Once they had finally arrived at the morgue, Molly Hooper had a body laid out on a slab for Sherlock to investigate and Lestrade had explained that he was under a lot of pressure to find the killer. It was quiet now, as John and Sherlock examined the body, bullet wound, and the case file that contained pictures of the crime scene, official police report, and witness statements. After several minutes, Sherlock took off his gloves and closed his tiny microscope that he carried with him. John, Molly, and Lestrade momentarily stared at the man in anticipation.
"What do you got?" Lestrade asked.
"Not much more than what you've told me, I'm afraid." He pulled out his phone. Lestrade couldn't help but assume that the action indicated the man's indifference to the problem at hand and sighed, trying not to let his annoyance show.
"A single bullet to the chest killed the victim, clearly a drug addict, going by the bruises on his left forearm. Judging by the size of the bullet hole, I'm guessing that the shooter used a small pistol, perhaps something like a .22 caliber pistol, which could be concealed easily to hide their intent. Since the weapon hasn't been found yet, the killer has either mistakenly kept it, or has discarded it somewhere. Since the victim was shot in the chest, he was facing his killer, so they knew each other; perhaps the killer was a relative or co-worker. Also, I've seen this face before…"
Sherlock paused for a moment before showing his phone screen to the others in the room.
"Yes, this man is known to be an active member of a drug smuggling group. The Americans have been after the man for some years now. He was probably killed due to his inability to make a delivery on time. The killer was likely a hired assassin, and had tried to sneak up on the victim, but somehow made an error. My guess is that the assassin knew Nicholas personally, and wanted to see his face when he was murdered. That was his mistake. Nicholas was able to try and make a hasty escape, as noted by his disheveled appearance. You could try to find a connection between Nicholas and one of his acquaintances to see whom else knew about the smuggling operation, or try to see if there are any unexpected fingerprints in Nicholas's flat. I doubt you'll find anything though; this is probably not our killer's first hit. He knew how to evade CCTV, as well. However, based on these witness statements, you've already met your killer. I don't know why you called me at all." Sherlock was starting to head out the door but John gently grabbed his arm, holding him back.
"Hang on, you mean to say that one of these witnesses is the killer?" Greg asked incredulously, picking up the witness statements and reviewing them.
"Obviously." Sherlock scowled.
John sighed. "How is it obvious? Take us through it."
Sherlock flashed a tiny grin before he took a breath and began his deduction.
"As ever, you see but you do not observe. Look at the picture of the body on the night that Nicholas was killed. His jumper – it's inside out and backwards. That means the tag of the jumper would've been on his chest, not on his back. Now, who was the only witness who said anything about Nicholas's clothes? Noah Patrick." He said, pointing to the man's witness statement.
"Well, just because he saw the tag, doesn't mean that he murdered him!" Lestrade objected.
John and Molly smirked. They seemed to have caught on to the inconsistency, but Lestrade hadn't yet. Sherlock finished.
"Noah Patrick said that he saw the victim running away specifically because he saw the man's tag on his jumper. That's assuming that the victim was just wearing his jumper inside out. But we know that he was also wearing the jumper backwards as well, so his statement is impossible. If he saw the man's tag on his jumper, how could he be running away?" Sherlock stopped here for a breath, gesturing with his hands as he continued to illustrate the rest of his explanation.
"If we know the man's tag was on his chest, and Noah saw the tag, than he had to have been facing Nicholas that night. Noah is a liar, and worse, he stayed at the crime scene and gave a false witness statement because he was pleased with his work. A shame, he probably would've gotten away with it had he just left after killing Nicholas. Idiot. Get a warrant, search his apartment for the pistol, and arrest him, inspector."
Greg looked to the ceiling and took a deep breath.
"Amazing." Muttered John.
"Yeah, amazing…" muttered Greg.
And with that, Sherlock turned on his heel with his blogger in tow, leaving the gaping detective and the impressed pathologist behind.