Chapter 1

The Genius returns

Inspector Lestrade surely got the shock of his life. After this absolutely weird and stressful day at Scotland Yard, amongst other things he came face to face with some OAPs throwing cobblestones in the city centre, he was totally sure, that nothing would surprise him anymore today. But he was wrong. 'Cause this portentous knocking at the door wasn't caused by Donovan, who had some more extra work that would take him the whole night to handle, but somebody else. Somebody, who definitely couldn't be here, mustn't be here. Because he was dead:

Sherlock Holmes

How he had managed to come into his office, without being seen by the other Sergeants on duty, was incomprehensible for Lestrade. Well, maybe they were all lying in the office hallway right now, passed out with shock.

„This – no – what?", he spluttered and besides fought the queasy feeling that arised inside him.

„Surprised?", Sherlock Holmes asked keeping a straight face.

Lestrade just gazed at him with his mouth open. He actually wasn't looking very well, Sherlock detected.

„You are dead!", Lestrade gasped out.

„Well, I do understand why you're assuming that, but my presence in an obviously entirely fine physical state disproves this allegation.", Sherlock replied.

This did his business. Lestrade sighed and then, slowly but unerring, tilted off his swivel chair, whereas he slumped with an unhealthy sound down on the floor.

The next thing Lestrade realized was a wet washrag that was smacked into his face. He snorted and gasped for air, while his memory slowly returned:

Sherlock Holmes wasn't dead. He was here. And he obviously wanted to talk to him.

Lestrade slowly lifted his head and saw the detective kneeling in front of him, passing him a bottle of whiskey. Whiskey! Yes, that was exactly what he needed right now!

After taking some proper gulps, which expelled the last wafts of mist from his brain, he finally found his voice again.

„How?", he only whispered.

„You want to know, how I survived that fall from the roof? That's a quite long and complicated story, which in all its details surely would overcharge your tattered mind at the moment. Well, I actually presume that would also be the case, if you were of sound mind.", Sherlock answered without any irony.

This was Sherlock Holmes, no doubt. This smart-assy boastfulness could belong to no one else.

„What do want here?", Lestrade went on asking.

„I want you to get me a new case.", said Sherlock Holmes directly. „I'm quite bored at the moment."

„How-how-what?", Lestrade regained control over his body and finally was able to stand by himself again.

„Let's make this plain, ok?", he continued, when he was on a par with the detective. „You come here, after being considered dead for months, scare me out of my wits, refuse any explanation for your sudden return and then you seriously want me to go on as usual and get you a new case?"

Sherlock Holmes seemed to think about what Lestrade just said.

„Well, that was kind of what I thought about, yes.", he replied.

Lestrade was stunned. Still lightly staggering he went back to his desk, sank down to his chair and crossed his arms.

„No!"

„Just 'No'? Why? Don't you have a great deal too much to do at the moment anyway?", Sherlock asked astonished.

Lestrade shook his head in bewilderment. How could somebody be so emotionless?

He had to admit, that the death of Sherlock Holmes had hurt him. He hadn't really been a friend of him, but he had trusted him, even if him boasting off about his 'ingenious skills of detective work' sometimes nearly drove him mad. The suicide of Sherlock Holmes had been a surprise for everyone. Lestrade never would have thought, that he could let himself be deceived by somebody in that way. Sherlock Holmes had been a swindler and a traitor. At least that's what the public media said. Lestrade himself actually never really believed that.

After Sherlock's death he had to face a big problem: How was he supposed to go on with his police work, without having somebody who was able to solve any case if needed?

His rate of success with cases of murder did significantly drop ever since, even if Donovan always tried to convince him that work was much more harmonic and orderly without Sherlock Holmes. Well, that probably was right, and yet there was a big stack of files of unsolved cases growing bigger and bigger on the top of his desk.

Now, as Sherlock Holmes apparently wasn't dead at all, he felt a fury coming over him.

„Do you actually know, what you did, when you jumped off that roof?", he spat at him. „You made us all look ridiculous in front of the press! 'Scotland Yard mislead by deceiver for years' – No other banner headline in the papers for weeks! And every day I had to justify myself! Every day I had to tell them, that I had no idea. Do you know how that feels? When everybody suddenly thinks of you as a complete idiot? - Oh, don't you dare to say anything right now!" he added warningly, when he noticed that the detective wanted to interject something.

„You spoiled my reputation and the one of the whole CID of London. Not to mention what you did to John!"

Sherlock's expression suddenly changed from unconcerned to concerned.

„John? What about him?"

„He is alive, Sherlock. But don't ask, how he suffered during the past few months! They tracked him, you know. All those gossip magazines and they wanted to screw everything out of him. He was supposed to come clean, tell 'em how it's like living together with a traitor. He is suspends from work until further notice, goes to therapie again and in recent times he quite often is out in the evening with his sister and gets drunk."

Sherlock bit his lip. He wasn't able to respond to this. This wasn't what he wanted it to be like. Under no circumstances he had wanted to hurt John. Of course he was aware that this wasn't to be avoided, when he jumped to death in front of his eyes, but he didn't want to ruin John's life completely. He had thought, John would get over this. And even if emotions normally were alien to him, he felt a prick in his chest, when Lestrade told him what had happened to John.

„Where is he?", he finally asked.

„Well, he still lives at Baker Street", Lestrade answered. „But he's going to move out soon. He says, he wants to get rid of all the memories and there are too many of them in the flat."

Sherlock nodded. For a long time he had intended to visit John anyway and explain everything to him, but he didn't know how and the more time passed, the more difficult it became. So he came here to reconnect with his old life. And he had a plan.

Sherlock suddenly walked over to Lestrade and grabbed his arm.

„You gotta help me", he said with despair in his voice. „I need to see John again, but I don't know how and so I thought, maybe the best opportunity would be to just get us both involved in a new case. Could you make that possible?"

Lestrade had never seen Sherlock Holmes in despair. At least not for serious reasons. If, then the despair was mostly based on how incredibly slow other people were thinking. In this case he seemed to mean business. Lestrade didn't exactly know how to react, but somehow he felt sympathy for Sherlock.

After staring into space for a moment, he said sighing: „Ok, I'll see what I can do."

On Sherlocks face appeared the trace of a reliefed smile.

„Thanks. Call me, when you got something for me. Wait, I got a new number..." He looked for something to write on, eventually took the file on the

top of the 'Unsolved Cases' stack and scribbled something onto it with a biro.

Lestrade resigned protest.

After he'd finished his scribbling, Sherlock turned around and walked over to the door. He remained for a moment and then turned back to Lestrade again.

„So, don't forget to call John and get him on the scene, too. Oh, and in case you still wonder who ripped your telephone cable out of the wall last week: it was Donovan. She's the only one on that floor who wears high-heels. She got caught on the cable with them, when she tried to reach the drawer containing the salary-list."

Then he was out.

Lestrade remained stunned, as usually after meeting Sherlock Holmes. So there would be more work for him. And he would have to talk to Donovan.