**I do not own Sherlock! I only own Sarafina and Liza Holmes!**

Chapter 2

Soon, they arrive at the entrance of the bank. Sherlock leads them through revolving glass doors to the inside of the bank. John looks around, impressed at the foyer, while Liza catches up to Sherlock.

"What exactly are we doing here?"

"You'll see."

"Another case?" He pauses.

"Yes." She smiles and follows him onto the escalator. Sherlock observes his surroundings, especially the security systems, which require cards to be swiped across an electronic reader to be able to pass through glass barrier gates. They reach the top of the escalator and Sherlock walks over to the reception desk. "Sherlock Holmes."

Later, they're being shown into Sebastian Wilkes' office as he walks in and grins at Sherlock.

"Sherlock Holmes." He says.

"Sebastian." He and Sherlock shake hands and Sebastian takes Sherlock's hand into both of his. Liza looks at John weirdly and he just shrugs.

"Howdy, buddy. How long's it been? Eight years since I last clapped eyes on you?" Sherlock looks at him, with marginally disguised dislike. Sebastian looks at John and me.

"This is my friend, John Watson and my niece, Liza."

"Friend?"

"Colleague." John replies.

"Right." They shake hands and Sebastian looks at John curiously. "Right." He briefly looks at Sherlock as if to say, 'Didn't think you had a friend'. He grins unpleasantly and scratches his neck. Sherlock's gaze, though, slips onto his watch. Sebastian turns away as John purses his lips, almost in dislike of the man. "Well, grab a pew. D'you need anything? Coffee, water?"

"Another chair?" Liza cuts in. Sebastian smiles.

"Of course." He nods to his secretary and she brings in another chair.

"Thank you." Liza says. She drags it over by Sherlock and sits down, contentedly and Sebastian sits down at his desk.

"So, you're doing well. You've been abroad a lot." Sherlock starts.

"Well, some."

"Flying all the way round the world twice in a month?" John and Liza frown in confusion, but Sebastian just points and laughs at Sherlock.

"Right. You're doing that thing." He looks at John. "We were at uni together. This guy here had a trick he used to do."

"It's not a trick." Sherlock defends quietly.

"He could look at you and tell you your whole life story."

"Yes, I've seen him do it." John replies.

"Put the wind up everybody. We hated him" Sherlock turns away and looks down, his face momentarily filling with pain. "You'd come down to breakfast in the Formal Hall and this freak would know you'd been shagging the previous night."

"I simply observed." Sherlock says quietly.

"Go on, enlighten me. Two trips in a month, flying all the way around the world – you're quite right. How could you tell?" Sherlock opens his mouth to reply, but he wasn't done talking. "You're gonna tell me there was, um, a stain on my tie from some special kind of ketchup you can only buy in Manhattan." Sebastian says smugly and John smiles.

"No, I…"

"Maybe it was the mud on my shoes!" Sebastian interrupts. Sherlock simply looks at him for a moment before speaking.

"I was just chatting with your secretary outside. She told me." John and Liza both frown and look at him, confused. Sebastian claps his hands together and becomes more serious.

"I'm glad you could make it over. We've had a break-in." He leads them over towards a different door. "Sir William's office – the bank's former Chairman. The rooms been left here like a sort of memorial. Someone broke in late last night."

"What did they steal?" John asks.

"Nothing. Just left a little message." Sebastian holds his security card on the reader by the door, unlocking it. They see hanging on a white wall behind a large desk a painted portrait of a man in a suit – presumably the late Sir William Shad. On the wall to the left of the portrait, is what looks like a sprayed graffiti 'tag' in the yellow paint. It looks sort of like the number 8, but with the top of the number left open. Above it is a horizontal straight line. Across the eyes of the portrait is another horizontal straight line. Sebastian leads them towards the desk and steps aside to let Sherlock observe the wall. John moves to the other side of Sebastian and Liza follows as John looks at Sherlock expectantly as he concentrates on the graffiti. Sometime later, they are back in Sebastian's office, watching security footage of the office from the previous night. "Sixty seconds apart." Sebastian says as he flicks back and forth between the still taken at 23:34:01 that shows the paint on the wall and a minute earlier at 23:33:01, when there's no paint on the wall. "So, someone came up here in the middle of the night, splashed paint around, then left within a minute."
"How many ways into that office?" Sherlock asks.

