Thank God Tessa has a quick mind. “You’retalking to him again, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Darn. I’ve waited all my life to see a realghost, and now you get to and I don’t. It isn’t fair.” After alengthy pause, she added, “Did he say something else?”
“No, not now.”
“What’s he doing? Is he playing the violin orsmoking his pipe?”
“No, and I hope he doesn’t smoke anymore. Ifdeath has any redeeming features, one of them ought to be it killsour bad habits.”
“They didn’t consider smoking unhealthy inthe nineteenth century. All the men did it.”
“Some people knew the health risks but didn’thave any scientific evidence at the time.”
Tessa whispered, “Does he know what year thisis and we’re in San Francisco?”
“Yes, I’ve filled him in on thosethings.”
“Where’s he going to stay?” Leave it to aromance novelist to wonder about sleeping arrangements. In herbooks, the characters do the mattress mambo more often than theyeat.
Holmes answered the question. “I’ve beenthinking about that as well. If you’re the only person who can seeme, I’ll have the devil’s own time renting a flat or booking ahotel room.” He thrust a hand in his coat where he probably kept abillfold of some kind. “Assuming my money is of any use in thiscountry.”
“You can stay here. There are twobedrooms.”
“I knew it!” Tessa did a slow-motion versionof leaping from her chair, pulled my head down near hers andwhispered in my ear. “Does he look like Jeremy Brett or RobertDowney? How old is he?”
“Too old for me and too young for you.”
She frowned and returned to her chair. Like adedicated novelist, she prepared herself to take part in atrue-life adventure and accepted the situation. “I thought youmight be too tired to cook tonight so I ordered dinner from thecorner deli. They’ll be delivering it any minute. I assume there’llbe enough for three.”
* * *
We sat around the large table in the centerof the room, but Holmes declared being a ghost had apparently takenaway his appetite, so he sat still while Tessa and I ate delisandwiches and potato salad. Just as well too, since seeing foodpicked up and then disappearing into thin air might have sent Tessainto cardiac arrest. She reacted wide-eyed when he pulled his chairclose to the table.
Holmes also had very little to say. I beganthe conversation by telling Holmes my full name, but he onlyguffawed loudly.
I turned to Tessa. “Tell him. Tell him howyou know I’m his great-granddaughter.”
She stiffened, as she usually did when aboutto be contrary. “I know nothing of the sort. Anyway, I refuse totalk to a person I can’t see. Ask your mother to explain it.Perhaps she can see ghosts.”
Tessa said the last with a smidgen ofsarcasm. For some reason I didn’t understand, family love skipped ageneration. When Tessa and Fenella meet, I suspect they don’t chat,they wield blunt instruments.
I sighed and finished telling my own versionof how I got my name. Then I remembered something and scowled athim. “In fact, I’m really upset. You had an opportunity to revealthe name of the woman who would’ve been my great-grandmother, butyou didn’t.”
Holmes raised his voice. “Heavens, I couldnot do that. One does not damage the reputation of a lady ofculture and breeding if one may avoid it.”
“Are you saying that you had an affair with awoman of social prominence? Perhaps even of royalty? Those storiesabout you indicated such people came to you for help. Was that theproblem?”
While I spoke, Holmes only nodded his headfrom time to time.
“Then you believe me,” I said.
“Whether your scenario is possible or not, Icannot say, and I refuse to mention names or divulge privatematters.”
I put on a solemn tone. “You mean governmentsmight have fallen, empires toppled?” He didn’t answer and, afterthinking about that for a few seconds, I doubted its relevance. Atleast at that moment.
After another long pause, I changed thesubject. I filled Holmes in on the present condition of the world,thanks to the newspaper Tessa’d brought up and a few magazines. Ialso introduced him to some modern conveniences, like microwaveovens, computers and television. After he adjusted to the vision ofpeople moving and speaking out of a relatively small box on astand, he liked the idea of having a television set in his bedroom,vowing to watch every motion picture ever made, besides getting thenews of the day.
“It will be a means of learning what ishappening today and, from films, what has happened in thepast.”
“I’ll rent them from Netflix, and we’ll startwith films made in the nineteen twenties. You can even watch moviesmade from the stories Doyle wrote.” I laughed. “With luck, you’llget to see at least nine actors who have portrayed you.”
Tessa poured tea for me and spoke toward theplace she probably assumed Holmes sat. “Since you won’t be able togo anywhere, at least you’ll have something to do.”
Holmes groaned. “You’re right. My mind willbe stifled. How shall I continue to use my brain when I’m invisibleand cannot investigate crimes or go where I please?”
“Well, how did you find out about cases tosolve before? The clients came to you, didn’t they?”
Apparently not wanting to be excluded fromthe conversation, Tessa spoke up again. “Doc put your littlePrivate Investigations sign in the vestibule, but I think it’sunlikely to bring any customers.”
I cleared away the dishes from the table.“I’m going to design a website to offer my services and use theInternet.”
“You were going to pretend to be me?” Holmesasked.
“No, I’ll be myself. As I said a little whileago, since I’m your great-granddaughter, I naturally inherited someof your detecting genes.”
“Genes?”
“DNA. Oh, never mind, I’ll explain it to youlater.”
He snickered in that wonderful way of his. Orrather as various actors had portrayed him. “I’d very much like tosee you solve a case by yourself. I’m sure I’ll have watched atleast a dozen films before you solve even one.”
“Is that a bet?”
“You desire a wager, do you? Done.”
“I haven’t much money, so what do you want ifI lose?”
“I haven’t any American money either. Shallwe just make it a friendly test of your talent?”
“If I come up with the truth before thepolice solve the case, will that
