Watsoncat belongs to thecaptainsideways. Just so you know. Don't shoot the messanger. Lily the cat belongs to Lolitaxemeraldine, also not me.
Watsoncat edit: Sher-cat sucks at writing, doesn't he? I think he broke almost every rule I told him. Plus, I'm not traumatized or trying to get over any ordeal or whatever, I just don't feel like writing right now.
By the time we had heaved the bag to the safety of the concrete I heard distant chiming of church bells indicating that noon had arrived. We saved the cat just in the nick of time.
I was intrigued. The elaborate rigging was clearly the work of someone of high intellect with a flair for theatrics. Imagine a cat creating a time-delayed murdering device! I'd heard of such things often on television and among the human network, but this was by far the first one I had ever seen made by, and for, a cat.
My delight at the potential for a challenge was immediately overrun by my dismay at the contents of the sack, as the Yarders pulled the brown cloth away from a very distraught and disgruntled Adlercat.
"Morning Sherlock, I thought I heard your pretentious voice floating over the water." She said shooting a nasty glare my way.
I smiled politely. "Pardon the distraction; I can see you're a bit hung up."
"All ways with the quips. You'll outlive God trying to have the last word." She sneered.
"Funny, I've heard something similar before."
"Get a room you two." Danderson rudely interjected, returning my focus to the case at hand.
"Sherlock, who is she." Lestrade said, indulging in his habit of separating himself from victims in an attempt to de-personalize his work; and consequently ignoring her.
"She's only—" I began, but amongst women one finds it mostly impossible to finish one's own sentences.
"A friend." She hastily added.
"An old friend."
"A dear old friend." She was insistent on elbowing herself into my affairs.
"You don't have friends." Sylvia pointed out. "Much less two."
"Not in the same decade." Danderson retorted and they both laughed like idiots.
Ah, pardon my omission but I've really been trying to pace myself while writing this tale. It's so easy to run off on a tangent with my observations and detail some previous case instead of the case at hand that I find myself repeatedly admonishing myself for lapses in judgment concerning the content of this tale. Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear with respects to Miss Adlercat:
She was a stray, but she had not always been so. Her owners had perished in a terrible misfortune and left her in her own straights and to her own dealings. She had forged for herself a healthy practice as a spy, swiping photos, documents and other precious materials for a small fee. I had long known of some of her work, but had only recently been introduced to her.
At the moment she was wearing a sea-foam green ribbon around her neck, neatly tied into a bow. While it seemed fetching at first. I noticed that it was unusual attire for one about to be sent to her watery death.
"Don't get excited." I untied the ribbon and laid it out on the concrete, releasing another small note written in orange crayon. Now there were only four cats that stood in a neat row at the bottom of the paper.
"One down (It said)
I'd love to stay and chat,
I'd meet you at your flat,
But my train leaves at 1:03
As you can clearly see
The second unlucky cat
Might go splat
If you can't take care of that."
"What the hell?" Lestrade asked rereading the little note twice more in a glance.
"It's a poem." Danderson said.
"Brilliant, Danderson." I said sarcastically.
"Really?" His eyes lit up with hope.
"Brilliant impersonation of an idiot." I finished. "Where's the nearest train station?"
"King's cross." Sylvia cried. "It must be miles away; we'll never make it in time!"
I thought quickly and remembered spotting a bus stop at the end of the bridge. It was a definite hunch, but I cried "Follow me!" and ran back the way we came anyway.
To my surprise I found the bus, which was boarding two passengers carrying heavy trunks, at the stop just as we arrived. In a flash I ran through the legs of the passengers, who were completely oblivious to anything beneath their trunks and ducked beneath an empty seat. Lestrade, and to my horror Adlercat were right behind me.
I heard the doors slide shut with a sinister hiss and realized that Sylvia and Danderson weren't able to keep up with us. The journey ended for them there.
"You were supposed to stay behind!" I scolded Adlercat. "It's what victims do!"
"Something tells me you're not use to live victims." She said.
The bus roared to life and I felt the slight pressure which indicated that we were moving forward.
"What the hell is going on!" Lestrade exclaimed, his ears were folded back in terror and I realized that this was probably his first ride on a bus.
"Someone is playing a game with us, a brilliant game." I said, admittedly becoming excited.
"A game? With bodies?" he glared at me. "Spoken like a true sociopath."
"If the shoe fits." Adlercat smiled sardonically.
