Just a heads up everyone, these next two chapters get a bit gorey so be advised. Again I really have to wonder about my mental state that I can write the crazy evil stuff easily but the crazy good stuff is harder. And poor Artemis is going to have a day that is 'A bit not Good.' Reviews get good Karma and Kitten Kisses!
Artemis tucked the phone into her back pocket and took the postman by the arm guiding him to an armchair and pushing him down. "If you know what's good for you, you will sit right there until the nice Detective Inspector comes for you or I'll sick Sherlock on you."
The postman paled a little and shrank back into the chair, Artemis wedged the door closed and walked over to Sherlock keeping the postman in her peripheral vision. "So what did the madman send this time?" She asked quietly.
He spread fabric rectangles across the table and Artemis took in a sharp breath. "That's Tracey's shirt." She said quietly and reached out her hand hovering near the edge as her eyes tried to take in what was on the shirt.
"Quite. I told you he'd send a message. He's sent us a map. The two sleeves were addressed to me, the back on the shirt was sent to you. The maps lead in very different directions." Sherlock turned the sleeves so they overlapped a little and the lines meshed into one cohesive map.
"Sherlock that's dried blood." She said softly, she was barely keeping her voice under control, speaking softly was all she could manage.
"Yes and it's not been drawn, this was soaked up. Cuts were made and the fabric laid over them, sort of a reverse block printing." He sounded intrigued and Artemis's fists clenched with the effort not to punch him in the gut.
She took a few deep breaths and felt calm coat her like a very thin sheet of plastic, just barely containing her anger and her gut wrenching terror. She took Sherlock's face between her hands and lifted his face up making him look her in the eye. "Sherlock," Her voice was a deadly calm, like still water that hit a dangerous undertow. "That is our friends blood. That is Johns blood, and Traceys blood and if it was not drawn that means he is cutting up our friends."
He could see the undertow in her eyes and realized with a start that she was wearing makeup to hide the marks of fear and fatigue. She kept speaking in that calm voice drawing him back from the intellectual fascination. "He is cutting them up Sherlock and I need you to not be so… interested... in how he's done it… I need you to be interested in where he did it okay? Please, I need you to help me find them." Her voice cracked a little on the word please but she kept herself together.
He nodded and she let him go. He looked back at the fabric for once shoving away the tiny insignificant minutiae and focused on the where. "Stains on the collar and cuffs, I'd need to test to see what the composition is. The envelopes smell musty, same as the first set, somewhere damp. Secluded. Close to the river I imagine." He ran a finger over the stains on the cuffs and rubbed his fingers together. "Greasy. Probably industrial lubricant."
He leaned back a little and examined the maps, they had no markers or street names but he was easily able to determine the locations. "The torso map is a Industrial Dock on the Thames." He rattled off the likely address and turned his attention to the sleeves. "Automotive mechanic likely still on the Thames but in the opposite direction."
The door scraped open and Lestrade strode in with Donovan and Anderson both of whom were uncharacteristically silent in the face of Artemis's formal complaint against them. Lestrade walked over to the Postman and started his line of questions writing everything down virtually ignored by Sherlock and Artemis but for very different reasons. Once he had finished he sent the postmen up to the cars with Donovan and Anderson and stood by Sherlock. "What have you learned so far?"
Sherlock rattled off his findings ending with the addresses and declared with his usual air of superiority; "I will take the Automotive shop, you can have the Industrial Dock."
Lestrade shook his head. "No bloody way," He glanced at Artemis. "Sorry…" He started to apologize and Artemis gave him a small smile.
"Lestrade I swear like a very well educated sailor. You can't say anything that will offend me."
He started to protest then stopped and decided to just worry about talking Sherlock out of this latest bit of lunacy. "Neither of you is coming with the police on this. You're too close to this and the last thing we need is to give Moriarty more hostages."
"Lestrade has that ever worked with Sherlock?" Artemis asked folding her arms over her chest and cocking a hip.
Lestrade had been married long enough and understood women well enough to know that posture as a universal gesture for 'Try and stop me, see what I do to you.'
He groaned and rubbed his eyes. "No but I have these insane moments of hopefulness. Please, for my ulcers sake, stay here, let the professionals deal with it."
Sherlock snorted from where he was still examining the maps. He'd used her scissors to cut small patches from the cuffs of the sleeves and was folding them into a piece of paper. "I need to take these to St Barts and do a chemical analysis. I can narrow down the location the maps were created at in the lab there."
Lestrade gave a silent prayer of thanks. "Right, I'll get one of the cars to drive you two there."
Artemis shook her head. "No chance. Drop him off, let him do his thing, I'm going with one of your teams to at least one if not both of the locations."
Lestrade started to object but Sherlock gave him a quelling look. "She does not simply See Lestrade, she Observes. If I cannot be there she is better than nothing and a damned sight better than Donovan or Anderson."
"I'll stay back until the area is cleared, I won't leap headlong into disaster. I can record the scene for Sherlock too." Artemis said as a peace offering.
"Have you got a phone yet?" Lestrade asked.
