Young Sherlock Holmes_ Red Leech - Andrew Lane [83]
Sherlock could see the teeth in those not-quite-closed mouths. Those teeth could bite a man’s hand off his arm, and the claws that he could see barely sheathed could rip the arm itself out of the socket. ‘How do you make a cougar fear you?’ he asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
‘The same way you make a man fear you,’ Balthassar said. One of his black-clad servants pulled the remaining chair out, and he sat daintily, crossing his grasshopper-thin legs. ‘A mixture of pain, and examples of what will happen to them if they do not obey you. They have a memory. They remember the examples, and they act accordingly. Or you dispose of them and start again with another animal, and the act of disposal, if it is done properly and if it lasts for long enough, itself acts as an example of what will happen if the new animal does not obey you. You can leave the body lying around for quite some time.’
There was silence around the table for a moment as everyone watched the cougars.
‘I like your train,’ Matty said eventually.
The porcelain mask did not move, but Sherlock sensed that the man was smiling underneath. ‘You are very kind. It proves useful if I need to attend meetings in New York, or elsewhere. I do so hate having to take a carriage to the nearest station. The roads are bumpy, and there is so much dust. It’s far more preferable if the train comes to me.’
‘How did you arrange that?’ Sherlock asked.
‘I provide the train company with a great deal of business,’ Balthassar explained. ‘I am an entrepreneur. I have a number of travelling exhibitions and circuses, taking exotic animals around this fine country, and those exhibitions and circuses travel on our own trains. When I told them I wanted a spur line put in, and signals that would allow me to divert any train to my house, they agreed.’ He paused. ‘Eventually After I provided some examples of what would happen if they did not agree with me.’
Sherlock tried to imagine what kind of examples Balthassar was talking about, and then he tried not to. The pictures were too vivid.
‘So you diverted this train because your men were on board,’ Virginia asked.
‘Indeed. They had cabled ahead to tell me they were on board, and with several precious cargoes.’ He glanced across at John Wilkes Booth, who was staring at a glass of orange juice as if it contained the secrets of the universe. ‘Mr Booth here is one of them. I have been waiting for some time for him to return to this once-glorious country. I have plans for him. Another cargo was unloaded earlier, and is even now being introduced to its new surroundings.’ He switched his gaze to the box which Berle was holding on his lap. ‘And I believe that this box contains the final one. Am I right, Dr Berle?’
Berle nodded, and licked his dry lips. ‘It is, Duke. Do you—’
‘Not yet, Doctor. I have been waiting a long time for this particular package to arrive. I want to savour the moment.’ He paused, and looked around the table. ‘I do, however, note the absence of the estimable Messrs Ives and Gilfillan,’ he said mildly. ‘Where are they?’
Sherlock knew that he had two choices: he could either let Berle tell Balthassar that Gilfillan was in custody and Ives was dead, or he could admit it first and take the initiative. He decided to take the initiative. ‘Mr Gilfillan is in prison back in England,’ he said. ‘Mr Ives I killed just now by knocking him off the train.’ He stared at the twin eyeholes in Duke Balthassar’s mask. ‘Oh, and I also disposed of a steward on the SS Scotia who tried to kill me as well. He was being paid by Mr Ives.’
A silence settled over the table, broken only by the rumbling breaths of the two cougars. They watched Sherlock intently. Somehow they knew that there was a battle for dominance going on between him and Duke Balthassar.
‘How very enterprising of you,’ Balthassar said eventually. ‘Why exactly did you kill them?’
‘Maybe I wanted to set an example to your other servants,’ Sherlock said levelly ‘To make them fear me.