"I have another case for you, brother mine." Mycroft held out a case file, waiting for Sherlock to take it. Mycroft sighed impatiently, leaning heavily on his umbrella.
"Can't, completely swamped with cases, another time,brother mine." He snarled the last word out, as he picked up his violin.
"Sherlock! We have no cases." John said sitting up from the desk, he just finished writing up the last case onto his blog."The hounds of Baskerville." He named it.
"He-" Sherlock points of his brother." Doesn't need to know that!" Sherlock tosses a glare at John, who rolls his eyes.
"I knew you were lying, brother mine. Did you really think I couldn't tell? Now please take the case… The victim asked for your assistance." If Sherlock had been paying any attention to his brother, he wouldn't have noticed his obvious lie, but he wasn't. In an attempt to get His brother's attention, Mycroft waved the fold in front of Sherlock, who looked up at it and scoffed. John noticing Sherlock's refusal to take the folder, walks over and grabs it, thus he received another glare. John opens the folder and begins to read its content.
"Thank you, John. As always you're a big help." Now Sherlock is glaring at his brother.
"Oh please Sherlock enough with the glaring, you'll strain your eyes." He sarcastically stated.
"Mycroft, not to be rude or seem insensitive, but why are you giving us a case on a recent rape?" Peaking Sherlock's interest he steps back to stand next to John, peering at the content of the folder. After a few minutes they both look up at Mycroft.
"Who's the victim of this crime? No name is stated."
"That's confidential." Mycroft looked away and stared at the floor, he prayed Sherlock would not start hounding him with questions.
"Member of the royal family? Or perhaps someone in the secret service?"
"Not at liberty to say." Mycroft looked back up, meeting Sherlock's eyes.
Sherlock, now intrigued with the conversation stood up, and
studied his brother, and of course picked up on the fact, that Mycroft was leaning more heavily on his umbrella, then he normally does.
"And you can't get the local police involved? You want to keep this private?"
"As private as possible." Mycroft leaned on his umbrella more, favouring his right side."Please do be careful, the criminals are very strong..." Sherlock was concerned, but made no comment.
"Of course... It would help if we could meet with the victim-"
"You have all the information you need in that folder." Mycroft cut off his brother, he didn't want to be questioned further, naturally Sherlock kept going.
"But-"
"No."
"But, My-"
"I said no!" Mycroft shouted. Both Sherlock and John looked shocked at Mycroft's sudden tightened his grip on his umbrella causing his knuckles to turn white. The flat was silent for a moment.
"The recount... Of what the rapists..."Mycroft hissed out the word rapists, the struggle to say that word was clear, Sherlock picked up on this, but said nothing,"did is all in that folder, there is no need to question the victim, now are you taking the case or not?" Before Sherlock could reply, John spoke for the both of them.
"Yes, we are thank you for bring this to us, Mycroft. We will find the bloody bastard who did this."
"Notify me when you do." With that, Mycroft swiftly turned on his heel and made his way out the door.
"Bye dear!" Mrs. Hudson yelled as, Mycroft rushed out of the flat. " Well that was odd, I've never seen him get upset like that before."
"My brother is not the type to outburst, he never does that, there must be a reason why… I'm going to find out." Sherlock took a seat, crossed his legs then began to ponder, his chin resting in his hands.
"Sherlock, please tell me you're not trying to figure out a way to manipulate your brother into giving away more information? Okay, it would help to talk with the victim, but the poor guy is traumatized, maybe it's best not to look further into this. This situation clearly upset him, so don't pester him about this alright?" When Sherlock gave no reply, John realized he had not heard a single word he said. "Sherlock, Sherlock!" Still no response.
"Sorry dear, he's gone into his, ohh what does he call it? Hmm mind palace. Won't be getting a response from him in quite a while. Mrs. Hudson, placed down her tea, and walked over to John, giving his right shoulder a squeeze.
"In that case, I'll go to to Sherlock's homeless network, most of them know me well enough now I suppose." John gave her a brisk smile and grabbed his coat, he snatches a sketch of the rapist from the folder, then heads out.
"Alright, be careful, I'll tell Sherlock what he said if he comes back before you're home."
"Thanks!" John called as he rushed down the stairs. He knew this would take awhile, hopeful they knew, saw something. Considering that this happened two days ago, the trail was already starting to go cold, he wondered what the relationship between, Mycroft and the victim was, and why ask for Sherlock's help, and not just go to the local police look into it. Even if the victim is member of the royal family… These thoughts crawl around John's mind as he roams around the streets of London.