CH 7
Sherlock - Holmes - John - Watson
John and Sherlock arrived at the antiquities room at the museum to speak to Andy and, hopefully, to gain his help with finding the runaway girl named, Soo Lin Yao. They were in the same room that they'd initially interviewed him about the girl.
"Two men died after visiting China," Sherlock told the young man. "The killer left them messages, written in the Hang Zhou number system."
"Soo Lin Yao is in danger," John said. "That cipher on the statue, it was in the same pattern as the others. He means to kill her as well."
"I've tried everywhere," Andy told them. "Her friends; her colleagues, I just don't know where she'd gone. She could be a thousand miles away."
John noticed that his Guide was focussed on a teapot display. It was the same display that he'd seen days ago in the newspaper. "What is it Sherlock," he asked. "What are you looking at?"
"Tell me more about those tea pots," he pointed to the set of five small brown clay pots in the display.
"Those were Soo Lin's obsession," Andy explained. "They need urgent work because if they dry out, they'll crumble. Apparently you have to keep making tea in them."
"Last time we were here, only one of those pots was shining," Sherlock told them. John looked at Sherlock and nodded to indicate that he'd follow his lead in this matter.
Later that night, a small lone woman, brewed some tea in the darkness of the antiquities storage room. She was intent on her work, but was shocked and startled by the voice that asked her, "Fancy a biscuit with that?"
The woman gasped and dropped the third pot of a delicate set of five. Luckily it was caught by a tall man that said, "Centuries old...Don't want to break that."
A light had come on and she looked slightly relieved to see that the man was taller than the person she'd thought it would be. "Hello," Sherlock said. "Soo Lin Yao!"
"You saw that cipher then," she said. "You know that he is coming for me."
"You've been clever," Sherlock acknowledged. "So far you've managed to avoid him."
"I had to finish," Soo Lin looked lovingly at the pots in front of her. "But it is only a matter of time. I know that he will find me."
"Who is he? You've met him before?" Sherlock asked.
"When I was a girl, living in China," Soo Lin nodded. "I recognize his...'signature'."
"The cipher," John asked.
Soo Lin nodded and explained. "Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu!"
"It means 'The Spider,'" Sherlock explained. They watched, as the girl unlaced her runner and lifted her right foot to show a tattoo on the bottom of it. It was a nearly full circle with a silhouetted black flower in the centre.
"You know this mark," she asked.
"It's the mark of a Tong," Sherlock said. He looked at John and then he explained. "It's an ancient crime syndicate, based in China."
"Every foot soldier bears the mark," the girl explained. "Everyone who hauls for them has this mark."
"Hauls," John asked. "You mean...you were a smuggler too?"
Soo Lin explained that when she was fifteen her parents had passed away. Her livelihood was in her own hands and that there hadn't been much money to begin with. There had been no other way, except to work for the 'Bosses', as she called them.
"Who are they," Sherlock asked.
"They are called the 'Black Lotus'," she said. "By the time I was sixteen I was taking thousands of pounds worth of drugs across the border into Hong Kong. I'm not proud of what I had done, but I had managed to leave that life for good." She paused and then continued. "I came to England, studied here and they gave me a job. I had a new life."
"Then he caught up with you," John stated.
"Yes," she confirmed. "I had hoped that after five years, that maybe they would have forgotten about me. But they never really let you leave. He came three days ago and asked me to help him track down something that was stolen."
"You have no idea what it is," Sherlock asked.
"I refused to help," she said. "The cipher is a punishment." She sighed. "He is ruthless...a fanatic that would strike down anyone...even family, if they are seen to betray him."
"You knew him well," John asked. "When you were living back in China?"
"Oh yes," she gave him a sad, resigned look. "He is my brother."
Sherlock looked away and thought of his own brother for a moment there. There was something in that statement that echoed in him, but he re-focussed on the situation at hand because he felt John place his hand on his arm.
John's eyes were focussed above them, to the skylight and the glass patterned roof. He thought that he'd seen movement up there, but by the time he took hold of Sherlock's arm the shadow had disappeared. His hand remained on that of his acknowledged Guide.
"When our parents died we were very young," Soo Lin began. "I was four and my brother Liang was a little older. Orphans...we had no choice. We could work for the Black Lotus or starve in the streets like beggars. My brother became their puppet...he fell into the power of the one they call Shan, the Black Lotus General." She looked at them and said, "When I refused, he said that I had betrayed him. Next day I came to work, I saw the cipher waiting for me."
