Chapter Two: The Homeless Network
Sherlock's head quickly snapped up and he told the taxi driver to stop. They weren't at Baker Street but Sherlock got out the cab and John followed, quickly paying the taxi driver. John knew where they were, they had been here quite a few times before. He must want to check in with his netwrork. Sherlock had almost all of the homeless people of London working for him, he called them his 'Homeless network'. They were actually quite useful on cases and usually knew about anything new in London. Where they had gotten out of the cab is where most of the homeless network liked to hang around, it was sheltered from rain and wind and the public left them alone, as well as the police. Sherlock liked to call it the 'Shadow of London' because no one paid any attention to it. John felt bad for the homeless network, Sherlock paid them but not enough to get off the streets. Some save some of the money Sherlock gives them and eventually get off the streets, while others use their money to buy clothes, food and whatever else they needed. Sherlock avoided using the homeless people who have addictions because they wouldn't be useful and they would use the money to fuel their addiction.
There were about fifteen people sat around a small fire. When one of them saw Sherlock he stood up to great him. The young man had brown hair, quite long, dark skin and hazel eyes. He wore scruffy jeans and a green jumper which was under a black jacket, he had muddy white trainers and a patterened beanie. " 'Ello Boss!" He said with a strong northern accent.
"Hello Levi." Sherlock replied with a small smile on his face. Sherlock didn't care for many people but he had a soft spot for the homeless network. He didn't insult them as much as everybody else and he always talk to them for a few minutes, if he had the time to. He remembered all of their names and sometimes the odd bit of whatever they told him about when not talking about a case. "How's your shoulder?" Sherlock asked the young man. Oh yeah! I remember you. John thought to himself, Sherlock had asked him to look at Levi's shoulder when he had found out that he was in pain.
"A lot better, thanks to you and your mate" Levi said nodding towards John.
"It was no bother really" John said happy that Levi's shoulder had gotten better.
"So, what brings you down 'ere then?" Levi asked.
"I wanted to check in with everyone. Anybody new? Anybody disappeared? The usual." Sherlock replied.
"We heard about that girl, the one who got killed by some drunk. He's long gone now, went towards the south." Levi said. "Nick saw some kid the other day, said he looked shifty."
Sherlock raised an eyebrow. Whenever the homeless network said someone was behaving strangely they usuallly ended up being right. Sherlock asked where the 'shifty' looking kid had last been seen. Someone said that he was seen near the park about five minutes ago. Which is why about twenty minutes later Sherlock and John were stood in the park looking for someone behaving oddly.