Sherlock: The Double Butterfly Effect
Chapter 9
After the dramatic turn of events of last night, Sherlock gave the unmistakable impression of feeling unsettled and overwrought Yes he knew he'd always loved a magnificent crime solving challenge to rattle his speculative theories and general thoughts but now he felt he was becoming powerless to fight back against Jim Moriarty and his accomplice Dennis Aldridge. As he sat nervously at his computer, typing up new updated information to be copied and pasted on his website, he suddenly paused, both hands placed either side of his face visibly cupped. Over the last few hours a pattern began to emerge; he couldn't eat, drink nor contemplate about anything important, strangely this wasn't like him at all, to stop thinking all of a sudden. Noticing this John began to worry and for good reason.
"Sherlock speak to me, let me know what you're thinking at this moment. Come on, this isn't like you, feeling pessimistic about everything" John sighed despairingly, he didn't know what else to say, even if he did he wasn't entirely sure whether it would help his friend or possibly make certain issues much worse.
"Thinking John, I'm not pessimistic as you keep assuming, I'm just thinking of what Jim's weakest points are and a possible way of exploiting them" Sherlock looked apprehensively and reflective as he considered a new strategy.
"You seriously want to take advantage of someone's vulnerability, this sounds as if you're trying to suggest that you're wanting to stoop to the same level as Jim's manipulating ways" John muttered, surprisingly he found himself half approving of this when normally he wouldn't.
"Maybe"
"And are you actually planning on informing Lestrade on what your thoughts are on this?" John asked, feeling curious to find out.
"Oh John so full of questions, you're more fascinated by this investigation than me" Sherlock observantly recognized, gathering the known suggestion that his mind was still somehow unaffected by everything that had happened.
"How do you know?"
"Your left eye is practically more exposed than your right, the words you're using they virtually scream out of clear interest. You keep asking repeated questions very obvious. If you're so keen you should be telling Lestrade himself, I'm almost certain he'll be pleased that you're interested in solving this double murder investigation" Sherlock said, he knew in what way any person behaved.
"Unbelievable, you never fail to get that wrong ever, still too brainy for your own good, always your problem, almost certainly why everyone at the station always acts jealous around you because of your impressive viewpoint of detecting the identity of a murder suspect in an investigation" John entertainingly notified, surprised that Sherlock never once got anything incorrect.
"You never once thought of becoming an Criminologist or a Psychologist then Sherlock?" John questioned, he couldn't help wondering whether or not his friend might have been a different man and displayed simpler thought-provoking abilities.
"I did originally train to become a criminologist a few years ago but I gave it up, the classes weren't as exciting enough nor electrifying" Sherlock answered, providing brief detail of the short forgotten university course he'd vaguely remembered.
"So this is how you continue to get your kicks, blimey you should try playing Cluedo blindfolded instead, I'm convinced you'd guess the murderer immediately" John laughed at that probability.
xxxx
Rose observed the damage from last night, she was adamant that whoever did this, wouldn't just predictably get away with it, thinking they're clever and unbeatable, at all costs she knew she desperately wanted to help assist Sherlock and John in their investigation, she presumed her advantageous criminology skills might with any luck maybe help but wishing to help also threatened to place herself in a dangerous situation especially as Sherlock previously warned, anyone he knew could be targeted next and she herself could be a potential target.
She looked thoughtful and considered what she should say, her eyes looked elsewhere and downward at the carpet below, noticing there were so many shattered pieces of glass everywhere, from where she could see "How can a man so ruthless and spiteful assume he can get away with what he's doing?"
"I don't know love, from what I've seen maybe he wants to receive Sherlock's attention" Mrs Hudson wasn't quite convinced either, it had been the first time her windows had been broken since the late 1980's by a group of football fans.
