Murder with Lens: A Sherlock Holmes Case (221B Baker Street Series) by S.K. Lloyds Page B

She feels that she overreacted.” Sarah lowered her voice some. “You know, I checked and she actually did find him charming. And good-looking. He caused her a terrible bout of butterflies.”
    “In… the room.” Sherlock said lazily. He gave up and looked her way. “What caused the crying?”
    “She had a death in the family.”
    Holmes tucked the phone in his pocket. “Go back to her and tell her she doesn’t have to lie.”
    “Excuse me?” Sarah lowered the bacon strip.
    “She made it up,” Sherlock said. “There was nothing about her that said ‘death in the family’. I mean, look at her. Lively pink cheeks; flushed red mouth; no circling under her eyes; and that hair – massive banana curls. One doesn’t spend hours prepping for a date when there’s been a death in the family. Even if one isn’t effected directly, it’s disrespectful. She’s lying. Lying is normal. Means she’s hiding something embarrassing, frightening, or dangerous. Go back.”
    Sarah shook her head, “Sherlock… I’m not sure if you understand this…” John looked in her direction, “but I can’t go back to Sofia and accuse her of lying about a death. If there has been one, something like that could cost the friendship. It’s not done.”
    “Interesting,” Sherlock said sagaciously. “Well, do it anyway, mostly, because I’m right.”
    “We have to go.”
    They all looked up to the voice at the door.
    Long, thin Reese, in her fluffy pink coat and mini pig tails, stood in the doorway. “We have to go now.” She gawped and added to this, “Oh my God, Sherlock – I love your Hitachi TM3000 SEM! Can I play with it?”
    Holmes tucked Lawrence Water’s phone away and considered her. But he didn’t answer.
    Beside John on the couch, Sarah blinked away her alarm. “I bet she says that to all the boys. John, who’s this?”
    John felt himself go pale. Why Reese’s being here should fill him with such dread, he wasn’t certain. He had the distinct feeling she was in danger out in the city far from her protectors. “Oh, hell.”
    Reese’s red lips screwed up a moment. “Who was prepping for a date?”
    Sherlock’s head rose a little. “Where’s your minder?”
    “Napping.” Ree stepped into the room and looked about her curiously. “I wasn’t joking. I mean, about the microscope, too, but we have to go, Sherlock. It won’t be a half an hour before they figure out I slipped Lewis some of my Ambien. They’ve got to have the wits to send someone to check here, don’t they? Even if they are apes.”
    Sherlock nodded. “Yes. Ideally, they’ll get here, find you, and take you to the Yard-”
    “Sherlock!” her red lips thinned aggressively, “Do you know how hard it is to slip those guys? I don’t throw away my stash of sleeping pills for nothing. I’ll lose privileges now, until I hit America again, you realize. But I need to go with you.”
    “You need to find a pattern from the maps I gave you.” Sherlock replied.
    “Hello. I have my iPad with me, genius. Besides, the array is random. I ran stats. Not significant. Lawrence didn’t have rich enough information. However, the little stick figure drawings are interesting. Looks like there are more, but they only come in two varieties. One is always sitting up or rampant; the other always has a little plus sign or cross under the extended front leg.” She walked into the room and showed him her iPad’s screen. “Two different forces at work here. Oh, and the infinity symbol stands for his CIA contacts in London. The Langley head offices of Think Tank, they use an infinity symbol over the ‘i’. He was to check in on this corner here. Lawrence only had to show up in front of the camera and wait for our junk mail to hit his phone. But that night, he missed.”
    “Two forces,” Sherlock’s eyes combed the map. His voice was quiet. “Thank you… and you should go back to Scotland Yard now.”
    She gave a very teenaged guffaw. “Sherlock, I’m