The following week was the most excruciatingly awkward week that Erin had experienced, whilst Sherlock was an unsociable git who dashed off to cases and didn't seem to notice the tension, Erin was doing everything in her power to leave the room. That's why after a week when the land line rang Erin jumped at the opportunity to leave the room.

Arriving at the phone in the hall she had it answered before the second ring, "Hello?"

"Ah, Erin, how lovely to hear from you," a fake chipper voice came through the receiver.

"Yes, of course, Mycroft," Erin spat out bitterly, she had started to dislike the elder Holmes brother when she realised he had cameras placed in the flat, "How can I help you?"

"I was hoping you could inform Sherlock of a murder close to your home, it would seem like something he'd be interested in," Mycroft answered calmly.

Erin narrowed her eyes even though he couldn't see her, "What's in it for you?" she asked sceptically.

"Why would it have to be something for me?" Mycroft faked shock.

"Because you wouldn't tell me about it if it wasn't," she said flatly.

Mycroft sighed giving in, "A government official was murdered, we assume the murderer is part of an up and coming criminal organisation. I was hoping Sherlock could find the killer."

Erin considered it for a moment, it would be good to get out of the flat for a while, "Yeah, sure. I'll tell him. Where is it?"

Mycroft was sufficiently pleased with Erin's answer, "Just down your street, outside of Angelo's restaurant."

Erin nodded and hung up the phone, she nibbled on her bottom lip and looked over to the living room. Taking a deep breath she stepped into the room, deciding to ignore the awkwardness. She stepped into the living room and leaned against the wall, Sherlock was in his mind palace so she let her eyes wander over him. He was skinny, yet not dangerously so, but it suited him well.

"Do you want to tell me something or are you going to just stare at me?" Sherlock's deep baritone voice travelled through the room and snapped Erin from her thoughts.

"Yeah, there's been a murder down the street, next to Angelo's," she informed Sherlock, his eyes snapped open and the corners of his lips twitched up slightly.

Sherlock shot out of his seat and into the hall quickly grabbing his and Erin's coat, together they walked into the dark cold night of Northumberland Street. Their breath formed small white clouds in front of them as they walked down the street towards the crime scene which was already visible. "What are the details?" Sherlock asked, turning slightly to face Erin.

"A government official was killed, apparently they think the killer is part of this new criminal organisation," she told him as they reached the tape. What shocked them both was to see Angelo being dragged in handcuffs and pushed into a police car. Walking quickly they asked an officer nearby, Sherlock quickly deduced that she was a new recruit. The officer was a woman of average height, dark skin and frizzy hair, Erin and Sherlock walked over to her, "I'm here to see the crime scene," Sherlock said rather rudely as they approached her.

The woman seemed slightly taken aback, "Sorry sir, but we can't let you past and we've already caught the murderer," she said with the most forceful voice she could. Before Sherlock could say anything else Erin spoke up, "Hello, I'm Erin Lorgan," the woman only just seemed to see Erin then, "Sally Donovan," she introduced herself.

Erin smiled politely, "This is my associate Sherlock Holmes, we're private detectives. In fact , we're trusted by and just been hired by the British government to take a look at the crime scene considering the victim is employed with them. It wouldn't be a problem if we just surveyed the scene would it? Of course if it's a problem we can just tell them you wouldn't let us in, your name was Donovan, right?" she spoke with authority.

Sally seemed slightly flustered by this information, not wanting the government to we involved she quickly lifted the tape, "Of course take your time." Erin smirked slightly and nodded at Donovan as she ducked under the tape, once on the other side she gave Sherlock a firm look and he too ducked under the tape. In all honestly he was surprised by the events that had just happened.

They began walking in step to the side alley where the body had been found, Sherlock leaned down and whispered in Erin's ear, "What did you just do?"

"I spent half my life in the hospital it pays to learn how to persuade people to let you into rooms you aren't allowed in because it's 'too dangerous'," she finished making quote marks with her fingers. They chuckled and came to a stop in front of the body.

The victim was lying at an odd angle with limbs spread in the wrong ways. The corpse of the government official's eyes were still open wide and bulging out of the head, the most noticeable thing about the body was the large amount of bruising on the neck. Sherlock and Erin looked over the body briefly, however, before they could do anything another officer came over.

He was just taller than Erin and had pale skin, chunky glasses and a ginger brown beard that looked slightly out of place on his face, Sherlock quickly deduced he had been working in the force for a year or so and had a crush on the officer Donovan, despite his girlfriend. "Um, who are you? This is a crime scene, I don't want you contaminating it, you have to leave before I have to escort you off the premises," Erin's head snapped up at the voice of the man and flashed him a smile.

