The Clockwork Wolf by Lynn Viehl Read Free Book Online Page A

I’d have to get rid of him. “Is that all?”
    â€œNo.” He rooted in his pocket for a pencil. “What sort of tea was this, then?”
    â€œI can’t say. It was a gift from a client.” I pretended to think. “I can tell you that it was a very disturbing shade of green.”
    â€œGreen tea.”
    I nodded. “Is there a law against tea of unusual hues?”
    â€œNot to my knowledge,” he said with a perfectly straight face. “Why didn’t you drink it?”
    I smiled. “Would you drink green tea?”
    â€œNot if it smelled like”—he turned to another page and began to read from it—“ ‘twenty rotting,maggot-infested carcasses,’ according to the complainant’s description.”
    â€œNot twenty, surely.” I yawned. “One, two at the most—and as I said, I did dispose of it.”
    â€œYou did not.” Doyle closed and pocketed his notebook. “You left the bucket in the basement.”
    â€œYes, with instructions for Mr. Docket to dispose of the contents,” I tacked on.
    â€œHe did not,” Doyle said. “According to the statement I obtained from Mr. Docket, he forgot about the bucket until he bumped it with his foot, knocked it over, and the contents spilled all over his floor.”
    â€œBut his floor has a drain,” I offered. “All basements do.”
    â€œIt does,” he agreed. “At the time of the spill, however, it was obstructed by some discarded rags, tools, and other items, so your green tea formed a pool.”
    I sighed. “There was hardly enough to make a puddle, Chief Inspector.”
    â€œA pool,” he repeated, “which spread out directly beneath the building’s ventilation system.”
    I rested my brow against my hand. “Did Docket shut the vents?”
    â€œI believe he tried,” Doyle said, “before he fainted and had to be carried out.”
    â€œDocket will be fine. He’s practically indestructible.” This day’s disasters were never going to end, it seemed, so I stood up. “Right, then. I’ll pop over now and tidy the spill myself.”
    â€œYou cannot,” he said. “The building had to be evacuated and sealed, which it will remain until we can safely determine the exact composition and nature of this teaof yours, and how best to remove it and the stench it is producing.”
    I sat back down. “Is it really that bad?”
    â€œI have been on battlefields, Miss Kittredge, littered with hundreds of bodies of the fallen, that by comparison to your bucket of brew smelled like a lawn sprinkled with fresh-cut roses.” He came to stand over me. “Now: who made the tea, and what in God’s name was put in it?”
    â€œThere was a parcel I accidentally dropped in the tea,” I said meekly. “It contained an animech rat.”
    He blinked. “What?”
    â€œThere was also a bomb in the rat, and some sort of glandular flesh, possibly stag, that seemed to be the source of the smell.” I regarded him. “At least, that was Mr. Docket’s theory.”
    Doyle turned his back on me and stood like that for a lengthy period of silence. “Why did you immerse a bomb in the tea?”
    â€œWell I didn’t know it was a bomb at the time,” I pointed out. “I only wanted to be rid of the parcel, and the tea. I put both in the bucket and, well, here we are.”
    He faced me. “Why didn’t you report the bomb?”
    â€œI intended to, tomorrow.” I gazed up at him. “I didn’t know any of this building evacuation business had happened, Tommy. I’ve been out working since this morning; I’ve only just got back.”
    â€œAre you telling me the truth?” When I nodded, he retrieved my cloak and handed it to me. “Come on.”
    I hesitated. “Am I under arrest?”
    â€œNo,” he said.