Chapter 2
A sound erupted throughout her apartment. It came from the door; someone was knocking on it. She ignored it. "Too busy", the woman concluded. Her attention shifted towards her half-finished drawing and she picked up the charcoal-stick once again, but before she had time to carry on the insisting knocking started again, but it was someone else knocking now. "Why couldn't they just leave? I'm busy". This time she didn't even acquire enough time to lift the pencil up before getting interrupted once again. "Police, open the door!" The voice was just loud enough for her to hear, but that didn't make it any less irritating.
She groaned heavily and ungracefully rose from her position on the coach. She stumbled a bit from dizziness when she got on her feet too quickly and massaged her stiff neck and shoulders. If it hadn't been for a certain black and white English Shepherd that had been occupying the rest of the sofa, unwillingly to move an inch, she wouldn't have had to deal with sore body parts. As on cue her dog, Gray, opened an eye and looked at her grumpily. He had been asleep and she woke him; not appreciated. She shoved his head light-heartedly as she walked past and muttered under her breath, "You have no idea how well off you are..." She shook her head ever so slightly.
Her apartment wasn't the best nor the biggest, but it would suffice for the time being. The walls had been yellow when she first had moved in and it had taken exactly five seconds for her to decide to paint the walls white. The yellow paint was just so bloody awful that she couldn't bear to look at it a second more than necessary. All her rooms except the bedroom were somewhat organised; they all had one or two things misplaced, but nothing even close to her bedroom. The bedroom was in fact rather chaotic; all her drawings were hung up on one of the walls, some of them covering others. She also had a desk and two chairs in one corner. One of them had a big bag of spray-paint boxes and her desk was filled with bunches of documents which were mostly about psychology. Her laptop lay on top of that again. Above the desk she had hung up her graduation-proof as well, the last thing remaining now was a real job and she could call herself a psychologist. In another corner were all of the other things she used to draw or paint with or on, stuffed in a white dresser just beside her closet. Since she hadn't gotten the last of the bookshelves up, books were covering a good part of the floor too.
She crossed the living room and entered the short hallway. There were three doors there besides the exit; the kitchen, the living room and the bathroom. Besides this there was a small room at the end, containing another closet, a couple of shoes and a mirror. Raven walked towards the door and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror hanging in the entrance; her black hair was tied in a high pony tail and she had black smudges on her skin from the coal sticks she had used to draw with just a moment ago in her face, on her to big t-shirt and both hands. She looked awful. She could just hope she wouldn't be arrested, because there was no way she was going to the station like this. But it could've been worse. She could've been painting instead of drawing; she would have looked like a bloody clown, literally, if she had used red paint. She had never really been any good at keeping it on the sheets and the canvas. Somehow it always found a way onto her and her clothes, sometimes even the furniture around her, and she had no idea why or how that happened.
The red door, which she hated but hadn't gotten time to swap with a nicer one, had a peek hole, which she never used. Her hand found its way to the lock instead and opened the door right away with a 'swish' and startled both men outside. The one to the left with the grey hair almost jumped into the other shorter man with sand-blond hair and a cane in his right hand. "The one to the left is the policeman; badge in left back-pocket. The policeman is married-ring on finger, most likely suspecting that his wife is cheating on him; unconsciously touches the ring, but keeps it on. Still loves her then. Bags under his eyes, he is a workaholic - starts early goes home late and his clothes is a bit of a give-away as well. Right handed...Hidden gun, under the jacket. Doesn't smoke, but why does he have nicotine patches in his pocket? Looks nervous- no, uncomfortable...why? The other man...he doesn't usually work with the blond man, a civilian maybe, but why bring a civilian?"
She turned towards the other man, the one with the cane and asked "What?" "Right handed. The cane is worn on the bottom, but it is pretty new...a very bad limp in his right leg, then, but he stands like it doesn't exist...Psychosomatic limp, they're often caused by severe trauma... Very short cut hair, dry skin, well tanned and his posture; military background, approximately 3 years in... Afghanistan or Iraq, ex-military; hurt in combat and sent home not very long ago judging by the cane. He was shot, but not in the leg...somewhere else, most likely on the left side on the torso (Shoulder?). His left hand is shaking a bit; PTSD? He has bags under his eyes as well and he looks tired; can't sleep – nightmares (?)"
