Jenny Smith-Holmes

Chapter 7: Clothes Shopping

JENNY'S P.O.V.
I sat on Mrs. Hudson's counter, drinking milk, as she was making tea for herself. When the kettle whistled, Mrs. Hudson made her tea. She looked up to me and smiled widely, as she was about to say something when her phone rang. She put her cup down and grabbed her phone off the counter next to me.
She was agreeing to something when she looked over to me. I tilted my head in confusion.
"Of course I will, Sherlock. Don't wait up." She smiled as she hung up the phone. She looked to me and said, "Well dreary, it time to go shopping, she smiled as she walked hurriedly up the stairs and started searching for something. She quickly found it and came back to me. She was holding a wad of money and shoved it in her purse as I swung off the counter. She took my hand and we went shopping for, well, everything I needed.
Some toys, books (although I was just fine reading Daddy's science books), new shoes, 15 new shirts with matching pants, and so on and so on. I liked feeling spoiled and center of attention.
Mrs. Hudson and I were walking side by side down London's busy streets when we rounded a corner and literally ran into John and Daddy.
"Oh, sorry, loves. I thought you were on a case." Mrs. Hudson stated holding about 4 shopping bags (all of my stuff was really small, so they could fit everything into fewer bags).
"We've just solved it Mrs. Hudson." Daddy said picking me up.
"We can take Jenny off your hands now, Mrs. Hudson." John quipped.
"Oh yes, that would be lovely, John. Why don't I take these bags back with me, and leave them in your flat."
"Oh no, Mrs. Hud..." John refused
"It'll be fine, John. Have fun with Jenny." Mrs. Hudson interrupted walking away. I waved good-bye and she returned the gesture. Daddy and John continued walking until we reached New Scotland Yard. We walked through the building until we reached DI Lestrade's office. As we waited for DI Lestrade, Daddy walked over to the window and raised his hands in front of his mouth with his fingers tapping together. I sat in one of the chairs in Lestrade's office that was in the corner. John sat down in front of Lestrade's desk as Lestrade himself walked in, and sat down at his desk.
"She lives in Cornwall. Two men broke in wearing masks, forced her to drive to the car park and decked her out in enough explosives to take down a house." Lestrade stated as Daddy walked over to his desk. "Told her to phone you. She had to read out from this pager." He threw a pager on a stack of papers in front of John, who picked it up to take a look at it.
"And if she deviated by one word, the sniper would set her off..." Daddy trailed off.
"Or if you hadn't solved the case." John finished. Daddy walked back to the window.
I zoned out of their conversation and turned my attention to my fob watch. Then I realized that the never ending drumming had...... ended. Put a confused look on my face as I searched my brain for it. It was really gone. Now maybe all it is is a memory, maybe that's all it ever was.
I turned the watch over and over in my hand, tracing the circles on it. Suddenly they started to shift and move until letters appeared on the fob watch. One side read:
Not matter how far we stray apart from you; we will always find you Jessica. Always.
The other side said:
Love Momma and Daddy
Then all of the circles returned, but I could still see it as if it was just in another language. That's when four pips interrupted my train of thought. I dropped the watch and it crashed to the ground. It broke open, and I lunged for it. All I could hear was it saying was that it wasn't time, but it was too late. Gold swirls were being released and voices were filling my head. I grabbed it and snapped it shut, but not before grabbing the attention of everyone in the room.
"Sorry." I said instantly. Daddy just looked at the watch like he had just noticed it, which is very surprising. I sat back down and listened to the conversation they had returned to.
"Four pips." John states the obvious.
"First test passed, it would seem. Here's the second." Daddy showed a photograph to the John and Lestrade. My curiosity got the better of me and I climbed up on to Lestrade's desk to get to get a look at what he was showing to the others. It was a close-up of a car with the driver's door open with the number plate clearly visible. John and Lestrade got up to take a closer look, while outside in the main office a phone rang.
"It's abandoned, wouldn't you say?" Daddy said observing the photograph.
"I'll see if it's been reported." Lestrade sat down at his desk and began searching the number on the number plate. As Daddy picked up his pink phone, Sergeant Donovan came into Lestrade's office holding another phone.

"Freak, it's for you." Donovan said harshly towards Daddy. Daddy walked over to the door and took the phone from her, leaving me with John and Lestrade. John sat down again and Daddy walked out into the general office and raised the phone to his ear.
John started to talk with Lestrade and I looked towards Daddy. He was talking with a blank face on, though he seemed tense. I went over to John and tugged on his pants. He looked down at me, and so did Lestrade, as I pointed out the window towards Daddy. I ran out to him as did John.
