Chapter 2: The mystery in the door.
After Inspector lestrade told us the location of the crime scene we caught a cab and told it to drive us to the scene. Once we arrived at the scene, we both recognized where we were. Inspector Lestrade gave us the address of medical examiner Lo-Chin. Lo-Chin is famous for her work in DNA analysis. As soon as Sherlock and I realized where we were we both knew why we were there. Dr. Lo-Chin was dead. As soon as we got to the front door, the arrogant and pig-headed coroner Anderson immediately protested against our being there. I was use to Anderson's protests about Sherlock and I being there, so I tuned it out and focused on looking around the estate. Working with Sherlock has taught me that even the smallest detail could become the smoking gun that would solve a case.
However, I made sure that I could still hear bits and pieces of what they were saying. All I heard was "inspector lestrade, if you give them access to the scene they will contaminate the evidence." and "if they study the scene and help us then our case will be blown to kingdom come!" after physically showing his mentally taxing attempt to make up his mind, looking solemn and apologetic, he said "I'm sorry Anderson, but I have to give them access to the crime scene. You and I both know that we are getting nowhere. We need their help." Anderson looked extremely livid half way through the sentence, and by the time inspector lestrade was finished talking, I was certain that Anderson was going to fly into a murderous fit. Thankfully, Anderson managed to contain his anger and said, "Yes inspector lestrade." Sounding like a young child being reprimanded for not doing his chores.
As we walked into the house we could hear him kicking the side of the house and violently swearing, all directed at Sherlock and I. Sherlock was extremely interested in the front door. I had to pull him away from the door so that we could get to the body, "Sherlock come on Sherlock, we need to see the body."
This was said while pulling him from the front door. "Okay, I'm right behind you." I glanced at the door to see what had caught his interest, but I could not see it. I knew that Sherlock would tell me when he thought it was the right time to do so. As soon as I entered the hallway, which is where Lo-Chin had been found dead I noticed the lack of blood splatter on the ceiling and walls. This meant that either the blood only came from one wound, or that she had been killed somewhere else and placed there, with the killer having cleaned up all evidence of her body being moved to confuse the inspectors. I knew not to disturb Sherlock when he is looking at a body, so I hung back and examined the hallway.
When I glanced at the walls I noticed the odd symbols on the walls. They were in a deep scarlet red, and I suspected that the killer had painted them in Dr. Chin's blood. After a few minutes of examining the body, hallway, ceiling, and floor he said "are you ready to go Watson?" "You're done already?" I asked incredibly. It isn't unusual for Sherlock to take little time to examine a body, but we had only been there five minutes, and he was done already! This wasn't at all surprising since I had noticed that Sherlock's powers of observation and deduction and been getting and better in the past two or three months. He normally takes around five to ten minutes to fully examine everything. As we walked out the front door I stopped briefly to examine the door to see what had transfixed Sherlock so, but It was a fools attempt, as my eye sight is nowhere as good as Sherlock's. Inspector lestrade seemed amazed at the speed at which we had taken to examine Dr. Lo-Chin's body. As we passed, he asked, "done already Holmes? Have you solved the case already?" "No inspector lestrade, I have only just begun to solve it. Would you please tell medical examiner Anderson not to examine the body, I wish to do my own examination at the lab. I also wish to have all reports on the other murders as well, including the autopsy reports and the reports from all of the investigating detectives." Anderson most obviously heard this, as he made uncouth gestures at us as we passed him. Sherlock was deep in thought the whole trip back to the apartment, and as soon as we got back to the apartment he sat down at his desk, took out his computer, logged on, and didn't talk to me for another two hours. He would rush to his miniature "library" find a book, pull it out, flip through it, and study whatever page he would flip to. This meant that I was without company for a great deal of time. I went back to the news, but finished quickly. Feeling hungry, bored, and tired, I went into the kitchen/laboratory found some non-experiment food, went to my "bedroom" watched something on my computer, ate my meal, which was a turkey sandwich with lettuce, jalapeƱos, green beans, tomatoes, and mustard. This has always been a favorite meal of mine on my so-called lazy days. I soon fell asleep for the next two hours until Sherlock woke me up like a little child on Christmas morning saying " Watson, Watson, I solved it. I figured out the connection between the three victims." Groaning because I was still waking up and half-asleep, I asked, "what are you talking about Sherlock? What three victims?" extremely annoyed Sherlock said, well spat, "Dr. Lo-Chin, Henry and Sofia Delacru." Once fully woke up I realized what he was talking about. "Sherlock, what is the connection?" I asked apologetically. "Asia. China to be more precise. Dr. Lo-Chin was born in the shanghai province in china. Henry and Sofia were big fans and collectors of Chinese art. Whoever our killer is, he or she has a large hatred for Chinese culture and its people." "How do you know all this?" I asked, once amazed at his powers of deduction. "It's simple really. Although I am not certain, I am as close as I can be to having a perfect theory without all the evidence. All I need to do is to read the autopsy reports on Henry and Sofia, and examine to body of Dr. Lo-Chin. Once I have done that I can put the finished touches on my theory and then help the incompetent police inspectors catch the killer." He replied with the smallest tint of arrogance in his tone, which is common when he is telling someone his theories and ideas. After a brief moments pause of silence between us he said. " I need to go examine Dr. Lo-Chin's body and read the other autopsy reports. If you wish to come along you may. I would gladly accept your thoughts." He said this without a touch of arrogance in his tone. I was bored, and Sherlock knew this. He was teasing, tempting me, because he knows that I always went with him to examine the body or bodies. I looked at him for a second, and I was surprised to so how worn out he looked. I knew this was because he had not had any tobacco, cocaine, or morphine in a little over a month. I had been getting him to stop his drug habit little by little.
At first, I would scold him whenever he would take out his little morocco case and his syringe, or his long ebony pipe and his small black leather bag of fine Indian tobacco. Eventually I realized this did not work, so I would hide it only bringing it out during lunch. He was irritable the first two weeks of my attempt, but now he is no longer in a foul mood unless someone has greatly annoyed him. With a touch of sympathy and kindness I asked "Sherlock, are you okay?" irritably he snapped, "I'm fine, though that is none of your business." The way he snapped at me made me worry that either he had started his cocaine, morphine, or tobacco again, he had found another drug to use and was hiding it thoroughly, or that his body couldn't last much longer without drugs and that he would relapse.
Neither of these cases were very assuring, and only caused me to worry more than needed about my companion, so I focused on the crimes. Instead of worrying about Sherlock, I said, "I'll come with you to examine Lo-chin's remains." The thought of her being dead was hard for me to grasp. Saying it was even harder on me. Sherlock seemed to realize how hard Lo-Chin's death was on me, so he said, "I'm sorry John, I know how much she meant to you. Her death is hard on me too." His words did little to cheer me up, but I appreciated his attempt to lift me from my solemn mood so I said, "Thank you Sherlock, you don't know how much that means to me." He chuckled at this and said, "I know that you're lying Watson, my attempt at making you feel better obviously did little to improve your mood, but I will accept your gratitude." His usual remark made me feel better, so I said, "We need to head to the lab Sherlock, unless you want Anderson to mess up your autopsy." I knew this would light a fire under Sherlock's ego and make him move on to other thoughts not including the impact of Lo-Chin's death on the both of us. My guess was right and almost immediately he said, "Come come Watson, we must leave" I got up and got my coat chuckling at his impatience at getting to the lab
