A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes Read Online Free PDF

emotion.
    Lestrade took the seat opposite him. “How did you know Victor Briers?” Lestrade said.
    “We were good friends.” Samuels sniffed. Lestrade recognized something in the man’s posture, his tremulous voice.
    “I think it was more than that,” Lestrade said, letting the sneer into his voice. “I think you were lovers.”
    Samuels turned his face away. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “But I’m not,” Lestrade said. “Look at you – a blubbering mess. Crying like a young girl. You loved him. What happened? Did he cut you loose? You weren’t man enough for him?”
    Samuels glared at him through red eyes. “You shut your mouth.”
    “That’s it, isn’t it? You were too much the sap and he went and found someone harder, someone who could keep himself under control, didn’t he?”
    “Yes,” Samuels said, a growl of anger in his voice. “He found someone else.”
    “Is that why you killed him?” Lestrade said.
    Samuels’s eyes widened, he opened his wet mouth. “Killed him? No. I didn’t…I could never have killed him.”
    “People can do all manner of things when hurt. Wounded. They lash out at the source of that pain. Is that what you did, Samuels? Tell me and we can take care of it.”
    “No! I didn’t. I just…I just wanted to find out who it was that he was with. I wanted to expose him. To expose them both.”
    Lestrade’s fire abruptly went out. He felt cold sweat on his brow. “And did you? Find out, I mean.”
    “No. I only knew that he was another police officer.”
    “You will keep that to yourself,” Lestrade said. “I will not have you causing disruption by pointing your finger at my fellow officers.”
    “Why?”
    “Because if you keep your mouth shut, I will do the same. No one needs to know of your involvement with Briers assuming your story checks out.”
    Samuels stared at Lestrade, then pulled himself together, sitting straighter, smoothing back his hair. He nodded. “I can do that.”
    “Good,” Lestrade said. Then he left the room.
     
    Samuels’s alibi, that he was out drinking late into the evening, was corroborated by the keeper of the Hearth Tavern and several of its patrons. Samuels had drunk himself into a stupor and passed out. They’d sent for his sister to take him home and the journey and escort were witnessed by several others.
    That still left no suspects for Briers’s murder, and already a day had passed. It would have already been brought to Sir Childing’s attention. The investigation would become more probing and soon Lestrade’s involvement with Briers would be uncovered if he didn’t present the culprit. The lure of bringing in the Detective hovered tantalizingly before him.
    He pushed it away.
    He stopped by Inspector Gerard’s desk on his way outside. “What’s the matter, Lestrade?” Gerard said. “You look worn out.”
    “Just the Briers case,” Lestrade said.
    Gerard frowned. “I thought we had Samuels to rights for it.”
    “We did, but it turns out he has an alibi. And I don’t know that he’s capable of it. He’s a wreck of a man. Broken. Too emotional.”
    “Many a crime has been committed because of overflowing emotions,” Gerard said. “Not everyone has the detachment of a Scotland Yard detective.”
    Lestrade smiled. “That’s true. But he has an alibi. I’ll let him go shortly.”
    Gerard shrugged. “So it’s back to the start, then?”
    Lestrade sighed and nodded. “I suppose so. I’d better get back to it.” He gave Gerard a nod and then went to issue Samuels’s release.
     
    Lestrade worked late, poring over the records of the case by lamplight, examining the reports from the scene, the notes from interviewing the locals. Thinking of the Detective, he called on his powers of observation, looking for the tiniest detail, and yet nothing stood out.
    Muffled sobs caused him to raise his head, his first break from the documents in hours. Over at the front desk, a man and a woman stood, middle-aged, bent