Entry 16

Shirleigh has not spoken to me in days.

It has been a couple of weeks since she solved the manor of cerulean case and there have been the usual criminals who kept her occupied up until now. She had managed not to utter a single word in nearly five days and I worried that I had done something to upset her. Several times I would attempt to ask her what was wrong but I was often given an icy glare in return before she retreated to her bedroom. I thought that maybe after a few days, she would return to her usual self but that didn't seem to be the case.

I decided that maybe it was time I consulted someone who knew her better than I, so I made my way down to the main lobby one afternoon in hopes that Mr Hudson could help me better understand my partner's strange behaviour.

"Miss Watson, what seems to be the matter?" Mr Hudson gave me a worried look as I approached him.

"It's Shirleigh," I told him. "I am unsure of what is wrong but she has not spoken to me in several days. She has not so much as even left the flat. Whenever I try to engage in conversation with her, she just...glares at me and disappears into her room. I would attempt to figure it out on my own but I want to respect her personal space."

Mr Hudson clasped his hands together atop the desk and pressed his lips together, looking as though he was trying to hold back laughter.

"Miss Watson, nothing is wrong with Shirleigh," he said almost chuckling between words. "Her body is aligned with the moon phases."

"Her..." I stopped to think for a moment. "Moon phases...?"

Understanding what he meant, I gasped and covered my mouth before bursting into laughter.

"That makes so much sense now! How could I not see something so obvious?"

"How long has she been like how you described?"

"Nearly a week," I said. "So..."

Mr Hudson nodded, giving his signature calming smile. "She should be fine soon."

I sighed and thanked him for his help and trudged up the stairs beating myself up until I reached the living room of our flat.

"Well, now that that's over."

Sprawled face up in the middle of the floor was my companion, staring at the ceiling. She had spoken those words as soon as I stepped foot into the room and I felt relief wash over me once more.

"I wish I could just hop to my feet like that after mine are over," I mumbled as she sat up to sit criss-crossed. "How are you feeling?"

"How should I feel? It has been a dreadful week and nothing awaits me at the end of it."

"Well, you also have not checked the papers at all this past week," I told her, seating myself at the table. "As a matter of fact, this morning's paper has something that may interest you."

She brought up a chair beside me and I held up a newspaper from this morning having circled one of the articles.

"You cannot be serious," Shirleigh said monotonously. "A vampire? There is no such thing."

"But look!" I said, pointing to the ink-stained paper. "It certainly sounds like one, doesn't it? A young woman's body was found just outside the city of Rye drained of nearly all of their blood. Two puncture wounds were found on the left side of their neck, lining up with a human's incisors. No other places where blood could have been drained were found and there was none at the crime scene!"

Shirleigh gave me the most insipid stare I have ever seen.

"Oh, come on, there's no way you are not interested in this."

"And you are?"

"I happen to love gothic stories," I told her planting my hands on my hips.

"And that is precisely what it is," she said, leaning back in her chair. "It is a story made up by someone wishing to start some local legend, no doubt."

I slumped in my chair disappointed.

"Fine," she sighed. "We shall go and see for ourselves."

"Really?" I asked excitement in my voice. "My mother used to recite Irish folklore to me and there is something called a dearg-due, a female vampire who drains the blood of men. I wonder if maybe the perpetrator likes vampire stories and is using them for inspiration for their murders. Although I cannot imagine the trouble they would have to go through to drain people of their blood without leaving traces of it behind."

"You are surprisingly enthusiastic about a murder."

"Oh, my..." I placed my head in my hands, a bit embarrassed. "That isn't normal now, is it? Is it becoming a problem?"

Shirleigh shook her head, the corners of her mouth forming a slight smile on her face.

Then a thought hit me so suddenly, that I hadn't realised I had risen to my feet.

"What is it?" Shirleigh focused her attention on me, a serious look painted her features.

"Moriarty," I whispered. Making my way to the end table in the living room window, I removed the phone that had been residing there for nearly a week. "She never came back for this... She was visiting family in Sussex, right? You don't think..."

Was Moriarty potentially a victim of this strange murderer? Had she already been...?

When I glanced up at Shirleigh, I could tell a similar thought had crossed her mind given the grim expression that was now plastered on her face.

Without saying a single word, she rose to her feet, snatched her coat from the rack beside the door and left the flat. I scrambled around for my satchel and rushed out the door to catch up with her fearing the worst.

»»————-　♔　————-««

Gooseflesh covered my arms and legs as the frigid wind stroked my skin. The leaves in the trees rustled as we walked by and I would occasionally hear something scurry passed in the bushes. We were walking along the edge of a forest making our way to the town where the mysterious murder had taken place.

Sussex was a gorgeous county and one that I would have loved to visit under better circumstances. For some peculiar reason, I could not shake the feeling that we were being watched from beyond the shadows.

When we approached the town of Rye, the murmur of people talking drew my attention to a swarming crowd. They gathered just before the entrance to the city just along the perimeter of the forest. As we drew closer, I was able to make out several police officers with rather perplexed looks on their faces talking amongst themselves.

