Hello there! A bit of a longer gap, but it's summer break now, so I've got more time on my hands, yayyy! Thanks for all your support and enjoy this new chapter!

Chapter 5 - Could've done more...?

SARAH WINSTON

Soo Lin Yao stared at the three of us with a grim expression on her face.
"You saw the cipher. Then you know he is coming for me," she said quietly.
"You've been clever to avoid him so far," Sherlock stated and Soo Lin mannered her hand towards the teacups on the table in front of her.
"I had to finish... finish this work. It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me."
"Who is he? Have you met him before?" Sherlock inquired and Soo Lin nodded. She told us about her past in China, she was a young girl, having no choice but to join a crime syndicate in China. Sherlock, John and I listened intently as she told us about Zhi-Zhu - The Spider, who was after her and then she took off her right shoe and she revealed a tattoo on her right heel - a black lotus flower inside a circle. The mark of a Tong, the crime syndicate she worked for. I saw Soo Lin swallow hardly and I felt pity for the young woman in front of me, so I walked closer to her and I put my hand on her arm, hoping to bring her some comfort. Then, she continued to explain everything to us.
"I had hoped that after five years maybe they would have forgotten about me, but they never really let you leave. A small community like ours, they are never very far away," she said as she wiped a few stray tears away from her cheeks. "He came to my flat. He asked me to help him to track down something that was stolen."
"And you've no idea what it was?" John asked her quietly.
"I refused to help."
"So you knew him well when you were living back in China." I stated simply.
"Oh yes," she turned her head up to face me, "he's my brother." I felt my heart drop. The killer who attacked us was her brother. Her brother was a criminal and a murderer and he wanted his own sister dead. I blinked at her in surprise and I felt my viewing of Soo Lin shift. Maybe she wasn't much different from me... I felt Sherlock's gaze linger on me for a while and Soo Lin continued her story.
"Two orphans, we had no choice. We could work for the Black Lotus, or starve on the streets like beggars. My brother has become their puppet, in the power of the one they call Shan, the Black Lotus general. I turned my brother away. He said I had betrayed him. Next day I came to work and the cipher was waiting," she told us and I gasped gently. The pit in my stomach only deepened. There was quiet for a while as we all let Soo Lin's story sink in. Then, Sherlock whipped out a photograph from his pocket and put it on the table.
"Can you decipher these?"
"These are numbers," she said and I nodded.
"Yes we know." Sherlock replied.
"Sherlock said they were Hangzhou, is that correct?" I asked her.
"No, actually these are Suzhou," Soo Lin corrected us. I eyed Sherlock with raised eyebrows and he frowned at the numbers as if each one insulted him deeply. He couldn't stand he was wrong, poor detective.
"Here - the line across the man's eyes - it's the Chinese number one," Soo Lin pointed at the painting's photograph from the bank.
"And this one is fifteen. But what's the code?" Sherlock asked impatiently and I gave him a pointed glare, signalling for him to be nice.
"All the smugglers know it. It's based upon a book," she said and at the same time all the lights in the museum went off. I blinked a few times, trying to get used to the sudden darkness and I stepped a bit closer to Soo Lin Yao who was looking around in dread and I hugged her around her arms with one of my hands, trying to bring her some comfort. Sherlock and John both cautiously looked around, awaiting danger. Soo Lin's face was filled with terror.
"He's here. Zhi-Zhu. He has found me," she said tearfully and I turned to look her in the eyes.
"Don't be scared, it's going to be fine. We won't let him hurt you, okay? I promise, Soo Lin," I tried as hard as I could to keep my own voice from trembling. After all, this was a stressful situation and right now, adrenaline was pumping trough my veins. Soo Lin nodded in understanding and I let go of her. At the same time, Sherlock swiftly turned around and ran off with his coat swinging behind him like cape and without thinking, I ran after him after shortly gesturing to John to stay with Soo Lin and protect her.

