Author's note : This story is loosely based on the novel 'A Study In Scarlet'.

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The Blind Mistake

As I opened the doors to 221B Baker Street, I heard Sherlock Holmes warmly playing his violin which calmed my soul to a better state which was peace. I stepped up lightly on the flight of stairs which led to the room of the world's only consulting detective as he created the job, which he tends to remind me of. I was only halfway when I heard him put down his violin, 'Come in, Watson.' said he, I must confess I should have been shocked as to how he sensed my presence but then again he was Sherlock Holmes, his astute of logical reasoning should no longer be a surprise to me. So I stepped into the room and found him standing with his hands on his back, looking out the window.

'I see you're relaxing yourself with the violin instead of cocaine.' I proclaimed. He turned around and said 'I'm working on a case which is rather tedious to be honest but as my favourite physician strongly disapprove my alternatives I find myself in a despicable situation.'

'Your physician?'

'You.'

'Ah, well the disapproval of your habit might be the only thing that will keep you alive but enough of that, you're working on a case you say?'

'Yes, I accepted it the moment I saw you enter the room. You've been to the barber shop haven't you?'

'How did you know that? I haven't got my hair cut but I have indeed went to the barber shop'

'I do not know, Watson, I saw. On the way back you also telegraphed Mary that you wouldn't be able to meet her for lunch.'

'That is true, but I could have also telegraphed her when I left earlier today, why did you not make that suspicion?'

'I have and it proved impossible but an explanation would be superfluous. Is there anything else you would like to know?'

'The barber shop and the telegraph to Mary about lunch.'

'Child's play, there are a few strands of hair around your shoulder so you have been to the barber's but did not cut your hair, this concludes that you must have talked to the barber as he was cutting another man's hair, but why a man why not a woman's? The fact that the strands appear to be short should depict that it does indeed belong to a man. Then the telegraph, having to send a telegraph to someone would require a few shillings and the number of shillings you have in your pockets are lesser than that of this mornings. To whom you telegraphed to seemed vague but I deduced that you wouldn't have anyone else to telegraph to other than me or Mary, so Mary it is. And lunch, you have told me that you would be leaving for lunch with Mary but the time of your date has already passed as you entered the room but why not have lunch earlier, why must it be that you cancelled the date? There is no trace of food or any type of beverage on your overalls so obviously a cancelled date.'

'That was tremendous. I envy you sometimes, Holmes, I really do.' Holmes just smirked and sat down on his chair. 'Oh please do sit, Watson,' he waved his hands to my chair, 'we have a client coming.'

Surely enough a couple walked in with the woman crying and the man putting his arms around her, the woman was around her mid-forties and the man a few years older.'Is this where Mr. Sherlock Holmes reside?' asked the man with a slight stutter. 'You're not wrong to make that assumption, please sit down and tell us your case.'

'I'm sorry, Mr. Holmes but we would prefer to handle this case privately with you.'

'No worries, Watson is a very trustworthy man and is my companion.'

'Very well then. Mr. Holmes, I am Adrian Hall and this is my wife Laurissa, we've come to you today to discuss a case of which involves my son, Darcy Hall.'

'Stepson.'

'Excuse me?'

'Darcy's your stepson, if you were to present a case to me Mr. Hall I ask of you to submit to me all the facts and only the facts.'

'Yes, umm, our stepson, he is a suspect of murder that was committed, the police have not yet found the body and we came here as soon as we found out about it.'

'How is he a suspect when the body has not yet been found?' I asked.

'The police said that his 2 month old missing fiancée would have been dead by now and that the body will be found shortly.'

'Who was the inspector who told you about this?'

'It was Inspector Lestrade I believe.'

'Speak of the devil.' Holmes turned his head towards the door.

Inspector Lestrade rushed in and said 'I knew you two would be here,' he shifted his eyes to Holmes with a serious face 'we found the body, in the wardrobe of Darcy Hall.' Mr and Mrs. Hall jumped up with a horrified look in their eyes and ran downstairs, Holmes on the other hand stood up slowly, wore his hat and requested me to follow him. Lestrade, Holmes and I entered a cab and onwards to the Hall residence, the whole time Holmes was staring outside the cab and smiling every once and then leaving Lestrade and I looking bewildered.

We reached the house about 10 minutes later, as soon as we got down Holmes looked on the mud and smiled, the house was enormous with a garden by it's side, a fountain in the middle of the garden and a few small huts around the house, no, the mansion. Soon, we were all in the room of Darcy Hall when Holmes just looked at the room and smiled but that smile faded away to a frown, he then proceeded to move around the room searching the body and for something else but to no avail, my companion quickly searched around the entire mansion and came back and sighed.

'This got us all baffled when we found it, have you any ideas so far?' Lestrade asked.

'Not much. The murderer smokes an imported Romeo y Julieta cigar, is most likely around the height of 5 feet, murdered this woman somewhere else after having a fight most likely, that's all I've gotten so far.'

'How the deuce did you find that out and what do you mean he murdered this woman elsewhere?'

'I'm afraid if I were to unfold the matter, I would insult your intelligence.'

'Oh please do.'