Sherlock pulled out a copy of the full cipher message and the others from the library and bank. "Can you decipher this?"
"They're numbers," Soo Lin explained.
"Yes," Sherlock said. "We figured that part out already. What we need is how to decipher it?"
"All smugglers know it," Soo Lin began. "It's based upon a book..."
The lights were turned off. Everything is dark and black. Shadows, upon shadows created the atmosphere of terror and a drum began to beat. Thump and click, dum, dum, thump and click, click. The sound repeated and vibrated deeply in the museum.
The assassin was not alone.
"He's here," she whispers. "He has found me." She was pulled to the floor by John, whose sight had expanded and yet he couldn't see where the sound was coming from. It was echoing in the most disorienting way.
Sherlock leapt to his feet and followed the sound much more quickly. He ran into the main room, but it was dark everywhere. 'John should be the one looking for this man,' he thought. 'But I love the chase too.'
Moonlight lit the area with eerie blues and pale dim beams of light. Creepy shadows formed from the museum objects, lengthening and deepening as normal imagination took over.
He stared up the walls and to the grand staircase. He thought he saw a shadow move and thought once more that John should be the one here, since with his sight, he'd have been able to see the assassin.
"BANG!"
A gunshot rang out in the room. Sherlock ducked out of the way by hiding behind something marble.
John's ears picked up the sound of the shot. His head lifted and his instincts to protect his Guide surged. He wanted to run out there and hunt the one that was endangering the life of his one true Guide. He looked to Soo Lin and whispered, "I'm sorry, but I have got to go." His voice spoke of his fear and need. "Bolt the door after me."
The thump, thump of the drum was louder. Click, click, click, sounded in rapid succession to the percussive, ominous thumps.
Sherlock belly crawled around the displays. He peered over some kind of railing and a second shot rang out. He knew that he should have felt something, air disturbance...a graze...something. He looked to the wall nearby, but there were no visible marks or newly formed holes. 'Where did the bullet hit, then? Are they even real bullets or what?'
John sprinted into the room and crouched quickly behind a display as another shot rang out. He looked in the direction of his Guide and noted that the stubborn git started to run up the stairs as more shots rang out. 'Bloody bastard,' he thought, as he raced up the opposite set of stairs that led up to the same overlooking balcony.
Unfortunately or rather fortunately they did not meet up with the killer. They followed the path and through several halls and galleries. They ended up in the Anthropology Gallery. There were more gun shots. There were heavier, more ominous drum sounds and several shots at the display that Sherlock had taken shelter behind.
Of course he quipped in a harsh tone, "That skull is over two hundred thousand years old. Have a bit of respect for archeology!"
Just as suddenly that the shots began they stopped. The drums stopped on a final click of the sticks.
All was silence!
John hearing had been turned up and he had noted the number of heartbeats in the area. He knew that there was one missing now. 'No!' He thought. He looked around frantically. "Oh, my god!"
He ran back the way he came and hoped against hope that it wasn't Sherlock's beat that he'd lost. He hoped that it wasn't anyone he knew, but he suspected that he should never have left the girl.
'Sherlock,' he thought furiously. 'You had better be alive, you long legged pillock.'
Sherlock had chosen to leave his protective display and get back to Soo Lin. He caught sight of John running to down the stairs to get back to the girl.
John looked up and sighed in relief when he spotted his flatmate.
A final shot rang out!
John looked in the direction of the storage rooms where he'd left the girl alone. He smelt the hot, fresh blood, the tang of the gunpowder and heard the slump of a body that had drifted to the ground. He barely heard the running feet of the killer leaving the area.
He ran into the room and could only see the pale hand in moonlight. It rested on the top of the girl's working station and held a black origami flower in its pale palm. He jumped as a centuries old clay teapot shattered on the floor next to a pool of blood that started the coagulation process. He saw the human heat of the body change to a dull and dead colour spectrum.
Sherlock turned up just then and noted the expression on the Sentinel's face. It showed his horror and fear, confusion and relief, as soon as his Guide touched his arm to turn him away.
The younger man was shocked as he'd been suddenly wrapped up in strong arms. He felt the other man scenting him, seeking the dangerous vapour of gunpowder. The Sentinel sighed and sagged, a final squeezed released the poker stiff Guide, who'd not been used to such touching and yet the younger man did nothing to reject or turn the good Doctor away.
