The Doc Justice Files - Mystic Mayhem part 1
by Direwolf

"Come on, Alex! You said you would show it to me and then we were going to go shopping! That was hours ago and I simply have to have a new dress. After all, Go-on said he was bringing Doctor Collins to dinner tonight!"

Miss Aleksandra Gregory, known as Alex to her small circle of friends, bit back a far from ladylike retort. She reminded herself that Lady Britomart Paget was about as flighty as she was lovely and was the sister of her very good friend, Lord Gawaine Paget, for whom she had the highest of regard. As a result, she found herself playing chaperon to the blithe young English woman far more often then she would have liked.

It wasn't that Britt was a bad person, on the contrary. But she seemed to have the survival instincts and attention span of a mayfly and the morals of a mink. Scandal was a joke to her, so long as her oldest brother Cad didn't cancel her allowance. To make matters worse, she was attracted to just about any male she met and considering her beauty the feeling was generally mutual. At times, Alex was sure she spent more time guarding Britt from her own actions than she did sleeping,

"And no, I am not being jealous," Alex thought to herself.

She was enough of a realist to know she would never have Britt's remarkable beauty. While Britt had long curled hair the color of light honey, Alex's hair was a light mouse brown and cut unfashionably short to keep it from tangling in the slipstream of an open cockpit airplane. Britt's dark blue eyes shone out from smooth pale skin. Alex's eyes were gray and had been described by some as hard and steely and her skin had been browned by sun and wind. While Britt sported the latest dress fashions from ‘the continent', Alex preferred sensible tweeds and trousers that were easy to run in. In all, it would be hard to find a less physically matched pair than the two of them. But Alex found Britt's company somehow refreshing, when she wasn't being maddening like she was now.

This afternoon she had certainly slipped into one of her ‘maddening phases' and right now, Alex was rather glad her gun was tucked well out of reach. Otherwise she might have been quite tempted to use it.

But to be honest, there hadn't been much to hold Britt's interest so far. The day had been taken up with paperwork and business meetings. She had kept Britt from wandering with the promise of showing her a rare jewel being held in a safety deposit box here in the bank where she was dropping off notarized copies of several shipping contracts. But the bank manager had insisted on taking the time to review her portfolio. Since the Pacific Exchange was here in San Francisco, a fair amount of her business had links to the city. Not the least of which were her shares in Collins Enterprises. Shares she wished she could increase but the principle shareholder carefully tracked where each share went. Justin Collins had no intention of loosing control of his own company.

That wasn't what brought her back to San Francisco. Alex knew the real reason was Go-on. Something had happened to him while he and Justin were in India, something tragic that Go-on wasn't willing to talk about even with her. Alex had convinced herself that the only solution was to drag it out of him for his own good. She planned on doing so tonight when she and Britt were supposed to meet Go-on and Justin for dinner. She assumed she could count on Britt to distract Justin long enough for her to find out what was going on with Gawaine.

"I think that is enough for now, Mr. Nordahl," Alex told the bank manager. "But we really mustn't take up any more of your valuable time. Now, my safety deposit box if you please?'

The bank manager was momentarily at a loss for words but could hardly refuse a direct request. "Whatever you say, Miss Gregory. Would you like some coffee brought in while I fetch it?"

"Tea would be lovely," Britt said brightly.

"I'll have some sent in." The decidedly portly gentlmen smiled at Britt and went out to fetch Alex's safety deposit box.

He was back a few minutes after tea arrived and set the long gray box on his desk. His key went in one of the keyholes, Alex fit hers in the other. The box opened. Alex put the folded documents in the steel box then took out a hinged wooden case slightly larger then a deck of cards. She handed the case to Britt.

"This is it, the Heart of the Romanoffs."

Britt's eyes lit up as she took the wooden box and reverently opened it. Inside was a red stone nearly the size of a silver half dollar encased in setting of gold wire. The gem was a star ruby that had been cunningly cut to make the chatoyant star seem to almost rise out of the deep red of the ruby. The gold was old, the soft gleam of rough polished metal rather then the mirror bright tones you found on modern alloyed pieces. The loop at the top indicated that it had been used as a pendent though whatever chain might have held it was long gone.

"It has been in the family for centuries." Alex explained. "So long that no one really knows where it came from any longer. Let's take it over to the sunlight so you can really see the color. The star seems to almost come alive in the sun!"

The two women walked out of the bank manager's office and moved over to the large plate glass windows by the front of the bank. The afternoon sun was streaming in, casting a warm glow on the polished granite floor. It was nearly four in the afternoon and a few customers were completing their transactions with the tellers. Britt held the ruby in the sunlight. As Alex had said, the stone took on a deep inner glow as if of a light shining up through a huge drop of blood. The white, eight armed star seemed to rise up through the red depths and looked ready to break free of the stone. It turned and shifted with every movement of the jewel.

"Magnificent!" Britt exclaimed.

"It is, isn't it," Alex remarked. It was easy to forget just how impressive the Heart was, a true example of a master gemcutter's art.

She was so taken by the beauty of the stone in the sunlight that the first she knew of the trouble was when someone shouted. "All right, this is a stick-up! Keep your hands where we can see them!"

Alex and Britt both looked away from the stone to the front of the bank where a half dozen men had just stormed in through the doors. Five of them wore what Alex thought of as labors' clothes and all carried drawn guns. The sixth man was something different. He was dressed in an elegant black suit, complete with a bowtie and bright red rose in his lapel. Tall and slender, his height was accentuated by the snow-white turban he wore. A large red stone glinted in the white folds of his turban and he had a black walking stick in his hand. A short cape with a dark red lining and mirror polished shoes completed his attire. His dark eyes flashed with sardonic humor and he sported an elegantly combed and waxed coal black van-dyke beard and mustache. In all, he looked like he had just stepped off a stage.