In the centre of the crowd was a singular body that lay lifeless in the grass. There was not any sign of blood or injury save for the distinct wounds on her neck that resembled a vampire's bite. A shiver ran down my spine but I don't think it was because of the cold.

"Hey, you shouldn't—" One of the officers noticed our arrival and took a step forward. "Wait, Holmes? Miss Watson?"

Lestrade's defensive stance relaxed a little as she recognised us. The chequered bandana in her hair danced in the breeze.

"I don't get an honorific?" Shirleigh pouted.

Lestrade planted a hand on her hip. "You caused me a great deal of pain with your last little escapade. Mountains of paperwork and loopholes I had to exploit to keep you and your friend here from landing in a jail cell. You should be glad that I am even considering asking for your help with this ordeal."

Shirleigh shrugged and Lestrade turned toward the body on the ground.

A hint of a honey-like smell lingered in the air as we drew closer to the scene of the crime but it was difficult to tell where it was coming from.

"I don't know who or what did this," Lestrade continued. "But it is a real head-scratcher I'd say. If someone did this, who and why? We could classify this as a homicide. If something was responsible, there isn't much we as the police can do and we would have been wracking our brains for nothing."

Without so much as a sound, Shirleigh had managed to slip past the group of officers and lay beside the deceased's body, raising different limbs and placing them back in their original positions.

"Hey, what are you—"

Lestrade halted an officer who was readying to confront Shirleigh about her intrusiveness.

"Just — let her."

We all patiently observed as Shirleigh examined the corpse. With each movement she made, her eyebrows knitted closer and closer together and I began to worry that the crease between them would become permanent.

"Anything?" Lestrade crossed her arms waiting for a discovery.

Shirleigh stared at the young woman's body, her gaze piercing. She bounced on her toes, her hands in either pocket of her trousers.

"Did you find anything?" I asked, leaning toward my companion.

Her eyes darted in my direction and she looked as if she had been woken from a daze. She shook her head and rocked on her heels.

"We thought the Ripper cases were perplexing," Lestrade mumbled. "What have we stumbled into this time?"

"Likely something that can be explained through facts and logic, naturally," Shirleigh suddenly stated. "We should approach this whilst not permitting the rumours to influence our reasoning. While I will admit that her death is most mysterious, it is nothing we cannot solve if we use our collective strengths."

"Are...you suggesting teamwork?" Lestrade raised an eyebrow.

Shirleigh gave a rather disgusted scowl and knelt beside the victim.

"You should have your best coroner perform an autopsy. If the murderer was able to remove a person's blood without leaving any traces of it, we need to know exactly what could have been used and how long such a feat would take. While you spend the night transporting the body, I shall stay behind to investigate the surroundings."

"You say that as if we haven't turned this place upside down already," Lestrade huffed. "There isn't much else to look at."

Shirleigh ignored her and stared down the cobblestone street that led into town, her fingers drumming a rhythm on her thigh.

»»————-　♔　————-««

After the officers transported the body away from the scene, I walked up to Shirleigh who had been as still as a statue the entire time. When I leaned around, her arms were folded tightly over her abdomen, it almost looked as though she was holding herself. Rather than having her eyes closed, as they usually were when she was deep in thought, they were open and seemed a bit vacant.

"Shirleigh? Is something wrong?"

Her gaze drifted over in my direction and she dropped her arms. She turned to me and I had to crane my neck to maintain eye contact.

"What makes you say that?"

"I don't know," I shrugged as I studied her unchanging countenance. "You usually have a very specific way of going about forming your hypotheses. This time...you seem a bit uncharacteristic. I may be mistaken. Forgive me for asking."

I turned away and peered down the street, hoping to find anything out of the ordinary.

"As much as I want it to be a real vampire, I know when to separate fiction from reality," I started. "Was it some sort of animal? Constable Lestrade brought up the possibility that maybe a person wasn't even involved. But what kind of animal leaves those kinds of marks...? Oh! What about a vampire bat?"

"They are too small," Shirleigh denied within a matter of seconds. "The wounds on her neck were about an inch and a half apart. A vampire bat's entire body is just a bit larger."

"So their teeth can't be that far apart..." I mumbled. "A snake?"

"Better in terms of size, especially if we were to determine which ones had such a distance between their fangs..."

"But...?"

"She would have died of envenomation, not blood loss. Plus, snakes do not drink blood."

It was silent save for the rustle of leaves in the wind and the sound of birds singing in the distance. The rays of the waxing gibbous moon above beamed down, coating the landscape in a silver light.

"It's almost full," I said, looking up at the grey rock hanging in the sky. "This reminds me of our first-night adventure together. The moon's phases almost seem to bode something ominous the fuller it gets..."

Shirleigh gazed up at the moon, her eyes mimicking an ocean underneath its glow. But just like the seas of the Earth, what once were calm waters began to crash in the wake of a tempestuous storm brewing on the horizon, one that neither of us would see coming.