"I called the police," Sherlock said.
John snorted in disbelief.
"All right," the other man admitted. "I texted that new DI."
"I thought as much," John said. He picked up the copies of the image that they'd brought along for Soo Lin's help in deciphering the message. He just folded it up and tucked it away to look at it later.
Sherlock - Holmes - John - Watson
Later at the Yard
Sherlock was on a rampage. He paced fiercely, back and forth in front of Dimmock's desk. He was vexed and irritated by the new Detective Inspector. 'The man is a bloody wall,' he thought. 'How is this information not shaping up into something of a pattern of relevance?' He paused and looked at the man's stubborn expression. 'Just how did that man earn his warrant card, if he was such a lack wit?'
John was upset and angry with his hindsight. He didn't feel guilty or that he should take any blame for his actions because he was naturally concerned for the man he'd declared to be his guide. He looked at the DI's closed face and then exploded. "HOW many more murders is it going to take before you start believing that these cases are linked? A young girl was gunned down tonight...that's three victims in three days, all with the same calling card of that stupid bit of black paper. Those are not coincidences!"
Sherlock rested a hand on John's arm to stop him. He nodded, as the man took a deep breath to calm down. He allowed John to remove his scarf and replace it with the one that had been around his neck. He released the arm as the man inhaled the scent from it.
He turned to Dimmock and stated, "Brian Lukis and Eddie Van Coon were working for a gang of international smugglers. The gang is called the Black Lotus and they're operating right here in London, under your very nose."
"Can you prove that," Dimmock asked. He didn't believe them, but there was no harm in finding out if that was the truth or not.
Sherlock just grinned and said, "Meet you at the morgue." He looked to John and said, "See you there."
John nodded, since he'd already suspected that his flatmate was about to go charm a susceptible Miss Molly Hooper, into allowing them access to the bodies.
Sure enough a half hour later, they were there and looking at the bodies of the girl and the two previously killed men.
"Just the feet," Sherlock told her.
"The feet," she repeated in a confused tone.
"Yes," Sherlock said.
"O...kay," she said and unzipped the body bags. She looked at the bottom of the feet and noted that on one of them there was a tattooed stamp of an exotic flower within a circle. She did the same to the other man and then the girl that had just been brought in.
Sherlock turned to the young DI and grinned victoriously at the man. It was definitely a 'So there!' facial expression and Dimmock just didn't like it.
"So," Dimmock said.
"So either these two, wholly unconnected men and that girl just happened to visit the same Chinese tattoo parlour," Sherlock said. "Or I'm telling you the truth!"
Dimmock sighed and then asked, "What do you want?"
"I want every book from Lukis' apartment," Sherlock said. "And Van Coon's, plus whatever the girl had in hers."
"Their books," Dimmock asked in confusion and turned to John who just nodded.
Sherlock - Holmes - John - Watson
Later into that same eventful night, they arrived home. The comfort of 221B Baker Street calmed John's senses and part of his outward concerns. He was still visibly shaken by the death of the poor girl, but the relief that his unclaimed Guide was safe overruled any other feelings on the matter.
"It's not just a criminal network," Sherlock began. "It's a cult. Her brother had been corrupted by one of its leaders."
"Soo Lin said the name..."
Sherlock nodded, "Yes, Shan! General Shan! In Chinese it mean The Mountain."
"We're still not closer to finding them," John stated.
"Wrong!" Sherlock declared in a tone that said he took some small enjoyment in telling someone that they were wrong. John only sent him a small smile and waved at him to continue. "We know almost all there is to know. She gave us most of the missing pieces."
"Why would he go to see his sister," Sherlock looked at John pointedly. "Why would he need her expertise?"
John frowned in thought. "She worked at the museum."
"Exactly," Sherlock crowed.
"An expert in antiquities..." John paused, as he thought a bit longer on the subject. "Ah, of course, I see, it's a matter of tracking down something old and valuable."
"Ancient relics of China, purchased on the black market," Sherlock confirmed. "China's home to a thousand treasures, much was hidden after Mau's revolution."
"The Black Lotus is selling them," John continued. He then watched as his flatmate claimed his laptop, but he didn't protest it, this time around.
Sherlock keyed his search quickly and soon he had the right web address up. He scanned through the images and found two Ming vases with unusual shapes. "Look, check the dates," he said. "They arrived from China a week ago and the donor was Anonymous. Two rare treasures, undiscovered from the East."
