NATIONAL ANTIQUITIES MUSEUM. Andy is pestering the museum's Director about Soo Lin's abrupt departure.
"She was right in the middle of an important piece of restoration. Why would she suddenly resign?" Andy said.
"Family problems. She said so in her letter." The Director replied.
"But she doesn't have a family. She came to this country on her own."
"Andy ..."
"Look, those teapots, those ceramics: they've become her obsession. She's been working on restoring them for weeks. I-I can't believe that she would just abandon them."
The Director looks at him pointedly "Perhaps she was getting a bit of unwanted attention."
She walks away. Andy looks round awkwardly at other colleagues in the room who have been listening in but who now abruptly turn away again.
221B. Sherlock is standing at the fireplace again. The mirror is now almost completely covered because he has added several sheets of paper with various ciphers and pictograms on them. He has his head lowered and is consulting a book. Dare is curled up in Sherlock's chair napping, still dealing with the effects of her new anti-depressants.
A slamming door announces John's return to the flat but since John immediately walks into the living room, one can only assume that he slammed the kitchen door shut as he walked past it – presumably the only way he can think of to signify that not only is he home but he is Mad As Hell. Dare jumps at the sound of the door slaming.
"You've been a while." Sherlock said without turning around or looking up. Dare looks like she is having trouble with a word.
John walks a few more paces into the room, his shoulders rigid and his fists clenched. He stops, blinking as he fights to hold onto his anger, then turns to Sherlock.
"Yeah, well, you know how it is. Custody sergeants don't really like to be hurried, do they?" John said tightly.
He starts pacing, an angry half-smile half-grimace on his face "Just formalities: fingerprints, charge sheet; and I've gotta be in Magistrates Court on Tuesday."
Sherlock absently, having clearly not heard a word "What?"
"Me, Sherlock, in court on Tuesday." John said angrily. He puts on a rough London accent "They're givin' me an ASBO!"
"Good. Fine." Sherlock said, still not paying attention.
"You wanna tell your little pal he's welcome to go and own up any time." John said tightly.
Sherlock slams his book shut "This symbol: I still can't place it."
Turning and putting the book down, he walks over to John who has just started to take his jacket off, and pulls the jacket back onto his shoulders.
"No, I need you to go to the police station ..." Sherlock said.
"Oi, oi, oi!" John cried indignantly, as Sherlock turns him around and steers him towards the door
"... ask about the journalist."
"Oh, Jesus!" John said exasperated.
Sherlock goes back to Dare pulling her out of the chair and over to the door "You're coming with me. There is no one around to look after you."
Sherlock grabs his own coat and Dare's from the back of the door "His personal effects will have been impounded. Get hold of his diary, or something that will tell us his movements." Sherlock told John.
"Hey, maybe Dare should come with me to the station. Knowing you, the two of you would end up being chased by angry villagers." John said.
"Very well then." Sherlock said.
They go downstairs and out onto the street.
"Gonna go and see Van Coon's P.A. If we retrace their steps, somewhere they'll coincide." Sherlock said.
He walks off down the street. John sees a taxi coming around the corner and hails it. As it pulls over to the kerb he sees an Oriental-looking woman with dark hair and wearing dark sunglasses standing on the other side of the road and taking a photograph. Her camera is aimed in his direction. He bends to the taxi driver's window "Scotland Yard."
"Right." The Taxi Driver said.
John gets into the back of the taxi with Dare beside him and glances round to the other side of the road as he sits down. There's no sign of the woman.
"Did you see someone?" John asked Dare whom was using his shoulder as a pillow.
"Where?" She asked tiredly.
John gave her a worried look "Never mind. You should be in bed rather than working on a case. And I strongly suggest switching back to your old prescription. Your symptoms shouldn't be this bad."
"Yeah. Will do." She replied sleepily.
John frowned, but made no other comments as he watched the streets of London pass by.
SHAD SANDERSON BANK. Sherlock is in Van Coon's office standing beside his personal assistant, Amanda, who is looking at an online calendar.
"Flew back from Dalian Friday. Looks like he had back-to-back meetings with the sales team." Amanda said.
Can you print me up a copy?" Sherlock asked.
"Sure."
"What about the day he died? Can you tell me where he was?"
She looked at the screen "Sorry. Bit of a gap."
The calendar shows no entries for Monday the 22nd. Sherlock looks away, frustrated. Amanda also realises something "I have all his receipts."
NEW SCOTLAND YARD. Dimmock is standing at a desk and rummaging through a box of Brian Lukis' possessions. John stands at the other side with Dare sitting a chair farther behind them.
"Your friend ..." Dimmock said.
"Listen: whatever you say, I'm behind you one hundred percent." John said.
"... he's an arrogant sod." Dimmock finished.
"Well, that was mild! People say a lot worse than that." John said.
