Sherlock's Apprentice

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

So here we are sitting in a small room at the Police Station with Sherlock and I sitting in a seat behind a desk, two Policemen standing nearby and a client sitting opposite us. Well one detective and a police-um..woman.

He was a father with about two or three children with a job in a small office which I am guessing is apart of newspaper printing business with the black ink on his right hand. This also tells me he is right hand. This is the deductions before he even talks.

"So start from the beginning," one of the sergeants say. He is tall with short grey and black hair. He is holding a coffee and looking intently at the client.

"I've got this Lestrade." Sherlock says as if he is the boss. The lady in the corner with darker skin and tight curly hair in the corner scoffs.

"Shut up Donovan," Sherlock says emotionless but I can tell he is pissed at this lady.

"What ever you say," she says backing up and sitting on a nearby table.

"Just let the man speak!" I finally say getting aggravated at all of them because I know the more they chitchat the more scared this man gets.

"Go." Sherlock says turning towards the man.

"Okay," the man begins, "so I have three daughters-" I mentally give myself a high five. "-when they were born, they each received a doll when they were born and although they were anonymous, we kept them. We realised as the girls got older that each doll resembled the girls very much," he says but pausing as if he is scared out of his mind, looking at the plastic cup he had been given when he had arrived but by now he had demolished it out of pure nervousness.

"Continue." Sherlock said, listening contently.

"Well, about a four days ago, one of the dolls went missing and our daughter was really upset because this doll was her most prized possession, anyway, yesterday she went to school and she never came home. We looked absolutely everywhere and we couldn't find her. I don't know why but I think that maybe, just maybe, the doll sender has something to do with this."

"Tell me," Sherlock started, "why didn't you come sooner?" It was a good question because if your daughter went missing, why would you wait two days before calling the police?

"My wife. She has never trusted the police. She hates them." He said.

"Does she know you are here?" Says Lestrade.

"Well, no.." He said looking a bit guilty.

"You made the right decision." Lestrade said.

"Can I have the ages of your daughters?" Sherlock interrogates.

"Five, three and two." The frightened man says.

"And the one that's missing?"

"That's Ava, the five year old." He said.

"Can I say something?" I say wondering. Sherlock and the man nodded.

"So, the dolls, were they one of a kind?" I asked.

"Yes. We had never seen anything like them. They seemed almost like voodoo dolls, but prettier and more detailed. I had never really thought about it but now I have, it seems like, how could I have missed it? You know?"

"Has your family ever had anything to do with voodoo or anything like that?" I ask, sounding really smart and professional.

"Oh no! Never! We are a happy catholic family, we go to church every Sunday!" He defended himself.

I thought I heard Sherlock mumble something about happy Catholics being a joke.

"Excuse me?" The man said.

"Oh nothing," Sherlock looked at him innocently.

"What is you name?" Sherlock asks and I realise we hadn't yet covered that.

"Hamish. Hamish West." Sherlock chuckles and I hit him over the head but holding in a laugh also.

"Pull yourself together!" I whisper.

Oh how the name Hamish will ever be accepted in our household, I will never know.

All of a sudden I loose all adrenaline I had and realise I was woken early this morning to the sound of a Mrs. Hudson telling me we needed to get ready for uniform shopping.

I hadn't slept for twenty-one hours. I start school tomorrow. I excuse myself and get my self a coffee at the machine that is sitting next to Lestrade and take a sip. Ah that's the stuff. He nods to me and we cheers our paper cups. I smile and go back to take a seat next to Sherlock again.

"Do you know if there is anywhere that your daughter feels safe or would go to look for this doll?" I ask inquisitively.

"We looked everywhere she loves or anywhere a five year old would look but she wasn't there. We even looked in places she wouldn't ever go or even know of but she wasn't there, please help me Mr. Holmes!" Hamish buried his head into his hands and I was unsure if he was crying but I think he was. Even though I was tired and my body was telling me to fall asleep right then and there, I needed to do something. I couldn't let anyone touch this mans daughter.

"Are you saying this is a coincidence or do you know if anyone would purposely hurt your daughters?" Sherlock asks.

"I think that this is all a coincidence,"

"Wrong." Sherlock says.

"Then why did you ask?" I said,"show off,"

"Are you saying that this was on purpose? Why would anyone want to hurt my daughter? I don't mean anything to anyone, I'm just a newspaper editor. My wife is a kindergarten teacher, we have been a family for almost six years and not one of us has ever gotten into trouble with the police or anything." His hands shook saying that he knew something that he wasn't ever going to tell us and to be honest I didn't want to. I looked at Sherlock and he could see it to.

"What aren't you telling us?" He asked. The man looked at his lap guiltily then slowly back up at us.

"There is nothing I wouldn't tell you."

"Yes there is, why?" Sherlock pried

"That is the lot of it, if you don't trust me then that's your problem," he nearly yelled.

"This is your daughter we are trying to save, now with that in mind I would have said something by now." Sherlock kept prying.

"Nothing!" He yelled standing up. "There is nothing.." He said sitting back down and sobbing into his hands. Then I looked at Sherlocks face and it had so many emotions mixed through it without showing anything at the same time. It was full of sentiment and sadness. Madness and he was let down. I felt the same and tried to hold it in but I couldn't. I got up and left to find this girl. When I got out side I realised I knew nothing about this girl, not what she looked like, not even her first name. But I went anyway.

I was almost out the door when I felt a strong hand on my shoulder pull me back in.

"What are you doing?" Sherlock said.

"I'm trying to find this girl!" I yelled as if it was obvious.

"You don't know anything, how are you gong to find her?" He said looking just as upset as me but trying his best to hide it.

"Well we can't just sit there and talk about it! We need to find her!" I needed to sit down.

"Let's just go home," he said putting his hand on my shoulder and led me out the door. We walk home in silence and I am so tired I stumble a few times, and I remember first day of school tomorrow. It has been twenty-two hours and I feel like crap. All well.