Sherlock Holmes was standing in the doorway of his flat on Baker Street, tucking his scarf underneath the collar of his trench coat as he waited for his friend. "John!" the detective called out. "Hurry it up! I want to see what Lestrade has for us today."
"Coming!" the doctor called back from the other side of the flat.
Sherlock sighed irritatedly. That had been John's response for at least the past four and a half minutes. Four minutes and thirty-six seconds to be exact. The detective was growing impatient. It wasn't like before when he was working alone and could just leave whenever he was ready.
Detective Lestrade had just put the duo on a new case, one that he had promised Sherlock would be "one of the most interesting cases you've worked on yet". Sherlock scoffed at the notion. How could Lestrade possibly make an assumption like that? Though, admittingly, Sherlock WAS quite curious.
After five minutes and eleven seconds, John finally came to the door by Sherlock, looking a tad flustered. Sherlock stared at John briefly in confusion, having no idea what the army veteran had been doing, but didn't really care enough to ask.
The two of them promptly headed down the stairs to the streets of London where they hailed a cab as they always did and made their way to the address Detective Lestrade had given them.
Pulling up to the old, abandoned building, John stepped out of the cab and stared up at the structure in slight awe.
"There was a fire here." he noted.
"Mm." Sherlock concurred, standing beside his partner. "Relatively recent, from the looks of it. Parts of the building are still a bit damp after the fire fight."
"Then the fire must've started up just this morning." John realised, looking at Sherlock in surprise.
Sherlock didn't respond. Instead, he started into the building, John following after him promptly. They made their way around the investigators who were examining charred remains of things inside, paying them no mind as they made their way up to where Lestrade had summoned them.
The two stepped into the room, finding several police swarmed around various parts of the room. In the centre of it all was a dead body and a lone girl knelt beside it, looking it over.
"I'm guessing that's our man then." John mentioned to Sherlock, staring at the man's body before either of them approached it.
"Oh, for God's sake, what are YOU doing back here?!" a loud, commanding voice demanded.
Sherlock and John turned around, recognising the voice as Detective Lestrade's, just in time to see the detective angrily storm towards the woman who was by the body.
"Friend of yours, I take it." Sherlock assumed as Lestrade stopped nearby them, glaring heatedly at the woman with his teeth clenched.
"Detective, please." the woman pleaded firmly. "Let me continue my investigation. I'm not leaving until I know the truth of what happened here!"
"I don't care if the victim IS your brother; you have no authorisation to be here!" Lestrade argued. "If I see you ANYWHERE near this crime scene again, I'll have you arrested!"
Two police officers then stepped in on either side of the woman, each grabbing one of her arms, and escorting her off the scene. As they passed Sherlock and John, Sherlock noticed a large shark tooth hanging around the young woman's neck on a thick black cord. His eyes narrowed a bit.
"Don't tell me you've called me all the way here just to be pest control, Detective." Sherlock snorted, turning his attention to the bustling crime scene again as he put his hands behind his back.
"Ah, she's a real firebrand, that one..." Lestrade replied, watching over his shoulder as the woman continued to be escorted away. "We can't keep her away! She's slipped her way onto the premise at least three times now! I don't know how she manages it!"
"Well, it's not as if any of these officers are exactly capable of outsmarting someone so determined." Sherlock mentioned, looking around casually. "Why are we here?"
"Brandon Nicholas Key. Just your normal bloke, on his way for morning coffee and biscuits." Lestrade began, walking towards the dead body with Sherlock and John in tow. "We found him after the fire was put out while investigating the cause."
"Body isn't singed too badly, so he didn't burn to death." Sherlock said.
"But Key was definitely here during the fire. The coroner matched up his time of death with the time the fire was at its worst, just before the fire crews got here." Lestrade reported.
"Well, obviously the cause of death was smoke inhalation, right?" John asked, looking at Sherlock.
"Do you really think you two would be here if it was as simple as that?" Lestrade asked.
Sherlock, who hadn't spoken a word or taken his narrowed eyes off the corpse for a moment, stepped towards the body and squatted down by it, looking it over right away. "No signs of blunt force trauma or blood loss..." the detective muttered to himself. He twisted his body around to look at Lestrade. "What was the cause of death?"
Lestrade smirked just slightly. He'd been waiting for his moment to reveal the most perplexing part of the case. "He drowned."
"Sorry, what?" John asked, ducking his head toward Lestrade, thinking he could not have heard right. "What did you say- he drowned?!"
"And before you bring up a possible suicide, Mr Holmes, there's no way Key could've drowned himself in this building." Lestrade said as Sherlock slowly rose to his feet, keeping perplexed eyes on the DI. "This place has been vacant for over a decade now. The water was shut off YEARS ago."
"But didn't you say he had gotten coffee?" John asked. "Is there any way he could have... drowned himself in that?"
"Who drowns themselves in coffee?" Sherlock asked snarkily, glaring at his shorter friend for his ridiculous suggestion. "Besides, he hadn't gotten to the coffee shop before he died. The wallet in his back pocket was untouched since the moment he put it in this morning, along with a short list of groceries. Had he taken his wallet out at all, the note would have had to come out with it, given the somewhat sticky surface of the new faux leather wallet. Even if he HAD managed to keep the note in his pocket when taking out his wallet, the note would have gotten crumpled when he put his wallet back in his pocket. Clearly, he put the note on top of the wallet, put both in his back pocket at the same time before he went out this morning, and neither of them have been removed since."
"What was he doing in here then?" John asked.
"No one knows." Lestrade answered with a sigh. "I'd say you've gotten yourself quite a mystery here to solve, boys."
"That sharky girl- the one that keeps coming back to investigate- you said she's the victim's sister?" Sherlock asked Lestrade.
"Sharky girl?" John asked, confused.
"The woman who was here when we got here. The one with the shark tooth necklace." Sherlock answered quickly.
"Yeah... She claims to be Key's sister, all right..." Lestrade replied, sounding none too happy.
"And you never thought to question her?" Sherlock asked immediately, eyes squinted at once.
Lestrade's jaw fell open for a moment, but no words came out at first. "She was snooping around the crime scene like a- like a common criminal!" he defended adamantly. "Of course we never stopped to question her! She wasn't supposed to be here in the first place!"
"Maybe that should be our first move then." John suggested, looking to Sherlock. "Find out everything we can about Mr Key and what might have brought him here."
"Yes. I think that should start us on the right path." Sherlock agreed. He flipped his coat collar up to protect himself against the harsh winds he knew were outside and immediately made his way back out of the charred building. "Back to Baker Street then. The game is on."
Author's Note: Just thought I'd let my readers know that since this IS a Sherlock story, I thought it'd be fun to write it in UK English as opposed to my native American English. Maybe it's a disrespectful jump since I've never even been outta the States before in my life. I dunno. If anyone who is from the UK is reading this and is offended or sees some errors with what I've done, let me know right away. I can change it. =)
Additionally, reviews are appreciated. By everyone. I personally think I have kind of a weak start here and I KNOW that the beginning is the most important part when trying to get readers to actually... read. Besides, this is my first post to FFN, so... yeah... Thanks, everyone!