And a big group hug for all your lovely reviews :) Now, let's see how John's and Clara's investigation evolves...

Chapter 37

The plane landed shortly before noon and John glanced towards Clara who had seemed a little uneasy during the flight and he had assumed it was because of the height and yet, her spirits didn't lift even once they felt solid ground under their feet. If he was completely honest, John had expected her to show a little more enthusiasm about the trip. After all, maybe she would learn something about her sister, but her hesitation had been obvious. It still was and John didn't really know where it was coming from. Maybe, he thought, it had something to do with Danny and going back to the city where it had happened and then John recalled something else. The ferry ticket in her name.

"You have you been back to London before?" he wanted to know as they climbed down the stairs of the small plane. John tried to reach for her hand luggage in an attempt to be a gentleman, but Clara held on to it tightly.

She shook her head. "No," Clara replied. "I had no reason to. Why?"

John shrugged his shoulders in response. "I don't know," he lied. "Just curious. You don't seem thrilled to be back."

When they had reached the tarmac and a flight assistant pointed them in the direction of the hangar, John heard her utter a sigh. "I don't know how to feel about it, to be honest," she admitted. "Lots of mixed feelings, but I did want to come. I want to know what Saibra has to say about Bonnie."

John pulled up his sleeve and had a look at his watch. They were due to meet with Saibra Preston around noon and he was sure that a taxi would take them to their hotel to drop off the luggage and then to Miss Preston's address in less than an hour. "Well, I suppose we'll know very soon," he replied and turned towards Clara to give her a smile. "Let's see if we can get a taxi."

The paperwork involving Bonnie's body was dealt with quickly, and a whole line of taxis was already waiting in front of the airport where John and Clara hopped into the back of a black cab that drove straight to the city centre where their hotel was located. As they looked out of the windows, John realised that he had missed the city – at least a little. The traffic… not so much. But there was something special about London, about the feeling, the atmosphere and yes, that was the part he missed. It seemed as if Clara was reading his mind.

"Do you regret moving back to Scotland?" she wanted to know.

John chuckled softly. "Why are you asking?"

In response, he watched her shrug out of the corner of his eye. "The longing gaze out of the window," she remarked.

It made him laugh. "I don't regret it, no," he answered truthfully. "But I do miss it a little. Then again, Odin would probably go crazy in the city."

"Probably, yes," Clara agreed.

They remained quiet for most of the journey apart from the occasional small talk about places and people and it didn't take them long to reach the hotel, but there was no time to check in now. After handing their luggage over to the concierge, John and Clara were back inside the taxi and headed towards Saibra Preston's place.

John wasn't entirely sure what he had expected her house to look like, but it still came as a bit of a surprise to him when the taxi came to a halt next to a building covered entirely in floral graffiti. The neighbourhood didn't look any different and the people that walked past their taxi had rather strange haircuts and clothing, making sure that everyone who saw them knew that they weren't like everyone else. John and Clara were going to stand out. She was cautious when she stepped out of the car and John could tell that Clara felt a little nervous and it made him nervous by extension. Behind that door, he could find all the answers he was looking for – or nothing at all.

John left it to Clara to ring the doorbell and after a few moments, a strangely dressed woman opened up. Her body was covered in a black coat as if she had planned to go out and her dark make-up suited her nicely. John determined that Saibra Preston was pretty, but there was a sadness in her eyes not unlike the sadness he often saw in Clara. Not that he blamed her after she had just heard about her friend's death.

"You must be Detective Inspector Smith," Saibra greeted him.

John hadn't been aware that Clara had been hiding behind him, but as she stepped forward, Saibra suddenly froze on the spot and her mouth fell open as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, or as if she was looking at a ghost.

"Hello," Clara said quietly, her voice almost a whisper. "I'm Clara Oswald. Bonnie's sister."

Finally, Saibra smiled. "It's amazing," she uttered breathlessly. "You look exactly like her."

It was obvious that Bonnie's former flatmate needed a moment to gather her thoughts, but once the shock had worn off somewhat, Saibra asked them to come inside and prepared them mugs of tea while John and Clara waited in the living room. John watched as Clara looked around curiously and it didn't take a lot of imagination for him to know that she was picturing Bonnie within these walls, interacting with her friends and her flatmates. He wondered what Bonnie had been like, whether she had been anything like Clara at all, but the answers weren't held in the walls. Only Saibra could give them what they wanted to know.

Saibra returned a few minutes later, carrying a tray laden with tea and biscuits and it seemed strange to see a woman like her uphold a long-standing British tradition when she looked anything but the traditional sort.

"Your colleague said you had questions for me," Saibra began carefully and John watched her gaze wander towards Clara again.

