Chapter 6- Sherlock
It was my turn to be surprised. "You know Celia?"
"She's… one of my exes." John replied, looking at the floor. I couldn't understand why people did that, stare at the floor. It never made the situation any less uncomfortable for anyone.
"It was a long time ago," he added.
The tension in the air was almost palpable. Celia crossed her arms. "It doesn't matter now, John. You don't have to apologize again."
"I wasn't planning on it." His tone was hard as he spoke to me. "Why is she here, anyway?"
Celia replied before I could. "Well, long story short, my sister- Victoria; you might have met her, John –kidnapped your friend here and now she's been killed."
"And that's it?" John was of course confused on how we'd gotten from point A to point B. "She kidnapped Sherlock and then she just… died?"
"Not exactly." I corrected. "She kidnapped me, and then she took me to an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere to meet one of her clients, and he betrayed her, and then she died."
"Clients?" John asked.
"Victoria's job involved illegally keeping people out of jail that really should be there." I chuckled. "She was practically the new consulting criminal."
"You think she knew Moriarty?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure Celia does."
"What gave you that idea?" There was a subtle change in Celia's tone, an almost imperceptible falseness. "I've never heard of him."
"You're good at lying." I smirked. "Just not quite good enough. Tell us the truth."
She looked surprised to have been caught, which showed me just how good she was. "If you insist. But it's really nothing."
"Then why did you lie?"
"Habit. Most of the people I deal with don't mind holding back either." She crossed the room and sank down into an armchair. "Like I said, it's not much to go on, but, yes, I knew him. Briefly, when my sister was dating him." She glanced at John. "See, I'm not the only one who gets around. Anyway, Victoria had connections, if nothing else, and they weren't always good ones. She knew a lot of bad people."
"That must have been how Moriarty came across her. He had quite a network himself." I commented, the pieces fitting together in my mind.
"Yes." Celia confirmed. "That was probably it. She met him one day and they started getting really close almost instantly. None of us knew, at first, exactly what he did for a living. Victoria knew, though. She told me that he was teaching her a certain specific trade. I asked her what, but she wouldn't tell me. Less than a week afterward, I learned that she had gotten a job. She'd always had trouble obtaining and keeping a steady job, so this surprised me. Her new boyfriend clearly had something to do with it, but her lips were sealed on the subject. Finally, I managed to pressure her into telling me. She confessed that Jim was a killer and that her new profession was more criminal and less innocent than she had led everyone to believe. Victoria really loved him, I think. It was hard for her when our parents finally found out about who Jim really was. They made her break up with him. She called me the night after we heard that he had died, and she was crying. At first I thought it was just because she had been so attached to him, but she told me that she suspected that she'd be killed because she knew that Jim wasn't actually Richard Brooke and someone might want to keep her quiet. I told her not to worry-" Celia's voice broke and she seemed on the edge of tears. "Sorry, it's just- I should have known- shouldn't have just brushed it off-"
"You said earlier that you knew Moran." I prompted, having heard all that I needed to.
"Did I?" she frowned, her eyebrows creasing. "I don't remember that." Celia checked her watch, collecting herself. "That's all I know, so, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving now." She stood up. "I've got an appointment to get to."
John clearly was happy to show her the way out. As he closed the door behind her, he exhaled loudly. "Now I remember why I stopped dating her. She lies too much."
My eyes widened. Maybe John was finally catching on to my methods. "You noticed, too?"
"If you're not talking about when you called her out on not being honest, then no."
Ah, well. There was still time for him to learn. I sighed. "What I was referring to was that story she gave us about her very small and inconsequential involvement in the whole thing. Come on, you didn't really swallow that, did you?"
"What if I did?"
"It was obviously not true, John. She has tells- did you not notice how much she cleared her throat and picked at her nails? Worse, she mentioned Moran earlier and denied it just now. I've been onto her ever since I first told her that her sister was dead. She didn't ever appear to even remotely grieve, and when she did show remorse, it was a flaky act. So she must have been lying. The question is, about what?" I concluded.
"What are you going to do, then?"
"Change my clothes." I went in my room and shut the door. I'd been wearing the same suit for the past three days, having put it on earlier on the day I'd been kidnapped and not having another opportunity to change out of it.
I reemerged a few minutes later in a fresh suit. The piece of paper that had been in the pocket of my old one was now in my hand. I'd almost forgotten about pulling it from Victoria's corpse just before Celia had picked me up. "And now," I said to John, "I'm going to see where this leads us."
John raised his eyebrows, taking the note from me. "It's a bank note. What's this got to do with anything?"
"I found it on Victoria's body. It's hers. And I have a feeling it's going to take us right where we need to be."