"And you've stolen another voice, I presume." Daddy said into the phone, both him and John were both to busy with the person on the phone to bother with me. I could tell that they weren't use to having anyone, especially a child, with them on their cases.
"This is about you and me." I heard a man say, though it was loud to Daddy, it was louder to me, like I was standing next to the man. Then a bus noisily drove past him, and suddenly I was standing next to him. It was a man with a zipped up jacket, with little wires peeking out from the bottom. He had short, blonde hair. It was obvious he was holding tears back, but some had already made it down his pale face. He was holding the phone to his ear and a pager in his hand. We were on a city side walk somewhere in London, right in the middle, I'd say. We were right next to the street, so it was hard to hear who was talking on the phone, but I could still hear it.
"Who are you?" I could hear Daddy's voice say as more traffic went past. "What's that noise?" The man looked down at the pager, still struggling not to weep.
"The sounds of life, Sherlock."
I finally realized where we were, we were standing on a large traffic island at Piccadilly Circus. Pedestrians were walking past us, taking no notice of the distressed tearful man
"But don't worry ..." he read from the pager. He looked down in tearful horror as he saw a red laser point on his jacket. "... I can soon fix that." He cried briefly, and then continued to read the pager message.
"You solved my last puzzle in nine hours. This time you have eight." The man let the tears flow as he hung up the phone, just like before, in the blink of an eye, I was standing next to Daddy, who obviously didn't notice I was gone. But for some reason this made me think of Angel, no, no, no, Weeping Angels. I wonder why.
Daddy was already walking outside with John and Lestrade on his heels. I quickly caught up to them and held on to Daddy's coat as we walked out of New Scotland Yard and to a cab. Daddy, John and I got into the cab and Lestrade got into his car. Daddy told the cabbie where to go and the rest of the cab ride was silent.
When we got there, we were close to the river; the police have arrived at a large open space where the car was found. Forensics officers in protective clothing were working on the car as Lestrade lead Daddy and I towards it, I was so exited, my first crime scene. Yay!! John and Sally Donovan are walking along behind us.
"The car was hired yesterday morning by an Ian Monkford. Banker of some kind; City boy. Paid in cash." Lestrade said consulting some notes. Sherlock looked closely as we passed a woman talking with a female police officer. "Told his wife he was going away on a business trip, but he never arrived." As Daddy and Lestrade reached the passenger door of the car, Sally turned to John. I could hear them whispering, but I was sure Daddy couldn't, seeing as he was inspecting the car.
"You're still hanging round him." Donovan started.
"Yeah, well ..." John replied, not liking where this is going.
"Opposites attract, I suppose."
" No, we're not ..." John pleaded but was interrupted by Donovan. What John said made me giggle, which made Daddy look at me. I shrugged, and he went back to work as Donovan and John went back to their conversation.
"You should get yourself a hobby – stamps, maybe. Model trains. Safer." She left John standing there to stand beside Lestrade as Daddy leans into the car to look at the large amount of blood smeared over the island between the two front seats and the driver's seat. He opened the glove box and pulled out a business card and took it out. He closed the lid and straightened up.
"Before you ask, yes, it's Monkford's blood. The DNA checks out." Lestrade said looking up from his notes.
"No body?" Daddy asked, slipping the card into his coat pocket.
"Not yet." Said Donovan, but Daddy kept his focus on Lestrade.
"Get a sample sent to the lab." Lestrade nodded and Daddy walked away. Lestrade turned to Donovan and looked at her pointedly. She stared back at him indignantly but he held the look and she grunted in exasperation and stomped away. Daddy walked over to the woman who was talking with the police officer.
"Mrs. Monkford?" Daddy asked in a very soft voice, almost like.... Sympathy? She turned to him tearfully.
"Yes." She said letting more tears fall. She looked at him and John, and sighs; she couldn't see me, because I was hiding behind Daddy's coat. I don't know why, I'm not scared of her, more like I'm shy to humans.
"Sorry, but I've already spoken with two policemen."
"No, we're not from the police; we're ..." john started but was cut off by Daddy. Daddy held his hand out to her, with his voice tearful and tremulous, he spoke.
"Sherlock Holmes. Very old friend of your husband's. We, um ..." As she shook his hand, he looked down as if he was fighting back his tears. "... We grew up together."
"I'm sorry, who? I don't think he ever mentioned you." Mrs. Monkford said with a confused look on her face.
"Oh, he must have done. This is ... this is horrible, isn't it?" Daddy said still very tearful. John looked away, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to keep his face neutral.
"I mean, I just can't believe it. I only saw him the other day. Same old Ian – not a care in the world." He smiled tearfully at her.
"Sorry, but my husband has been depressed for months. Who are you?" Mrs. Monkford started losing her temper.
