A Study In Murder

?“Hey, great speech the other night,” Cliff mentioned, as he handed a cup to Norm.

?“You got to catch it?”

?“Yeah, man, it was—" he said and stopped as he gazed upon Sheryl. “Um…yeah…you were there, too.”

?Sheryl took my arm in hers. “Yes, I would never miss a chance to hear Mark speak.”

?“I…uh…thought you two didn’t like each other.”

?“Where would you get an idea like that?” I said.

?As Cliff stared, Sheryl and I wandered off.

?“You’re tracking down the cameo?” I asked quietly. “I thought we agreed that it was Winsley’s.”

?“Data! Data! Data!” she said as we walked. "I can't make bricks without clay."

?I smiled at the Holmes quote. “Well, I wish I’d borrowed the Calabash pipe from him.”

?“What do you mean?”

?“Turns out he had a pipe almost identical to the one I lost, and about two hundred dollars cheaper.”

?Sheryl stopped walking and faced me.

?“You saw this pipe?”

?“Saw it? I picked it up and compared them—” I stopped talking as the realization hit me.

?“You picked up another pipe?”

?“Which would have put my fingerprints—” I started to say.

?“On a second pipe,” Sheryl completed my sentence.

?We stared at each other and a smile broke over her face.

?“Come on.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me down another aisle and

around until we could see the jewelry booth of Norm Blake from a different angle.

?She put up an arm to stop my forward progression, in a position so we were slightly hidden. She stared at Norm, who was talking to an elfin princess.

?I whispered, “Do you think he—”

?“I don’t know, but it could explain how your fingerprints ended up on a pipe at Randall’s.”

?“But the two pipes were different. I mean, one of them had a red ‘X’ on the bottom.”

?“Which one?”

?“Mine, I mean, the one I used at the lecture.”

?The princess nodded to Norm, and as she sashayed away, Norm went back to his work area as Cliff followed her chain-mail covered rear end with his eyes.

?Cliff sighed, as Norm picked up a tool.

?I wondered, “What are we—”