"One in Lukis' suitcase and one from Van Coon," John said.
Sherlock ran a search. He looked for anything from the anonymous source and with a country origin of China or note of Chinese origin.
"Here's another one," he pointed out. "A month ago, a Chinese ceramic statue and sold for four hundred thousand." He looked further and found another.
"There," John pointed. "Look, a month before that, there's a Chinese painting for half a million."
"All from an anonymous source," Sherlock said as he turned to John, who'd leant against him for proximity and sense grounding. "They're stealing them in China and then one-by-one they're bringing them to Britain."
John looked at the date of submission with his brow furrowed in thought. Then he reached for Lukis' journal and the print outs of Van Coon's computer planner. He noted the dates of the auctions and then makes notes on the travel times of both men.
He creates a list on a separate piece of paper and then showed it to Sherlock, saying, "Every single auction coincides with either of them travelling to China."
Sherlock took the list and then said, "So, if one of those men was greedy back when they were in China, if they stole something..."
"That's why they were killed," John said. "They had to send the assassin."
They both heard a knock at their door. It was only Mrs. Hudson, who was confused, as she said, "Are we collecting for charity, Sherlock?"
John pursed his lips together. He didn't think that his flatmate would do anything for any charitable organization.
"What," came the confused response, as this was something that Sherlock had never been asked before.
"A young man's outside with a crate of books," she explained.
Sherlock said, "Let them in, it's for the case."
Box upon box were transported into their flat. They were stacked high and clearly marked whose was whose.
Sherlock showed the part of the cipher that they'd shown to Soo Lin Yao and where the girl had marked down a couple of words. 'It would have been better, if she'd just told us the name of the book,' he thought. 'But I suppose she was still of a mind to protect her gang in order to hopefully save herself in some way.'
"The numbers...," Sherlock pointed out. "They're references."
"To books," John asked.
"To specific pages in a book," Sherlock nodded. "Specific words on specific pages."
"Right," John replied. "So, 15 and 1...that means?"
"You turn to page fifteen and it's the first word that you read," Sherlock explained.
"Okay," John said with a wary eye to the boxes and books within them. "So? What's the message?"
"Depends on the book," Sherlock said. "It would never be the same book twice. That's the cunning aspect of a book code. It's got to be something that they both own."
John stared at the pile of boxes. "There're only three boxes for Soo Lin's books. Let's start with hers. If she started deciphering them for you then she has to have the same copy of the book."
"Right," Sherlock said. "You start there and I'll begin to pile them."
John nodded and pulled up a spreadsheet program on his laptop. He figured it would be easier to make a column for each victim and then list the names of the books under each. Hopefully some of the books will match and then they can go from there.
Sherlock - Holmes - John - Watson
Locum Surgery the following Day
Sarah walked into the reception room and noticed that there was a long queue of patients. 'Odd,' she thought. 'This shouldn't be happening.'
She walked to the receptionist and asked, "What's going on?"
"That locum you hired," the woman behind the desk said. "He hasn't buzzed the intercom for ages."
"Let me go and have a word with him," she said. She knocked on the door. No answer from within. "John," she thought she heard something. She opened the door and called out softly, just in case he was zoned out, but heard a soft snore instead. "John?"
She looked in, shook her head and grinned.
Later, when he finally left his office he was surprised that there weren't more patients for him to see. "I'm terribly sorry," he said. "I thought that there were more to see."
"I might have done one or two of yours," Sarah replied with a smile.
John looked at her quizzically, "One or two?"
"Maybe more like five or six," she replied.
"I'm sorry," John told her. "Not very professional, again I am so sorry."
"No," she agreed. "Not very."
"Bit of a late one," John replied. "I'm surprised that I haven't zoned today."
"So am I," Sarah said. She watched him drift away, but was curious. "What were you doing? I mean to keep you up so late? Anything to do with your Guide?"
"Sort of," John replied. "I was helping him sort a lot of books for a case he's working on. We lost track of the time."
"Ah," Sarah said. "You're set to come back in three days. Hopefully you'll be rested for your shift."
"Promise," John said and then he left the clinic in order to go home to the smell of his Guide. He missed him all day and didn't have a scarf to comfort the Sentinel in him.
Sherlock - Holmes - John - Watson
TBC...