982. Chapter 982

After Once Upon a Time in the West

Episode 7.07

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: This is cattle country, sheepherder and…Wait! That's wrong. Um, I own neither cattle nor Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Miss Holmes." Watson cried after her. "I suggested that we work this case together. That offer still stands."

Kate didn't bother turning around. "As I told you before, I work alone."

After doing a bit of detective work, Kate found herself outside of Watson's hotel that evening. She saw Ashley Linden leave the hotel furtively and take a horse drawn trolley towards the East End of London. Kate got on another trolley and followed him until he got off and went to a disreputable pub that Kate knew was a hangout for rogues and villains.

Kate stepped into an alley and in a minute, a rather slatternly looking blonde walked out. She seemed to be having trouble walking, as if she had had too much gin. The blonde entered the pub. Once there, the blonde calmly stole a glass of gin from an inebriated sailor and looked around the room. Finally, she saw Ashley Linden at a table in the back, now dressed in workmen's clothing, talking to someone. However, whoever he was talking to had his back to the blonde.

"'Ere, Love. Give us a kiss." She was being manhandled by a large man who wore a leather apron covered in blood. He was doubtlessly a butcher. The blonde pushed him away. "Away wi' you. Me man's meetin' me 'ere, so you'd better run. 'Es bigger than you and tough."

"No one's as tough as me." The man cried, picking the blonde up and began mauling her breasts. The blonde quickly removed a pair of pliers from her pocket and, shoving them down the man's pants, soon found something to grab onto. The butcher screamed and bent double.

"You bitch! You 'urt me love muscle. I'll kill you." He reached for a large knife under his shirt. But before he could draw it, the seemingly inebriated sailor raised up and hit him with a blackjack. As he fell, the blonde was grabbed by the sailor and carried bodily towards the door.

"Ashley! A distraction, please." A voice quite near the blonde cried. As soon as he spoke, she heard gunshots, and turning her head, saw Ashely the Kid firing his revolver into the ceiling.

The patrons of the pub ran for cover and the sailor and his unwilling cargo pushed through the mob and out into the street.

"You have very attractive legs, Miss Holmes." The sailor said, in a voice she recognized.

"Watson! What are you doing here?" She demanded.

"Getting you away from a riot. Before that, Ashley was trying to get some information on who might have hired those two men to kill you. That plan is now defunct. Our informant won't come within miles of us after this." Watson took her arm and began to move her quickly down the street to avoid the police now arriving at the pub.

"You looked at my legs?" Kate said angrily.

"Your skirt rode up on you and I had to look at you occasionally to make sure I wasn't going to ram you into a wall or something." The smirk on Watson's face told Kate all she needed to know about Watson's motives.

"Perhaps I can find your informant and convince him to talk. I'm quite good at interrogations, you know."

Watson smiled and shook his head. "He's miles away from here by now and he won't surface for months."

"Don't be so sure, Rick." It was Ashley, somehow now dressed in his well-cut grey suit, dragging a rather gaudily dressed young man with him. "This is Harold. I'm sure he has many other names, but this is the one he's using tonight. As luck would have it, although Harold now lives in London, he grew up in the great state of Texas. Oh, I'm sorry, Harold. I haven't introduced us. I'm Ashley Linden, sometimes known as Ashley the Kid. This is Dr. Rick Watson, I'm sure you know of him and the lady is Kate Holmes, the world's finest consulting detective. Now, shall we continue our conversation?"

Harold turned to Kate. "Please, Miss Holmes. You're an English gentlewoman and an upholder of law and order. These men are cold blooded killers. Please protect me."

Kate looked surprised. "Cold blooded killers? I've only just met Mr. Linden, but he seems like a fine young gentleman. I have had occasion to look into Doctor Watson's background and have found him to be a former peace officer and a law abiding citizen. He's not wanted by the law in any jurisdiction." Kate suddenly frowned. "Dear me. Look at the time. I really must be going. Have a good evening gentlemen."

"Perhaps we should step back into this alley." Rick said as Kate walked away.

"There's no need." Cried Harold. "What was it you wanted to know?"

"A man named Scott Dunn and another man were hired to kill Miss Holmes, but wounded my daughter. I want to know who the other man is and who hired them,"

Harold nodded. "I don't know who hired them, but word is that it was the Napoleon of Crime himself, Professor Demming Moriarty. I do know who the other man was, "Stinky Colin" Hunt, an ex-copper gone rogue. I don't know where he is, though. I hear Moriarty don't give people who fail him a second chance." Harold ran his finger across his throat.

Rick nodded. "Run along now, Harold. And remember, we found you once and we can find you again."

Harold took off running.

Kate had turned around and now stood by Ashley and Watson. "I suppose we should work together. But if you'll let me use the alley for a moment?" Kate, the slatternly blonde, disappeared into the alley and in a minute came back out as a well dressed gentlewoman.

While she was gone, Watson had somehow changed from a rough seaman's garb to a dark, bespoke suit.

"Excuse me, is that you up there, Miss Holmes?" Came a voice.

Kate looked around her and then down. "Ryan? Is that you? In the sewer?"

"I'm afraid so, Miss Holmes. Between Sir Ethan and my Jenny insisting I take a day long bath before she'll come near me, I fear I spend a great deal of time down here." There was the sound of motion down in the sewer. "Joshua! Nigel! Meredith! Stop that."

"Are there other constables down there with you?" Kate asked.

"Oh, no, Miss Holmes. Just some sewer rats I've made friends with. But I have heard something. I heard a man hail a hansom cab and direct the driver to take him to a pub in the East End called the Happy Headsman. I'm sure the rogue was Colin Hunt. I worked with the rogue when he was a copper."