The museum was filled with deadly silence. I only felt the blood rushing in my ears and my heart pounding. I didn't care about my safety at the moment, all I could think about was Soo Lin and her murderous brother. I couldn't allow him to get to her. With that in mind, the time has come for me to pull out my Smith & Wesson revolver out of my coat's pocket and caught up with Sherlock who eyed the revolver with a slight surprise crossing his features. He probably didn't expect that. We found ourselves in a big hall with balcony all around us, so we were very much in plain sight and clear shot for Zhi-Zhu. The man took the opportunity and fired a few shots at us with loud bangs and I felt my blood freeze. I squeezed closer to Sherlock and I fired a shot at the assailant who dissapeared back into the shadows. Sherlock hurriedly grabbed my free hand and he basically threw us to the floor, sliding a little, until we were crouched behind a statue in the middle of the hallway.
"You've got a gun," he stated simply, slightly out of breath.
"Yeah, I do," I replied fleetly and I offered it to him. "Take it."
"No. Keep it and cover me," he refused and I frowned at him.
"But-"
"Keep it and stay close to me," he ordered.
"Okay." I looked into his eyes, awaiting next instructions. When we were both ready to leave our temporary shelter, we both nodded and I saw Sherlock's lips twitch in a slight smile from all the excitement. We both sprung out from behind the statue, when suddenly, John ran over to us. I widened my eyes at the sight of him.
"Why didn't you stay with Soo Lin Yao?"
"I told her to hide, I heard gunshots so I had to check on you two. Where is he?"
"Well, he's somwhere around here, that's certain," I said bitterly. The three of us ran up the stairs, trying to find Zhi-Zhu in one of the exhibit rooms of the museum. We split up again, John going another way and me and Sherlock together. We carefully walked trough one of the display rooms when we noticed a motion behind us. Sherlock quickly grabbed me and dragged me down to hide behind a display shelf with apparently ancient skulls and historical artefacts of various sorts. I carefully aimed my revolver at the man. He fired a few shots at us again and I retorted two back, only slightly missing him. I was about to fire another round of shots, but the detective grabbed my forearm and signalled me not to shoot. Then, he adressed Zhi-Zhu.
"Careful!" The shooter ignored him and fired again. "Some of these skulls are over two hundred thousand years old! Have a bit of respect!" Sherlock shouted at the man and I looked at him in disbelief.
"This is what you're worried about? Skulls?" I scoffed. "Not about getting shot by a Chinese gang member?" I whispered a bit louder. But Holmes gestured to me to be quiet and we both realized the shooting has stopped. Sherlock eyed me with a proud smirk.
"Thank you," he said quietly to the shooter. At least he was polite to the man who almost strangled him to death just a few hours before, but I guess that was Mr Sherlock Holmes. Genius and a gentleman with a bit of weirdness to complete the set. No, scratch that. A lot of weirdness.
Sherlock frowned and eyed the spot which was previously occupied by the shooter. There was no sign of him and while I was glad not to be shot at for a while, it meant that he repositioned himself somwhere else. And that made my heart drop trough the floor. There was only one place he could be right now.
"No, no. No! We have to catch him, he can't get to Soo Lin, Sherlock!" I said anxiously and I hurried him back towards the hallway.
"I know, come on." We rushed out of the display room and down the stairs. When a single gunshot blasted trough the air and it rumbled in our ears. I knew what it meant, but still I kept running towards the room we left Soo Lin in, hoping for a miracle. In the big hallway we were joined by John and the three of us barged in trough the door of the restoration room. I was the first one to reach her. I couldn't hold a gasp escaping my mouth when I saw Soo Lin Yao lying on the table, blood spreading around her head, her hand outstretched and holding a black origami flower. She was dead. Killed by her own brother. I blinked back tears forming in my eyes, as I walked over to Soo Lin's lifeless body. I gently closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I'm so sorry. God..." I wiped a few tears that escaped and I cleared my throat, turning away from Soo Lin.
Behind me, John and Sherlock stood silently with regret flashing trough John's eyes. Sherlock paced around the room, looking for any sings of the shooter, but Zhi-Zhu was long gone. I felt John approach me and he gently touched my shoulder. "Come on, we have to go. You can't help her now," he said quietly, hugging me around my arms.
"I promised-" I said weakly and Sherlock next to us shrugged.
"Don't make promises you can't keep," he said simply and John glared at him.
"Sherlock!" he raised his voice at him slightly. I didn't say anything, even though anger was slowly bubbling inside me, I just shoved my revolver into Sherlock's hands and walked out of the restoration room.

