Straight from there, Sherlock found Sebastian's next appointment.
The banker was sitting at a table of four. Danielle could see him- her eternal foe. How dare he smile and be full of joy? Wasn't he aware that Danielle had sworn vengeance? He should be scared. Terrified. Running for the hills. So what that Danielle hadn't said it out loud? He should just be able to feel her righteous anger!
"... and he's left trying to sort of cut his hair with a fork, which of course can never be done!" Sebastian laughed.
Sherlock, followed by John then Danielle, arrived at his table.
"It was a threat. That's what the graffiti meant." Sherlock stated plainly, as soon as he stopped walking.
"I'm kind of in a meeting. Can you make an appointment with my secretary?" Sebastian requested.
For less than one second, Danielle felt bad.
Actually that was a lie. Sebastian was an asshole that deserves this treatment.
"I don't think this can wait. Sorry, Sebastian." Sherlock replied, not apologetic at all. "One of your traders– someone who worked in your office– was killed."
Now no one at the table was eating. Good. Danielle wouldn't stomach eating food at hearing what Sherlock said either.
"What?" Sebastian asked, the only one who could speak.
"Van Coon. The police are at his flat." John explained.
"Killed?"
"It was very violent." Danielle added on, nodding solemnly. "You should send flowers to his family."
"Sorry to interfere with everyone's digestion." Sherlock apologized, once again not sounding apologetic at all. "Still wanna make an appointment? Would, maybe, nine o'clock at Scotland Yard suit?"
Sebastian had enough of the embarrassment. He stood up, awkwardly smiling while being honestly apologetic to his guests.
Danielle was pleased.
==NKMHLY==
Less pleased when they ran off to the men's room.
So she stood awkwardly by the loo, waiting for the boys to come back out.
Which...meant standing there. Awkwardly. Doing...nothing.
Danielle blew out a breath. It came out as a raspberry. Honestly it was distracting her from the mind numbing boredom-
Her phone buzzed.
Danielle yelped, nearly dropping the phone reaching for it.
She pulled it out- seeing Felix's ID on the phone.
The apocalypse had begun.
She whimpered, accepting it.
"Hi-" She greeted awkwardly.
"Did you talk to Paul?!" Felix scolded once he could be heard. "Why would you do that?!"
"I'm the eldest. My ways should not be questioned." Danielle replied, nervously glancing around the bathroom hall.
"No. Why did you do it? It was nothing!" Felix argued. "I told you it was nothing!"
"He was cheating on his girlfriend. He's lucky I didn't erase him." Danielle argued, hackles rising to the occasion. "Did you know everyone where he works calls Lilly Kelly the uppity fashion one?"
"That's not- okay that's really bad but that's not the point!" Felix scolded. "You butt into things! Again!"
"Well I didn't mean to!" Danielle argued. "Sherlock had a case at the bank, and his contact at the bank said he knew about me from Paul. Honestly, Lix, You should have heard-"
"You don't think I've heard enough?!" Felix interrupted her. "Because Paul called me- furious about whatever you had said to him. I don't need you fighting my battles!"
"I wasn't-" Danielle tried to explain. Tried to admit she had only seen attacks on her family by her family. A betrayal that cut her to the bone. Paul has caused damage to not just Lilly Kelly, but on Nathalie and Felix as well. He shouldn't be treating his family so poorly- not if he hadn't wanted Danielle to retaliate.
"Because I don't care what he calls us at work because it's work! I know he doesn't mean it, he's just doing what Mum said. Does that mean I like being insulted about my choices? No! But I don't need you butting in!"
"Insulted? What do you mean insulted?" Danielle latched onto that fact.
Felix immediately realized his mistake."Nothing! Nothing at all!"
"Did he mock you? Felix tell me right now if he mocked you."
"You're butting in again! It doesn't matter if he called me a poof-"
"He said what?!" Danielle growled.
"He didn't mean it!" Felix argued before Danielle could do anything. "Ellie don't you dare-"
"Be right back!" Danielle lowered her phone.
