The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Christine Maryland *DISCONTINUED*

The Confrontation

Since Sherlock went into his Mind Palace, I decided to go into my own.

Unlike Sherlock, I don't completely shut myself out from the rest of the world to think. I find that when I do that, I get nothing.

So, usually, I take a walk, listen to music, play the piano, talk to a friend...pretty much what Sherlock would call "distractions."

So, I took my iPod, grabbed my coat, and went out for a little stroll around Baker Street.

I put my iPod on shuffle, and "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring came on. Perfect for how I was feeling at the moment. I just need Rod Serling to come out and start narrating and there we have an episode.

I continued walking down Baker Street, thinking.

I looked around and studied others. 

I saw a woman who is married, but she is currently with another man who is not her husband because he doesn't have a wedding ring. The way they touch and look at each other shows that they are having an affair.

However, I also see bruises on her face and her neck that she attempted to cover up with makeup. It wasn't her lover because the finger size and the handprint across her face is bigger than his.

She's in an abusive marriage and her lover is trying to help her.

I walked up to them and tapped on the woman's shoulder. She turned around to face me, but gave me a confused look.

"Leave him," I said, "No husband is worthy of marriage if all he does is abuse his wife."

I then walked off while the woman looked at me, stunned.

She tried calling out to me, but I already had my headphones in and therefore could not hear her.

It's not the first time I used my gift to help strangers.  I never want them to know who I was though, for it's better to hear something like that from a stranger to know that anyone can care about you.

Just as soon as I got far away from the woman and her lover, though, everything that happened came to my mind.

The murders.

The clues.

The suspects.

The victims.

The terrorist sign.

All these pictures came flooding into my mind.

I couldn't take it anymore.

It was all too much.

I quickly turned off my music and sat on the nearest bench, taking some long, deep breaths, trying to pull myself together.

Never have I ever had so much hints from a case come all at once on me like that. It made my head hurt.

Soon, my mind began to trace back to the day I first met John and Sherlock. In my head, I replayed when we walked out of Dean James's office, trying to find someone or something that would pull me in the right direction.

There must be something that Sherlock and I missed. There has to be. My mind wouldn't have traced back to that day if there weren't any clues

When I replayed that day, though, the first thing I noticed was Mrs. Chaisty, the British Literature professor, running to class because she slept in and she had 5 minutes to get ready to start up her class. She also taught the night students, and she was up till 1:30 in the morning...about two and a half hours before the murder was committed.

I scratched her out of my mind and moved on to the next people walking on the campus that day.

I saw Penelope and Thomas as well. They are sophomores from around the Liverpool area. They were heading to political science class that day. They both studied politics judging by their textbooks.