Sheridan Holmes: A Scandel from Buffalo PART 14

"How 'bout this one?" Eli asked Sheri.

"Do you really want my opinion?" Sheri said, looking down at Eli with her peripheral vision.

"Fine, I didn't like it anyway." Eli put the pink dress back on the spinny clearance rack.

"I don't understand why we're doing this." Sheri declared, putting her arms over her head and leaning lower against the cement column.

"You know what?" Eli scooted the hangers across the bar with a banshee screech. "I don't know either! You were the one who woke me up in the middle of the night to go shopping."

"I thought a change of environment would aid my thought process. I was flawed in my thinking. This-" she motioned to the quiet Macy's department store, "-is not helping at all."

"Can't you just say that you were wrong?" Sheri didn't even bother acknowledge her comment.

"I knew I should have stayed at the rifle range." she muttered.

"You mean your living room." Eli said, looking at a purple denim jacket and then putting it back.

"I just don't get it quite yet, all my picks should have worked, but now they're all broken." Sheri slammed her hands down onto the column with a bang that made Eli jump slightly, "Why would he leave me a lock box, if he didn't want me to open it."

"Maybe he's just sick, and he wants to make you go crazy." Eli said holding a pair of capri's over her legs.

"What possible use would you get out of those now. It's October, buy some snow pants." Sheri let her head fall back again. Eli put the pants back and continued searching.

"You know you could stand to be a little nicer." Eli said. Sheri snorted in response.

"Nice gets you in a third place ribbon, Watson."

"Who told you that?"

"My mother." Sheri said cracking her elbows, "And I never lost a match." Eli raised an eyebrow and took her eyes off the clothes rack for the first time during the conversation.

"What'd you play? Ultimate fighting?" Eli imagined Sheri wrestling giant hairy men to the ground with nothing but her fists.

"Beauty pageants." Eli almost choked in laughter.

"You?!" Sheri opened one eye to Eli, "Beauty pageants? Are we talking about the same Sheridan Holmes here?" Sheri nodded and Eli practically fell over laughing.

"Laugh it up, Watson. But I will still be the best looking in a bikini." Eli laughed even harder. The most skin Sheri had shown since she'd met her, was her shoulders that one day when her jacket got ruined. She hadn't exposed her ankles to the sunlight. The idea of her wearing a bikini was unheard of.

"This isn't going to end up in your blog is it? I don't want memes about me in revealing clothing."

Eli began to pull herself together, wiping tears of laughter out of her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine you as a pageant girl." Eli smiled broadly, "Did you wear frilly pink skirts and do dances." Sheri breathed out of her nose loudly.

"No, my talent was throwing knives, and my dresses were red." Eli's smile faded, "Blood red."

"Oh..." was all Eli could say.

"My mom taught me how to throw so accurately-" Sheri pretended to be throwing a knife directly between Eli's eyes, "-that you'd have time to realize you were dead as it lodged into your skull."

It was Sheri's turn to laugh, while Eli tried desperately to go back to shopping without screaming. Sheri even joined her in her clothes hunt, pulling out all the black clothes in a size 0-2 or XS. Eli tried her hardest to help her look, but small was still too big on the thin waisted detective.

Despite the fact that it was obvious that she was still focusing on Moriarty, Sheri looked actually happy for once. It is a known fact that no matter the girl, she was always enjoy a shopping trip. And for once in her life she could see Sheri as a girl. A girl, with serious anger-management issues and ADHD, but still a girl.

The two of them discussed the villain while they tried on clothes in the changing room. Eli had a lot more to try on than Sheri, but you could just chalk that up to the fact that there isn't a lot of black clothing in a size 0.

"I just think that a male would be more likely." Sheri told her through the door.

"But what if it is a girl?" Eli asked, looking at a yellow T-shirt with a bird design.

"Then I can account for 2.57% increase in intelligence. I'm just looking at the statistics." Eli decided she didn't like the shirt and went to try on her last pair of pants. "Most serial killers are men, aside from that his last two soldiers were male. If I were going to start a criminal empire, I'd only hire the most competent females. It decreases the chance that one link will think that I am unfit to take orders from."

