The Classified Dossier: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula(107)
DENOUEMENT
“As I commented on the train, the plan would hardly have worked as well in a stuffy parlour,” Holmes said back at Baker Street. He stretched his long legs toward the fire and lit his pipe. “I had actually envisioned rather a long chase. I thought that Moriarty would have an escape route planned and that our plan would necessitate following. So I had resolved to attempt to spring my own trap in the out of doors, or else our little ruse could hardly be expected to last very long. The scent, you see, and Dracula has little compared to your average Londoner. I thought him wearing the clothes I had worn previously and thus carrying my scent would buy us a little time, but I had hardly expected the good fortune of having our encounter on the top of a moving train. We were quite fortunate that the smoke from the train occluded both sight and scent, too.”
“Good fortune,” I snorted. “On top of a moving train! Hardly my idea of ideal circumstances.”
“Yet it was ideal for us nonetheless,” Holmes said with a smile playing about his lips.
“It was a matter of making surest use of our advantages,” Dracula said. “We would lose any element of surprise from my appearance the moment that Moriarty saw you with the good doctor and so measures were needed to preserve it.” He was restored to his usual mode of dress in his sombre suit and cape and sat now with Mina on the settee, as unnaturally immobile as only the ancient vampire could be. Mina seemed deeply amused by the night’s harrowing adventure. Her dark eyes shone with excitement and she looked perfectly at home. For my part, I could not take quite the same view, suffering as I had on many occasions Holmes’s need for secrecy and dramatic effect, but I did have to admit to being very gratified as to the results.
“You two may find this of interest,” Holmes said, handing them a new article folded so as to present the section indicated. “The Royal Navy has found and sunk Moriarty’s vessel, the one that sank the King’s Ransom and very nearly you two with it.”
“It is truly over then,” I said with great relief. “Moriarty is dead and all his machinations fallen with him.”
“Yes,” Holmes said. “I believe we can safely say that.”
“You have been of great service to me,” Dracula said formally and pulled a small leather satchel out of his coat pocket. “There is some gold here, and silver, and even some English pound notes. I hope the amount is sufficient?”
I half-expected Holmes to refuse payment, for he had a long and mercurial history in this regard, but Holmes reached out a long arm and took the satchel, dropping it unexamined with a heavy clink on the table next to him. “More than sufficient, I am sure, which is just as well, since I have already committed a portion of it to a new endeavour that may interest you.”
“Oh?” Dracula said. There was a note of forced casualness, and a certain mischievous gleam in Holmes’s eye that made the rest of us lean forward slightly.
“I believe it may be useful and necessary for us to confer from time to time and as such, I thought to procure a suitable place for your stay should you have need to travel to London again. It will not be unfamiliar to you, I think.”
Dracula leaned back, looking more than a little shocked. “I see. This is unexpected. In fact, I expected… something different. A warning against my return to London, perhaps?”
Holmes waved a hand in dismissal. “Not a bit of it. You have proven yourself a valuable ally against the darkness, despite your reputation. It is important for the logician to view things as they are, not as they appear, and London owes you a great debt for your assistance. Besides, this is Mina’s home, is it not? It would be very uncouth of me to attempt to prevent her from visiting it.”
Mina smiled. “You said the place would be familiar to us?”
“More to the Count, I believe, than yourself. In fact, he used to own it some years ago. Carfax Estate is the place I mean and solicitors are already at work preparing the paperwork for my ownership.”
“Carfax Estate!” I said, stunned, thinking of the horrors that had passed there; some distant, if even the smallest part of Stoker’s tale was to be believed, and some of them very recently. “Holmes, sometimes your sense of what is appropriate is… somewhat lacking in taste. Carfax Estate, indeed!”
“It is a wonderful name, is it not?” Holmes said. “Carfax, Carfax. It rolls off the tongue. I suggest, my dear fellow, that the next time you are looking for a nom de plume to populate one of your stories, a technique I know you scrupulously use to protect the actual identities of our clients, you should try Carfax on for size. I think that Lady Carfax has a rather nice ring to it, don’t you?”
I threw my hands up in the air in defeat. Holmes was in fine spirits with the successful conclusion of this affair and was very likely to be completely insufferable for days.
“I will, of course, leave the tending of the house to your care,” Holmes said to Dracula. “You still have agents in the city, do you not?”
Dracula looked surprised yet again. “I do, but how did you know?”
Holmes reached over and hefted the satchel again. “There is certainly some metal in here, but I detect quite a bit of paper and you made a reference to English pounds. You have been here before and owned several properties before, which would have required a great many agents. You having retained some of these, despite being repelled from London previously, is the simplest explanation that would account for this sum.”