A Study in Reason

Saturday, November 15th, 2014

A trauma councillor had arrived to talk to Sophie Street this morning but wouldn't let us in. So, Sherlock, John and I decided to talk to the parents of the girls that were still missing.

When we arrived, it was ten o'clock so we hoped they would be home, given it was a Saturday. We had decided to go to Katherine Briant's house first. The address they were given was in a rougher part of town, rundown and unkempt but still liveable. When they knocked, the door wasn't answered immediately.

"Is that you, Kitty?" came a woman's voice. "You've got a lot of explaining to do, girl. Where the hell have you been this time?"

"Sorry, Mrs Briant," I called through the door. "It's..." I looked to Sherlock and John for help. Sherlock mimed showing a badge and I got the message. "It's the police," I finished. Clearly, Katherine's mother wasn't that bright because she believed me. However that didn't change things in our favour.

"Go away," she said. I would have laughed, had the situation not called for something more helpful.

"Please, we need to talk to you," I tried.

"I'm not letting you in my house! You don't have the right to come in here without a warrant!"

"We don't have to come in," John called through the door. "We just want to ask you some questions about... Uh, Kitty." Making grumbling noises, the woman opened the door. She was stocky in build with long but thin honey colour hair that looked like it needed a wash.

"I already told the police everything. What do you want?" She demanded. Wasting no time and knowing that the key to cracking this case was finding a connection between the girls, I showed the disgruntled woman the piece of paper with the list of missing girls on it. "What's this?" She asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

"Do you recognise any of these names?" I asked patiently.

"Why would I?" She asked then gave a gruff sigh of irritation and looked at the paper properly.

"She might have a mate called Evie or Eva or something. Yeah. Katherine went to her place a couple of times. I dunno about any of the others."

"Thank you for your time," I said graciously. The woman grunted and disappeared inside again. We walked back to the main road and hailed a taxi.

"So where to next?" asked John. Sherlock and I shared a we-both-know-what's-really-going-on-here look that made John groan out loud.

"What?" We both asked at the same time.

"The face! Why do you two always use the face?"

"What face?" I asked. "This is my normal face."

"I used to think it was just Sherlock who did the face," groaned John. Sherlock started chuckling slightly.

"Sorry, John. I forgot. We're going to visit the parents of Evie Wise. Almost all the other missing girls seem to know her or have done in the past and I think they could give us some answers."

*
The door was answered almost immediately after I rang the doorbell.

"Yes?" The woman asked.

"Mrs Wise?" I asked. She nodded. "We're here about Evie. Can we come in?" We were ushered inside without hesitation.

"Any news?" she asked as soon as we were in the kitchen.

"We're working on it. Can you tell us if you recognise any of these names?" she examined the list and gave a little laugh that seemed to be of nostalgia.

"Grace and Alice were Evie's best friends for the first few years of primary school. Then we moved to another part of London and her friend there was Taylor Jackson. Then she started high school and her best friend was Katherine. They still keep in touch. Evie's a bit delicate sometimes and Katherine calms her if she gets upset. Even over the phone. But we had to change schools. That's when she became friends with Siobhan, Michelle and Sophie." She looked up at us, her smile gone. "What's this got to do with her being missing now?"