**I do not own Sherlock! I only own Sarafina and Liza Holmes!**
Chapter 3
They arrive in front of a block of flats where they pile out of the cab and walk up to the door buzzers on the side of the building. Sherlock presses the button to Van Coon's flat and looks at the security camera above the buzzers. He waits a couple seconds before pressing it again. No answer.
"So what do we do now? Sit here and wait for him to come back?" John asks. Sherlock looks at the buzzers and then backs up and observes the block of flats. Liza keeps observing the buzzers.
"Just moved in." She says, pointing to the buzzer above Van Coon's. Sherlock looks back and John frowns.
"What?" They say in unison.
"The one above it has a new label." She points to the buzzer with the name 'Wintle' hand-written on it.
"Could have just replaced it." John offers. Sherlock presses the buzzer.
"No-one ever does that." Then a woman's voice comes over the intercom.
"Hello?" Sherlock turns to the cameral and smiles brightly.
"Hi! Um, I live in the flat just below you. I-I don't think we've met." He says as he grins into the camera.
"No, well, uh, I've just moved in." Liza turns to John with an 'I told you so' look. John just rolls his eyes as Sherlock continues his act."
"Actually, I've just locked my keys in the flat." He says grimacing.
"D'you want me to buzz you in?"
"Yeah. And can I use your balcony?" Liza looks confused at Sherlock.
"What?"
As Sherlock flirts his way into Ms. Wintles' flat, John and Liza take the long way. Sherlock stands on Ms. Wintles' balcony, looks down below, and climbs over the side and drops down to the balcony outside Van Coon's flat. He, once again, looks over the edge, turns, and reaches for the door handle, which is luckily unlocked. He goes inside and walks through the living room, glancing at things on his way through the flat. He goes to the kitchen and opens the fridge, only to find it full of champagne bottles. The door of the flat buzzes as John yells to Sherlock from the other side.
"Sherlock. Sherlock, are you okay?"
"See any bodies?" Liza asks. John elbows her.
"Not so loud." He scolds. Meanwhile, Sherlock observes the bathroom, shuts the door, and walks over to a larger door that's closed. He tries the handle, but it's locked. "Yeah, anytime you feel like letting us in." John says.
Sherlock turns to the side and shoulder-charges the door which bursts open. He walks inside and finds a man in a suit and overcoat lying on his back on the bed. He was dead. He sees a pistol on the floor and a small bullet hole on the right temple of the man's head.
Later, the police arrive and a photographer is taking pictures of Van Coon's body on the bed. A forensics officer is seen dusting for prints on a mirror. Sherlock had removed his coat and was then putting on latex gloves in the bedroom as John and Liza watch.
"Told you there was a body." Liza says and John ignored the comment.
"D'you think he'd lost a lot of money? I mean suicide is pretty common among city boys."
"We don't know that it was suicide."
"I doubt it…" Liza mumbles.
"Come on. The door was locked from the inside; you had to climb down the balcony." Sherlock squats down by the suitcase on the floor by the bed. Its lid is open and he observes its contents.
"Been away for three days, judging by the laundry." He looks closely and sees an indentation in the clothes inside the case. He straightens up and looks at John. "Look at the case. There was something tightly packed inside it."
"Thanks – I'll take your word for it."
"Problem?"
"Yeah, I'm not desperate to root around some bloke's dirty underwear." Sherlock walks to the foot of the bed.
"Those symbols at the bank – the graffiti. Why were they put there?"
"It could be a code." Liza jumped in.
"Obviously." He looks carefully at his legs – or maybe his shoes – and moves up and carefully opens the man's jacket and looks through the inside pockets. "Why were they painted? If you want to communicate, why not use email?"
"Well, maybe he wasn't answering."
"Oh good. You follow."
"No." Sherlock throws him a look and Liza laughs. He moves on to examine Van Coon's hands.
"What kind of message would everyone try to avoid?" John frowns in confusion.
