Chapter One: On Silent Cat Paws Death Enters the Scene
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Sherlock characters.
Notes: Feedback is appreciated good, bad doesn't matter. Questions shoot them my way and I will try to answer them in new chapters. Chapters will be updated depending on my mood on which story I want to play with first.
John stood waiting at the airplane terminal for his younger cousin. The flight stated that the plane had already touched down and passengers were disembarking from it. The last time John had seen his cousin was when they had been at the last family reunion a few days before he was deployed to Afghanistan. She was in college now according to her father when he had called to tell John that Pan was flying over to London to attend a semester in one of the art schools there. He had been both nervous and frustrated that his youngest would be overseas and away from home for such a long time. John had hastened to assure his older cousin that he would keep an eye out for Pan while she was here. In fact he had asked Mrs. Hudson if it would be alright if Pan lived in 221B Baker Street in the basement apartment if that was alright with Mrs. Hudson. Mrs. Hudson had been ecstatic to have John's cousin live there as long as the cousin didn't do drugs or was not a criminal being that Sherlock would know long before he met Pan. John had assured Mrs. Hudson that Pan was neither a criminal nor a drug addict nor did she drink. She was a very intelligent young lady who was blessed in the ways of arts. So here he was standing around waiting for someone who he hadn't seen in a long time come out of a terminal looking for him. He didn't even know if she remembered what he looked like let alone been told by her dad on what was going on. John looked down at his phone as it beeped alerting him to a text coming in, Sherlock once again making a demand out of John. John rolled his eyes and flipped his phone over to return the text message. Just then a shadow fell over his eyes and John lifted his gaze toward a six foot tall young woman, dark auburn hair fell in light waves around her shoulders in a feathery layered fashion. Golden black eyes stared back at John behind square shaped glasses. The woman had a smudge of charcoal on her left cheek and bridge of nose where she had been pushing her glasses back up onto her face. She was of an hour glass shape with supple breasts and a nice rounded bottom but those were poorly concealed beneath the baggy clothing she had on. She wore a large oversized teal sweater hand knitted and showing signs of wear and tear which was also covered in charcoal. John looked down at the black cargo pants and sneakered feet before looking back up at the woman's face.
"You've grown." John stated, he held out his arms to show a sign of wanting to embrace her and the woman smiled and hugged him tight. His back popped from the pressure of the hug relieving some tension he didn't know he had.
"Of course I have grown cousin, I was what fifteen when you last saw me and now I am twenty five." Pan smiled, showing off straight white teeth, her canines being sharper than average. John nodded his head in agreement.
"You were already taller than me then." John remembered as he stepped back to look at her once more. "Well shall we get going?" Pan nodded reaching down to lift a carry on and grab a duffel bag filled with her clothes and another pair of shoes. John smiled at her once more and motioned her to follow behind him. "I see that you are still acting like an independent woman, not allowing others to dictate on how you should behave." He held the door open for his cousin and then tried to hail a cabbi. They ignored him as usual. "Blast they never pay attention to me at all." John informed Pan as he waved down another cab. Pan smiled and lifted her hand up before whistling out a strong note the cab pulled over in front of them right away.
"You just have to show them that you mean business that is all." Pan assured him. The cab driver got out of the vehicle to help Pan put her luggage in the boot of the car. John rolled his eyes.
"No, it's just you being tall and me short." Pan laughed and allowed the driver to open the cab door for her. John followed behind her and the cab driver returned to his seat asking for the address they needed to go to. John told him and then leaned back and looked over at his cousin. "Now I want to warn you that my roommate is rather intimating and can be very rude. Just don't let what he says bring you down. He doesn't really think before he speaks half the time, but he is very intelligent a genius." John told her. Pan nodded her head to the information given.
"Cousin I have read your blog. I know all about your roommate." John laughed awkwardly and leaned back against the seat.
"Yes, well he doesn't know all about you either and I would like to keep him and his brother from knowing at all if I and you can help it." Pan nodded in agreement.
"That would be the wisest move."
"Right, well Mrs. Hudson is ecstatic that you will be living here and she won't be the only girl in the place. She went out and got sheets for the bed in your apartment, you will be staying in the basement area. I am sure that Sherlock won't bother you much. He isn't a people person." John assured her. Pan nodded her head as she listened to John ramble on about odds and ends until they came to a stop outside of the apartment building. John paid the cabbie as Pan retrieved her luggage from the back of the car. Pan and John both headed up to the door which opened to reveal that Inspector Lestrade stepped out, behind him was Mrs. Hudson.