"Can we please focus?" I asked. "Adlercat, since you're here would you kindly submit to a brief interview."
"Are you going to use my words against me?" she mocked.
"Who put you in the bag?"
"Two strays. One with an underbite and teeth like tusks and another that was speckled like a leopard."
"Where were they?"
"Wonderland Road and Oxford Street. I wasn't being completely untruthful when I sent you there; we often have meetings at designated intersections. That one was mine."
"It's too far away. It must have taken hours to transport you."
"I was in a car or something for a while. I'm not so sure. I passed on the papers you gave me to them and they paid me in poisoned food; I was unconscious most of yesterday. The documents were forgeries, correct?" she suddenly became hostile in her manner.
"That's right." I responded blandly.
"Then I have you to thank for my little diversion, and you only have yourself to blame for my company."
"So what are we dealing with here?" Lestrade asked, trying his best to keep up.
"A cat criminal. A master cat criminal." Adlercat said beneath a whisper.
"Train leaves at one-oh-three. There is a train that pulls out of king's cross at precisely one-oh-three and beneath it, or perhaps in front of it, is another cat."
"If we don't hurry…" Lestrade said, a sudden revelation coming over his countenance.
"Splat." Adlercat finished dramatically.
The trip by bus took less than a half-hour even with the mid-afternoon traffic and various little stops along the way. The whole trip crouched under the bus seat was made in silence for the most part omitting the dozens of questions that Lestrade's eager mind could not wrap around.
We arrived outside the station at about twelve thirty-five according to the clock just outside the station. To the dismay of the bus driver we were the first ones out the door and looking around.
"This place is enormous." Lestrade said. "How are we going to find our cat?"
"Quickly." I told him racing for the entrance.
The inside is even larger than it looks from the outside. We split up into three separate search parties; Lestrade checked the first few platforms, Adlercat the next and I took what was left. I had barely begun searching when I heard Adlercat cry that she had found a cat.
I raced to platform nine where I found her easing her way over metal rails in the steep pit beneath the walkways.
"Careful!" I warned her as she carelessly meandered towards the infamous third rail. "That one there; the one you have you're paw over? If you touch it you'll be electrocuted!"
She glanced at me over her shoulder, mouth hung open half in disbelief, half in something else and she tip-toed around the rail I had pointed out. I jumped down to follow her, landing unsteadily on the hard metal rails. At that moment I felt the vibrations of an oncoming train. No doubt the one-oh-three running ahead of schedule.
Adlercat hung over another simple black sack, preparing to move it herself. I seized one end of the bag in my mouth and she hastily grabbed the other taking signal from me and together we lifted the cat off the ground.
Instantly my neck strained under the immensely heavy weight, but I ignored it as usual. I walked backwards carefully, searching for the third rail and hoping to avoid it. When I recognized it coming up I groaned as a warning to Adlercat (my mouth being currently occupied) and carefully stepped over it. If we had dropped the cat then it would have been instant death but thankfully she took notice from me and acted accordingly.
"Look, cats on the track!" Humans muttered and laughed amongst themselves above us, but once we had carefully navigated our way to a conveniently placed stairwell we ignored the rest of the world and focused on the next piece to the criminal puzzle that was the cat in the bag.
I pulled him out of the burlap sack and checked to make sure he was still breathing when he didn't respond to stimuli. He was alive, but completely unconscious. Most likely in a drugged stupor.
Just then Lestrade ran up to us panting heavily. "Hey, I know him! He's a Yarder like me. His name is Cathenley Jones."
"How clever of you to show up once the dangerous work is past." Adlercat said sharply.
"I was trapped by a gaggle of school children." He defended himself.
"Ooh, ferocious." She mocked.
"Would you two PLEASE?" I said, mostly focused on the long narrow sheet of folded paper that had fallen out of the sack with the cat.
Just then, a train rushed past us pulling into the station. The one-oh-three I presume.
I carefully unfolded the note. I am not ashamed to admit that my paws were trembling slightly from excitement.
"Two down(It said) Three left.
But isn't it time to go home Detective Inspector? It's nice to go home to a loving family at the end of a day and leave your work behind.
3:45 I should think."
We looked to Lestrade, the only person with the title 'Detective Inspector' among us. For once he solved a clue before I did.
"Dear God." He said shaking with emotion "My wife." And that was all he said before he turned and ran out of the station, Adler and I hot on his heels.