We called the police to take care of the scene, and then we arrived at New Scotland Yard. John angrily stood in front of Dimmock.
"How many murders is it gonna take before you start believing that this maniac's out there? A young girl was gunned down tonight. That's three victims in three days. You're supposed to be finding him," John said icily.
"Brian Lukis and Eddie Van Coon were working for a gang of international smugglers, a gang called the Black Lotus operating here in London right under your nose," Sherlock stepped closer to Dimmock who raied his eyes to look at him.
"Can you prove that?" Dimmock asked us.
John decided to take me back to 221B, and I let him. I needed to process things and I was pretty tired, so we left Sherlock to prove Dimmock our truth. I was still a bit angry at his blunt comment, but it wasn't surprising to me. He didn't exactly appear as a very sensitive and empathetic man and that was okay, but he still should learn how to communicate with other human beings without anyone wanting to punch him in the face as I wanted to do when he said what he said.

SHERLOCK HOLMES

I arrived at the St. Bart's Hospital, heading to the hospital's canteen. John and Sarah Winston didn't join me, something about a needing a break. It was obvious she was still angry about what I had said when Soo Lin died. I simply stated the truth, that was all. You really shouldn't make promises you can't keep, it's stupid.
Almost immediately, I found who I was looking for in the canteen. A brown-haired short woman with a white lab coat was standing in line, looking at the self-service display, searching for something to eat. I walked over to stand directly behind her. I prepared myself and plastered a big smile on my face, enough to convince her.
"What are you thinking, pork or the pasta?" I asked her and she winced a little when my voice reached her ears from behind. She looked around in alarm and when she saw it was just me, she smiled.
"Oh, it's you!" Obviously, Molly Hooper.
"This place is never going to trouble Egon Ronay, is it?" I opted for a joke, hinting at the famous food critic. "I'd stick with the pasta. Don't wanna be doing roast pork, not if you're slicing up cadavers," I told Molly Hooper, the pathologist in front of me and she grinned nervously. Bad joke? Oops.
"What are you having?" She asked me.
"Don't eat when I'm working. Digesting slows me down."
"So you're working here tonight?" She asked with a hint of joy. Apparently, Doctor Hooper fancied me. Of course I noticed, it's ridiculous how she blushed and got all annoyingly jittery whenever I was around. I always thought sentiments were rather a waste of time. I was happily married to my work, something Molly Hooper didn't understand. On the other hand, she was a great pathologist, obviously, otherwise she wouldn't work at St. Barts, being head of her department, which only made me wonder why would she waste her intellect fussing about the likes of me.
So I just nodded and her question. "Need to examine some bodies."
"Some?" She frowned up at me.
"Eddie Van Coon and Brian Lukis," I told her.
Molly looked into her notebook, including a list of names. "They're on my list."
I internally rolled my eyes. Obviously. "Could you wheel them out again for me?" I asked her and I put on a face I'm not very proud of, a look that could ony be described as "puppy eyes". But it seemed to work on the woman and as long as I got what I wanted...
"Well, the paperwork's already gone trough." Molly said to me. I didn't expect that. Usually, she just did as I asked without much thought. I had to work a little harder and I quickly thought of a way to get to her.
"You've... changed your hair." I said quickly, pointing at her hair.
"What?"
"The style, it's usually parted in the middle." Well, it was true, she did change her hair. Now to finish what I had started? A compliment.
"Yes well..." she mumbled.
"Hm, it's good, it, um, suits you better this way," I smiled at her again and she returned the smile a bit more eagerly than I did. She turned around to look at the food display I dropped my smile. My patience was wearing thin, I needed to work quickly. I mean, we did have a killer to catch. I guess others like Sarah or John, for intance, would call this expoiting other human being's feelings, but it was only logical. I needed to solve a case, I had no time concerning myself over how I get my information and evidence or what methods to use. The best way was the fastest way, and this... is the fastest way. I'm not entirely proud of it, but it's neccesary to my work. My gaze dropped to my watch and I sighed to myself.

