SHERLOCK'S POV
Today had been quite an exciting day, first John had drug me straight out my little denial episode - which I was extremely grateful for - then I had found our little acrobat, and I had been strangled by the man, and as if that weren't enough the most exciting event of the day was the fact that we now knew the next victim to be killed. Her name was Soo lin Yao, a girl of little importance that had apparently not showed up to work in a long while, well according to her friend. I knew otherwise, she was working, just in secret in the dark of night. Which, might I say was quite clever. Well … not as clever as me. If I were her I would have left the country to be completely honest, but she was obviously just an idiot and clearly not me.
I stood there waiting for the perfect moment, watching as she took another of the clay pots and started to perform an old chinese ritual with it. I walked closer, her eyes not even once looking my way as I snuck up behind her.
"Soo Lin Yao, I assume." I said, calling out to the young girl as I got ever closer to her. She looked up at me, her eyes holding confusion and surprise. She obviously did not expect anyone to have found her. Well, she was wrong. See … like I said, she's an idiot. Someone was going to find her inevitably whether it be another employee, our acrobat, or even her silly little friend. Fortunately for her, it was John and I that had gotten to her first.
"Yes, and you are?"
"Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes. And this is my friend John." I explained, introducing the pair of us to her as we both took the chance to sit on opposite stools, facing the young girl. We needed to question her, we needed answers. She was the key, the first victim of the acrobat that we had gotten the chance to talk to. If she could only tell us the name of the person that was after her, something, anything, perhaps even help us decode the cipher. Essentially she would lead us to Abrielle, and that was exactly what I wanted. Soo Lin Yao was the key, and all we had to do was get her to talk.
"You saw the cipher. Then you know he is coming for me." She stated, a knowing look in her eyes. Well obviously we had seen it. Duh, why else would we be here in the first place. We weren't breaking into the museum to make friends. We were here for the case. Abrielle's case.
"Who is he? Have you met him before?" I questioned the girl, my eyes piercing through her soul. I needed answers and I needed answers now, there was no time for chit chat. A woman was in danger. John's sister was in danger. Abrielle Watson was in danger. My Abrielle was in danger. She was kidnapped, snatched away from us, and I needed to know who was behind it. The name of our so called acrobat.
"When I was a girl, living back in China. I recognise his ... signature." She replied, nodding her head. It was obvious that she knew the code, the cipher that was tied into these murders and Abrielle's kidnapping. I knew it was a warning, that Abrielle had made clear, but what exactly was the warning. What was our acrobat threatening these people with? Who was our little acrobat?
"Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu." Soo Lin exclaimed, placing her foot upon her leg and beginning to untie the laces of her shoe. Zhi Zhu … that meant the spider in chinese, how very fitting. Our acrobat was a spider. I finally had a name, the name of the person that may have very well taken Abrielle. The person that I would be sure to kill the moment I got the chance. I wouldn't simply put a bullet in this man, oh no, I was going to kill him slowly, painfully, his blood dripping to the floor and staining the ground crimson until he begged me to kill him and that was only the beginning. He was a monster, the monster that had supposedly kidnapped Abrielle. And he would most certainly suffer because of that.
"You know this mark?" I heard Soo Lin question, snapping me out of my thoughts as she pointed out a black lotus shaped mark on the heel of her foot. The same exact mark, in fact, that both Van Coon and Lukis had on their feet as well.
"Yes. It's the mark of a Tong." I replied, my voice void of all emotion. Clearly she was a smuggler or had been a smuggler at some point in her life. The mark looked too old to have been recent, and she didn't seem all that guilty which meant that she probably worked for them sometime in her childhood, possibly in her teens. I closed my eyes, my brain blocking out everything around me as I entered my mind palace. I walked down the hallway, the turquoise walls melding into my eyes as I tried to find the room I was looking for. The room that could very well hold the solution to everything. This was a clue, a clue that could turn into a key, and the only way to get that key is if I find it deep within the walls of my mind palace. So here I was … running through my mind, desperately trying to find the room I had hidden it. The place of cases once solved.
"Going somewhere?"
I stopped, the angelic voice of a woman stopping me in my tracks. I turned to face the woman, to see none other than Abrielle Watson. She stood there, a white dress hugging her figure and her black hair floating around her like a halo. She smirked at me, her icy eyes practically screaming that she knew something I didn't. She was clever. Very clever, and somehow she had known that I needed her.