"She can take my spare." Sherlock said fishing in a pocket for a phone with an alarming scorch mark on the back of the case. "Oh don't look so worried, it was only a minor explosives test to verify the veracity of the Life Proof Cases claims. They are a thoroughly excellent company."
Artemis took the phone and unlocked the screen and pulled up the camera. "It works."
Lestrade sighed, he swore he could feel more of his hair going gray. "Fine, fine, but you have an officer escort from the second we step out of the car until you walk back through the front door. Am I understood?"
"Absolutely." Artemis replied and raced up the stairs for her satchel and shoes.
When she came back down she was wearing her black polar fleece jacket and had a pair of sturdy boots with a chunky low heel. Sherlock looked askance at the boots. "You can't run in those."
Artemis smirked. "I can outrun you in these, I know because before I buy boots I take a test run in them, makes the sales people crazy but I like heels. Be glad I opted for these instead of the ones with the four inch heel, I can run in those two but they're a bit unsteady in gravel. Besides, I can hide this in the boot." She lifted the hem of her pants and showed the clip if a short thin knife in the tall boot.
Lestrade decided not to remark on how illegal that was and instead motioned for them to go up the stairs to the waiting cars. Artemis had her satchel slung with the strap across her chest. "What do you keep in that thing?" He asked as they exited to the street.
"Useful odds and ends." Artemis replied.
Lestrade gave a pair of officer's instructions to take Sherlock to St Barts and to stay with him while he did his experiments. When Sherlock had climbed into the car and the car had pulled out into traffic Lestrade opened the door to his car and let Artemis in. "What kind of odds and ends?" He asked as she buckled in.
"A medical kit with surgical supplies, mylar blanket, matches, lighter, dry socks, a poncho…" She peered into the bag. "Some emergency food…" She looked up at him and grinned. "I like to think I was a Boy Scout in a past life."
"Scratch Boy Scout, were you an Army Ranger?" He asked a little incredulously as he made his way through traffic.
"Nope, I was an EMT for a while and I did a lot of hiking and camping before I started the business with Tracey." Artemis replied and pulled the cellphone out and started poking through the apps.
"Well that explains your willingness to walk into danger; EMTs have to be ready and willing to walk into potentially dangerous situations though I'm still a bit confused about your tendency to physically assault people with Judo." He commented.
"Karate." She corrected. "I know Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun and a very little bit of Judo." She was checking the internet for information about the Industrial Dock they were headed to and was a little distracted.
"Four martial arts… You must have been hell in the schoolyard." He grinned a little imagining about a much tinier Artemis in a school uniform and pigtails throwing bullies around like matchsticks.
"I was homeschooled, I learned in my teens because I wanted to travel and a woman traveling alone is a target, I never wanted to be a victim." She set the phone down in her lap and watched the road.
"I see." He turned towards the river docks and slowed down looking for the correct entrance.
They finally located it and he made her wait with him in the car while the officers cleared the sprawling ground level. When she got out she had the phone at the ready and was recording everything as they walked out of the watery sunlight into the artificial light of the massive building. She scanned the room with the camera then started looking around. An officer called for Lestrade and they hurried over to see what the fuss was about. A man lay on his side curled around something in a near fetal position. He was dressed like a civilian, ripped jeans, a dark t-shirt and denim jacket, scuffed trainers but his brown hair was too carefully cut to be just some average Joe. Even dead it was carefully styled in a sort of everyday businessmans cut and Artemis crouched and pointed turning the camera to face what she was pointing at. "Look, he's wearing an earpiece."
She focused the camera in on the clear plastic coil and earbud that dangled under the collar of the jacket where it had fallen out of his ear. She panned the camera up and down the body then stood back a little so Lestrade could look for ID, there was none and a quick search of the body revealed no other identifying marks or clues. He was average Artemis realized, everything about him looked so average except his haircut and even that could have been average if the poor guy wasn't dead making it look out of place. She said as much to Lestrade who made a note of it and walked a few paces away to make a call to the Crime Scene techs. Artemis moved around the body and crouched again trying to see what the guy had been huddled around, She swallowed hard realizing he was curled around his own intestines which lay in a pile under him. "They gutted him." She said softly and Lestrade came over.
"What?" He asked crouching beside her and offering a pair of gloves.
"Are those Latex?" She asked.
"Nitrile." He replied and she took them.
"I'm allergic to Latex." She said to his unasked question and picked the camera up. ""He was gutted, it looks like he tried to keep his intestines in but shock kicked in and he died." She motioned with one hand to the pile of intestines.
"Are you sure you weren't Army?" He asked.
She sighed and gave him a stern look. "Fine, fine. Trust Sherlock to recruit someone with a mysterious background." He pulled out his notebook again and made a few notes. "As soon as the Tech gets heres we'll go to the next address. We'll have the body sent to St Barts and Sherlock can have a look at him."
Artemis stood and got video of the area immediately surrounding the body. Anderson, having already followed them to the scene with Donovan had already started processing the scene but when the tech team got there he let them take over and packed his kit back into the car.