Finally, Molly Hooper finished her lunch and we headed to the morgue. Dimmock and I waited for Molly to wheel our the bodies of the two men. She unzipped one of the bags, which reveald Lukis' dead face.
"No, we're just interested in the feet," I told her. If my theory was correct (which definitely was), the two men will have the same mark on their right heel as Soo Lin.
"The feet?" Molly asked with a confused face.
"Yes. Do you mind if we have a look at them?" I gave her another smile which dropped again once she turned to unzip the body bags from the bottom. I lead Dimmock to have a closer look at the men's feet. Both their right heels had the same tattoo, confirming my theory.
"So..." Dimmock frowned.
"So either these two men just happened to visit the same Chinese tattoo parlour, or I'm telling the truth." I snapped.
Dimmock sighed. "What do you want?"
"I want every book from Lukis' apartment and Van Coon's." Soo Lin Yao told us the code is based on a book, so obviously if the two men being theatened were supposed to understand the yellow graffiti, they would have to understand the code. Meaning - they both owned the same book with the code.
"Their books?" Dimmock quiestioned but I didn't respond.

SARAH WINSTON

I wiped the rest of my tears off my face in the 221B bathroom. John was somwhere in the living room and I didn't want him to see me upset. Of course I was a bit affected by Soo Lin dying, I was so stupid to think that we might actually prevent her death, but Zhi-Zhu was faster and way ahead of the three of us. Damn, there were three of us and only one of him, how could we let this happen? I sighed and I heard the door to the living room open. Sherlock must've already returned from St. Barts then. I walked out of the bathroom and into the living room, where John had just placed a cup of tea for me on a conference table near the sofa. I sat down on the sofa while I waited for Sherlock to tell us how his escapade went. He took off his coat, he eyed me for a second and then he started talking.
"Not just a criminal organisation, it's a cult. Her brother was corrupted by one of its leaders," Sherlock stated and John looked up at him in thought.
"Soo Lin said the name," he said.
"Yes, Shan. General Shan," the detective nodded.
"We're still no closer to finding them," John shrugged at him.
"Wrong. We've got almost all we need to know. She gave us most of the missing pieces. Why did he need to visit his sister? Why did he need her expertise?"
"She worked at the museum."
"Exactly."
"She was an expert in antiquities. Valuable antiquities," I spoke up and I finally decided to look up to Sherlock, who eyed me for a second, then he nodded. I could've sworn there was a flash of concern in his eyes? He obviously saw that I've cried before. There was just no way of hiding stuff from him, and it terrified me.
"Ancient Chinese relicss purchased on the black market. Chins's home to a thousand trasures hidden after Mao's revolution," he said, confirming my statement about the valuable antiquities with his eyes sill on me. I turned away to look at John because it was unnerving.
"And the Black Lotus is selling them," John said and Sherlock suddenly turned towards his laptop on the table.