"Oh dear, I forgot that you were coming today young lady." Mrs. Hudson called out as she spotted the two of them. Lestrade turned and looked at Mrs. Hudson and then back at John and Pan.
"Who is she?" Lestrade asked looking her over from head to toe.
"This is Pan Walker, my second cousin. She is going to be staying here while she attends an art college nearby. Pan this is Inspector Greg Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson." John introduced her, Pan took a step forward and held a hand out to shake the older man's hand and also Mrs. Hudson's hand.
"I didn't know you had an American cousins." Lestrade stated still looking at the young woman. She smiled at him before turning to Mrs. Hudson who was waving at her to come in out of the street, so that she could show Pan to her apartment. Pan followed after giving a soft excuse me to her cousin and Lestrade. Lestrade watched as the woman followed the older woman into the building before turning to look wide eyed at John. "She is very pretty, and tall. Is she a model?"
John laughed and shook his head no, "She works as a bodyguard in her father's corporation. She is taking this semester off of work to come here." John explained, then he grew serious. "What were you doing here?"
"Oh, that I was asked to give Sherlock some cold case files to keep him entertained until we get another case interesting enough to catch his attention. You know, since Moriarty is keeping quite." Lestrade stated looking around him. "You still coming this Wednesday?"
"Yes, yes I will be. I am sure that Pan can entertain Sherlock long enough for us. She is very good at keeping genius' entertained and guessing." John stated causing Lestrade to laugh in humor.
"Well that is good to hear." Lestrade stated, before looking at his watch and cursing before hurrying down to his car. John chuckled and started into the apartment. Pan was standing now without her bags waiting for her older cousin.
"Let's go up and introduce you to Sherlock." John told her and led the way up the stairs with Pan behind him. Sherlock was as usual laying across the couch. "I thought I would find you there." John stated upon his arrival. Sherlock didn't budge from his position. "Get up Sherlock I have someone I want you to meet."
"Male, about six feet tall, dark hair baggy clothes. Artist from the smell of the charcoal. This must be your cousin or did you just grab a man off the streets." Sherlock didn't bother to look at them.
"Actually I am a woman not a man." Pan stated back striding in to look around. Like any cat introduced to a strange area she wanted to investigate the smells and grounds. She had already done so with her apartment and would do so when she went to visit Mrs. Hudson although with everyone she would have to be discrete when she did it. She also memorized Sherlock's sent and stored it in her memories in case of an emergencies, she had done so with Detective Inspector Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson. Sherlock had turned with a reply on his lips. "You were going to tell me that I am too tall to be a natural woman and so I must be a transgender. But I can assure you that I have always been a woman, my monthly flows tell that." Pan turned to face him after she had a peek inside the skull. John was trying not to snicker at the astonished look on Sherlock's face. Pan smiled before speaking again, "I get told that a lot so I don't find it insulting at all, you should go with another scathing reply." Sherlock snapped his mouth shut and thought a few moments observing the woman.
"You wear baggy clothes because you are embarrassed of your full figure, you work out but only gain muscles around your stomach and legs and arms but never quit lose the breasts. Your sweater was your older brother's but he didn't want any more and so you have taken it. You have very poor eyesight and are constantly having to prove yourself in your father's company." Sherlock looked at her smugly. "How was that?"
"Very good, but you will have to try harder to piss me off." Pan informed him as she went back to looking around. Sherlock sat observing her then turned his gaze onto John's who had taken a seat and was watching Pan and Sherlock interact with each other.
"Do any of you want tea?" John asked, "I am going to order some take out for us, Pan is there anything you don't like?" Pan shook her head no dropping the spray can back down onto the desk and shifted papers around.
"Tea would be wonderful, thank you John." Pan assured him. John nodded his head and started the stove filled the kettle and placed it on the stove before lifting up a menu and pulling out his phone to order food. He already knew what Sherlock and he wanted and Pan as far as he knew ate just about everything so he wouldn't fuss over getting her the same as his own meal.