"Oi! Arrogant sod's sister is in the room!" Dare said glairing at the two men.
"Well it's true." Dimmock replied.
"Well Detective Inspector Dimmock I do believe our first encounter with each other you were defiantly not the most humble person in the room." She snapped.
"Well I was not informed that the Holmes siblings were going to be working on the case, and acted appropriately. As well as the fact that the two of you do not actually work with the police." Dimmock replied sharply.
"Well it is your job to check, and be informed of potential tools that could be used in a case. This is not something that you need to hold someone's hand for. And if my memory is correct-which it is-you said that you have heard of us, or Sherlock at the very least. Meaning that you had no excuse for attempting to kick us out of the crime scene, and to continuality ignore our help when you are obviously out of your depth. And we may not be police, but we do have a better track record than you could ever hope to come close to."
John smirks at what Dare said, unfortunately for John that made him Dare's next target.
"And you! What are you smiling about?! You've been acting like a spoiled brat the last couple days!"
"Well excuse me for being angry about the fact that both of you made me, pick up the groceries, and made me the scapegoat for vandalism, and have a police record!" John replied angrily.
Dare cave him a cold glare and crossed her arms over her chest "I honestly don't see those as proper excuses for being a brat. Considering Sherlock and I paid for your rent this month and last month, as well as paying for the groceries that you were incapable of buying. But for the vandalism that was your fault. You should have learned by not that Sherlock and I don't like dealing with the police. And-this should have been very obvious- when you holding a can of spray paint when a type of police come around, you run. So clearly we cannot be faulted for your stupidity."
Both men wore guilty expressions about being lectured by an 18 year old about their behavior.
Dare rolled her eyes and walked to where the two men were standing. Shoving the two men out of the way to peer into the box. She immediately finds and retrieves the diary.
Dare immediately flicks through it, opening it at a page which has been bookmarked with a boarding pass to Dalian DLC [Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport] to London LHR [London Heathrow Airport] on Zhuang Airlines.
She snaps the book shut and walked out of the office shouting "I'm surrounded by ungrateful imbaciles!"
John stood wide eyed, thinking that everything that she said was spot on.
"She is going through some things." John said apologetically before following her out.
SHAD SANDERSON BANK. Amanda has spread out Van Coon's receipts on her desk.
"What kind of a boss was he, Amanda? Appreciative?" Sherlock asked.
"Um, no. That's not a word I'd use. The only things Eddie appreciated had a big price tag." Amanda replied.
Sherlock kneels down on the floor to give himself easier access to the receipts. As he is taking his gloves off he sees a pump-action bottle of luxury hand lotion at the back of the desk "Like that hand cream. He bought that for you, didn't he?"
Fiddling nervously with a pin in her hair, Amanda looks at him in surprise. Sherlock shuffles through the paperwork and picks up a receipt from a licensed taxi. Dated 22 March 2010 and timed at 10:35, the receipt is for £18.50. He hands it up to Amanda "Look at this one. Got a taxi from home on the day he died. Eighteen pounds fifty."
"That would get him to the office." Amanda said.
"Not rush hour; check the time. Mid-morning. Eighteen would get him as far as ..." Sherlock said.
"The West End. I remember him saying."
Sherlock has now found a London Underground ticket with the same date on it and issued at "Piccadilly." He hands that up to Amanda "Underground. Printed at one in Piccadilly."
"So he got a Tube back to the office. Why would he get a taxi into town and then the Tube back?" Amanda asked.
"Because he was delivering something heavy. Didn't want to lug a package up the escalator." Sherlock replied still going through the receipts.
"Delivering?"
"To somewhere near Piccadilly Station. Dropped the package, delivered it and then ..." He finds another receipt and stands up as he looks at it. It's from the Piazza Espresso Bar Italiano "... stopped on his way. He got peckish."
LONDON STREETS. Sometime later Sherlock has found the espresso bar and is talking to himself out loud as he walks past it. "So you bought your lunch from here en route to the station, but where were you headed from? Where did the taxi drop you ...?"
He has been spinning around as he walks and now bumps into someone approaching from behind who is also distracted and not looking where he's going. It's John, who is engrossed in looking down at Lukis' diary, after Dare finally let him go through it. Sherlock grunts as they collide. John looks surprised to see him there.
"Right." John said.
"You two are like magnets, polar opposites." Dare said quietly.
"Eddie Van Coon brought a package here the day he died – whatever was hidden inside that case. I've managed to piece together a picture using scraps of information ..." Sherlock said quickly.
"Sherlock ..." John said.
"… Credit card bills, receipts. He flew back from China, then he came here."
"Sherlock ..." Dare said.
"Somewhere in this street; somewhere near. I don't know where, but ..." Sherlock said.
