New poster guys! :D

Chapter 14

"Have you seen these, John? These are the victims' profiles…John?"

Lestrade nudged John with his elbow, "Hmm? Oh, yeah."

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. I just…wasn't expecting to find anything like this. Very conclusive."

Lestrade nodded. "We should send these back to NSY for prints, then we'll go through some of the files."

Before they left, John pulled Lestrade aside so the other officers couldn't hear them. "We need to talk. Not here…"

"What about? I'll be pretty busy…"

"Trust me. You'll want to listen to this."

Forensics didn't find any fingerprints or other incriminating evidence on the files or anything else in the church. Lestrade and John were then permitted to look through the folders, but there wasn't much they could do. Each folder was designated to one person—on seven of them, red slashes appeared on the photographs. The other sixteen were untouched.

"The seven with these red marks have already been killed. These other sixteen people should be taken into protective custody," John suggested.

"Already did. They're locating them right now."

John nodded. "Other than that, I don't know what else we can do—"

"What did you want to tell me, John?" Lestrade asked. They were in his office, so no one could eavesdrop.

John shifted in his chair. He knew that he should tell Lestrade about Sherlock—he seemed to be the only one he could trust with this sort of thing. Besides, it could also help with the investigation…

Then again, will he even believe me? The whole story is really far-fetched.

"Alright, well…this is going to sound—this is going to sound absolutely incredulous…but…"

"John…" Lestrade interrupted, "…did you see someone down there?"

He paused. "Yes."

"Then why didn't you tell us? We could have arrested him right then and there!"

"Even if you had come downstairs and seen him, you wouldn't have arrested him."

"…Why not?"

John took a deep breath. "It…it was Sherlock…"

Lestrade didn't seem to react at first. He sat, staring at John, his expression unfaltering. After a few moments of silence, he pulled his fingers into a fist. "Sherlock…Holmes?"

John nodded slowly.

"But—he—" Lestrade stammered. "Are you…sure?"

"It was definitely him."

Lestrade turned his head to look out the window as he leaned back in his chair. "You're saying he's alive, then? You were the one who saw him fall…"

"I have uncovered some…new information that would prove that he is, in fact, alive and well."

"I'd love to see that, you know."

"But don't you get it? Sherlock is dead to the rest of the world. Legally, he doesn't exist. If I'm going to show you anything, it has to be off the records."

"That's asking a lot, you now."

John sighed. "At least let me tell you what I saw."

"Ah, that's right. What was Sherlock doing there? Was he investigating or something? Trying to crack the case on his own?"

"See, this is where it gets…complicated."

John recounted everything Sherlock had told him to Lestrade—the fake suicides, their network, Caesar. Lestrade only interrupted once when John mentioned Moriarty working with Sherlock.

"Wait, Moriarty is alive? How is that possible?"

"I don't know. I have no idea how either of them did it."

When he was done, Lestrade made no indication of whether he believed it or not. This made John more nervous than it should have.

This was a terrible mistake…

Lestrade placed his elbows on the desk and held his head in his hands. "John…"

Great.

"I think I might be going mad…" Lestrade said, not looking at John. "I...believe you."

John's eyes widened. "Wh—what, really?"

"The only thing that doesn't make sense is the fact that Sherlock is Caesar. Doesn't that seem…I dunno…too psychopathic?"

"I didn't believe anything he said."

Lestrade nodded. "He gave a confession, but even if we did believe him, we couldn't arrest him. He was pronounced dead…everyone'll think it's a joke."

"I think we're in agreement that Sherlock couldn't be Caesar…"

"Slow down. I never said it was impossible. It just seems unlikely."

John considered this. They didn't have any evidence confirming that he was Caesar…but they also didn't have any saying that he wasn't.

"You had to be there…he—he seemed…rehearsed, that's probably the best word for it. When I would ask questions, he was frazzled, like he was trying to come up with an answer. And then—" he paused.

"…What?"

"Never mind. Nothing."

"…Alright. What do you want to do, then? If he is Caesar, then we can't—"

Just then, an officer knocked on the door. When he came in, he placed a stack of papers in front of Lestrade. "We tried to contact or locate all sixteen of these people, but we couldn't find any of them."

"What? None of them? But that's impossible!" Lestrade demanded.

"We tried tracking cell phones, license plates, addresses, companies, but we couldn't pinpoint any of their whereabouts."

Alright, I don't know much about this sort of thing, but this is really weird. They can track just about anyone in London, so what's so different about these sixteen people? It can't be coincidence that they just happen to be Caesar's targets.

After Lestrade's short paroxysm, the officer left, leaving John and Lestrade in the office.

"Lestrade, you know, this sort of makes sense. These people would definitely want to stay off the grid, after their disputes with Moriarty. Maybe they've just gone into hiding themselves, but not from Caesar—"

"From Moriarty, yes, that does make sense. So, that much of Sherlock's story could be true. Like I was saying, if Sherlock is Caesar, that this whole investigation will be for naught. If he isn't, then we still have a chance of finding him. I, for one, am hoping Sherlock was lying…"

"Me too—you know, Sherlock must have been the one to give us the riddle, so it was like he was giving us a hint, right?"

"Yeah, so maybe…wait, is he trying to help us?"

"That backs up our theory even more!"

"So, do you think, if we disprove Sherlock's claim to be Caesar, it will lead to the real one?"

"I think that's a possibility, yes."

What a turn of events…we've found the killer…now we have to vindicate him.

I got addicted to a new show this weekend, and I haven't been able to stop, so I took a little hiatus:)