"Why are you shifting around all my work?" Sherlock stated standing up and striding over to Pan. Pulling papers and such out of her hands to replace them in the spot that he wanted them in. "You have very little intelligence for ruining another person's work." Pan smiled at him and tugged another photo out of his hands and held it up to him.
"I've seen this before, a certain number of drug cartel use it in Central America. I saw it while on a job with a famous musician. The drug cartel worked with a man who they called Moriarty." Pan stated, watching as Sherlock's eyes widened and he snagged her arms to push her into John's seat.
"Tell me everything you saw that Cartel doing?" Sherlock demanded.
"Not much to tell, the next day they pulled him out of his tub. Someone didn't like him very much." Pan informed, turning her gaze to her cousin's as he walked back out to the living area with a tray of tea and cups and other things.
"Food will be here soon." John told them, pausing as he took in the sight of Sherlock stooped over his cousin with his hands around her upper arms. She smiled at him and John relaxed his grip on the tea tray. He finished placing the tray on the coffee table and then sat down on the couch to wait for the food. Sherlock had released his grip and had gone to sit in his chair, placing his fingers together to think about the new information given to him.
Several hours later Pan wished the two a good night and then slipped out the door to head to her own. She paused at the ground floor staring at the front door and then she turned toward the basement door. An hour passed and John was just starting to drop off to sleep in his chair with his computer on his lap when a sound reached him from outside. He rose up and looked out the window to see his younger cousin slip out from the ally way and start strolling up the street. He didn't think much of it as he knew some of her kind were very territorial so he shrugged and headed off to bed. He will ask her about her night walk in the morning. Sherlock lay on the couch still lost in his mind palace as he reviewed the information and facts.
Morning came and John stepped off the last stair heading up to his room, looking he saw that Sherlock had not moved much since he went off to bed. He headed into the kitchen to start on breakfast and tea. Just as he was putting the kettle on, Sherlock's phone went off. Sherlock grabbed it off the counter and looked at the text before sitting up fully and swinging his legs over started for his bedroom. "John, we have a case!"
John sighed and placed the kettle down and switched the stove off, he then waited by the door for Sherlock. Within five minutes both of them were out the door and hailing a cab to bring them to the crime scene. It was down a semi dark alley where concrete became mud and grass. The body lay in shredded pieces strewn across the path and blood filled a massive paw print near the largest part of the corpse. Sherlock crouched down to inspect the print, spreading his hand as large as it would go and still not reaching the other end of the print. His brows drew together as he contemplated the meaning behind the print. John himself was staring at the print and was picturing his cousin's other forms ones that would be possible to make a print that large and sunken into the mud. His blood ran cold and he had to tell himself that his cousin would have a good explanation to where she had gone the night before.
Sherlock rose from his position and looked around at the rest of the gore, and claw marks on the brick houses. "This doesn't add up." Sherlock muttered and turned to Lestrade motioning that he was done with the crime scene. Lestrade allowed the rest of his team start to work on the scene.
"What happened here Sherlock?" Lestrade asked looking at the scene.
"The man was attacked by dogs." Was the reply from Anderson, his nasal voice echoed in the ally way.
"No, you simpleton can't you see the marks on the wall, the smashed dumpster, the fur caught in the crack of that building. This was done by someone who wanted you to think it was a dog attack maybe a lion escaped from an exotic owner. What is noticed is this man was a criminal. He is carrying a pistol under his jacket, wasn't used in the attack so he didn't get a chance to see the attacker. His tattoos are from prison. Dried blood underneath his fingernails so he had attacked someone before his own assault, and peeking out underneath the crushed bin is a case most likely containing a sniper rifle." Sherlock threw out, Anderson was looking around at the evidence.
"We need to find out who this man is and who he was working for, he might have been attacked by a rival." Lestrade commented pulling out his phone to get records taken and find out who the victim was. Sherlock nodded in agreement.
"Send me the photos when you are done as well as any information you get on this." Sherlock turned sharply and left, John keeping up with a sprint with Sherlock's long legs. He spared a glance behind him at the bloody scene and then hurried to get into the cab that Sherlock had called while he was distracted. He needed to speak to his cousin.
Notes: Cats are very territorial and curious about the smells in their territory. One of the cat's sensory glans is based in the mouth, so if you notice a cat with a look of disgust on their faces well they are just taking in smells in the air.