Deducing Tragedy Part One: See No Evil

As it turned out, Hanna owned three cats. John didn’t know that when he agreed to let them into the flat but the moment Hanna’s older brother brought them in their soft cries echoed through the apartment and Hanna’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “My babies!” She smiled before sitting on the ground in front of the crates. When the doors opened the cats went to her immediately and she hugged and pet them; the biggest grin stretched across her face. It was the happiest he’d seen her in the last couple days. He couldn’t take that from her, the cats had to stay.

“Yeah, they really missed you,” Her brother laughed as he put the crates against the wall under the coats. “Wouldn’t hardly eat.” The man shared many of the same features as Molly in the nose and jaw line. The hair was the most similar in the color and length; his was tied back in a back in a ponytail right now. He was taller than either of the girls however, seeming to stand at about 5’8 as compared to Hanna’s height of 5’0.

“I noticed they got skinny,” she frowned, picking up the smallest one. It was a dark brown tabby with white paws and a heart shape spot between its eyes. “Oh my poor Bab’s” she whispered into its fur as she stood up and carried him into her room.

“She really loves them” John noted as they watched her walk away with the other cats on her heals.

“They are her babies” he chuckled turning to face him. “I'm Mark.”

“Yes I know” John said shaking his hand. “The older brother, it’s like every time I turn around there is another Hooper running about the place”

“There are only the three of us,” Hanna said coming back into the room with a different cat in her arms. This one was an array of different grey shades in stripes along its lean body. “Molly, Mark, and then me.” she smiled handing the cat to her brother. “I'm the baby.”

“I call her the trouble maker,” Mark teased and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Well Mark since you’re here do you mind doing me a favor?” John asked.

“Good idea John!” Hanna beamed turning to her brother. “Can you help John get my couch out of storage and bring it in?”

“The couch?” Mark asked. “Why?”

“Not sure yet,” Hanna said turning around to walk back into her room. “I'm smart, but not that smart. I'm still working on it”

“What?”

“My old flat mate is moving back in” John said. “He’s… brilliant, unfortunately. He said that a couch was the only way to make it work and then ran off to God knows where before explaining it further.”

“He sounds like a prick”

“He is!” Hanna called from the back room. “He wouldn’t eat the sausage I made for him! Talk about rude!”

“Sherlock can be a pain in the ass,” John reasoned. “But he’s also a great man, one of the best I know.”

“If you say so,” Mark shrugged. “He must be pretty smart for Hanna to be struggling to keep up. She’s smart, my sister.”

“I know” John laughed. “I’m not sure how well I'm going to fair between the two of them”

“Hey guys!” Hanna called leaning out of her door to look at them. “The couch needs to be here before Sherlock gets back, which means you need to get going” she tossed them a key and Mark caught it easily.

“You’ll be ok by yourself?” Mark asked as John got his coat.

“I’ll be fine!” Hanna grinned. “I’m not alone, I have my cats!” Mark shrugged and pulled on his coat before walking out the door with John. Outside he started down the street and John walked after him confused.

“We aren’t taking a cab?” He asked jogging to catch up with the man.

“No way” he laughed pulling out a set of car keys. “See while my sisters both have an affinity for the city, I prefer the calm comforts of the country. And in the country you can’t walk everywhere or catch a cab, or the tube so I have a car- well, car isn’t really the correct term for it” John paused a moment, still confused, before Mark turned and patted his hand on a large pickup truck.

“Oh my god,” John breathed looking at it. “That is a truck.”

“Yeah” Mark grinned something similar to the one previously worn by his sister when she was surrounded by her cats. This truck was Marks baby. The ride to the storage unit was quiet, neither man thinking much of the silence between them until they arrived at the place. Grabbing the couch was fairly easy and thanks to the oversized truck bed, tying it down only required a couple bungee cords.

“That’s a lovely couch,” John said as they got back in the cab of the truck. “I hope it’ll be ok out there.”

“Hanna won’t care,” Mark rolled his eyes as he started the engine. “She hates that thing”

“Really?” John asked. “Why’s that?”

“It’s the couch she bought with her ex,” Mark said with a heavy sigh. “She’s been trying to get rid of it but no one will take it.”

“Why’s that?” John asked.

“People say it’s cursed,” Mark shrugged. “It’s beautiful, like you said but every time someone took it, bad things would happen in their home and they would bring it back.”

“Why not junk it then?” he asked. “Why is she holding onto it?”

“I don’t know” Mark shrugged again. “Hanna… she used to be real secretive about her life. Me and Molly didn’t know hardly anything about her; hell we barely knew she was dating that boy. Didn’t really find out till he was gone and Hanna was blind.”

“Wait, what?” John asked frowning.

“You didn’t know?” he asked raising an eyebrow. “Her ex is the reason she’s blind. He poisoned her to stop her from looking at other men. After that Hanna was placed in protective custody and he was nowhere to be found. Hanna lost her job, and became a hermit with those cats of hers.”

“Did they ever catch the guy?”

“Nope, fate took care of him,” Mark said with a frightening expression on his face. “Hit by a bus, dead on impact.”

“Wow.”

“He’s lucky that bus hit him,” Mark said with an eerily calm voice. “Because if it hadn’t, I would have found him and death? That would be a mercy.” John looked at the man, the anger clear on his face and he couldn’t blame him. He could only imagine how hard that must have been on their family.

“Your sister is very strong”

“Don’t I know it,” he chuckled, turning to look at John. “Do you know what she did when she was told she was going blind and there was no way to reverse it?” John shook his head. “She painted the living room in the flat they shared. Apparently they’d been fighting about that for months, she wanted green and he was demanding it stay white. The last thing she saw… was those walls painted a dark, forest green.”