Child's Play

Chapter #10: Now You See It, Now You Don't

“When was the last time that you saw her?” Sherlock asked the man known as Andy whilst he paced. 

We were at the National Antiquities Museum, where we had come to learn that Soo Lin had recently worked here. Instantly we located Andy and Sherlock wasted no time in his questioning. John and I stood before Andy. John’s eyes were directed right on the man while mine were gazing at the detective as he spoke. The Doctor’s arms were behind his back and mine were stuffed in my pockets. Andy’s eyes kept flickering back and forth from Sherlock to us. John’s eyes did as well, except his moved from Andy to me with concern etched in his face. I tried my best to ignore him, even when I continued to touch the bump on my head.

I knew John was still worried about me and my head, but there was nothing that could be done for it right now. The best I had been able to do was wash away what blood I could from the wound when I forced Sherlock and John to let me take a quick stop over at 221B. I had needed to drop off my lucky cat before it got broken or I lost it, which I know just irritated Sherlock.

“Three days ago, um, here at the museum,” Andy answered. Sherlock paused in his pacing and glanced all around him. “This morning they told me she’d resigned just like that. Just left her work unfinished.”

Sherlock finally turned to us. He stepped forward so he was standing almost beside me. “What was the last thing that she did on her final afternoon?”

“I can, umm, show you,” Andy told us. “F-Follow me.”

Andy took us down to the basement archive. As he led us inside, he turned on the lights. I blinked and was forced to bring a hand up from how bright they were. I frowned unhappily as a few spots appeared in my vision.

“She does this demonstration for the tourists – a-a tea ceremony,” Andy explained. “So she would have packed up her things and just put them in here.”

Andy brought us over to an open stack and started to turn a handle. As he turned the handle, the gap at the end started to widen. John and I stood behind Andy as we watched him. Sherlock on the other hand continued farther more into the room away from us. I glanced over at the detective, to see what it was he was exactly doing, and sucked in a breath.

“John,” I breathed out as the man started to step forward towards the gap.

“What? Are you okay?” John instantly asked, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Is it your head?”

I slowly bit my lip and lifted up a slightly shaking hand to point over at what it was Sherlock was staring at. John turned, as well as Andy who paused in the turning of the handle, to look at where I was pointing. On a stand was a life-sized sculpture of a nude woman with yellow paint spray painted across the front of her. An almost horizontal straight line went right across the eyes and over the body was the open upside down eight with the almost horizontal line above it.

I swallowed. “Soo Lin’s the next victim…”

***

When we later exited the museum, night had fallen. I stood in between the detective and the doctor and stared up at the sky. I folded my arms across my chest and took in a deep breath of the cold air. 

Another person had been targeted. I had figured as such there would be more, but this time it was a little different. There had been nothing we could have done for Van Coon or Lukis. Both men were long dead before we even knew about them. Soo Lin, though…well, she was possibly still alive. We could save her. We could make sure that this woman got to live to see another day.

“We have to get to Soo Lin Yao,” Sherlock told us.

I gave a nod, glancing over at him. “Agreed. No more spilled blood.”