"Excellent work, Ryan. When I've caught Professor Demming Moriarty, I'll see if I can get you assigned to patrol surface streets for a change."

"Oh, thank you, Miss Holmes." There was some more movement underground. "Joshua! Stop doing that to Meredith! No! Don't do that to Nigel!"

"Thank you, Ryan." Rick said. "Miss Holmes and I must be off."

Watson flagged down a hansom cab and headed back to his hotel so the three could plan their next moves.

"It should be quite easy." Watson said once they were in his rooms. "Ashley and I will visit this pub and have a bit of a chat with this fellow Hunt. Once he tells us what he knows about Professor Moriarty, we'll give him some money and tell him that he should travel to the continent to avoid Moriarty's vengeance for failing to kill you, Miss Holmes."

Kate smiled. "An excellent idea and when the three of us confront him, he'll talk."

"Miss Holmes, this will be dangerous and…."

Kate quickly drew her revolver from her purse. "I'm dangerous as well. I've faced down killers in a gunfight and survived. I regret that my opponents did not."

Watson smirked. "I sincerely hope you didn't shoot any of them in the English streets."

Kate blushed slightly. "One was in the drawing room of an English country estate, one was in the moors of the Scots highlands, one was at a waterfall in Switzerland, one was on a train in India, one was on…"

Watson held his hands up in surrender. "I can see I can make no headway with you on this issue, Miss Holmes. You are a rather stubborn woman, if I may say so."

"I am, Doctor Watson. And if I may say so, you are equally stubborn."

Once more in a hansom cab headed for the East End of London, they planned their attack on Colin Hunt.

"I have an encyclopedic knowledge of the haunts of the criminal class in London." Kate said. "The Happy Headsman is a low, shabby place, but there are only two rooms where Hunt could be hiding. They are both on the ground floor and the only exit is by the doors. We can trap the man easily."

The three walked into the Happy Headsman and immediately the criminal element began to leave, recognizing the famous Kate Holmes.

"Wot kin I do for you?" Asked the barman, nervously.

Ashley pulled back his coat to reveal his pistol and smiled. "I'll have a beer. And my friends will be visiting a friend." His hand strayed to the butt of his revolver. "You have no problems with them visiting, do you?"

The barman gulped and managed a wan smile. "Not a bit, sir. Not a bit."

Watson opened the first door quickly, only to discover a fallen woman…..Um, falling. He quickly closed the door.

"Whatever was that woman going to do with ice cubes?" Watson muttered.

Kate blushed slightly, but said nothing.

Hunt was in the next room, but he would tell them nothing about Professor Demming Moriarty. His throat had been slit from ear to ear.

"Too late. We'll learn nothing here." Watson said angrily.

Kate ignored him, but walked through the room, inhaling loudly.

"Do you smell something, Miss Holmes?"

She smiled. "I do. And I know who the killer is."

"Well, tell me."

"In good time. Quick, Watson, the game is afoot."

"What an apt quote from the Bard." Said Watson.

"You really think so? I've been trying to find such a tag line. I'll keep using it. Now, we must return to my flat at 221A Baker Street."

Rick and Kate returned to Kate's flat, while Ashley went to see how Alexis was doing. As soon as she entered the flat, Kate called out, "Oh, Perlmutter? Where are you?"

The shabbily dressed lad quickly crawled through the window he had pried open and stood with cap in hand, tugging his forelock. "What is it, Miss Holmes?"

"While at a crime scene tonight, I smelled an odd aroma. One I have smelled before. It was a mixture of London soot, and the scones with blackberry currant that Mrs. Hudson makes. That aroma would only be found on someone who lived on my window sill and was fed by Mrs. Hudson. It is fortunate that all that woman knows how to make are scones with blackberry currant. So, Professor Demming Moriarty, what have you done with the real Perlmutter?"

The evil professor drew his gun and laughed evilly. "Perlmutter sleeps with the fishes."

"You've killed him and thrown his body into the Thames?" Kate gasped.

"No. The lad just has very odd sleeping habits. But now you two must die."

"What a shame. I was hoping to try a little trick with ice cubes that I saw demonstrated tonight."

Moriarty was momentarily stunned by the thought of Kate Holmes and the infamous ice cube trick. Watson was made of sterner stuff, drew his revolver and fired. Moriarty was thrown back through the window and onto the street below. The Napoleon of Crime was wounded but still dangerous. Dangerous, that is, until Watson shot him to death,

Watson turned to Kate. "I fear I've shot a man in London, just to watch him die."

"Under the circumstances, I don't think Scotland Yard will mind. I know I don't. But we should call the Yard now."

"But that train keeps on a moving, and that's what tortures me."

Kate rolled her eyes as she could make nothing of that.

When the constables arrived, Rick and Kate were shocked to find that the deceased wasn't the feared Professor Demming Moriarty, but his twin brother, Adjunct Professor Vaughn Moriarty.

Once the police had left, Kate held out her hand to Rick. "Well, I guess this is it."

"Well, it doesn't have to be. We could go to dinner. Debrief each other."

"Why Watson? So I could be another one of your conquests?'

"Or I could be one of yours."

"It was nice to meet you, Watson."

"Too bad. It would have been great."

She leaned in and whispered in his ear. "You have no idea."

But as Kate turned to go back into 221A Baker Street, a constable came running up. "Miss Holmes. A woman has been stabbed in the East End. She was ripped up badly."

She turned to Watson. "Are you coming, Watson? The game's afoot."

Author's note: Up next will be After Under the Gun, in which Mike Royce meets a woman named Simone who looks exactly like his partner, but seems to be even more kick ass.