Chapter Five
"Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty!" Sasaki's eyes fluttered open blearily.
"What...?" She had only just registered the fact that the stranger's face was a mere ten inches away from hers before she started, and threw her head forward, resulting in a collision of bone and a satisfying 'crack'.
"Christ..! What the Hell!" The stranger stumbled backward, hands cradling his now bleeding and broken nose. Sasaki now realized that she was lying on her back, bound hand a foot to the table.
"Who...? Who are you?" she demanded as calmly as she could as she shook her limbs, testing the strength of her bindings.
"Oh, you are violent one, arn't you?" A new voice, female, hummed and determined footsteps approached the table with little interest in the injured man. Sasaki twisted and contorted to try and catch a glimpse of the newcomer. "First a jaw, now the nose..."
"Who are you?" Sasaki interrupted the woman.
"We are just a humble folk, easily befriended, easily thrown away..." The woman was now in Sasaki's sights as she leaned over her head. "...Betrayed."
The woman's hiss sent shivers down Sasaki's spine and the girl stubbornly turned her face away from the woman. "What does that have to do with me?" Sasaki questioned through gritted teeth.
"Oh, we hate deserters, don't we?" The woman called softly to the still groaning man on the floor. "Must keep loved ones close, mustn't we?" She began to gently pet Sasaki's straight, smooth hair.
"And anyone who tries to leave are killed, I suppose?" Sasaki spat. "Is Hot Fuzz a personal favorite with you?" She asked strainedly, but put on a cheeky smile. "What's an interesting life without a spot of slicing-and-dicing, hey?" Sasaki jerked on the table like she was attempting to punch the woman.
The woman smiled smugly down at her. "Admirable, such bravado! My boy, Harry and good old Bess were such slobbery messes when they were told they would die."
"'Please let me go.' 'Please, we're friends arn't we?' 'Please don't do this, Katheryn!'" The woman, Katheryn, droned on boredly.
"Yes, she was ever so good." Sasaki quoted sarcastically with a heavily butchered British accent.
"So she was." Katheryn smiled sadly as she began fiddling with a medical tool that looked horrifyingly similar to ones that were used to open up cavities in dead bodies during examinations.
"Oh, shut it!" Sasaki spat, swallowing nervously when her eyes found the tool. "You know, you're really very psychotic, arn't you?" Katheryn put the tool down and returned to the tableside. Sasaki silently breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Just like a Japanese doll." Katheryn brushed a lock of hair from Sasaki's face. "Such a waste." Katheryn moved back to the trolly of medical tools and returned with a scalpel. She pressed her fingers into Sasaki's right arm, feeling for the joint. Sasaki inwardly panicked. The mad woman was planning to dismember her while she was still conscious!
"K-Katheryn." Katheryn's fingers on Sasaki's arm froze at the sound of her name. "Can I... can I at least call my family? One last time, please?" Sasaki begged, Katheryn looked at her coldly.
"If you loved them, you wouldn't leave them." Sasaki clenched her eyes closed and leveled her breathing.
"I don't want to leave them." Sasaki bit the inside of her cheek to draw tears. "I don't - I never really wanted that." Katheryn looked like she was seriously considering the request.
"We don't have international phones."
"Then an e-mail, I just want to tell them not to worry." Katheryn was silent for a moment, then nodded.
"Alright, but I'll be watching you carefully." Sasaki nodded gratefully as Katheryn brought her a laptop and untied her wrists. "But no more favors." Sasaki nodded meekly.
Sherlock was still going over Lestrade's list of suspects when the e-mail came, but it did not come to his phone. He looked up annoyedly from his list to John's laptop when he heard an abnormal 'blurp!' sound, signaling an incoming message. "John!" he called out. "John! - John!" John dashed into the room from the kitchen.
"Sherlock, I'm trying to brew tea, can you be anymore annoying?" Sherlock ignored the comment and just sent a pointed look at the laptop.
"It's disturbing me. Make it shut up." John rolled his eyes and took the laptop to read the message.
"Sherlock," John's eyes were wide with surprise. "It's from Sasaki." Sherlock jumped up and moved behind John to peer over his shoulder. "What does this mean?" John wondered aloud.
"Dear Sherl," Sherlock began to read aloud. "Thank you for letting me stay in your flat while I am vacationing. I had a good time! But I think my vacation will be cut short. But I'm alright, please be there to comfort my family. I'm going to disappear for a while, to clear my head. Tell Mom that I left a present for her in her tea cupboard. -Sasaki" Sherlock sat back in his usual seat, fingers steepled.
"'Sherl' obviously refers to me, 'Sherlock'." he mused. "Sasaki must've been either forced to write this good-bye note by the killers, or she is desperately trying to send us an important message."
"But what is it?" John wondered aloud to himself.
"By, 'vacation will be cut short' we can be quite sure that Sasaki knows her life is in immediate danger. But, comfort her family? Why would she ask us to do something like that?"
"Not her family..." John murmured, gaining a sudden burst of epiphany. "...The victim's! She wants us to center our investigations on the victim's family!" Sherlock snatched up the list of suspects.
"Gregory and Katheryn Whitefield..." Sherlock paled more than John had thought possible. "Katheryn, Harry's mother, works at an eye bank."
John continued reading the strange e-mail. "'Tell Mom that I left a present for her in her tea cupboard.'" Sherlock's gaze met his as realization threw itself on them.
"Mrs. Hudson!" They both exclaimed in unison as they grabbed their coats, rushing down the stairs to their landlady's flat.
"My goodness! What's all the commotion!" Mrs. Hudson exclaimed, having just gotten back from the hospital. "What's happened?"
"Sasaki has been kidnapped, Mrs. Hudson, she sent us a message saying that she left a present, or, a clue in your cupboard." Sherlock explained as he and John frantically emptied the contents of her cupboard.
"Sherlock..!" John was holding up a booklet of matches.
"That's from a restaurant nearby..." Mrs. Hudson was saying as her two tenants rushed out of the door, calling for a cab.
"She can see the sign from wherever she is!" John exclaimed, shaking his head as they jumped into an empty cab and gave the driver the restaurant's address. "Sasaki really is resourceful!"
Sherlock called Lestrade urgently on his phone. They spoke for a few minutes before Sherlock hung up. "Lestrade says that the Whitefields own a square of property in the neighborhood, it's a rundown old building that hasn't been in use for years."
"Apparently not, though." John grumbled dryly.
"Lestrade is rounding up his men and is getting a warrant for the couple's arrest." Sherlock told him brusquely.
"Do you think...?" John tentatively broke the brief silence but Sherlock cut his sentence off with a look.
"Of course we will, John." John rolled his eyes in frustration.