He thought that it must be strange for her, infinitely stranger than it had been for him the first time he had looked at Bonnie's dead body only to stare into Clara's face a short while later. "Yes," John confirmed. "I assume you have questions, too?"

When Saibra nodded, John told her what he could without giving away too much. About how and where they had found Bonnie, about her connection to Clara and about what they hadn't figured out yet. Bonnie's former flatmate nodded understandingly, but every time she looked at Clara, John could have sworn she saw Bonnie.

"We need to find out what happened to her," John said eventually. "Our first theory was a suicide, but since then, a few things have happened that made us doubt that. We were hoping that you could help us because right now, you're the only person we can find who knew Bonnie at all."

"Bonnie didn't kill herself," Saibra replied instantly and without a moment's hesitation. "She is the last person who would ever end her own life."

John glanced towards Clara, but she didn't give off the impression that she wanted to add to the conversation, so he continued on his own. "I know it's difficult to process, I know we want to think the best of the people we know, but-"

"I'm telling you," she interrupted him gruffly, "Bonnie didn't kill herself. You said I'm the only one who knew her, so believe me when I say that she would never do that."

Suddenly, Saibra started to chuckle and it made John frown.

"What's so funny?"

"Bonnie wasn't very sensitive," her flatmate explained. "In fact, she could be quite rude and mean at times and her views on suicide were, well... I don't want to repeat them, but it's not something she would do. Ever."

John nodded slowly and decided to believe her. Saibra seemed very convinced and it confirmed the feeling John was starting to get about the case. For some reason, Bonnie had come to Kirkwall with Clara's address in her pocket and she had spent a week there before her death. Then there was the break-in at Clara's house, Ciaran O'Neill and his questionable connection to the IRA, and his connection to Danny's death – at which Bonnie may or may not have been present. John would get to the bottom of it all somehow.

"Can you tell us a little more about what Bonnie was like?" John asked.

Saibra seemed to consider her response for a moment before she eventually shrugged. "I'm not really sure," she admitted. "I mean, we were flatmates for a few years, but I don't think I really knew her. She was uncomplicated, very straightforward, did her washing up and didn't listen to loud music. She was a good flatmate, but we weren't friends."

After he exhaled sharply, John leaned forward just a little to get a better look at Saibra. "Is there anything else you could tell us? Where she worked perhaps?"

"I'm sorry," the woman replied sincerely. "I know she must have had a job because she would pay her bills, but she was very secretive about it. Sometimes, she would vanish for a couple of weeks for work and then she would come back home and not come out of her room for days. I have no idea what she did. I can only assume it was a journalism job because that's what she had always wanted to do back at university."

"Did Bonnie have any connections to any organisations?" John wanted to know. It was the question he had been meaning to ask all along and the answer was the one most important to him. Everything, the entire investigation depended on it.

"Organisations? What sort of organisations?" Saibra enquired, the confusion visible on her face.

There was a no way to soften the blow, no way to ease her into it, so John decided to just come out with the matter straight away. "The IRA."

Saibra's eyes widened in an instant, accompanying the look of horror on her face.

"Please, don't say no just because you don't want to think Bonnie would have worked with them," John implored her. "We need to find out what happened to her and for that, we need to explore all the options. We have reason to believe that someone with connections to the IRA was after her."

He watched as Saibra swallowed hard and she didn't reply for a long time while she considered her answer. The room went so quiet that suddenly the noise from the streets seemed unbearably loud.

"Did she maybe say something that could've led you to believe she shared their views? Did she talk about Belfast? About her family? Or anything about the people she associated with?" he asked and for a moment, John actually believed that Saibra would confirm everything.

However, to his disappointment, she shook her head. "Not to knowledge. I mean, I don't remember her saying anything like that. She never talked about her family or Belfast. But like I said, we weren't that close. I honestly don't know," Saibra admitted and then bit down on her lip. Her gaze dropped to her own two feet as if she was ashamed of what she was about to say. "But... I wouldn't put it past her either."

John uttered a sigh, trying very hard to hide how disappointed he really was. He hadn't expected the case to be solved by this visit, but he hoped for a little more than that. Still, he wasn't quite ready to give up yet.

"What about a man named Ciaran O'Neill?" John wanted to know. "Did Bonnie ever mention him?"

At this, Saibra shook her head. "No, I've never heard that name before," she replied.

Not knowing what else to do, John turned towards Clara who had been quiet during the entire conversation and when he looked at her, he suddenly thought that her mind was probably miles away. She seemed as if she would rather leave, but he had brought her here for a reason. "Is there something you want to ask about Bonnie?"

At last, Clara woke from her daydream and focused on him before he eyes trailed towards Saibra. She hesitated, but then shook her head. "No," Clara said plainly.