"Hello, my name is Erin Lorgan and my associate Sherlock Holmes," she pointed to them each in turn, "We're private detectives, hired by the government," she pulled out a badge and flashed it briefly for the officer and pulled it away before his squinting eyes could see that it was a fake badge, "Here to take a look at your scene, don't worry we shan't we long here. Could you kindly tell us what information you have already gathered?" Erin asked kindly with a smile and brushed her hand over his shoulder.

The officer stuttered slightly, "Oh, o-of course. My mistake miss, I'm Anderson, Forensic Scientist" he introduced whilst Sherlock rolled his eyes. Anderson cleared his throat, "Victim is a 57 year old male, Andrew Balaqua, government official. Unmarried, strangled by somebody larger than him and fell to the ground here," Erin eyed the victim as Anderson babbled on some more, even she could tell that the body hadn't fellthat he had been thrown there after being moved, she looked back up at Anderson, "..killed roughly an hour ago. Which is why we have arrested the owner of the restaurant because he fits the killer's profile."

Erin nodded and pretended to take in the information, during this time Sherlock had been examining the body from where he stood, what he had gathered already was that Balaqua had been taken in a choke hold from behind, he had fought back but was eventually overpowered, and had been moved here.

"Thank you, but I think we'll just have a look on our own," Erin shooed away Anderson and turned back to Sherlock, "What'cha got?" she asked interested in the deductions he had already made.

Sherlock cleared his throat, "Balaqua was taken by a choke hold from behind, you can tell by the large mark across his neck that spans over his shoulders which can only be made by an arm," he made a demonstration with his arm as if he was putting an imaginary person in a choke hold. "He was then pushed against a wall aggressively," he knelt down next to the body, "You can see the lump on his crown from contact with the wall and the spot of blood. He was then strangled," he then pointed to the hand markings around his next, "until he passed out. The markings are in an upward direction, the murderer was a smaller man. He was then moved to another location, here," Sherlock stood up, "And thrown to the floor, at which point he smashed his head on the ground, effectively killing him."

Erin looked at the markings on Andrew's neck, her eyes trailed up to the large pool of blood by his head, "You can tell this was the killing blow because the blood would have coagulated if he had been murdered by strangulation," Sherlock finished. Erin followed Sherlock's deductions, nodding her head slightly. "You're really good at this," she whispered to him and Sherlock beamed. Anderson who had been watching them came over, "We've already caught the killer, he's at the station now. He didn't even have an alibi, the body was behind his restaurant, it's him! Your job is done!"

Erin smiled at him, "Yes, thank you for the work you've done but we have to do our own investigating, we were just leaving anyway, weren't we Sherlock?" They turned around and walked away.

"Angelo isn't stupid enough to leave a body there," Erin said to Sherlock, as they reached the tape, and ducked under. Sherlock faced Donovan who was still there, "By the way, the man you arrested is innocent, the British Government will we hiring a lawyer," and turned away.

They walked down Northumberland street and back to their flat, "We're going to have to do more investigating, this murder seemed too simple for Mycroft to we asking me to do it," Erin opened up the door to the flat and relished the warm breeze that graced her cold cheeks. Pulling off their coats and hung it up on the coat hanger.

Erin tucked her hair over her ear, it had grown a bit since Christmas and now reached the top of her breast's, she picked up the landline and dialled Mycroft's number. It was picked up after three monotonic rings, "Mycroft Holmes," came the greeting through the receiver.

"Hey, it's Erin. We need any records you can get about Andrew Balaqua," Erin asked Mycroft, she heard him sigh and then typing, "The records shall we delivered to you within the hour," then she heard the dial tone.

A/N- It's me oh my god I can't believe I've left it this long again, it's taken ages to write this because I was in a mood for writing and I didn't finish it then just recently I had a whole new idea for this chapter and I had to start again. I know the timing isn't right considering Angelo's case was canonically 3 years before he met John and this would be ten but, eh, also Donovan and Anderson aren't as cruel to Sherlock here because I feel like they had a past relationship in the show and I wanted to show that the anger wasn't always there. This case will we continued in the next chapter and depending on how long it takes maybe another after that. I have a few more ideas for after this case but I could always do with some more ideas if you guys want to see anything! Thanks for all the reviews so far, particularly who reviews every chapter :) So thanks a lot for all the support, it makes me not want to abandon this story. Evidently I didn't update this holiday as much as I would have hoped but I'll be in year 10 when I go back to school so hopefully I can schedule my life better and update more than once a month. Favourite, Follow and Review xxx

DISCLAIMER: I only own Erin and any other OC's that might come up, everything else belongs to the BBC and ACD. As far as I'm aware I came up with the plot, if it looks familiar to you please just tell me and don't sue. :)