"Danielle don't-!"
Danielle pulled up her contacts, quickly sorting through to find Nathalie's number.
Nathalie picked up after the third ring. "Danielle! Hi! What's going-"
"Nathalie I'm so sorry this is why I'm calling because you're a really nice person that doesn't deserve this but Paul is cheating on you." Danielle explained in a rush.
"...what."
"I went to where he works today- visit with a friend. He was talking about a woman who wasn't you with quote 'of only you had seen this size of them' in body type, and had a phone number on his desk that wasn't you. He's cheating on you." Danielle explained in a rush.
She sent Nathalie the picture- Paul's desk complete with phone number.
"I'm really sorry about him. You deserve better." Danielle told a silent Nathalie. "My brother is a prick. I understand if-"
Nathalie hung up.
Danielle understood.
She felt awful.
But she understood.
==NKMHLY==
John had explained to Danielle what had come up in their conversation with Sebastian.
Not long after, she went back to her flat. It was time to walk Erika. The dog would be a pain if she didn't get her walk soon.
When she arrived back at her flat, she made sure to feed both of her pets.
Her phone had a few missed calls from Paul.
One from her mother.
Danielle- after making sure her dog and cat were okay- went over to Sherlock and John's.
She ran into John on the way over.
"Hello there-" She greeted.
John continued on.
Danielle tried not to be too put out by that. She walked up the stairs. At this point, why even ask?
She rushed up the stairs, walking into the flat just after John. Sherlock was sitting at the desk, staring at a wall of printed out pictures.
"I said, 'Could you pass me a pen?'" Sherlock stated.
Danielle blinked in confusion.
"What? When?" John asked. It made Danielle feel a bit better, that she wasn't the only one confused.
"'Bout an hour ago." Sherlock replied.
John sighed. "Didn't notice I'd gone out, then."
"Or that I was walking my dog." Danielle remarked. As she was saying this, John tossed a pen to Sherlock. Neither man even stopping to look at the pen. Danielle was impressed.
"Yeah, I went to see about a job at that surgery." John added, walking over towards the multiple printed out pictures.
"That's great!" Danielle cheered, plopping herself down on a black chair.
"How was it?" Sherlock inquired.
"It's great. She's great." John replied, absently.
Danielle giggled.
John looked over his shoulder. "Hmm?"
"'She'?" Sherlock pointed out.
John took the embarrassment quite well. "...It."
Danielle giggled under her breath. She couldn't bring herself to look at John, just giggling the whole time. Sherlock was doing the opposite- staring at John with innocent curiosity. John was ignoring them both on principle.
"Here, have a look." Sherlock invited, turning about the laptop.
"Oh! Gimme!" Danielle sat up. She sat up to stare at the screen. John walked up to her side.
"The 'intruder who can walk through walls.'" John read off.
"That's him!" Danielle pointed at the article, not the picture of the older gentleman beside it. "That's our man! It's gotta be, right?"
"Happened last night." Sherlock revealed. "Journalist shot dead in his flat; doors locked, windows bolted from the inside- exactly the same as Van Coon."
"God. You think-" John looked to Sherlock and Danielle.
"He's killed another one." Sherlock revealed.
"Wait- it wasn't obvious?" Danielle asked, surprised with herself.
==NKMHLY==
They had gone to NSY to alert Inspector Dimmock of the news. Sherlock quickly commandeered Dimmock's laptop. Danielle, along with John, stood behind Sherlock.
"Brian Lukis, freelance journalist. Murdered in his flat-" Sherlock showed Dimmock the laptop screen. "-doors locked from the inside."
"It's like the first one, with Van Coon." Danielle pointed out.
"You've gotta admit, it's similar." John agreed.
Dimmock had the face of a man who found gum on his shoe.
"Both men killed by someone who can-" John paused. "-walk through solid walls."
"Inspector, do you seriously believe that Eddie Van Coon was just another City suicide?" Sherlock asked.
Dimmock shifted in his seat- his expression now saying that he realized it was his own hand on his shoe.
