Sheerluck Homes: A Study In Think

Sheerluck and Lou

The phone rang so she answered it.
“Hello?” she said in a cheery voice, no answer.
“Hello? Any body there?  Bradley is this you?  I’m not scared Brad.  Oh and could you tell me if anything is due tomorrow?  I’ve been at church all day.  Brad… Brad?  Oh come on Bradley, I’m not… Huh?” The phone hung up and then… the lights went out.

As Sheerluck and I arrived on the scene, I was terrified but Sheerluck as always had a emotionless expression. If you shared a flat with him you could tell that he was the most excited thing in the world at the moment.  Have you ever seen a puppy after its owners come home from a long trip? Take that times one thousand. He just kept shifting back and forth in his seat and his pupils were so dilated you could hardly see the color of his eyes.  It was our first case, so I was still extremely nervous and scared.
We stepped out of the car and walked up to a very prestigious looking house.  The Yard (the police for all of you american folk) flooded in our direction.
“Inspector Anderson,” One of the men introduced himself.   “You kids need to leave, You’ll contaminate the crime scene.”
Sheerluck was obviously annoyed, yet slightly pleased that he was able to show off right off the bat.  He held up his badge. “Sheerluck Homes. I’m from the NCA.  My partner Lou Voltage and I were sent here on our first case.”
“Sorry kid, but we don’t consult amateurs on murder cases.”
“I graduated from Harvard at the age of eight.  I can tell that you have three dogs, a Lab, a Husky, and a Newfoundland.  I can tell that you had a breakfast of bacon, cinnamon rolls, sausage, and orange juice, all prepared by your 60 year old mother with arthritis in her left thumb. I know that you ar precisely 39 years old with no self respect and are very clumsy judging by the stain on your left pant leg. I know that you have a wife of whom you are very fond of, but of whom you, at times, seem to find very boring. So you were right about one thing.”
“And that is?”
“They don’t consult amateurs.” Sheerluck boasted as he walked passed, looking very pleased with himself.  We walked up the drive and the lead detective walked up to us.
“Sheerluck! Am I glad to see you!” the man exclaimed.
“I don’t know, are you?” Sheerluck joked.
“Yes I am glad, and aren't you going to introduce me to your little friend?”
“Oh right, Lou this is inspector Devin.  Devin this is Lou Voltage.”
“It’s very nice to meet you sir,” I said as I reached out for a handshake. But he never returned it.
“Sorry lad, no time for formal introductions.” Devin apologised, though I never really did get a handshake now that I think about it.
Inspector Devin led us to the door where he warned me about how this might become really graphic. He was right.  When we stepped into the house we saw the victim's body lying there with a phone in her hand.
“Poor girl,” I sighed “How old was she?”
“We,ll we think”  Inspector Devin began.
“She was exactly 16 years of age, She had a boyfriend whose name was Bradley.  I say we interrogate him immediately.” Sheerluck interrupted.
“Oh,” Inspector Devin began, “How on Earth did you know the boyfriends name?”
“Well It’s quite obvious isn’t it?” Sheerluck said in his I-think-we-all-know-what’s-going-on-here voice “... Isn't it? Ugh!! You people will be the death of me!” Sheerluck exclaimed.
“Well not really,” I started “I think you’re forgetting one small itty bitty little piece of information.”
“And that is what exactly?” Sheerluck asked.
“WE ARE NOT YOU!!” I yelled at him “WE DO NOT HAVE YOUR LITTLE “MIND POWER” AS YOU SO CALL IT!”
“Oh,right I apologize. Well, what your feeble little minds are incapable of seeing is that on her telephone screen a man named Bradley texted her not too long ago; plus the name Bradley has little hearts around it. Now you might be thinking ‘now that could just be a best friend, or her father or maybe even her brother’; but if we go into recent texting history,” he paused and tried to open up her phone “Mary Mother Of Spain, it has a password. Just give me one moment, please.” He turned and walked down the hallway. Naturally I followed my crime solving partner to the girls room. With one look, Sheerluck turned around and headed back down the hall to the body. Sheerluck took out the phone again and unlocked it.
“We can see that he refers to her as ‘sweetheart’, so naturally we can rule out brother. Looking onward we see that she sometimes calls him ‘good looking’ so we can rule out Dad and friend. So there for Bradley is her boyfriend. I suggest that someone inform Mr.Bradley of this unfortunate incident, I vote Anderson.”
“How did you figure out her password with barely a glance at her room? And… why Anderson?”  Inspector Devin asked.
“When we met outside he called me an amiture and I subtly pointed out that I knew that he cheats on his wife; I felt that we had a special connection.”
“Well if you look at her room you can see a few little posters of Justin Bieber. So I milled over the possible passwords, and I thought of the most plausible password, Belieber#1?.” Sheerluck stated with a certain gleam in his eyes.
As we searched the phone, we saw that she had a recent fight with her best friend Kelly Rodgers. So we called in our suspects. Her father, her boyfriend, her mother, and her best friend Kelly Rodgers. We asked them what they were doing at the time of the murder
“I was getting the post” said her mother, with whom she had had a fight with the previous day.
“I was working on a homework assignment that was due the next day!” her boyfriend Brad exclaimed, tears welling up in his eyes. “I loved her… I know everyone said that she cheated on me, but she was an honest loving girl!”
“I was making breakfast. I did not kill my daughter!!” The father protested.
“I didn’t even want to look at her, the lying scheving biscuit” Kelly sulked.
“So who was it Sheerluck?” I asked.
“It was the mother.”
“Wait, how do you know?”
“There’s no post on sundays. Devin… Take her away.”