"A threat." Liza adds. Sherlock gently pulls out an origami flower from Van Coon's mouth. He looks at Liza.
"Exactly." Just then, there was a man's voice coming from outside the bedroom.
"Bag this up, will you… and see if you can get prints off this glass." The man – a very young man – walks into the bedroom. Sherlock turns and walks towards him.
"Ah, Sergeant. We haven't met." He offers his hand to him but the man puts his hands on his hips.
"Yeah, I know who you are; and I'd prefer it if you didn't tamper with any of the evidence." Sherlock lowers his hand and hands him the evidence bag.
"I've phoned Lestrade. Is he on his way?"
"He's busy. I'm in charge. And it's not Sergeant; it's Detective Inspector. Dimmock." Sherlock looks at him in surprise and looks at John with the same amount of surprise. Dimmock walks out of the room and they follow. He hands over the bag to one of the forensics officers. "We're obviously looking at a suicide."
"That does seem the only explanation of all the facts." John agrees. Sherlock takes off his gloves and turns to him.
"Wrong. It's one possible explanation of some of the facts." He turns to Dimmock. "You've got a solution that you like, but you're choosing to ignore anything you see that doesn't comply with it."
"Like?"
"The wound was on the right side of his head."
"And?"
"Van Coon was left-handed." Liza jumped in. Sherlock demonstrates his point, pretending to try and point a gun to his temple on the right side of his head with his left hand.
"Requires quite a bit of contortion."
"Left-handed?"
"Oh, I'm amazed you didn't notice. All you have to do is look around his flat." He turns to Liza. She immediately catches on and points to the table next to the sofa.
"Coffee table is on the left-hand side; coffee mug handle pointing to the left. Power sockets; habitually used the ones on the left. Pen and paper on the left-hand side of the phone because he picked it up with his right and took down messages with his left. D'you want me to go on?" Sherlock smiles.
"No, I think you've covered it." John says tiredly.
"Oh, come on John. She's almost to the bottom of the list." He turns back to Liza. "Go on." Liza smiles and points towards the kitchen.
"There's a knife on the breadboard with butter on the right side of the blade because he used it with his left." Sherlock smiles proudly and turns to Dimmock.
"It's highly unlikely that a left-handed man would shoot himself in the right side of his head. Conclusion: someone broke in here and murdered him. Only explanation of all the facts."
"But the gun: why…"
"He was waiting for the killer. He'd been threatened." Sherlock interrupts. He walks away and begins to put on his scarf, coat, and gloves.
"What?"
"Today at the bank. Sort of a warning." John explained.
"He fired a shot when his attacker came in."
"And the bullet?" Dimmock asks.
"Went through the open window."
"Oh, come on! What are the chances of that?!"
"Wait until you get the ballistics report. The bullet in his brain wasn't fired from his gun. I guarantee it."
"But if his door was locked from the inside, how did the killer get in?"
"Good! You're finally asking the right questions." Sherlock says condescendingly as he dramatically puts his hand into his glove. He turns and walks out, Liza on his tail. John looks at Dimmock and points apologetically towards Sherlock and follows him out.
They arrive at a restaurant where Sebastian is having lunch with either clients or work colleagues.
"… and he's left trying to sort of cut his hair with a fork, which of course can never be done!"
"Or can it?" Liza cuts in as they make their way towards his table. She looks suspiciously at Sebastian, who looks up at her with confusion. Sherlock just rolls his eyes.
"It was a threat. That's what the graffiti meant." Sherlock started.
"I'm kind of in a meeting. Can you make an appointment with my secretary?"
"I don't think this can wait. Sorry, Sebastian. One of your traders – someone who worked in your office – was killed."
"What?"
"Van Coon. The police are at his flat." John adds.
"Killed?" Sebastian asks shocked.
"Sorry to interfere with everyone's digestion. Still wanna make an appointment? Would, maybe, nine o'clock at Scotland Yard suit?" Sherlock answers sarcastically. Sebastian puts down his glass of water and nervously runs a finger through the inside of his shirt collar.
