Chapter four
Skylar had been sat silently in the back of the cab, slightly anxious but excited to understand exactly how Jefferson Hope made four people kill themselves by talking to them. The turning off of the engine draws her to the surroundings; two identical buildings are stood side by side. Jeff, ever the gentleman, comes round and opens the passenger door for her, looking in the cab at Skylar.
"Where are we?" she asked, glancing up with pretend fear, no doubt by now his other victims would be completely terrified.
Jeff smiled faintly. "You know every street in London, you know exactly where we are."
"Roland-Kerr Further Education College" she drawled, boredom shining through. "And what now? You just walk your victims in? How?"
Jeff pulls a gun out from behind his back and points it at Skylar. "Oh, dull" she comments with an eye roll.
"It gets better –"
"You can't make people take their own lives at gunpoint, you might as well shoot them, I for one would go for the gun."
"I don't need a gun with you though, you're exactly like your dad, and you'll follow. Too curious not to, ain't ya?" Jefferson lowered the gun and walked towards the building.
She purses her lips together as she watches him stroll away, fighting the urge to follow. Instead of sitting and calling for help or even walking away she settles for hitting the cab and following the man. It was inevitable that she would follow him, after all it was a challenge, a puzzle, she wanted to know…no needed to know how he made four people commit suicide. She allowed herself to follow him through a labyrinth of hallways, stopping when they reached a large classroom with a table inside, he sat himself down on one side of the table and gestured for her to take the seat opposite.
"Well, what do you think?" Jeff askes, leaning back in his chair slightly. Skylar shrugs in response. "It's up to you. You're the one who's gonna die 'ere."
"No I'm not"
"That's what they all say." Jeff gestured again to the seat opposite him. "Shall we talk."
Instead of responding, she pulls out the chair and sits down opposite Jefferson Hope, sighing dramatically. "Bit risky, wasn't it? Took me away under the eyes of a dozen policemen, they're not that stupid. No doubt Miss Hudson will remember you, we just won't mention my dad."
"You call that a risk? Nah." He reaches into the left pocket of his cardigan. "This is a risk." Jeff takes out a small glass bottle with a screw top on it, placing it on the table in front of him. There is a single capsule inside, she looks at it but doesn't react. "I like this bit. 'Cause you don't get it yet, do yer? But you're about to. I just have to do this" He reaches into the right pocket of his cardigan and pulls out an identical bottle with an identical tablet inside, and places it beside the first bottle. "You weren't expecting that, were yer? Oh you're going to love this."
"Love what?"
"Skylar 'olmes. Look at you! 'Ere in the flesh, a fan told me about your father's website, about him and about you."
"A fan?" Skylar raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"He's brilliant, a proper genius. You are , a proper genius like 'im. 'The Science of Deduction'.Now that is proper thinking. Between you and me sitting 'ere, why can't people think? Don't it make you mad? Why can't people just think?"
Jeff looks up into Skylar's eyes, she looks back at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes at the realisation, her voice dripping with sarcasm "Oh, I see. You're a proper genius too."
"Don't look it, do i? Funny little man drivin' a cab. But you'll know better in a minute. Chance are it'll be the last thing you ever know."
Skylar holds his gaze for a second, her head full of sarcastic comments, instead she rolls her eyes and looks down at the table. Deciding it's better to just play along. "Okay, two bottles. Explain."
"There's a good bottle and a bad bottle. You take the pill from the good bottle, you live; take the pill from the bad bottle, you die."
"Both bottles are of course identical" Skylar concluded, eyes on the bottles.
"In every way."
"And you know which is which, bit I don't." he nodded in response.
"Wouldn't be a game if you knew. You're the one who chooses."
Skylar sighed loudly, sounding like a child asking why she has to go to bed. "Why should I?" She couldn't believe how much she sounded like her father when he was in one of his moods, acting like a child. "I've got nothing to go on. What's in it for me?"
"Whatever bottle you choose, I take the pill from the other one – and then, together we take out medicine." Skylar couldn't help but grin, this was interesting. Dangerous but very interesting. "I won't cheat, it's your choice. I'll take whatever pill you don't." Skylar ignore him in favour of looking at the two bottles, concentrating on which one to pick. Jeff gave a crooked smile. "I want your best game."
"It's not a game, its chance." She spat in response. "You risked your life four times to kill strangers, why?"
"Time to play" Jeff changed the subject, nodding down to the two bottles.
Skylar smirked at the response. It was exactly what she had been hoping for. "Oh, I am playing. This is my turn. There's shaving foam behind your left ear" she pointed it out "Nobodies pointed it out to tell you, traces of where it's happened before, so obviously you live on your own; there's no-one to tell you." Jeff squirms under her gaze. "But there's a photograph of children, the children's mother had been cut out of the picture. If she'd died, she's still be there. The photographs old but the frame's new, you think of your children but don't get to see them, estranged father, she took the kids, but you still love them and it still hurts. But there's more. Your clothes: recently laundered but everything you're wearing's at least…three years old? Keeping up appearances but not planning ahead. And here you are on a kamikaze murder spree, what's that about?" Jeff's expression gives nothing away as he gazed back at her, her eyes widen slightly. "Three years ago- is that when they told you?"
"Told me what?" He asks flatly.
Skylar lent forward, leaning her elbows on the table. Expression ecstatic "That you're a dead man walking."
"So are you"
"Am i?" she asked in a teasing manner, looking down at herself with faked uncertainty. "Last time I looked in a mirror I was neither dead nor a man, funny that. Guess you're not a proper genius after all."
"Aneurism" he admitted.
"You're dying so you murdered four people" she said, trying to grasp the logic.
"I've outlined four people."
"No, you're doing this for a reason. I would guess it's your kids, love is a viscous motivator."
"You are good, ain't you?" he looked surprised. "I 'ave a sponsor."
"So you take a life and money goes to your kids, not much money in taxi driving."
"Who'd sponsor a serial killer?" she asked, leaning back in her chair.
"Who'd be a fan of Sherlock 'olmes?" he parred.
"A psychopath would be my first guess" she breathed. "Who else would be a fan of someone like my dad and carry an interest in me also."
"You're not the only one to enjoy a good murder. There's others out there, just like your father and just like you, except Sherlock 'olmes is just a man…and they're so much more than that."
"How can someone be more than a man? An organisation? What?" her noise twitches in distaste as she speaks.
"There's a name no-one says, an' I'm not gonna say it either, Now enough, chatter" he nods towards the bottles "Time to choose."
"What if I don't choose? I could just walk out of here" she gestured wildly to the door, there was nothing stopping her from leaving.
Jeff sighed, lifting the previously seen gun from under the table to point at her head again. "You can take a fifty-fifty chance, or I can shoot you in the head. Funnily enough, no-one's ever gone for that option.
Skylar looked at the sad old man holding the gun and smiled calmly. "I'll. Take. The. Gun. Please." She articulated, each word emphasised as a separate sentence.
"Are you sure?" he asked, gun still pointed at her, hand shaking almost unnoticeably.
"Defiantly. The gun" she confirmed, her voice happier than it should have been in that moment.
"You don't want to phone a friend?"
Skylar's smile widened confidently. "The gun."