"No need for such harsh language, my larcenous crony," the turbaned man said, his voice a rich baritone that echoed though the bank, "I am sure none of these citizens will risk their lives to stop us!"

At that point, the bank guard by the door shook off his shock and reached for his holstered gun. The elegantly dressed man acted first. With a broad sweep of his hand, a veritable fountain of playing cards cascaded from his sleeve over the startled guard. They confused him long enough for one of the armed robbers to close, and knock the man out with the barrel of his automatic. The guard slumped to the floor.

"I trust there will be no further...unpleasantness?" The turbaned man asked. "Otherwise my excitable associates may be required to enforce order in a more lethal manner. Now, do as we say and raise your hands."

Throughout the bank, hands went up.

Even as she raised her hands, Alex berated herself mentally for leaving her purse in the manager's office. Ever since her last visit to San Francisco when she and Go-on had helped rescue Justin from a mysterious ambush, she had made sure a Colt .32 automatic with accurate sights was always tucked into her bag.

With practiced ease, three of the henchmen began looting the tellers' cash drawers under the guard of the two other armed men who stayed by the door. The dapperly dressed robber who was obviously in charge strolled among the shocked bank customers, seemingly drawing coins, pens and deposit slips out of their ears and clothing. Alex fumed to herself by the window, trying to figure out how she could get the drop on a half dozen bank robbers. It was not an easy challenge.

The bearded man stopped in mid stride and pressed the tips of his fingers to his temples through his turban, a look of deep concentration on his face.

"We must leave, the police are on their way!" He announced. "Once we are finished, ladies and gentlemen, I must caution you not to try to follow us or there are sure to be lethal consequences, and I don't mean for my companions or myself."

The three men quickly grabbed what stacks of cash were on the counters, stuffing them into canvas bags and joined the two men guarding the door. As the ringleader started after them, he suddenly veered over to Alex and Britt.

"Now this is a rare find," he said, deftly plucking the Heart of the Romanoffs from Britt's hand. "Though it seems a shame to deprive a lovely lady of such a fine bauble. Still, beauty such as yours hardly needs embellishment, this would be lost in your own radiance."

Alex felt the rage coiling up inside her. This sideshow Svengali was about to steal a family treasure from her! But if she acted, the men by the door were sure to open fire and how many might be wounded or even killed? Despite her pride, it wasn't worth the risk to others.

"Well, if you are going to take it, can't you leave me something in its place?" Britt gasped, her blue eyes fluttering.

With a hearty laugh, the man pulled the rose from his lapel and tucked it behind Britt's ear. Then he bent down and kissed her deeply.

"Come on boss you said it yourself, we need to scram!" One of the hoods protested.

"I must leave you, dear lady, but remember always when fate allowed you to meet the Amazing Randu!"

Alex muttered something far from lady-like in Russian, a fine language to use for cursing.

With a flourish of his cape, the man calling himself Randu ran to the door, looking somewhat less elegant, more like a racing stork then a strutting peacock. The two guards yanked open the door and all six of them beat a hasty retreat.

"I'm going after them!" Alex announced firmly.

"I'm not the least bit surprised," Britt answered.

Alex was already in motion. She ran to the unconscious bank guard and helped herself to his gun. Only then did she realize that Britt was still with her.

"Wait here!" Alex snapped, heading for the door.

Britt didn't, choosing instead to follow along.

They charged out the door side by side. Across the street, Alex spotted the bank robbers running into an alleyway between a pair of office buildings. Two San Francisco Police cars had just screamed around a corner three blocks away and were closing fast. It seemed Randu had been right when he said the police were on the way.

Alex didn't worry about that now, her quarry was in sight. She fired once and the bullet chipped brick behind the last of the fleeing crooks as he ducked out of sight.

With a snarl of anger, she charged across the street in pursuit. It never occurred to her what the police might think when they arrived at the scene of a bank hold up and found her brandishing a gun.

One of the police cars cut her off while the other closed on the bank. Two blue clad officers pilled out of their car, guns drawn.

"Hold it right there!" One of them shouted.

It wasn't until Britt grabbed her shoulder that Alex realized that he meant her.

"They are getting away, officer," she shouted, pointing at the ally. "They ran down there!"

"Just put the gun down!"

Alex sputtered in indignation.

"I can explain," Britt said quickly, "The crooks ran out of the bank and Miss Gregory and I followed them. You have to hurry! They will get away and they have a very valuable piece of Miss Gregory's jewelry!"

Where Alex's righteous bluster didn't do the trick, Britt's blue eyes did.

"Right," the officer said, "let's catch us some crooks!"

The two policemen ran for the alleyway with Britt and Alex right behind. They rounded the corner to the alley and stopped.

"You sure they came in here?" One of the cops asked.

The alleyway in question ran between the two office buildings. One was made of brick, the other of fitted slabs of granite with concrete block corners. Each building was over eight stories high and the alleyway only extended back forty feet before ending against the back wall of the next building. The doors leading into the alleyway all seemed to be secured, the wrought iron fire escapes were secured in their brackets. There were no manholes visible in the pavement.

And aside from a few bits of trash, the alley was empty.

"I saw them run in here not three minutes ago!" Alex exclaimed. But there was no sign of them now. It was as if they had vanished into the walls.

"What's that?" One of the policemen said as he bent down to pick up something that flashed dark red. "Is this yours?"

Alex took the offered item, a red stone in a yellow metal frame. It was the stone from Randu's turban and she could tell it was only dark red glass in a brass frame.

"No, it's not mine. It was worn by the leader of the bank robbers," Alex snapped, looking at the empty alleyway. "And that man has made off with my property!"

To be continued...