A while later, Sherlock probably found what he was looking for, because he called for us and pointed his index finger at the laptop screen. He was on some Crispians' auction website, and his finger was pointing to two Chinese Ming vases.
"Here. Arrived from China, four days ago," he said and John looked over his shoulder to have a better look at the scree. I leaned my hand on the back of Sherlock's chair and I looked over his other shoulder to see.
"Let me guess, the source is anonymous?" I asked him. I could feel it all coming together, combining into one big spider web of information. I saw Sherlock smirk out of the corner of my eye.
"Anonymous. Vendor doesn't give his name. Two undiscovered treasures from the East."
"One in Lukis' suitcase and one in Van Coon's." I stated and then Sherlock moved his mouse to the search bar and he typed Chinesse antiquities sold at auction inside and he spoke the words along as he typed. It was amusing to see him so focused on his work he didn't even notice he was doing it. The results appeared on the screen and we carefully scanned our eyes over them.
"Look, here's another one. Arrived from China a month ago. Chinese ceramic statue sold for four hundred thousand," Sherlock noticed and John started to search trough Lukis' diary, scanning the dates inside. He also sorted trough Van Coon's calendar.
"Wait, roll that back a bit," I told Sherlock and he did as I said. "Look here, a month before the statue." I pointed to the screen.
"A Chinese painting. Half a million. All of them from an anonymous source. They're stealing them back in China and one by one they're feeding them into Britain." Sherlock said, narrowing his eyes at the screen.
John raised his sight from the diary. "And every single auction coincides with Lukis or Van Coon travelling to China," he said.
"So what if one of them got greedy when they were in China? What if one of them stole something?" Sherlock questioned and I hummed in agreement.
"That's why Zhi Zhu's come," John realized and he looked at Sherlock and I. That was most likely the right reason. And now both of them and Soo Lin Yao are dead. Behind us, I heard footsteps coming from downstairs. An older woman appeard at the living room's door, knocking on the wood. The three of us turned to her.
"Ooh ooh! Sorry. Are we collecting for charity, Sherlock?" She asked with a confused smile. That would probably be the boys' landlady. Or a housekeeper?
"What?" Sherlock frowned.
"A young man's outside with crates of books," The woman pointed behind her and Sherlock rose up from the chair and quickly walked downstairs, with John right behind him, probably not even knowing why. When it was just the two of us, the old lady landed her eyes on me and her mouth turned into a smile. "Oh, hello dear. I haven't seen you before. Are you a client?"
I walked closer to her to shake her hand. "Hello. No, I'm actually working with the boys on a case. Sarah Winston."
"Oh, lovely! The boys needed some new company. It's not good when it's just the two of them too often, they get into the most ridiculous fights," she laughed. "Like last monday, Sherlock played the violin in the middle of the night and poor John couldn't sleep, so he came downstairs and threw his pillow at him. There was a lot of shouting, too."
"Complaining about us again, Mrs Hudson?" Sherlock suddenly appeared in the doorway behind Mrs Hudson. "Why don't you make us some tea while you're already here?" He told her and she smacked his arm.
"Sherlock Holmes! I am not your housekeeper! Honestly, your manners." She shook her head at him and I looked over at Sherlock who just rolled his eyes, but it was in a more kindly manner than he would be with anyone else and I could swear I saw Mrs Hudson secretly smile out of the corner of my eye as she exited the living room down the stairs. Next thing I knew, the 221B living room was stormed by policemen, John and Dimmock running up and down the stairs, bringing at least a dozen crates filled with books. Each of the crates was marked either "Van Coon" or "Lukis", indicating the owners of the books. I sat down on the black leathered armchair that Sherlock seemed to favor and said man stood in the middle of the mess with his hands on his hips. When everybody else left us, John put down the last crate and he stood next to Sherlock, looking around the living room. I decided to speak up.
"So, the numbers are references."
"To books," John said.
"To specific pages and specific words on those pages," Sherock clarified to us both.
John gave the crates an unsure look. "Right," he said, "so, fifteen and one, that means-"
"Turn to page fifteen and it's the first word you read," Sherlock explained and I hummed in agreement.
"Okay. So what's the message?" The doctor asked.
"Depends on the book," Sherlock shrugged. "That's the cunning of the book code. Has to be one that the both owned."
"Right so we just find it, easy. It's not like there are literally hundreds of books that we have to go trough." I commented and John gave me a desperate look.
"Okay, right. Well, this shouldn't take long, should it?" He joked along with me and he grabbed the nearest box and opened the lid. He sighed tiredly and started to pull out the books. I stood up from the armchair and Sherlock handed me one of the boxes, navigating me to the table, he took one crate that was from the other man's flat and we both compared the insides of our boxes with books suitable for a code. Just as we started, Dimmock returned to us with an evidence bag in his hands.
"We found these at the museum," he said, gently shaking the bag. John and I raised our heads from the boxes and we eyed the objects in the evidence bag, while Sherlock continued to look trough the boxses. Inside were the photoraphs of the cipher we showed Soo Lin. "Is this your writing?" Dimmock asked us. John walked over to him and took the bag.