"I am Detective Inspector Lestrade, and... um, this here is Dr. John Watson." He said taking his badge and showing it to her. "Ah...He's a doctor, a surgeon, explains a bit." "Nice to meet you, I'm Raven. What is it that you want?" she said trying to sound curious. "We're here to ask you a couple of questions regarding your mother, Jennifer Wilson. May we come inside?" He put the badge in his left back pocket and looked at her. She cocked her head to the side as though she had no idea of why they were there, before moving away from the door and further inside her humble home.
"Take off your shoes. I really do hate washing the floor more than necessary. I'll be there in a second." Raven walked back the way she came from and entered her bedroom. There she found a clean sweater after making an effort to clean her face and hands in the bathroom connected to her sleeping chamber. Quickly she found her way back to the DI and the doctor. They were standing face to face talking with hushed voices. The doctor seemed slightly upset and maybe a bit lost while the DI looked somewhat amused and shrugged before turning his attention to her.
Raven smiled slightly and gestured towards the couch, but then remembered that her greedy dog was stretched out on it like he was trying to cover the whole thing! "Gray, get down. We have guests." Raven said warningly, looking the lazy dog right in the eye... and was ignored. "Graham! Get. Down. Now" This time Raven used her dangerously-calm voice while staring at him with all the intensity she could muster. Finally the dog listened to her and slowly he stood up and moved to the other side of the sofa, just making enough space for the two other men, then slumped down and returned to his beloved sleep. "You're impossible!" The frustration must've been very clear and very amusing as the two men smiled at the display. She sighed and was tempted to find a wall to hit her head on repeatedly.
"Really, it's fine," The doctor said, a tiny smile playing on his lips. She found herself a chair opposite of the sofa and her annoying, lazy, too-smart-for-its-own-good, big and greedy dog and sat down, legs crossed in a manner not unlike the meditating Buddhists you saw on telly, with her head resting on her right hand. She sat perfectly still as they made their way to the sofa.
Her patience ran out, "Why is he here? He's not from the police." Raven nodded her head in the direction of the man with the cane, Doctor John Watson. "Well, he is help-" John interrupted the DI. "I'm taking notes for Sherlock Holmes who is helping with the investigation, he couldn't make it here." He spoke as if he was a bit out of his comfort zone and it was understandable as he was a surgeon, not an interrogator. She looked over at the DI, raising an eyebrow at him. The detective inspector nodded reluctantly.
Sherlock Holmes; he has a blog, the Science of Deduction. He is the only Consulting Detective in the world. He solves murders for the police and others can come to him with their own problems as long as they're not too boring... He has a bigger brother; Mycroft Holmes, which holds a 'minor' position in the government. It took more time than I thought it would for Sherlock to take the case. Well, well better late than never.
"Sherlock Holmes? He solves murders for the police, doesn't he? Is it the suicides, the ones in the paper? You mentioned my mom at the door; she's been murdered hasn't she?" Raven quickly asked, but suddenly realised her mistake. "Why did I say that? Am I really too stupid to play stupid? Oh the irony" Raven watched the two men, hoping it went unnoticed... and it did. "They must've spent too much time with Sherlock, lucky me". They looked at her a bit differently; their eyes filled with a bit more pity. She didn't like it, not at all. Still she didn't say anything. Instead she slumped with her shoulders and made the light in her eyes dim a bit. It worked very well; in their eyes she was a woman grieving for her dead mother.
"Yes, you're right. We're sorry for your loss." The DI said, actually meaning it. Before he could continue Doctor Watson asked a bit surprised, suddenly holding a leather notebook in his hand, "Sorry for asking, but how did you know who Sherlock Holmes is?" She answered immediately, but was careful to not reply too fast. "His blog; The Science of Deduction, I read it every now and then. I'm sure he'll find the murderer." Raven turned her head to look out the window for a second to gather her thoughts and waited for the DI to start questioning her.