"Really strange that he hired a car. Why would he do that? It's a bit suspicious, isn't it?" Daddy said ignoring her comment, by now he had tears running down his cheeks.
"No, it isn't. He forgot to renew the tax on the car, that's all." Mrs. Monkford was rally losing her temper now.
"Oh, well, that was Ian! That was Ian all over!" Daddy said tearfully with more tears running down his cheeks.
"No it wasn't!" Mrs. Monkford yelled at Daddy. Instantly Daddy's fake persona drops and he looks at her intensely.
"Wasn't it? Interesting." Daddy said in his usually harsh tone. He turned and walks away, and he actually checked to see if I was there. Mrs. Monkford glared after him as we headed for the police tape with John following. The female police office went over to her.
"Who was I talking to?" she said loudly.
"Why did you lie to her?" John asked as they ducked under the tape, as for me, I just walked under it.
"People don't like telling you things, but they love to contradict you. Past tense, did you notice?" Daddy said taking the gloves off to wipe the tears from his eyes.
"Sorry, what?" John asked bewildered.
"I referred to her husband in the past tense. She joined in. Bit premature – they've only just found the car."
"You think she murdered her husband?"
"Definitely not. That's not a mistake a murderer would make."
" I see. No, I don't. What am I seeing?" As we walked past Donovan, she turned and called out to John.
"Fishing! Try fishing!" John turned around and gave her an exasperated nod before following Daddy again.
"Where now?" I piped up. They both looked at me, clueless, probably because I almost never spoke. Daddy looked back up and started talking again.
"Janus Cars." Daddy said as he pulled the business card from his pocket and handed the card to John. "Just found this in the glove compartment."
We had six hours to go as we reached Janus Cars. Daddy, John, and I were in the office of the car hire company. John sat on the other side of the desk to the owner, taking notes while Daddy looked out into the forecourt.
"Can't see how I can help you gentlemen." Mr. Ewert started.
"Mr. Monkford hired the car from you yesterday." John said looking up from his notes.
"Yeah. Lovely motor. Mazda RX-8. Wouldn't mind one of them myself!" Daddy walked over to the other side of the desk so that he was standing beside Ewert, then pointed into the forecourt.
"Is that one?" Daddy questioned. Mr. Ewert turned his head to look and daddy immediately looked closely at the side of the man's neck.
"No, they're all Jags. Yeah, I can see you're not a car man, eh?" he replied looking back at Daddy. Daddy straightened up as Mr. Ewert looks round and smiles at John.
"But, er, surely you can afford one – a Mazda, I mean?" putting on a new act.
"Yeah, it's a fair point. But you know how it is: it's like working in a sweet-shop. Once you start picking at the licorice all sorts, when does it all stop, eh?" Mr. Ewert started scratching near the top of his left arm with his right hand. Daddy looked at him for a moment, then turned away and headed around the room towards the other side of the desk.
"But you didn't know Mr. Monkford?" John questioned, ready to write the answer.
"No, he was just a client. Came in here and hired one of my cars. No idea what happened to him. Poor sod." Mr. Ewert said with no empathy in his voice. Daddy had reached the other side of the desk and stopped.
"Nice holiday, Mr. Ewert?" he asked tilting his head.
"Eh?" Mr. Ewert said, with just the slightest of worry in his voice.
"You've been away, haven't you?" asked Daddy waiting for a response.
"Oh, the-the ..." He gestured toward his tanned face. "No, it's, er, sunbeds, I'm afraid, yeah. Too busy to get away. My wife would love it, though – bit of sun."
"Have you got any change for the cigarette machine?" Daddy said changing the topic. Why hasn't Mr. Ewert noticed me yet? Am I invisible to the world or something? Anyone?
"What?" Mr. Ewert was surprised at how the topic changed.
Well, I noticed one on the way in and I haven't got any change." He offered Mr. Ewert a bank note. "I'm gasping."
"Um, well ..." Mr. Ewert reached into his trouser pocket and took out his wallet. "Hmm." He opened the wallet and looked inside. "No, sorry."
"Oh well. Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Ewert." Daddy said turning and heading for the door. "You've been very helpful. Come on, John, and, er, Jenny." Yes, some acknowledged my existence. We left the office and headed back across the forecourt.
"I-I've got change if you still want to, uh ..." John said trying to fill the awkward silence.
Daddy said while patting his upper left arm, "Nicotine patches, remember? I'm doing well."
"So what was that all about?"
"I needed to look inside his wallet."
"Why?" I said trying to get more evolved.
"Mr. Ewert's a liar." Daddy said simply as we walked off.
I was getting sleepy in the cab and I must have nodded off because suddenly I was in a magnificent dream again, like ones I always slip into as I sleep.