Can you tell?

I've always been fascinated with Sherlock Holmes' powers of deduction. Fictitious or not, I always felt that those were powers I would love to have.

Tonight, though, it occurred to me; how does Sherlock really know for sure. As far as human behaviours and motivations go, it could be anything.

How can one accurately deduce a person's state of mind while he is absent? They do it all the time in those crime dramas about serial killers and such, and I assume it is based on some truth but, really, how does one know without a doubt?

I mean say, for example, on my way home from work, I buy myself a piece of lingerie which is clearly meant to seduce a lover. But I do not have a lover.

Say on a night such as this, while feeling a crippling sense of loneliness, I wear said clothing and lounge about the house imagining that I was waiting for a lover (just to make myself feel better).

Say, also, that a deranged person follows me home and lets themselves in (because I neglected to lock my front door). they hide away somewhere in my apartment until I have taken a shower and slipped into this lingerie. Then they pounce on me, kill me and leave without a trace.

If you found my body, slain, in this skimpy undergarment, wouldn't you deduce that it was a crime of passion? If you were the detective, would you start by looking into my love life?

Loneliness is a terrible thing; can you tell?