Moriarty Returns a Letter Read Online Free PDF Page B

well.”
    Now the inspector pushed the Redgil letter aside in disgust. “Real enough that they’ll do something like this.”
    “I understand that our American agent has a wife,” said Turner.
    “Yes.”
    “And that she’s with child,” said Turner.
    “Bloody hell,” said the inspector. He hadn’t known.
    He paused for a long moment, pondering all that.
    And then, having decided on a course of action, he stood.
    “Steps will need to be taken,” said the inspector. “We can’t have these rotters finding out about his widow, or they’ll be after her, too, to see what he might have told her. And it won’t matter that he told her nothing.”
    “Yes, sir. But they don’t know her name, do they?”
    “No, they don’t. And we’re going to keep it that way. We’re going to preserve her husband’s cover.”
    “You mean the notion that his name is Moriarty?”
    The inspector nodded, and said, “You used to work Forgery, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, sir. Still do.”
    “Did you get good at it?”
    “I’m not sure what you—”
    “Don’t play dumb with me, Turner. When a smart cop works a particular beat, he acquires the same skills the crooks have. So I’m asking you—how are your skills?”
    “Passable, sir.”
    “Good. You’ll need to alter a few records. They’re asking if the man they killed was Moriarty, and I’m going to let them think it was. In case they check, that’s what the death certificate has to read. You may need to visit the passport office as well. The records have to be made consistent with his cover.”
    “I get you, sir.”
    “I’m going to reply to this letter with a posting in The Times . I’m going to sign it ‘S.H.’ I’m going to tell them that both Holmes and Moriarty survived the Reichenbach Falls, but now that these louts have indeed killed Moriarty, they’ll have hell to pay when his minions learn of it. I want them on edge. I want them to believe the lie our agent told every bit as much as they believe the fiction in that magazine.”
    “Sir?”
    “ The Strand, Turner, The Strand . Pick it up. That’s a good lad. There it is, ‘The Final Problem.’ Except for our claim that both Holmes and Moriarty survived the Falls, every trace we leave of our man must be consistent with what you see in there.”
    “Will do, sir.”
    “And Turner…”
    “Sir?”
    “Once you’ve finished with that…”
    “Yes, sir?”
    “We’ll never speak of this again. Not to each other. Not to anyone. Ever again. Understood? I’m in trouble enough with my superiors as it is.”
    “Perfectly, sir.”
    “On your way then.”
    The young sergeant exited.
    The inspector sighed and sat at his desk. He picked up his own copy of The Strand, opened it, and stared for a long moment at the story it contained.
    “You were becoming a great help to us, Mr. Doyle. And now you’re becoming a great bother. Our fault of course—we should have told you what we were planning. But perhaps someday you’ll help us make amends.”

 
    3
    A FEW DAYS LATER
    Inspector Standifer had the window closed against the brisk December morning, but he was having a better day than earlier in the week.
    He was beginning to worry about the Irish Problem. And the Anarchist Problem. These were improvements on worries over the grubby counterfeiting gangs he’d been dealing with, and much more likely to bring positive recognition from his superiors. He was beginning to feel that he was indeed on his way up.
    And then he heard Turner’s annoying knock. The young sergeant opened the door and stuck his head in.
    “There’s a woman to see you, sir,” said Turner.
    “Name?”
    “She said, and I quote: ‘Apparently that is a matter of some dispute.’”
    That could not be good, thought the Inspector.
    “Bring her in,” he said.
    The sergeant stepped out of the office for a brief moment; then he opened the door again and admitted a young woman. The inspector recognized her immediately.
    It was the American