"Well at least I know that you haven't thought about having a criminal empire." Eli said sarcastically.

"I'm a detective, I need to think like the people I'm trying to catch."

"Well, that's a much better hobby than getting a boyfriend."

"Meh," Sheri responded with a frown, "Guys are all exactly the same, they find someone who looks good and then they spend the rest of their life making her cook and clean. The most interesting guy I've ever met was hanged for torturing and murdering five children." then Sheri's phone rang. It played "Secret Agent Man" for three seconds before she answered it. "You might as well just come in." she told her phone.

"I didn't know if you'd prefer talking over the phone." Myka said. Eli quickly pulled on her own pants than grabbed her clothes and walked out. Myka Holmes was wearing a neutral colored dress shirt and matching pants, but a blood red jacket over it. Her blonde hair was tied up like she was going to prom and curled at the bottom. Even in her flats, she towered over Sheri by two inches. Her green eyes were not quite as stunning as Sheri's, but they were unmistakably similar.

"Well if you made the trouble of following me here, you might as well give me the pleasure of saying no to your face." Sheri looked over her sister, as did Myka. Both of them trying to find ammo to throw at the other.

"No sleep again last night." Myka declared.

"New cat?" Sheri countered, "Doesn't seem to like you very much." Eli noticed the slight claw marks on Myka's hands.

"I see your picking skills are failing you. Remind me to send you a new set in the mail."

"Putting on weight again I see." Sheri smiled.

"Burning it off, actually." Sheri shrugged off the fact, "Should I go again, or are we going to get to business?"

"I still have ten minutes in me." Sheri announced.

"I am here to discuss a job for you."

"Forget it, I'm not going to be a secretary." Sheri cracked her fingers, causing Myka to shiver for a second.

"I mean one of your silly little puzzles. A friend of mine has become a victim of blackmail." Sheri didn't seem interested.

"So, pay the fee and get along."

"He isn't asking for money." Sheri smiled.

"Ah, so who's the she? The 'damsel in distress'."

"A person in a pivotal position to our investment." Sheri's smile broadened.

"Ah, so I see there's a reason the mall has been empty today."

"That and it's four in the morning."

"Fine with me, mind if I explain to my colleague?"

"Go right ahead." Sheri turned to the very lost Eli.

"Myka, as I explained earlier, runs the country. When the president is elected she runs the election process. Fixes it, if you will." She turned to Myka again, "Which side are you on again?"

"Mack Turner."

"Yes, well Mack's wife..."

"Sylvia." Myka supplied.

"Sylvia had an affair recently, and the other man has proof that he is willing not to share to the press in exchange for favor. Of course Myka and her coo of politicians would rather this not happen so they brought up the idea of that brilliant, beautiful, fantastic, internet detective go get the pictures back from..."

"Irem Adler."

"So that they could still go on with their plans without his opinion. Of course when they discovered that me and My's here share a common gene pattern they sent her to get me."

"Wonderful," Myka said sarcastically, "How much is this going to cost me?"

"Not a cent." Sheri told her. Myka looked surprised. "I'm not taking the case."

"Are you really going to be this immature?" Myka asked her and Sheri stuck her tongue out at her happily. "You forced my hand." Myka tapped her on the shoulder and showed her something to her so that Eli couldn't see.

"You are a really good politician." Sheri admitted angrily, turning away from their secret huddle. "I get that when I get your pictures." Myka nodded, "Fine then, I accept."

"Then you'll need this." Myka handed Sheri a small royal red folder and left.

Sheri payed for the clothes angrily. Her Debit card slammed on the counter with a loud bang.

"I hate my sister!" she declared as the scared salesperson handed her the bags.

"What did she show you?" Eli asked.

"A picture. The one picture missing from my photo album." She kicked the door open. "I should have known she'd have kept it."

"So this picture means a lot to you?"

"I'll burn it as soon as I have it!" she yelled to the nearly empty parking lot.

"So it's embarrassing. I thought you'd be incapable of being embarrassed."

"I am, but that picture is a reminder." Sheri unlocked the car and jumped in.

"A reminder of what?" Eli asked, opening the door and buckling herself in.

Sheri didn't answer. All she said was, "No time, we have a flight to catch."