Justice Hall - Laurie R. King [157]
I would not ask how long he planned to wait after Monday before giving up on the idea of the villain’s breaking from cover. He would set beaters around the shrubbery after his game, and if that technique failed, he would go in after the man himself. I suppressed a shiver.
“How do we divide them up?”
“You and Holmes will watch Ivo Hughenfort tonight, after I have made my announcement. Ali will be with Sidney. When I have finished and handed the boy over to his mother, I will relieve Holmes and send him to Ali. You and I will then follow Ivo, Ali and Holmes will watch Sidney.”
I thought about it. He clearly considered Sidney Darling the more likely suspect, since Ali’s powers of surreptitious pursuit could be surpassed only by the suspect’s own shadow. I wondered if Holmes agreed with his assessment.
“You are to watch our suspects, Holmes and I are to watch your backs,” I clarified.
He grinned. “It is a role you have played before, Amir.”
“And until Monday night, how do you intend to ensure the boy’s safety?”
“Iris and the boy’s mother will be with him.” Before I could formulate a polite way of saying that the two women were completely without experience in the finer arts of body-guarding, he smiled. “Along with one of your brother-in-law’s people, whom your Holmes is bringing from London. A kindly grey-haired woman, very deceptive, very competent. I see what you are thinking, Mary, and I agree: I had rather spirit the boy away this instant and keep him beneath my robes than expose him to danger. But he is a Hughenfort, and we have been soldiers for a thousand years. However, I believe that if the boy’s legitimacy can be rendered null, there will be no reason for our culprit to murder him. The risk would be great, and the alternative too simple. No; this is the only way.”
It was not the only way, but it was the most direct, and in any case the situation had been firmly taken out of my hands. I could merely await my orders and pray all would go well.
“I am your humble servant,” I replied. In Arabic.
“Servant you may be,” he rejoined. “Humble I sincerely doubt.”
Iris came in then, and dropped onto the settee with a cigarette and a shake of the head. “Marsh, I shall remain forever grateful to you that I am not called upon to mastermind an affair such as this. Planning a dinner party for six stretches my abilities.”
“Phillida seems to find it a pleasure,” he mused.
“She’s quite mad. I found her arguing with the stuffed-animal man that he’d brought an alligator with the crocodiles. I ask you, how did she know? And what does it matter?”
“Only to another alligator,” I said.
“What are you going as, Mary?” she asked me.
“It’s a surprise. I mean, to me as well. Holmes is in London, and said he’d bring something back for me.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it.”
“Holmes has a dreadful habit of allowing his sense of humour free rein at times like this. Once he dressed me as a lady of the evening. Another time I wore a water-butt.”
“A water-butt? You’re joking. And I thought you said you’d never been to a fancy-dress ball before.”
“No ball, just disguise. A barrel under a drainpipe. A very damp and draughty disguise.”
“Well, I am sure if what he comes up with is too awful, the costume box is still there—isn’t it, Marsh? Mary could come as Napoleon. He tried to conquer Egypt once, didn’t he?”
“More or less. But he’s a few thousand years late for the theme of this ball.”
“You honestly think that will make a whit of difference to the guests? Half of them won’t even know where Egypt is.”
“I could always decapitate one of the stuffed ibises in the Hall, put it on my head and come as Thoth.”
Still, I couldn’t help wondering what sort of costume Holmes would show up with.
Our council was interrupted by the door’s flying open and Lady Phillida’s stepping in—a harried-looking Lady Phillida who had neglected to put on her face that morning. The thin lines of her plucked eyebrows were nearly invisible, giving her a look of naked surprise that did not agree with the tension in her jaw.
“Have you seen