Sherlock huffed. "You have seen the ballistics report, I suppose?"
"Mmm."
"And the shot that killed him: was it fired from his own gun?"
"...no."
"No." Sherlock repeated. "So this investigation might move a bit quicker if you were to take my word as gospel."
Dimmock sighed.
"I've just handed you a murder enquiry." Sherlock bargained. "Five minutes in his flat."
==NKMHLY==
Dimmock brought the trio to the flat.
Sherlock began searching the flat. Danielle had no idea what he must be seeing that he didn't already know about the killer. He could climb walls, and he could find the targets wherever they were. Was there really more to be learned from the flat?
Yet Sherlock searched, like a shark that had smelled blood. He soaked in any fact he saw, filing it away in his brain.
Danielle was barely keeping track of it all. All she saw was a nearly trashed flat.
"Four floors up. That's why they think they're safe." Sherlock commented. He rushed about the flat. "Put a chain across the door and bolt it shut; think they're impregnable. They don't reckon for one second that there's another way in." He went over to a skylight set up above the landing.
"I don't understand." Dimmock replied.
"Trust me. You pick it up as you go along." Danielle assured him.
Dimmock looked not at all assured.
John was grinning though, so Danielle considered it a success.
Sherlock was still doing his own thing. "You're dealing with a killer who can climb." He climbed up, trying to work himself out of the skylight.
"What are you doing?" Dimmock yelled.
Danielle wanted to answer- but found herself hesitating. The joke was just too easy.
"He clings to the walls like an insect." Sherlock reasoned. He opened the window. "That's how he got in."
"What?!" Dimmock asked loudly, confused still.
"Climbed up the side of the walls, ran along the roof, dropped in through this skylight." Sherlock explained.
"You're not serious! Like Spiderman?" Dimmock snarked, disbelieving.
"Exactly like Spideman!" Danielle cheered, completely believing.
"He scaled six floors of a Docklands apartment building, jumped the balcony to kill Van Coon."
Dimmock seemed close to cracking from the absurdity of it all. "Oh, ho-hold on!"
"And of course that's how he got into the bank. He ran along the window ledge and onto the terrace." Sherlock explained, as he no doubt put everything together. "We have to find out what connects these two men."
Sherlock made his way towards the staircase, John and Danielle behind him. Sherlock spotted some of the fallen books scattered about. He picked one up, scanning the inside cover, then clapping it shut.
==NKMHLY==
They went to the library after that. Well not all of them, Dimmock went back to work. Probably to update the case, or something else inspectors did at work. Danielle had no idea.
Sherlock brought them to a set of shelves. He searched it, still holding up the book he'd gotten from Lukis' flat. "Date stamped on the book is the same day that he died." Sherlock explained as he started pulling out books.
Danielle did the same. She searched the books, looking for any clue. Okay so she'd been wrong- turns out there was stuff to look at in Lukis' flat.
John also searched the shelves.
Danielle moved aside another set of books aside. She inhaled sharply. "Boys!" She whispered, pulling books out of the shelf so they could see what she'd seen.
Despite being further away, Sherlock got there first. He grinned thinly at seeing the spray painted marks- exactly the same as the ones before.
==NKMHLY==
Danielle's phone was sitting her flat.
Multiple texts.
Multiple missed calls.
Multiple voicemails.
It wasn't looking so good for her.
But she paid them little mind.
==NKMHLY==
AN: Happy Treason Day, peasants.
Thanks to idontshaveforsherlockholmes221, ButlerGirlAnime, Lonesome Road, Potatis02, Helena Light, seneffp08, livesinasong13, itsolive, kitsuneblackwater, 22wolfgirl, AND Smudgster for favoriting
Thanks to ButlerGirlAnime, Potatis02, cuttiepiepay, B.T.U Bijou, sillystring-roxs-the-earth, marygrace.e, Crossdresser123, Helena Light, babiix3, seneffp08, AlissonAdd, PhotographerWriterFangirl379, China hetalia, kitsuneblackwater, AND Smudgster for following