Chapter 4-

Mind over Matter

It was 2:47pm, and Vastra was in the drawing room, prying out facts from their small disaster the previous night. She worked better in a relaxed environment compared to her study, which she really only used for writing up finalised case summaries. Besides, Jenny was doing a full-house cleanout, and if Vastra knew what was good for her, she'd leave her to it.

The Spearhead case had been active for quite some time now. In most cases, Vastra would have grown increasingly frustrated, but this case seemed to sap more and more of her curiosity with each murder.

Ten minutes later, Jenny had arrived at the drawing room and proceeded to dust off the mantelpiece.

"Did you notice anything particularly...unusual, last night, Jenny?" Vastra asked, looking up. Jenny slowly turned.

"You mean, aside from the facts that an 'ungry werewolf showed up, an' some guys nearly blew up the bloomin' buildin'?!"

"Yes, apart from those facts," replied Vastra, calmly.

"Well, the werewolf actually went fer the men first, not us," Jenny mused whilst brandishing a featherduster at the grandfather clock. Vastra nodded; she'd already noted that.

"Can you give me a full description of the werewolf?"

Jenny sighed heavily and started to rearrange the cushions. This could potentially be a lot of work.

Accepting Jenny's answer of a sigh, Vastra proceeded.

"Height?"

"Jus' a bit taller than me, Ma'am."

Vastra glanced up briefly and spoke as she wrote.

"Not...very...tall, then." The Silurian couldn't help but smirk as she felt the glare hit her bowed head.

"Weight?"

"'Bout as 'eavy as you, Ma'am," came the reply, much more stiffly.

"I don't know if I should take that as a complient or not."

"Put it this way Ma'am, you've pinned me enough times in trainin' for me to get the gist of 'ow 'eavy you are, and that werewolf was just as weighty as you."

"I do beg your pardon, Miss Flint!" challenged Vastra, feigning shock. Resisting the urge to wink, Jenny gave an impish grin.

"Back 'atcha."

They both paused for a moment, marvelling the other.

"Ahem, claw length?"

The questions continued for a while, until Jenny thought there were barely any factors left that were necessary.

"Scent?"

She paused her china-rearranging, recalling what the creature smelt like. "It stank of blood, old an' new. An' dead, rottin' flesh." She wrinkled her nose at the memory.

"Good. That should be adequate–" Jenny breathed a sigh of relief "–for now." The maid visibly sank when the last two words were spoken, groaning at the suggestion. Vastra smiled, and continued.

"So, it seems these Spear apes (for once, Jenny didn't object to the usage of the word 'apes') are somehow linked to the werewolf. I found a human in the Eastern Wing that was killed in exactly the same style as all the other murders. His scent and attire confirmed that he was also part of the Spear Men." Jenny was scribbling away furiously at a notepad as Vastra spoke. She glanced up to signal that her mistress could continue.

"In each murder, the victim has always been a Spear Man, pierced through the mouth with a spear, most likely his own, and has suffered fatal intestinal gougings, very much in the feeding style of a werewolf.

The two parties are very hostile towards each other. The werewolf decided to attack the Spear Men, who were further away, over us, and the Spear Men were prepared to detonate an entire building just to kill this lupine legend. But why are they against each other?

They could have previously worked together, but one may have grown too greedy, causing disagreements and hostility. They could be fighting over something, an item or an amount of money. Besides, I hardly think one is trying to eliminate the other for lawful reasons.

The question still remains though: who is the killer? The werewolf could be gorging on the Spear Men one by one as they attempt to slaughter it. Alternatively, there could be a spy in the Spear Men group, who's killing its members inside-out, and the werewolf is simply feeding on the bodies. In that sense, the Spearmen would assume that the bodies they find are caused by the werewolf, so they try and track it down. I suppose this explains the werewolf's attack on the men behind us yesterday. There is a possibility there could be a third party, but the evidence supporting this is lacking." Vastra looked up at her maid, who was still scribbling down some lines.

"What do you think, Jenny? What do we do next?"

Jenny looked up. Vastra was looking her in the eye, testing her. Jenny chewed her bottom lip and tapped the pencil on her chin, thinking.

"I think we should go fer the werewolf. As far as we know, it's alone, so it'll be easier to capture and interrogate. Once we 'ave the werewolf, we can question it and see if the murders persist. If they don't, then the werewolf may 'ave some sort o' dealin' in the deaths. Either that, or an ally it may 'ave 'as seen we captured its colleague, so they'll wait. Thing is, we don' know if the werewolf'll know anythin' when it's 'uman. Besides, the werewolf's got more chance of bein' guilty of somethin', bein' feral and all that...

Also, we'll 'av' ter wait fer the next full moon to arrive. Yesterday was the last full moon fer this month." Jenny paused, knowing Vastra would want a solution to this issue.

"We can use the time to research on werewolves. Y'know, what draws 'em in, 'ow they hunt, that sorta thing."

Vastra smiled, and nodded.

"Perfect," she whispered, more to herself than Jenny. All the same, the maid blushed lightly and looked down. That was a word that had never been associated with her before.

"Do you know the scent of a Spear Man, Ma'am?" Jenny asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Well, if we look and smell like one of 'em, that's certain to bring in the beast, right?"

"Yes, certainly."

A/N: Yes, there's a lot of talking, but I had to get it out of the way.