"Well, that's where this gets really interesting."

Back in the reception area, Sebastian shows them a screen on a computer that has a layout of the trading floor and the offices that surround it. Each door has a light against it that shows its security status.

"Every door that opens in this bank, it gets logged right here. Every walk-in cupboard, every toilet."

"That door didn't open last night." Sherlock observes.

"There's a hole in our security. Find it and we'll pay you – five figures." He reaches into his breast pocket and takes out a cheque. "This is an advance. Tell me how he got in, there's a bigger one on its way."
"I don't need an incentive, Sebastian." Sherlock says and walks away. John and Liza both watch him go, and John turns to Sebastian.

"He's, uh, he's kidding you, obviously." Liza laughs and plays along.

"Yeah. Let me take care of that for you." She grabs the cheque from him and looks at it. You can almost see the color fade from her face. John snatches it from her.

"Right. You can't go two seconds without losing your phone. I'll just look after that for him." Liza frowns and starts to feel her jeans. She laughs nervously.

"Uhm… anyone see where I put my phone last?" She dashes off towards Sebastian's office as John rolls his eyes. He looks at the cheque and shakes his head in disbelief that that's only the advance.

Sherlock returns to Sir William's office and takes photographs with his mobile phone of the graffiti. He takes several pictures and turns around, the symbols still floating around his mind's eye. He looks to his right to see a window with an impressive view of the Swiss Re Tower. He frowns and looks away for a moment and walks over to the windows and pulls open the blinds to reveal a door to a small balcony. He opens the door and walks out onto the balcony, observing the new of London before looking down at the long drop below him. He looks along the balcony, thoughtfully bits his lip, and heads back inside. Later, Liza finds herself grinning as she watches Sherlock dance around the trading floor. He ducks behind a desk and slowly rises upright, staring at the glass doorway to Sir William's office. He ducks sideways and hurries across the floor to the amusement of several workers and Liza. She continues to watch him as he scampers every which way to get different perspectives of the doorway. He continues dancing across the floor and suddenly twirls around a column and backs up towards a different office and stops. He wiggles about, eyes still fixed on Sir William's office, and goes into the office and heads over to the other side of someone's desk. There, he has a clear view of the top of the painting with the eyes crossed off with yellow paint. He, again, dances across the room to his previous position. This confirms that this is the only part of the floor that the portrait can be seen from. He heads out the door, looking for some sort of identification, and finds a name plate – Edward Van Coon. He slides it out of the holder and heads out.

Afterwards, Sherlock leads John and Liza towards the escalators.

"Two trips around the world this month. You didn't ask his secretary; you said that just to irritate him." John says and Sherlock just smiles. "How did you know?"
"Did you see his watch?"

"His watch?"

"The time was right but the date was wrong. Said two days ago. Crossed the dateline twice, but he didn't alter it."
"Within a month? How'd you get that part?"

"New Breitling. Only came out this February."

"Okay. So d'you think we should sniff around here for a bit longer?"

"Got everything I need to know, thanks.

"Hmm?"
"That graffiti was a message for someone at the bank working on the trading floors. We find the intended recipient and…" Sherlock trails off, allowing John to finish the sentence.

"…they'll lead us to the person who sent it." John finishes.
"Obvious."

"Well, there's three hundred people up there. Who was it meant for?"
"Pillars." Liza stops.

"What?" She and John ask at the same time.

"Pillars and the screens. Very few places you can see that graffiti from. That narrows the field considerably. And of course the message was left at eleven thirty-four last night. That tells us a lot."

"Does it?" Sherlock continues talking as he leads John and Liza out the revolving doors and out into the street.

"Traders come to work at all hours. Some trade with Hong Kong in the middle of the night. That message was intended for someone who came in at midnight." He holds up the name card to show John and Liza. "Not many Van Coons in the phonebook." He spots something. "Taxi!"

Sorry about the long wait for the update. Havent had a chance to update much. Anyways, heres the second chapter. Hope you like it so far. I havent gotten much feedback from people on how it is, so im assuming no one has any problems with it. Well, let me know how i did. :)