Obadiah's Past and the Doubts Surrounding Sherlock's Parents' Deaths

Although the archives did not contain specific intelligence on Obadiah, they did reveal every administrative order he had issued since joining Stark Industries.

From those decisions, Sherlock had almost pieced together a living, breathing Obadiah rooted in reality.

It was true that Obadiah had founded Stark Industries alongside Howard Stark, but whether it was technology or the company's strategic direction, Howard had always held firm control in his own hands.

During that period, Obadiah handled the matters Howard did not wish to deal with personally.

Or, to put it more plainly, Obadiah had been Howard's black glove, handling all the unpleasant and offensive work Howard could not conveniently handle himself.

It was no exaggeration to say that Obadiah had been the least popular person in all of Stark Industries at the time, yet also one of Howard's best partners.

Everything changed after Howard's death.

Tony had been far too young then, with no real understanding of corporate management whatsoever. That was when Obadiah stepped forward.

Using his status as Howard's partner, along with the "prestige" he had built up over the years as a black glove, Obadiah successfully "stood at Tony's side" and became the new Stark's right-hand man.

At the same time, he shed his identity as a black glove and returned to the spotlight. He and Tony began addressing each other as uncle and nephew, a relationship they maintained to this day. Tony's trust in him even allowed him to directly oversee both the business and sales departments.

Amidst the vast mountain and sea of records, Sherlock saw his parents' names and roughly reached a conclusion.

At the time, his parents had undoubtedly been the people in Stark Industries most opposed to Tony growing too close to Obadiah, and among those who disliked Obadiah the most.

That much could be seen from the signatures on the rapidly changing orders issued during that period.

After his parents died, Obadiah had clearly succeeded in carrying out all his plans and gained immense power within Stark Industries.

Even so, these could only serve as a "motive" for Obadiah to murder his parents, not evidence.

Sherlock had found neither how Obadiah smuggled Stark Industries weapons nor proof that he had harmed his parents. Three straight days spent sorting through information without sleep had also left Sherlock utterly exhausted.

Having found nothing, he simply quit his job at Stark Industries and drove back to Tony's mansion.

By then, Tony had completed most of the Mark One armor. He gave Sherlock, who had spent nearly half a month as a wage slave, an exceptionally warm welcome. The first thing he said upon seeing him was—

"Welcome home, my dear Mr. Charles!"

Unfortunately, Sherlock was in no mood to joke around with Tony. He sat silently on the sofa in the living room, rubbed his brow in fatigue, and only then asked Tony, "Tony, let's talk business. Can you tell me everything you know about my parents' murder?"

With Tony's intelligence, combined with Sherlock's recent actions, he almost immediately deduced who Sherlock suspected.

"You suspect Obadiah?"

Sherlock did not deny Tony's question. He simply stared at him without a word. After a long while, Sherlock rubbed his throbbing temples and said, "Yes. Not only that, I suspect Obadiah was also behind the weapons smuggling in the Middle East."

"Impossible! I checked nearly every process and all the raw materials in the departments Obadiah manages. I found no evidence whatsoever that Obadiah was smuggling anything!"

Tony dismissed Sherlock's suspicion almost instantly. But seeing that Sherlock clearly had no desire to respond to him, Tony soon fell silent again.

After quite a while, Tony finally sighed helplessly and began telling Sherlock about the past.

Obadiah and his father, Howard Stark, had founded Stark Industries together. Sherlock's parents had been among its first employees, and Tony's father Howard had also been an extremely family-oriented man.

Because of that, Tony had often seen Howard holding meetings at home with Obadiah and Sherlock's parents.

What surprised Sherlock was that Tony had been close with all of those people who often came to his home for meetings. Of them all, he had been closest to Sherlock's parents.

Sherlock's father in particular was not much older than Tony, yet whenever he and Sherlock's mother spent time with Tony, Tony always felt an inexplicable paternal affection from him—or perhaps the concern an older brother showed for his younger brothers.

Obadiah, meanwhile, had been Tony's favorite uncle from childhood onward, because every time Obadiah saw Tony, he would give him things he liked.

That continued until Tony's father Howard passed away. At the time, Tony had been so overwhelmed by the turmoil at Stark Industries that he had felt he could not hold on any longer. It was Sherlock's parents who stepped forward and, in their capacity as Sherlock's godparents, helped Tony pull himself together again.

There was no need to say more about what happened afterward. Sherlock's parents died in a plane crash, Tony theoretically adopted Sherlock, and Obadiah became Tony's only "support" during that period, allowing Stark Industries to achieve what it had today.

What Tony did not know was that he had originally intended to make Sherlock understand that Obadiah could not possibly have harmed his parents. But when those words were combined with the dust-covered documents Sherlock had seen in the archives, it was clearly not that simple.

Instead, Obadiah seemed even more suspicious to Sherlock.

Seeing Sherlock remain silent, Tony became somewhat angry. He immediately had JARVIS pull up his investigation into the plane crash and send it to Sherlock, while he himself stormed off to continue improving his armor.

Sherlock did not mind Tony's little temper. Instead, he began going through the documents Tony had provided.

They contained the investigation report following the plane crash, including the pre-flight inspection and the inspection conducted after the earlier landing.

Both reports showed that there had been no problems with the aircraft itself, ruling out mechanical failure.

But when Sherlock examined the data report from the black box, he felt terrible. The black box showed that the pilot had made no operational errors whatsoever and had even carried out standard emergency procedures after the aircraft lost power.

Simply put, there were no usable clues to be found in this air disaster. The plane had been fine before takeoff, fine after it went airborne, and the pilot had been highly competent—yet it had somehow crashed for no apparent reason!

Most crucially, the documents also included an investigative report Tony had commissioned from a detective. It listed every person Obadiah had contacted before and after Sherlock's parents' air disaster.

There was not a single suspicious person on that list! Not one!