"Uh, we hoped Soo Lin could decipher it for us. Ta." He thaned the Detective Inspector and Dimmock nodded and turned to Sherlock.
"Anything else I can do? To assist you, I mean?" he asked the detective with a sarcastic undertone.
"Some silence right now would be marvellous," Sherlock murmured without taking his eyes from his work and I snorted. John shook his head at him and threw Dimmock an apologetic glance. Poor Dimmock turned around and hurriedly left, murmuring someting to himself angrily.
We cooperated really well, me and Sherlock sorting in silence next to each other on the table with John sometimes chiming in with his findings and ideas for the code from the sofa, but still we had nothing. I enjoyed how quietly we all worked, sometimes making remarks on our findings. Without saying much, we all just clicked and synchronized together and I actually enjoyed even such a mundane thing as was this. Sherlock then took a book from Van Coon's crate - Iain Banks' Transition. I noticed the book he picked out and I gasped because I remembered seeing the same one in Lukis' box. I nudged his arm and he turned to me. I held out the same copy of the book to him and he took it from me with a glimpse of interest in his eyes. He opened both the books on page fifteen. I slid closer to him to see the first word on the pages, so I noticed our shoulders were gently touching.
"Cigarette." Sherlock read the word out loud in dissapointment. We both knew this wasn't the word we were looking for, it wouldn't have made no sense. I sighed and stretched a bit, then I returned to my box. Time was passing by and we all worked tirelessly in silence, sometimes just murmuring the words on the pages of the books. Hours later we noticed daylight started soaking trough the curtains. I then realized it was another day I had spent with the boys. Now I was sitting on the floor, leaning my back on Sherlock's armchair with books scattered all around me. Sherlock remained in his spot on the table and John moved to the table to face him. I almost dozed off when suddenly, John's alarm on his watch went off. He sighed and looked at his watch, then around the room and out the window. He squinted at the daylight.
"Oh no, sorry. I've gotta go." He said and he roamed around the room, searching for something, which turned out to be his jacket.
I frowned as I tried to look as much awake as I could, but I couldn't stop myself from yawning. "What? Where?"
"The job I talked about before. It's today. Sorry to leave you two like this, but I've really got to go now. Call me if you need anything," he said and he quickly waved at us and rushed out the door.
I stood up from the ground and I groaned, trying to stretch myself. I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. Along the work I managed to make a bun, which was now half loose with blonde strands everywhere, and not to mention the dark circles under my eyes. I sighed and ran hands over my face. My sight turned to Sherlock, working on his crates of books, to his tall figure, his dark curls, white shirt tucked into black trousers, he looked so elegant. He stopped working and sort of froze. His head then slowly turned to me and he raised his eyebrows.
"What?"
I honestly didn't know. Images of everything that had happened since I met him and John flashed in front of me when I stared at him. The cipher. Books. Soo Lin. Van Coon. Lukis. All dead because of the cipher. I returned to the present when he still stared at me with a puzzled look. I was mentally back at the museum with Soo Lin's dead body in front of me and the pit in my stomach returned.
"Sorry. Nothing... it's nothing."
"That's a lie." He stated simply and I eyed him.
"Maybe..."
"You're clearly still upset about the girl."
"Honestly, yes." I sighed as I ran my hand trough my hair. "I just... I feel like I could've done more, you know?"
"What could you have possibly done that would bring a different outcome?"
"I don't know." I threw my hands in the air. "I had a gun. I could've stayed with her, maybe I could've shot Zhi-Zhu or-"
"Or maybe there would be two young women dead on the slab instead of one and you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now." He retorted and I stayed quiet. He sighed. "There was nothing anyone, not you, not John, not even me could've done. You've seen him at Soo Lin's flat. He's an assasin trained by a Chinese gang who can literally climb walls." I knew he was right, and I nodded. It brought me at least a little comfort and I let out a heavy sigh.
"But there's more," he stated after a while of silence. "You've just met the girl, but her death had such an impact on you, that you still concern yourself with it. You've seen dead bodies before, you've seen death before. So, the question is what is different? Or, even better, what was so similar in her, that it triggered this kind of emotional response in you? Maybe it was just because the dead woman was so young and had a tragic past, hoping to do better, but no, that's not what I think... Your face changed when Soo Lin mentioned that the killer was her brother, you started breathing quicker, I would even say you were afraid. It's your own past it reminded you of, and that's why you're so quiet and grim. Am I correct?" He didn't wait for my answer and my eyes widened at his conclusions. All spot on, of course, that son of a bitch. "An orphan, no family other than a brother who has gone rogue and wants her dead... let's see if there's someone else who fits that description... oh, I know, I know!" Sherock added in an almost sing-song voice and he gave me a pointed look. I looked away.
"Do you really want to hear all this crazy shit?" I asked him quietly as I fell into John's red armchair by the fireplace.
"Come on, I live for the crazy shit." He smirked and sat down in front of me in his armchair.
He was ready to listen. But was I ready to share?