Dare and John both pointed to the other side of the road. "That shop over there." John said.
Sherlock looks at the shop, then looks back to John and Dare, frowning "How can you tell?"
John shows him the book while Dare explained to him "Lukis' diary. He was here too. He wrote down the address."
They turns and heads towards the shop.
"Oh." Sherlock said.
He follows after his friend and sister.
CHINATOWN. The trio walk into a touristy shop which consists largely of decorative cats which are sitting up on their hind legs with one front paw raised. Some of the paws are waving back and forth. John greets the female Chinese shop keeper politely "Hello."
They look around at all the items on display. The shop keeper lifts one of the cats from the desk "You want lucky cat?"
"No, thanks. No." John said.
Sherlock looks round at him and smirks.
"Ten pound. Ten pound!" The shop keeper said.
"No." John smiles awkwardly. Dare hid behind Sherlock, and is trying to hide her laughter.
"I think your wife, she will like!" the shop keeper said.
"No, thank you." John said.
The shop keeper turned to Sherlock and pointed to Dare "Your wife, she will like."
The siblings paled and took a few steps away from each other. John was trying to hide his chuckle.
"No." Sherlock said plainly, getting the message across that he wasn't interested in purchasing the cat.
John walks over to one of the tables which has small ceramic painted handle-less cups on it. Sherlock is examining a rack displaying clay statues. Dare walks to the other side of the room to look at interesting trinkets, making it look like one of them was thinking about buying something, rather than snooping around. John picks up one of the cups and turns it over to look at the price tag. His hand begins to tremble as he sees the Chinese symbol stuck on the underside. It's the same sort-of upside down eight with a line above it which was painted beside Sir William's portrait and on the library shelf "Sherlock. Dare."
Sherlock, who has picked up one of the statues, puts it back on the shelf and comes over to him. Dare one last look at the statue she was holding, before putting it back and goes over to John as well.
"The label there." John said.
"Yes, I see it." Sherlock said.
"Exactly the same as the cipher." John clears his throat awkwardly, he puts the cup back.
Sherlock and Dare shared a look. Everything is starting to make sense.
Shortly afterwards they have left the shop and are walking down the street.
"It's an ancient number system! Hangzhou." Sherlock said, "These days, only street traders use it. Those were numbers written on the wall at the bank and at the library."
He walks over to a greengrocer's which has some of its wares on display outside the shop. The various boxes have handwritten signs on them giving the names of the vegetables in both Chinese and English, and underneath is the cost of that particular item in both Hangzhou and English. He picks up various signs, checking the symbols.
"Numbers written in an ancient Chinese dialect." Dare said.
John has spotted a sign with the upside down eight and slash above it and its English equivalent beneath "It's a fifteen! What we thought was the artist's tag – it's a number fifteen."
"And the blindfold – the horizontal line? That was a number as well." John said.
Sherlock shows John and Dare a price tag which has the almost-horizontal line at the top, and "£1" written underneath.
"The Chinese number one." Sherlock said grinning triumphantly.
"We've found it!" John said.
"Wait, if the murders are using a numbering system only known to traders. Would that mean they're traders as well? No, then they would not have felt the need to kill them . . . so that leaves . . . smugglers?" Dare asked hesitantly, surprizing John by sounding unsure of her deduction.
Sherlock grinned and kissed her forehead "Yes! That's it! Brilliant! That explains everything."
Dare grinned, happy that she was right about her assumption.
Sherlock turns and walks away, Dare follows him after a moment. As John smiles and turns to follow him, he sees the same woman who was taking a photograph outside 221 standing nearby. Still wearing her dark sunglasses, she again has her camera raised and pointed towards him as she takes a picture. Someone walks across her, obscuring his view of her for a moment, and by the time the person has passed, she has vanished. John frowns. Dare noticed that John stopped "What?"
"Nothing, I just though I saw someone familiar that's all. Let's go before that git leaves us behind" John said smiling at her before following Sherlock, trying to hide his suspicions from Dare.
Dare frowned, noting that John looking slightly unnerved. Deciding that it can be dealt with later, she followed him.
First of all, sorry about the long wait. School is soooo boring so I didn't have the energy to do the work so I did everything practically last minuet, so my grades :l
Sorry this chapter is short but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer so I just put up what I finished. and all my classes are done so more time to work on fanfic's and the story I am writing with my cousin (one we hope to get published)
And I have so many ideas for this story with so many spinoffs I can do with it after the first season is done(there are a lot) and a lot of AU's of Dare, like the story I put up already called "My Time at Ouran Academy." Which is just a Sherlock and Oruan Highschool Host Club crossover.
Thank you everyone who reviews favs and follows, its really cool that all of you like reading my stories :)
Don't forget to reveiw it lets me know what you like or dislike about the story, and it really helps inspire me to write more :)