Serene found herself outside Scotland Yard for the second time that morning after her third silent cab ride with Sherlock Holmes. She wasn't sure what to make of the silence that came with working with Sherlock Holmes; he spoke in bursts of truth rather than theories. Gregory was of an older ilk of policeman, who threw out ideas and observations in an attempt to make a case stick together.
"Why are we here, Mr. Holmes?" She asked trying to keep pace with his long legs.
"As our man was very naked at Barts I thought we might learn something from his effects." Sherlock's teasing tone was less charming when he was dragging her all over London.
Sherlock walked confidently through the lobby of the Yard towards a small side door beside the elevator bank. The door opened up onto a dimly lit stairwell, Sherlock strode through the door quickly and Serene followed him. When the door shut behind her Sherlock stopped short on the second stair, forcing Serene to awkwardly catch herself before hurtling down the stairs. Her hands gripped the handrails and she found her body shunted to avoid Sherlock. To her surprise she felt Sherlock's hands on her waist and he stepped up setting her more firmly on her feet. He let go of her, but kept their bodies close his eyes searching her face.
"Dr. Laurent, I should warn you my methods of detection are not the ones you have become accustomed to with Lestrade. I am not a policeman and I don't behave as one. If you find this in any way troubling you should turn back now."
Serene smiles at his earnestness, he has a knack for making everything sound so momentous. She takes advantage of their unusual height difference and straightens the collar of his coat. It is an intimate gesture and his eyes do their best to follow the movement of her hands.
"Really, Mr. Holmes, I am disappointed you think I am the type to follow the rules."
Sherlock noticed the drop in her voice, the intimate sultry tone she used to conjure thoughts of sex and flesh out of a seemingly normal conversation. He had the fleeting idea to back her into the door and slip his hands beneath her shirt. He wanted to feel her skin; it remained a mystery to him. Instead he forces himself to walk away, ignore the small rush from his head to his belly when he remembered her kissing him.
"Excellent, shall we?" And with that Sherlock whirled down the stairs into the underbelly of Scotland Yard.
Serene had thought the poorly lit basement corridor was a thing of fiction; something conjured from the minds of depressed authors. However the greyed and blinking fluorescents shoddily illuminating the hallway she and Sherlock were currently striding down, begged to differ.
"This is a long way to go for a pair of pants." Serene felt like they had been walking for ages.
"I was more hoping for his trousers, but you can keep a souvenir if you like. After all he did almost kill you."
Serene rolls her eyes as she falls into pace behind him, the British and their word play.
At last they came upon a locked door in the unending dimness of the basement. Serene ran her hand over the high-end lock and keypad.
"End of the road, Mr. Holmes."
Sherlock reached over her shoulder and slid a card through the reader. The little light blinked green and with a buzz the lock released. Sherlock popped the card into Serene's hand before catching the door handle.
"Open sesame." Sherlock pulls open the door, his body curved around Serene. She feels his hand on her lower back easing her to step through into the dank smelling evidence locker.
Serene looked at the card in her hand; Greg's serious face stared back at her. She looks at Sherlock out of the corner of her eye, brows raised.
"Ah yes, do me a favour and return that will you?" Sherlock winks and begins immediately scanning the boxes.
Serene tucks the card into her back pocket and begins scanning the shelves as well. There are boxes of varying ages with different handwriting on the outside, printed sign out sheets stapled to the outside of the boxes. Shelves and shelves of them like an underground library.
Sherlock quickly eliminates sections of the room, in his mind's eye shrinking everything down to just one shelf, the most likely place. He imagined the room empty, brand new and thousands of ghostly officers filling the shelves one by one. Left side first, the English instinct to begin at the left and work right. The case would have been coming in late at night or in the early morning; a tired sergeant was a lazy sergeant. More space to the right, is it a heavy box? Probably medium weight just the shoes really. It would be between waist and shoulder height then; an empty space visible from the door to the right at waist level, but not above the shoulder. Sherlock stands in the doorway scanning with his hand, picturing each shelf as if it were in front of him. A shape crosses his line of vision. Serene is pulling a box from the shelf. He smiles at her observations and waits for her to bring it to the table in the centre of the room.
She opens the lid and peers into the box; she inhales deeply, cigarettes and alley damp.
Without hesitation Sherlock begins rifling through the box, pulling out the man's cigarettes and inspecting the package for tampering.
"I believe you were looking for these?" Serene holds up the evidence bag of clothes for Sherlock to see.
"Yes, thank you" Sherlock, tucks something unseen into his pocket and reaches for the trousers. He snaps open the bag and lays them out on the table. There is a strange metal clink as they hit the table, Sherlock's eyebrows quirked.
Prodding the fabric with his fingers Sherlock works his way up one leg then the other. He feels a small bump in the pocket on the right side. He carefully places his hand inside the pocket but it is empty. Holding them up to the light he investigates the seam of the pockets, with deft fingers he slips into the false lining of the pocket. Inside is the rewarding feeling of a pound coin.
Sherlock holds the coin up to the light and Serene reaches for a closer look. Before she can touch it Sherlock snatches it into his fist and places it into his pocket as well.
"We should go."
The items are pack away into the box in the blink of an eye and Serene finds herself once again doggedly following the detective out into the hallway.