The Art of Deduction

Trouble Trouble, Not So Subtle

June, 2010.

A dreadfully humid day in London, England. It had rained the night before, and the puddles had not yet dried. Mr. Holmes had just finished examining a corpse in the coroners office.

"Watson, get over here!" Sherlock shouted at his companion, who was chatting with the coroner. "You know, the body isn't going anywhere" snapped John, who was disgruntled from being interrupted.

"Take a look at this body Watson, tell me what you see." And so, Watson put on his spectacles and bended forward to get a better look. He notices that the man lying on the table was skinny, and could smell a foul odor coming from the man's mouth.

"Poisoned by teeth decay?" Holmes asked. "No. That odor you smell isn't from rotting teeth. In fact, if you had opened his mouth, you would see his teeth are all perfectly white. What you're smelling is the maggots eating away at his tongue." Holmes replied

"Okay, so where are you going with this?" John asked Sherlock, waiting for Sherlock to stop being a melodramatic queen and give a straight answer. "This man used to be quite overweight. His fat fingers prove this, yet his stomach has shrunk. Why, you ask? Because the maggots and other insects started at his stomach, and they're slowly eating their way out. This man has been dead for at least four months, not recently murdered as whoever placed his body in the alley of Mahogany last night would have you think. No, he's been dead for quite awhile. The question is why."

Holmes began to drum his fingers on the table, lost in thought. "Why has he been dead for awhile, you mean?" Watson asked, trying to keep up. "No, the question is, why did the murderer finally dispose of the body."