"Where are we going?"
"Sherlock?"
"Sherlock! "
"What?" Replied Sherlock calmly.
"Where are we going?" John demanded once more.
"Crime scene."
"Yeah, I gathered that."
Sherlock put the brakes on a train of thought he'd be following with some interest.
"A woman was found dead with her face cut off in an alleyway." He said calmly.
John felt that familiar feeling of sickness start to role in his stomach, the one he always got when they came across a particularly violent case, more sick however at the calm and peaceful tone in Sherlock's voice as he said it. Although john was no stranger to Sherlock's lack of pity for a victim, it never ceased to amaze and disgust him.
"Do the police know who she is yet? "
"No, that's part of the reason that lestrade asked me to come."
"What's the other reason then?"
"She's the third this week."
"How come the papers haven't found out about it yet?"
"Lestrades keeping them in check' although after this, he may not be able to."
the back of the cab lapsed into silence once again as john contemplated what he was about to deal with, he had seen many gruesome deaths on the battlefield, and fought for the lives of many men who were doomed to die, but there was something about serial killers that unnerved him, they weren't like the soldiers in the war, they weren't fighting for country and the people, the were fighting for themselves.
John looked back at Sherlock about to ask him for more details on the case but he realized that Sherlock was back on whatever terrifying train of thought he had followed before john had asked where they were going, john knew only too well not to interrupt him. He was after all probably thinking about the case going by the faint smile that was playing on his lips.
Several minutes later the cab pulled up outside the yellow taped crime scene and john and Sherlock jumped out (but not after they realized that Sherlock had left his wallet at home and john ended up paying). Sherlock lifted up the tape as john walked under it and swiftly followed.
the scene was littered with garbage and police men, all lit eerily by the huge portable lights and the flashing police cars surrounding them, john looked around for the body, finding it in a shopping cart, he looked away as one of the figures surrounding the body got up and walked up to them. John felt Sherlock tense up as a familiar voice came from the shadowed face.
"Hello freak."
"Hello Donovan, how's the infection?" He asked cheerily.
She gave him a look that was some odd mixture of hatred and horror and walked away.
Sherlock's fake smile morphed into a real one of smugness.
"Got rid of her pretty quick this time, I think it's a record" remarked john coolly as they continued on the crime scene.
Lestrade stood up as they came up beside him, his face was grave.
"Same as the others?" Sherlock asked.
"Exactly"
"Can I have a moment?"
"Be my guest" replied lestrade with a somewhat sick look on his face.
Sherlock bent of the toppled shopping cart and looked carefully at the woman. John on the other hand tried to back up a few steps, to late Sherlock noticed him.
"What do you think?" He asked.
John sighed and carefully examined the body, the woman was definitely young and pretty he thought to himself, she was the general idea of beauty with tanned skin, perfect legs large chest and small stomach (anorexic) he decided, considering all this, it really was a shame that her face seemed to be missing. as a surgeon, he could tell that whoever had removed it was amateur, the cuts were more like hacks and it was all uneven. He stood back and reported all this to Sherlock who smiled.
"When we first met you wouldn't have been able to tell me that, your improving" he said "but you have yet to tell me how she died."
John looked back to the body; it had become hard to focus on anything more than the spot where her face used to be. He couldn't see any fatal wounds on her apart from some bruises and scratches.
"I don't know how she died" He replied simply.
Sherlock bent back down and fell into silence; although john thought he could here Sherlock's brain whirring as he took yet another delicious mystery. After about five minute's lestrade returned.
"Anything?" He asked.
"A bit Sherlock" replied
"Care to tell the class?"
"she's about 37, but doesn't look it because of numerous plastic surgeries and careful application of makeup, which means she must have been doing all this for someone, not man, there's no wedding ring, and this would cost way too much to do for just a boyfriend, so the media, judging from the remnants of glitter behind her right ear I'm going to say pop star. There's no mud on her shoes so that means she was killed somewhere clean and brought here. As for her death, the cause is yet to be determined. Her face was hacked off by someone who didn't know how to use the weapon, killings which involve removing the face can be translated to trying to remove someone's identity, so the killer knew this woman, not personally, but definitely knew her, and the other two victims are probably also famous."
"I would suggest searching through missing files of celebrities, me and john will follow up on another lead."
"But Sherlock?"
"Yes?"
"There's one small problem here..."
"And what would that be?"
"You don't know anything about celebrities..."
"Give me 12 minutes and the internet, after that I can tell you anything"
"Come on john, were going."
As they hurried down the street john realized something
"Sherlock, there won't be any missing people reports when it comes to celebrities; they're very good at hiding from the press."
"I know!" Sherlock smiled
"So what is lestrade doing then?"
"Keeping out of our hair while we follow up on a better lead"
"And what would that be?"
"Her lipstick was smudged."
"So?"
"So why didn't she fix it? The killer didn't leave it there, he was way too organised to miss something as small as that, or leave behind any DNA. And a woman that worried about her appearance wouldn't go out with smudge lipstick"
"So... someone was kissing her right before she died, and it wasn't the killer..."
"And that means?"
"We have a witness!"