Fic: Emmy & Captain Seedy: Gen
Aug. 15th, 2023 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapi posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
holmes_minorTitle: Emmy & Captain Seedy
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Summary: A parrot witnesses a murder.
“Oh, Mister Holmes?! Is that you?!”
Holmes had quickly embraced the telephone as means of communication when one had first been introduced to 221 Baker Street. Thus, he did not respond in so strident a tone as his landlady or his fellow lodger might have employed in similar circumstances.
Clearly, the caller was agitated, and that was amplifying her own speech. Holmes rummaged through his brain-attic to place the voice.
“Mrs. Strickland?” he asked when he’d found it.
“Yes! Oh, thank goodness. Yes, this is Caroline Strickland. I am calling about Emmy. I’m so frightfully worried. She’s disappeared!”
Holmes frowned. “Are you certain? What of…?”
“Captain Seedy is missing, too!”
The child’s parrot companion. It was suggestive.
“And,” the frantic voice continued, “the last thing Emmy said to me was that she knew who killed Uncle Boyton. I asked her who and how she knew, but just then cook came to tell me about a problem with the fish and I had to go to the kitchen and settle matters myself and by the time I returned, Emmy was gone. And now I can’t find her or Captain Seed! We’ve looked everywhere! We’ve asked everyone! I notified the police, too, of course, but…”
“I’ll be around as quick as I can,” assured Holmes.
---
Holmes’ own search was concluding when a constable arrived. While Mrs. Strickland was occupied with recounting her story to the authority, Holmes slipped out into the garden and up the boughs of the sturdiest tree.
“Gotcha,” he said softly as he neared the young girl and with the green bird on her shoulder. Their expressions as they looked down at him were uncannily similar.
“I knew you’d find me. I had to hide. In books, whenever someone says they know who did the murder, they end up murdered themselves!”
One corner of Holmes’ mouth twitched. “You are wise beyond your years Miss Emmaline Strickland.”
He settled just below her. “Now who killed your Uncle Boyton?
“It was Cousin Charles,” whispered Emmy.
“How do you know?”
“The captain told me.”
“Seedy’s the name!” chirruped the parrot, bobbing up and down. “Seedy’s the game!”
“Hugo and I were playing hide-and-seek and I hid in the lumber room. I found some Christmas nuts on the floor, and I thought Seedy might like them. When I gave him the walnut, he started flapping his wings and squawking.” She produced something from her pocket, showed Holmes, then offered it to the bird.
The bird danced and sang a crackly dialogue.
“No, Charles, don’t do it!”
“Good night, uncle, forever!”
“No, Charles, no!”
“Seedy’s the name! Seedy’s the game!”
The girl’s eyes never left Holmes’. He nodded. “There were walnut shells found under your uncle’s body. My theory is correct. Thank you very much, my dear Emmy, you and the Captain have solved the case!”
Emmy Strickland smiled. She offered the parrot another nut, but it simply bobbed and squawked.
“Goddamn it, old man, why’d you ever teach that blasted bird to talk?!”
Rating: Gen
Length: 500
Summary: A parrot witnesses a murder.
“Oh, Mister Holmes?! Is that you?!”
Holmes had quickly embraced the telephone as means of communication when one had first been introduced to 221 Baker Street. Thus, he did not respond in so strident a tone as his landlady or his fellow lodger might have employed in similar circumstances.
Clearly, the caller was agitated, and that was amplifying her own speech. Holmes rummaged through his brain-attic to place the voice.
“Mrs. Strickland?” he asked when he’d found it.
“Yes! Oh, thank goodness. Yes, this is Caroline Strickland. I am calling about Emmy. I’m so frightfully worried. She’s disappeared!”
Holmes frowned. “Are you certain? What of…?”
“Captain Seedy is missing, too!”
The child’s parrot companion. It was suggestive.
“And,” the frantic voice continued, “the last thing Emmy said to me was that she knew who killed Uncle Boyton. I asked her who and how she knew, but just then cook came to tell me about a problem with the fish and I had to go to the kitchen and settle matters myself and by the time I returned, Emmy was gone. And now I can’t find her or Captain Seed! We’ve looked everywhere! We’ve asked everyone! I notified the police, too, of course, but…”
“I’ll be around as quick as I can,” assured Holmes.
---
Holmes’ own search was concluding when a constable arrived. While Mrs. Strickland was occupied with recounting her story to the authority, Holmes slipped out into the garden and up the boughs of the sturdiest tree.
“Gotcha,” he said softly as he neared the young girl and with the green bird on her shoulder. Their expressions as they looked down at him were uncannily similar.
“I knew you’d find me. I had to hide. In books, whenever someone says they know who did the murder, they end up murdered themselves!”
One corner of Holmes’ mouth twitched. “You are wise beyond your years Miss Emmaline Strickland.”
He settled just below her. “Now who killed your Uncle Boyton?
“It was Cousin Charles,” whispered Emmy.
“How do you know?”
“The captain told me.”
“Seedy’s the name!” chirruped the parrot, bobbing up and down. “Seedy’s the game!”
“Hugo and I were playing hide-and-seek and I hid in the lumber room. I found some Christmas nuts on the floor, and I thought Seedy might like them. When I gave him the walnut, he started flapping his wings and squawking.” She produced something from her pocket, showed Holmes, then offered it to the bird.
The bird danced and sang a crackly dialogue.
“No, Charles, don’t do it!”
“Good night, uncle, forever!”
“No, Charles, no!”
“Seedy’s the name! Seedy’s the game!”
The girl’s eyes never left Holmes’. He nodded. “There were walnut shells found under your uncle’s body. My theory is correct. Thank you very much, my dear Emmy, you and the Captain have solved the case!”
Emmy Strickland smiled. She offered the parrot another nut, but it simply bobbed and squawked.
“Goddamn it, old man, why’d you ever teach that blasted bird to talk?!”
no subject
Date: 2023-08-15 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-15 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-15 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-15 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 06:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-01 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-01 08:31 pm (UTC)