This wasn't a climbing accident," Sergeant Sally Donovan stated as she glared at the dead woman's partner. "You said that the piton broke loose from the rock while she was descending this cliff?" She pointed to the almost sheer vertical granite wall in front her.
The partner nodded. "I was standing over there," he indicated a patch of shade 50 metres to Donovan's left, "the uppermost piton fell out, then it was just a matter of momentum, I think. The sudden load on the other anchors as her body fell sharply was too much, they popped out one by one, yanked out by the increasing force of her fall."
Sherlock and John bent over the crumpled heap of limbs and body splayed out on the loops of climbing rope, like a spider perched in the centre of her web. It didn't take an expert to deduce that she'd died instantly upon impact from a broken neck.
Sergeant Donovan's eyes narrowed harshly. She snapped a pair of metal handcuffs on the man.
"What are you doing?" he protested.
"I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder."
"But I didn't do anything," he spluttered.
"I doubt that," Donovan muttered.
John looked up at the sudden arrest. His eyes darted from Donovan to Sherlock.
Sherlock nodded tersely. "She's right for once. He deserves those bracelets."
Answer to Chapter 6 (Lestrade's Missing Socks):
John realised that Anderson is the sock thief. If he'd been out of the office since Friday as he claimed, he should not have known that Lestrade left his socks on desk.