"Do you know why she came to London?" Detective Inspector Lestrade finally asked. Raven turned her head back towards them and replied, "Some business and she was supposed to come over for a bit, to celebrate my birthday..." Raven put on a considerate face and placed her hands in her lap. She could hear John idly writing down every word that was said in his small book. It took some time before the next question came. "Do you know what she used to do with her spare time?" the detective inspector continued. "No. Not really. She did have lovers, though..." Her eyes closed while her fingers ran along the bottom of her sweater feeling the material of it. "Do you know any of their names, addresses or anything the like? And how did you discover that she was cheating?" The DI pressed on.
Raven was just about to answer when a buzzing sound came from the doctor, he quietly muttered a 'sorry', took out his phone and read the text. Watson rolled his eyes at it before quickly typing in an answer. "No. Once she left her phone in the living room and she got a text on it. I read it before I could find mom and give it to her and - well it wasn't something a 11 year old should read...After that I noticed her too many 'business trips' and 'late hours'..."
Raven leant towards the table and picked up her sketch book and a pencil, she found a new page and felt a sudden desire to cover it in black and grey as she sometimes felt. Slowly she started to move the pencil over the page, making dark-grey lines that would eventually turn into something anyone could recognise as a raven in flight. It took a moment before the DI continued, "Do you know of someone who would want to harm her?" Raven met Lestrade's eyes, "No."
"On the crime scene beside her body she had herself carved something in the floor boards with her finger nails: 'Rache'. Sherlock is certain that it is supposed to be 'Rachel', do you know why she would have written that?" John asked, finally taking initiative in the interrogation. Raven raised her left eyebrow at that, "No, no idea. It's the name of her stillborn daughter, my dead sister..." She ended, frowning. Her pencil stopped for a second before continuing its movements along the sheet. Before any of the two men could ask her another question she continued, "You know that was the reason she adopted me, she wanted a kid but after Rachel she... She decided to adopt instead; I was eight..."John's phone chimed and his cheek went ever so slightly pink as the DI gave him a look, but he ignored the text this time.
o0o0o0o - 10 minutes later
"Well, I think that's it. If you come up with something else call the number, okay?" He reached out his hand holding a card with a phone number on it. Raven took it and mumbled something that sounded like a thanks. Her phone found its way to her hand and she saved the number under 'DI Lestrade' and carelessly threw both the phone and card on the small table in front of her; both luckily landing a top of a smaller sketch book of hers. She really had a lot of those. The three of them got up. "Do you think I could meet him? Sherlock Holmes, I mean. I'd like to see the man who is solving the murder of my mother." She bit her bottom lip, hoping for a positive answer. The two men looked a bit startled at her request and it took some time for one of them to form an answer. "I'm about to go meet with him now, if you want you can tag along, but I can't promise anything, he's a bit..." John struggled to find a word to describe him, luckily Lestrade had a mental list for such an occasion; "Arrogant, Brilliant, Childish, Detached, Erratic behaviour, F-" "I think she got it, Lestrade" John stated in a low voice, stopping Lestrade from continuing. "I don't care about how he is. I just want to see him, that's it."Raven smiled. Lestrade looked at her with an unreadable expression and walked out the way they came in with John and her not so far behind.
A/N: Let me explain; during the deductions Raven made she saw that both had bags under their eyes, but she drew different conclusions from them because were Lestrade looked rather healthy John looked a bit tired and beaten, so that made her think that Lestrade chooses to get up early and get home late while John can't sleep because of his nightmares. I hope you think that that is explanation enough. And that deduction with the cane, that was me. I'm pretty proud of that one. Also the dog's name is Graham, though Raven has shortened it down to Gray.
Anyway hope you liked it and I am SO sorry for the late update and reviews are welcome.