A Tale of Deduction
Chapter 10
*The Girls' POV*
"I'm here, Em!" Maria walked into the living room of her flat, tearing off the blonde wig and throwing it to the side.
She didn't hear any answer and assumed that Emily was in the shower. Or ignoring her. She sat on the couch and leaned back, thankful that the long day was finally ending.
Then, her mind caught up to her.
The brothers! Oh, I'm an idiot. How did I forget? She knew the answer, but didn't want to admit it. Instead, she grabbed Emily's computer and researched as much as she could about them.
After about 20 minutes of looking, she found an article in an old newspaper one of them was in. 'BID FAREWELL TO THESE SOLDIERS:'
"Aw, crap," Maria muttered. The oldest, Jim, served at the end of the Vietnam War. So he knows pretty well how to shoot a gun.
She heard a pair of delicate feet behind her.
"Hey, Em. How's your date go?"
"Pretty well, considering I had two people monitoring it," Maria turned to look at her. Em's hair was soaking wet. Shower.
"Well, I-" She tried to come up with a convincing excuse, but was interrupted.
"What's all this?" Emily looked around the living room. Papers were piled everywhere, leaving only part of the floor clean.
"Research on the guys that went in Sherlock's and John's flat yesterday."
"Had any luck?" Emily said sarcastically. She looked for a place to sit, and settled for dragging in a chair from the kitchen.
"A bit. I only printed what looked important," Maria turned back to the computer, thinking of how some of the papers seemed so familiar.
"All of this is important?"
"They were popular in the southeastern side of the US. Especially with the police," She explained, "Most of it is criminal records and stuff like that.
"Wow…"
"Yea. I think I've done enough background research. My brain is starting to hurt. 'Night," Maria stood and quickly walked to her room, grabbing her iPod on the way. Papers shifted as she went past.
"Goodnight. And tell me about your date tomorrow morning." Emily said loudly. The door slammed shut. Child, she thought.
*John's POV*
What am I going to say? John thought the next morning as he walked into the kitchen. He began to make coffee to wake himself up. After a few minutes, he noticed it was unusually quiet.
"Sherlock?" John called out. He didn't get a reply. He called his name two more times, before assuming that he had already left. Not surprising; he had been playing the violin since three in the bloody morning.
He walked into the living room, his cup of coffee in his hands. Glancing at the calendar on the wall, he realized it was Saturday. I could've slept in. John was debating whether or not to go back to bed, when Sherlock stomped up the stairs with two books and a pile of papers in his hands.
"I've been at the library. The printer's out" Sherlock sat at on the couch and laid out papers across the coffee table.
"What are all those?" John sat down his mug and grabbed one of the papers.
"Information on the three brothers."
"I see…Vietnam? They surely don't look their age," He partially read a copy of an old newspaper article.
"Yes. Took me ages to find it, but there it is," He paused, his eyebrows scrunching in thought.
"How did you find it? This is an old American newspaper," Sherlock shushed him and laid flat on the sofa, bringing his hands to his chin and revealing the edge of a nicotine patch.
"I thought you said you'd stop wearing those."
"I lied to get you to shut up about it, which you should consider doing now," John decided to press him on it later.
Minutes passed before Sherlock widened his eyes and gasped. John finished his coffee and looked up expectantly at him.
"The clue is in her," Sherlock sprang up from the couch and paced the room.
"I'm sorry, who?"
"Her. The woman from America. The American detective. C'mon John!"
"Who, Maria? What does this have to do with her? I thought―"
"It has everything to do with her." He still wasn't explaining.
"I don't understand," John said, just as Sherlock was grabbing his coat. He yelled "No time to explain!" and left John with an empty mug in his hand and a dozen questions in his head.
*The Girls' POVs*
Good god, we'll never be able to clean the mess. Emily walked in and the papers seemed to grow in numbers overnight. Her flatmate was sitting in the middle of the floor with a McDonald's cup in her hand and a McBiscuit box beside her. Music played through the whole flat.
"Mornin' Em" Maria pat her thigh to the beat of the song (Stacy's Mom, Emily guessed).
"It couldn't hurt to get me food, too." Em sat beside her and tried to grab her cup, but Maria snatched it away.
"Nope. You can have the rest of the biscuit, but get your own drink," She turned her back and drank the soda, blocking it from Em.
"Lemme guess, Coca-Cola spiked with a bit of a Monster energy drink?"
"Of course. The caffeine helps me think," She stood up and walked to her laptop, setting the drink beside it.
"You really need to lay off the caffeine. It's bad for your heart." Em was afraid that it was starting to turn into an addiction.
"I'm fine. Just let me focus before it goes away," Em scoffed. I'll just ask John for some advice on this later. She thought that he must have some experience with this kind of thing.
"Wait, don't you have a job to get to?" She sat in the chair closest to the computer.
"I'm going to get fired soon. They all think I'm too much like a certain sociopath. Or that I'm crazy." Maria typed a password for some account, failed, and typed again. This time, it let her in. Finally. I've been looking for this all night, Maria grabbed the closest paper and wrote an address on the back.
"Well, maybe if you―"
"I'm leaving," Maria interrupted, grabbing her mobile phone. She stood, grabbed her drink, and walked out of the living room.
"Where to?" What on Earth is she going to do?
"You're not coming with me," she yelled from the front door.
"What do you mean? Of course I am!" Em followed her.
"Too dangerous. You'll just slow me down."
"Well, at least call that Sherlock of yours and tell him to go with you," she tried to reason with her, but it was like talking to a brick wall. No way was she going to give in.
"No. He can't come either," Maria turned and looked Em in the eyes. She saw how worried her roommate was, and had to look away. Now was not the time for Em to convince her to stay. "I'll see you soon," Maybe.