For All Our Sakes

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Watson

With an air of shamed resignation, Holmes crossed the room and ran his hands along the faded, peeling paper near the floor beneath the window, and continued until he reached a place near the corner where he grabbed part of the paper. He pulled on it. The paper peeled away easily, as though this had happened to it before, revealing what appeared to be a largish jewelry box secreted between the inside and outside walls. My friend carefully took it out, brushed some of the dust off and opened it, revealing—

Nothing. The box was empty!

Holmes gasped audibly. Cauldwell swore.

"I thought you knew what you were doing!" exclaimed Cauldwell through gritted teeth.

"I—I don't…I thought I did too," Holmes muttered, glancing up at Cauldwell. My friend blanched. I could not see Cauldwell's face, as he was standing behind me, but judging by my friend's reaction, I have no doubt it was terrifying to behold.

Without warning, a flash of silver entered my vision and fled as quickly as it came, leaving behind a sudden flash of pain and a warm, sticky substance on my right cheek.

"Watson!" Holmes cried, rushing toward me, his eyes more openly fearful than they had been all evening.

"Find the papers, or next time it will be his throat," came Cauldwell's dangerously calm voice from behind me. "Find them. Find them now!"

I hardly noticed the stinging of my bleeding cheek, so focused was I upon my friend. He swallowed, his gaze moving from Cauldwell, to me—I gave him the most reassuring look I could muster—to the box, to the wall, and suddenly back to the box. He lifted it to eye level and stared intently at the outside, then lowered it and looked inside it, giving a sudden hysterical laugh of relief in a far higher pitch that was normal for him.

"It's a false bottom!" he exclaimed, and turned the box upside down. He shook it, but the false bottom did not budge. My friend attempted to pry it out with his fingernails, but was still unsuccessful.

I felt something cold brush against my shoulder; Cauldwell was wiping the blade of the knife on my waistcoat. I flinched in surprise, disgust, and—yes, I admit it—fear. "Come here and I'll pry it out," said Cauldwell, and he stepped forward with the knife. Holmes stepped toward Cauldwell, and held the box out to him. Cauldwell quickly managed to pry out the bottom with the aid of the knife, revealing several leaves of paper folded into each other and tied tightly together with a length of brown twine. These Holmes took out, and placed in Cauldwell's empty hand.

"Thank you," said Cauldwell in a very serious businesslike tone. "Now, I'm sure you are both wondering why I would go to such lengths to retrieve a few sheets of paper containing information valuable to the late Professor Moriarty." He paused, waiting for an affirmation. Holmes and I nodded slowly. "You see, these papers are more than they seem to be. They will soon be the key to achieving more power than I ever could have dreamed of possessing before I realised the true potential of the information contained within them. Even before Moriarty's death, I had been slowly planning my own rise to power in his ranks. Many of the others were as well, I know, but none of them had my patience, tenacity, or my brilliance. I do not think he suspected for a moment that I was anything but loyal. All the while I was plotting his downfall, and how I could put myself into a position to replace him, and wield even greater power and influence.

As Cauldwell spoke, he paced back in forth before us, as though lecturing students.

"I learned that you were plotting his downfall too, Mr. Holmes, and Moriarty had heard of your reputation as a brilliant detective. When I did some of my own research, I realised that you had a sister, and soon decided to use her to my advantage, as you discovered later. Little did I know that all the while that sneaking girl was on to me the entire time. In the end I gained little from her, and to top it all off, she stole these papers from me. Moriarty had entrusted them to me for safekeeping. I was forced to kill her when she would not tell me where they were, and threatened to turn me in to the police for all the crimes for which she had gathered proof of my involvement." He paused for a moment. Holmes and I remained silent, and he went on.