Lost Inferno {The LOST Chronicles, BOOK 2}

Chapter 2- Deductions and Shopping

Maddy's Pov-

I hesitantly walked into the flat, afraid that the floor would give in at any moment and that I would go down with it. Everything, everywhere looked was dark and singed. The floorboards, the wallpaper, the furniture, everything had been burned. There weren't many remains that were left behind from the blaze but enough that we could have a go at deducing something from everything to try to find the person who did it and why.

Sherlock reached into his jacket and pulled out a roll-up pack containing all of his equipment, then he set to work. He spun around to see if he could see anything in particular that may be of use to us. 

I took a look around the flat to see if I could actually be of any use to them in this investigation, I wanted to impress Sherlock of course. I felt like, even though I had just been reuninted with him, that I hadn't given him much to be proud of, besides the use of morse code to lead him to where I was being held by Moriarty. I didn't manage to find anything that wasn't already obvious such as the scratches and indentations near the lock on the front door. Wait! There were scratches and markings near the lock, which is likely that whoever did this had to force their way in, so it's not the owner of the flat then trying to claim on insurance, it's someone else. Maybe there was something they wanted? Maybe they were trying to threaten the owner? Maybe they just did it for fun? Although it would seem highly unlikely that someone would just set fire to a flat for no reason what so ever.

I walked back into the living room where John, Sherlock and Lestrade were all congregated. Sherlock was in the middle of scraping up some of the wood off the floorboards to analyse a few footprints that he found, whilst John and Lestrade were discussing possible reasons as to why this was done.

"Sherlock, I've found something." I told him.

"Mm, hmm." He replied, not bothering too much about it. He probably thought that I wasn't capable of even making the simplest of deductions.

"Hellooo! Sherlock!" I tried to get his attention.

"Yes." He mumbled, still not taking his attention away from the floorboard he was working on.

"SHERLOCK!" I yelled.

"WHAT?" He snapped and looked up at me.

"I said, I found something that could be of value to this case." I announced.

"Right, right. Fine, show me." He sounded irritated.

This was my chance to prove myself worthy to him. I led him back downstairs to the front door.

"Look, there are scratches and indentations all around the lock and the door knob area." I gestured.

"Good." He congratulated.

"So...." I replied, not really knowing what to say.

"So, what could that suggest?" He put me on the spot, this was my opportunity to show him.

"The scratches and indentations around the lock and handle would imply that whoever set fire to the flat had to force their way into the house in order to get to the flat. Which I can conclude that it was not the owner of the flat or anyone else that lives in the house, as they would try to leave as little evidence behind as possible. Which takes me to my next idea that whoever did this wasn't bothered about wanting to not leave evidence behind, as he would have taken much more care. So whoever set fire to the flat must have wanted to be recognised for it. Maybe they want revenge on the owner? Maybe they had something that they wanted? Or maybe it was just a random act of arson?" I concluded.

"Amazing!" John announced.

Sherlock turned to him and gave him a look.

"Bloody hell, Holmes junior's on the ball today!" Lestrade pointed out. "Sherlock, you'd better watch out. I might start going to Maddy for help instead of you!"