"Why are you here?" I asked her, my feet gravitating towards her as I walked closer and closer to the angelic devil. She was my poison … the crack in my shield, the virus in my data. She was my nicotine, my drugs. I was attached … I needed more, always more. She was my new addiction in a sense. I needed her … I just didn't understand why. For some reason this woman standing before me I needed, constantly. And she knew that … well, figuratively speaking at least.
"I'm here because you need my help, obviously." She stated, rolling her eyes at me, and closing the gap between the pair of us. Why did I suddenly feel very … warm? Was I blushing? And why was my blood pressure so erratic? I was never like this. I was cold, and icy, and rude. I was Sherlock Holmes arrogant consulting detective. I didn't blush, and I certainly was never this … speechless. What the bloody hell was wrong with me.
"I don't need your help." I whispered, trying to get as far away as I possibly could from the girl. I just didn't understand, and I hated not knowing something. I had to get away from her, to focus back on the work. She was a distraction. A distraction that needed to be silenced. I had to find the key and save Abrielle. The Abrielle that was hidden somewhere being tortured for information. I needed to stay focused.
"Clearly, that's a lie." She said, grabbing my hand and leading me towards another room at lighting speed. I followed along the shock in my system slowly being overtaken by glee. I was happy … Extremely happy. I just didn't understand the warm feeling clutching my heart as I ran through my mind palace, my hand grasping hers as she lead me to what had to be the room I was looking for. She knew. Of course she knew, she always knew. She was a genius. And for some reason she knew how to make me throw my logic out the window, yet still function exactly the same as before. I loved this … It felt so, freeing. So warm, and just … Perfection. I needed to work, but with her around, I just felt so much stronger and so much smarter. I worked better somehow. She was a distraction and somehow, not, all at the same time. We run through the halls, hand in hand laughing like idiots, a giant smile overtaking my face for what seemed like hours. Until quite suddenly she stopped running, leading me into what seemed to be a library. I was on an adrenaline rush, staring blanking into nothingness, frozen in place as she rushed down the aisle, pulling out several files from the shelves.
"I found your key." She stated, my brain not even registering her presence until she slapped a pile of files into my hands. I snapped out of my state, looking at the permanent smirk on her face.
"Now, we know she was a smuggler, an orphan from the looks of it. And going from the age of a tattoo she was fifteen when she started the whole smuggling thing. So where does that leave us? What do you need to find out next?" She stated, pulling a few of her own files open. I approached her, my eyes filled with curiosity. Where did that leave us?
"She knows the man that left the cipher, Zhi Zhu … The spider. She must know where he is." I said, looking through the files that held all the information I had ever obtained under the name Zhi Zhu and Soo Lin Yao. I whizzed through it, trying to relearn all the information that I had learned in the last few months.
"Nope."
I looked up from my file, looking Abrielle who was staring at me with a stern gaze.
"What do you mean no?" I asked her, confused as to why she thought my idea stupid. Clearly she disapproved of my answer, but why? It made no sense. Clearly Soo Lin knew this man, this spider. And if he was in fact the man behind Abrielle's kidnapping wouldn't it only be logical to ask her where the man was? That way I would know exactly where Abrielle is being held.
"She obviously does not know where the man is. Did you see the look she gave you when she mentioned the man? She hates him. She doesn't even want to associate herself with the man. So, that being said … What should you ask next?"
I stared at the girl blankly, nothing coming to mind as I desperately tried to use something, any of the information I had previously read to come to a proper conclusion, but I could think of nothing. Not one thing that would be a valuable question to ask Soo Lin.
"Come on, you don't have much time before our little acrobat decides to kill her. You must know, something!" She stated in a huff, her gaze hardening as I closed my eyes in concentration trying to find the key. It had to be in here somewhere, anywhere. The right question spoken in the right way and all of our problems would be over. I just needed to find it. The diamond in the rough. The golden knight. The prize. The key. I shifted through everything. Everything, until finally … finally I found it!
"Our spider is a part of a web! It's all a part of something bigger! That is genius!" I screamed throwing the files down in joy and running up to the girl that had helped so much. I kissed her stop the head, a small resting on both of our faces. All this time I was looking for a key, when all along the key was with me all along. The key was not words, that was the answer, oh no … The key was a person. The key was Abrielle. She had figured it out. Clearly this was a part of a greater scheme which means that the spider was a part of a gang. A gang that had kidnapped Abrielle. And I wouldn't have figured it out if not for her, my key.
