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By Root 302 0

the card close to his chest. 'Oh, no. The lab boys can sort it out, thank you very much.' The Doctor gave him a disappointed look, like that of a small boy who's just been told that he can't go and play. He thrust the screwdrivers back into his pocket and crossed over to the window, peering through the small hole in the glass.

'Now don't tell me let me guess. The building was completely locked up, there was no sign of a breakin, and the security man on the front gate saw nothing.'

Mullen stared across at him. 'Well, yes, since you ask.'

The Doctor smiled that brilliant smile again. 'So, how did our killer get in?'

With the forensic officer having to be physically restrained by his colleagues, the Doctor snapped open the catch on the window, slid it up and peered out into the yard.

He nodded and pointed at something. 'Aha.

‘There we are, Inspector.'

Mullen reluctantly crossed the room to the Doctor's side.

He placed the card on the desk and peered out to see what the Doctor was pointing at. A drain, perhaps six inches in diameter, its cover lying upside down several feet away on the tarmac. He looked at the Doctor in puzzlement. 'What?'

The Doctor pointed again at the drain as if it was patently obvious. 'The drain. It came up through the drain and jumped through the window.'

Mullen gave the Doctor an extremely sceptical look. The two men pulled themselves back in through the window. The Doctor looked at Mullen with utter conviction. 'How did he die?'

'He was stabbed through the heart.'

'Stabbed?'

'Sort of... It looks to me more like... something burrowed through his ribcage.'

Ace was there in a trice. 'Ugh! Like an animal, you mean?'

Mullen crossed to where the body was covered with a sheet. Ace tried to cross with the Doctor, but he held her back, shaking his head. She opened her mouth, ready to argue, but the look in the Doctor's eye made her stop. She crossed back over to McBride and watched as Mullen lifted the sheet.

The Doctor's face was unreadable. He bent down and made his grim examination. 'A very small, vicious animal.'

Mullen made a decision. The policeman who had disposed of the cigarette butt had reentered the room. Mullen pulled him over. 'Dixon, go back outside and take a look at that drain in the back yard.'

The Doctor called McBride over. Ace watched McBride's face go white.

'Jeez. What got to him?'

The Doctor looked down with sadness in his eyes.

'Surprised, shocked, terrified. Poor man.' He let the sheet fall back over Peddler's face and picked up the card again.

There was a call from outside the window. Mullen leaned out. Dixon was shining a torch down into the depths of the drain. 'It's all scratched inside, sir. The scratches look new.'

Mullen looked over at the Doctor with a degree of respect. The Doctor snapped the card shut, slipped it into his duffelcoat pocket and beamed at McBride. 'Come on, Mr McBride. We mustn't stand between the police and justice.

The Mountie always gets his man.'

He began to usher McBride and Ace towards the door when Mullen stopped him. 'Hang on. The card please. Wall's card.'

The Doctor thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out the stick of rhubarb that he had been conducting his impromptu choir with the night before. 'It's in here somewhere. Hold this a minute would you, Inspector.'

He thrust the rhubarb at Mullen and rummaged in his pocket again, pulling out the card and triggering its opening mechanism. 'There we are.' He snapped it shut and passed it over to Mullen, taking back the rhubarb. Mullen studied him with interest. If I should want to talk to you, is there any way that I can get in touch with you, Mr...'

'Doctor. I'll be at McBride's office.'

Mullen grimaced. 'Do we have to have him along?'

'Inspector, I am merely Dr Watson. This ' he gestured at McBride 'is Sherlock Holmes.'

McBride decided that the Doctor had pushed his luck far enough and grabbed him by the hood of his duffel coat.

Come on, Doc Ace.'

McBride hurried the two of them out of the office. The Doctor doffed his hat at Mullen, realised that he was still