The Classified Dossier: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula(19)

Dracula hesitated. “Yes.”

“So,” Holmes went on, “your adversary knew a great deal about vampires, knew a great deal about you and Mina, and your relationship, as well as your travel plans. Adaliene could not have been informed on the latter, at least.”

“Not the precise details of our travel, no, though she could have easily guessed some of the particulars. I’ve made the trip by ship before.”

Holmes tapped a finger on his forehead, pondering. “What else did she tell you?”

“She would not give me a name,” Dracula said simply, “even unto her death. She told me a very small portion of the plans her master had, enough to concern both of us, I think. She did know a title for this master, but one that Adaliene swore would do me little good. It means nothing to me.”

“What was it?” I asked, after the Count paused.

“They call him the ‘Mariner Priest’”.

“A man of God?” I said, astonished. “Dealing with vampires and kidnapping and severing the finger off an innocent woman? That hardly seems credible.”

“I do not say it is true,” Dracula admitted. “I say only that she believed it with all of her heart.”

“We know that Mina’s finger was delivered to Stross,” Holmes said. “An intermediary who knew little of its story or significance, though his demeanour when Lestrade questioned him certainly indicates that he well knew how dangerous this affair was. This was directed by someone far above Stross, above Adaliene, even.”

“Van Helsing,” the Count said.

“Perhaps,” Holmes said. “How he planned to locate the Count and deliver it is as yet unknown. Stross knows nothing. The Count had already interrogated him in prison before coming to us.” Holmes shot a look of irritation at the Count, who ignored it.

“He knows nothing,” the Count agreed. “Merely a hired intermediary awaiting instructions through courier. He did not know the name of Van Helsing or any of the other men that follow him. He knew very little, in fact.”

“Our enemy seems to have a great many agents and resources,” Holmes said. “None of them very well informed, the entire operation so compartmentalized that none of them can be followed to their source.”

“This Adaliene knew no more?” I asked.

“She merely repeated that her new master knew everything,” Dracula said. “Her threat, and the violence on Mina, naturally enraged me, and so I exacted an identical penalty upon her person, depriving her of the very same finger in recompense before leaving her to the sun’s tender mercies.”

“The very same scene of vengeance that we encountered at Carfax Estate,” Holmes added. He looked significantly at the haughty and barbaric figure of Count Dracula, who looked hard at the two of us. Never in my life have I seen a look as imperious and uncompromising as the Count’s, but Holmes’s gaze was equally unflappable and after a long period of consideration, the Count nodded.

“I have been a prince and a soldier,” he said, “long before I was as you see me now. But I am also a monarch, and they assaulted both my wife’s person and my own. It is no less than war. You have yourself, Doctor, been a soldier.”

I saw a very great difference between war on foreign soil and murder committed in the heart of London, but also knew that Holmes always had reasons for the choices he made. If he saw fit to assist Dracula, I would at least listen to the facts. I saw no reason, however, to pretend that I approved of the Count’s murderous behaviour, so I said nothing.

“It is your belief that Van Helsing is responsible for this?” Holmes said.

“So my heart tells me,” Dracula said, “for he has been the only significant opponent and danger to me for many centuries.”

“I did not get the impression from your account that he presented a significant danger,” Holmes said.

“Perhaps I have understated the case,” Dracula said. “Nevertheless, it is true. However, there is a great deal that remains unexplained.”

“The elder vampire that has taken Mary, for instance,” Holmes said.

“Exactly,” Dracula said.

“I assume that Van Helsing was not a vampire when you met him previously?”

“No,” Dracula said.

“And you say it would take an elder vampire to transform Mary and hold her the way he has.”

“Yes.”

“If Van Helsing had become a vampire,” Holmes said, “he would still be far too new to his vampiric powers, as you explain it, to have performed the feats we ascribe to Mary’s capture and transformation.”

Dracula frowned. “That is true.”

“Would Van Helsing work with a vampire?” Holmes asked.

“I would not have thought so,” Dracula admitted. “But I can think of no other explanation, other than that he has either colluded with a vampire or become one himself.”

“Are either of these possibilities likely?” Holmes said.

Dracula shook his head. “I do not know the man well, but it was his devout, fervent belief that vampirism was not just a disease, but an unholy thing. An abomination, an affront against his Christian god. I cannot see him, in truth, doing either of these things. I am at a complete loss to explain it.”

“Well,” Holmes said. “Your case certainly does not lack for colour. When you questioned this Adaliene, did you ask about the other two sisters?”