"Allie?" Isabel asked lazily, one horrifically windy autumn/winter afternoon as we lounged idly in our sitting room.
"Mmm?" I asked, rolling over, as I had been lying flat out on the sofa.
"Susan takes a half sip of cider, and I, see death" my sister read, from the newspaper sprawled out in front of her.
"What?" I snorted, shuffling vaguely upright and staring at her.
"It's a complex crossword!" she explained. "Solve it!"
I rolled my eyes, trying to brush some of my wildly tangled hair out of my face.
"Where are the commas?" I asked her, sucking my lip thoughtfully.
"After cider and after I" Isabel replied. I rolled again onto my back, thinking.
"How many letters?"
"Seven."
"Right" I mused. "Susan takes a half sip of cider, and I, see death...Well, a half sip could mean half the word, so we either have blank-cid, cid-blank, er-blank, or blank-er. Since 'and I' is in commas, we have to assume that means you add an I to the half of cider. See death...Wait!"
I sat bolt upright, snapping my fingers together in triumph.
"Suicide" I beamed.
"You lost me at a half sip" Isabel said bluntly. I rolled my eyes again, flopping back onto the sofa with a sigh.
"A shortened version of the name Susan is Sue. Half a cider is c-i-d, plus an extra i makes suicide, and suicide is essentially when someone sees death" I explained despondently. Isabel shook her head, writing it into the boxes. Recently, through no fault of my own, Dr. Scott had introduced Isabel and I to the world of complex crosswords, and it was safe to say, after I understood the reasoning, I was rather good. Isabel sadly, it seemed, was completely and utterly hooked on them, and was also completely and utterly hopeless. It always depressed me when she asked me to do one with her, as I usually ended up giving her all of the answers, which, as I always tried desperately to explain, wasn't the point.
"Do this one for me" my sister said, after a few minutes of silence, listening to the wind whip down the street outside. I groaned.
"Go on."
"Bake a cake with the head of flower and snake oil" she read. I groaned again and stuffed my head into a pillow.
"Allie, pleeeease!" Isabel pleaded.
"Do some of the ones you can do" I complained, my voice muffled by the pillow.
"I've done the rest."
I let out a highly unladylike snort.
"Never in all my life" I scoffed, sitting up on my front and regarding my sister heavily "have I heard something so full of trash. I'll be damned if you've done the rest!"
My sister at least had the dignity to look guilty.
"Was that the door I heard just now?" I asked, trying to change the subject as I had, in fact, heard the door. Isabel got up to answer it as I hastily re-did my hair in the living room mirror, since what had started the morning as a neat, casual low bun now reassembled something not too dissimilar to an electrocuted feather duster.
"Oh, no, we've just been having a quiet afternoon" Isabel was saying, as she led our unknown guests into the lounge. I turned with a smile, and that smile widened to a beam as I saw Fisher, and also Newham, standing in the doorway. The four of us temporarily dissolved into our couples, for greetings and other small talk.
"It feels like it's been forever" I said accusingly to Newham. "How long was that Army trip supposed to be?"
Newham winced.
"I knew you'd ask that" he sighed, looking a little guilty. "Things...got complicated and it overran. I've been unpacking these past few days, or I would have come over sooner."
"I'm glad you're back" I sighed, giving him a hug, and feeling his arms around my shoulders again.I had missed him terribly.
"I'm glad to be back" Newham muttered in my ear. "Finally, I can start keeping you out of trouble again. Fisher filled me in on your little court case extravaganza whilst we were walking over here."
I looked bashfully upwards, making Newham laugh.
"You're a magnet for trouble, you are" he smirked, ruffling my hair. I gave him a withering glare,which made him laugh more. I was back to electrocuted feather duster again.
"Tea, anyone?" Isabel asked cheerfully, as I pulled away from Newham and began to re-do my hair in the mirror. Again.
"I...I'd rather not, Izzy" Fisher stammered. "Sadly I...I am also here on business."
My eyebrows shot up, and everyone laughed.
"Sit down, sit down. I'm fascinated." I gestured to the chairs and the sofa. We all settled ourselves down, Fisher in the chair Isabel had been in previously, and the rest of us on the sofa, me in the middle.
Fisher produced a piece of paper from his inside pocket. He showed it to all of us.
"T-two days ago, th...this was delivered to the doorstep of the Yard headquarters" he began to explain. "U-Usually we would have discarded such an item as a pr...practical joke, but when we accidentally...exposed it to heat, we discovered this m-message."
He held it up again. I frowned. It read:
A Murder Shall Commence on the 21st of November, at 3pm.
"That's barely three days away" Newham breathed.
"I...I know" Fisher sighed. "A-and what's worse is, we have nothing else to go on. Sc-Scotland Yard commissioned me t-to try and find out what's happening."
"On your own?" I asked curiously.
"I-I'm not Barnes's deputy...anymore" Fisher smiled, a little hesitantly. I shot Isabel an incredulous glance. Why hadn't she told me this?"
"Do...do you have any ideas?" the policeman said, after a minute.
I sucked my teeth and shook my head.
"All I know is, if a murder is about to take place, then our murderer is either extremely sure of himself, or a ridiculously cocky idiot" I sighed. Fisher deflated, as did everyone else, a little.
"To be fair, there's practically nothing to go off" Newham pointed out. Everyone agreed. I, however, was thinking a bit more.
"How did you say you found the message?" I asked again, curiously.
"H-heat exposure" Fisher replied.
"And I suppose...I assume you did the same thing to the envelope?" I added thoughtfully. There was an awkward pause.
"Er...no" Fisher replied slowly. "D-do you..."
"I think it might be a good idea"I added swiftly, cutting him off. He stood up with a bit of a jolt.
"I...I think I should go and do that" he spluttered quickly, heading for the door. Isabel, looking a little flustered, jumped up to let him out.
"I'll come with you, Fisher" Newham offered, also jumping to his feet. "I'll..."
"Telephone if anything comes up?" we both said simultaneously.
"Yeah" the lieutenant added, before hurrying out of the door with Fisher.
"Well" Isabel sighed. "That was...brief."
"They'll telephone if anything interesting comes up" I reassured her.
"What then?" Isabel asked sarcastically. "We're all going to go haring around to Scotland Yard to see what they have come up with?"
"Yes" I replied, completely seriously.
Isabel tutted and flopped back down on the chair, picking up the newspaper again and making a visible effort to ignore me.
"Fake" I said.
"What?" she asked scathingly. I smiled, and tried to look as angelic as possible.
"It's the answer to that question you wanted before. Fake. Or at least, I think it is, you never told me how many letters..."
"It's right" Isabel grumbled, filling it in. I settled myself down, stretching full length out on the sofa once again.
"But that means this other one can't be right!" she added, sounding frustrated, as her addiction, as I called it, set in again.
"Read it out" I groaned, burying my face in the pillow once again.