Sherlock was seated on the couch, deeply engrossed in her latest experiment. I went to the kitchen, and noticed a rather particular smell. “Do you smell that, Aga?”
“Hmmms what?”
“That smell — not quite a delicate bouquet, wouldn’t you say?”
“Not quite sure,” she said while focusing back on her experiment.
“Perhaps it’s the garbage,” I ventured.
“Uh-huh,” came the non-committing reply.
After disposing of the garbage, I figured that was one case cracked by Dr. Ir. Watson Hugo, and I walked around proud as a peacock. Of course, I should have known better. The next morning, the fragrance persisted and had, if anything, turned fouler. Sherlock noticed it too, but couldn’t be bothered to turn the awesome power of her nose to this particular case. In the mean time, I myself, rather set back by my clear failure, took to round two with heart. Both collections of recyclables, paper and glass, were disposed, and the blue bag for plastic recyclables was condemned to the garage. Furthermore, the sink was thoroughly cleaned. With this, I will admit to a pleased smile – although I was not convinced the malfeasant aroma had been successfully combatted, at least I had significantly reduced the number of safe houses it could turn to.
Returning in the evening, I was greeted by an even more powerful smell. This could no longer be, and I pleaded with Sherlock to make use of her nose for the living quality of our premises. She conceded, and quickly identified the culprit: the smell was coming from the refrigerator. We took some steps to block or lessen the foul odour’s intrusion path, and made up our minds to contact a handyman the next morning (it being Sunday).
The next evening, the handyman was present and together, he and I managed to remove the refrigerator from its enclosure. There was a rather ugly-looking stain in the enclosure, which the handyman identified knowingly as the source of the stench. However, after having cleaned it, the smell still persisted. When Sherlock Aga returned home, she was hit by the smell, and (this time without pleading) enlisted the use of her nose. The culprit was swiftly identified: above the motor of the refrigerator, there was a plastic compartment to contain fluids that leaked from the interior of the fridge there. This compartment housed a foul-looking liquid, which turned out to be the cause of the foul fragrance.
Upon further investigation, Sherlock Aga managed to trace the origins to a pot of pickles. When she had stored the pot lying instead of upright in the fridge, the pot started leaking…