"Maybe; this Jim, he speaks of, I do remember that I'm confident that I've met him before, he was smartly dressed as if he was attending a business meeting, his right hand clutched on the handle of his suitcase back then I assumed it must have been important document he'd prepared for his supposed meeting. He had cropped jet black hair, not too tall height wise, he had a confident swagger about him maybe that was a telling sign then" She sighed sadly, disappointed she couldn't remember any more significant detail about him.
xxxx
Sherlock and John entered Lestrade's office precisely at the 9am on the dot. "Well this is a surprise, have you discovered any possible new breakthroughs?" the detective appeared to look slightly shocked, he'd expected them to arrive much later that same morning. He gave them his full concentration, staring closely at both men as they began to tell him about the previous night's chronological turn of events.
"You haven't heard about Mrs Hudson's window being broken then and a handwritten letter attached to the brick that fell at my feet"Sherlock said, sighing as he began to look thoughtful.
Lestrade paced around his office as he listened to what they had to say, he stopped and turned round from looking at the window to face them, to tell ask them some honest questions of his own "No I haven't, you should rung me first thing this morning instead of waiting till now to tell me. Do you believe, this Dennis is responsible Sherlock?, if so I think we need to acted fast and have him arrested"
Sherlock prevented him from asking further questions and began to reveal what he presumed "If you arrest him, this is only going to make out unpopular enemy believe he can never be linked to these murders, Mark he's ordered Dennis to kill the two fashion designers mainly because he believed they'd cheated him out of a possible business deals and Dennis followed his orders because he had motives of his own. Poor Harvey he believed he had a decent friend in Dennis only to be taken by surprise that the man he trusted had turned on him" He frustratingly sighed, his hands gesturing.
"How did you work this out?" Lestrade asked, his eyebrow frowned curiously, he sat back down at his desk, tidying the odd files and documents, placing them within his drawer. The morning weather brightened up from outside and shone through Lestrade's office window.
"Trust me I know, it's quite possibly explains everything, especially for us to join the dots together and be placing every well known piece to create the full picture" Sherlock smiled, his confidence slowly coming back. "Oh this morning I felt I was beginning to lose sight of this but now I feel in the air, my self-assurance which I've missed but am now grateful to have once again" he wanted to hug John but then again he noticed the shocked reaction on his friend's face eventually told he'd best not to.
"Well it makes things more easier for us then I assume" John assumed, feeling finally convinced by all this.
"Not necessarily John, I'm offering to put myself up for the deadly challenge of coming face to face with Jim, by that I mean placing my cards on the table. I've been wanting to get some payback for what he did to us a few months ago" Sherlock's mind began to focus more seriously on trapping his longtime enemy into a corner.
Lestrade attempted to talk him out of doing this as he began to worry, when he realized that Sherlock was thinking of doing this so drastically, the detective didn't really want another death on his hand and especially he didn't want it to be Sherlock's death, if things went wrong for them "You're mad, you know you could get yourself killed in the way Quinn and Bardez did."
"Yes I know I'm mad on believing I could this but let me tell you, this is the only way" Sherlock smiled confidently.
"Alright, I'll give you my full backing on this but you're not going to be going in there alone, I'll make sure back up is on stand by, if he figures out what game you're trying to play" Lestrade simply couldn't disagree with him, even despite spotting John's obvious unenthusiastic looks at the both of them.
"Sherlock do you know exactly where Jim dines daily?" whispered John , who still seemed pretty much unconvinced by this, all he could think was that he wanted to insist on helping his friend with this and wishing he'd accept for once, he knew Sherlock would be basically telling him to keeping his distance away from Jim.
"Murphy's Bar, Kingston Street, he drinks in there every afternoon around 2pm and then again later every evening around 8pm, prefers to keep himself hidden away, away from everyone else, he's a loner always has been" Sherlock said, he had found out some useful information about the Irish man after the last time they faced off in a dangerous chance meeting. "Trust me whatever game or trick he's trying to play, he isn't going to be playing it for any longer" he sighed sadly.
End of Chapter