The Cosmic Mystery

Chapter 25: The Unicorn and the Wasp Part 2

     "You're joking!" I say, laughing softly as I shake her hand. "Wow!" I look to the Doctor and Donna whose faces mimic mine in shock as they introduce themselves and offer her praises.

"Agatha Christie. I was just talking about you the other day. I said, I bet she's brilliant. I'm the Doctor." He says motioning to himself before looking at Donna. "This is Donna. This is my- uh- Emerald." He says, suddenly much less committed to the ruse in the face of Agatha Christie and i find myself fighting the urge to roll my eyes. "Oh, I love your stuff. What a mind. You fool me every time." He says before tilting his head and nodding slowly. "Well, almost every time." I look at him now, begging him to stop. "Well, once or twice. Well, once. But it was a good once." He says laughing nervously as he shakes her hand. I sigh trying to contain my laugh.

"Well you make for an unusual couple." She comments looking back and forth between the Doctor and I as if suspicious. "I can't help but notice you have no wedding ring." She says, and it's in a nice way but the suspicion in the undertones rings loudly amongst the group. I laugh nervously, lifting what would be my ring finger to my other hand.

      "Well as Lady Edison mentioned to us earlier, there is a jewel thief on the loose. We simply put it in a safe place for now, too precious to risk." I say, offering her a warm smile that I hope looks convincing. I feel the Doctor come to stand beside me, his hand meeting my back as if to sell my story. Agatha nods and laughs softly.

      "Of course. Silly me, it's quite smart actually." She says, offering us a warm smile back. I nearly relax, but I fail to miss the slight glance she offers us out of the corner of her eye, and I'm suddenly aware she probably doesn't believe us at all. Lady Edison begins talking to Agatha, about her husband which makes me wince given what I know. He was not a good person from what I remember.

      "Smart thinking." The Doctor says softly near my ear and I nod a little smiling tightly at him.

    "She didn't believe it."

      "Not even slightly." He remarks sounding impressed, before approaching the Colonel and asking for his newspaper. He glances over it for a minute before motioning for Donna and I to come over with two fingers, a look of concentration on his face. Donna and I look at each other before making our way to the doctor looking at the date on the newspaper as he points to it. "The date in this newspaper." Is all he says and Donna and I look at him confused.

     "Yeah, what about it?" Donna finally asks for both of us when he doesn't answer right away.

    "It's the date Agatha Christie disappears." He comments and I blink, remembering that fact about her the second he mentions it. How could I have forgotten? "She'd just discovered her husband was having an affair." He says, quietly as to not allow those around us to hear. I look at her, smiling away engrossed in her conversations.

"You'd never think to look at her, smiling away." Donna says sipping her drink as she stands there also eyeing Agatha. The Doctor nods a little and then tilts his head.

"Well, she's British and moneyed. That's what they do. They carry on. Except for this one time. No one knows exactly what happened. She just vanished. Her car will be found tomorrow morning by the side of a lake." I frown a little, the tale of her disappearance coming back to me as he speaks. "Ten days later, Agatha Christie turns up in a hotel in Harrogate. Said she'd lost her memory. She never spoke about the disappearance till the day she died, but whatever it was-"

"It's about to happen." I finish looking at him. He nods slowly, his eyes glinting at the thought of solving another great mystery.

"Right here right now." He says, nodding his head slightly.