you last night – when I offered to hang the portrait back for you.’

‘B-But,
why
?’

‘’Cause I ain’t the fool you played me for.’

‘Jesse, darling, I never thought—’

‘Holmes wasn’t tellin’ me anythin’ I didn’t already know,’ he continued sourly. ‘It’s like Frank’s always sayin’: Beautiful women like you are the same everywhere. And believe me I’ve known more’n my share. You find a feller, take whatever it is you want from him and then cast him loose – or, in your case, push him down a flight of stairs.’

‘Why, that’s utter nonsense,’ Elaina began.

Jesse stopped her. ‘The moment I agreed to steal that diamond for you, I knew it was only a matter of time before you took care of me, too.’

Holmes relaxed and gave a brief tic of a smile. ‘I obviously underestimated you, Mr James.’

‘You ain’t the first.’

‘And probably not the last,’ Holmes said, adding: ‘Shall we go down to the cellar, then, and collect the evidence?’

‘Thought you’d never get around to it,’ Jesse said. He looked at the countess. ‘Lead the way …
Ellie
.’