'When we first arrived, I noticed the marks on the mud which had the boot prints of the murderer and a long trail along it meaning that the murderer wore boots big enough only a man could fit into and I calculated his height with that, the long trail was most likely the body being dragged into the mansion which can only mean she was killed somewhere else. As we entered the room I noticed the cigar ashes and the lack of blood of around the body which confirms that she was indeed killed somewhere else, I inspected the cigar ashes and it only matches the imported Romeo y Julieta cigar. Then I inspected the body, it had mud marks but no traces of blood anywhere else but her bashed in head, her shoulder has finger marks which means the murderer grabbed her shoulders hard and killed her afterwards.'

'And what about the boots?' I asked.

'Nowhere to be found in the house sadly. But I have already worked on a few possibilities, the next step would to be gather more facts and eliminate all which is impossible.'

'Where next?'

'Here. Mr. Hall, may I speak to you for a moment? With Watson accompanying me of course.'

Mr. Hall led us to his bedroom and sat down on a chair as we sat on our respective chairs on the other side of his.'Mr. Hall,' my companion wistfully uttered 'I see that you imported the Romeo y Julieta cigar for the household and have anyone else other than you smoked this cigar?'

'Not any that I could think of but I can assure you Mr. Holmes that I am not the murderer.'

'I never said you were. That is all I wanted to ask you, Mr. Hall, we will now be off.'

'But what about the murderer, Mr. Holmes?'

'You leave that to me, goodbye.'

'Wait Mr. Holmes, I just remembered. Darcy smokes the cigars when he is under stress. Oh God, does that mean that Darcy,'

'That is a possibility Mr. Hall, goodbye.'

As we left, the poor man sat down on his chair and put his hands to his face, making woeful noises. 'So is that it then? Darcy is the murderer?' I asked my companion who seems to be off to his own world. 'No, it isn't that simple, this was done by someone else.' as soon as Holmes replied to that, the butler, Austin Luther showed up. 'Is it true then? That Master Darcy's beloved has passed?'

'Yes, and you are?'

'The butler, sir.'

'Have you seen anyone suspicious around the mansion or the madam herself for the past 2 months?'

'There wasn't anyone sir.'

'Can you tell me more about the day she went missing?'

'It was a dark night sir, we all saw the madam in a cab but that was all.'

Holmes looked into the butler's eyes and said 'Thank you, may your day be well.' to which I replied 'Holmes, there's a dead body, nobody can have a better day.' my companion just smiled. As we stepped outside, Holmes decided to follow the trail of mud which is vaguely visible, we followed it to a river with a few trees and rocks all over the place when Holmes stopped and said 'This is it, this is where the victim met her murderer. See the blood on the rock over there? That is where she fell and hit her head.' I admit that his observation skills are fascinating but observing a rock like that under the dark is unbelievable. We went back shortly after and went to sleep.

I awoke to the noise of a loud slam, I jumped up and ran out to the living room as quick as I could and to my surprise I saw Sherlock Holmes walking around in circles with his hands placed together on his chin. 'Is something of the matter?'

'Watson, good morning. I just came back from a visit with Darcy Hall, a fascinating fellow. The case will be closed soon Watson for I have found the truth.'

'So Darcy is the murderer then?'

'If my deductions are right, then yes it would appear so.'

'And what of the murderer himself?'

'He is in Scotland Yard for now and kept pleading his innocence but we have all the facts Watson, his height, his habit of smoking under stress, his shoe size, it all fits Watson.'

'This is a open-and-shut case after all then.'

'Indeed Watson.'

'Does Mr. Hall know about this?'

Silence. 'Holmes.' I said but was ignored. Holmes sat down, looked up and smiled. 'Watson, get everyone here, Lestrade, the Hall family, everyone who is connected to the case.' I changed my outfit and went downstairs to catch a cab and get everyone to 221B Baker Street, surely enough they all came.

'What's happening, Holmes? You know who the murderer is don't you? It's Darcy Hall isn't it?' Lestrade said.

'Patience, Lestrade. The truth will reveal itself later.'

'Later? We don't have that time Mr. Holmes.' uttered Mr. Hall

'The truth will come to light Mr. Hall, all we have to do,' Holmes glanced at Darcy 'is wait.'

'Very well then, if wait we must then wait we shall.' proclaimed .

'Now I would like to give you all the facts that we have, when I first took the case I knew that Darcy was the stepson of Mr. Hall and that they had a good family connection, Mr. Hall himself is 4 feet 11 inches and Darcy about 5 feet tall. We then went to the residence of the Hall family and deduced that the murderer wore boots, is about 5 inches tall, smokes a Romeo y Julieta cigar, had a fight with the victim and killed her by accident but not in the mansion, she was murdered somewhere else, I later found the crime scene and inspected a little further to gather the facts. With these facts I eliminated all which is impossible and whatever remains, however impropable, must be the truth.' Holmes stood up. 'I later also found out that Mr. Hall spends a lot of time with the victim but it occured to me that it wasn't an important matter,' he put his hands in his pockets. 'I then deduced that Darcy is the murderer with all these facts.'

'So Darcy IS the murderer, Mr. Holmes.' Mr. Hall jumped up and furiously accusing but this tirade was interrupted by Holmes.

'It would appear so, Mr. Hall, but then there it is,' Holmes pulled a handcuff out from his pockets and cuffed Mr. Hall to his arms. 'Human fear. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, the real murderer of Madam Isebella, Mr. Adrian Hall.'

I then realized how Holmes proved it, the whole time he was here, Mr. Hall's face got paler by the second even when he accused his stepson, it was guilt that failed him.