Liza patiently waits outside the men's bathroom while Sherlock and John continue questioning Sebastian.
"Harrow; Oxford. Very bright guy. Worked in Asia for a while, so…" Sebastian explains while washing his hands.
"… you gave him the Hong Kong accounts." John continues. Sebastian grabs a towel and starts drying them off.
"Lost five mill in a single morning; made it all back a week later. Nerves of steel, Eddie had."
"Who'd wanna kill him?" John asks.
"We all make enemies."
"You don't all end up with a bullet through your temple." Sebastian's phone beeps.
"Not usually. 'Scuse me." He takes out his phone and looks at the message. "It's my Chairman. The police have been on him. Apparently they're telling him it was a suicide."
"Well, they've got it wrong, Sebastian. He was murdered." Sherlock cut in.
"Well, I'm afraid they don't see it like that."
"Seb." Sherlock says sternly.
"… and neither does my boss. I hired you to do a job. Don't get side-tracked." Sebastian walks away. John waits until he leaves and turns to Sherlock.
"I thought bankers were all supposed to be heartless bastards." They walk out and Liza starts with her questions.
"So? What'd he say? Did he know anything?" Sherlock continues walking, ignoring Liza's questions. John looks at her and waves her along. She sighs dramatically. "You guys never tell me anything…"
Back at 221B, Sherlock has the printed photographs of the graffiti on Sir William's portrait stuck up around the mirror above the fireplace. He sits on a chair with his back to the dining table, carefully studying them. John walks in and drops his jacket onto his chair.
"I said, "Could you pass me a pen?"" Sherlock says without taking his focus off of the pictures. John looks around the room, curious as to who he was talking to.
"What? When?"
"Bout an hour ago." John sighs.
"Didn't notice id gone out, then?" He picks up a pen from the table next to his chair and without looking, tosses in in Sherlock's direction. He catches it, still not looking away from the pictures. "And what about Liza? She's here, isn't she?"
"She's out." John looks at him.
"Out? Out where?" Sherlock simply shrugs. John sighs and shakes his head. Not wanting to go any further on the subject, he walks over to the mirror and looks at the pictures. "Well, I went to see about a job at that surgery."
"How was it?"
"It's great. She's great." John says absently.
"Who?" John looks at him.
"The job."
""She"?"
"…It." Sherlock looks suspiciously at him for a moment and jerks his head to the right.
"Here, have a look."
"Hmm?" John walks over and looks at the open webpage on the computer. There's an article with the headline, "Ghostly killer leaves a mystery for the police". Next to the paragraph is a picture of a bald man and the article starts: An intruder who can walk through walls murdered a man in his London apartment last night. Brian Lukis, 41, a freelance journalist from Earl's Court was found shot in his fourth floor flat but all his doors and windows were locked and there were no apparent signs of a break in. A police spokesperson said they are still uncertain how the assailant broke in…
"The intruder who can walk through walls." John says.
"Happened last night. Journalist shot dead in his flat; doors locked, windows bolted from the inside – exactly the same as Van Coon." John straightens up and looks at Sherlock.
"God. You think…"
"He's killed another one."
Dun, dun, dunnn! Hey everyone! Im back! Sorry it took so long. In the meantime, i want to bring attention to a couple of the reviews i got.
Missy Chrisy - Thank you for your review! I really appreciate the feedback. If you've noticed, i took your suggestion in this chapter. Hope you like it! :)
Lily - Thanks for your review! I love, love, love the detail of your review. I tried to sneak in a little of Liza in there where she deduced her surroundings like Sherlock would do. Hope you liked it. I am also going to feature some more of your suggestions in later chapters. Again, i really, really appreciate your review. :)
And to anyone else. If there's anything else i could do to make the story more enjoyable, let me know. :) I really appreciate suggestions/comments. Thanks again! :)